"Bird" is the first movie I really remember Forest Whitaker standing out in, and I've been a fan every since. "The Last King of Scotland" did not let me down.
I don't know how historical this story is, but the relationship between Idi Amin (Whitaker) and the Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) is a microcosm of the little I have read about Amin and how he treated the people close to him. Amin likes Garrigan immediately and takes him from the rural hospital he is working at to the capitol to be his personal and family physician. Their relationship ranges from "You are my closest advisor" to "you are only my doctor."
Nicholas is a bit of a randy lad (with an extra soft spot for married women), but he is also compassionate. When he becomes involved with Amin's wife Kay (Kerry Washington), who is exiled because one of her sons is epileptic, I think there is as much friendliness and compassion in his initial interest as lust.
Whitaker is charming and frightening as Idi Amin and deserves the Oscar nomination, though I haven't seen any of the competitors except "Half Nelson" for which Ryan Gosling was nominated.
James McAvoy's Nicholas Garrigan is grand as a clueless young man on an adventure as much to get away from his father as to help the people of Uganda as a physician. Though he is the main character I would have liked to have seen a bit more of his psychology. For one thing I can't imagine how he was able to ignore everything going on around him, i.e. the disappearances and deaths.
This is a movie worth seeing, and like "Notes on a Scandal" the novel is now on my reading list.
06 February 2007
05 February 2007
The Swell Season - album
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, from the little Irish Sundance film "Once," recorded "The Swell Season" in anticipation of filming the movie.
On the album, as in the film, they make beautiful music together. Now I just may have to pick up some tunes from The Frames, Hansard's band.
On the album, as in the film, they make beautiful music together. Now I just may have to pick up some tunes from The Frames, Hansard's band.
"Notes on a Scandal" spoiler if you haven't seen the trailers
I wish I'd read Notes on a Scandal and could compare this to the book, but I haven't so it'll be all about the film.
Dame Judy Dench and Cate Blanchett. There's not much you can do wrong with these two as the leads, and there isn't much wrong with this movie. Not on a technical scale, there's a lot wrong with the characters though.
Dench plays Barbara, the history teacher of a certain age who describes herself as a "battle axe" who isn't liked but is respected.
Blanchett is Sheba, the new art teacher. She is just getting herself out of the house after being a stay-at-home mother to a teenage daughter and a son with Downs Syndrome.
Barbara starts off as a nice, if lonely, older woman who is somewhat cold to Sheba, but frankly develops a crush on her when Sheba goes out of her way to make overtures of friendship. They go to lunch and coffee and slowly Sheba begins to confide in Barbara, but not everything. At least not until Barbara see Sheba and new Irish student Steven Connolly (Andrew Simpson) together in the art room.
Barbara, who is a compulsive diarist, who forces a confession from Sheba and uses this a leverage to put herself more into the life of Sheba and her family. When the scandal breaks, because Barbara creates gossip in a fit of jealousy, Sheba is fired, of course, and Barbara is forced into early retirement.
I didn't think that Judy Dench has ever played such an ominous, or pitiable, character. She's generally either cold and hard or rather charming - sometimes both. As Barbara, she isn't likable for more than half an hour. The range of feelings she evokes with this character is really amazing, as suits an actress of her caliber. From likable to loathsome to pathetic, and never showing any sense of lesson learned.
Blanchet's Sheba is not as deeply interesting, but I suspect she isn't supposed to be.
So far Helen Mirren and Judy Dench are my order of choices for the Best Actress Oscar, but I still need to see "Volver."
Dame Judy Dench and Cate Blanchett. There's not much you can do wrong with these two as the leads, and there isn't much wrong with this movie. Not on a technical scale, there's a lot wrong with the characters though.
Dench plays Barbara, the history teacher of a certain age who describes herself as a "battle axe" who isn't liked but is respected.
Blanchett is Sheba, the new art teacher. She is just getting herself out of the house after being a stay-at-home mother to a teenage daughter and a son with Downs Syndrome.
Barbara starts off as a nice, if lonely, older woman who is somewhat cold to Sheba, but frankly develops a crush on her when Sheba goes out of her way to make overtures of friendship. They go to lunch and coffee and slowly Sheba begins to confide in Barbara, but not everything. At least not until Barbara see Sheba and new Irish student Steven Connolly (Andrew Simpson) together in the art room.
Barbara, who is a compulsive diarist, who forces a confession from Sheba and uses this a leverage to put herself more into the life of Sheba and her family. When the scandal breaks, because Barbara creates gossip in a fit of jealousy, Sheba is fired, of course, and Barbara is forced into early retirement.
I didn't think that Judy Dench has ever played such an ominous, or pitiable, character. She's generally either cold and hard or rather charming - sometimes both. As Barbara, she isn't likable for more than half an hour. The range of feelings she evokes with this character is really amazing, as suits an actress of her caliber. From likable to loathsome to pathetic, and never showing any sense of lesson learned.
Blanchet's Sheba is not as deeply interesting, but I suspect she isn't supposed to be.
So far Helen Mirren and Judy Dench are my order of choices for the Best Actress Oscar, but I still need to see "Volver."
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