Posts tagged family
“The Messenger” Sober Notification of War
Mar 4th
Sober Notification of War
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE MESSENGER is about one aspect of the modern-day Army that you don’t see much these days: the notification of next of kin that someone in their family has been killed in war.
However, the focus isn’t on the families who are notified. The focus is on two of the soldiers whose job is to do the notifications.
Ben Foster plays Staff Sgt. Will Montgomery. He was severely injured in combat, he has three months left to serve on his enlistment, and he is assigned to be one-half of the casualty notification team on an Army base.
The other half is Capt. Tony Stone, played by Woody Harrelson. Capt. Stone is a veteran at this unpleasant duty, and he tells Sgt. Montgomery, “We’re just here for notification, not God, not heaven.”
As further instruction, Capt. Stone says, “You do not speak with anyone other than next of kin. Avoid physical contact. In case you feel like offering a hug, don’t.”
And as one final word of advice, Capt. Stone says, “I should warn you, some of them do have guns.”
Their first notification together doesn’t go well at all, not that you could imagine that any of them would be easy.
Capt. Stone reveals to Sgt. Montgomery that he has been sober for three years and doesn’t drink anything stronger than soda pop. Although now single, he has been married three times, twice to the same woman.
Sgt. Montgomery, on the other hand, has just been informed by his girlfriend that she is getting married soon and to someone he knows.
Sgt. Montgomery tells Capt. Stone that he is ready to handle the second notification, and he informs a man that his son has been killed in combat, but that one doesn’t go well, either.
Finally, their third notification together goes better, this one to a woman about her husband, but Sgt. Montgomery gets affected enough to return to the widow’s house to see how she is holding up.
There are other encounters, as well, in public, and eventually the two of them become friends, which is strictly against Capt. Stone’s directions.
Unfortunately, Harrelson is all quirky mannerisms, and he acts as if he is always trying to upstage the other person, even when he is the only one onscreen.
THE MESSENGER is a sober notification of war.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Extraordinary Measures” Feel-Good Weepie
Jan 28th
Feel-Good Weepie
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES starts off by stating that it is “Inspired by true events,” and you wonder how that knowledge is supposed to make us feel about the movie.
Is that simply a label of truth in advertising, or have we become so bombarded by so-called “reality television” shows that filmmakers believe that audiences will be more respectful than if the source material were just pure fiction?
At any rate, Brandon Fraser plays John Crowley, who really does exist, and this movie is based on the story of him, his family, and their struggles to achieve something remarkable, whereas Harrison Ford gets second billing in the credits, and his character, Dr. Robert Stonehill, is a composite of the doctors who helped Crowley achieve what he did.
You may even be surprised at how Ford pulls out his acting chops and shows some true emotions.
The movie begins with the birthday party of eight-year-old Megan Crowley, the daughter of John and his wife, Aileen, played by Keri Russell.
Megan is confined to a wheelchair, because she has Pompe disease, a form of muscular dystrophy, which tends to be fatal in children by the time they are nine or ten years old.
Megan gets a cold the next day, but has to go to the hospital, where the doctor tells her parents that she is not responding well.
So, Crowley does some research, and he learns about a scientist in Lincoln, Nebraska, who is working on a cure for Pompe disease. Dr. Stonehill has unusual work habits, and Crowley eventually travels to Nebraska to meet with Stonehill personally.
When Crowley finally manages to find him and tell him about his daughter, Dr. Stonehill says gruffly, “I do research. I don’t see patients.”
Crowley also has a six-year-old son who suffers from the disease, too, and when Stonehill says that half of his grants don’t even get approved, Crowley makes the rash promise that he will raise the necessary $500,000 for Stonehill to complete his laboratory work.
Then the rest of the movie is about how the two men set up their own bio-tech company and their race against time to save Crowley’s children, overcome their difficulties working with each other, and raise the money to become successful.
EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES is a feel-good weepie, but it is a good feel-good weepie.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“A Single Man” An Unhappy Man
Jan 20th
An Unhappy Man
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
A SINGLE MAN looks terrific and strives to be momentous, but to steal a line from the legendary animator Chuck Jones, deep down it is pretty shallow.
The time is 1962, and Colin Firth plays George Falconer, a college professor of literature in Los Angeles who is gay.
Firth has already won a Best Actor award for this role and has received other Best Actor nominations, as well.
The story begins one morning when George wakes up, and we hear him say in a voice-over, “For the past six months, waking up has actually hurt.”
You see, six months earlier George’s lover, Jim, was killed in an automobile accident, and George’s heart was broken. George can’t see his future, but today, he has decided, will be different.
George gets dressed, and he puts a novel by Aldous Huxley and an empty revolver in his briefcase, which appear to be ominous, but all will be explained later.
Throughout the film, we see unsettling images that don’t appear to have anything to do with the story, and we also get flashbacks that represent George’s memories of his life with Jim and the 16 years that they were together.
When George arrives at his office, a secretary tells him that she had given his home address that morning to a student who had asked for it. That student turns out to be Kenny, a young man in George’s literature class, and Kenny will keep turning up in the story.
Julianne Moore plays Charlotte, who also plays an important role in the story, and who is a close friend of George’s and the first one he turned to for comfort the night he was informed of Jim’s death.
There are also interactions with a neighbor family that don’t seem to have anything to do with the story except to establish that George isn’t very sociable on this day, which he admits is kind of a serious day for him.
George claims that he is exactly what he appears to be, if you look closely enough, but he does have some surprises for the audience in his behavior on this day in his life.
A SINGLE MAN is simply a day in the life of an unhappy man, but the story is past its prime in terms of shock value in every aspect.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”