End-of-the-year entertainment

12/20/07

It's almost the end of the year, and time to haul out what studios think/hope will be the holiday blockbusters. Or at least movies that people, including grownups, might want to see. Let's see what happens.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Directed by Tim Burton

Tim Burton + Johnny Depp = some pretty interesting cinema. These guys have collaborated quite a bit over the last couple of decades, and they certainly seem to be on the same wavelength. Their latest project is Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, based on the Stephen Sondheim musical first produced on Broadway. Because film and theater are such different mediums, the material changed significantly when it was adapted. To further complicate things, Johnny Depp and his co-star Helena Bonham Carter, although fine actors, aren't really singers. The bad news: if you loved the musical on stage, you'll find that the film is different from the play, including the fact that songs are missing or truncated. The good news: the film looks great, the performances are strong, and for a couple of non-singers, Depp and Bonham Carter sound pretty darned good. TVOR has not seen the stage version, so didn't miss the missing bits at all. The supporting cast includes Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, and Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat), but the real standout in that group is young Ed Sanders, as Toby, the orphan boy who ends up working in Mrs. Lovett's pie shop.

This type of film really isn't TVOR's thing, but it was well done, and she enjoyed it. One thing to be aware of, though: this movie is bloody. REALLY bloody. It is, after all, about a guy who slits people's throats, after which his landlady grinds the victims up and bakes them into meat pies. It's very stylized, definitely over the top, and therefore easier to watch than something more realistic, but even so, the film is not for the squeamish. Yet in its own creepy and disgusting way, it's a thing of beauty.


Charlie Wilson's War
Directed by Mike Nichols
Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin

If for some reason you're not into serial murder and cannibalism as holiday entertainment, Hollywood has an alternative for you. And I do mean Hollywood. Charlie Wilson's War is Hollywood movie making. As in movie stars playing people who are supposedly real people but you're always aware that they're movie stars, speaking dialog that is witty and intelligent in ways that we wish actual conversation was, in a story that could be sort of real but not really.

That said, Charlie Wilson's War is Hollywood on a good day. It's the true story (Hollywood-ized, of course) of U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson of Texas who almost single-handedly managed to get arms and money to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan to aid in their fight against the Soviet army in the 1980's. "But wait", you're thinking, "aren't the Mujahideen the fighters who were in the mountains of Afghanistan and then some stuff happened and then there was Al Qaeda a few years later?" Well, that's a discussion for another time. This is a Hollywood movie. It's well-directed (by Mike Nichols), well-written (by Aaron Sorkin) and the Hollywood stars glitter appropriately (although Julia Roberts wears bad blonde wigs). The film comes alive, though, when Philip Seymour Hoffman is on screen, playing a CIA agent. Fortunately, he's around a lot. This isn't the greatest film, but it's light and entertaining. It could come in handy if you need to keep some people entertained.

Video notes:

TVOR's favorite Tim Burton/Johnny Depp collaboration is their first--Edward Scissorhands. It's beautiful and sweet and there's even a Christmas connection, for those who are looking for seasonal entertainment.

Mike Nichols has directed a lot of good movies. The early ones are the best. He made the amazing Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, The Graduate, Catch-22, and Carnal Knowledge, just to name a few. Talk about a portrait of an era. You could do a lot worse than to have yourself a mini Mike Nichols festival. In fact, TVOR thinks she might need to have one herself.