Reviews

After some recent disappointments in food film -- especially "Big Night" -- it's wonderful to find a film like "Mostly Martha" that hits on all burners. This is what kitchens are like and this is how food is prepared...it's a beautiful work that reaches to the most intimate part of the consumer, just as good food does. The story is not complicated: a tightly wrapped woman chef has to explore her life and motivations when her young niece comes into her home and her kitchen. A slightly shabby-looking but wonderfully warm Italian cook is another key ingredient in the preparation of this not entirely predictable recipe. Don't bother with popcorn when you see this one; just make a reservation at the best restaurant you can afford for afters...you'll be very hungry. It's fun to see a film about people who are professionals that has no hookers, cops, lawyers, doctors or hair stylists...actors and direction combine to make this an excellent little movie.

As Katherine Hepburn is said to have said of Astaire and Rogers as a team: "She gives him sex appeal and he gives her class." The terminally annoying Gwyneth Paltrow fakes another English accent-pastiche (is she Sloane Square, or is she Oxbridge...or Shoreditch...or all?) that would have driven Prof Higgins mad is there for the SA, along with the ultimately attractive but unwashed/unshaven Aaron Eckardt (sp?) who can't wait to unpin her chignon and reveal the beauty he's sure she must be... And meanwhile, in the background, the class is provided in heaping bucketsful by the ineffable Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle, struggling to get our attention with the real drama, the real story. It's just not fair. Headliner Paltrow guaranteed the movie would be made, but it's Northam and Ehle who make it worth seeing. It's fun to see Tobey Stephens, handsome son of his handsome late father Sir Robert and mother Dame Maggie Smith as a creepy academic. And Anna Massey simply glows in a small role. But rather than see this film, go to any of Northam's and Ehle's previous excellent outings...

Was there ever a more relaxed, charming rogue than Frederic March? He would have been a perfect James Bond, had the role been available to him in the '30s. As it is, he made do spectacularly with this one: he's Sam Wye, a former SFPD detective, hired to find and bring back the luminous Joan Bennett, who's suspected of murdering Sidney Blackmer... When her car goes into the Bay, she swims ashore and goes on the run... The action roves as the trade winds of the title, straying from the piers of the city by the Bay to Honolulu, Singapore, Tokyo, Hanoi, and Colombo, Ceylon. Ralph Bellamy,side-hick to March, sez: "Colombo? I thought that was in Ohio..." Ann Sothern is glamorous, and Joan Bennett sizzles. This is the movie in which she dyed her hair black -- and then kept it dark for the next 50 years...leaving the blonde Bennett roles to sister Constance. As a glimpse of pre-War Asia, and an insight into the world before terrorism, this is a charming and lovely memory. You'll yearn for the time when cruise attire was more than sweatsuits and sneakers...and all this with dialog by Dorothy Parker!

This is almost a shot-for-shot remake of the 1929 "Street Girl," which was equally cheerless but at least had better musical performances... Betty Compson played the violin and Jack Oakie shimmied in that one. But in the hurry to make movies during the war, they made the nimble Ray Bolger boring and whiny. Anne Shirley has great clothes for a homeless girl, and Desi Arnaz is both handsome and comprehensible in English, so you do wonder what happened to him by his "Lucy" days. This was on very late one night, so it was worth watching under those circumstances -- but otherwise, don't bother. This is a dead man's hand, indeed.

There is much laughter from the audience for this wonderful film, but the laughs gradually become uneasy and scarce as we realize this charmingly presented tale is not a comedy but a little tragedy, after all. The ineffable Colm Meaney (as Harry Maloney) gives the performance of a lifetime as an ignorant but sly peasant farmer who happens to be Irish, but could be any nationality. The story is from a Chinese source; a multinational cast and crew underscore the point. Think Balkans; think Chechyna; think Quebec; think Alabama -- rural places where people have hated others for so long no one knows why. It's a classic tragic tale: Harry entangles his family and neighbors in his web of anger and revenge for imagined slights because he really can't do anything else. The skies and hills are stunningly beautiful, and every detail of the film is pitch-perfect. Go, be charmed and laugh, but be prepared to stop laughing when the sadness of these lives overwhelms you. A fine movie!

What a relief to see a film about the 17th century that does not feature Gerard Depardieu! Wonderful fashion detailing and locations support a serious history lesson on how music and theater were key to the success of Louis XIV. One of the best exemplars of how young men measure themselves by their physical abilities, the film provides a unique timeline for the long reign of Louis. He grows from an unsure child into a confident (well, yes, arrogant) man -- and partly this is accomplished through his passionate involvement in music and dance. Think of the foolish Emperor in "Amadeus," telling Mozart there are "too many notes," and then see this depiction of a king who actually understands and appreciates music. Yes, of course, peasants were mistreated and millions starved, but we don't see that part of 17th century France. That is another story, another film. This one is stunningly beautiful; like great art, some of these images may never fade from your mind's eye.

This enchanting 1933 movie's series of remarkable moments -- a courtroom trial where a blonde Broadway actress actually defends a former "friend;" realistic playtime with a darling little girl; exuberance in a speakeasy, with old chums; a joyously funny, sexy scene in a kitchen; and much more -- are simply delightful. The plot doesn't do justice to the energy and excitement generated by Constance Bennett, Joel MacCrea, Paul Lukas and many others... she's a "Gashouse" neighborhood girl who has made herself into a lady, an actress who searches for love through family, children, travel, a new man, her work, etc., and he's an old-money college-boy playwright with a strong social conscience. And her agent loves her... But see the movie for its pleasures and overlook the occasional creakiness -- it's an unexpected treasure.

Meant to be a glossy romance and cautionary tale for girls who dare to think of working Outside The Home, "The Best of Everything" instead is a virtual primer of the root causes of the modern Women's movement: Women (really, girls) can have jobs, but only until they find a man and leave to begin their real lives as homemakers; women are sexual toys, provided to men at work for their amusement; all men are predators and all women are fools; pregnancy is entirely the woman's fault; women who take their jobs seriously are damaged people; women merely exist for the use of men. Sounds like an unremitting screed, and it is -- yet, such is Hollywood's power, the pageant is very watchable (the clothes, the sentimental views of 1959 NYC) and beautiful. A wonderful snapshot of America just a couple of years before "The Feminine Mystique" was published. Must-see for women.

The sad, versatile face of Daniel Auteuil is perfect in his performance as Francois, a nebbishy accountant in a suburban French factory setting. He's not popular and fears he'll lose his job, as he's lost his wife and teenage son in a recent bitter divorce. But a new neighbor provides a remarkable suggestion on how he can become "impossible" to fire -- let them think you're gay. From this simple premise flows all of the fun -- the office politics, the wildly homophobic Gerard Depardieu (as a human resources exec) and the knowing women who assure one another, "I always thought he was different..." At the heart of this sweet little film is Auteuil, always bemused, always looking for a place to hide, yet always true to himself as well. He is loyal, persistent, kind -- a good friend. Certainly it's a fun movie for gay audiences, and everyone else who has survived in a modern office situation will enjoy it as well. Bright and gentle, nary an explosion or an android in the whole show.

A smorgasbord of in-jokes, tres moderne crime-fighting techniques, and every old-dark-house cliche (but of course, it was made in 1932, so it may have been inventing some of them), the film features Frank Morgan (later to be the Wizard of Oz) as a clever, chain-smoking inspecteur from the Surete who goes up against a wily Russian crook. Murders, staged accidents, bodies dragged from the Seine and an amazingly successful attempt to foil the censor while showing female nudity are all parts of this tale. A suave French thief (with an impeccable Oxford accent)is employed by the Surete to help foil the plot, and an army of Chinese house-servants and a broken-glass wall topping are just some of the dazzling obstacles to be overcome. The "statue" created by the villain will astonish you, as will the gorgeous clothes worn by the beautiful young heroine who could be Anastasia, long-lost daughter of the Romanoffs. This is high camp film-making but done in an earnest style. Really fun.