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October '08
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August '08
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Something to Atone For
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By Aaron 12/20/2007
 It is hard to explain the plot of Atonement without giving away what makes the movie great. If you have seen the preview, it is easy to describe the premise of the movie without giving it away. On the eve of World War II, an upper class family plans a dinner for their son’s guest and invites a friend of the family, their maid’s son (James McAvoy) to the dinner. He is in love with their daughter (Keira Knightley), who also loves him. But when they get carried away and Keira’s sister (Saoirse Ronan) walks in on them, misinterpreting what her innocent eyes had never seen, she accuses McAvoy of raping her sister and another girl, and McAvoy is promptly taken away and locked up. When World War II breaks out the prisoners are given the opportunity to fight for their freedom. Will he live to get back to her? Will he ever escape the weight that hangs over him from that one night?
As a big fan of Pride and Prejudice, and with the reteaming of Keira and Joe Wright, I expected similar greatness. I was wrong, and it was a pleasant surprise. Refusing to rest on his laurels, Wright uses innovative camera angles and direction to tell his story from different viewpoints and captures that pivotal day and night perfectly. I would go so far as to say that the first hour of this movie is probably one of the best movies I have ever seen. I was also pleased with Wright's continuing ability to tell a great lovestory without slipping into clichés and painful chick flick standbys. Avoiding those pitfalls help Wright turn in a movie that is strongly appealing to both men and women.
Unfortunately, the last hour of the movie, was below average. Losing the focus and precision of a singular event that is the glue for the whole story, the last half jumps around, with time and characters, causing you to lose track of time and leading you into timeline guesswork that is quite frustrating. New characters are introduced – tertiary characters of whom you don’t even know their name. The familiarity we felt for the setting of the first half is gone as the movie jumps from London to France to wherever else. It made me really upset because of how powerful the first half was, but there’s no way around it, the script, direction, and story seemed to disintegrate as the last hour wore on, “saved” only by what I would call a dues ex machina for dramas. The movie’s main theme, atoning for a grievous wrong applies here too – Wright should accept responsibility that he let the best movie of the year slip out of his grasp.
Despite the disappointments of the last half, some of the things from the first half that the movie does well remain. The acting is spectacular – down to those tertiary characters and the child actors employed to play the cousins. Saoirse Ronan is amazing as Keira’s sister, a literary genius who churns out stories and plays left and right about adult themes and concepts, yet does not understand the world she is spinning in her stories. As usual, Keira continues to grow, as an actor, in each and every movie. Here she plays her part with such precision, walking the finest line between seriously austere and deeply emotional. Every scene she is in is stronger because she is in it, and I hope she realizes that Wright really brings out the best in her. James McAvoy continues to show that he is a rising male actor that is just as good, or better, that Keira, as he executes an individual tormented by what has happened to him, and the longing he feels for Keira.
All in all, I can understand why this movie has a lot of Oscar buzz – it would be a travesty if Keira and McAvoy both were not motivated, and Ronan should really get the nod for supporting. I think Wright deserves a directing Oscar, and maybe this flick could squeak into the last spot for Best Picture. At the very least, it can always fall back on the fact that I’m giving it 9/10 saltystix.
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Bob’s October Movie Preview
By Bob 10/2/2008
 Now that we have gotten through the sludge of September movies, it’s time for some Oscar contenders, and movies that think they’re good but not. Halloween is also this month so there is bound to be a lot of random horror movies going on and of course a Saw film to soak in. Whatever happens though, I’m gonna guess that at least one of the following gets some nods come Oscar time. With that, my October Movie Preview:
Cops, Robbers, and Blah
10) Pride and Glory: October 24th
From the director of Miracle comes one of the most clichéd trailers of ALL TIME. Edward Norton as A COP. Colin Farrell as HIMSELF. What more could we want from a movie? I don’t know, and I will likely never find out because this is not one flick I will be seeing.
9) Max Payne: October 17th 
As I feverishly go through my mind trying to think of a video game adaptation that has actually been a good movie, I’m also reminded of all of the bad movies Marky Mark has made over the past ever (excluding The Departed and Boogie Nights of course). I would be shocked if there is anybody who is actually excited for this, as anybody who actually played the game has probably outgrown the genre.
8) Body of Lies: October 10th
Leonardo Dicaprio. Russell Crowe. Ridley Scott. Something about spies. The trailers really tell us nothing about this film except, “How am I supposed to run an operation when you’re running a side operation.” I don’t really know what that means, but Leo says it in the trailer. This film looks like another lame attempt by Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe to win Oscars. I’m not buying it.
7) Flash of Genius: October 3rd
Greg Kinnear stars as an man who invents the intermittent windshield wiper, and then has it stolen from him buy the major auto manufacturers. This just looks like a boring film that will get a lukewarm response. For some reason, however, it has been getting a huge level of marketing with television and even radio advertisements. I doubt people will buy it.
6) RocknRolla: October 10th
Guy Ritchie is back in the genre he knows best, and this appears to be an English gangster film much in the mold of Lock Stock and Snatch. We’ll see if he still has his stuff, but for now, I’ll just pop in my DVDs of the older films that I can trust, and look to be almost identical in plot to this one.
Movies that Intrigue Me
5) Changeling: October 24th 
Angelina Jolie stars in this Clint Eastwood film about a woman whose son goes missing and is returned with something different. Any film that Eastwood directs (that’s not Flags of our Fathers of course) is worth checking out, and this looks to be no different. It got solid reviews with it premiered at Cannes, and Angelina Jolie is ready for a solid role.
4) W.: October 17th
 A film that is certain to be the years most controversial, Oliver Stone directs this biopic about our current president. While I am sure Stone will exaggerate many of the details, there is no denying that he has put together an awesome cast including Josh Broling (as Bush), Elizibeth Banks (as First Lady Laura), James Cromwell (as his father H. W.), Richard Dreyfuss (as Cheney), Thadie Newton (as Condoleezza Rice) and others as the rest of his cabinet. Whatever happens in this film, it will certainly be interesting.
3) Synecdoche, New York: October 24th
A film that I have been awaiting since last year, this is Charlie Kauffman’s directorial debut. I have loved the films he has written (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Adaptation. ) and this should prove to be equally compelling. It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a playwright who attempts to put on a production in a warehouse that includes a scale model of New York. It will probably boggle our minds, but that is Kauffman, isn’t it?
2) Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist: October 3rd
Michael Cera and Kat Dennings star as the eponymous Nick and Norah who meet each other one night in New York and have adventures. Something about the trailer really brought this movie to my attention, probably the indie style that I love. Cera is always great, and Dennings was really cool in Charlie Bartlett, so I might make my way to a cinema this week to check it out.
1) Zach and Miri Make a Porno: October 31st 
Seth Rogen and Elizibeth Banks star as two best friends who decide to make a porno together. This is Kevin Smith’s first film since Clerks 2, and I can only hope that it matches that film in hilarity. The only thing I don’t understand, is why are they releasing this film on Halloween? I guess there is probably a Saw film being released anyways.
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