grimalkin-2 Reviews

The Night Watch (2011 TV Movie)

Scriptwriter's change in the Duncan-Viv-Fraser relationship ruins this adaptation for me

[5/10 · 16 February 2022]

Adapting a 446-page book into 1hr. 29 mins. Involves a great deal of slashing characters down to their core. There are three major story divisions. The novel is also divided into three time sections (as is the movie with lesser success). They all involve either London through the war years or the post-war era. Both work backwards in time. The first section is 1947, then 1944, then 1941.

One section involves Helen's relationship with Julia, then Helen's earlier relationship with Kay. These lesbian relationships have been more heavily discussed already. Despite fine performances by the actresses involved, there isn't enough substance left after the bare-bone edits to affect us emotionally.

The second section involves a straight couple, Vivien and Reggie.

Viv is a single woman and Reggie, a married man. Viv is more compelling among other things, as she must deal with the horrors of illegal abortion. It's Viv's love for her brother, her strong liking for Robert Fraser as a man of honor, and her deepfelt affection for Kay that suggests far better people exist than the man she has aligned herself with.

The third involves the former prisoner Duncan (Viv's brother), involved in the death of a gay best friend upon his being drafted into the military, and his cellmate, Robert Fraser, in prison for being a conscientious objector. To complicate matters is Horace Mundy, an elderly prison guard who has eyes for and on Duncan.

The prison section, taking place in 1944, is adapted quite efficiently. In one scene, Fraser, above Duncan in a bunk bed, quietly masturbates when he believes Duncan is asleep. Duncan even more quietly does the same. After Fraser climaxes, he learns that Duncan has been listening to every stroke and angrily flicks something onto Duncan's face.

In another scene, the Nazis are bombing close to the prison. The guards have fled to their basement bunker/shelter and left the prisoners to fend for themselves. Fraser, terrified, asks Duncan if he can crawl into bed with him. Duncan agrees. Soon the men are holding one another tightly in the dark as bombs outside continue to explode. Even after the all-clear, Fraser doesn't return to his own bed.

By this this time, the reader and film viewer are fully aware of Duncan's attraction for Fraser. The earlier 1947 scenes now make more sense. Fraser tracks Duncan down. He wants to rescue him from a thankless dead-end job. He also wishes to get Duncan to leave his current residence with the dreadful Horace Mundy.

Fraser and Duncan plan to meet one night, but Duncan doesn't show up for reasons made clear in the book. Duncan realizes that his helpless passivity had landed him in jail for an unintentional crime he might have avoided. So he flees Mundy's house and walks to Fraser's flat.

I will write next what happens in the book. What happens on screen left me livid and involves the screenwriter's complete misunderstanding of what future Sarah Waters intended for these two men. So yes, the movie did finally elicit a strong emotion.

Duncan can see through the window that Fraser is alone, asleep on an armchair. Duncan taps on the pane, just enough to wake Fraser up. Duncan taps again. Still groggy, Fraser walks to the window, sees it is Duncan, and quickly opens it. He tells Duncan to talk quietly since his landlady is in the hall. They chat. Fraser tells him why he was late. Duncan says how he's left Mundy.

Quoting Sarah Waters: "Then Fraser grew a little calmer. He glanced over his shoulder again and whispered, 'All right. I think she's gone up now. Come in, though, for God's sake!. Before a policeman or somebody spots us.' And then he moved back, and put aside the black-out curtain, so that Duncan could climb in."

That last sentence lets the reader know that Robert pulls away the black-out curtain not only for Duncan to pass through, but for himself to let in the light of how he feels toward his former cellmate. At last, the two men are alone and together.

See the film and judge for yourself what you think of the screenwriter's choice to change all that Sarah Waters intended.

Un village français (2009–2017)

A Time of Collaboration and Resistance

[10/10 · 22 October 2017]

Having watched all 65 episodes (seven seasons), I'm overwhelmed by how the scriptwriters not only confronted French viewers with all the gray areas involving their parents or grandparents' collaboration with the Nazis during the time of the Vichy government but also created such complex characters that we sometimes find ourselves booing and hissing the alleged "good guys" and cheering some characters who have behaved in an abominable fashion. But then, the "good guys" can turn out to be more evil than we supposed, and some "bad guys" can readily accept responsibility for all their actions, no matter how monstrous. Some of the most corrupt characters are also the most pragmatic survivors.

Those who stick with the series until the end had better get their hankies ready for the final, completely heart-wrenching two episodes.

The actors are uniformly exceptional in this ensemble cast of hundreds. Most of all, I will never forget Nicolas Gob as Jean Marchetti, a French cop who obeys every command involving the rounding up of Jews or Communists for execution and deportation until he falls for a Jewish woman, Rita (Axel Maricq). But by then, he has acquired the nickname, "Butcher of Villeneuve."

Then there are Robin Renucci and Audrey Fleurot as Dr. Daniel and Hortense Larcher. Dr. Larcher finds himself unwillingly thrust into the position of town mayor whose scruples are compromised one by one until he finds himself compiling death lists with another official, Servier (Cyril Couton), to quench the Nazi thirst for blood in retaliation for Resistance violence done to them, an action that will later have dire repercussions for both men. As for Hortense Larcher, she finds herself attracted to a Nazi leader, Heinrich Muller (Richard Sammel) and is ready to forgive his every sadistic cruelty.

Then there's Lucienne (Marie Kremer), a schoolteacher who falls for a handsome German soldier, Kurt (Samuel Theis) but when he's about to be transferred to the Russian front and she finds herself pregnant, she agrees to marry the headmaster, Bériot (François Loriquet), who is willing to adopt her child as his own.

Finally, there are the major Resistance fighters: Larcher's brother, Marcel (Fabrizio Rongione) and his mistress, Suzanne (Constance Dollé); and Marie (Nade Dieu), a farmer's wife, who is involved with the married owner of a sawmill, Raymond Schwartz (Thierry Godard), who initially is apolitical and gladly sells his product to the Nazis, but ultimately joins the Resistance. Then there's the young Resistance fighter Antoine (Martin Loizillon), who shamefully is forced to leave four buddies behind to be slaughtered by Nazi troops. Finally, there is Schwartz's wife, Jeannine (Emmanuelle Bach) who is determined to survive and prosper, no matter who rules the country.

For me, this is the finest, most engrossing series I've seen since the Spanish "Gran Hotel."

Confirmation (2016 TV Movie)

A Supreme Court confirmation hearing becomes complicated by Anita Hill's charges of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas.

[10/10 · 22 April 2016]

The movie did a fine job of condensing the confirmation hearing of Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court, and Anita Hill's accusations that Thomas had sexually harassed her on numerous occasions and was morally unfit to become a justice. Various issues are explored, including sexual harassment in the workplace, sexual harassment by an African American in the workplace, and sexual harassment by an African American male directed toward an African American female in the workplace. If there is a villain in the piece, it is neither Anita Hill nor Clarence Thomas (beautifully portrayed by Kerry Washington and Wendell Pierce respectively), but the Democratic chairman, Joe Biden (Greg Kinnear), of the Senate committee debating Thomas's qualifications. From start to finish Biden is presented as a wuss, easily swayed and manipulated by Republicans to present Thomas in the best possible light. Along the way, Biden also loses witnesses to affirm Clarence Thomas's alleged behavior toward Anita and other women. The movie confronts the cowardliness of liberal white men (all the Democrats on the committee) dealing with sexual harassment charges that concern a black man, with the possible exception of the late-blooming Edward Kennedy who finally comes to Anita Hill's defense. For the most part, Republicans have a field day in attempting to destroy Anita Hill's reputation with bogus charges while Democrats remain mute. Greg Kinnear is completely credible as Biden as is Treat Williams as Ted Kennedy. The movie stresses how this confirmation hearing resulted in the country's growing sensitivity to sexual harassment. But it also shows how Joe Biden's ineptness results not only in Clarence Thomas's confirmation, but a generation of conservative opinions from the Supreme Court.

The Interview (II) (2014)

The CIA hopes to turn TV celebrity's interview with Kim-Jong-un into an assassination plot.

[6/10 · 25 December 2014]

"The Interview" probably should have been titled, "Dumb and Dumber's North Korean Adventure." James Franco plays a successful TV host named Dave Skylark, who specializes in stupid celebrity interviews: "McConaughey was seen f'ing a goat. We GOTTA get him on the show... AND his goat!" Seth Rogan plays Aaron Rapaport, who produces Dave's show. When they learn that Kim-Jong-un (played by Randall Park), the dictator of North Korea is a big fan, they arrange to go to North Korea for an interview. The CIA has other plans and hopes to turn the interview into an assassination plot. Complications ensue when Skylark is hoodwinked by the dictator, who wishes to present himself as a misunderstood good guy, and Rapaport becomes emotionally involved with Kim's publicist, a beautiful woman named Sook (Diana Bang), who is not all she seems.

Prior to the interview, Kim-Jong-un decides to impress Skylark by showing him his expensive automobile and tank collection. He's particularly proud of one antique tank and boasts, "This was given to my grandfather by Stalin." Skylark smugly replies, "In my country, it's pronounced Stallone." Yep, that's my favorite line.

The Interview is a mildly entertaining comedy, although the last scenes are more in the action-adventure line, when the two men, running for their lives, must escape North Korea. Franco and Rogan have their comedy shtick down pat, but the movie mainly works due to the exceptional performance of Randall Park as the dictator (, who is obviously brighter and better looking than the man he portrays).

SONY was silly to cave in to North Korean demands to pull the movie, or perhaps, SONY just wanted to milk it for more free publicity so that everyone will race to see it when it eventually goes into general release.

Ghost of New Orleans (2011)

A Haunted Noir Thriller

[7/10 · 2 September 2012]

Set in New Orleans, this film is a strange mixture of genres -- part film noir and part ghost story. Josh Lucas plays a detective, guilt-ridden over the shooting of an innocent boy by mistake. He is assigned to a stakeout in an empty house across the street from a suspect, Terrence Howard, who is possibly implicated in a number of bizarre serial killings. The detective soon discovers that the stakeout house has a reputation in the neighborhood of being haunted. A young female musician was murdered there several years earlier, allegedly by her own brother, who has been placed in an asylum for the criminally insane. When the detective discovers he is able to see, hear, and even touch the ghost of this murdered woman, played by Lake Bell, he realizes that she can only find rest if he can find her real killer and thus set the brother (Nick Lashaway) free. Deborah Ann Woll (of "True Blood") and Sharon Leal play friends of the murdered woman, and as such, their own lives may be in jeopardy. Cary Elwes stands out as the villainous owner of a country club that may be a front for drug trading. The movie is an atmospheric indie thriller that manages to be both suspenseful and moderately entertaining, thanks to sterling performances from Josh Lucas and Terrence Howard. Thus far, its only DVD releases that I'm aware of have been in Germany and Australia. Hopefully, it will be available in the U.S. before long.

A Short Stay in Switzerland (2009 TV Movie)

A woman with a hideous, fatal, neurological illness fights to die on her own terms.

[10/10 · 18 July 2012]

After nursing her husband through the last throes of a hideous, debilitating disease, a woman doctor learns that she has a similar illness herself. She determines to die on her own terms, but first, she must convince her three grown children that the time is approaching for them to let her go. The title refers to an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland, where she and her children must travel in secret, due to the harsh laws against such suicides of choice in the U.K. itself. As might be expected, the film has some heart-wrenching moments, sometimes small scenes where the woman bids goodbye to a beloved cat, as well as larger scenes, where her children say their final goodbyes to her. Based on the actual life and death of Dr. Anne Turner, the film features exquisite performances from Julie Waters as the mother, and Stephen Campbell Moore, Lyndsey Marshall, and Liz White as the three adult children. The movie is a plea for the legalization of assisted suicide and the right of everyone to die with dignity. It is not an easy movie to watch but is well worth the experience of having done so.

The Boy Friend (1971)

As Ken Russell intended it

[10/10 · 6 January 2012]

This Ken Russell exercise in excess actually works in this extreme version of Sandy Wilson's 1920s-style musical with its delightful pastiche songs and the addition of several standards. The most important thing about the DVD is that the original 136-minute length has been restored. The 1971 release in the States ran only 109 minutes, so if you remember the original, you're in for a special treat in seeing all the cut numbers and scenes as if they were new.

The movie is a show within a show, with a plot taken from "Forty-Second Street" and married to the stylized Sandy Wilson show, with some fantasy Busby Berkeley-style numbers thrown in for good measure. The ensemble cast is delightful, especially Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Tommy Tune, and the incomparable Glenda Jackson. Ken Russell also makes use of some of his regular stable of actors, including Gable and Jackson, already mentioned, as well Murray Melvin and Georgina Hale. The sets are wonderfully creative, as are the 1920s costumes designed by Ken Russell's wife Shirley.