Tag: literature

JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE – Review

CAMILLE RUTHERFORD as Agathe, PABLO PAULY as Felix in ‘Jane Austen Wrecked
My Life.’ Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

A French film about English author Jane Austen? No, a delightful contemporary French comedy, partly in English, about a young French would-be author who admires Jane Austen but who can’t seem to finish any of the novels she herself starts writing. However, an invitation to a writers’ retreat at the Austen family home in England raises hopes that her writer’s block situation could change, as well as the possibility of bigger changes in her quiet life.

With far more emphasis on the comedy side, writer/director Laura Piani has concocted a clever, contemporary, bi-lingual comedy romance centered on Agathe Robinson (a wonderful Camille Rutherford), a young half-French, half-English woman who works in Parisian bookstore that specializes in English literature, where her ease in both French and English a plus. Agathe loves her job at the bookstore but she is stuck in a rut, as an author and in life. The aspiring writer, who adores Jane Austen and wants to emulate her, long ago gave up on love, seeing herself as being like the lead character in “Persuasion,” a “faded flower” and “old maid.”

There is no need to love Jane Austen, or even know much about her, to enjoy this treat, although it is a bit more fun if you do. JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE is a comedy rather than a romantic comedy, because it is actually funny, and smartly, cleverly so, unlike the typical formulaic rom com, more in the vein of great classic comedies like “THE AWFUL TRUTH and PHILADELPHIA STORY, from an era when the best comedies were romantic comedies instead of the reverse.

Agathe lives with her beloved sister Cheryl (Annabelle Lengronne) and six-year-old nephew. Her sister is supportive and encouraging, if teasingly so, to Agathe, who is still traumatized after surviving the car accident that killed their parents. Generally, Agathe has a happy, if limited life, with her sister and nephew, although she is frustrated that she can’t seem to finish any of those novels she starts.

Her best friend, and co-worker the bookstore, is Felix (Pablo Pauly), a playful kidder who frequently hangs out at Agathe’s house with her sister and nephew. Felix has no girlfriend but has a string of romances where he strings women along – “bread-crumbing” them with texts – while seems unable to commit to just one. After sneaking a peek at her latest unfinished novel, Felix secretly signs up best friend Agathe for a writer’s retreat at the family home of Jane Austen in England.

When that surprise invitation arrives, Agathe is reluctant to go but is persuaded by her sister. She begins to hope the two-week retreat will help her break her writer’s block with her latest book. Felix drives her to the boat, even though Agathe is nervous to even be in a car again after the accident, having avoided them ever since. Felix playfully teases her on the way, then impulsively kisses her before sending her off to the ferry.

Arriving on the other side, Agathe is greeted by her driver, Oliver (Charlie Anson), who turns out to be the great-great-great-great-great grandnephew of Jane Austen, and the son of the couple who run the writers’ retreat. Oliver is an unfriendly, unpleasant, brooding Darcy type who, unfortunately for Agathe, drives a sports car. He is a teacher of contemporary literature and actually doesn’t care for the novels of his famous relative. Arriving, after some car trouble, at the Austen mansion, Agathe is charmed by her hostess Beth, who speaks French as well as English too, and her quirky host Todd () who might be in the early stages of dementia, and meets the other resident authors. She is told that the retreat will end with a ball in period costume, and a reading of each author’s writing during the retreat, a daunting prospect for Agathe.

Camille Rutherford is completely charming as Agathe. The cast is marvelous in fact, but Rutherford is particularly excellent, exuding both an appealing charm and an underlying depth and sadness linked to the traumatic deaths of her parents and her frustrations in life. Her Agathe is afraid of change yet on one level, she knows she must change, in order to become the writer she hopes to be. Pablo Pauly is silly, funny, sometimes goofy as Felix, who teases Agathe relentlessly while still projecting how much he cares about her. As Oliver, Charlie Anson is prickly and difficult at first, with an air of arrogance, but he softens as we learn more about his situation with his parents and his own romantic history. The rest of the cast are all very good, and director Laura Piani has no problem putting them into comically dignity-dinging situations.

The smart script, the wonderful performances, and Piani’s smooth direction are all supported by the beautiful sets and locations, dreamy photography, and a score that skillfully mixes modern tunes and classical selections for the perfect musical accompaniment.

Smart, clever, literary and sometimes a bit bawdy, JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE is just fun for readers of all stripes. The Jane Austen parallels are plentiful, like the author who lives with a beloved sister and has little interest in romance for herself, but subtle, as are the references to Austen novels. Those references keep us guessing as to which Austen novel this contemporary author might be in, while director Laura Piani keeps us laughing and charmed with the whole idea. While the romantic comedy genre has a dismal reputation for being dull and formulaic, JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE’s delightful burst of fresh air and literary fun is the entertaining exception.

With 2025 being the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, films and other productions referencing Austen seems to be increasingly everywhere in recent years. Some of them are swooningly romantic or tiresome in their humorless adoration of the author, in a kind of idol worship that appeals only to the most devoted fans, ironically the opposite of Austen’s own brilliantly funny, even biting social commentary. JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE is far different, one that discusses literary concepts and reflects on the life of writers generally, and built around a contemporary author, captures much more of the real feel of Austen’s writing. Any book lover is sure to enjoy this clever, playful comedy.

JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE opens in theaters on Friday, May 30, 2025.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

AMERICAN FICTION – Review

Jeffrey Wright stars as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison in writer/director Cord Jefferson’s AMERICAN FICTION. An Orion Pictures Release. Photo credit: Claire Folger. © 2023 Orion Releasing LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Everyone wants to feel seen as who they are, not who others think they should be. In the smart, hilarious comedy/drama AMERICAN FICTION, college professor/author Thelonious Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), called “Monk” by family and friends, is frustrated when a publisher turns down his latest novel for not being a “Black novel.” “I’m Black, and I wrote it, it’s a Black novel,” the author complains to his agent Arthur (John Ortiz). “Your books are good,” the agent tells him, “they’re just not popular.” It seems his books just don’t fit audiences’ preconceived notions of what a Black novel should be – gritty, urban, struggling, violent perhaps. At a literary conference, Ellison hears author Sintara Golden (Issa Rae), a Black academic like himself, read from her own latest hit novel, a novel that fits those expectations. The frustrated Ellison decides, sarcastically, to write a novel that hits all those expected stereotypic beats – as a joke. Except the joke finds a publisher.

Smart, clever AMERICAN FICTION is simply laugh-out-loud funny, perhaps the year’s funniest film, and also has an unpredictable story that you never know where it will go next. Director/writer Cord Jefferson based his excellent film on Percival Everett’s novel “Erasure,” but much of the success of the film goes to the film’s cast, which also includes Sterling K Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz and Leslie Uggams, and to Jefferson’s script. Besides being a biting, clever satire – of publishing, of the reading public, of contemporary American culture overall, and the meaning of “authentic” – that builds to breathlessly funny absurdity as this joke spins out of control, the film is also an insightful, even warm family drama, as the lead character, no flawless hero himself, is forced to deal with his not-too-functional family and his own shortcomings.

A curmudgeonly grumbler, Monk has been, informally, put on leave for the semester from his teaching job, for offending the sensibilities of a student. His dean suggests that he go to the literary conference he has planned to attend (where he hears that other author), and then stay on to visit with his Massachusetts-based family to “relax.” “You think spending time with my family is relaxing?” Monk snorts. Turns out, college professor/author Monk is a bit of a “black sheep” in his affluent Black family, where both his sister Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross) and brother Clifford (Sterling K. Brown) are doctors, and his widowed mother Agnes (a wonderful Leslie Uggams) is vaguely disappointed in her youngest child.

Monk’s sister Lisa (a wonderful Tracee Ellis Ross) teases her sourpuss brother Monk relentlessly but there is an affection between them underneath it. Since Monk lives on the other side of the country, he has not seen the decline in their mother that Lisa is dealing with. She tells Monk that things are not going well with their mother, who seems to be in the early stages of dementia, and asks her brother for help getting her into assisted living.

It is a topic nearly all families deal with at some point as parents age, and having one sibling avoiding the topic while another is shouldering the larger burden is a familiar theme too. Early cognitive decline means his mother’s filter is sometimes off, and Leslie Uggams’ Agnes Ellison veers between fondly fussing over her younger son, and painful criticism and even some embarrassing non-PC remarks, in a fine performance.

Monk gets along much better with his sister than his brother Cliff, and Sterling K Brown gives a striking performance as Cliff, an out-spoken cosmetic surgeon, recently out of the closet and going through a messy divorce. There are verbal sparks between the brothers and personalities clash big time.

AMERICAN FICTION unfurls along two narrative tracks in brilliant parallel, one a farcical path about what happens with that “joke” novel and the other a sharp family comedy/drama. The very talented Jeffrey Wright giving a outstanding performance that is by turns bitingly funny and the other touchingly human, creating a character with real depth. The other narrative track has humor too but also a dash of realism, as Monk grapples with his family issues and his own flaws.

The bulk of the laugh-out-loud humor comes from the thread about the “joke” novel. At the literary conference, Issa Rae hits the right notes as the scholarly, erudite academic Sintara Golden, who jars us when she reads in street slang from her inner-city set novel, and then is praised for the novel’s “authenticity,” despite the mismatch between who she is and the characters in the novel (a subject that comes up in a later scene between the two writers). Irritated by the response to her novel, Monk writes his sarcastic “joke” book, a memoir titled “My Pafology” under a pseudonym that should have been a tip-off: Stagg R. Leigh. Shocked when a publisher expresses interest, Monk tries to wave it off but his agent presses him to go ahead and sell it – because he needs the money. That requires that the buttoned-down Monk pose as fugitive ex-con author Stagg R. Leigh in dealing with the publishers, who are far too thrilled to be dealing with the “dangerous” but cool Stagg R. Leigh, in some hilarious scenes.

Monk finds himself living two lives, and trying to keep them separate, a situation rich in humor potential that both Cord Jefferson and Jeffrey Wright use hilariously. The film also has a love interest, with a neighbor, Coraline (Erika Alexander), at the family’s beach house, which adds another layer of complexity to Monk’s already complicated life.

Few movies are as smart and funny as AMERICAN FICTION, and few actors who could carry the lead role in it as perfectly as Jeffrey Wright. This is a must-see film, and a film on my and many critics’ Top Ten lists for 2023’s best films, and it is a sure thing to continue to garner nominations and win awards as the movie awards season makes its way to the Oscars.

AMERICAN FICTION opens Friday, Jan. 5, in theaters.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

TRUMAN AND TENNESSEE: AN INTIMATE CONVERSATION – Review

Tennessee Williams at his desk. Courtesy of Harry Ransom Center. The University of Texas at Austin. Courtesy of Kino Lorber.

Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams were literary giants of the mid-20th century but they were also friends. TRUMAN AND TENNESSEE: AN INTIMATE CONVERSATION is more a tandem biography of these legendary authors than a conversation, but the documentary’s use of only the authors’ own words, read by actors Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto, does give it a conversational feel at times. However that conversation is not between the two great authors but rather with us, the listeners, as they discuss their lives and their work. Truman and Tennessee talk about each other, rather than to each other, as this excellent, insightful and entertaining documentary explores their lives and work through the lens of their long friendship.

It was a friendship had its ups and downs, but it was a long connection. Novelist Truman might be best remembered now for “In Cold Blood,” his “non-fiction novel” about a real crime told as if it were a fictional story, and his novella “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Tennessee Williams’ plays are still performed, including “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

Both Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams were known for their sharp minds, witty remarks and biting humor, making them favorites of the media and the wealthy. TRUMAN AND TENNESSEE is directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland, whose previous film was a biography of her husband’s grandmother, fashion design icon Diana Vreeland. The film features still photos, archival footage, images of books covers, playbills and scripts of the many film adaptions of the work of both. There are also several clips of the film adaptations of their works, featuring stars such as Marlon Brando, Vivian Leigh, Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn.

The two writers had a striking number of things in common, including links to St. Louis and New Orleans. Both were considered literary geniuses in their lifetimes, among the best of their time, and their works still are read and performed. Both were Southerners, gay, and used names other than the one they were given at birth. Both had difficult, wandering childhoods and distant or absent parents. Both knew they wanted to be writers early in life and were driven to make their work the bast they could.

The surprising number of things they shared in common are fascinating, revealed throughout this well-made, thoroughly researched documentary, The film starts with when the young Truman met the older Tennessee, starting a long friendship despite the 12-year gap in their ages. Although they were both gay, they were never lovers but had a bond built on mutual admiration and their common profession.

There is footage of interviews, with both men, with famous TV talk show hosts Dick Cavett or David Frost, which are featured several times in the documentary. Sometimes we hear the voices of the authors themselves and sometimes their comments, on life, love, friendship, writing or each other, are read by Jim Parsons as Truman Capote and Zachary Quinto as Tennessee Williams.

This wide-ranging documentary follows a chronological track but it covers quite a broad field to topics, and alternates between the two authors. The men each reveal their views on fame, love, and the process of writing. Both had concerns about the many film adaptations of their works, and concerns that the movie versions would be how many remembered their work. They reveal worries and pressures in their careers, and struggles with alcohol and drugs. And they talk about each other – sometimes in admiring terms and sometimes with bitchy dishing.

The resulting documentary is both informative and entertaining, with hardly a dull second. One of the nice things about this well-research documentary is the exhaustive list of sources included in the end credits, which has to be a boon to serious fans of either writer.

Fun and fascinating, TRUMAN AND TENNESSEE: AN INTIMATE CONVERSATION opens Friday, June 25, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema and streaming through KinoMarquee.com.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM – Review

Toni Morrison in TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM, a Magnolia Pictures release. ©Timothy Greenfield-Sanders / Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

This biographical documentary has an advantage most documentaries about a literary giant lack: the living artist herself. And boy is that as a bonus. The charismatic, iconic Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison helps director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders tells her remarkable story in TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM and, better yet, Morrison offers insightful commentary on her own lauded, beloved novels.

Director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ wonderful documentary TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM is a comprehensive look at a true American treasure, Toni Morrison. This intelligent and entertaining documentary covers the life, the work and the times of this giant of literature and of American culture. Morrison is certainly a worthy documentary subject:. Morrison is the author of such works as SULA, BELOVED, and THE BLUEST EYE, and recipient of a Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer, the American Book Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among other honors. Her works speak particularly to the black experience and women’s experience, while at the same time being universal.

The documentary not only spotlights Morrison’s work but puts it in the context of the social shifts of the 1960s and 1970s, and beyond. Timothy Greenfield-Sanders is actually a friend of the author, which helped the director coax the usually private Morrison to agree to this project. It also gives him special access and insights on her personal and professional life, all which gives this finely crafted, stirring film a great boost.

TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM covers the author’s early life, her struggles as a divorced mother and an academic in a time when both women and blacks faced barriers and discrimination. It also follows her shift to publishing, and then her transition from editor to novelist.

Morrison speaks plainly, bluntly even, but with such personal charm and sharp humor, that the audience can’t help but fall under her spell. She offers insights on the unique neighborhood where she grew up and her family’s own history of standing up to racism, Morrison has some pointed things to say about early ’70s feminism and its relationship to black women, as well as offering praise for her colleagues at her small publishing house, and those later at the large publisher, Random House, that acquired it, the editors and others who encouraged her work as an emerging author in the way publishers once did.

Morrison was a true ground-breaker, not only in her own writing but in the way she opened the door to other black and women writers as an editor at Random House. This documentary is packed with information on her life and work, presented through archival footage and stills, interviews with notable figures such as Oprah Winfrey and Angela Davis, and commentary from numerous scholars and others, discussing the impact of her work.

Director Greenfield-Sanders crafts a strong, engrossing story but this documentary does greatly benefit from extensive interview footage of Morrison herself. This is particularly so when offering analysis of her writings, by critics or readers. How often have you read a novel that raised questions that you would like to ask the author? This documentary lets us hear the answers to some of these questions from the author directly. That is a rare treat but especially nice in this case as Morrison, a former teacher, knows exactly how to address these topics in the most thoughtful and thought-provoking manner.

Interviews with Toni Morrison are scattered throughout the film, as is archival footage of the author throughout her life. Morrison speaks about her work, her life, and her views on various topics. Hearing her commentary in her own voice gives this excellent film a singular insight into not only this author, but into a pivotal moment of American culture and history. It is a unique aspect that makes this documentary a must-see for everyone.

TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM opens Friday, July 12, at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

NON-FICTION – Review

Juliette Binoche as “Selena” in Olivier Assayas’s Non-Fiction. Courtesy of IFC Films. A Sundance Selects Release.

Juliette Binoche stars as an actress married to an editor at a distinguished French publishing house, in writer/director Olivier Assayas’s latest film NON-FICTION. Assayas is known for smart, emotionally sharp dramatic films such as THE CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA and PERSONAL SHOPPER, but in NON-FICTION, he takes a lighter, comic approach, while still having something smart and sly to say about contemporary life.

In NON-FICTION, the discussions focus on books and publishing but whether it is a sex comedy with commentary on the future of literature and publishing, or a commentary on that with a side of sex comedy, isn’t really clear. Nor does it matter. Either way, the film is a delight – assuming you like both French bedroom comedy and witty conversations about the future for books in a digital world. Much of that discussion takes place in bed, at dinner parties or in restaurants and bars, as these financially-comfortable Parisians try to figure out the future for literature. They live in a kind of bubble, part of Assayas’ winking humor.

There is a lot of talking in this film but what marvelous dialog – smart, far-reaching, insightful and intriguing conversations about literature and publishing in a world of digital media, Twitter and e-readers, against a backdrop of a changing world. Or maybe one that “the more it changes, the more it remains the same,” as the saying goes.

Radiant and brilliant as ever, Juliette Binoche stars as Selena, the actress wife of Alain (Guillaume Canet), an elegantly-dressed editor at a revered old publishing house. One of Alain’s longtime writers is Leonard (a very funny Vincent Macaigne), a disheveled mess of a man whose appearance is the very opposite of polished Alain. Despite his rumpled appearance, Leonard’s novels are based on his own thinly-disguised romantic adventures. It is an example of Assayas’ sly humor that the dumpy Leonard is the one writing about his romances, and also that gorgeous Selena is secretly having an affair with him. But this is a French film, so of course Alain is having his own secret affair, with Laure (Christa Theret) the young business school grad the company brought on to handle “digital transition.” Meanwhile, Leonard lives with Valerie (comedian Nora Hamzawi, in a nice dramatic debut), the idealistic assistant to a socialist politician. It’s very French.

The French title of the film translates as “Double Lives,” which is actually a more apt title if less a literary allusion. Leonard calls his barely-fictionalized books “auto fiction.” When Selena’s husband Alain tells her Leonard has brought him a new book, she worries that her husband will figure out she is the inspiration for one of the characters. But Leonard has put him off the scent by hinting that another woman, a news anchor, is the inspiration. It hardly matters, as Alain is not very taken with Leonard’s new book and declines to publish it. Meanwhile, Selena worries that she is hurting her acting career if she signs up for a fourth season of the cop show she is starring in. The show is called “Collusion” but everyone calls it “Collision.”

There is a lot of talking in this film, so a lot of subtitles to read. But such engrossing conversations, touching on technology trends across several years, which blurs the time period. Blogging, Twitter, e-books, publishing on demand and other topic are all discussed, with some characters lamenting the death of reading while others maintain it is an age when there is more reading and writing than ever, just online, and tweets are like haiku. People reference literary figures and thought but also bandy about terms like “fake news”and mention films like“Fast and Furious,” in discussions that are both thought-provoking and slyly tongue-in-cheek.

The breath of the conversations are bracing, far-ranging and sometimes ridiculous but always interesting. At the same time these people talk, they go about their comfortable lives, in endless rounds of dinner parties or fashionable restaurants, disconnected from more ordinary concerns. The one character who is grounded in the real world is, in a sly ironic twist, Valerie, who works for a politician.

Sly humor runs throughout this playful, intelligent film. Like in his dramas, the characters have weighty, serious conversations about contemporary culture and life, but here those conversations might take place in bed or around a dinner table. Juliette, a classically trained actress, worries about signing up for a fourth season of the TV cop show she’s starring in. The show is called “Collusion” but everyone think it is called “Collision.” Leonard resets one of the sexual encounters in his novel from a movie theater showing “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” to a screening of the art-house drama “White Ribbon” because it sounds more classy, even if the film is about the rise of the Nazis which gives the book’s sex scene a creepy subtext. The characters discuss which actors they can get to read for audio books, and someone suggests Juliette Binoche for one – with Binoche right there in the scene. It is both funny and weird.

For those who like French sex comedy and books, Olivier’s clever sly comedy NON-FICTION is a treat not to miss. NON-FICTION, in French with English subtitles, opens Friday,June 14, at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

TOLKIEN – Review

Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins in the film TOLKIEN. Photo Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures. © 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

One thing you learn early on in TOLKIEN is that it is pronounced “Tol-keen,” contrary to the way many fans have been saying it. That is one of many facts you learn in the J.R.R. Tolkien biopic TOLKIEN, which covers the early life of the “Lord of the Rings” author. It was not an easy life, as the young Tolkien, played by Nicholas Hoult (THE FAVOURITE, MAD MAX: FURY ROAD), endured personal tragedies and hardships, but it was also a time of deep friendship, challenges, growth, and even young love, capped by the singular horrors of World War I, experiences which the author later wove into his fantasy tales of hobbits, elves and the fellowship of a ring.

Actually, TOLKIEN is more an interesting film than the deeply involving one audience might hope it would be. This is despite the fact that Tolkien’s early life was marked by strikingly dramatic, even tragic, events. Finnish director Dome Karukoski, a big Tolkien fan, and screenwriters David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford carefully researched their subject but the films suffers from some flaws common to biopics. The director takes care draw attention to parallels between events in Tolkien’s life and his writings, and how these early experiences shaped the author’s later fantasy novels. It is a fascinating approach for fans, where one is constantly thinking “so that’s where that came from” as you watch the film. However, that observational, even analytical tact has a distancing effect, and the film often has a surprisingly restrained emotional tone.

Tolkien’s early life feels like something out of Dickens. The film opens with Tolkien (Hoult) in the trenches of World War I, and then periodically flashes back to his earlier life. Born in British-ruled South Africa, young John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (played as a child by Harry Gilby) learned to speak several languages and was steeped in languages, art and legends. Widowed when Tolkien was four, Mabel Tolkien (Laura Donnell) eventually relocates him and his younger brother to England, where they face financially dire circumstances. When Tolkien is 12, his mother dies and her friend Father Francis (Colm Meaney) takes charge of the two penniless orphaned boys, placing them in a boarding house run by Mrs. Faulkner (Pam Ferris) and arranging for their education.

From this point, the film focuses primarily on the friendships Tolkien forms with three other boys at the posh private school he attends and his budding romance with future wife Edith. The four boys create a fellowship of artists who encourage each other as they hope to transform the world. Lily Collins plays pretty, lively and musically-gifted Edith, another penniless boarder at the house, who earns her keep playing piano for Mrs. Faulkner.

The three friends, Christopher Wiseman, Robert Gilson and Geoffrey Smith, are played as young men by Tom Glynn-Carney, Patrick Gibson and Anthony Boyle. The friends engage in adventures, talk about literature and art, play rugby, and encourage each other as they grow from young schoolboys to college students, until their fellowship is tested by war.

In the war sequences in particular, director Karukoski draws direct visual links between those experiences and Middle Earth, with dragons and wraiths rising out of the smoke and fire of the battlefield. Other scenes evoke echoes to elements of Tolkien’s fantasy world, with Edith and their walks in the forest suggesting Elves and Ents, but none as powerfully as the war ones.

The story builds on themes of struggle, friendship, courage, love and war, mixed in with a love of legends and languages. Yet in the midst of all this drama, the film feels more focused on pointing out parallels between the author’s life and his books than in actually involving audience in the drama of that life. The director allows a bit more emotion to seep in for the love story between Tolkien and Edith but even here, there is a certain amount of restraint.

The approach has its problems. Nicholas Hoult has demonstrated his considerable acting talents in previous roles but under Karukoski’s restrained direction, he often seems to do little more than look handsome and occasionally a bit pained, the ultimate British stiff upper lip. Lily Collins as Edith gets a bit more latitude, bringing a bit more dramatic fire to her role. There are other problems. Tolkien’s younger brother all but vanishes from the story early on, and we never really get to know Tolkien’s closest friends beyond an superficial level. Even Edith never reveals the backstory on how she came to live in the boarding house. As the priest/guardian, Colm Meaney gets a little more room to stretch, and Derek Jacobi is charmingly eccentric as the Cambridge language professor who sets Tolkien on his academic career in languages. But overall, the characters feel a bit thin. It is all about pointing out those literary links.

Still, TOLKIEN does have much to offer Tolkien fans, even casual ones, who might be curious to know the personal roots of his fantastical fictional worlds. The film is packed full of intriguing references to Tolkien’s books, and insights on the origins of his fantastical fictional worlds. Young Tolkien would escape his troubles into tales of mythology, which turn up in his stories. With a gift for language, he amused himself by creating his own language, and by drawing imaginative worlds, long before the novels. While we don’t see an obvious hobbit inspiration, we certainly meet an elvish one, in the form of the musical, graceful Edith. The close friendships he forms at school clearly serves as a template for the fellowship of the ring. Even the ring of power and the heroic quest get a nod, when Tolkien and Edith visit a concert hall for a performance of Wagner’s Ring Cycle operas.

TOLKIEN is an interesting film, well worth a look for J. R. R. Tolkien fans, if a less engrossing one than one might have hoped. TOLKIEN opens Friday, May 10, at several area theaters.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

THE HAPPY PRINCE – Review

Rupert Everett as Oscar Wilde. Photo by Wilhelm Moser, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics ©

THE HAPPY PRINCE is not a happy story, neither the children’s tale by Oscar Wilde nor this biopic about Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde was one of the world’s literary greats, the author of “The Importance of Being Ernest” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” among others, and also a figure famous for his flamboyant clothing, his sharp wit and sparkling conversation, which made him a favorite of London society in the late 19th century Wilde was a figure who had a glorious rise to fame and fortune followed by one of the most tragic ends. However, THE HAPPY PRINCE gives us only the tragic end, presenting Wilde’s glory days in a few too-short flashbacks.

What led to Oscar Wilde’s downfall was being gay, which was illegal in England at the time. After years of delighting audiences with his witty plays and being the toast of London society, Wilde foolishly became involved in a court case with the Marquess of Queensberry (the one who wrote the rules of boxing). The Marquess’ son, Alfred “Bosie” Douglas, who was Wilde’s lover, had encouraged Wilde to bring the court case against his father but it disastrously backfired, and ended up with Wilde himself being put on trial for being homosexual. Wilde was convicted and sent to prison for two years, after which he fled to France with plans to re-start his career.

Wilde was never able to recover from the blow, an especially tragic fate for an author whose work had made so many laugh. Wilde’s rise and fall life seems perfect material for a great film but THE HAPPY PRINCE only gives us the fall, the time after the trial when Wilde tried and failed to re-start his life and career in France. The film picks up Wilde’s story after he is already in exile in France but jumps around in time as we witness his sad decline.

Rupert Everett both directs and stars as Oscar Wilde in exile, in this lush, literate, admiring period drama. Everett does not particularly look like Wilde but he delivers a moving performance, particularly in scenes where he speaks passages from the author’s works. In exile, Wilde still has supporters, notably his loyal friends Reggie Turner (Colin Firth) and Robbie Ross (Edwin Thomas). Colin Morgan plays the handsome and spoiled Bosie, who despite the opposition of his friends joins the forgiving Wilde in exile, where he causes more trouble and heart-ache. Emily Watson plays Wilde’s wife Constance, of whom the author is still fond despite his attraction to men. This sterling cast is also joined be a few other notable British actors in small roles, particularly Tom Wilkinson.

THE HAPPY PRINCE begins Oscar Wilde’s story with the author in Paris some years after his release from prison, when the nearly penniless Wilde is drowning his sorrows in absinthe. From that point, the drama jumps back and forth in time, illustrating both hope and despair in the author’s post-trial exile. There are moments of defiance and flashes of wit and artistic flare, although the overall trajectory is downward.

Before things get underway, the film opens with a prelude of Wilde reciting his children’s story “The Happy Prince” to his own two young sons> the story is a magical but sad fairy tale, in which a sparrow left behind by his flock meets the statue of a now-dead prince who had never known sadness in life. The sparrow shows the prince the suffering of the poor, and the jeweled and gold-clad statue is so touched, he begins to give pieces of himself to the poor with the help of the sparrow. The film uses the telling of Wilde’s children’s story as a running theme, returning to it periodically, with Wilde recounting the tale either to his sons before his conviction or two French orphans he befriends in his exile in France.

The film is clearly a labor of love for all involved, and there are very talented people involved. The subject is admirable, and the production itself is lavish, the locations breathtaking, and the acting nicely done. Besides the excepts from the children’s story told throughout, there are other snippets of Oscar Wilde, which are the most magical moments in film.

The film has its glowing moments for the true fan. THE HAPPY PRINCE is a visually gorgeous film, filled with period locations and costumes in beautifully photographed shots composed with painterly loveliness. Even shots of poor streets of Paris in snow have a quiet beauty. Besides the children’s story, the film has other snippets of Wilde’s works, which provide some of its best moments. From time to time, the drama seems to pause and linger in a golden moment, generally as Everett is reciting some of Wilde’s works against a breath-taking romantic or scenic backdrop. The visual bounty in gorgeous sets, costumes and locations, along with fine acting and loving period detail, are major assets in the film.

Still, the film can be heavy going for any but the most ardent Wilde devotees, making one wish for a little absinthe oneself to make it through all the author’s heartbreaking decline. The drama focuses on only the saddest parts of Wilde’s life, which makes it feel unbalanced, and the film is also a bit unfocused and rambling at times. We get too little of the wit and humor for which Wilde was famous, although the film does have moments of magical delight.

THE HAPPY PRINCE only covers the fall portion of Wilde’s rise-and-fall story, making it a rather heavy, sad film albeit a well-acted and beautifully photographed one. The drama is more suited to serious Oscar Wilde devotees who know his story well, than a less knowledgeable general audience, where a bit more of Wilde’s wit could have brought into sharper focus how great the loss of this literary figure was for the world.

THE HAPPY PRINCE opens Friday, October 19, at Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

THE WIFE – Review

Glenn Close as Joan Castleman, listening as her novelist husband gives his acceptance speech at the Nobel Prize ceremony, in THE WIFE. Photo by Graeme Hunter, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics ©

Glenn Close gives one of the best performances of her career in THE WIFE, a drama exploring the relationship of a long-married couple as the husband, a famous author, is awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. The drama peels back the layers of the relationship and the inner life of the wife, while exploring society’s shifting attitudes towards women’s careers, with both gripping performances and an engrossing and timely story.

There is that old saying “behind every great man is a great woman,” a phrase that seems to praise that woman while also leaving her in his shadow. The relationship between brash famous author husband Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) and his quiet, elegant wife Joan (Glen Close) seems the epitome of that saying. The couple is also a study in contrasts: Joe is outgoing, egotistical and loves the spotlight, while Joan is shy, self-effacing and reserved. Yet it is clear from the first scenes that Joe is barely functional without his wife, who organizes his life as well as smoothing over the many ruffled feathers Joe leaves in his wake. Like many long-married couples, there is a kind of short-hand between them, and there is also a mix of affection and annoyance on the part of the wife.

Joe winning the Nobel Prize in 1992, a time of expanding opportunities for women, brings other tensions to the surface, feelings and facts that Joan has been struggling to ignore. It is more than emotional support and organization that Joan brings to her marriage to Joe. Once a promising author herself, she chose to bury her own ambitions when she married Joe, and instead put her energy into promoting his career. It is a decision many women of her generation made, one with a high cost for the truly talented.

Swedish director Bjorn Runge and scriptwriter Jane Anderson turn Meg Wolitzer’s gripping 2003 novel into a compelling drama that not only captures to nature of this kind of traditional martial arrangement but also on the disparate treatment female and male authors receive from publishers and from readers in the earlier eras. But lest you think this is something from the distant past, when women authors like George Sand had to write under a man’s name, remember that the author of the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowlings, used a gender-neutral pen name to avoid that very prejudice. In the case of Joan Castleman, once a promising writer in college in the 1950s, giving up the battle for recognition to join forces with a male author, a published college professor who already seemed on his way to literary success, might have seemed like a good compromise. Certainly it is a compromise talented women had been making for generations, subsuming their own ambitions to serve the career of a husband.

 

Still, the film’s strong suit is Glenn Close’s performance. Close has been nominated for Oscars six times without winning and her performance here has the goods to finally nab her the win. Close plays a woman who is often opaque to those around her, the one who diplomatically steps in to smooth over gaffs by her famous husband and then fades back into her background role as supportive wife. But Close always gives one the feeling it is a role Joan is playing, and that both intelligence and secrets lie beneath her polished surface. In Stockholm, under the pressures of the Nobel Prize hoopla, Joan’s facade and reserve start to crack, finally exploding in emotional fury. Close conveys all Joan’s complex feelings, and her turmoil underneath as well as the polished surface, with brilliance.

Close goes through a range of emotions – frustration, affection, opaque reserve, patience, rage – as Joan, a woman who has made a kind of pact with her husband which seemed like the best choice at the time. The flashback sequences both describe how that happened and illustrate the daunting obstacles that ambitious women writers faced in the repressive, sexist atmosphere of the 1950s and early’60s. To Joan, it looked much easier to marry a rising writer than to become one.

Close is teamed with Jonathan Pryce as her husband, a pairing that could not be better. Close and Pryce are excellent together, but the film is really Close’s. Pryce provides the perfect foil for Close’s fine, nuanced performance, right there in their shared scenes but never trying to steal her fire. The delicacy of that casting is part of why now is the right moment for this film, and why it took ten years to make it. Ten years ago it was hard to find an actor of big enough standing to star in a supporting role in a film titled THE WIFE.

From time to time, the film flashes back to the couple’s early days, giving us insights on how they arrived at this point. Those segments begin when the couple met, when she was a promising student in his creative writing class at an East Coast university. Annie Starke plays the young Joan, while Harry Lloyd plays the young Joe. Young Joan is both talented and beautiful, capturing the professor’s attention despite the fact that he is married. The pair’s romance also reflects a literary trend of the time, mirroring post-WWII social changes, with a brash young man from a working-class Jewish family becoming romantically involved with a blonde young woman from an upper-class WASP family.

Starke, who is also Glen Close’s daughter, does well outlining young Joan’s meek but ambitious character, and the resemblance between them helps as well. Harry Lloyd, who will be familiar to some from his role as Viserys Targaryen on “Game of Thrones,” plays the younger Joe as a dominant personality, even a bully, divorcing his wife to marry talented, pliant Joan, and laying the foundation for the older couple’s relationship. Elizabeth McGovern delivers a memorable performance, as a frustrated woman author whose career is doomed by the sexist literary attitudes of the late ’50s and early ’60s, in a pivotal scene for Joan.

Also helping fill in the picture of the Castleman’s marriage is Nathaniel Bone (Christian Slater), an oily would-be biographer who has trailed them to Stockholm, probing for background for his book, and their grown son David (Max Irons), an aspiring author brooding over the father’s lack of approval. David’s presence draws out details of family dynamics, while Nathaniel’s efforts to cozy up to Joan provide some entertaining and revealing scenes for Close’s character.

THE WIFE is a striking drama delving into the heated emotional territory of one long-married couple’s relationship but set against the sweeping social changes towards the creative work of women since the last half of the previous century. Even more, THE WIFE is a tour-de-force showcase for the considerable talents of one woman, Glenn Close, a performance that could win her that long-deserved Oscar.

THE WIFE, in English and Swedish with English subtitles, opens Friday, Sept. 7, at Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

THE BOOKSHOP – Review

Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) unpacks books in her shop, in THE BOOKSHOP. Photo courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment ©

At first glance, THE BOOKSTORE might look to some audiences like CHOCOLAT with books instead of chocolates, but this film about a woman who moves to a small town and opens a shop is nothing like that romantic comedy. Other audiences might expect an inspiring tale of a plucky woman, a newcomer facing steep odds but finally winning over skeptical locals. There is indeed a plucky woman and a show of courage and defiance, but the story does work out in the standard stereotypical fashion. The story is inspiring in a different, darker way.

Based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel, the story is set in a small English seaside village. But this very English tale is directed by a Spanish – actually Catalan – woman, director Isabel Coixet, who also directed the excellent LEARNING TO DRIVE. Her outsider lens adds a distinct dark twist.

In 1950s Britain, a widow moves to a small English village, buys a old house in town that had stood empty for years, with the intention to open a bookshop. Sounds harmless enough, maybe even something the village would welcome. But Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) does not find it so. It isn’t so much the bookshop that is the problem, although one seemly friendly villager offers her the not-to-encouraging advice that people around there don’t read. Well, the villager admits, there is one reader, the reclusive Mr. Brundish (Bill Nighy) but he never leaves his decaying mansion. No, the real problem,as it turns out, is not lack of readers, but that Florence happened to pick as the spot for her bookshop the very old house that a powerful local aristocrat Violet Gamat (Patricia Clarkson) had her eye on, planning to turn the building that everyone in town calls “the old house” into an “arts center.”

It sets in motion a contest of wills between the plucky widow and the ruthless aristocrat, that sounds very British and indeed the film is based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s semi-autobiographical novel. But the direction and screen adaptation by Catalan director Isabel Coixet brings another element into this story, taking it down some darker and unexpected paths. Class differences and the insular nature of small towns are topics that are woven into this literary tale.

The acting is excellent with Emily Mortimer getting a chance to really shine as the widow determined to stay and make her bookshop succeed. Despite the lack of encouragement, the bookshop does well, bring novels like “Fahrenheit 451” and “Lolita” to the village. Bill Nighy, as always, turns in a fine performance as the book-loving Mr. Brundish, who becomes Florence’s friend, her best ally and customer. The other villagers, while friendly on the surface, are harder to read, particularly a local BBC producer Milo North, a flippant, flirtatious fellow but in an oily way, who proves a slippery factor. A local family sends their young daughter to help in the shop, and the girl and the shop owner bond over tea and books, even though she says she prefers math to reading.

Everything is low-key and emotionally restrained but the director crafts a brilliant and powerful film, one that interjects an element of Kafka and some bone-chilling twists. The result is a film far more complex and interesting than the premise suggests.

THE BOOKSHOP opens Friday, August 31, at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

A QUIET PASSION – Review

Cynthia Nixon as Emily Dickinson and Jennifer Ehle as her sister Vinnie, in Terrence Davies’ A QUIET PASSION. © A Quiet Passion/Hurricane Films/Courtesy of Music Box Films.

Early in A QUIET PASSION, we see the young Emily Dickinson being expelled from a women’s college for her defiant, free-thinking attitude. It is not how we usually see the poet portrayed, and one of the refreshing aspects of director Terence Davies’s insightful, surprising biography.

Those expecting a depressing, claustrophobic slog through the life of Emily Dickinson will be very surprised by A QUIET PASSION. Davies presents a witty young Emily, who is irresistibly energetic and frankly laugh-out loud funny. Cynthia Nixon turns in a stellar performance as Dickinson, in this wonderful drama from the acclaimed British director of HOUSE OF MIRTH and last year’s SUNSET SONG. If you only know the actress from SEX IN THE CITY, this role will be a revelation.

The film’s title is a bit misleading, as Dickinson and her passion for literature and life is it is often not quiet. The film depicts the life of the poet, who spent her whole life in her family home and did not achieve recognition for her great talent until after her death, but this lively drama brings out Dickinson’s sharp wit, intellectual independence, close family relationships as well as her tragic end. Rather than the picture of a shy recluse, the drama portrays Dickinson as a lively, charming young woman disdainful of a conventional life and suitors, a first-rate intellect whose ambitions were thwarted more by societal constraints placed on women than mere reticence. As the film unfolds, we see how circumstances, social pressure and declining health contributed to the reclusive later life that is all one usually hears mentioned.

Jennifer Ehle plays Dickinson’s sister Lavinia, known as Vinnie, while Emma Bell plays the young Emily. Keith Carradine plays her father, who encourages and protects her. When he dies, his loss creates a turn in the family’s fortune in this patriarchal society where women have few rights and are dependent on a husband or father for financial support.

The first half of the film is great fun, and a wholly unexpected view of the poet. With her friends and sisters, she runs playful rings around her more conventional, less-brilliant neighbors. But all takes a darker turn after the death of her beloved father and later in life, calling on Nixon to transform this lively care-free woman into one bravely struggling, pressed down by declining health and diminished opportunities.

Davies’ direction creates a full world around Dickinson, aided by Florian Hoffmeister’s gorgeous photography and exteriors shot in the poet’s hometown of Amherst. This British production about the American poet brings to the fore the inequities of the time, but also the independent spirit that is heard in her poetry. Spirituality has a large role in the Dickinson household but Emily is no submissive wallflower. Devoted to her father and family, she also exudes a sense of fun and disdains those she deems intellectually inferior to her own lively household.

A fan of Dickinson’s poetry, Terrence Davies wrote the script with Cynthia Nixon in mind, struck by the actress’ resemblance to the poet. As it turned out, Nixon was also a fan of Dickinson’s work. Nixon’s acting is outstanding, bringing out layers of strength and pathos in the character later in life.

A QUIET PASSION has all the period details and lush appearance one might expect in a historical biography, but it also has an undiluted view of the realities of 19th century life. There is a feminist thread in its depiction of the limits placed on women, as well as time period’s reality of the suddenness of death, and the way a single event could transform a comfortable life to one of hardship.

If the film has a flaw, it may be that we hear too little of Dickinson’s poetry. However, we do get a sense of Dickinson as a writer, one who is exacting, hard-working, and professional. The poet was willing to take on big philosophical themes like eternity, but crafted poems that are also intensely personal, vivid and mysterious.

The famous reclusive life comes later, after the death of her father and as she ages. Nixon powerfully conveys her struggles as her writings are rejected, she shunned as a spinster, and her health problems multiply. Late in the film, her illness dominates, creating physical misery that would make anyone want to withdraw from the world. This last phase of her life is presented in such a harsh, even graphic light, that some audience members may recoil. The film is unblinking in its depiction of illness in this pre-modern medicine era, and the film may have one of the most prolonged, realistic and difficult-to-watch death scenes of any drama.

More than fans of the poet will embrace this intelligent, top-notch film, which might spark a new interest in her works. A QUIET PASSION is an excellent drama with a powerful, multi-layered performance by Cynthia Nixon, a film in which director Terrence Davies sets aside the genteel prettiness that one might associate with Emily Dickinson’s life and brings to the forefront her genius, independence and pathos.

Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars