Savant's new reviews today are
Savant's back with four more. With the MPAA ban on DVD screeners this year, I was surprised to receive a package of three last week. Lion's Gate is apparently not an MPAA signator and not bound by their rules, so they have the playing field to themselves, or at least they did over the weekend with this reviewer. The Cooler was the one I most wanted to see - the idea of William H. Macy playing a loser employed to intercept unwanted player winning streaks at the gambling tables is inspired. It was cute but became a disappointment when it turned out to be a fumbled fantasy - we're expected to believe that Macy's loser aura wipes out lucky players just by magic - like he's Tex Avery's Bad Luck Blackie. Then, when he falls in love and his every move is accompanied by good luck, the story just becomes too predictable ... and kind of trite. By the end we're supposed to relate to a guy who's supposed to win just because he's got a good attitude, and it doesn't wash. But maybe you'd still like it - it's certainly funny and extremely well-made.
The Girl with a Pearl Earring was amazing to see - the screener DVD looked great - and a good story too, set in Holland of the 1600s where Vermeer was struggling to paint great works under the tyranny of his patrons and his domineering wife (and mother-in-law). Scarlett Johansson is exceptionally good as the harried and abused maid in the household, who becomes his secret helper and inspiration. Nothing in the movie is dumbed down and the photography (this will undoubtedly win that award) makes one feel a participant in the creation of a masterpiece.
The least interesting movie idea, Shattered Glass, turned out to be the best drama. A writer at The New Republic is a petty sociopath reaping the rewards of literary genius by fabricating feature stories out of thin air and selling them with his winning personality. When the ink hits the fan (an online magazine wants to do a followup and finds out one of his articles is is bogus) the personalities, politics and the ramifications of a journalist committing this kind of anathema become very heated. Especially interesting is the office politics which have the offender's peers defending him against the 'spiteful' editor, who knows full well how the breach of ethics can spell disaster for all of them. The manipulative emotional dynamics are fascinating, as the offender makes every kind of sideways appeal he can think of to deflect the consequences of his crimes. We've all met people like this, and sometimes have nightmares that we are like him ... the movie was absorbing, and very well acted by Hayden Christensen and Peter Sarsgaard.
I'll have more previews and the like to talk about later ... I've RSVP'd to a screening of the third Lord of the Rings film for next Saturday, and if I actually get in, I'll report what I saw sans spoilers. Thanks for all the suggestions for what I should review first, Glenn Erickson
Posted by DVD Savant at December 01, 2003 09:41 PM