Review: Johnny Depp Puts His Foot in "Finding Neverland" (Happy B'day, Johnny Depp)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 249 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Finding Neverland (2004)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – PG for mild thematic elements and brief language
DIRECTOR: Marc Forster
WRITER: David Magee (based upon the play The Man Who was Peter Pan by Allan Knee)
PRODUCERS: Nellie Bellflower and Richard N. Gladstein
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roberto Schaefer
EDITOR: Matt Chesse
Academy Award winner

DRAMA with elements of fantasy

Starring: Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie, Radha Mitchell, Dustin Hoffman, Freddie Highmore, Joe Prospero, Nick Roud, Luke Spill, Ian Hart, and Kelly Macdonald

Finding Neverland is set in London in 1904 and follows dramatist Sir James Matthew (J.M.) Barrie’s (Johnny Depp) creative process and journey in writing the stage drama that would bring Peter Pan, one of the most beloved creations of children’s stories, to life. Barrie’s inspiration begins when he meets a widow, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet), and her four young sons: Jack (Joe Prospero), George (Nick), Michael (Luke Spill), and Peter (Freddie Highmore), the one to whom Barrie feels closest. Barrie becomes an intimate friend of Sylvia and the boys, so he visits them often and plays games with the boys.

However, his relationship with the Davies starts ugly rumors in London, according to Barrie’s friend, Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Ian Hart). Barrie’s wife, Mary (Radha Mitchell), is a bit envious of James’ relationship with the Davies, and Sylvia’s mother, Mrs. Emma du Maurier (Julie Christie), thinks Barrie’s relationship with Sylvia is keeping her daughter from getting a new husband. Barrie, of course, remains close with the Davies, even as Sylvia becomes gravely ill. Her sons, who’ve already lost their father, are worried, especially Peter who still feels that his parents lied to him when his father was dying. Still, they all soldier on until Peter Pan premieres at the Duke of York Theatre and changes all their lives.

Although the film and the screenplay’s source (a play by Allan Knee) play loose with history (Sylvia’s husband Arthur was alive and well when Peter Pan premiered and the couple had five sons, although the fifth was born around the time of the play’s premiere), Finding Neverland is a spectacular reinvention of J.M. Barrie’s journey in creating Peter Pan. Both the Peter Pan stage play and subsequent novel are rife with issues of death, eternal youth, boyhood, and the loss of loved ones. Finding Neverland tackles those themes without blinking, yet the film isn’t morbid or peculiar. Director Marc Forster and screenwriter David Magee have the characters navigate their way through the difficult times in life with brave faces.

I’m amazed by the fact that this film avoids easy answers when it comes to dealing with the loss of loved ones and also by the fact that Forster doesn’t turn his story by turning on the water works. Finding Neverland is never sentimental or overly emotional, although that can be a bit of a problem; at times, this film’s mood is too stiff, cold, and formal. Forster, who made the searing 2001 drama Monster’s Ball, makes this film too severe for most of the first half. Early on, Finding Neverland seems to lumber, and this makes the actors come across an amateurs delivering dry, wooden dialogue. Forster’s picture really doesn’t come together until late in the second act.

For all Forster’s trouble with narrative rhythm in this film, he does allow his entire cast to come into their own. Every actor gives a fine performance and contributes something meaningful to the story’s outcome. Johnny Depp’s performance has gotten most of the attention since this film debuted. He shines in his scenes with Julie Christie as Barrie’s wife and with Freddie Highmore as Peter Llewelyn Davies, but his finest moments are the times he quietly and subtly tells the tale of Barrie’s imagination. His eyes are like windows into Barrie’s interior worlds.

When Forster and Magee bring to life Barrie’s imagination for either the characters or the audience to experience, Depp’s face takes on that look of wonder that has captivated audiences in Depp’s collaborations with director Tim Burton, such as Ed Wood or Sleepy Hollow. However, having grown as an actor, Depp makes Barrie a man who still remembers and understands the fears, mysteries, and wonders of childhood without making his Barrie a stereotype such as the childlike man, the man child, or the man with a sense of “childlike wonder.” Depp’s performance carries this movie and makes the essence of Neverland real in Finding Neverland.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2005 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Original Score” (Jan A.P. Kaczmarek); 6 nominations: “Best Picture” (Richard N. Gladstein and Nellie Bellflower), “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Johnny Depp), “Best Adapted Screenplay” (David Magee), “Best Art Direction” (Gemma Jackson-art director and Trisha Edwards-set decorator), “Best Costume Design” (Alexandra Byrne), and “Best Film Editing” (Matt Chesse)

2005 BAFTA Awards: 11 nominations: “Anthony Asquith Award for Film” (Music Jan A.P. Kaczmarek), “Best Cinematography” (Roberto Schaefer), “Best Costume Design’ (Alexandra Byrne), “Best Film” (Richard N. Gladstein and Nellie Bellflower), “Best Make Up/Hair” (Christine Blundell), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Johnny Depp), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Kate Winslet), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Julie Christie), “Best Production Design” (Gemma Jackson), “Best Screenplay – Adapted” (David Magee), and “David Lean Award for Direction” (Marc Forster)

2005 Golden Globes: 5 nominations: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Marc Forster), “Best Motion Picture – Drama,” “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Jan A.P. Kaczmarek), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Johnny Depp), and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (David Magee)

----------------------

Review: Elizabeth Taylor Roars in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 39 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) – B&W
Running time: 131 minutes (2 hours, 11 minutes)
DIRECTOR: Mike Nichols
WRITER/PRODUCER: Ernest Lehman (from the play by Edward Albee)
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Haskell Wexler
EDITOR: Sam O’Steen
Academy Award winner

DRAMA

Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis

At a New England college, on the serene campus grounds, in their disordered campus home, George (Richard Burton), an emasculated professor, and Martha (Elizabeth Taylor), his rancorous emasculating wife, have returned from a faculty party at about two in the morning. Martha is already drunk, and they both start drinking more while their conversations turns to bellows and accusations aimed at each other, a disagreeable autopsy on the corpse that their marriage isn’t… yet. Soon, the couple’s guests arrive – Nick (George Segal), a new junior professor, and his fragile wife, Honey (Sandy Dennis). Before long, the warring duo of George and Martha suck the young couple into their whirlpool of wrenching disclosures, petty name-calling, and endless antagonism, which before long is also starting to open up the dark places in Nick and Honey’s marriage.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is director Mike Nichols adaptation of Edward Albee’s famous play about a couple whose marriage is a maelstrom created by their feelings of anger, guilt, and frustration with each other. Nichols, Elizabeth Taylor, and Richard Burton actually used Albee’s original play as the script, retaining only two lines of dialogue from producer/writer Ernest Lehman’s script adaptation of the stage drama, so the audience pretty much gets the full effect of Albee’s original writing.

Simply put: Martha is angry at George’s despairing view of life, and that his ambition was satisfied when he got the job at the university (where her father, whom we never see, is President) and he married her. George, on the other hand, apparently understands, but is not wholly sympathetic with Martha’s struggle to connect with him, especially as they couldn’t have children. Her passive/aggressive way of dealing with what she sees as his shortcomings drive George to contemplate violent harm to Martha. The young couple, Nick and Honey, are simply getting an advance view of where their marriage will be because their problems are similar to George and Martha’s, but still in their infancy stage.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the screen version, is difficult to watch because of the frank and brutal conversations – the vitriol. With only some artifice, Nichols allows the actors to commit to playing this intricate drama that is held together not only by physical acting, but also by concisely delivered lines of dialogue from competing speakers, intertwining and battling. Truthfully, the movie tends to dry up in several spaces, and it is easily a half-hour too long, but where to cut? This, in a sense, is a thriller, and the action is in the build up to every topic of conversation that becomes an argument, confession, or trust betrayed.

The film has excellent production values, from the gorgeous dreamlike Oscar-winning black and white photography of Haskell Wexler to the otherworldly, Oscar-winning set decoration and art direction. The cast is also excellent, and while Richard Burton does a top-notch professional job, Elizabeth Taylor’s turn as the ultimate bitch is a career changer. Some people tend to remember Taylor as a tough woman, best exemplified by her performance as Martha delivering countless verbal body blows to Burton’s George, while he cuts and stabs at her in self-defense.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is not for the feint of heart or people who don’t like films built around conversations and dialogue – all that talk-talk, but if you like that, this is an embarrassment of riches.

7 of 10
A-

NOTES:
1967 Academy Awards: 5 wins: “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Elizabeth Taylor), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Sandy Dennis), “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White” (Richard Sylbert and George James Hopkins), “Best Cinematography, Black-and-White” (Haskell Wexler), “Best Costume Design, Black-and-White” (Irene Sharaff); 8 nominations: “Best Picture” (Ernest Lehman), “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Richard Burton), “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (George Segal), “Best Director” (Mike Nichols), “Best Film Editing” (Sam O'Steen), “Best Music, Original Music Score” (Alex North), “Best Sound” George Groves-Warner Bros. SSD), “Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium” (Ernest Lehman)

1967 BAFTA Awards: 3 wins: “Best British Actor” (Richard Burton), “Best British Actress” (Elizabeth Taylor), and “Best Film from any Source” (Mike Nichols)

1967 Golden Globes: 7 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama. “Best Motion Picture Actor – Drama” (Richard Burton), “Best Motion Picture Actress – Drama” (Elizabeth Taylor), “Best Motion Picture Director” (Mike Nichols), “Best Screenplay’ (Ernest Lehman), “Best Supporting Actor” (George Segal), and “Best Supporting Actress” (Sandy Dennis)

Sunday, February 19, 2006

-----------------------

Review: "Sweeney Todd" is Bloody Good" (Happy B'day, Dante Ferretti)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 21 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Running time: 116 minutes (1 hour, 56 minutes)
MPAA – R for graphic bloody violence
DIRECTOR: Tim Burton
WRITER: John Logan (based on the musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler; originally stage by Harold Prince)
PRODUCERS: Richard D. Zanuck, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, and John Logan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dariusz Wolski, ASC
EDITOR: Chris Lebenzon, A.C.E.
2008 Academy Award winner

MUSICAL/DRAMA/HORROR

Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jayne Wisener, and Edward Sanders

Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) brings the music and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim to life in his wonderfully gruesome film, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, based on the Tony Award-winning musical by Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler. Burton keeps most of the songs from the musical and joins his frequent leading man, Johnny Depp, for the sixth time to make fantastically macabre movie magic, one that demands that the audience accept the gory reality of murder if it’s going to be entertained by bloody revenge.

Escaping two decades of false imprisonment in Australia, Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) returns to London and vows to kill the evil Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) and his nefarious henchman, Beadle Bamford (Timothy Spall), who framed him on trumped-up criminal charge in order to steal his wife. However, Barker has learned that his wife, Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly), poisoned herself, and his now grown daughter, Johanna (Jayne Wisener), is Turpin’s ward.

Adopting the guise of Sweeney Todd, Barker resumes his trade as a barber. He sets up his business in his old Barber Shop above the pie-making premises of Mrs. Nellie Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), who falls for the mad barber. After killing a rival who threatens to expose Sweeney’s real identity, Todd devises with Mrs. Lovett an inhuman scheme that will both get rid of the body and save Mrs. Lovett’s ailing meat pie business. Todd begins to murder his customers, cutting their throats, and Mrs. Lovett uses their flesh as the filling for her pies.

Meanwhile, Anthony (Jamie Campbell Bower), the young sailor who rescued Sweeney from the sea, has fallen madly in love with Johanna and becomes the target of Turpin’s ire, for Turpin wants to marry his young ward. Mrs. Lovett’s pies soon become the talk of London, and as business booms, she dreams of respectability and a life at the seaside with Sweeney as her husband and her young charge, Toby (Edward Sanders), alongside as her adopted son. Sweeney Todd has only one thing on his mind – cutting Judge Turpin and Beadle Bamford’s throats so severely that their arterial sprays will paint his walls.

While it may be true that Johnny Depp doesn’t have a quality singing voice, he is a great actor, and his frequent collaborator Tim Burton is a great director. In Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, the two of them make a splendid film musical, as good, and in some ways better, than recent screen musicals Chicago, Dreamgirls, and Moulin Rouge.

Depp, all brooding, smoldering, and quite mad, as Sweeney Todd is mesmerizing on screen. His Todd is a rich character capable of so many moods and so very capable of feigning civility and humanity when there is never a moment in this movie when Todd isn’t at heart, a freaking homicidal maniac. It’s no wonder that Depp earned his third Oscar nomination as a lead actor. His colleagues in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences can see how wonderfully fertile this character is, simply because this amazing actor can create a profound character, almost out of thin air.

Burton, often criticized for focusing on whimsical, macabre, and almost pop gothic films instead of “serious” subject matter, seems to distill everything he has done thus far in cinema into this one gruesome, luminous jewel. Burton’s creative and technical collaborators have fashioned some of the most imaginative and decorative costumes and sets. His cinematographers, editors, and lighting crews have made inventive uses of the tools and equipment of their trades and crafts. Burton is not only able to get the best of his technical staff, he is also able to get them to go out of the ordinary when it comes to creating visual splendor. Sweeney Todd is the movie where everything he has done has come together to produce the epitome of his visual style. It’s like an astonishing colorful ode to Italian filmmaker, Mario Bava, an influence on Burton.

That’s not to say that this is the Burton/Depp show alone. Stephen Sondheim’s music is not only divine, but is also excellent at storytelling, character defining, and mood making. Helena Bonham Carter, a thoroughly underrated and underutilized actress, is a surprisingly spry singer with a beautiful voice. She’s a scene stealer here, and one can argue that the film is as much her Mrs. Lovett’s as it is Depp’s murderous Todd. To put it simply, the people who made this movie made a great movie, a deliciously demented great movie.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2008 Academy Awards: 1 winner for “Best Achievement in Art Direction” (Dante Ferretti-art director and Francesca Lo Schiavo-set decorator) and 2 nominations: “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Johnny Depp) and “Best Achievement in Costume Design” (Colleen Atwood)

2008 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Costume Design” (Colleen Atwood) and “Best Make Up and Hair” (Ivana Primorac)

2008 Golden Globes: 2 wins: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Johnny Depp); 2 nominations: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Tim Burton) and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Helena Bonham Carter)

Friday, April 25, 2008

-------------------

"Kingdom Come" is Tyler Perry-Like

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 14 (of 2001) by Leroy Douresseaux


Kingdom Come (2001)
Running time: 91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes)
MPAA – PG for thematic elements, language and sensuality
DIRECTOR: Doug McHenry
WRITERS: David Dean Bottrell and Jessie Jones (based upon their play Dearly Departed)
PRODUCERS: Edward Bates and John Morrissey
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Francis Kenny
EDITOR: Richard Halsey
(NAACP) Image Awards nominee

COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring: LL Cool J, Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica A. Fox, Loretta Devine, Anthony Anderson, Toni Braxton, Cedric the Entertainer, Darius McCrary, and Whoopi Goldberg

When the despicable head of a black family dies, family and close friends band together for a few tumultuous days to bury the old turd.

His long-suffering wife, Raynelle Slocum (Whoppi Goldberg), must bear the presence of her fractious clan. Her oldest and most reliable son, Ray Bud (LL Cool J) deals with burying a father he wasn’t particularly fond of, while he and his wife Lucille (Vivica A. Fox) struggle over their difficulty to conceive a child. Ray Bud’s brother Junior (Anthony Anderson) arrives broke and unemployed with his shrewish wife Charisse (Jada Pinkett Smith) and their brood of noisy boys. And there are many more mini-dramas in this huge cast of characters.

Kingdom Come is wholly and unabashedly a black movie. The cast is all black, and the writers created a cast of characters who are black rural and black Southern archetypes and stereotypes. If movies can revolve around story, setting, and/or characters, this one complete hangs upon its large cast. The plot is sparse: bury the old bastard as fast as we can so we don’t have to stay around each other too long.

Based upon a stage play, the movie, adapted by the playwrights, is very talky. Many of the actors spend much of their screen time screaming at their screen partners or just plain talking and explaining. The movie obviously has a message about families sticking together that it repeatedly pounds into our heads. Like many stage plays aimed at African-Americans, this one aims to both entertain and to teach. Its message is both obvious and familiar and geared towards black folks. African-Americans can nod their heads in agreement at the play’s message and vicariously gobble down huge servings of soul food with the cast.

Director Doug McHenry, a prolific producer and director (House Party 2 and Jason’s Lyric) chooses bluntness over subtlety, but he wisely follows each cast member’s every move, as this film could not hang upon its story. To understand Kingdom Come, one must come to understand the characters’ motivations. The film is average goods that does have some very funny and touching moments.

Kingdom Come’s importance is that it exists at all, and it is much needed in a Hollywood landscape that mostly ignores the audience that wants films like Kingdom Come. The cast also includes R&B vocalist Toni Braxton, Loretta Devine (Waiting to Exhale and What Women Want), and Cedric the Entertainer. The quality of the acting ranges from surprising to really good, and the actors overcome the average script and directing in making their characters fun to watch.

In the end, anyone with an extended family, regardless of ethnic background, will recognize the family template upon which this family is based. It’s a universal story with universal themes set in one particular group. Its family dynamics are as similar as “Everybody Loves Raymond,” or Parenthood. While it is not great, or even very good, for that matter, it is a good choice on home video and for family viewing.

5 of 10
B-

Review: "A Soldier's Story" Still Fantastic

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 41 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

A Soldier’s Story (1984)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
DIRECTOR: Norman Jewison
WRITER: Charles Fuller (based upon his play, A Soldier’s Play)
PRODUCERS: Patrick J. Palmer, Ronald L. Schwary, and Norman Jewison
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Russell Boyd
EDITORS: Caroline Biggerstaff and Mark Warner
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/MYSTERY

Starring: Howard Rollins, Jr., Adolph Caesar, Art Evans, David Allen Grier, David Harris, Dennis Lipscomb, Larry Riley, Robert Townsend, Denzel Washington, William Allen Young, Trey Wilson, and Patti LaBelle

In this gripping film that takes place near the end of World War II (1944), Captain Davenport (Howard Rollins, Jr.), a proud black army attorney, is sent to Fort Neal near Tynin, Louisiana to investigate the shooting death of Sergeant Waters (Adolph Caesar), who was murdered by unknown assailants near the black army base. Davenport’s interviews with the men under Sgt. Waters’ command reveal that he was a vicious man who despised Negroes who didn’t meet his exacting standards of speech, appearance, and duty. Although two bigoted white officers seem to be the lead and likely suspects, Davenport is sure that there is something going on behind the scenes that either he isn’t seeing or is being hidden from him. But what is it and who is hiding it?

When it was released back in late 1984, A Soldier’s Story received a lot of attention not only because of its large and mostly black cast, but also because the leads were also black actors (unlike The Cotton Club). The film featured the star turn by up and coming actors including Robert Townsend (who would go on to direct Hollywood Shuffle), David Alan Grier, a character actor best known for being on the early 90’s TV sketch comedy, “In Living Colour,” and also a young but not-so-raw Denzel Washington – two years from the role that would earn him his first Oscar nomination.

The film’s best roles belong to Howard Rollins, Jr. and Adolph Caesar (who were never on screen together), both of whom are now deceased. Rollins plays Captain Davenport with such gripping strength that he instantly commands the attention of the audience whenever he is on screen, even when he’s in the background. Rollins clearly understood that for Davenport to be a believable character in his particular situation, he would have to play Davenport as having a magnetic personality, an indomitable will, and a large amount of arrogance – if Davenport were to do his job while suffering the slings and arrows...

Caesar’s Sgt. Waters is a relentless force embodying the conflicting ideas of what a black man should be and how he should live in those particular times, a black America in an America on the verge of the Civil Rights movement. He wants black men to be proud, but he understands that a black man most live in a white world as an intelligent black man, although not as one who threatens white men. It’s this dichotomy of pride and deference that festers in Waters’ mind.

Charles Fuller adapted A Soldier’s Story from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, A Soldier’s Play. As good as the performances are, it’s this incredible script that is simultaneously a fine mystery, an amazing depiction of history, and precise social commentary. Although director Norman Jewison directs this at times as if it were a TV movie, he understands the complex issues brought forward by Fuller’s writing. Jewison allows the script’s flashbacks to define the elements of the murder mystery: the victim, the suspects, and the context. Through Rollins’ performance as Capt. Davenport, Jewison doesn’t intrude as Fuller’s script brings everything together into the present while dealing with the conflicting notions of what it means to be a black man. It’s spellbinding movie stuff. So what does it mean to be a real black man? Who knows? But A Soldier’s Story, a remarkable film ably performed by a fine cast, gives us something to think about.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
1985 Academy Awards: 3 nominations: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Adolph Caesar), “Best Picture” (Norman Jewison, Ronald L. Schwary, and Patrick J. Palmer), and “Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium” (Charles Fuller)

1985 Golden Globes: 3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama,” “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Adolph Caesar), and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Charles Fuller)

Monday, February 20, 2006

------------------

Review: Michael Caine Made a Star Turn in "Alfie"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 99 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Alfie (1966)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK
Running time: 114 minutes (1 hour, 54 minutes)
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Lewis Gilbert
WRITER: Bill Naughton (based upon his play)
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Otto Heller
EDITOR: Thelma Connell
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring: Michael Caine, Shelley Winters, Millicent Martin, Julia Foster, Jane Asher, Shirley Anne Field, Vivien Merchant, Eleanor Bron, Denholm Elliot, Alfie Bass, Graham Stark, and Murray Melvin

Michael Caine earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance in the Oscar® “Best Picture” nominee, Alfie. It’s the tale of Alfie (Michael Caine), a cad and “lady killer” who specializes in loving women and leaving them. However, Alfie’s fortunes take a turn when he impregnates Gilda (Julia Foster). At first, Alfie shows interest in the baby boy, but when Gilda pushes for marriage, Alfie pushes off. Gilda accepts a proposal of marriage from Humphrey (Graham Stark), an old suitor who has been pining after her for ages. Alfie callously brushes aside the entire situation and marches on to new lovers until he gets his comeuppance.

Alfie is one of those pictures where the directing, screenwriting, and lead actor come together so seamlessly that the film comes off as a harmonious enterprise. The script is tightly written, but allows the actors room to breath. The director expertly follows the lead of the writing and the star, and crafts a perfect rhythm to which the performances can move. Of course, the star Michael Caine. He deftly moves back and forth, breaking the fourth wall to explain the film narrative and his situation directly to the movie audience. He smoothly breaks it every time he wants to explain his philosophy of life, his method of operation in matters of lust, and the evolution of the his story. Alfie is a charming rogue, a callous jerk, and a selfish and self-centered boy, but Caine makes him such an engaging and likeable character. He makes him so human and so sympathetic that one can’t see Alfie as evil man, just a man certain that he is the captain of his ship and that he can live with both his conquests and his errors. Alfie is certainly one of those times we find ourselves rooting for the cad/lover boy.

8 of 10
A

June 21, 2005

NOTES:
1967 Academy Awards: 5 nominations: “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Michael Caine), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Vivien Merchant), “Best Music, Original Song” (Burt Bacharach-music and Hal David-lyrics for the song "Alfie"), “Best Picture” (Lewis Gilbert), and “Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium” (Bill Naughton)

1967 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles” (Vivien Merchant); 5 nominations: “Best British Actor” (Michael Caine), “Best British Cinematography (Colour)” (Otto Heller), “Best British Film” (Lewis Gilbert), “Best British Film Editing” (Thelma Connell), and “Best British Screenplay” (Bill Naughton)

1967 Golden Globes: 1win: “Best English-Language Foreign Film”; 6 nominations: “Best Motion Picture Actor – Drama” (Michael Caine), “Best Motion Picture Director” (Lewis Gilbert), “Best Original Song in a Motion Picture” (Burt Bacharach-music and Hal David-lyrics for the song "Alfie"), “Best Screenplay” (Bill Naughton), and 2 “Best Supporting Actress” (Vivien Merchant and Shelley Winters)

-------------------------------

Review: "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" Funny and True

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 103 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005)
Running time: 116 minutes (1 hour, 56 minutes)

MPAA – PG-13 for drug content, thematic elements, crude sexual references, and some violence
DIRECTOR: Darren Grant
WRITER: Tyler Perry (based upon his play)
PRODUCERS: Reuben Cannon and Tyler Perry
CINEMATOGRAPHER: David Claessen
EDITOR: Terilyn A. Shropshire

DRAMA/COMEDY/RELIGIOUS (CHRISTIAN) with elements of romance

Starring: Kimberly Elise, Steve Harris, Tyler Perry, Shemar Moore, Cicely Tyson, Tamara Taylor, Lisa Marcos, Tiffany Evans, and Judge Mablean Ephriam

On the surface, Helen McCarter (Kimberly Elise) seemingly has the perfect life, living in a big mansion with her husband Charles McCarter (Steve Harris), a powerful Atlanta attorney, but even she knows that trouble is also bubbling beneath that same surface. All of a sudden Charles wants a divorce, and he kicks her out of their home on the eve of their 18th wedding anniversary and replaces her with a woman who has, unbeknownst to Helen, had two children for Charles. Helen is forced to return to “the ghetto,” where she finds refuge with the relatives Charles made her give up long ago because they didn’t fit in with his new high, life style. Helen finds solace and some comedy in the tragedy of her life through the insane antics of her pot smoking, gun toting, and much beloved grandmother figure, Madea (Tyler Perry). Helen also reunites with her mother, Myrtle (Cicely Tyson) , meets a new man, Orlando (Shemar Moore), and begins to keep a journal of her trial, tribulations, and recovery – The Diary of a Mad Black Woman.

Tyler Perry has made a name and a fortune for himself (after being homeless early in his career) with his black southern gospel theatre stage plays – six of them going back to 2000. Diary of a Mad Black Woman was first staged in 2001, and a recording of the Diary stage performance became part of a hit DVD series of Tyler Perry stage plays. After Fox Searchlight rejected Perry’s screenplay adaptation of Diary, he submitted it to Lions Gate Film, which green lit the project back in the Spring 2004, and for that we’re lucky.

The quality of the acting is mixed. For instance, Kimberly Elise’s voiceovers are dry, and Tyler Perry’s over-the-top antics, which may work well on the stage (I’ve never seen one of his plays performed live), is occasionally too forced even for the big screen. The script is also a bit dry, but makes some wonderful points about charity, forgiveness, Christianity, love, family, and marriage. Darren Grant’s directing holds the film together even through the clunky bits. However, the film ultimately comes together as a fabulous inspirational look at coming to terms with the trials of life, but most importantly coming to terms with one’s family: the one into which we are born, the ones which adopt us, and the ones into which we marry.

Diary of a Mad Black Woman is inspiring, uplifting, shocking, provocative, and always surprising. The message is familiar, but the ways in which the film gets us there is never dull and 99.9 percent of the time engaging. Although this is a film with a predominately black or African-American cast, Diary is universal and good for all Christian souls, even both the nominal and the sanctimonious ones.

7 of 10
B+

----------------------