January movie reviews

THERE WILL BE BLOOD. Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Daniel Plainview, an early 20th century oil prospector in California's Central Valley. He is an incredibly driven man, very competitive. He can be very smooth, but you get the feeling there's not much humanity there. The first half of the movie is more a visual look at how drilling for oil was done back then. Somewhat interesting, but not a lot of story going on. Then a plot kicks in, which involves Plainview along with his young son trying to get leases on a potentially lucrative area to drill. His nemesis will turn out to be a young man who is a religious holy roller. He wants to build a church in the area and lead a cult-like group of followers. So there's a conflict between a really nasty capitalist against a really hateful preacher. But as far as I could tell, neither character was given much depth or nuance, or even much motivation other than being after power. Although very visual, great music, terrific acting...I didn’t really like it. And I hated the ending. Talk about ham-fisted!

THE SAVAGES. John (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Wendy Savage (Laura Linney) are siblings living in New York. One day Wendy gets a call that their father is in the hospital. The kids are estranged from their father, and aren't even sure where in Arizona he lives. Apparently, he was a terror of a father, and they are still living with the results of his abuse in their personal lives. Still, they behave like good children, and go to see how their father is. Turns out, dementia is taking a toll, and he needs to go into a home. So they find him a nursing home, and in he goes. Wendy is still trying to win her father's love, while John is more pragmatic about just giving him his basic needs. Now, there is quite a bit of humor in the movie, including some laugh out loud moments, and there is an unexpected ending, but I have visited a father in a nursing home, and really didn’t care for the feeling that I was re-living the experience. So for personal reasons I didn’t like the movie.

PERSEPOLIS. Based on a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi (she wrote and directed the movie as well), who was a young girl in Iran in the time of the Shah. She lives with her modern family, who are quite appalled when she quotes her teachers and says the Shah is a good man. Until she learns that the Shah imprisoned her grandfather. Then she becomes pro-revolution, and along with her family, hope that Iran will now become a modern, progressive county. But of course that doesn't go so well, and she had an uncle that is imprisoned by the clerics. She remains an outspoken girl, though, and eventually her family sends her to Vienna because they are afraid she might end up getting her or her family in trouble. There she struggles to fit in. And more. I really liked this one, because her life is fascinating, it's a look at Iranians who don't make the news, and also because I liked the graphic look of the movie.


THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY. Based on a true story. Jean-Dominque Bauby was living large as the editor of French Elle magazine. He had money, prestige and beautiful women. Then, when he was 42 years old, he had a brain-stem stroke that left him in a locked-in state. That is, he couldn't move, talk, swallow, etc. He could blink one eyelid, and with the help of a therapist, developed a method to communicate. After being initially depressed, of course, he realized he still had his memories and his imagination. So he wrote a book about his experiences. You wouldn't think a movie about a guy who can't move or speak would be very interesting, but this one is. It's amazingly well done.