_______________________________________________________________________________________MAY 18, 2007 justout.41
film
Away from Her
Canadian actress Sarah Polley (The Sweet
Hereafter) makes her directing debut with this
heartbreaking adaptation of a short story by Alice
Munro. Still radiant at 65, Julie Christie plays an
Alzheimer’s patient who, to her husband’s dismay,
develops an intimate hind with a man at her resi
dential care facility. Some of the opening scenes
feel choppy, but Polley finds her rhythm and
admirably avoids the disease movie cliches that a
lesser talent would undoubtedly heap on this mate
rial. Gordon Pinsent, Olympic Dukakis and
Michael Murphy round out the cast. A-
—Stephen Blair
Burnt Chocolate Water
Portland filmmaker Jeff Grinta really doesn’t like
coffee, and his documentary is a 90-minute quest for
a cup of the “foul brew” gcxxl enough to change his
mind. He drives through seven coffee shacks and 17
Starbucks, visits expert brewers and self-roasters, and
even tries a cup of civet coffee—a bizarre luxury,
being coffee beans extracted from the poop of
Indonesian civet cats, then exported for $200
a pound to insane coffee addicts who claim the par
tially digested beans are less bitter. Grinta interviews
a good selection of coffee lovers, coffee haters, addic
tion counselors and industry insiders, but the ques
tion remains why, in the words of one of his subjects,
“you’re so interested in something you’re not inter
ested in.” Opens May 18 at Hollywood Theatre. B
—Tony LeTigre
Georgia Rule
This movie was not at all what 1 expected.
Lindsay Lohan, who will probably be judged as
simply playing herself, leads a stellar cast playing
Rachel, a rebellious teenager who is shipped off by
her mother (Felicity Huffman) to her grandmother
(Jane Fonda) to learn discipline. She turns the
Mormon town of Hull upside down, and just when
you think you know where the film is going, it will
surprise you. Director Garry Marshall (Pretty
Woman) does a wonderful job in dealing with the
extremely sensitive issue of sexual abuse, the fine
line that separates the truth from lies and the
unbreakable bond of motherhood. This R-rated film
is definitely not your regular nice chick flick! A-
—Yvonne P. Behrens
The Great Communist
Bank Robbery
This fascinating film documents Reconstruction,
an hourlong black-and-white film about a robbery at
Bucharest’s Romanian National Bank in 1959.
During this time of Stalinism, the crime rate was
extremely low, so it shcx>k everybody when the
robbery occurred. Even more strange, the Lei
currency could only be spent in Romania. The state
police searched the whole country, arrested six
people they declared to be guilty and forced the pris
oners to play themselves in a film that reconstructed
the crime and the investigation. At the end of their
trial, which was filmed live, they were sentenced to
death and executed. A month later, the film
Reconstruction was released and became a sensation
throughout the country. Today the robbery remains
unsolved, and director Alexandru Solomon does an
incredible job in interweaving archival footage from
Reconstruction with modern-day interviews of wit
nesses. Opens May 19 at Hollywood Theatre A-
—YPB
The Iceberg
This is a quirky, charming indie comedy from
Cillian Murphy (left, with Padraic Delaney) smartly picked the award-winning The Wind That
Belgium about a restaurant owner, Fiona, who acci
Shakes the Barley instead of the execrable sequel 28 Weeks Later.
dentally locks herself in the walk-in freezer overnight.
Somehow this accident triggers a midlife crisis that
and craft to her carefully researched portrayal of Anyone who thinks it’s better than 28 Days Later ate
leads her to forsake her Mr. Bean-like husband and
a high-functioning autistic woman, but die real pow
too many paint chips as a child. The original film
family for a deaf-mute ursine sailor named René with
erhouse performance of the film belongs to Alan
broke new ground for the zombie genre, which
a tiny sloop called “Le Titanique.” Appealing to the
Rickman, whose character’s perfectly delivered
seemed to have nowhere left to go but self-parody;
eye, with lots of cobalt blue, fire-engine red and icy
sarcasm masks a vast well of loneliness, gradually
it was intelligently apocalyptic and even a little sexy.
white, and suffused with souffle-light, slapstick wit.
broken down by Weaver’s childlike, matter-of-fact,
28 Weeks Later’s hip soundtrack and occasional
Lucy Tulugarjuk, in her supporting role as a radiant obsessive-compulsive joie de vivre. While some
moments of artful restraint—a restaurant poster that
ly cheerful Inuit Eskimo, is adorable. Now playing at
details strain credibility, the emotional impact is
says, “Our pizzas are always delivered on time!” or
Living Room Theaters. B
genuine. Snow Cake is a thinking person’s tearjerker.
a huge stadium of empty, blood-red chairs, months
—TL
Opens May 18 at Hollywood Theatre. A-
after the entire population of England has been
—Jemiah Jefferson
decimated by the “rage virus”—are ultimately squan
Shrek the Third
Few film franchises are as successful at blending
comedy, music and messages as the Shrek films do. In
this outing, Shrek searches for the young kind heir
to the throne, while the scheming Prince Charming
rounds up an army of villains to take over. Better
than Shrek 2, this film has less product placement,
a wide variety of new characters and returning
favorites along with some fantastic set pieces with
Puss in Boots and Donkey, a nightmare full of babies
and a fairy tale high school not far removed from
reality. Excellent fun for everyone. A +
—Andy Mangels
Snow Cake
An exceptionally effective and moving indie
with a wealth of star power, Snow Cake explores
themes of grief, guilt, alienation and strange friend
ship—and only occasionally veers into Very Special
Episode territory. Sigourney Weaver brings nuance
dered on a senseless, bnital and stupid film. C-
—TL
Spider-Man 3
The third time is not the charm for writer/
director Sam Raimi, who spins so many plot webs
that you can barely tell who’s fighting whom by
the final reel. Thanks to a $258 million budget, the
special effects are eye-popping, and there’s a smat
tering of standout performances from James Franco,
Rosemary Harris and Bruce Campbell. But tossing
three villains into the mix has a curiously dampen
ing effect on the action, and Peter Parker’s journey
to the “dark side” is too goofy to be even remotely
menacing, plus his stuttering romance with Mary
Jane climbs to new heights of insipidness. B-
—SB
28 Weeks Later
Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris wisely refused
to have anything to do with this execrable sequel to
the film that made them international stars in 2003.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
It’s 1920, rural Ireland. Damien (Cillian
Murphy, the fabulous drag queen from Breakfast
with Pluto) is a med student visiting his Irish village
from London. His brother Teddy (Padraic Delaney)
is a guerrilla fighter battling Britain’s famously
vicious Black and Tan squads. When the B&T’s
commit atrocities on some “filthy Irish”—Damien
and Eddy's friends and neighbors—the brothers are
sucked into a series of events that eventually pit
them against each other. Ken Loach’s 2006 film
won the top award at Cannes last year, and for good
reason. Beautifully acted and stunningly shot, this
meticulously realistic historical drama resonates as
an unmistakable allegory of the Iraq disaster. Opens
May 25 at Hollywood Theatre. A
—Gary Morris ©
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