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Escape at the Bijou
When times are tough, people go to the movies. Just as our parents and grandparents did during the Great Depression, Americans are apparently seeking distraction from our economic troubles by escaping for a couple of hours in the cinema. Across the country, box office revenue grew by 16.5 percent from Jan. 1 to March 8 compared with the same period in 2008, according to Media By Numbers, a box-office tracking organization.

I’m no exception, having spent this month trying to catch up with films I didn’t have time to see while dealing with family and business stuff in January and February.

The best of the bunch, and one of the best films Leslie and I have seen in a long time, was “The Reader,” the tale of postwar German angst for which Kate Winslet won the best actress Oscar. She plays a German woman in her 30s who takes a 15-year-old boy, Michael, as her lover. After a while, she suddenly disappears from his life, only to pop up several years later when he’s a law student attending a war crimes trial and she’s one of the defendants as a former concentration camp guard. He knows something that could help her defense but which she’s too ashamed to admit, even if it means more time in jail. He wants to help her, but perhaps because of collective guilt over what she did, he doesn’t. But then, years later, he becomes her benefactor. Winslet’s role is so complex; like “the kid” (as she calls him), you don’t know whether to feel sympathy for her, revulsion, or both. It’s a brilliant performance. David Kross, as the boy, and Ralph Fiennes, as adult Michael, also are excellent. And, hey, numerous nude scenes by Kate Winslet don’t hurt, either!

We’re big fans of Clive Owen and international thrillers, so “The International” was right up our cinematic alley, and Leslie and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Owen plays an Interpol agent trying to bring down a corrupt, all-powerful international bank that’s dealing in money-laundering and arms sales to terrorists (and killing anyone who gets in the way). Naomi Watts is excellent, though a bit underused, as a New York assistant district attorney working with him. They have tremendous chemistry, which is why it’s interesting (and surprising) that while their characters flirt a bit during the film, they never get together. German director Tom Tykwer (“Run Lola Run”) is too busy building the suspense relentlessly to bother with a romantic tangent. The film jumps around Europe and across the Atlantic, with the set piece being a spectacular shootout at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

I also managed to catch “The Uninvited,” a nifty little suspense-horror film based on the highest-grossing Korean film of all time. Directed by Britain’s Guard brothers and starring the lovely Emily Browning (the girl from the “Lemony Snicket” film), it’s about two sisters who think their late mother’s nurse, who’s about to marry Dad, might have been responsible for the fire that killed Mom. Browning’s character recently has been released from a mental hospital after a suicide attempt and she’s seeing all sorts of grisly apparitions warning her of impending doom. The always excellent David Strathairn (“The Bourne Ultimatum”) is the father and Elizabeth Banks (“Scrubs”) is nursey dearest. I knew there was a twist ending going in, but the twist isn’t what you expect it to be. It’s not even your second choice. This film is in the discount theaters now, so if you want a diverting couple of hours on the cheap, give it a try.

I wasn’t able to catch Daniel Craig in the WWII Jewish resistance thriller “Defiance” before it moved out of theaters, but my daughter Olivia did and she really liked it a lot. She also has seen the hotly debated superhero drama “Watchmen,” which she gives a qualified thumbs-up to. You can check out her views here:
http://ojpking.livejournal.com/

I’m not sure what I’ll see next. I’m kind of interested in “Duplicity,” another Clive Owen film, but Leslie isn’t wild about his co-star, Julia Roberts. My daughter and I are considering “The Edge of Love,” which is about Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and features Keira Knightley (Olivia’s favorite), but the reviews are sort of middling, so I’m not sure. We want to see Tom Hanks in “Angels and Demons” in May and I probably will check out the J.J. Abrams take on “Star Trek.” I’ll have to see what the word of mouth is on “Terminator Salvation.” Of course, no question we’ll be there for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” The latest trailer for it can be viewed here:
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809791044/video/12342139

QUICKIES: I revisited two of my teenage movie crushes over the weekend via DVD. Olivia, who’s studying Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” in school, was watching the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli version, which was one of her birthday gifts and which stars one of her namesakes, the breathtaking Olivia Hussey. And then I watched the long-overdue U.S. DVD release of “The Family Way,” the little-known U.K. comedy-drama that marked Paul McCartney’s first musical foray away from The Beatles and featured Hayley Mills at her most beautiful and appealing in her first adult role. Double sigh. … I’ve been checking in on Jimmy Fallon on NBC’s new incarnation of “Late Night,” and while it’s gotten a little better, it’s still pretty much a trainwreck. His cue card-reading is atrocious, his stiff monologues are so unfunny that even the folks who got in to see the show for free don’t laugh, and the interviews are dismal, especially when it’s one of his friends and they sit there giggling and patting each other on the back. He tends to run all his words together slacker-style, too. The main problem, though, is that I don’t see any basic charisma there, and even Conan in his early floundering days had that going for him. … Bob Dylan’s latest studio album, “Together Through Life,” is due out April 28. He’ll be hard-pressed to match 2006’s “Modern Times,” but let’s hope. … A recent survey showed that Americans still prefer British acts over all other non-U.S. musical performers. When asked which British musical artists they listened to in the past 12 months, 49 percent said Elton John and 48 percent named The Beatles, with The Rolling Stones also ranking high (41 percent), followed by Coldplay at 36 percent. You might find it surprising that Elton topped the Fabs until you remember that one of the most prevalent radio formats around now is “classic hits,” which features Elton (or Fleetwood Mac or the Eagles) about every 20 minutes. … I’m not really familiar with the work of actress Ginnifer Goodwin (of HBO’s “Big Love”), but the Memphis native was so charming on a recent Letterman appearance that I’m going to have to check her out. … Among the shows on my DVD-release wish list is the American version of “That Was the Week That Was” with David Frost, Buck Henry and Alan Alda. This was the show that set the template for “Weekend Update” on “SNL.” Surely one of the specialist labels like Shout Factory (which has done the “Dick Cavett Show” releases) could cut a deal to issue a complete set of the short-lived topical satire series. … I see VH1 is bringing back “Behind the Music,” the much-parodied “rise and fall” bio series that ran from 1997 to 2004. It did indeed become formulaic, but among the highlights for me were the rare footage of the great Atlanta Pop Festival in the Grand Funk episode and, of course, the show devoted to Badfinger. Unfortunately, the new incarnation is going to focus more on contemporary acts like Lil Wayne. … I enjoyed U2’s week of residency with Letterman, but I must say I find much of the new “No Line on the Horizon” album sounds like generic U2. The only track that stands out is the anthemic “Magnificent.” … After 16 years, cable’s Sci-Fi Channel is changing its name to the ridiculous SyFy, partly to reflect a broadening of its programming to include more fantasy, but mainly because the NBC Universal suits realized they couldn’t trademark Sci-Fi and were missing out on ancillary marketing bucks. … The fifth series of “Hustle,” the BBC’s terrific con man series with Robert Vaughn, aired in January and February in Britain, but still no word on when it will show up over here or if it will still be on AMC. I tried e-mailing the channel’s customer service folks but they didn’t respond. Fans are particularly anxious to see this series as it marks the return of Adrian Lester as the team leader. He was sorely missed in Series 4. … I was fascinated reading the obituaries of Alan W. Livingston recently. My primary interest was the fact that he was the president of Capitol Records who finally decided to issue The Beatles’ records on his label in the U.S., but there was so much more. Not only did he also sign Frank Sinatra and the Beach Boys to the label, he created Bozo the Clown for a Capitol kiddie release. And during a foray away from the label at NBC he was responsible for putting “Bonanza” on the air. His brother was Jay Livingston, composer of songs such as “Mona Lisa” and, yes, the “Bonanza” theme. And Alan Livingston was married to actress Nancy Olson of “The Absent Minded Professor,” “Son of Flubber” and “Pollyanna” Disney fame. Talk about your pop culture connections! … Speaking of The Beatles, I didn’t even realize Tiger Beat magazine was still around until I saw a press release a couple of weeks ago touting its publication of a 3-D issue featuring the Jonas Brothers. Back in the day, I wouldn’t have been caught dead buying one of those teen-scream magazines, but I did check them out on the rack at Hodgson’s Pharmacy just to see what tidbits of Beatles news I could glean, since they were just about the only source for such info in those pre-Rolling Stone days. I wonder if they still run charts showing the stars’ likes and dislikes (I remember Ringo didn’t like Donald Duck and always wondered why).

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