Movie Review The Foreigner

The Foreigner (2017) 

Directed by Martin Campbell

Written by David Marconi 

Starring Jackie Chan, Pierce Brosnan, Dermot Mulroney 

Release Date October 13th, 2017 

It seems that I am not a big fan of the work of actor Pierce Brosnan. It’s not that I have an active dislike for the man, but rather, in looking at my cumulative opinion of his work over his 35-plus year career, I have only given Brosnan two positive reviews. Grant you, I have only been a critic for 20 years, but Brosnan was on TV for most of the time before I came into my profession. He had arguably his biggest successes in the James Bond franchise during my time as a critic. Then again, I don’t have a particularly high opinion of that franchise, either.

Thankfully, with the release of the terrorism-centered action movie, The Foreigner, I can legitimately say that I liked a movie starring Pierce Brosnan and not have to qualify it. Brosnan is genuinely thrilling in the role of a duplicitous Irish politician and former member of the Irish Republican Army. Brosnan is magnetic, and I loved the tiny shifts of his manner when he switched from practiced politician to trained terrorist and back again.

The Foreigner co-stars Jackie Chan as a man who has just lost his daughter to an IRA bomb. Well, that is to say that a supposed new faction of the IRA has claimed the bombing while people like Brosnan’s politician do their damnedest to distance themselves. It's part of Brosnan's charm that he can switch easily between the worlds of modern politician and former terrorist. In real life, in fact, more than a few IRA members labeled as terrorists years ago now hold powerful government positions in Ireland.

Chan’s Mr. Quan isn’t interested in how politicians want to frame the attacks; he believes Brosnan knows who the bombers are and he intends to use his skills as a former army ranger in Vietnam to force Brosnan to reveal who killed his daughter. Chan, like Brosnan, is quite riveting in this rare, dramatic role. Toning down his usual physicality, due to age as well as the needs of the plot, Chan’s Quan is a precision killer who takes pains only to kill the people who deserve it.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal 

Movie Review The Mountain Between Us

The Mountain Between Us (2017) 

Directed by Hany Abu-Assad 

Written by Chris Weitz, J. Mills Goodloe 

Starring Idris Elba, Kate Winslet, Dermot Mulroney Beau Bridges

Release Date October 6th, 2017

The Mountain Between Us is damn near comedy gold. This so bad it’s fun nonsense romance posits two attractive leads delivering silly dialogue and rote drama in the midst of hyper-circumstances. When Dr. Ben, played by Idris Elba, responds to his new friend Alex, played by Kate Winslet, saying that ‘the heart is just a muscle,’ try to control your gag reflex and for the sake of the few who might be able to process such schmaltz, stifle your giggles.

At an airport in Idaho, Dr. Ben apparently believes he can reason his way onto a cancelled flight to New York where he’s supposed to operate on the brain of a 10-year-old child while reuniting the child’s parents and saving the boy’s puppy from a fire. Alex overhears Dr. Ben’s frustration and hatches a plan. She can’t afford to charter a plane on her own but she could go halfsies with the heartthrob doctor and they can maybe get to Denver before the big storm hits.

So, our two new acquaintances kick in some cash and make the dire mistake of hiring Beau Bridges to pilot a small plane to Denver airport. I wouldn’t hire Beau Bridges to drive me to the grocery store, let alone pilot a single-engine plane at his age but that’s just me. I’m probably only saying this, however, because I have seen the trailer for The Mountain Between Us and I know that ol'Beau isn't long for this movie.

If I am being flippant in this review, it is only because I was supremely bored when I wasn’t politely stifling my giggles. The Mountain Between Us is a silly, silly movie that stacks the odds against Ben and Alex to such a ludicrous degree that all we can do is laugh. I’m no Bear Grylls but I have seen a Bear Grylls on TV, so I know that much of what happens in The Mountain Between Us is nonsense from a survival standpoint. With the believability of this adventure out of the way we are left with Winslet and Elba and wow!

How can two people as beautiful and talented as Kate Winslet and Idris Elba have so little chemistry? It’s not even a lack of romantic spark, at times I had a hard time believing they were human beings who relate normally to other human beings. At one point, Elba’s Ben, thinking he might be walking to his doom, asks Alex to take his picture, she’s a professional photog and he quite awkwardly wants to be ready for when he ends up in one of those Top 5 YouTube Videos of the creepy last pictures of people who died.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal

Movie Review Insidious Chapter 3

Insidious Chapter 3 (2015) 

Directed by Leigh Whannell 

Written by Leigh Whannell 

Starring Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott 

Release Date June 15th, 2015 

Published July 10th, 2023 

Insidious Chapter 3 is a vastly underrated entry in this terrific horror franchise. All of the Insidious movies have been pretty good but Chapter 3, with Leigh Whannell writing and directing is a low key brilliant horror movie. Whannell is a thoughtful, thorough, and detailed director and he brings that fully to bear on the trim, ingenious scares of Insidious Chapter 3. Stepping out of the shadow of his friend and partner James Wan, Whannell had a lot to live up and Insidious Chapter 3 was proof that he could hang with the best in the genre. 

Insidious Chapter 3 is set several years prior the first Insidious film. The story finds our hero, Elise Rainer (Lin Shaye), a shell of the woman she was when we met her. It's the story of Elise finding herself again following the death of her husband and the threats made against her life by a demonic entity we will eventually come to know as 'The Black Bride." For now, however, Elise pads about in a housecoat and sleeps with her husband's cardigan in a scene so sad I can't stand thinking about it. Elise's stupor is interrupted by the arrival of young woman at her door. 

Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott) is desperate to speak with her late mother and she's been referred to Elise as someone who can communicate with the dead. Elise, at first, tries to turn the young woman away but soon relents. What she finds is that Quinn's forays into the world of the dead have communicated with someone, but it is most certainly not her mother. She warns Quinn not to continue contacting her mother but deep down, Elise knows that this vile entity is now attached to Quinn and she's in great danger. 

Insidious Chapter 3 also gives us the origin of Elise's connection to Specks (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson). The duo is a pair of ghost hunters who have yet to encounter any actual ghosts. They do however, have advanced equipment that could, potentially, help them find one. Specks and Tucker are called by Quinn's father, Sean Brenner (Dermot Mulroney), at the behest of his son, who saw them on YouTube. Quinn, at this point, has undergone several inexplicable events that have endangered her life so even her skeptical father has to admit, something is going on. 

That's when Elise returns, partners with Specks and Tucker, and the fight to save Quinn from The Further is on. Whannell's talent for pacing, clever ideas for scares, and atmosphere are on full display in Insidious Chapter 3. Whannell has a sense of wonder about his work that I really enjoy. He has a sort of awe for what his characters are doing which feels appropriate. Eventually, this will be a routine for them, but this is there first adventure together and their chemistry is immediately apparent. 

Find my full length review at Horror.Media 

Movie Review The Family Tree

The Family Tree (2011) 

Directed by Vivi Friedman

Written by Mark Lisson 

Starring Dermot Mulroney, Hope Davis, Chi McBride, Max Thieriot, Selma Blair, Christina Hendricks

Release Date August 26th, 2011

Published August 25th, 2011 

The Family Tree, starring Dermot Mulroney and Hope Davis is nuts, in a really great way. This dysfunctional family comedy about a family going to pieces is populated by a wonderfully game all-star cast that sacrifices dignity at every turn to deliver more than a few ridiculously funny moments.

The story is thus, Dermot Mulroney stars as Jack Burnett, a below average suburban working stiff. Hope Davis is his bitchy wife Bunnie and Max Theriot and Britt Robertson are their screwed up kids Eric and Kelly. Eric is a Jesus freak with a love for guns while Kelly portrays herself as loose though she’s not really.

What happens to this family during The Family Tree includes infidelity, a very unique accidental death–an acquaintance, not a family member—drugs and some divine intervention. All of the action is captured by first time director Vivi Friedman in a madcap fashion that plays like American Beauty through the prism of the Coen Brothers.

The phenomenal supporting cast includes Chi McBride’s funniest and most unexpected performance in years as Burnett's neighbor. McBride is joined by a veritable Battle of the Network Stars size supporting cast that includes Burn Notice star Gabrielle Anwar, Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks, Jane Seymour, Selma Blair, Madeline Zima, Keith Carradine, Rachel Leigh Cook and Bow Wow, among others.

Corralling all of this talent into one wonderfully wild movie is first time director Vivi Friedman. Working from a script by a veteran TV writer, and I do mean veteran, the guy who wrote for Hart to Hart, Mark Lisson, Friedman takes her cast and just keeps whipping them into a weird comic frenzy right up to the odd, highly unlikely but still strangely satisfying ending.

Hollywood tried to turn Dermot Mulroney into a hunky leading man a few years ago but it never took. He’s better off without the romantic comedies; character roles like this one in The Family Tree may just be his niche. Mulroney finds a note of suburban white guy awkwardness in The Family Tree that never fails to find the most unexpected laughs.

Hope Davis is a terrific match for Mulroney as a Real Housewife of just outside Beverly Hills. I don’t want to spoil all the trouble that Davis’s Bunnie finds in The Family Tree, but I’ll just say that after her character comes out of a brief hospital stay she becomes endearing and adorable in strange and interesting ways.

I could go on for a while about the rest of the cast but as I said, I don’t want to spoil the movie. The Family Tree is not without its flaws, the guy in the tree… sorry, no spoilers. That aside, I laughed a lot and quite hard while watching this terrific little indie comedy that will without doubt sneak up and surprise you if you give it a chance.

Movie Review The Family Stone

The Family Stone (2005) 

Directed by Thomas Bezucha 

Written by Thomas Bezucha 

Starring Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, Craig T. Nelson, Sarah Jessica Parker

Release Date December 16th, 2005

Published December 16th, 2005 

Streaming on Starz via Amazon Prime 

The amazing Diane Keaton has become an icon of grace and sensibility. Her Oscar nominated roles in Reds , Annie Hall and Something's Gotta Give are marvelous examples of her range and exceptional talent. Even lesser works like The First Wives Club are elevated by her presence. Casting Diane Keaton is like buying insurance against a bad script. Even a script as weak as the one for Keaton's latest film The Family Stone, looks a lot better for having her in it.

It doesn't hurt that Keaton's involvement helped entice an A-list of actors to play her children, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney and Luke Wilson, in this tepid holiday dramedy. Proof that a great cast can make the bitter pill of cliche go down like eggnog.

Diane Keaton stars in The Family Stone, as Sybil the matriarch of a large brood of grown children. With her college professor hubby, Kelly (Craig T. Nelson), Sybil is welcoming her five kids, and their various tagalongs, home for christmas. This year the Stone's are playing host to one particularly interesting guest. Her name is Meredith and if all goes according to plans she will soon be the oldest Stone son Everett's (Dermot Mulroney) fiancee.

Unfortunately for Everett, Meredith's stick in the mud, buttoned up personality has already rubbed his family the wrong way. Everett's youngest sister Amy (Rachel McAdams) has met Meredith and decided she hates her. Amy has busily poisoned the family well, including older sister Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser), middle child Thad (Tyrone Giordano) and his partner, Patrick (Brian J. White). Dad and his other son Ben (Luke Wilson) at least attempt to be open to Meredith.

The Family Stone breaks down to a sort of red state-blue state conflict. The Stones are liberal, ivy leaguers with a gay son who is also deaf and dating a black guy and Meredith represents the uptight, conservative business-minded red staters. The conflict is a battle for Everett's soul. Will he return to his old liberal open-minded self or marry Meredith and become a Bush voter?

Supposedly helping Meredith fight this battle is her sister Julie (Claire Danes) but unfortunately her late arrival only serves to make things worse.

The Family Stone attempts to mix screwball family comedy and heartfelt family drama with subplots including a dramatic disease and a chase scene to stop a character from leaving town forever. It's a difficult and well-worn mixture and one the film bears only because of the expert cast. There is nothing new or innovative about writer-director Andrew Bezucha's approach to this commonplace material, so he relies on this likable group of pro actors to carry it off and, to a certain degree, it works.

Sarah Jessica Parker delivers the film's best performance. Her Meredith is sympathetic as the outsider in a group of overbearing tightly knit liberals. In the hole from the moment she arrives, she has our sympathies.  However, Meredith is never merely a victim. Her lack of social graces and occasions of running at the mouth when she shouldn't combined with a complete lack of a sense of humor make some of the family's negativity toward her understandable. Parker plays the conflicts well, especially playing against her natural likeability.

Parker is let down on more than one occasion by the script that forces in nearly every well-worn trope of this genre. There is the aforementioned chase scene, a comically inept fight scene and of course plenty of spilled food for characters to roll around in. That we forgive many of these cliches is a function of the lovable qualities of this terrific cast.

The Family Stone is a cousin to a number of memorable family Christmas comedies like Home For The Holidays starring Holly Hunter, the romance and family drama from Love Actually and the movie-of-the-week style tragedy of Meryl Streep's One True Thing. Andrew Bezucha does not lift elements from these films as much as mimic them with his own twist. These are well known tropes that each of these films use to push dramatic buttons and The Family Stone is merely the latest film to engage them.

The cast of The Family Stone makes the familiarity work for them. Like watching old friends gather at a holiday party you can't help but enjoy the way the cast bonds, bickers and eventually falls in food. A more pessimistic viewer might expect more from this excellent cast but that is reviewing the film that The Family Stone is not. Remarking on the film it is, The Family Stone is not to be taken seriously and likely not to be remembered by this time next year.  It is just an average good natured holiday comedy.

Not for the cynical, The Family Stone is an overly familiar holiday family movie that pushes all of the same emotional buttons as is the norm of the genre. That it manages to be quite often funny and occasionally heartfelt is due to a cast of real pros. Like the revival of a favorite play, you know what is going to happen next because you have seen it so many times before, you watch to see this new group of actors give new life to the material. The Family Stone makes familiarity work by dressing it in a whole lot of star power.

Movie Review: Flash of Genius

Flash of Genius (2009) 

Directed by Marc Abraham

Written by Phillip Railsback

Starring Greg Kinnear, Lauren Graham, Dermot Mulroney

Release Date October 3rd, 2009 

Published October 4th, 2009 

The story of Robert Kearns battle with Ford and the rest of the Detroit automakers is a classic David Vs Goliath story. Kearns invented the intermittent windshield wiper and then, as he was pitching his invention to the car companies, it was stolen. The specs for his invention were simply ripped off by execs at Ford who used them as a feature on their new line of Mustangs.

That was back in the mid 1960's. It wasn't until the early 80's that Kearns finally won a verdict against the auto companies. Turning Kearns' struggle into a movie director Marc Abraham and writer John Railsback have unfortunately cut more corners than the Ford company.

Greg Kinnear stars in Flash of Genius as Dr. Robert Kearns a professor of engineering. One day as he was driving his family home during a rain storm he had an epiphany. Why couldn't the car companies include a feature that would allow the windshield wipers to adjust to changing rain conditions. When he returned home he set to work on his wife's car.

Several months later Kearns cracked the secret and with the help of his best friend Gil Previck (Dermot Mulroney), a car dealer with connections in Detroit, he got a meeting at Ford. The engineers were impressed as was management. The hitch, Kearns wanted to manufacture the wipers himself. Ford agreed in principle but after Kearns submitted his specs to Washington for government safety tests, Ford pulled the plug.

Years later, as Kearns waits for another company to take an interest, he see's Ford's new Mustang and on a rainy night see's the wipers moving intermittently. Despite he and Gil holding the patents, Ford denies having met them and a years long battle for the credit and recognition of Robert Kearns invention begins.

Director Marc Abraham has a good story and a pitch perfect performance from Greg Kinnear to work with. Unfortunately, the script from John Railsback features more sappy cliches than there are features on a Ford car. Heavy on the melodrama, Kearns' home life with six kids and a beautiful wife played by Lauren Graham is where Flash of Genius finds it's biggest problems.

The home life plot clicks along hitting every cliche like clockwork. Graham moves slowly from supportive to nervous to ill to out the door. Kearns' oldest son moves in the same clockwork motion as mom until he is needed for an emotional boost in the third act.

Greg Kinnear commits himself fully to the role of Robert Kearns and infuses the role with a quiet, dignified passion. He gets the crazy eyes from time to time but always keeps it within reason. Kearns' own commitment is certainly questionable, especially after everyone in his life drops him, but Kinnear helps you over the most questionable moments by helping you believe why Kearns did what he did.

Dramatically, there are issues not just in the family story but in the legal one. A good deal of the case rides on a decision by Gil Previck not to testify on his friends behalf. I don't know how Gil Previck's story played out but here, the whole movie turns on him being selfish bastard and Robert Kearns remaining his friend. Huh? Then again, even as Ford was stealing from him, Kearns kept driving Fords.

I liked the fact that Flash of Genius is earnest in a very old Hollywood sort of way. There is no irony or distance from the material. The old Hollywood; one man against the world set up is a good one. However, the filmmakers commitment to old Hollywood cliches undermines much of the good in Flash of Genius. I really enjoyed Greg Kinnear's performance. Modest and understated in ways he never has been before, Kinnear nearly makes the whole thing work.

Sadly, the cliches and an overlong edit make Flash of Genius something of a slog.

Movie Review Big Miracle

Big Miracle (2012) 

Directed by Ken Kwapis 

Written by Jack Amiel, Michael Begler

Starring Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski, Dermot Mulroney, Tim Blake Nelson, Vinessa Shaw, Ted Danson

Release Date February 3rd, 2012 

Published February 4th, 2012

Movies released in the first two months of any year tend to stink. It's not a rule and this fact is certainly not based on an intention to release bad movies; it's a function of Hollywood studios seeking a time of light movie-going during which to off-load a troubled project that does not hold the potential to battle the box office behemoths of the Spring, Summer and Winter seasons.

This fact makes a movie like "Big Miracle" all the more welcome. This delightful story, based on real life events, is thoughtful, sweet, harrowing and, in the end, uplifting; a very rare combination at this oft-neglected time of the movie-going year.

Based on a true story

Drew Barrymore stars in "Big Miracle" as Rachel Kramer a Greenpeace activist who, when we meet her, is living in Alaska and battling a big oil company, headed by J.W McGraw (Ted Danson), over drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Preserve. When Rachel hears the story of a trio of whales trapped off the coast of an Alaskan whaling village she begins an extraordinary campaign to free the trapped creatures that becomes an international cause.

The reporter who uncovers the whale story happens to be Rachel's ex-boyfriend Adam (John Krasinski). Yes, this fact is a plot convenience but get over it; Barrymore and Krasinski have good banter and romantic chemistry and that brings another layer of joy to "Big Miracle." Also adding to the joy of this terrific, heartfelt little movie is young Ahmaogak Sweeney who plays Nathan, a native of the village; grandson of a local whaling captain, and our narrator.

A colorful and clever supporting cast

There are minor missteps in "Big Miracle" like the casting of Kristen Bell and John Michael Higgins as heartless reporters chasing the whale story for ratings, but for the most part the film is spot on. The majority of the supporting cast is populated by colorful characters like Rob Riggle and James Le Gros as a pair of brothers from Minnesota who's de-icing machine for ice fisherman becomes a key component in keeping the breathing holes open for the whales.

Director Ken Kwapis is a veteran storyteller from TV's "The Office" and the big screen teen adventure "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." Kwapis has a real knack for combining heart and humor without seeming cloying or manipulative. In "Big Miracle" he takes a real life story and invests it with relatable warmth and a cast that earns our sympathy from the opening frame.

Smiling, laughing and Cheering

"Big Miracle" may be the big surprise of the early portion of 2012. This sweet family-friendly does have moments that will be hard for young children to watch but by the end the whole family will be smiling, laughing and cheering.

Movie Review Inhale

Inhale (2010) 

Directed by Baltasar Kormakur

Written by Baltasar Kormakur 

Starring Dermot Mulroney, Diane Kruger, Sam Shepard

Release Date October 22nd, 2010 

November 5th, 2010 

“Inhale” is a gloomy B-movie melodrama from Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur who made a strong US debut back in 2005 with the underground hit “A Little Trip to Heaven” starring future Oscar nominees Forest Whitaker and Jeremy Renner. This time, with a far less flashy cast, Kormakur is telling a story that, like “A Little Trip to Heaven,” is about money and the root of all evil.

“Inhale” stars Dermot Mulroney as upstanding New Mexico District Attorney Paul Stanton. Paul and his wife Diane (Inglourious Basterds sire Diane Kruger) have a daughter (Mia Stallard) who is dying from a rare lung disorder. She needs a lung transplant but she is far too low on a long list of people waiting for a transplant.

Desperate, Paul uses a tip from his doctor (Rosanna Arquette) to blackmail a powerful friend (Sam Shepard) who used some low connections in Mexico to get an illicit heart transplant. Soon, Paul is in Juarez, Mexico, knocking on doors and getting the holy hell beat of him in his pursuit of a group of American doctors performing transplants for those with the cash to pay to move to the front of the line.

Dermot Mulroney is an actor who was always handsome enough to become a crossover mainstream star but it just never happened. Whether it was just his choice of roles or a conscious attempt to avoid the trappings of becoming a star, Mulroney has always toiled on the edges of fame in the uncanny valley between direct to video and made for cable.

In “Inhale” Mulroney finds a meaty role and plays it with a stalwart bullheaded determination that is invigorating to an otherwise shoddy narrative. There is a good deal of stalling going on in “Inhale.” Director Komakur uses an unnecessary device, shifting between the present and past, as a way of padding out the story to a feature length.

Yes, the flashbacks lay the groundwork for Paul’s motivation but there were more efficient ways of delivering the same information. A scene involving two anonymous characters, a young boy and his mother, and a violent car wreck feels exploitatively violent even as the aftermath helps set the odds that Paul is facing in getting a legal transplant for his daughter.

Later, in scenes set in Juarez, Komakur makes yet another exploitative choice in setting Paul up for blackmail by the men from whom he is seeking a black market transplant. Certainly, there had to be a more elegant form of blackmail than this scene involving Paul and a transvestite hooker. The wreck and the transvestite are both unnecessary and ugly additions that serve only to make an already grim story grimmer while padding out a story that barely has the juice for a feature length.

The violent car wreck, Paul’s repeated beatings and the transvestite distract and detract from a fine performance by Mulroney who nearly fights through it all to deliver the final blow in a surprising and unconventional finale. Sadly, as much as I enjoyed Mulroney’s performance and the underlying notion of the way rich people can treat the poor as commodities, right down to their organs, there is too much of Komakur’s absurd tendency toward B-Movie exploitation for me to recommend “Inhale.”

Movie Review: About Schmidt

About Schmidt (2002) 

Directed by Alexander Payne 

Written by Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

Starring Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Bates, 

There have been a few times in Jack Nicholson's career where the image of Jack, the iconic ladies man, Laker fan Jack, the famous image, overcame the actor Jack Nicholson. Films like Wolf and even his role as The Joker in Batman showed Nicholson mugging for the camera and playing off his image rather than his talent. Then, in the early 2000’s, Nicholson seemingly set out to destroy ‘Jack’ the image and return to Jack the Actor. The Pledge, one of the best films of 2001, showcased Nicholson in a role stripped of any glamour or vanity. The Pledge is a slow boil performance that is both subtle and heartbreaking. And in About Schmidt, Jack goes for yet another unglamorous, though more mainstream, role as an aging retiree trapped in a life unlived.

As Warren Schmidt, Nicholson is a 66-year-old insurance company actuary. It’s a job Warren tells us has endowed him with the ability to determine just how long people will live. Thus, Warren is well aware of his own mortality as he sits at his retirement dinner with his wife of 42 years played by June Squibb. 42 long years, 42 very, long, years. As Warren describes in a very funny voiceover: “Who is this old woman in my bed?”

Warren and his wife have one daughter, Jeannie (Hope Davis) who is soon to be married. Though he is not allowed to say anything about the wedding by his domineering wife, Warren secretly hates his daughter’s fiance, played by Dermot Mulroney. This isn't your typical ‘no man is good enough for my daughter hatred.’ As Warren introduces his daughter’s fiance, in his voiceover, we are quick to see just what a real doofus this guy is.

Now retired with little to do Warren spends his days with crossword puzzles and watching TV. While flipping channels he comes across one of those child-reach infomercials where some celebrity tells you that for 22 dollars a month you can feed a starving child. Warren, for some reason, likely boredom, writes down the phone number, and is soon doling out the cash and writing letters to a six year old African boy named Ndugu.

The voiceover narration in About Schmidt comes from the letters Warren writes to Ndugu, and just hearing Nicholson open a new letter with the words "Dear Ndugu" provides the funniest and saddest moments of the film. Nicholson’s rye recognition of how he’s really talking to himself 

It is not long after Warren retires that his wife passes away, leaving Warren with an empty house and a newly purchased Winnebago in his driveway that his wife had purchased to drive cross country for their daughter's wedding. Taking to the road, Warren's adventures including a sad, tragic meeting with a couple of fellow RV drivers that is a terrific diversion from the main story. The film however gains it's true narrative thrust when Warren arrives for his daughter's wedding and ends up staying with the groom's mother Roberta (Kathy Bates). Her full on personality is immediately at odds with Warren's quiet dignity. A scene where Warren and Roberta share time in the hot tub is pure comic bliss that shows Nicholson at his slow boiling best.

Director Alexander Payne is a true pro, a visionary comic auteur that deftly combines realism and comedy. About Schmidt is filled with moments of warmth and humor that never seem fake. Thanks to one of the best scripts, casts and directors of any film in the last year.

Movie Review Georgia Rule

Georgia Rule (2007)

Directed by Garry Marshall 

Written  by Mark Andrus 

Starring Jane Fonda, Lindsay Lohan, Felicity Huffman, Dermot Mulroney, Cary Elwes 

Release Date May 11th, 2007 

Published May 10th, 2007 

Director Garry Marshall has skated on the success of his hit 1990 romantic comedy Pretty Woman for more than a decade now. That film invented the idea of a 'hooker with a heart of gold.' For some reason people accepted this premise of a hooker who rises from the mean streets of Los Angeles to become the wife of a millionaire businessman. In hindsight, Pretty Woman is an objectionable fantasy that, if it didn't star the luminescent Julia Roberts it likely would have been seen for the ugly lie that it is.

This type of trash has been Marshall's stock and trade ever since. Check 1994's Exit To Eden which is a comedy about sado-masochism featuring Rosie O'Donnell and Dan Akroyd in bondage costumes and it is somehow not a horror movie. 1996's Dear God presented a group of banal mail carriers in a vaguely religious, deeply unfunny comedy. And 1999's The Other Sister was a romantic comedy about a pair of mismatched mentally handicapped people that is so insensitive that Roger Ebert described their depiction as being like trained seals.

Runaway Bride and the Princess Diaries movies were merely forgettable trifles, slightly less terrible than Marshall's other movies. And 2003's Raising Helen was yet another bizarre and objectionable premise. That one has a mother and father dying in a car accident and leaving their three kids in the care of the one person in their family least qualified to care for the children. Why did they do this? To teach this family member responsibility. If you think using your children to teach this lesson is a good idea, please consider not having children. Just to be on the safe side.

This brings us to Marshall\'s latest bizarre bad idea. Georgia Rule is a sitcomic take on some real issues. Issues like child sexual abuse, drug abuse and alcoholism. That it happens to star the troubled child star Lindsey Lohan is a strange and sad coincidence.

In Georgia Rule Lindsey Lohan stars as Rachel a troubled teenager who has been banished to her grandma Georgia's (Jane Fonda) home in Idaho for the summer. Rachel's mother, Lilly (Felicity Huffman), simply can't keep Rachel in line anymore and she hopes that her own mother's strict 'Georgia Rules' can straighten Rachel out. Things naturally get off to a rocky start. Rachel remains rebellious and incorrigible despite Georgia's constant prodding, though she does accept a job working for a local veterinarian, Simon (Dermot Mulroney), who once dated her mother.

She also begins a tentative romance with a young Mormon man, Harlan (Garrett Hedlund), who is preparing for a 2 year mission and an arranged marriage, something that somehow doesn't put off the sexually aggressive Rachel in any way. Rachel's behavior soon has Lilly coming back to town to sort things out and when she does secrets are revealed that no one is fully prepared to deal with.

Directed by uber-hack Garry Marshall, Georgia Rule is an offensively off-key disaster. It's a light hearted, light headed comedy that attempts to be an adult drama. Crammed into the seams of this ostensibly good natured family comedy are subplots in which Lohan performs oral sex on a somewhat unwilling Mormon, threatens to have sex with the boyfriends of all the girls in this small town, and attempts to sleep with Dermot Mulroney's Simon even though there is a question as to whether the Simon character may be either her real father and or in love with her mother. Ewww!

Then there is creepy Cary Elwes whose character is accused of sexually abusing Lohan's character from the time she was 12. This having happened while Felicity Huffman's Lilly was a useless fumbling drunk, which, as of the start of the movie we are told that she still is.

It\'s not unnatural that a movie would attempt to deal with such deep dark issues, the problem is in the approach. Garry Marshall's hacky, sitcomic approach to these serious issues undermines the drama and coats every scene in a creepy false veneer. Marshall tosses these issues into the movie, muddies the waters with them and then backs away for a light hearted moment and then dips back into the creepiness. Georgia Rule is a tonal train wreck.

Georgia Rule plays like a Todd Solondz movie directed by mainstream hack. At that time that thought occurred to me, I was honestly unaware that Garry Marshall was the director of Georgia Rule. Seeing his name in the credits at the end was a revelation. He perfectly fits my perception of just the kind of mainstream comic hack who should not visit Solondz style material.

Georgia Rule is bizarre, offensive, clueless, dunderheaded and foolish. Garry Marshall has always been a hack director but Georgia Rule is so wretched I had to even reconsider my feelings on the one movie of his I liked, Pretty Woman. In hindsight, Pretty Woman is nearly as repellent as Georgia Rule. The difference is that movie had Julia Roberts at her most appealing. Georgia Rule has Lindsay Lohan at her most troubled.

What is it about Garry Marshall that makes him try to turn everything into a pasty sitcom? It's bizarre how he tries to portray real life traumatic situations and stick them into his preferred context, the half hour comedy. Drug abuse, sexual abuse, alcohol abuse, Marshall puts these things into his movies and adds a metaphorical laugh track via his banal direction and inability to relate to these problems on a human level.