After stepping in to fill a space in their poker game, full-time nerd Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) finds himself taken under the wing of his new best buddies. They have learned that he is still a virgin, and they make it their mission to get him laid. Andy reluctantly goes along with their plans and schemes, while at the same time starting a relationship with the woman who runs the shop across the road from his (Catherine Keener), and trying to stop her from finding out how awkward he is about the whole sex thing.

With a setup like this, it is inevitable that there will be a truckload of embarrassing and cringeable scenes, but they are never all that bad, and they’re more than matched by the funny bits. I also found that the film actually got funnier as it went along. The supporting characters–Andy’s well-meaning buddies–are changed by their friendship with Andy as much as he is by them, which leads to richer and more amusing situations later on. The script balances these characters well, though, never allowing them to overwhelm Andy as the central figure and the source of all the biggest laughs. And for a film that looks like it’s going to be all about casual sex, it ends up being much more about friendship, love and commitment.

Antwone Fisher, a young Navy seaman, overcomes his violent tendencies and abusive childhood to find a side of himself he has kept hidden for years. It has a touch of the Good Will Hunting about it, with Denzel Washington playing a psychiatrist who is somewhat repressed himself, helping the promising kid recognize his own greatness, and learning a valuable lesson in the process himself. But the story isn’t so much about embracing your opportunities as about taking control of your self, and realizing that although your past can shape you, it doesn’t define you.

This is Denzel Washington’s directorial debut, and the only point where he sets a foot wrong is right at the very end, where he gives his own character an awkward “you helped me more than I helped you” speech. Yuck. It’s Derek Luke who steals the show, though. His performance as Antwone Fisher, from repressed anger to awkwardly romantic, is extraordinary.

There are some 12 (and 12A) certificate films that I would be willing to let Alex (age 4) see–with proper supervision, of course. Despite the dark tones, I think he would quite enjoy Revenge Of The Sith, for example, and Spider-man, too. War of the Worlds, though, definitely does not fit on that list. I found this a genuinely scary film.

After first setting the scene with an interestingly unsympathetic main character (Tom Cruise playing a divorced dad reluctantly taking his kids for a weekend), Spielberg ramps up the tension and doesn’t take his foot off the gas until the closing scenes. The images of death and destruction are vivid, and the more subdued set pieces continnuously push a sense of despair at the overwhelming odds the humans face. The whole film is filled with a sense of genuine dread. It’s somewhere beyond thriller, but short of horror: a mixture of shock at what has happened, and fear of what is to come.

The ending, then, comes as a bit of a let-down. Because it stays true to Wells’ original story, the humans don’t have a hand in their own salvation. Tom Cruise doesn’t turn the situation around, and single-handledly defeat the invaders. Instead, they are saved by the good fortune of evolution itself. This isn’t very Hollywood, but it is much more like real life, where heroes aren’t on tap to avert every disaster, and a return to normality may seem incongruously mundane. The references to 9/11 are wholly intentional.

The most striking thing about this film is just how prescient it turned out to be. Released in 1998, it features Islamic fundamentalist terrorist attacks on New York, a public stricken with fear and anger lashing out at anyone vaguely Arab-looking, politicans looking for a quick solution to please their angry constituents, a military willing (and eager) to round up suspects in the streets and to torture prisoners. The war is fought on American soil (Brooklyn is placed under martial law, and occupied by the army), but the themes of the war against terror that followed the September 11th attacks are all present and accounted for. It would be impossible for a Hollywood studio to make this picture in 2005, because it would be considered far too aggressive a condemnation of the US government’s behaviour since 2001.

(An independent production company, however, might not make the colossal mistake of casting Bruce Willis in the role of the Army general in charge of the occupation. In the face of meaty performances from Denzel Washington and Annette Bening, he stands out as wooden and lifeless. If there was ever a role written for the late, great J.T. Walsh, this is it.)

Seeing this film in the middle of 2005, it is easy to dismiss the ending as unrealistically happy. It’s as if someone had filmed a reconstruction of a particularly gruesome car crash, and let everyone walk away with only minor injuries, when in real life no-one got out alive. But to do so would be unfair. In 1998, The Siege set out to be an action thriller, with some strongly cautionary messages about the importance of the American values of justice and liberty, especially in times of crisis. For expressing the wish that those values can win through in the end, it should be applauded, not berated.

If only the real world were more like the movies.

When it comes to romantic comedy, John Cusack is da man. Serendipity is a delightful romantic comedy about chance meetings and fate. It’s not realistic, it’s not complicated, and it’s not meant to plumb great depths of human emotion; it just gives you a sweet little slice of romance. (Also, the world totally needs to see more of Jeremy Piven.)

Critical opinion was against this one, but I liked it.

(This quick review is part of my September 2005 “clearing the decks” exercise.)

Great fun–totally implausible, but a total romp, with a cast charming enough to make you swallow it all.

(This quick review is part of my September 2005 “clearing the decks” exercise.)

(This quick review is part of my September 2005 “clearing the decks” exercise.)

Although the characters in Closer are on an emotional rollercoaster ride of love, betrayal, loss, and guilt, and I appreciated that they were caught up in this storm, I myself didn’t feel broken up by their plight. In a way I felt like a voyeur: fascinated up in their lives, but not actually affected by them.

It’s a beautifully made film, with strong performances all round (although I’m scratching my head a bit about Clive Owen being the stand-out, award-winning one), although the dialogue is sometimes just a tad too clipped and stagey. It’s unquestionably a worthwhile watch, but don’t go in expecting an easy love story. It’s pretty brutal about the hurt that people cause each other, and not terribly positive about the ultimate outcomes of the various intertwingled romances, either.

Beyond the sweet collection of love stories, two things are going to stick with me from Love Actually:

1) How refreshing it is to see Liam Neeson in a contemporary, non-genre film, where he doesn’t have to put on a costume or an accent. In his natural state, he is a lovely, laid-back actor with a relaxed yet commanding screen presence.

2) How on earth Richard Curtis got away with sticking such a blatant, piercing political point in the middle of a big-budget film which, in all other respects, is designed to play well to an American audience familiar with other British rom-com fayre.

Apart from that, it’s sweet, bittersweet, and enormously likeable. The fact that it is trying to tell about eight stories at once means that it has to be short and to-the-point with each one, and has no time to linger on filler scenes. Upshot: an excellent film, heartwarming and funny.