Month: November 2011

Alexander Payne’s latest film paints three inter-linked stories onto a lush background of Hawaii’s leafy suburbs, beaches and awe-inspiringly beautiful coastal wilderness. The first involves the discovery by Matt King (George Clooney) that his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie), who in a coma from a boating accident, had been having an affair. Elements of this story require that Clooney track down and decide whether to confront the man she was sleeping with. Continue reading The Descendants

So, Hong Kong is a long damn way from Saint Paul. I can never sleep on these flights, maybe grabbing 15 or 25 minutes here and there, although such dozes were made impossible by the barking snores–like a rhino, startled into scornful laughter–from the strange man next to me on the way home. I usually hope to retreat into lovable tripe, stuff I failed to see and only half-wanted to, but the selections were less attractive, and I opted for three films going and coming back. In reverse order, worst to best: Continue reading Plane

This is probably not the film to watch if your image of Norway is all fjords, glistening snow and affluent social democracy. The action all takes place in a drab industrial zone of some nameless city, the piles of snow are gray from car exhaust, it rains a lot, and the apartment blocks and even hospitals seem mass produced, to provide for the poor but certainly not to make them think they have much of a stake in society. Into this comes Ulrik, played by Stellan Skarsgard with fleshy face and lanky hair, just released from prison after serving twelve years for murder. The film is, on the surface at least, a fairly conventional account of a man’s attempts to re-integrate into society: get a job; reconnect with his son; find love, or at least sex. Continue reading A Somewhat Gentle Man