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Reviews
Watching Mrs. Pomerantz (2000)
'Watching Mrs. Pomerantz' takes a warm and humorous look at the green grass on the other side of the fence.
Young Henry Faber is an average suburban kid who lives with his parents and his sister. His dad works hard at the office, his mother is a dedicated homemaker who cares for her children, and cooks and keeps house, his older sister does - whatever it is preteen girls do; Henry doesn't know or really care - and Henry does all the usual, average suburban kid things during his summer vacation from school: he plays field hockey (enthusiastically, if not very well), he goes swimming at the 'Y' and he hangs around the house feeling bored. But then he becomes fascinated by the new neighbor, Mrs. Pomerantz, and her glamorous, exotic lifestyle.
Henry has never seen anyone like Mrs. Pomerantz: she's a blond, beautiful divorcée who has moved into the neighborhood along with her sons, one of whom is Henry's age. Mrs. Pomerantz goes out on dates, she rides in taxis, she orders Chinese take-out for her family's dinner, but most wondrous of all, the house she has moved into has an in-ground swimming pool! Henry longs to be invited to join the Pomerantz boys for a swim on lazy summer afternoons, but the younger Pomerantz son - the one who is his age - inexplicably has taken a dislike to Henry, and seizes every opportunity to let him know it, making sure Henry is pointedly chosen last for field hockey, or even is left out entirely by 'forgetting' to let him know a game has been scheduled at the school yard.
Well, Henry has a Plan. He decides to use his wits to get that invitation to swim in the pool, since it's never going to happen if he relies on the younger Pomerantz boy's good will. How Henry goes about finessing an afternoon spent poolside, as Mrs. Pomerantz's guest, and how he ultimately learns that a glamorous, exotic lifestyle is in the eye of the beholder, makes this an original and amusing film.
The Village (2004)
*May Contain Spoilers*
Very enjoyable film, which surprised me because I had heard a fair bit of negative comment about it, and already knew the "punch-line" prior to viewing. The whole thing sounded silly and pointless, before I'd actually seen the story.
But it isn't just a "Shock Theater" episode, and it isn't about the ending. It's a very thoughtful study of human nature. The language is stiffly formal for most of the film, but that's a deliberate thing, part of what the community of the Village was founded to accomplish.
Every performance in the film is beautiful and compelling, especially Bryce Dallas Howard's much-talked about luminous portrayal of the blind - but very perceptive - Ivy. Adrien Brody as Noah is equally amazing, and aside from those two, it's hard to say anything but "WOW" about the cast. There was nothing but good acting throughout, and every contributor to the ensemble grabbed my attention whenever he or she had a line or a bit of "business." It truly can be described as an all-star cast.
What struck me most about the film, though, was how it portrayed the mechanics of fear, and how that emotion is used to control people, in the "Towns" - the outside world the villagers shun with such dread - and in the Village itself. There are indeed monsters, and the people of the Village try heroically to escape them, but there is no escape. There's a quote from the comic strip "Pogo": "We has seen the enemy, and they is us." (I think that's how it goes.) Human beings can never escape the monsters that threaten and terrify us, because we carry them with us wherever we go: they are us. That's the message I got, and it was delivered in an evocative, subtle way that made the film quite a treat for me.