To say that the Jonathan Demme-directed Rachel Getting Married is the role that Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries, Love and Other Drugs) could be considered by the ultimate compliment and, simultaneously, something that you hope isn’t true. I say that for a couple of reasons. First of all, if this is her crowning achievement, then what a movie to hang your hat on. With all due respect to 2012’s Les Miserables, Hathaway’s one performance as, of the end of 2018, that has earned her an Academy Award win, I personally have a difficult time comparing that movie to Rachel Getting Married for no other reason than because, while I have from time to time, I don’t typically review musicals. Much like documentaries or animated movies that I never review, I don’t know if I have a lot of insight or much that I can offer when it comes to a singing film. With that said, I did review Les Miserables and found Hathaway’s scene-stealing performance as Fantine to be the highlight of a movie and a story that I enjoy. But, to me, it didn’t compare to the powerhouse delivery she delivered four years earlier in her first Oscar-nominated performance as 25-year-old Kym, a recovering drug and alcohol addict current living in a treatment recovery program who is given a weekend release so that she can partake in the festivities of her older sister wedding in the infrequently seen Rachel Getting Married. The second reason that I hope this is not her career-defining performance is that, at the time of this writing in January 2019, Hathway is just 36 years old and already has a Best Lead Actress Oscar nomination (for this movie) and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar win. My fear, though, is that it’s been six years since she’s done a film of that nature or magnitude and the trajectory of her career seems to be leaning towards more fun, crowd-pleasing, and revenue inducing roles (The Intern, Oceans 8, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Rio, Rio 2, etc.) than some of the thicker, heavier stuff that earned her early critical acclaim. However, as I look at her IMDB page, she already has a movie called The Lifeboat scheduled for a 2024 release.
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Category Archives: Rosemarie DeWitt
La La Land (2016)
Don’t let the first ten minutes of Damien Chazelle’s (Whiplash) La La Land influence you too much. As much as it might seem like West Side Story, Grease, or a host of other musicals, rest assured it is not that kind of movie. Ten minutes in, after a supporting cast of characters who you never see again finished performing a song and dance on top of and around their cars while in a traffic jam on the 105/110 interchange in Los Angeles, CA, I wondered what the heck I had gotten myself into. There was a reason I have never been able to get through Chicago or Moulin Rouge. I am sure that these are fine movies. Heck, Chicago won Best Picture, and Moulin Rouge was a Best Picture nominee. I’m just not into musicals as much as I am into other genres. There is nothing wrong with them (I don’t like animated movies much either), but they just aren’t my cup of tea. I think the only reason I was able to sit through Les Miserables was that my dad had already tricked me into watching it in the theater. My biggest fear was that La La Land would be either all song and dance (implied from the trailers early in the year) or a lot of song and dance (inferred from later previews). However, neither was the case. While there was a lot of music in this film, and it certainly was a musical, it’s not just music. There is so much more. I think if you’re at least willing to give this movie a chance, you’ll enjoy it in some fashion.
Kill the Messenger (2014)
After stints in movies that have limited his ability to showcase his range (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Avengers, The Bourne Legacy), the talented Jeremy Renner returns to the type of film that has helped establish him as one of America’s best, under the radar actors. With Academy Award nominations in back-to-back years (The Hurt Locker – Best Actor, The Town – Best Supporting actor), Renner brings his acting prowess back to the big screen for the first time in four years in Michael Cuesta’s (Showtime’s Homeland) Kill the Messenger. While researching this movie, I learned that Renner is signed to continue the Bourne, Mission Impossible, and Avengers franchises. Now while I’m never going to chastise an actor for getting as much money as they can, it would be my wish that he exit two of these three series (the Bourne series is tired and played out, and there is no need for his character in the Mission Impossible franchise) and concentrate on roles that bring out more of the actor in him. Then, of course, he would still have The Avengers movies for name recognition and bigger paydays. I feel like this man has a handful of Academy Award nominations (and hopefully a couple of wins) in his future if he continues tackling these more character-driven movies.
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Promised Land (2012)
If you can set aside your belief system for a movie that tries its hardest to be believable, you will enjoy Gus Van Sant’s (Good Will Hunting, Milk) Promised Land. The film takes on a highly controversial topic and an issue that will continue to be discussed more and more in the near future. Because the subject is so contentious and so important, it seems highly unlikely that just two natural gas company executives, played by Matt Damon (The Bourne Identity, The Departed) and Frances McDormand (Fargo, North Country), would be the sole representatives trying to win over a rural town to vote for their company to move in and start drilling their farms.
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The Company Men (2010)
In August of 2010, I made a list of the movies I had to see before the end of the year after reading Entertainment Weekly’s Fall/Winter movie preview edition. I ranked 15 films in order. #1 was Ben Affleck’s The Town, which has turned out to be my favorite movie (as of 2011). #2 was Buried, which starred Ryan Reynolds. This movie, which I did not see in the theatre, was one of the biggest wastes of two hours of my life. And #3 was The Company Men, which starred 4 Academy Award winners. The release date of The Company Men kept getting pushed back further and further, and while its limited release date was in very late December, the vast majority didn’t have a chance to see it until 2011. By then, my list had changed based on the Oscar Buzz and the lukewarm reviews of The Company Men. I finally was able to check the movie out on Netflix. Based on the film I had seen since my initial list, The Company Men would have still made the top 15, but it would have been closer to the 12-15 range rather than the 1-3 range. To further digress into my poor list, Little Fockers was #4, Unstoppable #5, and The American #6. The movies I liked most were The Social Network (initially #7) and Blue Valentine (initially #8). The Fighter (initially #10), 127 Hours (initially #11), Love & Other Drugs (initially #13), as well as True Grit, Rabbit Hole, Black Swan, and The King’s Speech (both of which I did not even rank).