The Identical: Hear God for Yourself

                           2014    PG

Genre: Musical Drama

Starring: Blake Rayne, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Erin Cottrell (Love’s Long Journey, Love’s Unending Legacy)

Director: Dustin Marcellino

Writer: Howard Klausner

Distributors: Freestyle Releasing

Availability: Red Box

I took a chance on this film since I only read one review, which was positive from a Christian point of view. After I saw it, however, I learned that the movie had a very short theatrical release time and most critics blasted it.  This is a rare time when I have to disagree with the majority of the critics. What I found was an entertaining movie with a good story, important themes, Christian values, and winsome characters. Of course, it helps if you like Elvis and the style of music from the 1950s because the main character looks like Elvis, sings like Elvis, and moves like Elvis, but you don’t have to be a die-hard fan to enjoy it. I’m not, and I was delighted.

The story begins during the depression where a young couple just has identical twins, but the unemployed father can’t rejoice because he feels he cannot take care of both of them. In desperation he goes to a evangelistic tent meeting but instead of hearing a sermon he hears the preacher share his heart that he and his wife need prayer because they cannot have children. When the new father gets home from the meeting he tells his wife that he thinks God is asking them to give one of their boys to this couple in the ministry. At first his wife is shocked and angry about his suggestion, but later prays about it and believes her husband is right. The birth father insists that the preacher and his wife do not tell their son the truth until he and his wife have both passed away.

The story’s focus mainly is on Ryan, the preacher’s kid, who loves music and has an obvious singing gift, even as a young boy. In fact, he loves music so much he slips out at night with a friend as a teenager to go to “honky tonks,” and later starts a rock and roll band. His father, however, has his own ideas about Ryan’s life and thinks he should follow him into the ministry.  When the police raid one of the joints where Ryan was singing, his father finally finds out what he’s been doing nights.  His solution is to send him into the army where he can learn to be a man. Yet, even in the military, Ryan can’t stop singing and entertaining his fellow soldiers.

Meanwhile, the other twin, Drexel Hemsley, becomes a famous singer/songwriter that Ryan loves and wants to emulate. Yet, Ryan is torn and wants to please his dad so after the army he goes to Bible school and studies for the ministry, but his heart is not in it. His wife and friends encourage him to sign up for a prestigious singing contest in Nashville. You’ll never guess who shows up to witness his debut.

An added bonus to the movie is the fact several of the songs were written and sung by the main character, Blake Rayne, who has a rich, baritone voice like Elvis. Rayne, a former Elvis impersonator, was quoted as saying that the movie mirrored his own life in many ways. Don’t let the critics bury this one. It deserves to be seen. Uplifting and inspirational.

“With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and  your every deed prompted by faith.”                                                                              2 Thessalonians 1:11

 

Southpaw: Anger-challenged Fighter Loses All but Gets a Shot at Redemption

 

                                            (2015)

Genre: Drama (boxing)

 Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams, Forest Whitaker

Director: Antoine Fugua 

Distributor: The Weinstein Group

Writer: Curt Sutter

Availability: In theaters

When boxer Billy Hope’s wife, Maureen (Rachel McAdams), tells him he has to quit boxing because he’s getting “punch-drunk” and she can’t handle seeing him beat up and bleeding anymore at the film’s onset, you wonder if she’s too late. He slurs his speech, talks in mono-syllables, and looks like he hasn’t slept in three days (and that’s throughout the whole movie). You also wonder how he became the light heavyweight champion of the world by using his face as a primary blocking tool. Though Jake Gyllenhaal does an impeccable job with the character, I kept hoping someone would throw a pail of ice water on him in the second half, just to wake him up.

The story is about a lower class, uneducated man achieving greatness in a sport, losing everything he cherishes because of anger issues, and then striving to get some of it back by relearning his trade through an old trainer (brilliantly played by Forest Whitaker) who teaches him not only new boxing techniques but also the nobility of taking personal responsibility for his actions.

Rachel McAdams plays his loving and protective wife well, but unfortunately lowers herself by appearing in a few sexually-charged scenes–one involving a bathrobe “malfunction” to use the current vernacular. As a film, however, it moves along at a good pace. You understand Billy’s predicament. You want him to overcome his life-controlling habits.  You root for him even though he makes bad decisions. You see the pain in his family because of his mistakes. You applaud his humbling steps to get his life back together for the sake of his daughter. In terms of content, it has a lot going for it. If they had toned down the constant foul language and sexual stuff, I could have recommended it.

*To me, Southpaw does not come close to matching my favorite boxing movie, Cinderella Man, with Russell Crowe. The latter film is based on a true story during the depression when the boxer, James J. Braddock, becomes a legendary figure of hope for all America as a guy who also lost it all, but instead of getting self-destructive and angry, he goes to work at the docks until he gets his golden opportunity. This film also includes a spiritual element as people are shown praying in churches that he will win.

“Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires”                                                                             (James 1:19).

 

 

 

 

 

Woman in Gold: Sometimes You Must Fight for What is Right

                                                                             2015

Genre: Drama (based on a true story)

Starring: Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Katie Holmes

Director: Simon Curtis

Writer: Alexi Kaye Campbell

Distributor: The Weinstein Company

Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren), an Austrian Jewish refugee from WWII, has been living in the U.S. for more than fifty years when she discovers letters from her Aunt Adele dating from the 1940s that had been in her deceased sister’s possession. Altmann describes her aunt as a “second mother” since Adele and her husband lived with her family and they had no children of their own. Altmann remembers the day when her aunt was painted by the famous Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, which led to her aunt’s national celebrity as “The Woman in Gold.”

Reminiscing about her beloved aunt, Altmann also becomes consumed with the injustice of her painting being taken from their family’s home by the Nazis and its brazen exhibition at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna.

Hearing about restitution trials going on regarding stolen art from that time period, Altmann decides to hire a young, inexperienced attorney named Randy Schoenberg (a descendant of the famous Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg) to see if he can get her painting back. Unfortunately, the Austrian government sees the painting as a national treasure and claims the painting was bequeathed to the museum by Adele Bloch-Bauer herself. Yet,  lawyer has a paper contesting that the painting, in fact, belonged to Altmann’s father so Adele did not have the legal right to give it.

The story moves along well sustaining the suspense through frequent flashbacks to when Altmann was a child as well as the time she had to flee the country with her husband. Ryan Reynolds as a the young attorney and Helen Mirren as the aristocratic elderly woman often clash regarding legal strategy and personality, sometimes to comic effect. For example, when Altmann first meets the lawyer, he has recently failed at having his own practice and just got another job at a big law firm so he is not excited about her case. But, after doing research on the internet about the painting in question, he discovers the painting is worth 100 million dollars. He contacts her again with a bit more enthusiasm and tells her he wants to represent her after all. She is bewildered by his radical change of attitude and responds: “What is going on?  Before I could not get you to help  me and now you are all over me like a rash.”

At first glance, it may appear to be an insignificant story about an old woman merely wanting her stolen property returned, but it is much much more. It is a courageous woman at the twilight of her life challenging a government and a people to re-examine their conscience about their complicity with evil and their cold betrayal of their own citizens to the Nazi regime. Her unsaid question is: Do you now have the integrity to admit your wrong, despite the cost, and side with justice, or will you continue in denial and embrace the same values as the German usurpers?

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people” (Proverbs 14:34).

The Death of Santini: Sometimes Reconciliation and Forgiveness Take Time

                                           2013

The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and a Son

By Pat Conroy

Publisher: Originally published in hardcover in the U.S. by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, a division of Random House LLC. 9 (2013).

I picked up this book at the library having never read the novels or seen the movies of Conroy’s books, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, and The Prince of Tides. As a word of caution, make sure you buckle up before you get on this roller coaster of a read because you are going to experience some big emotional heights and dips with this colorful, dysfunctional family, who had an alcoholic, marine fighter pilot for a father.

In this raw and unflinchingly honest memoir Conroy describes his feelings after he had finished writing his bestselling novel, The Great Santini, which exposed his father’s abuse of his family and the author’s struggle to overcome that pain : “Though I thought I had written a good book, I had pulled the pin of a hand grenade, then thrown  my entire body over it, knowing it would kill me without harming anyone else…Still, I had warned no one about its content or subject matter. The days passed slowly, but inexorably, like a firing squad assembling at dawn. I could not bear to think that I wrote a five-hundred-page novel just because I needed to love my father. “

Conroy confesses that as a child he secretly wanted his father to die in a plane crash because of all the physical beatings and humiliating ways his father treated him. The movie, The Great Santini, apparently, gave such a sanitized version of their father, his brother, Jim, quipped during the premiere that Robert Duvall’s portrayal was a “bambi” version of their father. This same brother also said that his earliest memory was of his father holding Pat by the throat and banging his head against a wall.

Conroy writes about his ultimate revenge one night when he was 25 and heard his mother getting slapped again by his drunken father. He promptly goes downstairs, rams into his father, pushes him out of the house and kicks him all the way to his car. He then punches him in the face and puts him behind the wheel and shouts: “You ever touch my mother again and I’ll beat you with a tire iron until your heart stops and my arm gets tired. You get it, you worthless son of a bitch? That’s the last time, pal. The last time in this lifetime. Got it? Now, get your drunken, worthless ass out of my yard, and never darken the door of my house again.” He further writes: “When I returned to the house, my mother, three brothers, and sister did everything but throw me a ticker-tape parade. I walked through the front door and whispered to them, ‘Family life. Don’t you love it?’ They surrounded me and hugged me and held on to me as a gladfulness and keen elation filled me up. I knew the things David knew when he brought Goliath crashing to the ground.”

Yet, what happened later that night was as astounding as it was revelatory. Feeling guilty in bed about what he had done, Conroy decided to get up and go look for his father. He finds him not far from the house lying on his back on the grass, with the car still running beside him. Conroy writes: “I reached over and shook him. Turning over slowly, he tried to rise to his knees, and I helped him get to his feet. I put his left arm around my shoulder and we staggered toward the car together. I was going to tell him what I thought about him, but the words got confused in the passage, jumbled in the inexact translation as often happens in the strange world inhabited by fathers and sons. As I groped for the proper words, they formed by themselves—truth-telling words that could not be censored or slowed down, life-changing words for a bruised soul. In utter shock, I heard myself say out loud to the fighter pilot, “I love you, Dad.”

Though, as a Christian, I could point out the crude way the author and his family relate to each other and the author’s confused, worldly spirituality (i.e. talks about being a Catholic and praying, but yet seems to make light of lying and infidelity), but my take away was much more positive. Conroy shows incredible love for his parents, despite their shortcomings, and his rugged perseverance to be reconciled with his father, who lived in a lifetime of denial of abusing him, is remarkable. Of course, it helps too that the book is exceptionally well-written, and at times so truthful it is both refreshing and hilarious.

“Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.”

Colossians 3:21

Jurassic World: An Animal Rights Frantic Dinosaur Munchfest

                                            2015

Genre: Thriller/monster

Starring: Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy), Bryce Dallas Howard (The Help, Spiderman 3), Irrtan khan

Director: Colin Trevorrow

Writers: Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver

Distributor: Universal Pictures

*These three stars are only if your teenage                                                                        son buys your ticket and he does not text on                                                                    the round trip to and from the cinema.

The island amusement park featuring genetically-engineered dinosaurs is in trouble, says Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), an executive for Jurassic World, to a group of potential sponsors, but not for long. Tourists are no longer satisfied with docile and well-known dinos. They want something bigger and more dangerous.  Therefore, their scientists have created a spectacular creature to meet that demand, which makes investment a great opportunity.

Enter raptor whisperer, Owen (Chris Pratt), with a short romantic history with Claire, who claims to be the Alpha male in a pack of raptors he’s training. Against Claire’s wishes, the head honcho of Jurassic World, Simon Masrani (Irrtan Kan), requests that Owen examine the containment center for the new monster to make sure it is well-secured. Owen chastises Claire for her exploitation of the “animals” and warns her of the certain disaster that will take place, should her highly-intelligent predator ever escape, or be released.

Meanwhile, Claire’s two nephews show up for vacation. Her sister, Karen (Judy Greer) is sending them out alone hoping Claire will finally take the opportunity to get to know her sons, especially since she hasn’t seen them in seven years. Of course, the monster escapes and brings mayhem and death to this fun-filled, prehistoric paradise, with the boys and everyone else scrambling for their lives (Claire runs away in the woods with high-heel shoes).

This recent variation of Michael Crichton’s original, Jurassic Park, subtly advocates animal rights (Chris frequently spouts his love and respect for the animals, and Claire sheds tears when she sees a dying dinosaur, but hardly bats an eyelash when her co-workers are gobbled up like bacon bits) lacks witty exchanges, relies on constant chase-and-flight scenarios, and has multiple scenes showing dinosaurs opening their big toothy mouths, roaring, and chewing on people.

Chapter 41 of Job in the Old Testament describes what is called a “leviathan,” but, who knows, could be a dinosaur. Here are a few verses starting with verse 14: “Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth? Its back has rows of shields tightly sealed together; each is so close to the next that no air can pass between. They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted…Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it. The folds of its flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable. Its chest is hard as a lower millstone. When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing….Its undersides are jagged potherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge…Nothing on earth is its equal–a creature without fear.”

This is the chapter where God is responding to Job and challenging him to consider how little he really knows about Him, and His power. In other words, God is saying, “You see this awesome creature? Guess what? I made him.” Verse 10 states: “No one is fierce enough to rouse it. Who then is able to stand against me?”

*Not for small children.

Far From the Madding Crowd: Will the Lady Choose Character Over Charisma?

                                                                           (2015)

Genre: Literary Adaption (of novel by Thomas Hardy)

Starring: Carey Mulligan (The Great Gatsby; 2013), Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust and Bone; 2012), Michael Sheen (Midnight in Paris), Tom Sturridge

Writer: David Nicholls

Director: Tom Vinterberg

Distributor: Searchlight Pictures

From the opening scenes in the beautiful British highlands, we see that Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan) is not your average Victorian lady. She rides her horse creatively; she bluntly speaks her mind; and she rejects her shepherd/neighbor suitor, Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), saying, “I am too independent for marriage” and “You will would eventually resent me.” She also becomes the inheritor of a large estate and tells her work crew upon first meeting them: “I hope to astound you.” She does so by breaking from class tradition by working alongside them in the fields.

Yet, despite her reticence to fall into the traditional role, expected of her gender at the time, her fine facial features and comely form, of course, attract all kinds of men—the kind and hardworking shepherd, a quirky, but sincere nobleman, and a smooth-talking, flamboyant soldier.

Everything seems to be going along as planned when she unexpectedly meets the dashing, young, military man (Frank Troy, Tom Sturridge) in the forest. Taken aback by her beauty he exclaims, “You have the most beautiful face I have ever seen.”  With little experience in love, she is completely undone by his adoration and even confesses to him that she has never been kissed. He offers to remedy the situation by a future clandestine rendezvous in the woods, where he first challenges her to a bravery test, which involves him making multiple sword thrusts around her body.

Meanwhile, her nobleman/neighbor, William Boldwood, is also smitten by her and admits frankly that he doesn’t care if she loves him or not. He understands if she doesn’t feel passionately about him. He just wants her to be his wife and provide for all her needs. His interest was ignited by Bathsheba when she sent him an anonymous St. Valentine’s Day card on a whim, which he finally deduces was from her. He reasons that it makes sense to combine their properties through marriage since they border one another.

In some ways, this story is very similar to Jane Austen’s famous book, Sense and Sensibility. The protagonist must choose between very different men which one she will marry, or remain alone.

Knowing some of the other novels by Hardy and his penchant for life’s perplexities and pathos (i.e. Tess of the D’Urbervilles), I was not certain how this story would play out. With a few plot twists and turns, the modern-thinking woman in 19^th century clothes does learn some vital lessons, but it takes all the men to refocus her dreams.

*Some objectionable parts may include a sex scene in the shadows between a husband and wife (nothing really shown except a man’s naked upper torso) and a groping maneuver on a dress.

 

 

 

Whiplash: It’s Tough Becoming a Musical god

                                                       (2014)             

Genre: Drama

Starring: Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now, 2013), JK Simmons (The Rewrite, 2014), Paul Reiser, Melissa Benoist

Writer & Director: Damien Chazelle

Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

The title comes from a challenging jazz piece that freshman Andrew Neiman, (Miles Teller), must master if he is to be part of the “core” in the most elite jazz group at the Shaffer Conservatory of Music in NYC. The title also is an apt description of how the sadistic conductor, Terrence Fletcher (JK Simmons), provokes his students to perfection like circus animals—by stinging, verbal whiplashes at random to anyone who does not measure up to his high standards. Just imagine the worst Army drill sergeant with the foulest mouth filled with degrading perversity and profanity and you get the idea.

At first, Andy is excited at being selected to be a part of such a top group, but soon discovers he must give himself 100% to his music, with no romantic ties, if he wants to please his exigent instructor, and achieve his dream of being great like the saxophonist, Charlie Parker, and the drummer, Buddy Rich.

The dialogue around the dinner table with his uncle and aunt, two cousins, and his father reveals his motivation for greatness. After listening to his uncle boast about his son’s exploits on the football field, Andy pops his uncle’s balloon by saying his son’s school is only  third division and that the NFL will never be interested in him.  In retaliation, his uncle asks him if he has any friends, to which Andy responds: “Never saw the need. Parker didn’t know anybody till Jo Jones threw a cymbal at his head.”

Uncle: “That’s your idea of success?”

Andy: “I think being the greatest musician of the 20^th century is anybody’s idea of success.”

Father: “Dying broke and drunk and full of heroin at the age of 34 is not my idea of success.”

Andy: “I’d rather die drunk at 34 and have people talk about me than live to be rich and sober at 90 and nobody remembers who I was.”

Uncle: “But your friends will remember you. That’s the point.”

Andy: “None of us were friends with Charlie Parker.  That’s the point.”

Hearing the mention of Buddy Rich in the movie brought back my own memories of the legendary drummer. I was at Disneyland one night and I walked by a small tent where he was playing. He had just finished an amazing drum solo and the response of the audience was incredible–something I had never heard up to that point or since. Instead of just clapping, there was a spontaneous “Ahhhhh” that erupted from the big crowd listening to him, almost like worship.

Later, I remember seeing Rich on The Johnny Carson Show on TV and being astounded at his flat refusal to answer the simplest questions posed by the host. Sure, he could play drums, but apparently it was too beneath him to submit to an interview. Unfortunately, it was his snobbery that made the biggest impression on me.

Although the movie is artistically well-made; the language is over the top, the main character is arrogant, and technical artistry is exalted above relationships with God and others.

“…For they loved human praise more than praise from God” (John 12:43). 

 

 

Rosewater: Journalists…Beware of Totalitarian Regimes

                        Gael Garcia Bernal as Maziar Bahari in Rosewater (2014)

Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Dimitri Leonidas, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Claire Foy

Director: Jon Stewart

Writers: Jon Stewart (screenplay), Maziar Bahari (book; When They Came for Me: A                          Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival)

Distributor: Open Road Films

Maziar Bahari, an Iranian Canadian reporter for Newsweek magazine, was well aware of the risks when he accepted an assignment to cover the presidential elections in Iran in the summer of 2009. Incumbent hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was facing Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the former Prime Minister of Iran (from 1981-89) who promised the people he would eradicate the “morality police” and bring more freedom to Iran, including equal rights for women. Although Mousavi had a large following country-wide, it was officially reported by the Iranian government that Ahmadeinejad won the election with 63 % of the vote. Angry protests broke out across the nation involving millions of people.

Upon Bahari’s arrival in Tehran, it is clear from the movie that he wanted to stay away from any controversial material that might get him or Iranian citizens into trouble with the authorities. For example, he meets some pro-Mousavi supporters and refuses to take photos of their illegal satellite dishes hidden on the roof of a building, even when they tell him to do it. Later, Davood, his paid transporter, responds passionately when Bahari tells him not to throw rocks at the police: “Who are you to say? You have a real weapon and you chose not to use it.”

Despite his initial misgivings, Bahari eventually films the unrest, which includes violence from both sides. Shortly thereafter government agents come for him at his mother’s house. His crime is being a spy for the CIA. He is put in the infamous Evin prison where he is interrogated, beaten, and psychologically demoralized by a man who smells like rosewater. Meanwhile, at home, his pregnant wife is about to have their first baby.

First-time director Jon Stewart does a good job showing us the torment that Bahari personally endures at being unjustly arrested and abused (without going overboard) and also the anger of the Iranian people in reaction to what many believe was outright fraud by their government. Unfortunately, the dialogue has a lot of foul language (a number of F-bombs), which was really unnecessary. I found it strange to hear even his older parents using crude words.

In regards to his spirituality, it is not clear what Bahari believes. The movie starts out with him telling us about a positive experience he had as a child in a Muslim temple, but later in prison he does not pray or cry out to any deity. Instead, the movie shows him finding his moral compass from having imaginary conversations with his deceased father and sister who also spent time in the same prison.

Despite its shortcomings, I think this is an important film to see, especially in light of our own government’s negotiations with Iran, to better understand what kind of leaders we are dealing with, and to what extent they will go to suppress the truth. It also shows that there are multitudes of people in that nation who do not agree with their leaders and are longing for freedom.

 “An honest witness tells the truth, but a false witness tells lies.”                                                                            (Proverbs 12:17)

*A review of A Sliver of Light can be found on this website. This is the book written by the three American hikers who were arrested by the Iranian government, about a month after Bahari, that gives the details of their imprisonment.

Big Eyes: Big Lies might have been a better title

2014

Starring: Amy Adams (Man of Steel, 2013), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained, 2012)

Writers: Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski

Director: Tim Burton

Distributor: The Weinstein Company

This film is based on the true story of the artist, Margaret Keane, whose paintings of little girls with big eyes became what Life Magazine called in 1965 “the most popular art now being produced in the free world.”

Unfortunately, however, her artist-wanna-be husband, Walter, decided to take credit for her work. He reasoned that people would be more inclined to buy a painting if they met the artist. At first she meekly protested, but eventually gave in. Through his genius at promotion and the mass producing of the work, they became rich. He did interviews on TV, hosted celebrities at their mansion, and offered the paintings to travelling foreign dignitaries. Meanwhile, she diligently labored in the shadows while he got all the limelight for her work. The bulk of the movie  focuses on the tragic cost of agreeing to a lie, which leads to more lies, that eventually becomes a web from which you cannot escape.

Though the film is well done and shows the negative effects of lying, as a Christian, I would not recommend seeing this film. At one point, in fact, the screenwriters try to pin the blame on Christianity for Margaret’s passivity. In this scene she goes to a Catholic Church to confess her sin of lying to a priest, without saying exactly what the lie was. The priest asks her, “What about the child? Will this lie bring harm to the child?” She says, “No.” He then adds: “The man is the head of the family, so perhaps it is better to just trust him in this case.” Of course, this was extremely bad advice.

Margaret tells the priest she is a Methodist, but she obviously is not a committed Christian and remains spiritually confused throughout the movie. She even tells her friend that she prayed to the god of creativity statue when she was in Hawaii. Earlier her friend tells her that if she is looking for salvation to go to the Buddhist temple.

At the very end of the movie, Margaret finally comes clean about her lies because she meets some Jehovah Witnesses and reads their literature, which states that you should not lie. In real life, though not mentioned in the film, she does embrace this cult. What is sad about this story is it takes over ten years for her to finally confess the truth about her lies, and then she falls head first into a false religion.

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the truth, the way, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me’” (John 14:6).

 

 

 

The Rewrite: Witty romantic comedy with some meaty lines

2014 (UK) 2015 (USA)

Starring: Hugh Grant (Sense and Sensibility), Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny), J.K.                           Simmons (Whiplash)

Director and Writer: Marc Lawrence (Music and Lyrics ; 2007)

Distributor: Image Entertainment

For a romantic comedy, the following lines come as a surprise from Keith Michaels (Hugh Grant) as he is teaching a screenwriting class at Binghamton University:

“Disney and Bergman are dead. Their great art did not save them. It fades. It turns to dust. Don’t be under the allusion that this will bring you immortality or happiness…You will be rewritten, discarded, fired, forgotten, and that’s if you’re lucky enough to work in the first place.”

Yet, it rings true from a victim who’s been briefly celebrated, then devoured and spit out by fickle Hollywood producers. But fear not. It is not a heavy-duty depressing movie. Writer and director, Marc Lawrence, does a marvelous job balancing the drama, witty exchanges, and the romance. The story is simple enough. A middle-aged screenwriter who won an Oscar for his first movie 15 years earlier has not written another hit film. His agent tells him about an opportunity to be a “Writer-In-Residence” at Binghamton University in upstate New York.

Despite his misgivings, Michaels accepts, but quickly makes some wrong moves by getting involved with a student in his class (there is no sex scene, you just see her in bed next to him the next morning), and dismissing the class for a month to finish their screenplays. Of course, the tenured Jane Austin professor gets wind of it and threatens to bring it to the Ethics Committee unless he leaves quietly.

Fortunately, he meets another, older student, Holly Carpenter (Marisa Tomei), who is a spunky single mom with two young daughters. She immediately sees right through him and gives him no slack as she tells him in a later scene that a man who is “spiritually empty seeks to fill the void with alcohol and young women.” She also encourages him to call his estranged son with the words: “As long as you are alive, you can forgive and be forgiven. Once you’re dead, it gets significantly harder.” She also prods him not to give up on his teaching job so easily.

One of the funnier exchanges is with Billy, a Star-Wars-obsessed student, after he tries to join a fraternity and fails.

Billy: They think I’m an idiot.

Michaels: You’re not an idiot, Billy. You know, you’re weird, but half the successful                              people in Hollywood are weird.

Another cast member, J.K. Simmons, as the Department Head Dr. Lerner, does a great job providing more comic relief as a husband and father of four daughters who tears up every time he talks about his family. For example, Michaels turns to Lerner for support after he bashes Jane Austen books in front of the other English teachers. Lerner says curtly in response: “I am married with four daughters. I have no opinion.”

I do, however, have an opinion about this movie. It ranks above the others in its genre. Grant is at his dry, witty, best; Tomei is a good match; and the truth is served with just the right pinch of salt.

*Some things that may offend include: The spurned young student uses the F word to his face and tells him to read her script in hell. Michaels looks at a clothed female’s rear.

“The tongue of the wise makes knowledge acceptable…” (Proverbs 15:2a)