Martin's Musings

These past two years, I’ve never stopped saying how lucky I am. At the end of 2008, I voluntarily left my old job because I’d found a new one at a growing, successful company — one that’s kept on growing. While others lost their jobs or had their paychecks cut, my job remained stable and my salary actually increased. And while many people said 2009 was an awful year, I said the exact opposite. I don’t tell you all this to brag. I tell you because while watching the film The Company Men, I was reminded of just how lucky I am.

As opposed to other films that show the effects of the economy on working class Americans, The Company Men shows what happens to more affluent white-collar people when they lose their jobs. In the film, Ben Affleck plays Bobby, an arrogant young executive at Boston-based global shipping company GTX, who is laid off as a result of downsizing and has a hard time dealing with his changed life. The difficult economic climate also affects his boss, Gene (Tommy Lee Jones), the company’s original employee, and his colleague Phil (Chris Cooper), both of whom try to stop the layoffs and have a tough time adjusting when the axe falls on them too.

Of course, focusing on guys with big houses and fancy cars proves to be a reason why The Company Men isn’t the engaging film it could have been. After all, it’s really hard to have much sympathy for people like Bobby, who stubbornly keep their Porsches and their golf club memberships even though it’s now a struggle to pay the mortgage and college tuition. It takes until halfway into the film for Bobby to get over himself and not live in denial, and that’s why the second half of The Company Men is better than the first. Also, it’s tough to buy into the plot twist that Gene is having an affair with the head of human resources, when he disagrees so strongly with what she’s doing. (Then again, she’s played by Maria Bello, so I guess I do understand.)

But aside from those grievances, The Company Men is not a bad movie. For one thing, it’s marked by fine acting across the board. You do eventually feel sympathy for each one of the guys, and for the family members who are also affected — or at least you feel it for Bobby’s family. (It’s worth noting that Kevin Costner gives a nice, quiet performance as Bobby’s working class brother-in-law, who gives Bobby hope and purpose when no one else will.) Writer/director John Wells (ER) has created a film that illustrates the ridiculousness and emptiness of motivational outplacement counselors, shows the heartbreak that happens when a potential job opportunity doesn’t pan out, and gives voice to the frustration that results when people don’t just lose their job and paycheck, but their whole identity as well. In fact, The Company Men would make a decent double-feature companion for Up in the Air because it too makes an interesting statement about our current economic climate.

Of course, The Company Men won’t be considered a classic like Up in the Air was. But the performances make the film worth seeing, and who knows, maybe it’ll make you feel lucky too. I’m giving The Company Men a B.

In the absolutely devastating film Blue Valentine, Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams play Dean and Cindy, a couple whose marriage is on the rocks (to put it mildly).

Over the course of the movie, we see in flashbacks how the couple met and fell in love — it’s this juxtaposition that pretty much defines the expression “the gamut of emotions.”

Blue Valentine is a love story gone wrong, and at its center are two excellent, award-worthy performances by Gosling and Williams. They help make this a very impressive film. Continue reading →

How do you know when the movie you’re watching is not worth your time?

Here are the first 10 answers that come to mind: Continue reading →

Don’t go to see Rabbit Hole expecting a comedy. Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart star as Becca and Howie, two parents still coming to terms with the death of their four-year-old son. Whereas he is fixated on the past and trying to deal with his emotions, she is letting go rather than dealing with the loss. Becca finds comfort in the high school student who was driving the car that killed her son, and Howie bonds with another member of a support group (Sandra Oh). As you may assume, the film is not big on laughs. Thankfully, it’s not a total tear-jerker, either, but it won’t be the lightest moviegoing experience you have. If you’ve seen Ordinary People or In the Bedroom then you know what to expect.

Rabbit Hole, which was adapted by David Lindsay-Abaire from his play and directed by John Cameron Mitchell, is an intimate, poignant look at grief, and the differing ways it plays out. Kidman, in the role that won Sex and the City‘s Cynthia Nixon a Tony award, is very good, as is Eckhart, but for me, it’s Dianne Wiest, as Becca’s mother, who gives the better performance. It’s hard to say I enjoyed this movie, and I thought there were some moments and scenes that didn’t work, but the whole thing ends nicely, and I walked out of the theater thinking positively about the movie. So I’m giving Rabbit Hole a B.

Here’s the weird thing about True Grit, the Coen brothers’ remake/reimagining of the classic Western tale: About an hour after seeing it, I couldn’t remember much about it. The film just didn’t stay with me. And it’s not that I didn’t like it or anything. It just didn’t have any lasting impact on me. And that’s a shame, because I love the Coen brothers (Fargo remains one of my all-time favorite movies, and last year’s A Serious Man ranked number three on my list of favorite movies), and I’d had high hopes for True Grit. Oh well.

In the film, young Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) hires U.S. Marshal Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn (Jeff Bridges, in the role that won John Wayne an Oscar) to help her find Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), the man who killed her father. Also on Cheney’s trail is Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Matt Damon). Bridges speaks in such a heavy drawl that after a while it’s really off-putting. Damon does his best to keep up with Bridges, but he’s just not a strong enough presence. That leaves Steinfeld, who at the age of 13, blows the other two guys away. She’s really the star of this movie, and the reason I’d give anyone to see it. It’s all the more remarkable when you realize this is her first movie.

Anyway, I wish I had liked True Grit more than I did so I’d have remembered more about it. That’s why I’m only going to give it a B–.

If you want to know what Sofia Coppola’s latest film, Somewhere, is about, the first two minutes provide a handy (and not too subtle) synopsis.

In those opening moments, actor Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) drives his Ferrari around and around in a circle, and then finally comes to a stop and realizes how much he’s missing when he gets out of the car and looks around.

The real plot of the movie is about how Marco’s life is going nowhere until he’s visited by his 11-year-old daughter, Cleo (Elle Fanning), and he decides to change his self-destructive lifestyle. Continue reading →

Was anyone really asking for a third film in the Meet the Parents series? I guess someone was, because in theaters now is the totally unnecessary Little Fockers. In this latest go-round, Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) is feeling mortal, so he dotes on his son-in-law Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) to make sure he’s got the stones to take on the mantle of family leader. Essentially, the jokes are as broad and old as they were in 2000, and some of the references are just as dated (for example, when Jack learns how to Google himself, and when he looks up someone on the web and finds her MySpace page). Essentially, the film comes off like a desperate attempt by Universal for a holiday hit, and a paycheck gig for the actors. I’m giving Little Fockers a C–.