Two Weeks

SALLY FIELD plays a woman reflecting on her life while facing death.

Sally Field dying to act in ‘Two Weeks’
I’m sorry. I can actually remember perky Sally Field as the wirey teenager in the TV series “Gidget” or as “The Flying Nun.”
In “Two Weeks,” she plays the family matriarch who happens to be dying of cancer.
This is a real slice of life film, full of realistic events, people and dialog. It has so many humanistic touches, it makes for compelling viewing.
Field plays Anita Bergman, a woman with three sons and a daughter. She’s divorced and remarried.
She loves her family, especially her grandchildren. She is also dying. There is no hope.
So family members take a break from their busy lives to go home and wait for their mother to die. For some, it appears they secretly hope this will all be done in a timely manner so they can return to work.
Ben Chaplin, Thomas Cavanagh and Glenn Howerton are the brothers. Howerton plays the baby brother, who still gets bossed around, whose self-centered wife none of the other family members can stand.
Two of the brothers end up in their old twin beds. Sleeping there now, the 30-somethings look a little ridiculous.
The daughter, played by Julianne Nicholson, picks up brother Keith (Chapman) at the airport. The back of her car is filled with books she has purchased on a guides to dying, what the person goes through and how you should act.
The Field character tries to rule her family as long as possible but becomes weak and helpless.
She is relegated to lying in bed, pressing a button to feed herself morphine to curb the pain, until she is too weak to do that. Then her children take over appropriating the morphine.
There are sweet scenes, like when an old girlhood friend comes over and they have many laughs reminiscing. When the friend leaves the room, she breaks down crying.
But for the Field character, the laughs are more of a pain killer than any drug.
There are humorous touches, like the neighbors who knock on the family’s door and hand the boys tuna casseroles.
The plot is interrupted periodically by a video interview one son does with the Field character, apparently shortly after her diagnosis.
Here she is alert, funny, pensive, pretty. It’s a far cry from what we see later, as she wastes away, her skin turns white, she experiences lesions.
Boys will be boys, girls will be girls. Daughter Emily (Nicholson) sorts and cleans. She sits stoically beside her frail mother while she sleeps.
Each child takes a turn at the bedside. When it’s a brother, sitting beside mother isn’t enough. Each requires a hand-held game to pass the time.
When brother Keith arrives, his first concern is the house has no high-speed Internet. We hear him on the phone to the Internet provider telling how his dying mother’s last wish is for high-speed Internet.
This is a very human story, something everyone goes through at one time or another.
Field gets special attention for her tremendous acting ability. She has grown up in front of the camera and rarely disappoints.
Kudos to Steve Stockman, who wrote and directs this film, for his decision to take on this important project.
It’s a combination of an excellent story, great cast and especially, fine writing.

TWO WEEKS
• Directed and written by Steve Stockman
• Rated R for language, including sexual references
• Runtime: 102 minutes
• 3 1/2 stars out of 4

Ten, Death at a Funeral

THINKFilms
ADAM BRODY in “The Ten.”








'Ten,' 'Funeral' films good for a few laughs

MGM
RUPERT GRAVES and Matthew MacFadyen in “Death at a Funeral .”

OK folks, it’s time to add some whacky, irreverent but very funny films to your Netflix account.
If you aren’t easily offended and have stilted sense of humor, latch on to “The Ten” and “Death At A Funeral.”
“The Ten” is a series of whacky, almost Pythonesque stories loosely based on the 10 Commandments.
It starts with Adam Brody excited about his first jump from a plane. Out he goes, except he forgot his parachute.
He hits the ground and ends up alive with only his head sticking out. The doctor declares if they try to free him from the ground, he will die.
So he ends up the focal point of a bad situation comedy but loses his girl friend, played by Winona Ryder.
Then there’s the librarian, played by Gretchen Mol, who goes on a rare vacation and ends up having a passionate affair with Jesus Christ. She learns his identify when something falls from the boat they are having a romantic interlude in. He gets up and walks on the water to retrieve it. Remember, these films aren’t for the easily offended.
Ken Marino is a patient who kills a patient as “a goof” and is sentenced to prison when the judge gets bored with the testimony. He — um — becomes romantically involved with his roommate.
Meanwhile, Winona, who left her boyfriend stuck in the dirt, marries a newscaster, then leaves him on their honeymoon for a wooden puppet.
There’s an animated segment and a story about two neighbors who try to top each other by buying more Cat Scan machines.
Not to mention the narrator who leaves his wife during the film to have an affair with a dumb-but-sexy younger woman.
It’s a lot of zany fun that gets thrown at you in fast pace. If one thing isn’t funny for you, hold on, something else will be right behind.
That’s also sort of the premise for “Death At A Funeral.”
This British import was directed by Frank Oz and tells the story of an extended family mourning the loss of one of their own.
Daniel (played by Matthew Macfadyen) and Jane (Keeley Hawes) live with his parents but want their own flat. Then dad dies and all of the friends and relatives are invited to a dignified service at the ivy-covered family home. Well, when the mortuary brings the correct body.
As in “The Ten,” there’s lots of subplots to keep track of with hilarious results.
Daniel gets in a squabble with his self-centered brother, played by Rupert Graves, who is the successful author who now lives in New York City but refuses to do his dad’s eulogy.
Cousin Martha (Daisy Donovan) drags along her fiancé, who she thinks has taken a Valium but actually it’s LSD. He ends up nude on the roof walking around.
Then there’s dad’s special friend, Peter (played by midget Peter Dinklage.) He attempts to blackmail the brothers.
Let us not forget the cranky, ancient, crude uncle, played by Peter Vaughan.
When things get going, they get going. It’s sort of like the disaster that besets “Meet the Parents,” but this time at a funeral.
So pick up these films for a few belly laughs. They are unconventional, they are ingenious, they are imaginative. They are not politically correct.
That’s why they are worth watching.

THE TEN
Runtime: 96 minutes
Directed by David Wain
Rate R for pervasive strong, crude sexual content including dialogue and nudity
4 stars out of five

DEATH AT A FUNERAL
Runtime: 91 minutes
Directed by Frank Oz
Rated R for language, drug content and nudity
4 1/2 stars out of 5

Freedom Writers

Paramount Pictures
HILLARY SWANK in " Freedom Writers."

‘Freedom Writers’ offers saintly teacher

Someday, maybe there will be a film festival about movies where teachers overcome tons of adversities and make a difference in the lives of their troubled students.
Remember “Good-bye Mr. Chips” from 1939? Who can forget “Blackboard Jungle” from the 50s. Sidney Poiter’s breakthrough film was “To Sir With Love,” taking place in London in the 1960s.
Move over films, because “Freedom Writers” profiles a classroom of children who are more troubled, have lived more violent lives and have more of an attitude than the kids in all of those other movies.
More, more, more.
Hillary Swank is the beautiful, naive teacher who is anxious to start her teaching career.
Swank plays Erin Gruwell, who idolizes her dad, played by Scott Glenn. He was an activist for minority causes in the 1960s.
She wants to help the minorities at her new Long Beach high school. The school at one time was known for its great scholarship.
But these days it has opened its doors to troubled, urban children.
The film starts with glimpses of the lives these students live, being beaten, turning a corner only to find someone with a gun chasing them, seeing their parents arrested and hauled off to jail.
But soft-spoken Swank, in her short skirts and pearls, is ready to take on the task of teaching the class.
Trouble is, school officials, including department head Margaret Campbell (played by Imelda Staunton) have already written these kids off.
Many kids have goals of finishing high school, going off to college and maybe becoming a doctor or a lawyer of a teacher.
These kids just want to live to be 18 and there’s a real possiblity they won’t make it.
Why should these kids worry about reading ancient poetry when they have no home?
The school is a series of cliques. There’s the white kids, the Cambodians, the Hispanics, the African-Americans. And you do not mix amongst them.
So what does the nervous, novice Swank character do?
Eventually she garners their interest when she offers an analogy between their gangs and Nazi Germany, an era these kids know nothing about.
The school, fronted by the snooty Campbell, won’t let the students have real books because they are afraid they won’t get them back, or they will be damaged or destroyed.
Eventually, the Swank character, based on a real person, takes one, then two extra jobs to pay for the books herself. She funds a field trip to a Holocaust museum.
The kids begin to change. She breaks through to them. But it ruins her marriage and she is even alienated by her beloved father.
The plot is familiar but boy, is it well executed. It will keep you riveted.
This film pulls no punches. It is an emotional juggernaut.
With school out for a seaon, please spend a few more hours in the classroom watching “Freedom Writers.”
You won’t regret it.

FREEDOM WRITERS • Directed and screenplay by Richard LaGravenese • Runtime: 123 minutes • Rated PG-13 for violent content, some thematic material and language • 3 1/2 stars out of 4

From Star Beacon Weekender, June 13, 2008

Ant Bully

Warner Bros.
HOVA (VOICED by Julia Roberts) and Lucas (voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen) in"The Ant Bully."
Small creatures big fun for kids, adults
If you were ever yelled at by your boss all day so you were tempted to go home and kick the family cat, you can relate to nerdy Lucas Nickle (voice of Zach Taylor) in the animated film “The Ant Bully.”
This isn’t a classic, animated film. You won’t mistake it for “Pinochio” or “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
But it’s a fun little film that has some beautiful scenes in Blu-Ray, but not a lot of surprises.
Lucas is a puny kid with glasses bigger than his face. He is constantly pummeled by a big bully, who makes no bones about the fact he bullies because he can.
So upset Lucas turns to an ant colony to release his frustrations. At one point he tries drowning them with the hose, another time stomping them with his foot.
There doesn’t seem to be an fatalities, but the ants aren’t happy.
Lucas’ antagonist is played by Nicolas Cage. He is an ant who is able to conjure up a potion which turns Lucas into the size of an aunt.
But before this happens, Lucas is tricked by sleazy, cigar-chomping Stan Beals (voice of Paul Giamatti) into signing a contract for Stan’s exterminating business. Lucas’ parents are off on vacation and he is left with his spaced-out sister and whacky grandmother, who spends the movie warding off aliens and losing her teeth.
After Lucas is shrunk, he gets to know the ants, including the lovely Hova, who becomes his mentor. She is played by Julia Roberts.
The story is pretty much by-the-numbers. He learns these aren’t just tiny creatures, but living, breathing beings who can climb straight up a wall.
He goes on adventures with them, including a trip inside his home, seeking “sweet rocks,” better known as jelly beans.
A particularly suspenseful segment has Lucas being chased by a bullfrog who eventually slurps him up. Poor Lucas ends up slimed inside its stomach.
As you can tell, this film has all the elements to keep kids happy. There’s suspense, there’s slime, there’s the inevitable flatulent and bathroom jokes and more.
Kids can relate to Lucas’ mom who is just, well, too motherly. She calls her son “Peanut.”
(Ironically, Mom calls him Peanut because he is small. The ants can see why she uses the term, because to them, peanuts are so big.)
It has easily-defined villains. Giamatti is instantly recognizable as the villainous exterminator, who has all kinds of poisons ready to create genocide on the poor aunts.
Kids can relate to the bullying, from one side or another.
There’s really nothing wrong with the film, except a lot of it has been done before.
But the animation is more than acceptable and there are plenty of funny scenes.
Sorry, every time Grandma dropped her teeth, I laughed.
Even Meryl Streep makes a cameo as the queen ant.
The film is entertaining for adults too, although kids may enjoy it a bit more.
That’s no small order.
Read more Viper columns at videoviper.blogspot.com.

Ant Bully • Directed by John A. Davis, written by Davis and John Nickle • Runtime: 88 minutes • Rated PG for mild rude humor and action • 3 stars out of 5