Last year, between the two of us, we watched an average of 317 movies.
This year our goal is to top that by watching at least one a day.
And as an extra special torture, we've decided to write about all of them.

14 April 2008

10 Items or Less, dir. Brad Silberling (2006)

NIKKI says:
This was pretty much exactly as I expected: a cute movie about two different people who manage to strike a bond and influence each other's lives.

In a way, it was quite standard -- the young and willful young woman who needs calming down is given a sort of peace by the sage-like older man. He's been there and done that, and he knows the screaming and the kicking won't do anyone any good. He gives her self-belief, that she is worth something.

What does he get out of it? I'm not so sure, really. He is in town researching a role for a film, and that's where the two meet. But what is his goal beyond finding the inspiration for a character? He does say something about life being in the conversations, the interactions with people in their daily lives. He goes around making little impacts -- smiling in appreciation of a woman putting on makeup, watching a little boy show off his golf swing, things like that.

He's also afraid of committing to his latest project, so perhaps he goes around researching, getting what he needs from people for life, and then shying away from the working thing. I'm rewriting the movie -- perhaps that could have been explained a bit more.

His goal seemed to be real interaction. There's truth within all human being if the surface is scratched even just a little bit. If that was the movie's (and Freeman's) overall reason for being, then I can handle that. A nice little movie.

3/5

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, dir. Sidney Lumet (2007)

NIKKI says:
Never has a film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman promised so much and delivered so little. Although, admittedly, I appear to be on my own with this, as the film is receiving positive reviews all over town.

I just didn't care. I started caring because the story started out so interesting -- brothers in need of money, one seemingly well-to-do, the other a hopeless fuck-up, plan to rob their parents' jewellery store. Things go wrong, and our story starts.

But as it played out, I found myself less and less interested in where these down and dirty lives ended up. I found myself only interested in just where Ethan Hawke was going to take his character, acting-wise. His performance was extraordinary, and just made me think how much I have missed him in movies. This was the first time, I think since Tod Anderson, that I've genuinely been enthralled watching him. Usually, he seems a bit bored. Here, he appeared to care a bit more.

I'm so sad that I didn't. I felt the movie just ached with melodrama -- and not the good kind. This was just sad people doing sad things. And I realise Phillip Seymour was really at the end of his rope, but how he ends up dealing with it just didn't ring true to me.

A good set-up, but ultimately disappointing.

2.5/5