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Nine Queens
Nine Queens (2000)
8/10
Scams growing crescendo
22 August 2013
Nine Queens is a clever movie about cons and liars. Two small criminals embark in a journey to set up their biggest con ever. However, not everything unfolds as planned. All characters involved in the plan want their share of the cake and will try to coerce others to meet their interests. Our two artists must thus find ingenious ways to react and stay on track.

The set of characters involved and the complexity of the scams grow crescendo, making it a captivating movie full of twists and turns. It will engage your brain to keep track of the events, but won't cross the threshold of confusion.

The actors are sympathetic, the direction is solid, and the dialogs are punchy. The plot is convincing and witty. We could challenge its realism, as with any such movie, but it has not obvious holes and is a very good entertainment!

A highly recommended movie for those who like puzzles.
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We Bought a Zoo
We Bought a Zoo (2011)
7/10
Heartwarming movie about moving forward
21 August 2013
After the death of his wife, Benjamin and his two kids are facing difficult times. The everyday routine constantly reminds him of her. He needs a fresh start. Looking for a new house, serendipity brings him to this remote country house with its unique specialty--it belongs to a zoo. Getting along the zoo staff and learning to take care of animals will be an adventurous and refreshing journey for the family.

This skillfully realized Hollywood product has all the right ingredients for a decent movie: an ensemble of niceable characters (cute kids & attractive adults), a proved plot style (overcoming a challenge as a team, here, putting the zoo back in shape), a moving topic in background (mourning), and a touch of humor (the villain inspector & the animals).

In this time of changes, relationships between people will evolve. We see some conflicts but also new forms of complicity. Characters develop according to some predictable clichés, and the movie does not take risks. At the end, everybody has grown.

This is an enjoyable heartwarming movie for a wide audience, but not very deep. I guess you can't have it both. Still, I liked the sense of hope it carries.
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Gare du Nord
Gare du Nord (2013)
9/10
A touching portrait of human nature
17 August 2013
The movie tells the stories of Ismael, Mathilde, Joan and Sacha, four characters linked to the Gare du Nord for various reasons: Ismael, a student, conducts satisfaction surveys in order to finance his studies; Mathilde, a former professor of social sciences, transits through the station each day to reach a clinic in order to follow a medical treatment; Joan, a real estate agent, meets her clients at the station, hoping they will show up on time; finally, Sacha hopes to find his runaway daughter at the station.

Strolling repeatedly around the station, these protagonists meet and start building relationships, notably Ismael and Mathilde, who are mutually attracted despite their age difference.

Through this movie on converging existences, Claire Simon draws a vivid portrait of the station, but above all, a touching portrait of human nature.

The Gare du Nord is more than a functional transit area. It is a social space on its own, with its inhabitants, its rules, its myths. People from all horizons fill the station day and night, with their hopes and fears, their strengths and weaknesses. The narration is subtle, and the movie delicately blends realism, humor and poetry. One ends up charmed by this station, its hectic pace, and its occupants.
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Oblivion
Oblivion (I) (2013)
7/10
Nice twist, but no tension
7 May 2013
Warning: Spoilers
After a war with alien invaders, humans won, but the earth was nuked. Jack and his partner are in charge to maintain infrastructures that clean the earth in prospect of a future return of the species, while fighting remaining aliens that hide on the planet. They perform each day the same routine, living their mechanical existence in a bubble.

Jack seems to have reminiscence of the life before the war. How can that be? In his dreams, a woman always appears. On day, a spaceship crashes on the planet and his dream turns reality. How come he knows her already? Is the reality he believes really the truth?

The film depicts with a beautiful scenery the lone and cold existence of Jack and his partner in a post-apocalyptic planet. The reversal in Jack's reality is a nice plot.

Unfortunately, despite its slow pace, the movie fails to develop the characters. Instead, it feels like an alternation of still photographs and actions-packed scenes, leaving little place for emotions.

The movie also fails to develop a coherent unity, and progresses instead as a succession of deja-vu from other sci-fi movies.

Finally, the movie implies that alien technology is in some way limited, and that they must exploit humans for certain tasks. Again, the movie fails to develop a coherent universe and the plot has numerous holes.

I would recommend this movie only for CGI and design lovers.
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