Archive for December, 2010

SHULL: “A Christmas Story”

This week I was given the task of writing about a DVD of my choice. Being Christmas weekend, I had a lot of holiday options. I have already covered my family’s favorite with the write-up of, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” but I am glad to get the chance to write about another of my holiday favorites. This is one that I can never get out of my head during this time of year. It is the perfect holiday film and one I have seen probably every year since it’s release in 1983. It is the classic, “A Christmas Story.”

Bob Clark directed the film. It stars Melinda Dillon and Darren McGavin as the parents of Peter Billingsey’s character, Ralphie Parker. The setting is 1940’s Indiana and the main conflict of the story involves Ralphie trying to convince his parents to buy him a BB gun for Christmas. Not any BB gun though. He needs a Daisy, Red Ryder, 200 shot Carbine Action rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time. The problem is that every adult in his life is sure he will, “Shoot his eye out.”

For those who have seen this film, most find it impossible to deny its charm. It literally takes you into a Norman Rockwell painting and lets you experience a world that, in today’s day and age, in virtually nonexistent. It refreshes all the clichés and reminds you how they became clichés in the first place.

“A Christmas Story” has schoolyard bullies, tongues frozen to flagpoles, hilariously heroic classroom daydreams and honest family relationships. One of the standout scenes is a visit to the mall Santa that is shown mostly from the kid’s point of view. It is not so much a fun adventure as it is a once a year, nervous opportunity to convince the one-and-only Santa himself, that you are indeed worthy of that one perfect gift.

This is an amazingly nostalgic film that is good for kids and adults alike. The best part is that you probably won’t have to even rent the DVD. Just turn on your TV anytime around Christmas and you are sure to find it. Even though you are probably reading this after Christmas, as long as there is still some winter left, there is always a good time for this film.

Nathan Shull

WIEGENSTEIN: “The Shop Around The Corner”

Considering that we are told, repeatedly, that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, it’s curious to remember just how many movies about the holiday begin in deeply unhappy places. In everything from “A Christmas Carol” to “The Santa Clause,” our heroes and heroines are in states of cynicism, about as far away from holly-jolly as it’s possible to be. Luckily, December 24th rolls around at the climatic moment to remind them (and us) of the inherent merriness in the season. Even the undying classic “It’s A Wonderful Life,” it must be noted, gets set in motion by its protagonist about to leap from a bridge.

“The Shop Around The Corner,” Ernst Lubitsch’s 1940 romance, is no exception to this trend. The film winds down with scenes of goodwill and cheer at the titular store, and ultimately closes with a decidedly sexy (if as buttoned-up as they come) encounter between leads James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. But before the audience arrives there, Lubitsch deftly maneuvers through narratives involving infidelity, unemployment and suicide.

Two salesclerks working the pre-Christmas rush loathe each other. Meanwhile, they find themselves enamored with their respective mysterious penpals. If the outcome seems obvious, that’s because it is. The fun comes from watching the inevitable unfold bit by bit, particularly once the second act—when only 50% of the couple realizes what’s going on—kicks into gear.

The movie may be better known to many as the source material for 1998’s “You’ve Got Mail” (as well as two musicals and a successful British television show), a modernized remake nearly as good as its forefather. But I myself am a sucker for actual handwritten letters, therefore it’s the original that I always return to. Waxing poetic about an AOL alert sound just doesn’t hit the same emotional chord, somehow.

Plus, come on. One has Jimmy Stewart, and the other doesn’t. (Sorry, Tom.) His work here as testy clerk Alfred Kralik is among the best in his career, allowing him to swing between utter lovesickness and biting insults, sometimes within a single scene. He’s well-matched against Klara (Sullavan), who delivers equally nasty comments with airy laughter. The small department store that serves as the pair’s sparring ground is chock-full of stellar character actors, most notably Frank Morgan (seen the previous year as nothing less than the Wizard of Oz) as the emotionally struggling business owner.

Christmas comes, and Alfred and Klara ultimately fight their way into each other’s arms. It takes joy a while in coming, but once it hits, “The Shop Around The Corner” becomes as warm and cozy as any holiday-lover could ever ask for.

Anna Wiegenstein

SHULL: Film steals time, but gives nothing in return

So according to the Sony Pictures official “The Tourist” website (http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thetourist/site/), the film’s synopsis reads:

“Johnny Depp stars as an American tourist whose playful dalliance with a stranger leads to a web of intrigue, romance and danger in THE TOURIST. During an impromptu trip to Europe to mend a broken heart, Frank (Depp) unexpectedly finds himself in a flirtatious encounter with Elise (Angelina Jolie), an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path. Against the breathtaking backdrop of Paris and Venice, their whirlwind romance quickly evolves as they find themselves unwittingly thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse.”

Sound good? Well, it’s not. In my opinion the synopsis should have read:

“The Tourist” stars Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie as two, one-dimensional characters, on the run against the most ridiculously inept Federal Agents and gangsters ever conceived outside of a purely comedic script. The cat and mouse element of the film is purely and unintentionally “Tom and Jerry,” while not even the exotic locations nor the Oscar winning talent can help this phoned-in waste of celluloid.

Yep, unfortunately, that’s more like it. Even Depp, who usually wows me with his quirky and dedicated performances, falls flat in this film. It seems like he did the best he could with the material, but with material this bad, there is only so much that one person can do.

Angelina Jolie took the other route. She doesn’t even try. Instead of even attempting to actually act, she just poses her way through the film. I actually think that some of her scenes were shot using her wax figure, borrowed from Madame Tussaud’s museum.

When she does open her mouth, it is only to let all of the other characters in the scene know that she is far superior and so much cooler than they are. Oh, and as she poses her way from one scene to another, the filmmakers are sure to let us know how much we should appreciate her beauty by constantly presenting mobs of men who can’t take their eyes off of her. I actually expected to see in the credits, “Man in love with Elise #22” and “Man hypnotized by Elise’s beauty #88.” It was more than a little ridiculous.

“The Tourist” is director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s first American film and his first project since winning an Oscar for the 2006 film “The Lives of Others.” I don’t know what happened but maybe he should choose his next project a little more carefully. Not just for him, but for the paying audience. “The Tourist” took from me not only about eight dollars, but is stole from me an hour and 43 minutes of my life that I will never get back.

Nathan Shull

WIEGENSTEIN: Watching this film is a chore

“The Tourist” is a Movie-with-a-capital-M. It is perhaps farther removed from reality than “Tangled,” which features a horse that can fence. There is nothing relatable about it, no characters to become truly attached to. There’s nothing here that doesn’t immediately slink out of memory upon exiting the theater.

And as it sits comfortably in the middle of the caper film genre, that’s really okay. The creative team behind “The Tourist” was clearly comfortable going all out, setting the action in a Venice that seems constantly bathed in flattering light. Composer James Newton Howard contributes a soaring, overstated score, while Colleen Atwood decks out Angelina Jolie in ravishing, incredibly impractical espionage-wear.

It’s almost refreshing to see a film like this retreat completely into its 1950s roots, rather than join the ranks of lesser, modernized takes on the same plot (this summer’s gender-flipped “Knight And Day,” for example. The dialogue wouldn’t feel out of place in any of Alfred Hitchcock’s heist films, and there’s no hesitation about sticking a choreographed ballroom dance number in the middle of things.

I spend so much space talking about the “oooh, pretty” aspects of “The Tourist” because really, everything else comprising the movie is the definition of lackluster. Much is being made of the double-A-list pairing of Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, perhaps attempting to recreate some of the buzz that surrounded “Mr. And Mrs. Smith.” But the stars are asleep on screen—rather than coast atop the ridiculous fluff of the plot, both Depp and Jolie seem dour and uninterested. The supporting performance of Paul Bettany injects some life into things, but a police operative who spends much of his time hiding in a surveillance van can only do so much.

Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (the best name working in movies these days?) shoots for the breezy, adventurous feel of classic Hollywood, but the performances of the two stars make watching the film a chore. A film about light fingers should never feel this leaden.

Anna Wiegenstein