Writer / director Sophie Barthes manages to make a Charlie Kaufman film without Charlie Kaufman involved at all. When a friend points Paul Giamatti (who plays himself in this movie) to an article in The New Yorker about a technology that lets you have your soul removed and put into storage, he decides to try it out because he's been angsty and burdened by the role he's playing in a stage production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. Of course, once he has his soul taken out, things go about as badly as you'd imagine. I could literally watch Giamatti in anything, and he doesn't disappoint here. Emily Watson is terrific and understated as Giamatti's wife, and Russian actress Dina Korzun is perfectly empathic as a mule who ferries souls over from St. Peterburg. Highly recommended.
January 28, 2009
Sundance 2009 in a Nutshell: Spring Breakdown
I'll readily admit here that I saw Baby Mama under protest during the holidays, and that I loved every minute of it. The Tina Fey / Amy Poehler combination is just pure gold for some reason, and they were a hell of a lot funnier than their best moment on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update. Somehow I thought the same magic would carry over into this Rachel Dratch / Parker Posey / Amy Poehler comedy where middle-aged women decide to go on spring break in South Padre Island. Boy, was I wrong. While Poehler was the funniest thing in it (especially the 30 seconds with husband Will Arnett who cameos), most of Dratch's jokes fall completely flat and Posey seemed like she phoned it in. Thankfully it's going straight to video, which means you'll be able to dodge this one at your multiplex with no effort at all.
Sundance 2009 in a Nutshell: 500 Days of Summer
Okay, it's cute. Like cavity-inducing cute. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel star as a cute-as-a-button couple who just might not be meant for one another. There's a terrific musical number the first time Levitt has sex with Deschanel, and as he adjusts his appearance in a reflection, Harrison Ford's Han Solo appears and winks back at him. A really fun film geek moment. It's a fairly realistic look at love and how we only tend to remember the good things, and it proves that Hollywood doesn't need to adhere to a hardcore line of giving everything a happy ending... right up until this one tacks a happy ending onto the last five minutes. The final line caused the audience, including me, to release a pretty loud groan. Not a perfect movie, and definitely not a first (or 50th) date movie, but perfect for cynics or people who just got dumped.
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