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Reviews
The Way We Live Now (2001)
Absorbing tale, beautifully played
A vulgar, bombastic, and corrupt financier lands in industrial age London, tries to pull his tricks on the sniveling aristos and is ultimately caught out. But every character, good and bad, is layered, and the plot is as much a human study as it is a social one. It is played to perfection by David Suchet, as the financier, and the actors playing the characters who come into his orbit. Shirley Henderson is riveting as his strange but fierce daughter. Paloma Baeza, Cillian Murphy, and Miranda Otto make a separate captivating love triangle. I found Cillian Murphy, who I had not heard of when I first watched the series, compelling in the role of Paul Montague, the young English engineer who wants to build a railway in the US. He's a bundle of contradictions: weak and strong, doe-eyed and savvy, young and weary. To have the character played with any further toughness or composure, as some reviewers see as missing in the performance, would have made his entrapment in Mrs. Hurtle's (Miranda Otto's) web difficult to fathom. Murphy captures all the nuances exquisitely and convincingly. In a smaller role, David Bradley, often the purveyor of grumpy old men (his Rogue Riderhood in Our Mutual Friend is peerless), was touching as a genteel amour.
Oppenheimer (2023)
Spellbinding
Though (brilliantly) closely observed, the movie is riveting. Even though you know the events that are going to happen--Oppenheimer and colleagues develop the bomb, the bomb is tested and then unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer has regrets, he is subjected to one hearing, and his antagonist is subjected to another--you don't know how it's going to happen. You don't know the mindset of the people involved or the steps that lead inevitably and inexorably to the world as we know it now: deeply conflicted, riddled with pockets of willful blindness, and horribly polarized.
The movie puts you in the shoes of one of the most tortured and consequential human beings ever to grace the planet, whose thoughts, life, and dealings were far more nuanced than many of us have understood. How can Oppenheimer, a man of community-minded and pacific sensibilities, justify his willingness and even eagerness to build the bomb? The idea that the Germans might build one first goes only so far. And then the time comes when Germany has been defeated and the question remains only of how to bring Japan, which has only conventional weapons, to heel. The movie shows Oppenheimer give a rationale for detonating the bomb on the country that seems naive--granted that the appearance is retrospective. How much did he really believe it? The movie forces us to ponder the question and yet not resolve it, because perhaps Oppenheimer didn't.
Cillian Murphy plays the tortured, reserved and yet passionate and fierce, Oppenheimer hauntingly and exquisitely. The many other characters are both written and played with intricate shading as well. You are in those rooms with them. The use of the hearings as the movie's scaffolding and the interleaving of them with the events they concern is sheer art.
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001)
Wonderful to watch, all the way through
This production, which glides along smoothly and tells a full story in just a bit over three hours (two segments), is glorious and captivating to watch. The performances are gripping and flow together like an intricate meshwork. James D'Arcy makes a compelling Nicholas Nickleby, oppressed by the terrible things that happen to and around him, but always ready to strive onward to make things right for those he cares about. Charles Dance is, as always, chilling in the role of antagonist. Sophia Myles has both depth and beauty as Kate, Nicholas's sister. Lee Ingleby is brilliant as Smike: heart-wrenching and utterly relatable. What an incredibly gifted actor. I will remember this version also for the stirring scene in the classroom in which Nicholas coaxes the boys to use their imaginations. That interlude is a tour de force on many levels and, for me, an anchor of the plot.
On - drakon (2015)
Magnificent!
What a breathtakingly beautiful and utterly captivating movie. It is in the line of Beauty and the Beast, but more sublime, nuanced, and surprising. The protagonists are utterly convincing and gorgeous to watch. The music moved me deeply, especially the final rendition of the ritual song. The ending is exquisite, where all the layers and all the threads come together. Bravo!
Although I do not know Russian, the cadence and flow of the language are essential to the movie's spell. I would wish only that someone could add a dark border to the (white) subtitles, so they can be more easily discerned against light, as well as dark, backgrounds. I understand, from other reviews, that the translation is accurate, a coup in itself. I would not want to watch the dubbed version of this, no matter how easily comprehensible.
Zolushka (1947)
Magnificent
I am so glad I found this movie. Although the DVD of it I obtained is damaged, along with the rest of the batch the vendor had, apparently, and I had to watch by repeatedly stopping and restarting the playback, I loved every minute of it. The story is tender and farcical at the same time. It is extraordinarily well acted by all the players and magnificently and heartrendingly sung by Zolushka (Cinderella, who has three songs) and the Prince (who has one). It is beyond belief that the actors playing Cinderella and the prince were 38 and 35, respectively, at the time of filming. They come across as 16 or even younger.
The translation that accompanies the disc I watched is neither complete nor entirely accurate. This treasure deserves better: a cleaned-up disc and a state-of-the-art translation.