Black Book

Exciting story makes 'Black Book' worth seeing

Carice van Houten is Rachel in "The Black Book."

There are oh, so many movies about World War II and Nazi Germany.

“Black Book,” a 2006 film from the Netherlands, was expected to be nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars but was unfortunately edged out.

A film of almost epic proportions — and not just because of its 145-minute  length — it offers a huge historical backdrop, lots of violence, a bit of romance, plenty of sex, deceit, betrayal, baby, it has everything.

The film begins in Israel in 1956, where Rachel, a Jew, meets an old friend at the kibbutz where she is working as a teacher. It brings back memories of life in the Netherlands during the war.

Rachel, played by Carice van Houten, is living in a safe house and must parrot the prayers of the Christian inhabitants.

A former singer, she uses her windup phonograph to play music while sitting beside an adjoining pond. A looker herself, she engages in conversation with a man on a sailboat when a plane flies by and starts dropping bombs.

It drops a bomb on the house she was living in and thus begins a new life working with the underground to battle Nazis.

That all happens after an old friend in the resistance gives her money and arranges for safe passage out of the Netherlands. Imagine her delight when she sees her brother and parents getting on the boat as well. She is overcome with joy. What an uplifting film, right?

Mmmm, not so much. Because soon a Nazi boat pulls up and they pull out machine-guns and start blasting everyone aboard.

Rachel watches her whole family be mowed down as she jumps overboard. The Nazis shoot into the water but fail to hit her. They can’t, otherwise the film is only 20 minutes long. Remember, I said it was 145 minutes?

What’s worse, she watches from the water as the Nazis pull the corpses off the boat, strip clothing and take all of the valuables.

She is rescued by a resistance group, headed by Gerben Kuipers (Derek de Lint). They are getting a shipment of weapons in a vegetable truck. Except the truck crashes while trying to avoid a bunch of starving children. The resistance members in the truck are caught, including Kuipers’ son.

Rachel has met a Nazi leader who actually tries to save lives and is more interested in stamps than world conquest. He is Ludwig Muntze, played by Sebastian Koch.

Kuipers wants her to become friendlier with Muntze as part of an effort to save his son and the others.

She agrees and takes a bunch of stamps to Muntze.

He likes her, they sleep together and she gets to decorate for Hitler’s birthday party. What could be better?

And there tickling the ivories and singing is a jovial Nazi who just happened to the sadistic bastard who ordered the murder of her family on the boat.

You never know who the characters really are. There are many surprises in this engrossing narrative.

Who are the good guys and who are bad is never really clear.

Besides the bloody shooting scenes, you will find ample visions of dead bodies, decaying bodies being dug up and plenty of nudity.

It is really a film worth checking out. You care about the people in the backdrop of the gore, sex and history.

BLACK BOX

Directed by Paul Verhoeven

Written by Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman

Rated R for sexual situations and violence

Runtime: 145 minutes

In French with subtitles

4 stars out of 5

Film shows ‘Red Riding Hood’ can’t be made seriously

KIMBERLY FRENCH

AMANDA SEYFRIED (left) and Virginia Madsen in "Red Riding Hood."

If you are trying to make a movie about Red Riding Hood and target it toward the “Twilight” crowd, the 2011 “Red Riding Hood” is a slightly noble effort.
Alas, it is doomed to failure. That’s because “Red Riding Hood” is a children’s story!

No matter in what kind of scene you place “Why Grandma, what big eyes you have,” it’s just gonna sound stupid!
The wolf in this film, a sort of animated, bizarre looking creature, is really a werewolf. Yes, a werewolf in wolf’s clothing.
And it telepathically communicated with Amanda Weyfried, who plays Valerie in the film. Bet you always thought Red Riding Hood’s name was really Red, like Red Skelton. Nope, Valerie, thank you.
However, in an animated tale a few years earlier, Red’s real name is Claire.
Now Valerie (this film’s Red) lives on the edge of the woods where this nasty werewolf / wolf lived. Villagers in this sort-of storybook world regularly leave out their best livestock to be taken by the wolf.
But every few years a villager meets his or her maker at the teeth of the wolf. As the movie starts, Claire, er, I mean Valerie, learns her beloved sister is the wolf’s latest victim.
Valerie plans to run away with her true love, played by a brooding Shiloh Fernandez. Her parents want her to marry wealthy Henry, played by Max Irons.
Gary Oldman plays a minister who says he will kill the dreaded beast. In a scene stolen from “Jaws,” he proclaims a wolf captured by the villagers isn’t the killer wolf.
And the slimey Oldman character is right. Otherwise, the movie would have ended earlier and viewers could get on with their lives. Not a bad prospect, actually.
Julie Christie, who starred in the epic “Dr. Zhivago” in the 1960s, probably has the best role in this picture, as the grandmother.
Now early on we are given clues that lead us to believe Granny is actually the wolf. People who have been near the wolf discover a certain smell. That same smell can be found around Grandma.
Hmmmmm. Again I say, hmmmmmmm.
And it is the great Christie involved in the utterly stupid “what big eyes” scene, which I will tell you, is a dream sequence.
The second most ridiculous scene is the wolf speaking telepathically with big Red.
Catherine Hardwicke directed, from a story by David Johnson. I am not certain who had the idea of converting a fairytale into yet another “Twilight” clone.
I actually admired the attempt. There is just no way this would work! Who was this film targeted for? If young children, it was too gory. After all, we see Oldman and his hand and they aren’t connected.
But would teens, young adults or even boomers decide to spend $20 on tickets and another $20 on popcorn and pop for “Red Riding Hood?” Especially a movie as, well, bland and boring as this.
What next, “The Three Little Pigs The Motion Picture?”
“Hansel and Gretel on the Food Channel?”
I only watched Red, or Val, when the film made Cinemax. Heck, I’m already paying for it.
If you do decide to watch it, you might want to be doing something else at the time, like your taxes or will or while indexing your DVD’s. Make certain this movie isn’t in your collection.


RED RIDING HOOD
• Directed by Catherine Hardwicke
• Written by David Johnson
• Rated PG-13 for violence and creature terror
• Runtime: 100 minutes
• 1 star out of 4

Serious illness good for laugh

50/50


Summit Entertainment
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT and Bryce Dallas in "50/50."


Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen play typical 20-somethings in the film “50/50.”
Rogen, of course, is once again the best friend. He plays Kyle and his work and bar buddy is Adam, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Now Adam is a bit more low-key, less flamboyant. Rogen’s character is obsessed with going to bars and picking up chicks.
It looks like another grossout movie and to some extent, it is.
But very quickly it takes a different turn. The Gordon-Levitt character has a routine doctor’s appointment where he learns from a mumbling, stumbling doctor that he has cancer.
Bryce Dallas Howard plays his girlfriend, who takes him to chemo but chooses to wait four hours in the car because she doesn’t like the whole hospital experience.
You can quickly tell the relationship is in trouble and comes to an abrupt end.  Meanwhile, Adam finds true friendship in some older men having chemo at the same time, played by the gruff but great Phillip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer.
These 60s-somethings get along well with Adam, even coaxing him into enjoying some of their pot-laced cookies. A priceless scene in the film is Adam leaving the hospital in an out-of-focus fog, high as a kite, smiling and happy as he views the misery that cancer can cause.
Anjelica Huston plays his “it’s all about me” mother and Serge Houde plays his dementia-driven dad. It’s a thankless role but Houde gives it as much dimension as it can be given.
The Rogen character truly cares for his friend, but also won’t miss a chance of scoring with a chick by taking him to a bar, getting some girls to feel sorry for him and then taking one of the girls home.
Rogen is also jealous of Adam’s doomed love affair and takes great joy in getting a picture with his camera phone of the girl kissing a Jesus-like artist at an art gallery.
A backdrop through all of this is Adam’s relationship to his soon-to-be-a-doctor therapist, played by the perky Anna Kendrick. When Adam makes a joke about “Doogie Houser,” the old TV show about a teenage doctor, she doesn’t understand. She’s too young.
But that is the relationship to watch.
The film does a nice job of doing some grossout comedy while giving us a somewhat realistic view of dealing with cancer.
The title comes from Adam looking up his particular cancer on the Internet and learning most patients have a 50-50 chance of survival.
There are many nice moments. Adam is about to have an operation that could cure or kill him. His clueless father tells him about his new sports jacket. But to Adam, he is saying his father does have an idea of what is going on and loves him.
It might be the most mature grossout film ever. Yeah, Rogen’s character goes overboard and after awhile you just want him to shut up.
And yes, Huston becomes too motherly. But you know, people can be annoying in real life.
“50 /50” works on many levels. It is worth your time.


50/50
• Directed by Jonathan Levine
• Written by Will Reiser
• Rated R for language and sexual situations
• Runtime: 100 minutes
• 3 stars out of 4

As It Is In Heaven

‘As It Is In Heaven’ sweet, uplifting film

Lorber

PEOPLE REFLECT their love of singing in “As It Is in Heaven.”

There’s a bit of heaven in “As It Is in Heaven,” a sweet, wonderful film that does a nice job of avoiding movie cliches.
Released in 2004, it was directed by Kay Pollak.
Michael Nyqvist plays a successful conductor, Daniel Dareus, who has a bad heart that can’t take the strain of conducting.
Early on, we see him conducting the orchestra with blood from an apparent nosebleed flowing down his face.
So he retires to the little Swedish village call Norrland, where he was born but left at a young age. The villagers don’t really remember him but the town had a profound impact on his life.
So he buys the old elementary school to live in, staying warm by feeding hunks of wood in a tiny stove.
The local minister, played by Niklas Falk, invites him to dinner, but he declines, stating he plans to stay alone.
Ah, but not for long. The minister asks him to stop by the church and listen to the choir. Eventually, he takes over as direct when the minister asks him to be cantor.
Now he isn’t your traditional choir director. He spends the first several lessons allowing the choir members to gain a joy of music and movement before ever trying to sing. It’s the musical equivalent of people falling into other peoples’ arms.
The film is less about music and has virtually nothing to do about religion.
Daniel becomes entwined in the lives of the various members.
There’s the beautiful girl who has her eye on Daniel. There is the woman whose husband regularly beats her and the pastor’s wife who finds solace in choir and discovers she can’t stand her sanctimonious husband.
The choir also has a mentally retarded young man who gets so into the music he forgets bathroom breaks and a heavyset individual who has put up with being called “fatso” all of his life.
The choir is accepted to perform in the annual “Let the Peoples Sing” competition in Innsbruck, Austria.
The minister, angry at his wife’s infatuation with Daniel and her love of the choir, fires him as cantor. So everyone wordlessly leaves the church choir and goes to Daniel’s schoolhouse home to continue practicing.
In Austria, the tensions Daniel hoped would be behind him come back because of the competition. He has another heart attack.
It is haunting, it is magical, this film is truly wonderful. At 132 minutes, it is not too long. It really could have gone on longer.
“As It Is in Heaven” is well worth a couple hours of your life. It is inspirational and you will care deeply about the people.

AS IT IS IN HEAVEN
• Directed by Kay Pollak, written by Pollak, Anders Nyberg, Ola Olsson, Carin Pollak and Margaretha Pollak
• Stars Michael Nyqvist, Frida Hallgren and Helen Sjoholm,
• In Swedish with English subtitles
• Runtime 132 minutes
• 4 stars out of 5
• Not rated

Song of Sparrows

 ‘Song of Sparrows’ grabs
ahold of you, won’t let go

  Regent Releases
Reza Najie in "Song of the Sparrows."

“The Song of Sparrows” is a bit like the TV comedy “Senfeld.”
It isn’t really about anything. There isn’t a plot that grabs you and holds you.
It’s more watching the hapless life of a poor Iranian man, Karim, played by Reza Najie. Najie looks like a cross between Hershel Bernardi and William Bendix.
In some ways, he’s a marshmallow as he tries to assert his authority.
This is well illustrated at the beginning of the film. His daughter is deaf and will soon be taking exams. But for some inexplicable reason she is playing near an abandoned sewage pond and her hearing aide falls in.
All of the kids in the neighborhood are in the septic system, looking for it. Karim takes off his trousers and plunges in to supervise.
One child asks if there are snakes in the pond. Karim says no, after which we see a snake come straight at them and Karim moves faster than the children to get out of its way.
It’s the beginning of Karim’s problems. The hearing aide is ruined. Also, he works on an ostrich farm which provides for some fascinating footage. When one of the birds gets loose, Karim goes after the valuable creature. He wears ostrich feathers and holds an ostrich head on a stick to flush the bird out.
But it doesn’t work and Karim returns to his employer, afraid he will be fired. Yeah, he’s fired.
A poor man, he’s now faced with replacing his daughter’s hearing aide and finding work. Also, he’s not so tough. We see him on the roof of his house (the part that has a roof) holding an antennae. His kids tell him how to move until they get a good picture to watch “Tom and Jerry” cartoons. So there he sits in the same spot for the span of the program. No Dish Network for this family.
So Karim goes to Tehran to get the bad news about the hearing aide. If he wants a new hearing aide through a welfare program, he must wait four months. Otherwise, he must pay for a new one himself.
Leaving the hearing aide center, he’s surprised when a businessman jumps on the small motorcycle he is operating. Turns out having a motorcycle in Tehran is pretty lucrative as a taxi service.
This is a different world for Karim from what he is used to in rural Iran. But not only does he get plenty of taxi business, he picks up junk around town he takes home to be used at his house or the homes of neighbors.
Karim is enraged on his way home when he sees family members selling flowers to passing drivers. He screams, he hits, he kicks. But that’s after stopping his cycle and running across something like eight lanes of traffic to get to them. They shame him by making it look like he can’t provide.
It’s a different but fascinating culture. Where else can a man stop traffic by bowing down and praying? (He places his forehead on what looks like a checker while meditating.) The driver waits.
And when there’s a traffic tie up, we see kids selling newspapers and one little girl  dispensing incense to drivers, hoping for a tip. Try to find a scene like that in an American film.
There are some real unforgettable moments. Karim’s son and friends pool their money to buy fish they plan to raise and sell and become “millionaires.” But it was not to be. I won’t say what happens. See the movie to find out. But it is beautifully filmed.
There is an exploding film industry in Iran and Majid Majidi, the director of this film, is considered one of the best.
I was well impressed with this film, the beauty of the filmmaking, the mix of life, humanity, tragedy and comedy.
It is a real treasure and on so many levels.

SONG OF SPARROWS
• Directed by Majid Mamidi
• Written by Majid Majidi, Mehran Kashani
• In Persian with English subtitles
• Rated PG for brief, mild language
• Runtime: 96 minutes
• 4 stars out of 5

The Secret in Their Eyes

Mystery, romance in one great film

SOLEDAD VILLAMIL and Ricardo Darin in “The Secret in Their Eyes.”

“The Secret in Their Eyes” is an absorbing, enthralling drama, mystery, thriller and romance.
Released in 2009 from Argentina, the story relies heavily on flashbacks as it chronicles retired Argentinean federal justice agent Benjamin Esposito.
Ricardo Darin plays Esposito, who decides to write a novel based on his most unforgettable case, that of a woman who is raped and murdered.
Now when I say “write,” I mean “write.” He scrawls his prose across lined paper, trying to fictionalize this great story.
Despite it being fiction, Esposito seeks a truth and accuracy, if not downright closure on the case.
He decides to revisit his old boss, Irene Menendez-Hastings, played by Soledad Villamil, to discuss the case and gain her insight.
From there we slip from 1999 back to the mid 1970s, when Darin’s character has no gray in his beard and the Villamil character is new on the job.
Darin is moved, probably more than he expected, when he sees the body of the young victim at a murder scene.
He and his partner, Pablo Sandoval, played by Guillermo Francella, work tirelessly to solve the crime. How indeed do they determine who the killer is?
We watch as they pore through old albums of the victim in her younger years. In many pictures, there is a young man who can’t take his eyes off of her. The look is so intense and all-consuming, the investigators just know from that this must be the killer.
Javier Godino plays Isidoro Gomez, a soccer fan and possible cold-blooded killer and rapist.
At the time his identity is discovered, Gomez is out of the country.
The victim’s husband, Ricardo Morales, played by Pablo Rago, is a soft spoken individual who spends his afternoons after his bank job staking out train, plane and bus stations, hoping to find the individual who killed his wife.
Eventually, the suspect is caught, is tricked into confessing and goes to jail for life, at least that’s what Esposito has promised.
So it is an even bigger surprise when the convicted killer is released early because he helped authorities in even bigger cases.
What’s even more of a surprise is when Sandoval is brutally gun down.
The characters are well-drawn and multifaceted. Every move, every sentence brings new light to the situation. This is a well written and complete story with an excellent cast to go with it.
Nothing predictable here. The costumes, makeup and sets are to perfection as well. They add to the atmosphere.
At the autumn of the film, we see these characters nearing the end of their lives. The Morales character especially appears to have evolved and accepted his life and the death of his beloved wife years earlier.
Or so we assume.
Take nothing for granted in this film. If you think the movie is about to end with a Hollywood-type conclusion, think again. It continues to evolve.
“The Secret in their Eyes” is Argentina’s most viewed cinema since 1983. An American version is apparently in production.
Besides DVD and Blu-ray, it is available through Amazon Instant Video. It is more than worth its 129-minute runtime.

SECRET IN THEIR EYES • Directed by Juan Jose Campenella •Written by Eduardo Sacheri and Campenella •Runtime: 129 minutes •Rated R for a rape scene, violent images, some graphic nudity and language •In Spanish with subtitles •4 stars out of 5

Game Change

History comes alive in ‘Game Change’

HBO
ED HARRIS as John McCain and Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin in “Game Change.”

Whether you love or hate Sarah Palin, after you watch the HBO movie “Game Change,” about the 2008 McCain-Palin GOP ticket, you will discover you both love and hate her.
The film, with the uncanny Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin, is based on a book plus articles and interviews with people involved in that celebrated campaign to pull an upset and defeat then Sen. Barack Obama.
The Republicans saw Sen. John McCain as a great statesman and war hero. Obama, meanwhile, was a newcomer with little to show when it comes to accomplishments. Yet Obama stirred up crowds and gained in the polls.
So the McCain staff started looking at vice presidential possibilities to help get another aging white guy into the White House.
Woody Harrelson plays Steve Schmidt, McCain's campaign coordinator, who decided instead of finding another aging, boring white guy for the ticket, it needs a game changer.
And how do you find a game changer? Why, by Googling various Republican female politicians. Some weren’t chosen because of ideological differences with McCain.
Then we switched to Palin, then the Alaskan governor, with her kids, looking like everyone's soccer mom, hauling her children about at a fair, talking to constituents by first name.
Then she got a telephone call and is whisked to Arizona and instantly we all like her. She's charming, she's humble, she is anxious to advance the Republican ticket. But she also has principles as she learns she is the top choice as vice presidential candidate .
At an event at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton she was unveiled as McCain's running mate and knocked one out of the park. It seems everyone can relate to her on multiple levels.
She is a smash at the Republican convention. McCain finds himself even with Obama. Life is good. For awhile.
Then the media starts digging up dirt, but even then we side with Palin. Questions are asked if the new baby is hers or her daughter's child. Yeah, it’s Palin’s because daughter is pregnant herself.
Then we discover Palin is ignorant of the political makeup of the world as well as history and geography. She gets a crash course on who our enemies were during World Wars I and II. She learns Queen Elizabeth is not the head of British government. She learns Iraq did not cause 9-11 and Korea isn't one country.
After she refused to prep for an interview on "The Today Show," she looks like a fool and blames others. Palin is suddenly less likable. She is hurt by “Saturday Night Live” parodies. She wants to do interviews with small Alaskan newspapers and demands to know how she is faring in her home state.
She is not above memorizing a series of facts to get through a debate with Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential candidate who is considered a foreign policy expert.
But Palin, a terrific actress, ekes out good debate reviews by repeating those facts she memorized and dodging questions she doesn't have an answer for, then repeating those facts she memorized again.
Moore is dead-on as Palin and the real Schmidt describes the film as "an out of body experience" because it is so accurate.
The real Palin slammed the film, but then, she hadn't seen it.
It rivals "Apollo 13" in how real it feels relating to real events. We see Palin as a many-sided person, sometimes ready to crack up, other times feeling in total control.
Ed Harris plays McCain as a decent guy who wants to win with his ethics intact. After their loss, the McCain character realizes Palin will be a force to reckon with and warns her not to follow the Limbaughs and their ilk in the years ahead, a kind of foreshadowing of what has happened during this year’s campaign.
Moore especially becomes Palin and anyone who followed the 2008 race can feel the authenticity. This is a great, compelling film. It continues to be played on HBO and HBO On Demand will later be released to DVD.
If you enjoy politics, you will like this film. It is not a hatchet job on McCain or Palin or the Republican party by any means.
It is entertainment and education and excellence.

GAME CHANGE • Directed by Jay Roach • Written by Mark Haperin and Danny Strong • Not for young children because of language • Runtime: 2 hours • 5 stars out of 5