An Unfinished Life          

          This time of year is an awkward one for the movies, as we’re somewhere in between the summer blockbuster stage and the awards rush of late fall and early winter. “An Unfinished Life,” which was kept on the shelf since it was filmed two years ago, is being released by Miramax now as part of the dumping of leftover Weinstein brothers’ movies before the official change of ownership. After seeing the movie, I can see why it was shelved for so long – it’s not quite good enough to get really excited about, but isn’t bad enough to completely toss.

          Set on a ranch in Ishawooa, Wyoming, this modern western tells the story of a family that can’t quite come to terms with its past. Robert Redford stars as Einar Gilkyson, a retired rancher who has never recovered from his son Griff’s accidental death a dozen years ago. Einar lives on his ranch with his closest friend, Mitch (Morgan Freeman), a former ranch hand who was crippled in a grizzly bear attack. The two live in relative peace, with Einar spending his days tending to Mitch and watching his ranch fall apart. This routine is broken when Jean (Jennifer Lopez), his estranged daughter-in-law, shows up with her daughter, looking for a place to stay after fleeing an abusive boyfriend. Although he still blames her for his son’s death, Einar’s carefully blank exterior cracks when Jean tells him that her daughter (Becca Gardner), named Griff after her father, is his granddaughter.

          The movie circles around Einar, Jean, Griff and Mitch, as each tries to reconstruct their life as best they can. While the unfinished life in the title clearly refers to the late Griff, it also reflects the fact that each of the adults has put their life on hold, and must find a way to move forward. As you might expect, Einar’s hardened heart is softened by the young Griff’s innocence; this softening paves the way for a reunion with Jean. However, peace doesn’t come easily, as Jean needs to deal with the return of her violent ex and Mitch needs to find closure on his encounter with the bear, with Einar and Griff in the middle of both.

          The movie is, for the most part, well cast. Redford and Freeman, as usual, do a remarkable job of channeling their characters’ emotions – the quiet anger of Einar and the suffering strength of Mitch. They play their standard roles of Redford as a rugged cowboy and Freeman as the wise friend, but their comfortable, easy relationship and witty banter makes the viewer believe that they’ve been friends for years. Becca Gardner, steals most of the scenes she’s in, with the best parts in the movie being the ones that have Redford, Freeman, and Gardner interacting. Jennifer Lopez does a decent job of portraying a physically and emotionally battered woman who is trying to remain strong, but doesn’t bring enough depth to the character to make us actually feel any kind of connection to her – she just doesn’t seem real. Luckily for viewers, Lopez is not required to carry any scenes, so not too much is lost in casting her.

          The film is absolutely beautiful, with the cinematography perfectly capturing the staggering beauty of the ranch. However, the stunning scenery and solid acting can’t make up for the clichéd, predictable script and weak dialogue. Overall, it’s a good film, but not worth the $10 price of a ticket. See it at a matinee or wait for the rental.

Sin City

I rented this newest Robert Rodriguez film knowing what I was getting into. I’d see it in theaters almost two days after its release, basically because I was enthralled by the initial public hype that surrounded it than anything else. I wasn’t disappointed. The style, that is simply radiated by the film, is evident from the very first frame. A black and white tapestry dotted in with splotches of color for shock effect accompanied by a moody, sterile voice-over narration make this movie a truly unique experience. If you were to try and classify this movie in any way it would most likely fall under an adaptation in film terms, but a translation would be more accurate. From it’s humble beginnings, this movie started out as a pulp graphic novel series masterminded by the pervasively eminent Frank Miller, considered ‘the’ contemporary graphic novelist. Influential throughout the medium as he is, the only suitable allegory I can maintain to lend you a scope of his popularity in this medium and his accomplishments in it would have to be liken to the work of Picasso. Going far, Miller co-directed this movie with Rodriguez and in doing so seems to have stemmed the tide of dilution that often accompanies adaptations. The movie looks exactly like the graphic novels. I know because after watching the movie in theaters I was compelled to read them all. Even the dialogue within the books remain very much unchanged in the movie; almost a continuous stream of sharp one liners hopping from character to character that make the film reminiscent of a western, except placed in an urban setting. Taking place in the imagined cityscape of Basin City, the plot follows the loosely connected stories of three citizens troubled under incredibly strenuous situations which escalate in intensity as they move higher up society’s bloody food chain. The first is the story of Marv, an almost indestructible street thug, played to perfection by Mickey Roark under about forty pounds of make-up. Shunned by society nearly his entire life due to his sharp, misshapen features and towering crag-like form, he seeks revenge when a hooker called Goldie, who has spent one night with him, is murdered in his bed while he’s drunk. Of all the stories, I see this to be the most raucous and viciously pleasing of them all. Unbalanced and seething for gory justice, Marv hits the streets and starts asking people about Goldie’s murder. The violence pervading throughout the entire movie, it should be noted, is highly excessive though stylized. I can still remember Marv’s interrogation of the hustler and his uproarious laugh as he exclaims “I’m having a ball.” as he presses the mans face into the pavement below a moving car. In his searches Marv eventually reaches a barn outside the city. Here he meets Elijah Wood and I will say no more to that, as you may have nightmares. The second story involves Clive Owen in his most brazen as the homicidally psychotic Dwight who must battle cops, mercenaries, his own demented self and Benicio del Toro in order to secure the peace in the district of Basin City called Old Town, which is lorded by hookers. The third and last installment is a tale of honor as Bruce Willis plays Hartigan, a strait, aging cop let out of jail from a crime he was framed for after brutally mutilating a US Senator’s murderous, pedophile son (Nick Stahl) and now attempting to save the young girl (Jessica Alba) once again as the rapist prowls to seek vengeance. Overall I’d say this is a fantastic movie for any action film fan and a great one to watch with friends, but maybe not the kids.

  The Limey

          Terrance Stamp (Wilson) stars in this 1999 Steven Soderbergh thriller of revenge. Soderbergh uses unconventional time sequences with the story line adding to the overall mystery of the plot. If non-linear films are not your thing, this film may not be to your liking. That being said, it is a beautifully shot film with dream-like camera angles coupled with a myriad of flashbacks and forwards.

Using film clips from an old Terrance Stamp film, 1967 film, "Poor Cow", Soderbergh creates a seamless story line of a failed relationship between a father and a daughter who desperately wants her father to mend his ways; he doesn’t and is sent to prison... Wilson learns, while in prison, that his daughter has been killed in a car accident in L.A. His suspicions are aroused and he flies to L.A., where he takes on a series of tough guys and hit men who work for Avery, (Barry Newman) the head bodyguard for recording tycoon Valentine (Peter Fonda), to uncover the truth about his daughter’s death.

However, what moves this movie is not the plot, which I would say is rather simplistic in a Cowboy and Indian sort of way, but rather, the characters are what keep you intrigued. Stamp is simply a badass hell bent upon revenge. His voice, movements, and look all make him appear less human and more like the Etruscan god of revenge, Veive, though without the laurels and goat attributes, and instead of arrows, he has a nice snub nosed 38. Fonda’s character is an insecure nit hiding his insecurity behind the power of wealth and connections. Avery, his bodyguard, relies on stiff-arm methods one might see in old mob film. It’s almost as if Fonda and Newman are one character who prior to birth, had his personality split and placed into two separate entities. Even the thugs in this film are washed up, over-the-hill, or just self aggrandizing goons. What this does, however, is add to the movement of the movie. The film is reminiscent of all those great action suspense films I recall seeing in my youth except this one is artistic.

Okay, how to watch the film. It was shot in California, so it’s sunny. Turn off the lights and turn up the volume. The movie opens with a black screen with the raspy voice of Stamp speaking through what one assumes is a clenched jaw "Tell me! Tell me about Jenny!" The Seeker the Who’s classic comes screaming across the loudspeakers, which is a sort of tell all about Stamps’ character. If you don’t have a large screen or a really good stereo system to watch this (I definitely recommend the surround sound option), no worries, grab a bottle or two of a good red (stay away from beer with this one, it was filmed in California after all), and buddy up to someone who does.