Under the Same Moon

‘Under Same Moon’ beautiful family story

Video Viper for Nov. 21, 2008

Fox Searchlight
Kate Del Castillo and Adrian Alonso in "Under the Same Moon.

“Under the Same Moon” is a beautiful story of a family torn apart because of the single mother’s desire to make a better home for her son.

Unfortunately, to do that, Rosario (Kate del Castillo) must leave her son Carlitos (Adrian Alonso) in Mexico and illegally cross the border into the United States.

There she does what so many others do, she works as a domestic for snotty, rich white people while others pick tomatoes.

Meanwhile, Carlitos holds a devotion for her mother, even though she left four years ago and he hasn’t seen her since. He is smart, living with his ailing grandmother. He is 9 years old.

Every Sunday morning at 10, he visits a telephone booth in his village to await a call from his mother, who is at another booth in East LA. Apparently, cell phones aren’t in their budgets.

Carlitos pleads for the chance to see his mother, but she is trying to save money to hire an attorney to plead her case for legal status. Meanwhile, she sends $300 monthly back to her mother and son.

During one such Sunday morning, we see a beautiful scene where Rosario describes where she is in the U.S., with a party store, a mural and a Domino’s Pizza shop within eyeshot. Carlito closes his eyes and imagines he is there with her

Carlitos’ fragile life takes a turn for the worse when he tries to awaken his grandmother one morning and discovers she has died.

He sets off to sneak into the U.S. and find his mother, taking the money she sent him.

He pays a young couple struggling with college bills to sneak him over the border. The girl is played by America Ferrera of “Ugly Betty” fame, her boyfriend by Jesse Garcia. When the hot van he is hiding in gets stopped at the border for unpaid parking tickets, Carlitos ends up in an impound lot, hidden under the seat. He escapes, dropping his money, and begins a fascinating journey, working odd jobs, asking for help when necessary, acting wise beyond his years.

He is begrudgingly befriended by another illegal alien, played by Eugenio Derbez, who helps guide him on his way.

Carlitos learns many lessons on his journey, more than a 9-year-old should learn. A substory is about his mother’s decision to marry a legal resident in order to stay in the U.S.

The film is sensitively directed by Patricia Riggen and young Adrian proves up to this monumental part.

This would be a fine film to watch with a child of say 11 or older. The film is pretty-much profanity free and there is little violence, although tension builds. The one thing to remember is the movie is in Spanish, so the child will have to be able to read subtitles, or understand Spanish.

I watched another film the evening I viewed this. It was “National Treasure 2 Book of Secrets.” I can’t remember much about it, but I remember everything about “Under the Same Moon.”

UNDER THE SAME MOON

(Misma luna, La)

• Directed by Patricia Riggen, directed by Ligiah Villabolos

• Rated PG-13 for mature themes

• Runtime: 106 minutes

• 3 1/2 stars out of 4

Lars and the Real Girl

‘Lars’ a story about a guy and his doll

A COUPLE (Paul Schneider, Emily Mortimer) hadn't guessed who is coming to dinner when Ryan Gosling brings home a a doll in "Lars and the Real Girl."

“Lars and the Real Girl” is a tale about a guy and his inflatable girlfriend he got off the Internet.

But if you are looking for a gross-out, adolescent-style sex comedy, this isn't it. In fact, the film is rated PG-13.

Ryan Gosling is the shy, baby brother. He is scared of women. He is scared of much interaction with anyone.

His parents are dead and his older brother and sister-in-law (Paul Schneider and Emily Mortime) occupy the old homestead. Gosling's character, Lars Lindstrom, lives in the converted garage.

The sister-in-law is the sensitive sort, maybe because she is pregnant. She wants Lars to meet a girl, begin a normal relationship. Heck, she even wants him to out of the garage and into the house. But she can't even get him to accept a dinner invitation, until…..

OK, let's digress. Lars works in an office. A fellow employee spends his time scanning the Internet for porn. He comes across a Web site that offers anatomically correct blowup dolls. You create the doll you want, with the look you desire.

Lars orders one who looks a bit like Angelina Jolie. But shy Lars isn't looking for the doll for a sexual relationship. He's actually looking for a more life-fulfilling relationship.

Thanks to family and friends. He gets it.

Lars actually accepts a dinner invitation from sis-in-law and asks to bring his new girlfriend. Sis-in-law Mortime is thrilled, until he meets her.

The look on Schneider and Mortime's faces is priceless when they discover the doll. The Mortime character tries to salvage the evening by going along with her demented brother-in-law. Her husband just thinks baby bro has fallen off the deep end.

Soon the townspeople, who all know each other, take the doll, named Bianca, under their wing, treating it like a human being.

Lars says she is a paraplegic who was a missionary in Brazil.

Bianca is soon getting a makeover. Joining the girls for events. There is actually a struggle. Lars wants her to stay home and play cards with him. Others want her to go out with them. For an inanimate, albeit anatomically correct thing, Bianca is quite the socialite. We even learn she was elected to the school board!

When Lars decides one morning Bianca can't be awoken, an ambulance is called. The doctors, the staff, all go along and treat Bianca like a real person. As Lars' therapist, Patricia Clarkson, says it is up to him to decide Bianca's fate.

The movie is rather sweet, filled with thoughtful, engaging people. But the joke about Bianca not being real does get old after awhile.

Parts of it might remind you of "Weekend at Bernie's," while others Jimmy Stewart's "Harvey." It has an old-fashion feel about.

And indeed Lars makes the final determination about his Bianca and you might get a lump in your throat watching.

Innocence

A NEW girl is introduced to the campus in "Innocence."

‘Innocence’ elusive, symbolic film

WEEKENDER for Nov. 7, 2008
If you are looking for “Innocence,” that is a movie by that title, you will discover a host of diverse films, dating from 1913.
This 2004 film by that name is part “The Prisoner” (the 60s British TV series), “Lord of the Flies” and “The Cider House Rules,” but then again, it is none of these.
This all takes place in a boarding school for young girls, located somewhere, in some time period.
If you like movies where all is explained to you, this probably isn’t for you.
Directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic, it stars Zoe Auclair and Laisson Lalieux in a tale of childhood on a school campus with high walls, days of swimming and playing and a concentration on following the rules.
We never see these girls in a classroom.
The film starts with what looks like a coffin. One girl walks into the room wearing a white dress and stands beside the coffin. Another girl, wearing the same type of dress, walks in and stands with her. Then another and another and another.
When they open the coffin, there is a young girl (Auclair), maybe 6, lying there. She opens her eyes and climbs out. While she asks where her younger brother is, she is told she will never see him again. It appears the life process has reversed. The girls are born into the school via a coffin and come alive.
As you can imagine, there is a great deal of symbolism in the film. Water is a big part. It brings life and it takes it away and helps with the girls’ transformations.
The girls all wear ribbons in their hair, the color dictated by their ages. The youngest wear red ribbons, the next group blue and the oldest, around 12, wear purple ones. They live in five big houses.
There are few adults around. Almost like “Peanuts,” it is the children who are the main focus.
One of the adults is Edith, played by Helene de Fougerolles. The school is surrounded by a high wall and Edith is crippled, making you think maybe she was a child there once who tried to escape.
Each year, a chosen older girl walks the long, forested but well light-path to another site each evening and returns home in the morning. When she leaves the school, another girl becomes the chosen one.
Meanwhile, the girls spend a lot of time learning dance routines, which they perform for money in their auditorium to a bunch of unseen men. This, we are told, is how the school is supported.
The film is ominous, sometimes a bit frightening and certainly unsettling, with its hinting of eroticism as the girls grow older. It is said to be based on an 1888 short story.
In some ways, it might be a microcosm of Victorian life. A girl is born, goes through changes as she grows, learns how to be female and is then paraded in front of men until she finds a partner.
See the film and discover your own take on the elusive picture.
Read past Viper columns at videoviper.blogspot.com

INNOCENCE
• Written by Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Frank Wedekind (novella)
• Directed by Hadzihalilovic
• Rated R for some sexual content and brief nudity involving a minor.
• Runtime: 122 minutes
• In French with English subtitles as an option
• 2 ½ stars out of 4

Witness for the Prosecution

CHARLES LAUGHTON and Marlene Dietrich in “Witness for the Prosecution

Witness many twists in ‘Prosecution’

From Oct. 31, 2008 WEEKENDER

Noticing “Witness for the Prosecution” was being replayed on Turner Classic Movies recently, I decided after several years to give this 1957 Billy Wilder courtroom drama another look.

First, it boasts great star power. You have Tyrone Power in a different kind of role for him, Marlene Dietrich at her finest, Charles Laughton, just superb as the defense attorney, and a rather irritating Elsa Lanchester, the former “Bride of Frankenstein.”

The plot is simple. Power plays a man who drifts from job to job, although he certainly looks more sophisticated. He sees an older woman, (played by Norma Varden) undecided on whether to buy an elaborate hat.

He sticks his head in the store doorway and suggests it looks wonderful on her. He sees her later at the movies, they strike up a friendship and he visits her on occasion. After one such visit, she is found brutally murdered. He swears he is innocent, got home before the deed took place and his wife, played by Dietrich in classic form, will back him up.

Laughton is made for the part of the venerable defense attorney, just out of the hospital after a heart attack, but longing to enjoy a cigar. But yapping at his heals is Lanchester, playing his nurse, demanding he take it easy, use a chair lift and above all, smokes NO CIGARS.

The Laughton character is intrigued by the whole case, especially after he performs the monocle test on Powers. While questioning the Powers character, Laughton directs his monocle to shine in Powers’ eyes. By his responses, Laughton can determine whether his client is being truthful.

But nothing about this film can be taken as gospel. Is Powers’ character innocent or is he a master of deceit? Dietrich plays the wife who met her husband after the war in Germany. He marries her so she can leave that country. But is she really looking out for her husband? Does she believe him innocent? Heck, are the two even legally married?

The film was based on a stage play written by famous British mystery writer Agatha Christie. It was first made into a movie for British television in 1949, then American TV in 1982.

Laughton and Lanchester were married in real life. Powers, while still youthful looking, would die the next year.

I won’t go further into the plot, so as not to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it. An announcer during closing credits asks you not to reveal the ending to those who haven’t yet visited the theater to see the film.

Even the cast was kept in the dark on how it would end!

But the cast and story are first rate, brought to you by Wilder, who also gave you such other pioneering films as “Sunset Boulevard,” “Some Like it Hot” and “The Apartment.”

If you’ve seen the film, see it again, this time more for the acting than the story line. It works on many levels.

Read more Viper reviews at videoviper.blogspot.com. E-mail Lebzelter at bobleb@starbeacon.com.

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION

Directed by Billy Wilder

Written by Agatha Christie and Larry Marcus

Runtime: 116 minutes

Not rated but suitable for most of the family

3 ½ stars out of 4

Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days

VIDEO VIPER for Oct. 24, 2008

‘Four Months’ difficult film to watch

“Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days” is one of those important but difficult films to watch.

It's sort of like “Hard Candy,” just less gratuitous.

It takes place in the final, repressive days of Communism in Romania in the 1980s.

Gabita ((Laura Vasiliu) is a college student who finds herself pregnant. She wants to end the pregnancy, but abortion is illegal.

So she sets out to have an illegal abortion, with the help of a friend, Otilia (Anamaria Marinca).

The pair, while having limited resources, get together the amount of money they think the abortionist will need. They are told to rent a room in one of two select hotels for three days. Unfortunately, there is no record of their reservation and they resort to a seedier hotel.

The seedier hotel may be a cost-cutting measure for the film. The film may be powerful, but it looks like it was put together on a shoe string. The hotel room looks much like the college dorm rooms.

Vlad Ivanov plays the slimey, matter-of-fact abortionist who describes the details of the procedure in a more thorough manner than I wanted to hear.

What's interesting too is director Cristian Mungiu leaves the camera static on these three people, the pregnant girl, her friend and the abortionist, for eternity.

I didn't get a stopwatch out, but in these days where scenes are sometimes measured in single seconds, this scene seems to go on for 10 or 15 minutes.

Nothing is spared in this film and it isn't easy to watch in many instances.

For example, the Ivanov character acts very calm and deliberate and sensible as he describes the actions. We find the girls haven't brought enough money and despite their begging and pleading, he won't agree to simply do the act and get the rest of the money later. They have already paid for the hotel for three days and can't afford that expense again.

The result is, well, you can guess how the girls must make up the difference.

After starting the procedure, the Ivanov character talks about how the fetus will eventually come out. Don't try to flush it down the toilet, the girls are told. Don't leave it in the trash where dogs can get to it.

Yeah, this is sad, sad stuff.

The friend leaves for awhile to attend a birthday party, but when she returns, the fetus has been aborted and sits on the bathroom floor. The camera shows the girl staring down in shock. My thoughts at the time, don't show the fetus. Don't show the fetus.

But of course, they do.

This film garnered lots of accolades and was nominated for best foreign film. There has been discussion the director is pro-choice. But I can see the film working at both levels.

These girls go through a special kind of hell and at the end of the film, agree never to speak of it again. That would seem to side with safe, legal abortions.

But showing the aborted fetus, talk of how to get rid of it will certainly be ammunition for those who are pro-choice.

If easily disturbed, this isn't for you to see. But sometimes films need to take on important subjects and not flinch when they do it.

Director Christian Mungui certainly accomplishes that. This is one film you won't forget. You may want to, but you won't.

Watching the Detectives

‘Watching the Detectives’ quirky comedy

WEEKENDER for Oct. 18, 2008:

CILLIAN MURPHY and Lucy Lieu in “Watching the Detectives.”

I just love Lucy Liu as the whacky girlfriend in the unconventional romantic comedy, "Watching the Detectives."

And no, after watching the film, I have no idea what the title means.

Cillian Murphy plays Neil, the owner of Gumshoe Video, one ugly video store.

Not sure when this is supposed to take place, but the big, fancy rival store has DVDs. Neil's hole-in-the-wall business seems filled with big, clunky VHS tapes.

There is a couch and TV in the middle of the store so Neil and friends can sit around watching B titles and debate what kind of anime is better.

Into the store comes the lovely, quirky Violet (Liu) who puts a $50 deposit down to rent a film because she doesn't have a driver's license or credit card.

Neil lives the safe life. How he can eke out a living in his store is open to debate, especially with two employees hanging around.

He lives his life through film noir. He loses girlfriends because they don't want to talk about Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal."

Liu's character likes to live create her own excitement. She converted her television into a fish tank.

When Neil arrives at the fancy restaurant for their first date, you would think he could never afford it. Violet has gathered all of the partially-filled wine glasses left on tables and acts drunk, to see if he'll take advantage of the situation and take her home to bed.

She's touched when he simply tries to get her home safe, but at the same time decides he owes her a $50 dinner. At the end of the meal, she pulls a massive adding machine out of her purse and tabulates how much he's spent so far, deciding how much dessert she needs to make up the difference. It's like something out of a Marx Brothers picture.

Later for fun, they go to the big, shiny, well-maintained big-box video store and hide in a closet. When it closes for the night, they spend time changing movies in the DVD jackets. The Disney animated features get the porn.

She is forever setting up dangerous situations for them to get out of and while he knows he should walk away from the relationship, there's something just too appealing about Liu's character.

Directed by Paul Soter, this isn't your normal romantic comedy. It starts out gangbusters, sags a bit in the middle but redeems itself.

Murphy, who had a more famous role as the Scarecrow in "The Dark Knight," does an effective job living life with Liu with his jaw dropped. Liu's Violet is like no other female character I've run into.

It's the kind of character Claudette Colbert or perhaps Katherine Hepburn could have played in the 1930s.

This has "The Clerks" feel to it, but less gross-out.

OK, so it's difficult to describe. It certainly isn't your common romantic comedy plot outline.

It may not be the perfect date film. But then, it will probably give you plenty to talk about later.

WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

• Directed by Paul Soter

• Runtime: 90 minutes

• Not rated, but has some bedroom scenes and language

• 3 stars out of 4

“C.R.A.Z.Y., Ma Vie En Rose

Two films deal with sexual identities
GEORGE Du FRESNO (under veil) in “Ma Vie En Rose.”
MARC-ANDRE Grondin in “C.R.A.Z.Y."

From Star Beacon WEEKENDER, Oct. 10, 2008

They might make for a good double feature, which is the way the Viper watched them, but frankly, when they are over, you might find yourself tired of the topic.

In “C.R.A.Z.Y.,” Emile Vallee and later Marc-Andre Grondin play Zac Beaulieu. He and his four brothers grow up in Montreal in the 1950s to 70s.

Zac feels he is gay but tries to suppress his emotions, especially because of his emotionally distant father, played by Michel Cote.

Zac finds himself relating to David Bowie’s glam period. He’s not a fan of the Catholic Church and in one great scene, imagines himself in the sanctuary as he listens to the Rolling Stones “Sympathy for the Devil.”

He imagines the choir, the congregation, the stuffy priest all chanting “hoo hoo” as he ascends Christ-like to the roof of the sanctuary.

But the song reprised through the entire picture is Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” which probably summarizes the characters in this picture.

The eldest brother, Raymond, played by Pierre-Luc Brillant, is a drug addict who has been to prison. But Dad fawns over him despite his destructive ways, while being repelled by next-youngest Zac. The rest of the brothers pretty much are sidelined for most of the picture.

There’s lots of smoking, there’s lots of drugs.

The second film, “Ma Vie En Rose,” opens with 6-year-old Ludovic Fabre, played by Georges Du Fresne, a perceptive youngster who at an early age decides he is a girl in a boy’s body.

He dreams an ‘X’ chromoscone that was supposed to go to him accidentally ended up in the trash.

Ludovic looks like a girl, enjoys female clothing probably more than little girls his age and plans on becoming a girl and marrying the boy next door.

The trouble with Ludovic is he’s just plain annoying. When he goes to a contemporary’s party, he insists on wearing a dress.

At Show-and-Tell, he drags out his favorite dolls he likes to play with. Hey, is this kid cruisin for a bruising or what?

In both films, the adults are horrified and think a little more testosterine-laden activities with father and other boys will set the kids straight. Ludovic gets his page-boy hairstyle sheered. Hey, that’s going to change his attitude.

We see Ludovic vying to play Snow White in the school play while being forced into a rough-and-tumble game of soccer.

That’s what grows so tiring about this film, the reaction of adults.

In “Ma Vie En Rose,” the father ends up losing his job and is forced to move.

I’m not certain what we learn from these films, except maybe that people should speak in French and listen to music in English.

If you see these movies, you might want to divide them into two viewing nights. A Marx Brothers film in between might be a good idea.

Ma Vie En Rose

• Runtime: 88 minutes

• Language: French

• Rated R for strong language

• 2 1/2 stars out of 4

C.R.A.Z.Y.

• Runtime: 127 minutes

• Language: French, filmed in Canada

• Not rated

• 2 stars out of 4

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