Kate (Andie MacDowell) is a lonely respectable forty year old head mistress at a boarding school who gets together every week with her friends to tell horrible stories about their week and discover who is the saddest. Then Kate meets Jed an ex-pupil whom she begins to have an affair with. Soon the affair begins to turn into a relationship and she is no longer sad. Jed, her romance isn’t charismatic nor is he charming or likeable and is simply a one-dimensional character who we never get to know much of, so we never care when something happens to him.
Tag Archives: Foreign
Liam (2000)
In the reality of “Liam” brought to screen by director Stephen Frears, the peasants of the Irish village owe debts whether they like it or not; they even owe debts to the local Catholic Church which rules over them like a mafia syndicate. In the time of the story told, the Catholic Church ruled over everyone with hypocrisy and cruelty where parishes came around the neighborhood to collect dues while the wives reluctantly gave simply out of guilt. The children are taken to Sunday school simply for shock tactics where they’re taught that if they sin, they would burn in hell. It is terrifying to youngest child, seven year old Liam, who has an odd fascination with the female body after accidentally walking in on his mother (Claire Hackett) in the bathroom.
Gangster No. 1 (2000)
In a film that’s an interesting hybrid of “Reservoir Dogs” and “Goodfellas”, we’re first given a glimpse into an aged and weathered mobster played by the immortal Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) who gives the audience his origin of his rise to power. Played by Paul Bettany, he is a young McDowell who is recruited by the top gangster in the neighborhood Freddie Mays (David Thewlis) and takes on a job as one of his henchmen instantly adapting to his line of work. The young gangster is violent, determined and soon begins to eye Mays’ job despite the fact that Mays takes a special liking to him and takes him under his wing.
About a Boy (2002)
Will is a self-centered rich bachelor who enjoys the fine art of meeting women and basically tends to himself. Marcus (Nicholas Hault) is a young boy who lives with his hippie Mother and is bullied non-stop at school. In a chance meeting, Will and Marcus meet, and after Marcus’ mother attempts suicide, Marcus begins clinging to Will, asking for his advice and going to his house. Will, basically frustrated, begins to take a liking to the kid, and begins wondering if there is more to life than watching television and trying to get laid. This movie garnered rave reviews, so when that occurs, I just have to see what I’m missing for myself.
The Greatest Store in the World (1999)
The Greatest Store in the World” is one of those films you can finish watching and look back on with a smile later on. What this film does is take a somewhat dramatic plot and turn it into a bittersweet tale with occasional laughs that a family can watch together. Like “A Miracle on 34th Street”, the film presents a large store so big it’s capable to house a small family. Dervla Kirwan plays Geraldine a basically free-spirited mother who uses the store as a home for her children and quite cleverly is able to dodge security guards, the doorman “Mr. Whiskers” and the stores snoopy Santa and his elf who swagger around the store bothering people.
Winged Migration (Le Peuple Migrateur) (2003)
Though heavily staged, “Winged Migration” gives us a rare and never before seen glimpse into nature and the life cycle and migratory patterns of birds seeking shelter and struggling to survive amidst the common enemy known as Man. Done in a period of four years, “Winged Migration” features a team of incredibly gifted and brilliant Cinematographers that so eloquently capture the essence of the landscapes presented within the hunting and scavenging of these incredible species that it becomes such a thrill to watch.
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
Based on the book by Doris Pilkington, “Rabbit Proof Fence” follows the early nineteen hundreds when the government would take Aboriginal children from their villages and families supposedly for their own good where they would be placed in a concentration camp to be educated and trained to be civil. Three young girls are taken from their mother to be taken to the camp. After a while, the oldest daughter Molly decides to escape the camp with her sisters and trek over one-thousand miles to get back home to their mother and must dodge a skilled tracker who must take them back to the camp. What make this movie so heart-wrenching is the fact that these three children are willing to walk more than a thousand miles just to get back to their family.