Our Idiot Brother

Director: Jesse Peretz
Writers: Evgenia Peretz, David Schisgall, Jesse Peretz
Starring: Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Emily Mortimer, Zooey Deschanel
Release Date: August 26, 2011
Length: 1 hour 30 minutes

        This year’s feel-good funny Paul Rudd movie is Our Idiot Brother, a sweet but sad tale of a good-hearted idiot, who manages to screw up everything in his life and his three sisters' by being his true self.

        After staying in prison for eight months, for selling marijuana to a cop, Ned (Rudd) comes back to his house, which is also the farm where he works. He finds his hippie girlfriend of three years, Janet (Kathryn Hahn) with another guy. Janet kicks him out and also takes his beloved dog, Willie Nelson, so Ned is forced to find refuge at his sister Liz (Emily Mortimer)’s house. Liz has two kids and is married to a rich British Documentary filmmaker, Dylan (Steve Coogan), who annoyingly doesn’t find her the least bit attractive anymore. Miranda (Elizabeth Banks) is Ned’s second sister, a high maintenance journalist working for Vanity Fair, who has an odd friendship with her neighbour Jeremy (Adam Scott). His third sister is Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), a bisexual terrible wannabe comedian, in a relationship with Cindy (Rashida Jones), a hipster lawyer. Although the family gets along pretty well, Ned’s naïve personality screws him over when all his sisters start seriously hating him for opening his mouth and not immediately realizing his fault in it.

        It’s hard not to love Rudd in every role he plays not just for his comedic skills, but there’s something about him that just makes you want to hug him tightly and just smile. As creepy as that may seem, it is that lovability he puts into all his characters that evokes that feeling and it is also what keeps this film as enjoyable as it is. The plot of the film is often ridiculous and includes some clichés in the – spoiler - happy ending, but Rudd’s portrayal as the immature sweetheart is too cute to resist. Rudd spearheads a hilarious script written by director Jesse Peretz, his sister Evgenia Peretz and her husband David Schisgall. With the opening scene being Rudd won over by a cop to sell him marijuana and then getting arrested for it, you are hooked from then on in. Rudd can only amplify the stupidity of the character so cleverly written to tell his parole officer about selling to a kid across the street, obviously mistaking a parole officer for some sort of therapist. The combination of Rudd’s comic talents and the uncontrollably funny script is enough to have you bowl over in laughter, which is the most rewarding aspect of Our Idiot Brother.

        As talented as Rudd is, an amazing cast of supporting actors accompanies him. Emily Mortimer is wonderful as the pitiful Liz, the unassuming naïve mother and wife, while Steve Coogan is funny as her apathetic unfaithful husband, Dylan. Elizabeth Banks is fantastic as the type-A Miranda who is hysterical in attempting to get information she needs for her first big article and Parks and Recreation’s Adam Scott is sardonically very funny as her neighbour Jeremy, she is attracted to. Finally Zooey Deschanel is adorable as the confused starting comedian Natalie whose immaturity ends up hurting her beloved girlfriend Cindy, played hilariously by Rashida Jones. Kathryn Hahn is also very funny as Ned’s ex, Janet and so is T.J. Miller from She’s Out Of My League as Janet’s new guy, who is even more of a chill hippie than her.

        The story was a bit all over the place sometimes, with crazy tragic things happening to these characters because of Ned, like finding out your husband is cheating on you or getting pregnant with someone else’s baby. All these occurences are used simply to get the sister’s angry at Ned, but they are never brought to the magnitude of what big deals these situations are and at end, they all get on fine. The script, going to extremes, to create drama was the only dislikable quality of this all around charming movie because every time Rudd popped up on screen you couldn’t help but feel like, aw, I can’t stay mad at you. Our Idiot Brother may not be Rudd’s best role or this summer’s best comedy, but with the endearing script and great performances, it certainly warms your heart like no other.

One Day

Director: Lone Scherfig
Writer: David Nicholls
Starring: Jim Sturgess, Anne Hathaway
Release Date: August 19, 2011
Length: 1 hour 47 minutes

        Internationally bestselling author David Nichols of Starter for Ten and The Understudy, adapts his latest success, One Day, into a screenplay for the film adaptation, directed by Lone Scherfig (An Education). Remaining incredibly true to the novel, the film tells the lifetime story of Emma (played by Anne Hathaway), a bookish insecure girl from Yorkshire, who panics at not knowing where she is going in life, and Dexter (played by Jim Sturgess), a rich lazy playboy, who doesn’t really care where he is going. They meet on graduation night, both 22, in 1988 and after an awkward almost sexual encounter with each other, the pair remains friends as they get older.

        The creative story revisits these characters on the same day of graduation, July 15, St. Swithin’s Day, for the next twenty years of their lives.  We happily and sadly see these two people completely change, suffer loss and experience joy while they continually break apart and come together in friendship and romance. In reminiscence of Same Time Next Year, One Day evokes the same growingly sad plot where a three-minute scene represents an entire year for these aging characters. Nicholls adapts his novel perfectly onto screen, as he has much experience as a screenwriter for British films like And When Did You Last See Your Father?. One of the positive aspects of One Day is that the 450-page novel is beautifully condensed and altered into the 2-hour film, remaining faithful without distorting the general feel of the story.

        Actors Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess play Nicholl’s characters Emma and Dexter interestingly. Hathaway’s Yorkshire accent was all over the place, going from Scottish, to English, to sometimes American and even a little Cockney. Nevertheless, her talented skills that we have seen in numerous films like Rachel Getting Married and Becoming Jane, shined through her dialect difficulties. Jim Sturgess, who we first fell in love with in Julie Taymor’s Beatles tribute, Across The Universe in 2007, gives quite a meaningful but sometimes over the top performance as the devilishly charming Dexter Mayhew. Maybe the exaggeration of his flirtation and histrionic personality was done purposefully to show the front he was putting on, covering a deeper person we see as he gets older when more tragedy strikes him. It was in those upsetting scenes, including some with his character’s ill mother (played by Patricia Clarkson), that Sturgess was the most believable and enthralled the audience the most. The older Dexter gets, the more likable and interesting he is to the audience as his personality goes through an entire changeover. He and Hathaway share a very strong chemistry that convincingly lasts the twenty years the film spans.

        Here’s the kicker though. No matter how talented a cast, how skillful a director or screenwriter or how brilliant a novel, sometimes the plot just doesn’t work on screen and that is something the film simply can’t escape. Three years ago, one of my favourite novels The Time Travellers Wife was adapted to screen with a terrific cast and a well-adjusted script, but the plot of the book just didn’t work as a film. There is a similar situation with One Day: a beautifully written book whose premise took on an overplayed tone on screen.

        Perhaps if the captions of what year it was did not come up for every scene, or the marketing for the film did not clue us in on the time span of twenty years, we could simply just see these characters grow over time and come to a shocking revelation that wow, it had been twenty years. With the scenes of each year being incredibly short, it is hard for you to just jump on board with letting these people carry the film when there has been almost no character development. We eventually start to care a bit for the characters but (without giving it away) by the horrific ending, we unfortunately don’t feel like we know these people well enough to buy into and truly feel bad for the tragic event. Like I said before, you couldn’t ask for a better script or director and the cast lead the story as best they could. But with One Day, you are left with a hard effort that doesn’t pay off.

30 Minutes or Less

Director: Ruben Fleischer
Writer: Michael Dilliberti
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Aziz Ansari
Release Date: August 12, 2011
Length: 1 hour 23 minutes

       Two of the most popular guys in comedy, from completely different comedic backgrounds, combine their talented forces for a film with the stupidest premise of all time. That doesn’t necessarily mean not entertaining, though. The usually awkward geeky Jesse Eisenberg, who has risen from his theatre career to star in films like Adventureland and The Social Network, which he was nominated for an Oscar for, in 30 Minutes or Less, plays Nick, a pathetic pothead working as a pizza delivery guy. Aziz Ansari started out with stand-up, then made his way into I Love You, Man and Funny People with small roles and is now currently starring on NBC’s best comedy Parks and Recreation with Amy Poehler. In 30 Minutes or Less, he plays Chet, a kind but weak schoolteacher who has been friends with Nick forever.

       On his last pizza run for the day, Nick is taken hostage by two idiots wearing animal masks to disguise themselves, who chlorophyll him so they can strap a bomb vest onto him. When Nick wakes up, he is told that he has 10 hours to rob a bank and give them the money or they’ll blow him up. These two idiots are Dwayne (played by Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson), unemployed loafers that are only good at making bombs and living off of Dwayne’s rich dad, The Major (Fred Ward). Dwayne and Travis want $5000 stolen for them so they can pay a professional assassin to kill The Major so that Dwayne can come into his inheritance. Now, it is up to Nick and Chet to somehow rob a bank without any real weapons or experience and get the money back to the guys in the masks without any problems or getting arrested.

       Director Ruben Fleischer’s first feature Zombieland (also starring Esisenberg) was a cult hit, a hilarious futuristic tale about four drifters who become friends in a world overtaken by the living dead. Making an original off-the-wall hysterical film, Fleischer looked like the next best thing. Unfortunately the only good thing Zombieland and 30 Minutes Or Less has in common is Jesse Eisenberg in the lead role because most of the movie is simply a waste of time. With Eisenberg and Ansari in the lead roles, you are absolutely guaranteed laughs, especially in the extreme fish out of water scenes. The idea that these two losers must now behave as bad-asses is funny until it becomes repetitive, but the improv and bromantic chemistry between the two leads is enough to keep you from being bored.

       The other rewarding aspect of the film is that both actors are playing the opposite roles we have seen them in, in the past. Eisenberg, who usually plays a shy sweetheart, is a crude douche, while Anzari, who we know best for his arrogantly annoying role as Tom on Parks and Rec., plays a nice schoolteacher. Nick Swardson and Danny McBride are clearly very funny comedians but their character’s story is even more ridiculous and you become apathetic to anything having to do with them.

       First time screenwriter Michael Dilliberti delivers a slightly entertaining but completely unrewarding script. It’s common now that comedies will have absurd plots, but if they are funny enough, we can buy into them, i.e. The Hangover. However, the movie has to first be funny enough to keep you invested in the story. Secondly, it cannot build on the absurdity throughout the plot and especially at the end otherwise full credibility of the film goes out the window. That's what makes you feel gypped at the end of 30 Minutes Or Less. Sure, you laugh a lot in certain scenes, but when the credits roll at the end of the eighty-minute film, you can’t help but think, “That’s it?”. You could have spent that much time on YouTube, laughing ten times harder wtaching Ansari's standup and saving fifteen bucks. Dilliberti fails to deliver any substance or character development to the story and instead makes it strictly about the comedy.

       After the first ten minutes of the film, the full plot literally goes as follows: they find out they have to rob the bank, the plan how to rob the bank, they rob it, they deliver it, with a minute of a romance for Eisenberg as the only sub-plot. I love seeing both Eisenberg and Ansari on screen but not in this light. Hopefully the film is only a speed bump in their rising careers, as for Fleischer, the same cannot easily be said. It is a major step down from his hugely successful Zombieland, but maybe he can collaborate with a better or more experienced screenwriter for his next comedy. Not knowing of anyone who is dying to see this disaster, I don’t think it will be hard in advising people to stay away from 30 Minutes or Less. It’s kind of a no brainer. 

The Help

Director: Tate Taylor
Writers: Tate Taylor, Kathryn Stockett
Starring: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer
Release Date: August 10, 2011
Length: 2 hours 26 minutes

2009’s New York Time’s Best-Selling hit, The Help by Kathryn Stockett is being transferred onto the big screen by Stockett’s childhood friend Tate Taylor, after only two years of the novel’s release. The film has this summer’s star Emma Stone, in her first dramatic role as lead character Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan.

In the early 1960s during the civil rights era, Skeeter has returned to her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi after four years at Ole Miss University. Skeeter comes home to her luxurious house, where her ill mother Charlotte (Alison Janney) tells her the family’s maid, Constantine (Cicely Tyson) has unexpectedly quit, moving to Chicago. Having been with the Phelan family for as long as she can remember, Skeeter can’t believe Constantine would leave without writing her goodbye. While all of Skeeter’s friends have settled down and married including her best friend Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), Skeeter manages to land a job as a “homemakers hints” columnist for the Jackson Journal, pursuing her career as a writer. Skeeter asks her good friend Elizabeth’s maid, Abileen (Viola Davis) if she would help her on her columns, since Skeeter knows nothing about housekeeping.

After spending more and more time with Abilleen, Skeeter becomes uncomfortable with the way her good friends treat their “help”, especially Hilly. She becomes dangerously intrigued by these workingwomen and has a longing want to write an inspired book from their perspectives. After long strenuous attempts of getting the maids’ contributions, they finally agree to tell Skeeter their stories and she excitedly begins writing the book. Although she is changing the names and details to try to hide their identities, the idealistic Skeeter is unaware of the danger and risk she is putting these women in, in a town run by white racist women, who are controlled by the unstoppable Hilly.

I hate to be that cynical reader of the novel that will always compare the two together, so I will start off by saying that if you haven’t read the novel, this could be a cute feel-good summer family flick with strong performances for you. However, even so, it is hard to separate that this is somehow a simply cute movie that revolves around a very serious and emotional point in history. Stockett’s novel was filled with funny and clever moments that made you laugh, but there was always a grave backbone you could feel to the story. The film has many moving moments but somehow overall floats by pretty light. It’s almost as if every serious or solemn part in the story was diluted for the film, whether it was because everything in the novel had to be shortened or because the general feeling of the film wanted to be kept upbeat. The intensity of the main characters’ fear is much stronger in the novel and for good reason. In the film, there is a moment of  “Oh no, we could get in trouble for this,” but then they remember this book is going to change things in Jackson and they feel better.

Anything and everything that was enjoyable about this movie came from the enormously talented cast of fabulous actresses. I thought the day would come already, but I guess we will never get sick of Ms. Emma Stone, as she becomes more and more enjoyable in all her roles. She shows her true strengths as a dramatic actress as Skeeter, but still keeps that hilarious charm we know and love her for. No matter in comedy or drama, Stone always shows full complexity in her characters, and the adorable Skeeter is no exception. The only thing we can hope is that she will stop being stereotyped into the awkward funny girl, but for all we know, she could just bring that lovable quality to all her characters. Skeeter’s nemesis Hilly Holbrook is exceptionally portrayed by the gorgeous Bryce Dallas Howard. Howard was perfect as the wicked and truly villainous leader of naïve Jackson women, whose treatment toward African Americans is incomprehensibly disgusting. The constant wide smile across her face made our blood curl while her actions made us want to cry, and somehow I couldn’t take my eyes off of her when on screen. Previously starring as the malevolent vampire Victoria in Eclipse, and this fall as Joseph Gordon Levitt’s terrible girlfriend in 50/50, I wish to see her in a nice role or possibly a lead one to enjoy more of her talent.

You would think it would be impossible to fit this many “It Girls” into one movie, but the next actress that stole the screen away in her small role was a girl with a name no one can escape recently, Jessica Chastain. Chastain plays a blonde ditzy sweetheart named Celia Foote, who desperately wants to break into the group of women lead by Hilly but cannot because of Hilly’s jealousy for Celia’s husband, Johnny (Mike Vogel), who is her ex-boyfriend. Hilly also encourages the other girls to make fun of Celia’s hick background, coming from the poor dangerous southern neighbourhood, Sugar Ditch. Chastain makes Celia the most lovable character in the film, with her nonstop chatty conversation and attempts to befriend her reluctant maid, Minny (Octavia Spencer). Chastain brings smiles to all our faces while making us painfully sympathize for the numerous miscarriages she suffers and hides. Viola Davis (Doubt) is wonderfully moving as the lead maid character of the story, Abilleen, a woman we can tell is strong and confident but we ache for as she plays dumb and respectable for her younger white employers. When she is smart enough to say yes, she agrees with Hilly that maids should have separate bathrooms, you feel your heart rip to pieces, knowing she is doing this to keep her job.  She carries the film beautifully and puts us as close as we can get to feel what a black woman living in 1960s Mississippi would feel. Abileen’s best friend Minny, an outspoken difficult maid, providing for her many kids and abusive husband, is excellently and humorously played by Octavia Spencer. Although her numerous amount of sassy black girl one-liners were a bit too much for me, her intricate performance was just as moving as it was funny.

Overall, the cast including other great actresses like Alison Janney, Sissy Spacek and Cicely Tyson, was what made this film solid, and not a bore. However, if the story had been kept just as strong and multifaceted as the novel, this could have been an extraordinary film. I would have loved to have been blown over by the romance, humor, and emotional pull of the film like I had with the book, however this is absolutely not a bad film. The Help is extremely charming and enjoyable, but the lack of severity makes you question the realism of the setting. With the power of the phenomenal cast, there is no question you will like The Help, but if you were a reader of the novel, you will most likely let your disappointment override. 

Rise of The Planet of The Apes

Director: Rupert Wyatt
Writers: Amanda SIlver, Rick Jaffa
Starring: James Franco, Andy Serkis
Release Date: August 5, 2011
Length: 1 hour 45 minutes

        Second-time British director Rupert Wyatt takes on an untouched prequel of a beloved classic in Rise of The Planet of The Apes, starring the ubiquitous James Franco and for his third time acting as a creature, British actor Andy Serkis as the central ape of the story, Ceasar. Franco plays Will Rodman, a scientist working for a pharmaceutical company called Gen-Sys, trying hard to develop a cure for Alzheimer’s, in light of his father Charles (John Lithgow), who is suffering harshly from the disease. While presenting the cure in a meeting, his subject ape he’s been testing on, named Bright Eyes, dangerously breaks through the meeting and is killed before anyone can be seriously hurt. After Will’s boss, Steven Jacobs orders all chimps being tested to be put down, Will discovers that Bright Eyes was only being protective of her baby chimp, who they find in her cell. Chimp handler Robert Franklin cannot bring himself to kill the baby chimp and gives him to a reluctant Will instead. 

        As years go by, Will raises the chimp, he names Ceasar, as a son, documenting every second of his growth, as Caesar was born with the testing gene inside him. However once Caesar is fully-grown, he tries to protect Will’s father and ends up injuring a neighbour. He is taken custody by San Bruno Primary Sanctuary that is run by John Landon (Brian Cox) because of the threat he imposes on people. What seems like a spacious center to Will and his girlfriend Caroline (Freida Pinto) is really nothing more than an unwashed jail cell, where the rowdy apes are often tortured by Landon’s immature son Dodge (Tom Felton). Ceasar is quickly forced to adapt to these unfamiliar circumstances. Being born with the intelligent gene his mother was given, he slowly becomes the silent leader of the group while he gradually puts his human life with Will behind him. In this small facility in Northern San Francisco, an uprising much bigger than it seems is about to ensue. 

        About half way through the film, the protagonist becomes the ape Caesar and we are forced to follow the story through his powerful eyes. It takes an amazing combination of special effects and CGI acting to be able to have an entire audience’s attention and intrigue on non-speaking animals for that long in a film and Wyatt succeeded beautifully in doing so. The slow rise of Caesar within the sanctuary resembles any other strong rebellion movie but it is so much more intriguing without cliché lines of dialogue about the revolution from the confident leader. Instead, we see the leader’s thought and reasoning behind becoming this group’s leader and when he does so, it is all simply done through the intensity of his eyes, which are really Andy Serkis’. 

        He carries Rise of The Planet Of The Apes the same way he did in King Kong and The Lord of The Rings, showing us how much you can act without your words. Each time Serkis plays an animal, he takes your eyes away from the actual people on screen and displays that the technology of CGI allows actors to perform just as well animated as they can without blue dots on their faces. The other actors in the film like James Franco, Frieda Pinto and especially John Lithgow as Will’s ill father are great, but it is Serkis who carries the fun, creative story of revolution from Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. 

        They create a clever, fascinating and funny script that takes the crazy idea of the earth being taken over by apes in the original 1968 movie to a simple kernel that makes complete sense. He makes us continue to wonder and try to picture the route this uprising is going to take until the world is run by these creatures. The talented acting and impressive writing is brought to the level of thrill this film has by the extraordinary special effects. The huge special and visual effects team working on Rise combine their efforts to make an incredibly rewarding movie experience. It is quite clear before even seeing the film that there will most definitely be a sequel and then another and possibly another but right now this is by far, one of the best action films of 2011. All we can do is hope that Wyatt maintains the same caliber of entertainment that this film had with the next Rise films to come. Rise of The Planet of the Apes was a perfect cherry on top of a beautiful summer of some of the most fun action movies we have had in a while. 

The Debt

Director: John Madden
Writers: Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman, Peter Straughan
Starring: Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chapstain
Release Date: August 31, 2011
Length: 1 hour 45 minutes

In 1965, three young Israeli Mossad agents are sent on a mission to kill a Nazi war Doctor. Rachel (Jessica Chastain), David (Sam Worthington), and Stefan (Martin Csokas) are put up in an apartment in Berlin, though they have never met each other before. An awkward love triangle forms almost immediately between the three of them. Although David and Rachel are clearly attracted to each other, David distances himself from her as much as possible, as opposed to Stefan who is constantly flirting. 30 years later, Rachel (Helen Mirren) reads at a celebration for her autobiography, where she tells everyone how the team was successful in killing the doctor. The audience now learns that she married Stefan and had a daughter with him. Going back and forth from 1965 to 1995, we discover the assassins might not have been completely truthful in their telling of events. Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, The Debt is a disorganized mix of drama, thriller, action and romance all combined. Although I love Helen Mirren, I doubted I would believe her as a retired Israeli spy. Watching this film, I remembered it’s Helen Mirren. She can play any role perfectly which she did again in this film. Tom Wilkinson (who plays the older Stefan) and Cirian Hinds (the older David) also gave fantastic performances. All three actors were well chosen for this film and I only wish I saw more of them in the movie. The majority of the film took place 30 years earlier in Berlin, with the three younger actors. Sam Worthington, despite the bad accent, was wonderful as David, even though a good portion of his performance consisted of only brooding. Jessica Chastain and Martin Csokas both gave great performances as well. In short, there was nothing wrong with acting in The Debt. The slow, random script however, sometimes bored me and also confused me about what genre this movie was trying to be. Understanding that this film is a remake of an Israeli film that came out in 2007, it seems like the screenwriters just translated the script and added more guns. Action movies are not my favourite genre of films, but I have no problems with them. I do however have problems with action films that have no excitement. My biggest problem with The Debt was that it was supposed to be a film about assassins on a mission to kill a war criminal and I felt no sense of suspense or tension whatsoever. For the first 40 minutes of the film, I was genuinely interested in the story and the characters, but for some reason my intrigue was lost and although I tried, I didn’t care by the end about what was true or what had to happen. I enjoyed the romance between David and Rachael, but eventually the whole script was filled with too many clichés that lessened the film’s originality. Another disappointing film at this year’s festival, you can feel free to miss The Debt.