movie minute

Year of the wine: Once again Russell Crowe proves what a solid actor he is in the new film A Good Year. The alluring Aussie is back as Max Skinner, an overworked and underrelaxed stock trader who finds out his uncle Henry has died and left him a chateau in France. As we see in flashbacks, Max has fond memories of growing up with Uncle Henry and the chateau. Now Max must decide if he wants to continue his workaholic ways or live the relaxing life. It does help that he meets a very attractive woman by the name of Fanny (played by Marion Cotillard). It is wonderful seeing Freddie Highmore (Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Peter in Finding Neverland) back on the big screen. This young lad promises to be an actor to be reckoned with if he continues acting as he gets older. Albert Finney is back as well (another fine actor) in flashbacks; he plays Uncle Henry. The movie is based on the book by Peter Mayle and is much better than the book. Having said that, the story the book tells is not a particularly interesting one and that would explain why most of the scenes in the movie are not in the book. Director Ridley Scott (Gladiator, GI Jane) and screenwriter Marc Klein (Serendipity) do a great job of keeping the film moving and interesting. One of the rare occasions when the film supercedes the book.

Bags of popcorn (out of 5): 3

possible Oscar nods

Best Adapted Screenplay

Babel-ling stories: Babel, the new movie by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, is another one of those movies that feature seemingly disparate stories but all of the stories and characters are brought together by something they all have in common. In this case it is a rifle and the characters all end up speaking the same language but in different parts of the world which means it's quite difficult for them to communicate with each other. A Moroccan villager is given a powerful rifle and his two sons are more than eager to try it out. When they tire of trying to hit jackals, they aim for a tour bus (full of people, needless to say). After seeing that the rifle is not as powerful and does not shoot as far as they believed, the gun is suddenly able to hit a bus and smash one of the windows and hit one of the passengers on the bus. The passenger hit is Susan (Cate Blanchett), husband to Richard (Brad Pitt who is going the "George Clooney in Syriana route" with the graying hair and facial hair. Hey, Clooney ended up with an Oscar, so whatever works.). Richard is suddenly faced with the daunting task of getting his wife to a hospital before she bleeds to death. The film also features a storyline with a nanny (Adriana Barraza, who gained 30lbs to play Amelia) and the two young kids she carts off to Mexico to attend her son's wedding. She attends the wedding with her thug-like nephew (Gael Garcia Bernal, once again proving that, yes, he can play bad to the bone). The other story is of a deaf-mute girl Chieko (real life deaf actress Rinko Kikuchi) and her determination to act out her sexual urges. I won't tell you how she or her father or Amelia and the kids figure into the equation but I will tell that this is the kind of movie that Academy Award voters love to honor with the Best Picture prize. Witness last year's winner, Crash, a movie that also featured intersecting story lines and characters. Crash, however, told a more compelling story and the characters were more layered. Babel suffers in that the stories are stretched to fit together and yes, it's meant to be global but it is crushed by the weight of its own grandiosity. Inarritu also directed Amores Perros and 21 Grams (two other films that are quite similar to this film but much much better; probably because the story lines are more believable and not as global). The acting is just fine, however, the film (which will probably be the front runner in the best picture race) is just too thin.

Bags of popcorn (out of 5): 2.75

possible Oscar nods

Best Picture
Best Director
Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt
Best Supporting Actress: Adriana Barraza
Best Original Screenplay

peace out,

paul