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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us October 13, 2005 Films In Review By Chris Honoré Tidings reviewer ‘Proof’ It’s always risky to take a Pulitzer Prize-winning play and attempt to make the jump to film. You can end up pleasing no one. Those who know and love the play are predisposed not to like the movie, and the comparisons can be unforgiving. However, as a film, “Proof” stands on its own. What film can do with all the intensity of a tight shot and held focus is study two interesting, and deeply conflicted characters, powerfully portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins. For Paltrow, especially, this is a part that demonstrates her range, something that has been lacking in previous roles. She plays Catherine, the daughter of Robert (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant mathematician, who is recognized worldwide for his breathtaking proofs. In the last several years he has descended into a debilitating madness, robbing him of the ability to work. Instead he writes compulsively in notebooks, believing his is doing new and groundbreaking work, when in reality he is writing nonsense. Catherine, also a gifted mathematician, has dropped out of Northwestern University to stay at home and care for her father. As the film opens, it is Catherine we see, sitting alone in her father’s house, trying to come to terms with the fact that her father has died of a brain aneurysm just days before. She is fragile, grieving, uncertain about her future and trying to sort out how much she mirrors her father’s genius and his madness. What “Proof” proves to be is a character study framed in the language of math. But the same ability that allows Catherine to create a proof using numbers is not as readily available to her when it comes to finding proof of self, of who she is and is not. Numbers become metaphors, and the word “proof” takes on new and ever more complex meaning as the film evolves. The journey to self is often a labyrinth, we’re told, replete with truths that are painfully difficult to face, if faced at all. If only life could be reduced to prime numbers, square roots, or quadratic equations with a final, indisputable answer. What makes this film remarkable is the fine performance of the actors, led by Paltrow. She is at the center of the narrative and it is her sustained, convincing ambivalence, masked by fear and anger, that carries the movie. Clearly, Paltrow is capable of executing a demanding role. As is Hopkins, who has the heft to fill the shoes of a renowned scholar who has dropped into an abyss. Hope Davis, as the older, successful sibling, Claire, is also excellent. Having been gone for years, she arrives for Robert’s funeral from New York, and she is the epitome of practicality and efficiency, which sets in relief Catherine’s fragility and her tenuous grip on reality. In the end, the film is also a whodunit; however, that’s not what creates the tension in the film. That is derived from Catherine, who stands on a precipice and is uncertain about her next step. ‘The Greatest Game Ever Played’ Walt Disney has taken the opening lines of the song, “Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you,” and built more than half a century of films on that premise. In fact, feel-good fables have long been the engine that kept the Disney fantasy train moving forward. And wonderful stories they have been. “The Greatest Game Ever Played” is no exception. Here is a film that begs for youngsters, popcorn in hand, to settle in and enjoy. It has all the ingredients of a come-from-behind, against all odds, reach deep down inside and prevail movie. You make the clutch play. You tell yourself you can do this. You’re ready. Concentrate. Remember who you are. It won’t be easy. Oh, no. There’ll be obstacles. But find the courage. You’ve got the heart. And, above all, follow your dream. That’s the coup de grace in this Disney recipe. Never give up on your dream. Whatever it takes. To do less would be a betrayal of self that will haunt, shrouding a compromised life forever. Of course, following the template, there will have to be a detour, a time when the dream is abandoned, confidence is lost, and you gaze out a window or sit in the stands gazing down on the field of play and mourn for what could have been. Should have been. And then there’s a moment, an epiphany, and suddenly you’re back and all is complete. Let the games begin. Embrace the dream. This is not being written facetiously. Rather, this formula can be, in the hands of a good screenwriter and director, electric, and can make for a movie that inspires. Now, “The Greatest Game” uses golf as its sport of choice. And golf can be one of the most studied, snail-like games ever played, devoted to long walks, and long pauses when the players commit assault and battery on a small, white ball. There is no teamwork. No hard-hitting opponent, really, just a battle against self and the score card. But with computer graphics and excellent editing, this movie has a sustained sense of energy and movement. And, of course, it helps if there’s a likable kid in the movie. Boy or girl, makes no difference. In the case of “The Greatest Game,” his name is Francis (Shia La Beouf) who feels golf in his bones and whose father insists it is a sport that will never lead him anywhere except to heartbreak and poverty. But Francis has a dream. His hands itch to hold a golf club. And his heart tells him that he can’t not play. And so, Francis finds himself playing in the U.S. Open Golf tournament as an amateur, barely 20 years old, and disobeying his father. He is playing Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane), the British Open five-time champion. It is, as a sports reporter says in the movie, like watching David and Goliath. But, in the end, it is more. It is watching two players express their devotion and love of a game, a game that promises moments of fulfillment that touch the stars, and that is what it means to be alive. And it can surely make for a fine movie. Murderball Documentary about quad rugby, known as murderball, a high-adrenaline, rough-and-tumble sport played by quadriplegics in specially modified wheelchairs. Winner of the Audience Award and Special Jury Prize for Editing at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Dana Adam Shapiro, Henry Alex Rubin Featuring Mark Zupan, Keith Cavill, Andy Cohn Scott Hogsett, Bob Lujano, Joe Soares R for language and sexual content/87 min. Elizabethtown Fired from his job and dumped by his girlfriend, suicidal Drew learns his father has died. Returning to a small Kentucky town to fulfill his father’s dying wishes, he meets an optimistic flight attendant who helps him get his life back on track. A charming, music-filled journey that proves amazing things can happen when you least expect them.Directed by Cameron Crowe ("Jerry Maguire", "Almost Famous") Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, Jessica Biel PG-13 for language and some sexual references/123 min. Domino Film inspired by the life of Domino Harvey, daughter of actor Laurence Harvey. She was a former model who rejected her privileged life to become a bounty hunter. Directed by Tony Scott ("Spy Game", "Man on Fire") Keira Knightley, Lucy Liu, Christopher Walken, Mena Suvari, Mickey Rourke, Jacqueline Bisset, Delroy Lindo R for strong violence, pervasive language, sexual content/nudity and drug use/128 min. Fog One hundred years ago, in a thick, eerie fog off the rocky coast of Northern California, a horrible shipwreck occurred under mysterious circumstances. Now, the fog returns to Antonio Bay, bringing with it a bloody, merciless revenge. Remake of the 1980 John Carpenter film starring Adrienne Barbeau and Jamie Lee Curtis. Tom Wellling, Maggie Grace, Selma Blair PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and brief sexuality/100 min. Wallace and Gromit in ‘Curse of the Were-Rabbit’ Our intrepid heroes cash in with their newest invention, a humane pest control device, “Anti-Pesto.” Soon their house is filled with captured bunnies. Then a huge, mysterious, veggie ravaging beast begins terrorizing the neighborhood. Voice talents of Peter Sallis, Helena Bonham-Carter, Ralph Fiennes G/96 min. (85 min. + 11 min. Madagascar Penguins short subject “A Christmas Caper”) Two for the Money A former college football star with the ability to predict outcomes of football games is recruited by the head of a big sports consulting operation. A surrogate father/son relationship develops, until the predictions begin to go awry. Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey, Rene Russo, Jeremy Piven, Armand Assante R for pervasive language, a scene of sexuality and a violent act/123 min. In Her Shoes A sexy, irresponsible party girl moves in with her workaholic attorney sister, strains that relationship, and ends up with her newly found grandmother, who tries to help her find herself and get the two sisters back together. Cameron Diaz, Tony Collette, Shirley MacLaine PG-13 for thematic material, language and some sexual content/130 min. Serenity When the crew of the spaceship Serenity takes on two new passengers, they get more than they bargained for. The pair are fugitives from the coalition dominating the universe. Based on the 13-episode Fox series “Firefly”. Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk, Jewel Staite, Ron Glass PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, and for sexual references/119 min. Unfinished Life A rugged rancher, still in shock from his only son’s death a decade ago, has let his ranch fall into ruin along with his marriage. He spends his days caring for his last trusted friend, Mitch, who was gravely injured in an encounter with a grizzly bear. Then the person he blames for his son’s accident comes to town, his daughter-in-law, with a child in tow. Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez, Morgan Freeman, Josh Lucas, Becca Gardner PG-13 for some violence including domestic abuse, and language/100 min. Flightplan A 6-year-od daughter vanishes without a trace mid-flight from Berlin to New York. Already emotionally devastated by the unexpected death of her husband, the mother struggles to prove her sanity to a disbelieving flight crew and passengers, none of whom remember seeing the girl.Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Erika Christensen, Sean Bean PG-13 for violence and some intense plot material/98 min. Unfinished Life A rugged rancher, still in shock from his only son’s death a decade ago, has let his ranch fall into ruin along with his marriage. He spends his days caring for his last trusted friend, Mitch, who was gravely injured in an encounter with a grizzly bear. Then the person he blames for his son’s accident comes to town, his daughter-in-law, with a child in tow. Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez, Morgan Freeman, Josh Lucas, Becca Gardner PG-13 for some violence including domestic abuse, and language/100 min. 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