Hollywood wants you to have a blue Christmas this year. Or so it would seem when one considers the quartet of movies opening this holiday weekend. Two of the movies—Rabbit Hole and Somewhere—are decidedly downbeat, True Grit is a western remake of the 1969 John Wayne classic as seen through the dyspeptic viewfinder of the Coen Brothers while Little Fockers, the supposed "feel-good" comedy of the group, is just … awful. (A fifth film, another comedy, Gulliver's Travels starring Jack Black wasn't screened in time for deadlines.) In other words: Bah humbug! But take heart—those first three titles are also award contenders, hence their weighty subject matters and each are definitely worth taking in—when the mood for serious fare ensues, that is.
Rabbit Hole is the first movie from gay director-writer-performer John Cameron Mitchell since his deliriously wonderful film experiment, the sexually adventurous Shortbus, four years ago. His return is overdue and, though the material doesn't have a whiff of queer content, the film is beautifully written (adapted for the screen by the playwright David Lindsay-Abaire) and performed by its expert cast—Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest, Tammy Blanchard, Sandra Oh and Miles Teller, a marvelous newcomer.
The story focuses on Kidman and Eckhart as a married couple in the midst of emotional freefall eight months after the accidental death of their three year-old son. Kidman is frozen in anger, wound so tight she seems about to snap. (Ironically, when she inevitably does, her mask of a face actually shows some emotion for once.) Eckhart desperately wants to put their lives back together. But nothing is working and Kidman ignores any attempts at conciliation from him, her mother (Wiest), sister (Blanchard) or intrusive neighbors. Instead, she's drawn to a sober-faced teenaged boy (Teller) for reasons that slowly become clear.
Mitchell refuses to push the envelope in the inherently grief-stricken material and when tears finally come they are honestly earned. But his cautious approach to the heartbreak has the unfortunate side effect of distancing the audience from Kidman, the central character, until very nearly the end. You just have to hang in there, like Eckhart (who is remarkable in a tricky role), and wait for the clouds to part. I'm glad that Mitchell made Rabbit Hole but, selfishly, I want another queer-themed movie from him next.
I also want to see the Coen Brothers—the writers-directors of movies from just about every genre—give us an LGBT-themed film. They've tried just about everything but that it seems, so why not? Perhaps they'd find a remake of say, Boys in the Band, Victim or The Killing of Sister George a mite more creatively challenging than True Grit. Their remake is less sour than I expected and their propensity for in your face violence is toned down for once. And while the picture—an old-fashioned western in which a plucky teenage girl hires a grizzled gunman to track down and kill the man who murdered her father—is enjoyable in the way that dozens of other westerns with interchangeable stories and characters are, there's not much that elevates the movie beyond the original.
Jeff Bridges is fine but has none of the electricity that John Wayne, nearing the end of his career, brought to the role. And while the picture is gorgeously shot, scored, the Coens' discovery Hailee Steinfeld is a marvelous find as the "won't take no for an answer" teenaged Mattie, and Matt Damon is a decided improvement over Glen Campbell, really, why did they remake the movie other than as a stop gap between one of their dark comedic projects (like last year's overlooked gem A Serious Man)?
Writer-director Sofia Coppola returns to her roots with Somewhere, her follow-up to the misbegotten Marie Antoinette (which, naturally, I loved). The new film finds her back with a subject near and dear to her heart—the heartbreak of malaise (aka the old ennui) that strikes the idle rich, apparently, when they have too much time, fame, and money on their hands.
Bill Murray, the emotionally frayed central character in Coppola's visually dazzling Lost in Translation, is taken over by comely Stephen Dorff as a hunky movie star living at Beverly Hills' eternally hip Chateau Marmont hotel. Nothing seems to fill the emptiness of Dorff's character Johnny Marco. But Johnny is momentarily brought back to life by an extended visit from his 11-year-old daughter (Elle Fanning, stepping into the role played by Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation). The two don't do much—they swim, have hamburgers, roam around in limos, drive in Dorff's roadster, play video games, etc.—but as in Coppola's best work, her eye for detail is what propels the movie. The camera coolly observes Johnny and though we become intimately aware of his physicality, the routine-ness of his celebrity existence, we are kept at a distance. Like Coppola's best films, Somewhere is a great movie for voyeurs.
As for Little Fockers—the third in the series of "comedies" focusing on Ben Stiller as the accident prone, Jewish male nurse under the thumb of, not his wife, but his overbearing WASPY conservative father-in-law (Robert De Niro)—there's nothing much good to report other than a nice, warm scene between Barbara Streisand and Dustin Hoffman (returning as Stiller's parents), a few laughs provided by Owen Wilson as the ex-boyfriend and, well, that's all, I'm afraid.
For genuine laughs of the cinematic kind I suggest one and all take the plunge on New Year's Eve when the Music Box, 3733 N. Southport, presents their third annual screening of the 1972 camptacular classic The Poseidon Adventure. As in years past, Dick O'Day (the alter ego of yours truly) will host the wacky pre-show, featuring a costume parade (with prizes) beginning at 11 p.m., before the audience interactive screening which will be timed so that the doomed passengers on the S.S. Poseidon (Shelley Winters, et al) and theatre patrons will ring in the New Year together at Midnight. David Cerda, artistic director of Handbag Productions, and the Handbag players will once again be on board as well. (A portion of the proceeds will benefit Handbag.) Admission includes party favors, a champagne toast and something new this year—a drink ticket and an exclusive after-party being held in the theatre following the screening. See www.musicboxtheatre.com .
Check out my archived reviews at www.windycitytimes.com or www.knightatthemovies.com . Readers can leave feedback at the latter website.
