The Heart Specialist

Movie: The Heart Specialist

Cast:    Wood Harris   (Dr. Sidney Zachary)

            Brian J. White (Dr. Ray Howard)

            Zoe Saldana    (Donna)

Genre: comedy, drama

Synopsis: Dr. Ray Howard is a first year intern with a bit of a swelled head because he is a Harvard grad. The actor, Brian J. White) plays Marcus in Men of a Certain Age.  If you are familiar with that series, just think of Dr. Howard as being Marcus with an M.D.  Dr. Sidney Zachary is the senior resident.  He has a hobby on the side where he does stand-up comedy.  His partner is a nurse, Donna.

The movie follows the two doctors as Dr, Zachary tries to break through the icy emotionless wall Dr, Howard presents to the world.

My two cents: This movie was much better than I expected.  How to say this without sounding racist . . . the movie’s lead characters were all black, but the movie was really written in a color-blind way.  The roles could easily have been played by whites or Asians or anyone with very little changes needed to the dialogue.  All three of the leads played their parts very well.

Bottom line: a pretty decent movie.

[18]

Another Year

Movie: Another Year

Cast:    Jim Broadbent             (Tom)

            Ruth Sheen                 (Gerri)

            Lesley Manville           (Mary)

            Oliver Maltman           (Joe)

Genre: comedy, drama

Synopsis: Tom and Gerri probably in their 60’s, have been married forever and are extraordinarily happy.  Tom is a geological engineer and Gerri is a mental health counselor.  Mary (40-something) is a secretary who has worked with Gerri for 20 years.  They have a son, Joe, who is single and 30 years old.  The thing with Tom and Gerri (yes, I thought of the cartoon every time I heard their names together) is that they are so happy together and so comfortable in their relationship and are basically really good people.  They have extraordinary patience with and love for their friends.  Friends who are not anywhere near as happy as Tom and Gerri.

The movie follows the couples interactions with friends and family during all four seasons of the year.  In “Spring”, Tom and Gerri invite Mary over for dinner and we learn that she has a tendency to drink too much. We also learn that although she tries to put on a show of being happy, she is desperately lonely.  We also see a hint that she may have a thing for their son, Joe.

During the other three seasons we meet a horribly unhappy friend of Tom’s, Joe’s new girlfriend (much to the dismay of Mary), Tom’s newly widowed older brother and his brother’s unpleasant son. We also see the “fun” Mary has when she becomes a car owner.

The movie seems to be as much about Mary and her unhappiness as it is about Tom and Gerri’s love for each other.

My two cents: A truly fabulous movie.  About a third of the way in, I found the movie was causing me to relax.  I never did figure out exactly why it had this effect.  I have seen Jim Broadbent before, but the rest of the cast was new to me.  They all did a great job.

If you want a lot of action and yelling and screaming, this is not for you.  If you want to see a great slice-of-life covering a year in the life of a loving couple, this is the movie for you.  I keep talking about how loving they are. . .  but the writers and director get this across without a lot of emotional displays or sappy scenes.  Very good writing here.  The feeling it engendered in me is similar to what I get when I watch an episode of the old Andy of Mayberry.  Not a lot happens, I laugh and chuckle a lot – and I feel a lot better after watching it.

[17]

Undertow

Movie: Undertow

Cast:    Christian Mercado      (Miguel)

            Tatiana Astengo          (Mariela)

Manolo Cardona         (Santiago)

Genre: drama

Synopsis: Miguel is a poor fisherman in a poor fishing village on the coast of Peru.  Mariela, his wife, is expecting their first child.  Santiago is a wealthy painter who visits the village every summer to paint.  It turns out that Miguel and Santiago have had a physical and emotional relationship for years.  When Santiago dies unexpectedly, his ghost lingers on – but only Miguel can see it.

We follow Miguel as he has to face the consequences of his actions and has to figure out what to do to put Santiago’s ghost to rest.

My two cents: An interesting movie.  I went in thinking it was a Peruvian ghost story – the part about gay lovers escaped me in the synopsis I read.  So . . . it caught me by surprise the first time the two guys fell, naked, into each other’s arms.  Miguel was forced to face up to his relationship with Santiago in order to save his relationship with his own wife.  I really enjoyed watching this struggle and seeing how the villagers did (or did not) support him.

If you don’t mind a lot of sub-titles (or if you speak Spanish), this is worth giving a try.

[16]

The Dilemma

Movie: The Dilemma

Cast:    Kevin James                (Nick Brannen)

            Vince Vaughn              (Ronny Valentine)

            Winona Ryder             (Geneva)

            Jennifer Connelly         (Beth)

Genre: comedy

Synopsis: Nick Brannen and Ronny Valentine are best friends who co-own an automobile design company.  Nick is the mechanical genius and Ronny is the marketing whiz.  They have a shot at landing a huge contract with one of the major car manufacturers.  Meantime Ronny is trying to work up the nerve to propose to his girlfriend, Beth.  Things get complicated when he inadvertently sees Nick’s wife, Geneva having a tryst with another man.

The movie follows Ronny’s dilemma on whether or not to tell Nick.  While wrestling with the problem, Ronny learns that things are not always cut and dried with relationships.  And . . . Nick is heading for ulcer-city trying to get his latest car design perfected before the deadline.

My two cents: My first problem here is that Vince Vaughn’s voice and way of talking is like fingernails on a blackboard to me.  Getting past that, I think that the roles should have been reversed.  I think it would have been a much better and funnier movie if Kevin James’ character discovered Vince Vaughn’s character’s wife cheating. In particular, I think Kevin James would have added a lot of physical comedy and would have been funnier trying to figure out what to do.

The movie had a lot of funny stuff, just not enough.

[15]

The Green Hornet

Movie: The Green Hornet (in DBOX)

Cast:    Seth Rogan                 (Britt Reid, aka The Green Hornet)

            Jay Chou                     (Kato)

            Cameron Diaz             (Lenore Case)

            Tom Wilkinson            (James Reid)

            Christopher Waltz       (Chudnofsky)

Genre: comedy, action, crime thriller

Synopsis: Gazillionare newspaper publisher James Reid is saddled with an irresponsible playboy son, Britt.  When James dies unexpectedly, Britt becomes the publisher of the newspaper.  He gets it in his head that he wants to be a crime fighter.  He teams up with his father’s coffee maker/mechanic, Kato to become The Green Hornet (and his sidekick Kato).  At the newspaper, he hires Lenore Case to be his secretary.  Much to his surprise, she turns out to be quite intelligent – not just beautiful. 

Their strategy to fight crime is to pretend to be bad guys while actually being good guys.  This way EVERYONE is out to get them, particularly the evil crime boss Chudnofsky.  The rest of the movie follows them as they try to fight crime while not getting bumped off by Chudnofsky and not getting arrested.

My two cents: I had high hopes for this movie.  They were dashed.  Kato was great, the Britt Reid character was just to irredeemably stupid and self-absorbed.  Even after he tries to turn over a new leaf and become a crime fighter, I could not get past his bumbling stupidity.  I initially did not blame this on Seth Rogan, but instead blamed it on bad writing.  But then I discovered that Seth Rogan was the screenwriter, so I guess it is his fault.

This had the ingredients to be a really fun movie.  Jay Chou was perfect as Kato. He came up with a really neat car and lots of James Bond quality gadgets. Cameron Diaz was great as the beautiful blonde who turns out to be the smartest person in the room. I loved Christopher Waltz’s crime boss character – funny and scary at the same time.  If they just would have written the Britt Reid character better . . .

Side note . .  I saw this at an UltraStar theatre and paid an extra $8 to sit in one of the DBOX special effects seats.  BIG waste of money.

[14]