Movie Reviews

Winter in Wartime

(Oorlogswinter, Dutch, 2008)

Here we have a compelling story, and less than compelling moviemaking. The story is strong enough that I still enjoyed it quite a bit, but every once in a while I winced at the cliches.

There’s a Dutch boy in 1944, during the German occupation. A British plane is shot down and one of the crew parachutes into the snowy woods. The boy finds him, and shelters him in a bunker. Brings ... Read more »

Bringing Down the House

(2003)

Everybody tries very hard to be funny. Too hard, especially Steve Martin.

The Wings of the Dove

(1997)

Based on a novel by Henry James. A young woman (Helena Bonham Carter) with no money, dependent on her rich aunt, in love with a young man with no money, is befriended by a rich American young woman who is dying and in love with the young man. Obvious solution, to Helena anyway: Young man marries heiress, she dies, and then marries Helena and is able to keep her in the style to which she is ... Read more »

Winged Migration

(France, 2001)

Stunning, awesome, unbelievable! I can’t find enough superlatives for this film. There is no dialogue, no real story; you fly with the migratory birds, right among them. I wish I’d seen this on a big screen, but then I would definitely have rented the DVD later, as well, because there is a documentary on how it was made that is about as long as the film itself, and just about as amazing. ... Read more »

The Window

(1949)

Here is one of those forgotten gems, though I hear it has a cult following. Sign me up. It’s from a story by Cornell Woolrich, and it’s based on the old fable of the boy who cried wolf. Little Tommy (Tommy Driscoll) is a fabulist, always making up stories to tell his friends. Some of them get him in trouble. Then on a hot and sultry night he decides to sleep out on the fire escape. He ... Read more »

Bright Young Things

(2003)

Lovely to look at, but when all is said and done, this is nothing but Party Monster with Benny Goodman music instead of disco. It may take you a while to see that, as we’re trained to think the Brits are so, so sophisticated, but this group in 1938 are fully as shallow and empty and repulsive as Michael Alig and his Club Kids. Since it is based on a comic novel ... Read more »

Brief Encounter

(UK, 1945)

Directed by David Lean early in his career, adapted from a play by Noel Coward. It details an affair that never quite happens between Trevor Howard, a doctor, and Celia Johnson, who is married. They meet at a train station and gradually fall in love, but can meet only once a week, when it wouldn’t raise suspicion. The film is indeed brief, only 86 minutes, but ingeniously structured. We ... Read more »

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

(2004)

2003 was Oscar time for our little Renee. 2004 is paycheck time. Lee and I both saw Bridget Jones’s Diary, and neither of us can remember a thing about it except a vague feeling that we had a good time. I don’t say that as a putdown; I like being entertained by well-done fluff as much as the next guy. Maybe more than the next guy, as I often enjoy those movies ... Read more »

The Bridges of Madison County

(1995)

I suppose it was a reaction to the amazing success of the little novel, one of the best-selling books of the 20th century, that put me off this for so long. I still haven’t read the book, and probably won’t, but I realize now that I should have trusted the director and co-star, Clint Eastwood, and his leading lady, Meryl Streep, because it’s a much better movie ... Read more »

The Bridge of San Luis Rey