Movie Reviews
By Kam Williams
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Film Reviews by Kam Williams
Apocalypto
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Mel Gibson Makes Amends With Messy Mayan Misadventure
About the best that can be said for Mel Gibson’s overblown Apocalypto is that at least it isn’t anti-Semitic. A pretentious saga of Shakespearean proportions, it is set in pre-Columbian Mexico around 1517 AD, during the declining days of the Mayan Civilization. Though purporting to explore a litany of themes from revenge to rebirth to redemption, this messy, mythical tale is essentially a high-octane action flick masquerading as a cerebral costume drama.
Given that his previous movie grossed a half-billion at the box-office, Mel must have decided that it would be okay to ask his audience to endure another flick filled with dialogue in a dead language. But The Passion of the Christ’s combination of Latin and Aramaic was tolerable because his built-in target audience didn’t really need the subtitles to follow his nearly literal interpretation of familiar Biblical passages from the Gospels. Unfortunately, Apocalypto amounts to more of a test of patience, since you’re definitely dependent on reading the translation of its obscure Mayan dialect to comprehend the play-by-play.
As the film unfolds, we’re introduced to its protagonist, Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), a noble brave who lives with his family in a community of peace-loving natives in the jungle on the Yucatan Peninsula. During the get-acquainted portion of the picture, it is established that that this primitive, scantily-clad tribe of hunter-gatherers likes to tease and play practical jokes on each other.
For example, they are endlessly entertained by embarrassing a flaccid, butt-flapped fatso mercilessly about his erectile dysfunction issues to the point of absurdity. And everybody joins in: his buddies, his mother-in-law, even a mischievous village elder who feigns sympathy only to trick him into applying an herbal remedy which scalds his loins and his wife’s mouth. Hah-hah.
Segueing abruptly from laughter to slaughter, Apocalypto interrupts their innocence irreversibly with the arrival of an army of plundering marauders looking for females to rape and for males to offer-up as human sacrifices to the gods. Just before he’s dragged off in a forced march to a Mayan metropolis, the quick-thinking Jaguar Paw lowers his young son and his very pregnant wife (Dalia Hernandez) into a Saddam-like rabbit hole hidden nearby, vowing to return to rescue them.
Upon the captives’ arrival in the ancient city, Jaguar and his comrades are body-painted in preparation for decapitation on a sky-high altar before the court of the king. Of course, our dashing hero somehow escapes, miraculously, and the chase is on. Thus, begins his Ulysses-quality return trip home, a harrowing ordeal, where he must survive by his wits if he is ever to be reunited with his family. Fortunately, Jaquar not only has nine lives, but knows the forest intimately. So, nothing -- poisonous snakes, quicksand, killer bees, blow guns, spears, knives, traps, arrows, nor a plunge over a waterfall -- can deter him from his destiny.
More like an unapologetically violent video game than a history lesson, the bloodletting in Apocalypto pauses only briefly, sprinkling the screen with silly, off-color asides, and distracting allusions to other screen classics. But you have to wonder what Mel was thinking when he decided to have scenes such as a macho Mayan making his way through a busy thoroughfare, barking “I’m walking here!” ala Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy (1969).
Not a good sign when the most memorable moment of a fable set in the 16th Century has you reminiscing about Dustin Hoffman pounding on a cab in the middle of Broadway.
Rated: R for profanity, graphic violence, female frontal nudity, and disturbing images.
Running time: 134 minutes
Studio: Touchstone Pictures
Forgiveness
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More Truth Than Reconciliation In Post-Apartheid Revenge Flick
Tertius Coetzee’s (Arnold Vosloo) was tormented by the guilt he felt over atrocities he committed on behalf of South Africa’s repressive apartheid regime. So, the disgraced police officer testified before the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, expecting to cleanse his conscience of the torture he perpetrated.
But when he continued to be plagued by memories of his role in the murders of African National Congress (ANC) activists, Coetzee decided to visit the family of one of his victims, Daniel Grotbroom, hoping to receive additional absolution that might help him finally find peace. So, he traveled sand-swept roads across a barren landscape to the tiny fishing village of Paternoster, a so-called “colored” community, where he has an emotional meeting with the 21-year-old freedom fighter’s parents.
Although the couple is still grieving, they entertain their son’s killer in their home. We learn that Daniel’s nearly-mute mother Magda (Denise Newman) hasn’t left the house in the three years since his death, and that his embarrassed father, Hendrik (Zane Meas), is in denial about his son’s having joining the revolution.
After apologizing awkwardly, the contrite assassin selfishly insists on relating the gory details of Daniel’s final hours on Earth, presumably because he still has not achieved any sense of catharsis. This doesn’t sit well with his brother, Ernest (Christo Davids), who proceeds to crack a pot over Coetzee’s cranium. Then, when the stranger announces his plans to leave town, another sibling, sister Sannie (Quanita Adams), intervenes, suggesting that he spend the night because his continued presence would help her parents to recover.
But what Coetzee doesn’t know is that Sannie has a hidden agenda, for she has secretly already summoned some of her brother’s former ANC comrades to exact a measure of revenge. And the question of whether they will arrive in time supplies the palpable tension permeating Forgiveness, a riveting drama which presents a plausible picture of a South Africa where Black-white relations remain edgy in spite of the blanket amnesty conferred by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Equal parts mystery and morality play, the movie effectively makes the point that the past can’t be so easily erased by a simple act of repentance, however sincere.
Unrated
In English and Afrikaans with subtitles
Running time: 112 minutes
Studio: California Newsreel
Blood Diamond
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High-Impact African Action Flick A Flawed Gem
Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a soldier of fortune from  Zimbabwe, is in destabilized Sierra Leone to exchange arms for diamonds with the highest bidder, whether the government or the rebel led Revolutionary United Front (RUF). You see, this white Rhodesian is bitter about the loss of a birthplace he still refers to by its colonial name. So, he could care less how much blood is shed during Sierra Leone’s interminable civil war, so long as the violence is basically Black versus Black, and he is able to profit from the incessant slaughter.
By contrast, Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) is a local fisherman from the Mende tribe who would like nothing more than to leave his homeland, but first he has to find his family which has vanished amidst the chaos, and he has no idea whether they’re dead or alive. Luckily, Solomon had the good fortune to find a priceless stone while being forced to dig for diamonds at gunpoint by the outlawed RUF. The problem is that he had to bury the gem on the mining site, because he would have been executed on the spot, if caught stealing.
Meanwhile, Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), an intrepid American journalist, is in the country doing research for an expose’ she wants to write on the role that the diamond industry plays in the continuing controversy by its unethical emphasis on profits over principles. It’s hard to see how the fates of these three strangers, Danny, Solomon and Maddy, might become intertwined, but that is exactly what transpires in Blood Diamond, a taut, if simplistically drawn thriller directed by Edward Zwick (Glory).
Set in Sierra Leone in 1999, the movie is essentially a high body-count, action-adventure despite its political potboiler pretensions. Fortunately, those interested in a more cerebral examination of the subject matter need look no further than the informative documentary Empire in Africa, also currently in theaters.
Though filmed in Mozambique and South Africa, Blood Diamond is pure Hollywood, a hair-raising roller coaster ride rife with gunplay and pyrotechnics. Plus, it comes multi-layered with sentimental subplots at every turn, from the unlikely buddy relationship between Danny and Solomon to a budding romance between Maddy and Danny to Maddy’s maternalistic concern for the whereabouts of Solomon’s kin.
Turns out his wife (Benu Mabhena) and children are in a refugee camp except for one son (Caruso Kaypers) who has been kidnapped and brainwashed by the rebels. Seemingly impervious to bullets, again and again, our heroes manage to emerge unscathed from dire scenarios where everyone else is dropping like flies.
DiCaprio, Hounsou and Connelly turn in decent performances, even if in service of a flick where they’re upstaged by ubiquitous savagery. Ultimately, all the loose ends of this well-meaning fairy tale are tied together nicely, albeit a tad too sappily for those who know what a hellhole of ethnic cleansing Sierra Leone was really like.
Rated: R for expletives, ethnic slurs, and graphic violence.
Running time: 138 minutes
Studio: Warner Brothers
Bobby
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RFK Assassination Revisited As “Crash” Style Roundelay
Once Crash landed the Academy Award for Best Picture, it was only a matter of time before other ensemble dramas exploring explosive social issues from a variety of perspectives would begin arriving in theaters. Bobby is one such expanded-cast production, a period piece which features 22 people whose lives partially overlap inside L.A.’s Ambassador Hotel on June 4, 1968.
The date and location are of considerable historical significance, since these events are unfolding at the site of the assassination of Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy during the hours leading up to his being shot by Palestinian terrorist Sirhan Sirhan (David Kobzantsev) in a hotel hallway.
Written and directed by Emilio Estevez, Bobby features more famous faces than any film since, well since Crash. There’s Estevez, his father, Martin Sheen, Oscar-winners Helen Hunt and Sir Anthony Hopkins, nominees Laurence Fishburne, William H. Macy, and Sharon Stone, plus other accomplished actors like Christian Slater, Lindsay Lohan, Harry Belafonte, Demi Moore, Heather Graham, Nick Cannon, Elijah Wood, Joy Bryant, Freddy Rodriguez and Shia LaBeouf, to name a few.
Ala Forrest Gump, the movie takes considerable liberties with the truth, weaving in fictional characters, including all five bystanders hit by stray bullets. The real-life victims were Erwin Stroll, 17, a Kennedy campaign worker; Paul Schrade, 43, a United Auto Workers labor leader; Ira Goldstein, 19, an employee of Continental News Service; William Weisel, 30, an associate director with ABC-TV; and Elizabeth Evans, 43, a housewife.
However, names and professions have been changed, and now we suddenly find each in the midst of some sort of personal crisis. Timmons (Slater), the Ambassador’s kitchen manager, has just been fired by his boss (Macy) for being a racist; draft dodger William (Wood) is torn about marrying Diane (Lindsay Lohan) in the hotel chapel, not for love, but in order to avoid being sent to Vietnam.
Samantha (Helen Hunt) is a superficial shrew who’s pressuring her sugar daddy hubby to buy her a pair of shoes she doesn’t really need. And Jimmy (LaBeouf) and Cooper (Brian Geraghty) are Kennedy staffers who decide to drop acid and goof off, in lieu of getting out the vote on the day of the critical California Primary. Because this group is comprised of morally-flawed individuals, the picture seems to suggest, albeit perversely, that maybe they’re getting what they deserve on some spiritual level.
Don’t forget that there are 17 additional relatively plebian plotlines to keep track of, all against the ominous air of an impending disaster. Trying a tad too hard to generate chemistry akin to the aforementioned Crash, we find Bobby focusing on the tensions which ensue at the flashpoints of the intersection of different ethnic groups. Too bad the picture doesn’t devote sufficient time to these petty controversies to enable the audience to make an emotional investment in their resolutions.
With a gifted cast crippled by his own flawed script, director Estevez serves up a series of simplistically-drawn, cardboard cut-out archetypes. It’s hard to recommend any docudrama very heartily, when its most memorable scenes are contained in archival montages culled from already familiar file footage.
On the grand scale, Bobby is a nostalgic eulogy, bemoaning a naïve nation’s loss of innocence in the aftermath of the late Sixties. Meanwhile, on a micro level, it’s more like Thornton Wilder’s literary classic, Bridge of San Luis Rey.
An intimate tale about strangers oblivious to their imminent rendezvous with destiny and with RFK at the fateful moment when Sirhan decides to strike.
Rated: R for profanity, ethnic slurs, violence, and drug use.
Running time: 119 minutes
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Déjà Vu
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Denzel Travels Back In Time To Undo Disaster And Find Love In Dizzying Sci-Fi Thriller
ATF Agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) is one of the first feds on the scene following an explosion aboard a ferry shuttling members of the military and their families between New Orleans’ Algiers and Canal Street piers. Over five hundred passengers perish in the fiery inferno, and Doug suspects it to be the work of a terrorist as soon as he discovers traces of a weapon of mass destruction amidst the charred bodies bobbing in the water and washing up along the banks of the Mississippi River.
In fact, he has an uncanny knack for identifying material evidence, since everything he touches seems to fill in another piece of a puzzle which is totally baffling the local police. Then, Carlin’s already admirable efforts are augmented immeasurably when he is joined in the investigation by FBI Agent Andrew Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer), for Pryzwarra is privy to a top secret project at headquarters which enables the government to observe anyone anywhere via a complex series of interconnected satellites.
For some reason, the tape-delayed system always shows events on the screen which transpired precisely four days and six hours ago. This means that all the authorities have to do to crack the case is point their time machine at the pier from which the ferry embarked and watch until the mastermind (Jim Caviezel) appears.
But the plot thickens when Doug posthumously becomes obsessed with one of the victims, a pretty young woman named Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton). Upon closer inspection, not only does he discern that she was dead before the bombing, but that she probably had contact of some sort with the perpetrator. He also becomes smitten with the curvy cutie after watching her undress and take a shower courtesy of this marvel of modern technology.
So, instead of waiting four days to figure it all out, Agent Carlin comes up with the bright idea of teleporting himself back in time to try to prevent the attack from ever happening. Of course, the FBI scientists all object, but capitulate after warning Doug that he’s risking his life, because the process is yet to be perfected.
This preposterous premise is the point of departure of Déjà Vu, a dialogue-driven, sci-fi adventure directed by Tony Scott. Heavy-laden with pretentious, pseudo-scientific jargon about “worm holes” and “space folding in upon itself,” the movie marks the third collaboration between Scott and star Denzel Washington, following earlier outings in Crimson Tide (1995) and Man on Fire (2004).
Best described as a cross between Minority Report (2002) and Frequency (2000), this slight variation on the time travel theme will engage you to the extent that you are able to forgive a script which repeatedly relies on cartoon physics to explain away every improbable plot development. The movie cleverly mixes the former’s “catch a crook before he commits a crime” idea with the latter’s more sentimental notion of “going back in order to save a loved one.”
The film was shot in The Big Easy post Katrina, but generally avoids exploiting the devastation as a backdrop except for an extended scene through the Lower Ninth Ward. The supporting cast includes Elle Fanning (sister of Dakota) who makes a couple of cameo appearances in an insignificant wraparound role.
Aptly titled, Déjà Vu is an edge of your seat roller coaster ride, but one you’ll be convinced you’ve been on before.
Rated: PG-13 for sensuality, disturbing images, female frontal nudity, and intense terror and violence.
Running time: 128 minutes
Studio: Touchstone Pictures
The Empire In Africa
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Disturbing Documentary Graphically Chronicles Sierra Leone’s Civil War 
If you want an unblinking, bird’s eye view of man’s inhumanity to man, then look no further than The Empire in Africa, a shocking film featuring more bloodletting than your average teen slasher flick, only for real. Narrated by Richie Havens, this almost unbearable expose’ chronicles the civil strife inside Sierra Leone.
For fifteen years, rebels have attempted to wrest control of the country from a ruthless regime which has ruled by any means necessary at the behest of powerful, neo-imperial interests. Apparently, these mighty mega-corporations control 100 percent of the economy, and could care less what form of repressive tactics are employed by their puppet potentate, so long as he is able to guarantee their continued unimpeded access to the nation’s natural resources.
Somehow afforded an unusual opportunity to observe the unrelenting bloodletting, director Philippe Diaz’s cameras capture extreme close-ups of torture of every nature. From amputations of children’s limbs to beheadings of traitors’ heads to executions of anybody simply suspected of sympathizing with the enemy, Sierra Leone is a godforsaken hell on Earth that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.
Is a documentary crossing an ethical line when it graphically depicts such senseless slaughter without averting the lens? How about if it shows a flock of buzzards picking at a pile of corpses? Or if it calmly interviews a frightened prisoner moments before his body is ripped to shreds by a burst of gunfire from an automatic weapon?
Regardless, this host of horrors is rife with shocking scenarios certain to induce nightmares. Yet it is a most convincing indictment of the West, including its governments, multi-nationals, mass media, and even the United Nations as un-indicted co-conspirators in the exploitation of not merely Sierra Leone, but of most of Africa. Highly recommended as a sobering companion piece to Hollywood’s relatively-sanitized version of the same subject-matter in Blood Diamond.
Just remember, not for the squeamish. You wuz warned.
Unrated
In French, English and local dialects with subtitles.
Running time: 87 minutes
Studio: Cinema Libre
Family Law (Derecho de Familia)
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Son Grudgingly Follows In Father Footsteps In Dysfunctional Family Drama
Ariel Perelman (Daniel Hendler) is a nice Jewish boy who is following in his father Bernardo’s (Arturo Goetz) footsteps. A bit of a nebbish, Ariel never stopped to ask himself whether he really wanted to be a lawyer, too, but simply became one because it was the right thing to do so that he could one day inherit the thriving family business. For, his dad, as one of the most highly-respected attorneys in Buenos Aires, had built both a business and reputation which was the envy of all his colleagues.
Unfortunately, Ariel’s issues don’t end with his choice of a vocation, since even his picture-perfect home life appears to be the result of a master plan dreamed-up by someone else. His attractive wife, Sandra (Julieta Diaz), is an athletic Pilates teacher, and together they’re raising an adorable toddler, Gaston (Eloy Burman), in their sumptuous suburban home.
So, what’s wrong with this picture? Nothing, except for the fact that Ariel has it all, yet still feels vaguely unfulfilled, as if he never had a chance to figure out what would bring his soul bliss. And though his friends might suggest finding a mistress or a new line of work to make up for the lack of a spark, he has no interest in cheating, because he does truly love Sandra, or quitting, because he admires his father just as much.
Ariel’s vaguely-defined, middle-age malaise is the theme explored in Family Law, a deceptively delightful meditation on the meaning of life in these modern times. Written and directed by Argentinean Daniel Burman, the movie is unique in that its protagonist neither sinks to depression nor resorts to a sensational diversion to escape his predicament.
To the contrary, he keeps his nose to the grindstone, dutifully laboring in the shadow of his famous and more gifted father, though clearly discontent. He perseveres even after his dad dies, when he suddenly seeing the seeds of his own son’s future in himself for the first time. At this juncture, Ariel’s flat affect barely betrays that he’s grappling with whether to steer impressionistic Gaston gradually towards the law, or to allow the boy to grow up to be whatever he wishes.
A cautionary tale about the folly of trying to live up to others’ expectations.
Unrated
In Spanish with subtitles
Running time: 102 minutes
Studio: IFC First Take
Dreamgirls
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Jennifer Hudson Steals the Show in Adaptation of Tony Award-Winning Musical 
Generally speaking, this critic has been woefully under whelmed by latter-day screen adaptations of celebrated Broadway musicals. The primary problem with the genre has been that even as films, they still tend to look like stage productions, thereby failing to take advantage of the array of spatial, temporal, visual, aural and technical enhancements suddenly made available by the shift to the cinematic medium.
Therefore, it’s a very pleasant surprise to discover that Dreamgirls offers an experience which actually feels like you’re watching a movie, not merely a taped version of what you’ve already caught in the theater. Oscar-winner Bill Condon (for the script of Gods and Monsters) earns considerable kudos in this regard, since he not only directs here, but wrote the screenplay based on the Tony award-winning play which opened to critical acclaim 25 years ago.
Condon assembled a most impressive cast for the project from top to bottom, including a number of marquee names capable of carrying a movie on their own, from Academy Award-winner Jamie Foxx to Grammy Award-winners Beyonce’ Knowles and Eddie Murphy to NAACP Image Award-winners Danny Glover and Jaleel “Urkel” White to Tony Award-winners Hinton Battle and Anika Noni Rose, to Emmy-winner John Lithgow.
Ironically, praiseworthy performances by all of the above were easily overshadowed by the spellbinding debut of a relative unknown, an American Idol also-ran, in fact. No, not tone-deaf William Hung, but Jennifer Hudson, who came in seventh during the reality-TV series’ third season. You might remember her, because her surprising elimination from the contest had prompted guest judge Sir Elton John to speculate that racism must have played a part in the results of the voting.
That’s all water under the bridge now, because Hudson manages to upstage even Beyonce’ in Dreamgirls, bringing down the house as Effie Melody White, recreating the Tony-winning role originated on Broadway by Jennifer Holliday. The corpulent crowd-pleaser got a standing ovation during the screening I attended, this in response to her spirited rendition of “And I Am Telling You.”
Ostensibly inspired by the real-life story of The Supremes, this “Up from Nothing” saga, set in the Sixties, revolves around the trials and tribulations of the members of an all-girl singing group. Beyonce’ plays Deena Jones (aka Diana Ross), while Ms. Rose plays Lorrell Robinson (aka Mary Wilson), and Sharon Leal plays Effie’s eventual replacement Michelle Morris (aka Cindy Birdsong).
The crib sheet of the storyline reads as follows: The Dreamettes, a promising trio trying to sing their way out of the slums of Detroit, are discovered by Curtis Taylor, Jr. (Foxx), a Cadillac dealer/fledgling manager who signs them as a back-up group for headliner James “Thunder” Early (Murphy). After touring on the Chitlin’ Circuit, the girls eventually hit the road on their own, seeking to generate crossover audience appeal as The Dreams, but not before full-figured Effie is pushed first out of the spotlight, then out of the group entirely, in favor of the slimmer, more appealing Deena.
The Dreams go on to fame and fortune sans Effie, though she ultimately exacts a measure of revenge by launching a successful solo career. What some might not know is that Effie died in the first version of the play, because the character had been carefully patterned after the ill-fated Flo Ballard. That Supreme, fired in 1967, spiraled down into depression and alcoholism before passing away prematurely while on welfare at the tender age of only 32.
Fortunately, the show’s producers abided by Jennifer Holliday’s request to put a positive spin on Effie’s exit from the mythical Dreams, and the rest is showbiz history. As a consequence, Dreamworks has a surefire hit on its hands, and Jennifer Hudson is the early favorite for an Academy Award. Expect additional Oscar buzz to swirl around others in the cast and crew, especially Eddie Murphy who enjoys his best outing since Shrek as a flamboyant composite James Brown and Marvin Gaye.
But make no mistake, this is Jennifer Hudson’s coming out party!
Rated: PG-13 for sex, expletives, and drug use.
Running time: 125 minutes
Studio: Dreamworks Pictures
The Architect
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Cross-Cultural Melodrama Contrasts The Fates Of Blacks Versus Whites In Chicago
Tonya Neeley (Viola Davis) is a single-mom struggling to survive in a crime-infested housing project. Since she’s already lost her son to suicide, she’s allowed his twin sister, Cammie (Serena Reeder) to live across town with a bourgie Black family. Meanwhile, Tonya remains mired in poverty in the ghetto with her other daughter (Nicole Salter) who herself is an unwed mother.
Their plight stands in stark contrast to that of the Waters, who live beyond the reach of the slums in an upscale enclave on the North Side of Chicago.
Though Leo (Anthony LaPaglia), a renowned architect, keeps his kin comfortably in the lap of luxury, they still each are grappling with an emotional issue.
His nearly-mute wife, Julia (Isabella Rossellini), a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, wanders around the house in a semi-catatonic state because she can’t stand the sight of her husband. Fifteen-year-old daughter Christina (Hayden Panettiere) is a precocious post-pubescent intent on losing her virginity ASAP. And her big brother Martin (Sebastian Stan) is a kinky college dropout who can’t decide whether he has the hots for his sister or Jungle Fever for Shawn (Paul James), a homosexual hooker from the ‘hood.
The only reason why the Neeley and Waters clans cross paths is because Tonya is a community activist who is petitioning to have the projects where she resides demolished and replaced by more humane structures. And wouldn’t you know that the place was designed by Leo, who considers his creation a masterpiece. So, their steely standoff sits at the heart of The Architect, an inner-city-meets-suburbia melodrama based on the stage play of the same name by David Greig.
What makes the movie satisfying is the fact that its ethnic tensions are never overtly exacerbated, but rather subtly illustrated simply by the comparison of the decadent malaise of the spoiled-rotten versus the never-ending nightmare of the have-nots. A gritty, class-conscious picture which dares to ask the tough questions guaranteed to make an audience squirm.
Rated: R for profanity and sexual content.
Running time: 82 minutes
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
The Pursuit Of Happyness
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Down On His Luck Vet Goes From Broke And Homeless To Successful Stockbroker In Inspirational Bio-Pic
In 2003, the ABC-TV newsmagazine 20/20 ran a story about an honorably-discharged, Navy veteran who had fallen on such hard times that he ended up homeless and struggling to survive by his wits on the streets of San Francisco. In the heartbreaking segment, Chris Gardner recounted how, after being abandoned by his wife, evicted from his apartment, having his account frozen by the IRS, and having his car repossessed, he and his five year-old son soon bottomed-out with no hope in sight. The two ended up eating at soup kitchens, sleeping in church shelters and subway stations, and bathing in public bathrooms, until the frustrated father finally figured a way to extract them from their dire circumstances.
But like the hero of your typical Horatio Alger story, Gardner pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, starting out as an intern at a leading stock brokerage firm. He then parlayed that position into his own entrepreneurial venture and, as the founder of Christopher Gardner International Holdings, built the multi-million-dollar financial services empire which still bears his name today. After watching the aforementioned 20/20 episode, actor Mark Clayman approached Gardner about gaining the rights to turn his rags-to-riches tale into a major motion picture.
The upshot is a crowd-pleasing production called The Pursuit of Happyness, one of those uplifting, overcoming-the-odds “miracle” movies which seem to be released every year around Christmastime. This inspirational bio-pic features Will and Jaden Smith, as Chris and Chris, Jr., respectively. The real-life father-son duo has no trouble generating screen chemistry, here, being already rather relaxed with each other, quite naturally. And as it turns out, Jaden is just as likable and as charismatic as his famous father.
Thandie Newton co-stars as Chris’ fed-up ex, Linda, and the cast also includes Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer Simpson) as Alan Frakesh, the Dean Witter executive who gives Chris his shot at redemption, as well as Reverend Cecil Williams and Chris Gardner, himself, in cameo appearances. But make no mistake, this is a Will and Jaden Smith vehicle, their characters’ plight contrasting sharply with the array of spectacular Bay Area locales employed as backdrops.
The movie takes its title, complete with misspelling, from the name of the Chinatown daycare center where Chris drops off his little boy each weekday until what little money he has left runs out. At the point of departure, we find Chris putting in long hours as a door-to-door salesman of an obsolete bone-density machine of not much interest to doctors. Meanwhile, his equally-exhausted spouse is holding down a trio of minimum-wage, part-time positions, yet the couple still can’t seem to make ends meet.
Then, in short order, Chris is beset by more tests than Job in the Bible, losing everything near and dear to him except his son. Yet despite being down, he is never embittered by his predicament, even maintaining his sense of humor and quick wit during his Dean Witter interview when Mr. Frakesh asks how he should explain hiring a man not wearing a shirt to superiors. “He must have had on some really nice pants,” Chris responds without missing a beat, exhibiting a charm reminiscent of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
Expect to laugh as much as you cry during this touching tearjerker.
Rated: PG-13 for profanity.
Running time: 116 minutes
Studio: Columbia Pictures
We Are Marshall
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Bittersweet Gridiron Flick Revisits Aftermath Of Airplane Crash 
On November 14, 1970, 45 members of Marshall University’s football team and coaching staff along with 25 boosters perished en route home from a game against East Carolina when their DC-9 crashed during its approach, less than a mile from the airport. The loss took a great toll on the tiny town of Huntington, West Virginia, where the school is located, because so many lives were affected by the accident.
While the administration initially decided to discontinue the football team entirely, Dean Donald Dedman (David Strathairn) was convinced to reconsider by a student body led by the handful of players and the assistant coach who hadn’t been aboard the fateful flight. Although it would take over a decade for the program to return to prominence, that persistence ultimately paid off.
We Are Marshall, however, is an unusual sports flick, in that it is less concerned with the university’s ensuing gridiron feats than with how members of both the campus and the local communities dealt with their grief in the wake of the disaster. The film stars Matthew McConaughey as Jack Lengyel, the replacement coach brought in to resurrect the team from a combination of junior varsity players, walk-ons, and fresh recruits. And Anthony Mackie co-stars as Nate Ruffin, a junior co-captain who had been left behind on November 14th because of a shoulder injury.
The movie marks a radical departure for director McG, whose previous credits include relatively superficial fare, namely, Charlie’s Angels 1 & 2, and a host of music videos. But he more than meets the challenge, employing a talented ensemble to convey the nagging pall which apparently had permeated Huntington in the wake of its enormous loss.
To its credit, the movie does its best to avoid the tried and true staples of the sports genre, such as that ubiquitous moment when the underdogs win the big showdown with a highly-touted rival. So, what ultimately makes We Are Marshall special is that the satisfaction which it delivers doesn’t emanate from a cliché victory scene, but rather from an assortment of touching tableaus all along the way of the town’s painful healing process.
Bittersweet, but more than worth the emotional investment.
Rated: PG for mild epithets, mature themes, and a plane crash.
Running time: 127 minutes
Studio: Warner Brothers
Sylvester Stallone takes Rocky one more round>>
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