Movies : September 2006

22 September 2006

The Illusionist

A popular magician by the name of Eisenheim (Edward Norton) causes trouble for himself and Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) of Vienna when his romantic interests get too close to those of the Crown Prince (Rufus Sewell). Set in an indeterminate age in which only horse-drawn carriages are seen on the streets and flame is used to illuminate rooms, but the police have a working movie projector on hand. The flashback structure and Giamatti’s narration could be weak points, and the romance is quite slenderly motivated, but the lead performances including that by the blandly symmetrical Jessica Biel propel the story engagingly.

109 minutes.

10 September 2006

The Descent (2005)

Ho-hum… another horror movie where Scotland impersonates the states. This movie had been down to two screenings in the evenings but in its fifth week of release has been restored to a full day’s worth. Six women with a bit of history behind them get together to explore a cave in the Appalachians and discover that they’re not alone. As a caving movie, it hits the required spots but doesn’t match the intensity of Touching the Void. As for what ensues, it’s bloody, all right, but how seriously can one take a movie that keeps the skulls in the killing field articulated with the jawbones? I felt more anxiety watching the reckless driving of the Ford Bronco II.

98 minutes.

04 September 2006

Material Girls

So sad. Haylie Duff is capable of something approaching subtle (see Napoleon Dynamite) but the direction she and her sister Hilary seems to have been given was Antic! They play sisters, heiresses to a fortune based on cosmetics, and because their father died a few years ago, the prospect of their taking responsibility for the company’s direction looms. When a local television station alleges a coverup of dreadful side effects from one of the company’s products, the duo and the interim CEO (Brent Spiner) must react quickly to the scandal and the low-ball offer of a competitor (Anjelica Huston). An illicit cigarette leads to bad consequences and the two find themselves homeless, carless, with very little wardrobe and no credit line. Nothing is nearly as funny as what does it mean, exact change? but talent was employed in front of the camera around the sisters so it’s not a total loss.

99 minutes.

l03 September 2006

The Quiet

Ho, hum… another Sundance Institute movie about the depravity of the American family as expressed in bad father-daughter relationships. Elisha Cuthbert is as blonde as ever, but I suspect a wig, and a set of blue bikini underwear is as far as she’ll go playing the cheerleader daughter whose father’s interest in her uniform is not paternal. But the real surprise is Camilla Belle as Dot, deaf and mute since her mother’s death and forced upon her father’s death to accept the hospitality of her godparents. Belle has been working long enough that she can be seen on laserdisc (in Practical Magic) and her performance transcends the pathetic script and lurid plot, further than that I sayeth not. The toplessness is not from whom one might wish for.

96 minutes.

Entries subject to editing at any time. Last edited on: 23-Sep-2006