DREAMGIRLS. This movie is based on the Broadway play, loosely based on the story of the Supremes and the rise of Motown. Jamie Fox is the promoter who puts business above everything. The girl group starts as back-up for Jimmy Thunder Early (Eddie Murphy, who is really good), a soul singer. Eventually Jamie gives the girls their solo shot. But he is heartless, and has the best singer in the group (Effie, played by Jennifer Hudson) step back for the prettier girl (Beyonce), who he believes is more marketable. The story is good, and I am OK with Broadway musicals, so I don't mind when people in movies burst into song, like they do here. My problem was that I didn't really care for about half the songs (some really Broadway schmaltzy stuff) , even though the story is very uplifting and the acting is good (Jennifer Hudson has a knock-em-dead number that is over the top). Just so-so.
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA. At the same time that he made FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, Clint Eastwood made this movie. It's about the battle for Iwo Jima from the Japanese perspective, starting from preparations for the American invasion, to the Japanese defeat. The battle is run by a general who knows what strategy could work best (he'd been in a exchange program and knew the American military), but he is thwarted by junior officers who are true believers in dying for the Empire, and think his strategy of fighting from caves and tunnels is cowardly. The movie also follows a young draftee, who is considered disloyal because all he wants is to go home to his wife and baby. The concept of living to fight another day was not Japanese; their culture at that time was more about death before surrender, or even death before retreat. No matter what side they are on, men can act either honorably or dishonorably in battle, and this movie shows both. Although often gruesome, this movie is really good, and an excellent entry in the "war is hell" genre.
THE GOOD SHEPHERD. Matt Damon is a young Yalie in the 1930's, doing all that is right and proper. He joins the elite club Skull and Crossbones, and marries a woman he barely knows because he gets her pregnant. When WWII is on the horizon, he is recruited to join the OSS (the precursor to the CIA). And that's his life. The movie jumps between the 1961 Bay of Pigs debacle, where it looks like he is going to take the blame for the failed invasion of Cuba, and his various exploits in counter-espionage leading up to that, starting in 1940's London. But there isn't enough about the espionage to be interesting, and other than a couple of glimpses of him caring about his son, there isn't much about the man either. It's a tough life, not being able to trust anyone, or share emotions. So I think the point of the movie is that the CIA sucked out his soul, but the movie didn't show that he had much of one to begin with, so other than a mildly intriguing last 20 minutes (and the movie is nearly 2 1/2 hours long), it didn't interest me much.
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS. Will Smith stars as Chris Gardner, who in 1981 is really down on his luck. He has a sales job selling a product no one wants and a wife who is bitter and angry about their lot in life. But Chris is really smart, and has ambition to make a better life for him and his family. Still, one day the wife leaves, and Chris struggles to get by and take care of his young son (played by Will Smith's real son, who does a great job). Chris's goal is to become a stockbroker, and he does get an internship at Dean Witter. But it is unpaid, and Will has really bad luck, so much so that he and his son end up on the street, eating and sleeping at Glide Memorial. You know the movie isn't going to end up being a total downer, but despite a lack of suspense, it was still enjoyable. Will Smith makes you feel his pain, and I got a little teary in the end. It's nice to see someone work hard and make it, despite all the odds. Based on a true story.
LITTLE CHILDREN. Kate Winslet is a wife and mother of a 4-year-old. She lives in the suburbs, surrounded by housewives that she looks down on, and she isn't happy. One day the local house-husband/stay-at-home dad comes to the playground and piques her interest. In another sub-plot, the neighborhood is up in arms because a sexual deviant has gotten out of jail and moved back home. This is not my kind of movie. But it does start out comically, with one of the guys that narrates PBS nature shows doing a sociological voiceover that is pretty funny. But it devolves into a story about people I had no sympathy for behaving badly, and the last quarter of the movie I had the uncomfortable feeling of just waiting for something really awful to happen. A movie where the deviant is the most sympathetic character has problems, in my opinion. Critics like this kind of the thing, but without a single character to like or root for, I just don't care.
BORAT. Sacha Baron Cohen stars as Borat, a journalist from Kazakhstan who comes to America to learn about our country. He plays the journalist as being from an extremely backward country, but while interacting with Americans reveals something about America as well. Which is that while many people are polite and helpful, some are idiots (drunken frats boys and the crowd at a rodeo, for example). I put off going to see this movie, because I don't generally like this kind of "candid camera/punk'd" kind of humor, but the movie is being nominated for awards left and right, so I went. And I admit, after a slow start, I was smiling throughout the movie, and laughing out loud for quite bit of it, so I have to say it's worth seeing. Cohen does an incredible job staying in character.
BLOOD DIAMOND. Djimon Hounsou is a fisherman in Sierra Leone. He is poor, and is placing all his dreams on his son going to school and becoming a doctor. But one day the rebels come and his wife and daughters end up in a refugee camp, his son is forced to become a child soldier, and Djimon is enslaved in the diamond mines. In a parallel story, Leonardo DiCaprio is a heartless mercenary from Zimbabwe, who has gotten into the diamond smuggling business. The point of the movie, I think, is supposed to be that the diamond trade is supporting civil war and is inherently evil. But that's just mentioned in narrative a few times, and really doesn't give the movie any emotional kick. Instead, the movie focuses on Leo and Djimon coming together to work to find a incredibly valuable diamond that Djimon found and hid before he escaped the mines. Djimon wants to use the money to save his family, and Leo just wants to get out of Africa. So the movie is more about the personal than the political. And, oh yeah, Jennifer Connelley is totally unbelievable as a reporter who wants to make a splash with the blood diamond story. (And of course, her and Leo have "a moment". Bleh.) I saw the end of the movie coming a mile away, and other than one brief moment at the end, the movie didn't grab me emotionally. (Other than the scenes of the rebel indoctrination that turns children into cold blooded killers - those were really disturbing.) The movie isn't bad, I just didn't think it was all it could have been.
