There are some actors and actresses whose mere presence in a film will predispose you to hold that film to a higher standard before even seeing it. As much love as I have for Ashton Kutcher, he is most certainly not one of those people. Natalie Portman, on the other hand, very much is. Not to sound like a hater on the genre, but when I first saw the trailer for NO STRINGS ATTACHED I was more than surprised to see Portman in such a, well, chick flick. V FOR VENDETTA, GARDEN STATE, BLACK SWAN…it’s just not usually the way she rolls. But it gave me some hope that NO STRINGS ATTACHED wouldn’t disappoint me… and disappoint it did not, even if it didn’t totally blow me away, Portman-style.
The aspect of NO STRINGS ATTACHED that people will probably appreciate the most is the raunchier humor. Right from the first scene, even I was a little caught off guard, as the younger versions of our main characters, Adam and Emma, are shown at camp together. They share a cute, small, emotional moment together… and then a young Adam very bluntly asks: “Can I finger you?” Yeah…not your typical rom-com dialogue. And, because of this constant, deliciously unexpected stray from the norm, NO STRINGS ATTACHED was that much funnier and far more enjoyable than I had originally hoped - even if it was still more toned down than it could have been.
Constant sex jokes shouldn’t really be too much of a surprise though given the plot (if you can even call if that). The title pretty much says it all. NO STRINGS ATTACHED focuses on two friends, Emma (Portman) and Adam (Kutcher), who decide to start a “friends with benefits” relationship – rules and all. No snuggling, no dates, no staring deeply into each other’s eyes… just straight up sex whenever either wants it at any point in the day. Every guy’s dream, right?
Now if you already caught on to the fact that these two characters are going to fall for each other by the end of the film… don’t fancy yourself clever. I don’t care how formula it is. I don’t even care that we get that same exact scene we’ve literally seen hundreds of times where the girl finally realizes her true feelings and rushes to go find the guy and tell him, only to see him with another girl who she automatically assumes is his new girlfriend. I’m digging this whole set-up, as familiar as it is.
Would it be nice to see some more originality in these kinds of movies? Absolutely. But the lack thereof shouldn’t tarnish anyone’s viewing experience – you KNOW what you’re expecting going in, and the film still manages to deliver on both the romance and the comedy.With some great chemistry between Portman and Kutcher, a sweet love story and some naughty humor, I recommend you see and appreciate NO STRINGS ATTACHED for what it is – just a fun, above-average chick flick… nothing more, nothing less.
Rating: B
BLUE VALENTINE is one of those movies that comes as close as a movie can to actually breaking your heart. If you’re a sap like me, then you know it’s not hard for a movie to make you cry. There are like a trillion of those girl-gets-cancer movies or “dog dying” movies, and no matter how good or bad they are, each one triggers the tear ducts. But for a movie to actually make you feel that dull pain in your chest – to make you identify with a character so strongly that you cry for no reason other than because you see him or her hurting – that is real film catharsis at its most intense and rewarding, and it couldn’t be a more accurate description of BLUE VALENTINE.
What sets BLUE VALENTINE apart from all the other sad movies out there, and what makes its sting so potent, is that the story at its center is one that most people will experience at one point or another in their lifetime. You meet someone and they make you feel so good and euphoric that you experience an emotional high – and then for whatever reason, those feelings you once had start to fade away.
BLUE VALENTINE is the story of just that: the deterioration of a marriage between Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams). Intercutting between moments like when the couple first meet to when Cindy is lying there unconnected during sex, giving Dean her body but not her “self,” it hurts to see scenes that make you smile in their sweetness – scenes that could have been in any romance movie that ends with the couple happy – and reminds us that all relationships that start out well don’t end well.
Ryan Gosling gives my favorite performance of the year, hands down. He doesn’t need to scream or overact; he takes lines that are so genuine and so how people really speak and argue, and because of how he delivers them, brings us more into their situation than most probably want. A single look can convey everything he’s feeling, whether it was the way he would look at Cindy when he first started falling for her, or the pain swimming in his eyes when he realizes that things are truly over. The fact that he is an incredibly likable character just makes any misfortune that comes his way all the harder for the viewer to bear. Even small, almost forgettable things, like watching Dean play with his daughter, are taken from your everyday scene to show what a good father the character is, and is elevated to the next level by Gosling’s emotional performance. It’s a shame that he’ll most likely be overlooked for Best Actor at the Academy Awards. It’s always easier to see the prestige in a performance where one must single-handedly carry the entire movie by themselves (James Franco in 127 HOURS) or a period piece based on a true story (Colin Firth in THE KING’S SPEECH) – both exceptional performances – but so rarely does such authenticity emit from a performance that you momentarily forget that it’s not a real person suffering, just an actor playing a role. Gosling more than pulls it off here.
The priceless asset BLUE VALENTINE has is how raw it gets. Why else do you think it received an NC-17 rating at one point? We’ve seen sex scenes equally graphic in plenty of other movies – only the sex scenes in this particular film aren’t stylized. No romantic music playing in the background, and no constant angle changes to try and hide everything. The same goes for the interaction between Gosling and Williams’ characters. Nothing is sugarcoated for our benefit. While sitting in the theater, you’re never given the feel that this is just another film. You’re not watching a movie – you’re watching a couple fall in and out of love before your eyes… you’re watching how a couple will try desperately to rekindle a flame that is no longer there for the sake of their child… you’re watching how a small, off-hand comment can turn into a blow-up just because someone wants to pick a fight. And as heartbreaking as it is to experience, somehow, it still manages to be so beautiful that you can’t tear your eyes away.
Rating: A
When presented with a title as horrible as THE DILEMMA (all movies have conflict, but do we call those movies “The Conflict”?!), one could only have so much hope for the film. Throw in Kevin James and that hope slowly but surely disintegrates into nothingness. But being the lover of Vince Vaughn that I am, against all odds, some small shred of optimism still lingered. Sure, he delivers his lines the same way in all of his movies – he’s incredibly blunt, and speaks in that impossibly quick, rambling way that most have come to associate with him. But if you find that funny (which, admittedly, I do), then scenes with him in it can only be so bad. And trust me, if it weren’t for him, this would be awful. The dilemma the title poses is indeed a tough one: When Ronny (Vince Vaughn) finds out that his best friend and business partner Nick’s (Kevin James) wife is cheating on him, he doesn’t know what to do. Does he tell him, and not only deal with the “kill the messenger” backlash that will occur, but risk upsetting Nick to the point where they’ll lose a huge deal they’re in the middle of working on? Decisions decisions.
I’m not going to lie… I laughed out loud a few times. If you could get over the humor involving silly things like Ronny rolling around in poisonous plants, there are some moments that were definitely memorable, namely a scene involving a psychotic fight between Ronny and Zip (Channing Tatum), the man Nick’s wife is cheating with. You know how Tatum always plays that tough guy who mumbles a lot? I never would have guessed that he can do comedy, but lo and behold, he can. Then again, it might just be that most of the movie is so drab that when I saw a few precious sparks I started hallucinating comedy fireworks instead.
This is the kind of movie where, if the characters didn’t only (and I do truly mean only) make bad decisions, then the film could have lasted 45 minutes: he finds out that his best friends wife is cheating on him, acts like an adult and deals with it. But apparently there’s nothing funny about acting one’s age. However, there’s also nothing funny about running around in circles for two hours. Watching a dog chase its own tail is only amusing for about 10 seconds, at which point you realize nothing new is going to happen. So while it was not without its moments, after a while I just wanted to see some damn progress in the story already. THE DILEMMA focuses so strongly on the conflict, and so little on the resolution, that when the last 10 minutes of the movie arrived you could practically see the filmmakers and actors frantically scrambling around to tie the film in a nice little bow and send us on our way, and by that point, I was more than content to say goodbye.
Rating: C
The love triangle. It’s been done time and time again. COUNTRY STRONG, however, decides to take it to the next level: a sex square. To even call it a “love square” would be a violation of the word. So any romance the movie’s trying to sell aside, if you’re looking for a heavy dose of melodrama combined with some memorable performances, then you will be hugely entertained by COUNTRY STRONG. I’ve heard COUNTRY STRONG referred to as CRAZY HEART with a chick. I think it’s more like the country singer version of Lindsay Lohan’s life. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Kelly Canter, a once big-time country music singer, who, after an incident in which she fell off-stage (losing the baby she was pregnant with) during a drunken performance she gave in Dallas, finds herself in rehab. The film begins when her husband James (Tim McGraw) pulls her out from rehab a month early to start her on a 3-state trial tour, bringing rising stars Beau Hutton (Garrett Hedlund) and Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meester) along as show openers.
To call this a plot would be giving the premise too much credit. The movie is much more about the interactions between the four characters rather than any inspirational story about a washed up star looking to make a comeback–that’s just the veil the film uses to throw in scenes of infidelity, drunken tantrums, and lots of sexual propositioning – but, hey, sex and drama sells, right?
What really sets COUNTRY STRONG apart from just a country western soap opera are the all-around earnest performances. Leighton Meester, who’s best known from starring on the hit TV show Gossip Girl, shines in the film as the typical “country barbie”. She has that pageant smile permanently plastered on her face, and wears girly, puffy dresses bigger than her perfectly curled hair. In one scene, she’s asked who her role models are. Her answer? “Kelly Canter… and Jesus Christ”. You feel like you know her already, don’t you? Her melodious voice didn’t hurt much either, especially when combined with Hedlund’s. Hedlund has that laid-back, country swagger down to a tee, and his talent and charm are so present that you never once question why Chiles or Kelly are into him.
Paltrow’s performance in particular could have been taken to the next level if her character was flushed out a little more, given more back story and less dramatic moments involving her crying over a smashed bottle of booze. She was undeniably fantastic – when she was flaunting her stuff I not only totally bought her as a country singer, but as a country singer who could easily sell out shows. But while watching COUNTRY STRONG, it was more than unclear what the overall point was. The film ends approximately 3 times. Each time one of the “endings” came, I started to stretch my legs out, getting ready to leave the theater, and then realized the movie was still going. It waits until the last 20 minutes to try and jam a moral down our throats, when I’m sure everyone would have much preferred another musical treat for our ears. If you’re a fan of country music, then you’ll most definitely find yourself downloading the album off ITunes as soon as you get home, which is really, truly great (especially the song “Give In To Me”). And if you’re not a fan of country music, then why torture yourself by seeing a movie called COUNTRY STRONG?
Rating: B-