'Coco Before Chanel' Review

Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel in the French film Coco Before Chanel, directed by Anne Fontaine. Watch the trailer: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/coco-before-chanel/37886/main?icid=movsmartsearch

>>After seeing Coco Before Chanel, I'll say it again: The French make the best costume films. Their actors do more than inhabit their period clothing and sets; they become living breathing characters who convince you that you're watching history in action. If you've seen Moliere or Indochine or The Return of Martin Guerre, you'll know what I mean. This is not to knock period films from other countries. Somehow the French have the edge in not only getting the details right, but making them come alive on the screen.

>> Coco Before Chanel covers the humble beginnings of fashion designer Coco Chanel (1883-1971) who revolutionized women's clothing with her simplified and practical styles. The film begins with the young Chanel sisters Gabrielle and Adrienne sent to an orphanage by their father after the death of their mother. Here they learn to sew and later become mediocre cabaret singers in small towns. Garbielle is nicknamed Coco after a dog in a popular song. Their act is dissolved when Adrienne becomes involved with a baron and we soon see how the less talented Gabrielle is unsuccessful as a solo act. Coco latches on to a good-hearted and wealthy ex-military officer who reluctantly lets her stay at his country estate.. She becomes his lover but it's only a 'marriage of convenience' as she trades sex for material comfort. She becomes bored by his decadent lifestyle and is caustically critical of the currently fashionable overblown clothing worn by his guests. An actress gives her a chance to design clothes for her and encourages her to start her own business, something unheard of for a women in pre-WWI times. Into the picture arrives a handsome tycoon who captures Coco's heart and furnishes financial aid. Will she become successful in love as well as in business? That's what you will learn....

>>Coco is wonderfully portrayed by Audrey Tautou who most Americans know from The Da Vinci Code, not one of her best showcases. Tautou became famous in 2001's French romantic comedy Amelie which can be described a Gallic Ally MacBeal and was a huge international hit. (Watch Amelie's trailer: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/244109/Amelie/trailers ) She's done other roles; check out my Blog entry for Priceless where she plays a modern gal looking for sugar daddies. Coco may seem mousy at times but she exudes cleverness and determination with her blunt approach when needed and usually gets things done her way. The rest of the cast , which is never overshadowed by her performance, offers fine support including Benoit Poelvoorde as the ex-officer and Alessandro Nivola as the tycoon. Nivola is every gal's dreamboat: charming, rich, well-educated, and good looking. He's too good to be true so you begin to doubt if he'll be around by the end of the film.....

>>There's subtitles but not a lot and the story is easy to follow in any language. If my 91 year-old mom could sit through this movie and enjoy it as much as us, then so can others. The visuals alone make it worthwhile.

'Law Abiding Citizen' Review

Colm Meany, Gerard Butler, and Jamie Foxx in a scene from Law Abiding Citizen, directed by F. Gary Gray and set in Philadelphia. Watch the trailer: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/law-abiding-citizen/36929/main

>>This movie is a revenge fantasy gone too far. Compared to 1974's Death Wish starring Charles Bronson who made several sequels and its clones, Law Abiding Citizen makes the others look primitive and tame. Here the audience is set up for a high tech thrill ride that's a bit improbable but still entertaining.
>>Gerard Butler from 300 and the film version of The Phantom of the Opera (Yes he sings too and was good in it; It's too bad the film was not a huge success but it's the next best thing to seeing it on stage.) plays a nice family man whose wife and daughter are killed in a home robbery. When the District Attorney played by Jamie Foxx makes him accept a deal where one of the killers gets a lesser sentence and freedom for testifying against the other one because he's afraid that both will go free, Butler waits ten years to plot his revenge not only against the killers but also the 'imperfect' legal system that let him down. This includes judges, lawyers, policemen, and anyone else who Butler perceives as his enemy. Some scenes here are not for squeamish and mercifully short but will appeal to fans of torture porn. One surprise made me and others jump out of our seats....
>>When Butler is still able to dispense of his enemies, real and false, while in custody, Foxx races against time to find out if Butler has an accomplice on the outside and to prevent more deaths. The ending is a bit farfetched but the movie seems to work if you except the premise that an evil genius is capable of doing anything to accomplish his goals.
>>Butler is charmingly likable when he's doing his nasty work, a distant cousin to Hannibal Lecter, and Foxx makes a good stalwart opponent who's taught a cruel, warped lesson by Butler about justice and punishment. The fine supporting cast featuring Bruce McGill, Colm Meany, and Viola Davis add the needed weight to keep the maybe unbelievable plot grounded. This film is edge-of-your-seat entertainment and never fails to deliver if you willingly go along for the ride.

'Bright Star' Review

Ben Whishaw as the Romantic poet John Keats and Abbie Cornish as his beloved, Fanny Brawne, in Jane Campion’s costume drama Bright Star. Watch the trailer: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/bright-star/31554/main?icid=movsmartsearch

>>As an English major in college, I was a fan of John Keats's poetry. His early death was a huge loss to the literary world as it deprived us of greater works to come. What he did leave us are treasures that I need to reread after seeing this lovely film since it's been countless years.

>>Bright Star has earned glowing reviews but its subject matter limits its appeal to a small audience. John Keats (1795 -1821) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keats is hardly a household name but you can imagine him as a celebrity of his day when poets were held in high regard by a small but learned minority who actually read poetry. Poetry books were bestsellers like today's novels; yes it's hard to believe since nobody now reads poems unless they are song lyrics or on corny greeting cards.

>>The film clearly presents this adulation as everyone is in awe of his talent. We see his last few years highlighted by his passionate but chaste affair with his neighbor Fanny Brawne before his premature death from tuberculosis in Italy. Much of the dialogue is based on his poems and letters, and this make it a very literate film that demands close listening. Hearing poetry read the correct way is a treat.
>>Ben Wishaw as Keats is very good but Abbie Cornish's performance as the resolute Fanny overshadows his role. She's so good she doesn't throw the film off balance but you will remember her more than him when you leave the theater. Also noted is Paul Schneider as Charles Brown, Keats's overprotective friend and editor, who is Fanny's rival for Keats's attention and well-being as they soon become a thorn in each other's side. Their battle of words is as sharp as one of her sewing needles.
>>The photography is first rate but some might find the film's pacing deadly slow. But this was director Jane Campion's intent in leisurely revealing a forgotten world that seems so foreign to us. Each tiny detail about the rules of society and courtship is shown so matter-of-fact and also as a revelation. Think of Jane Austen and you get the idea....
>>Bright Star might appeal more to women since it could be called a chick flick (spunky seamstress loving a doomed poet who's better looking than her but can't live without her devotion) and there's enough romance and discrete passion overflowing here to fill a few films. This seems to be the correct way to treat the subject matter. The film's title refers to a poem Keats wrote to Fanny.
>>Mom may have been overwhelmed by the constant barrage of English accents ( She hates English comedies; Monty Python is lost on her) but she says she enjoyed Bright Star too.

'Surrogates' Review

A factory where surrogates are created. Watch the trailer: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/surrogates/29481/main

>>The reviews haven't been so hot for Surrogates and I can see why. Saturday was a rainy day and not a good one to take Mom outside so the Mrs & I decided to see this Sci-Fi movie starring Bruce Willis. Whether or not you're a Willis fan, I give him a lot of credit for not only working in big films but for taking small roles in small films that need his name for financing and gives him chances to stretch his acting chops. Unfortunately this movie isn't one of them. Surrogates's premise is that one can stay home to let your brain get hooked up to a robot who takes your place in the working world. It can be a copy of you or an improvement in looks which is what most people want.

>>Willis plays an agent investigating the murders of surrogates and learns that their operators also died at the same time by having their brains liquified. These dual deaths aren't supposed to happen and we soon learn that Willis with the fancy hairdo and younger looks we met in the beginning.is a surrogate for the real bald one who gets beat up a lot and looks like shit for the second half of the movie. No vanity here on his part; perhaps another chance to get into a character or to show the dicotomy of the two Willises. We later learn that his hot looking partner portrayed by Rahda Mitchell is really a plain looking gal and his plain wife is also a better looking surrogate. We eventually learn that almost everyone in the movie has a surrogate. You need a score board to keep the characters and plot clear.
>>There's the usual action scenes we expect in a Willis action film that are enhanced by the barrage of neat special effects. Willis discovers the reason behind the killings and he's outnumbered as usual in his movies, but this is a Willis action flick (think of the Die Hard films) so you know he's gonna be a one man army who will triumph in the end. Surrogates is not a bad movie and is doing OK at the box office, but it grows tiresome and word-of-mouth might bring on its early demise. Willis is too dour and seems bored except when he does emote on occasion to get his wife's attention so we know he's really human. Even a good character actor like James Cromwell who plays the reclusive inventor of the surrogates, is wasted with not enough screen time. A better Sci-Fi movie with Willis is 1997's The Fifth Element: http://videodetective.com/TitleDetails.aspx?publishedid=975491&st=Fifth Element: Ultimate Edition, The (2005)
>>Mom would have been confused with the story and our consensus was 'Eh'.... Wait for the DVD.