R is For Return To Me

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 8 more times this month.

Film: Return To Me

Director: Bonnie Hunt 

I like romantic comedies as much as the next guy.  I actually do like romantic comedies, so I might actually like them more than the next guy. There is a sub-genre of romantic comedies that I will call the hard to believe obstacles genre.  In these movies there are "suspend your disbelief "road blocks  for our couple to navigate.  Examples of these are falling in love with your comatose fake fiancé's brother (While You Were Sleeping) or trying to make a relationship work with someone with severe memory issues (50 First Dates).  Return To Me takes an even more outlandish premise, falling in love with your late wife's heart recipient, and makes it seem not only plausible but captivating as well. 

  

Positive Tomato: First-time director Bonnie Hunt has taken what could have been an incredibly sappy story and used her sense of comedic timing to fashion a date flick that even the guys might enjoy. Al Brumley - Dallas Morning News

Negative Tomato: This is a melodrama wrapped in a sitcom inside a Hallmark card. Wesley Morris -

 San Francisco Examiner

This movie works on multiple levels.  David Duchovny shows great range of  emotions as a man who loves his wife and loses her suddenly.  We see him grieve and we watch him dedicate his work to her memory.  Minnie Driver shines as someone who gets a heart transplant and gets more than just her life back.  

Bonnie Hunt directed, co-wrote and co-stars as Driver's best friend.  I think that her direction  and the overall quality of her script are key to the films juxtaposition of lighthearted and serious moments without ever feeling like a melodrama. The film is well paced and seemingly every scene contributes to the audiences entertainment. 

This is also due to the fine ensemble acting.  There are  many one or two scene performers who deliver even in their limited roles. Two of the best of these are the "anonymous" zoo benefactor (played by Dick Cusack, the father of John, Joan and Ann) and the Italian Cafe worker. The supporting players are led by Carol O'Connor as Driver's Grandpa.  A special mention to the great actors who play O'Connor's friends. In addition, Jim Belushi steals every scene he is in as Hunt's husband.  

Resiliency: The resiliency of an organ to be involved in a trauma that can kill it's original owner and be transplanted into another person's body and continue it's purpose.  

Top 100: This is definitely one of my 100 favorite movies.  

A to Z Connection: This is the 2nd movie with Bonnie Hunt (Dave). This is also the 2nd movie in the challenge to be filmed in Chicago (Ordinary People).

Next Time: Saddle up.

Q is for Quiz Show

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 9 more times this month.

Film: Quiz Show (1994)

Director: Robert Redford

Positive Tomato: Redford's best film to date is a poignant examination of pop culture, TV, greed, and race relations in American society of the 1950s, with the perfect casting of John Turturro, Ralph Fiennes, and particularly Paul Scofield. Emanuel Levy - Emanuel Levy.com

Negative Tomato:  As a pure period piece Quiz Show delivers beautifully, but Redford's foursquare, documentary-like approach, however artful, unspools a story with about as much drama as a game show itself. Monica Hayde - Palo Alto Weekly

Quiz Show is Robert Redford's amazing take on the quiz show scandals of the 1950s. This trailer gives a pretty good synopsis...

 

 

Herb Stempel, Charles Van Doren & Jack Barry on 21
By Macfadden Publications, no photographer credited - https://archive.org/stream/radiotvmirr00mac#page/20/mode/1up TV Radio Mirror, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91457687

By Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9071793

Resiliency: Robert Redford who is a director better known for his work in front of the camera was able to convince director Martin Scorsese to act in Quiz Show. The Resilient Scorsese looks really good in this clip.

 

Top 100: The 1955 film Marty is mentioned multiple times in this movie.  My wife and I decided to watch Marty after seeing this film, and Marty is now one of our favorite movies.  Quiz Show is definitely in my top 100, but Marty is in my top 10.

A to Z Connections: Robert Redford also directed Ordinary People.  Paul Scofield (A Man For All Seasons) is mesmerizing as the father of Charles Van Doren. 

Next Time: Random Hearts

P is For Persuasion

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 10 more times this month.

Film: Persuasion

Director: Roger Michell

By Rwendland - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38421041

19th-century author Jane Austen completed 6 novels in her lifetime and in the late 20th century and the early 21st they were all made into movies or mini-series, or both.  Persuasion was originally made for television and was shown on B.B.C Screen Two in April 1995 and again on Christmas Day of that year.  It was also shown in the U.S. in 1997 as part of Masterpiece Theatre.  In between, long before streaming services would do the same exact thing, it was released in U.S. theatres in September of 1995 where it earned 5.5 million at the box office.  

Positive Tomato: Persuasion is proof that the most repressed love stories can have the sweetest payoff. Like Anne herself, the movie reveals its wonders slowly. David Ansen - Newsweek 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_High_Wall_on_the_Cobb,_Lyme_Regis_-_geograph.org.uk_-_318518.jpg#/media/File:The_High_Wall_on_the_Cobb,_Lyme_Regis_-_geograph.org.uk_-_318518.jpg

 

Negative Tomato:  Austen was always fun to read, and known for her candid insight into human affairs, but somehow Michell and Dear seem to have left these basic ingredients out. Barbara Shulgasser - San Francisco Examiner

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sheldon_Manor-by-Roger-Cornfoot.jpg#/media/File:Sheldon_Manor-by-Roger-Cornfoot.jpg

By Bow and flag, HMS Victory, Historic Dockyard, Portsmouth by Robin Sones, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128835950

The film stars Amanda Root as Anne Elliot and Ciaran Hinds as Fredrick Wentworth.  Years before the film takes place Wentworth proposed to Anne and was rejected because she was (wait for it) persuaded not to accept the match because of class differences.  Now fortunes have changed.  Anne's family is as snobby as ever but is dealing with the repercussions of years of living beyond their means.   Anne is achieving spinster status and is generally overlooked by her self-absorbed family, while Wentworth is now an eligible bachelor due to a lucrative naval career in The West Indies.  

The book is about the transformation of Anne, to use an analogy from the movie, The Holiday, from best friend to leading lady. As the pages turn she becomes the star of her own life.  In the film, she shines even brighter.  The acting is stellar, the locations (many of them pictured here) are spectacular and the musical arrangement  is exquisite.  The antepenultimate  scene in the film where Anne and Wentworth  walk down a promenade as a circus performers  marches past is one of the  most exquisite multisensory experiences I, have ever seen in a film.  

Resiliency: The resiliency of Anne's and Wentworth's love for each other is best summed up in this letter from Wentworth to Anne.  

Note: This Youtube video continues after the letter scene to show the leasd up to the circus scene I just mentioned plus.  If you have not watched this movie yet, and plan to, I would stop watching this clip after the letter scene ends at the 1:28 mark.

Top 100:  This is definitely in my top 25 movies of all time.  I think it will end up somewhere in the late teens.  There will be 3 Jane Austen movies in my top 25, and this is my favorite.  

A to Z Connection: Corin Redgrave plays Anne's obsequious father here and portrays Sir Thomas More's son-in-law in A Man For All Seasons.

Next Time: Quite scandalous.  

O is For Ordinary People

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 11 more times this month.

Film: Ordinary People (1980)

Director: Robert Redford

Robert Redford has long been one of my favorite actors.  Through the decades he has been in one outstanding film after another, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid  (1969), The Sting (1973), All The President's Men (1976), The Natural (1984), and Sneakers (1992), just to name a few.  It is very surprising to me, therefore,  that I admire Redford more for his work behind the camera as a director than his work as an actor. In 1980 Redord made his directorial debut in Ordinary People, the film version of the 1976 Judith Guest novel.

Positive Tomato: Ordinary People is rare moviemaking and easily one of the best films of 1980. But to spurt volumes of superlatives would not do it justice. Redford's film is deceptively quiet and subtle. Dann Gire - Chicago Daily Herald

Negative Tomato: The movie is about the harm that repression can do, but the movie is just as repressive and sanitized as the way of life it means to expose, and it backs away from anything messier than standard TV-style psychiatric explanations. Pauline Kael - New Yorker

The movie features Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, and Timothy Hutton as the Jarretts, an   "ordinary" suburban family still caught in the wake of a series of tragic circumstances. Judd Hirsch also stars as the psychiatrist who works with Conrad Jarrett (Hutton) to work through those circumstances.  

Resiliency: While there is much to be said about resiliency in this film, much of this movie's strength comes from showing a family failing to find that resiliency.  This scene shows that lack or resiliency in what should be just a simple family photo.

The direction by Redford is top-notch.  Each of the 4 main stars is arguably in the best role of their careers.  Mary Tyler Moore is known for playing vibrant and loveable characters.  She is amazing here as a woman seemingly incapable of loving her family when they need that love the most.  

The film was nominated for 6 Academy Awards and won 4.  Mary Tyler Moore was nominated for Best Actress but lost to Sissay Spacek (Coal Miner's Daughter).  Judd Hirsch and Timothy Hutton were both nominated for Best Supporting Actor. As seen here Hutton prevailed over Hirsch.  Hutton makes one of the best and briefest acceptance speeches I have ever seen. 

Redford won for Best Director.  Ordinary People also took home Oscars for Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay.  

Top 100: I'd like to take a moment to correct some things I've said recently in other A to Z Posts. Last week when talking about It's A Wonderful Life, I mentioned it was my all-time favorite film.  The truth is, I have 3 all-time favorite films that are pretty much in a virtual tie.   It's A Wonderful Life is one of them and if pressed I'll sometimes say it's my favorite.  Ordinary People is another one of those three.  So obviously it's in my top 100. The third film that shares the top spot will be featured sometime next week.

In yesterday's post, I made a comment about Northwest Highway saying that I can't really expect a film I don't watch very often to really be in my top 100.  After I wrote that I realized it's been a long time since I've watched Ordinary People.  This is because of some of the subject matter in the film, and also because of some family situations over the past few years.  However, this does not diminish my feelings for this movie.  My wife and I love this film and do hope someday to be able to sit down as a family and be once again captivated by this story.

A To Z Connection: Cary Grant's (North by Northwest) last film was Walk, Don't Run (1966).  One of Grant's co-stars in the film is Jim Hutton, the father of Timothy Hutton.  Ordinary People was the younger Hutton's first feature film.

Next Time: Power over past choices.       

  

N is For North By Northwest

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 12 more times this month.

Film: North By Northwest (1959)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock<

By Ante Brkan - Dr. Macro, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14857139

Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favorite movie directors.  So, it's no surprise that one of his efforts has ended up here in the challenge this month.  If you are not familiar with North by Northwest, here is Hitchcock, himself to introduce it for you.  

Positive Tomato: It is consistently entertaining, its excitement pointed by but never interrupted by the jokes... But it is on Mr. Grant's own performance, intent, resourceful, witty, as always beautifully timed, that a large part of the pleasure depends. Dilys Powell - Sunday Times (UK) 

Negative Tomato: Hitchcock  apparently hopes that his fans will laugh off the glaring lack of dramatic nourishment in this concoction on viewing the hilarious and impossible situations In which he throws the long-suffering Grant. John Vosburgh - Miami Herald

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cary_Grant_North_by_Northwest_still.jpg#/media/File:Cary_Grant_North_by_Northwest_still.jpg

By Mike Quinn, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45941549

This painting depicting a scene in North by Northwest is part of a mural in the Leytonstone (The section of London where Hitchcock was born.) Tube station

As an homage to the scene where the airplane is spraying bullets at a frenzied Grant, I will now spray you, the reader, with bullet points about the film its director, and some of the cast.

• The above  painting depicting the aforementioned scene  is part of a mural in the Leytonstone (The section of London where Hitchcock was born.) Tube station.
  
  
• Alfred Hitchcock featured the motif of the "wrong man" in several of his films.  
• Hitchcock and Grant collaborated on 4 films from 1941- 1959. North by Northwest was the last of these films. 
• North by Northwest was Hitchcock's 2nd highest-grossing film 2nd only to Psycho.  It was Cary Grant's highest-grossing film.
• Leo G. Carrol (who was in 6 Hitchcock films) plays the head of a secret international counterespionage and law-enforcement agency in the film and essentially plays the same type of role in the 1960s television phenomenon The Man From U.N.C.L.E. 

Resiliency: Hitchcock directed 53 films in 51 years.  Grant was in over 70 movies in a 35-year span.

Top 100: I do not have a ready answer when asked what my favorite Hitchcock film is.  I sometimes think it might be this one.  If that turns out to be the case, I won't have any Alfred Hitchcock movies in my top 100.  That's not a slight against this film.  It's an enjoyable well written, superbly acted thrill ride of a movie that sits on my D.V.D. shelf more than a top 100 film should.

A to Z Connection: This is the second Cary Grant film in the Challenge. Arsenic and Old Lace led off the alphabetical review of films, and North by Northwest gets us started on the 2nd half of the alphabet. 

M is for A Man for All Seasons

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 13 more times this month.

Film: A Man For All Seasons (1966)

Director: Fred Zinnemann

By w:Robert Bolt - Scanned by uploader, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54061906

A Man For All Seasons is based on the play of the same name. It is the story of British Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas More. According to Wikipedia More in addition to having served as Lord Chancellor was also an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist.  More is one of my heroes, which is odd because He was a Roman Catholic opposed to the Protestant Reformation and I am a former Catholic who is a big fan of the Protestant Reformation.

The reason why I am such a fan or More and A Man For All Seasons is that More was an exemplar of standing up for your faith with dignity, grace, and intellectual integrity.  

The plot synopsis for A Man For All Seasons in IMDB is so rock solid I will just quote it here rather than bore you with a lesser synopsis...

 

Thomas More (Paul Scofield) is at odds with Henry VIII (Robert Shaw) over the kings wish to divorce his wife, Catharine of Aragon; so that he may marry Anne Boleyn. More  understands that from the standpoint of the Roman Catholic church, the king would be heretical. 

 

More , the appointed Lord chancellor, is so highly regarded that his outspoken unwillingness to break with Rome makes Henry VIII look and unreasonable and the king is furious. As the king's wrath rows, he tries to discredit More by attempts at legal trickery, but the attempts fail. More feels the heat being turned up and determines it best to resign his post to retire to private life. Unfortunately, because More's resignation speaks so loudly of the kings intended impropriety, the kings will stil settle for no less than More's approval of the divorce. More, however refuses to relent. 

Henry now has legislation passed that establishes himself as having supreme power in English religous affairs, breaking with Rome and, thereby, establishing the Church of England. He then has legislation passed establishing it as treasonous for any member of the king's court to refuse to sign off on it. More's refusal to sign off dooms him to be beheaded, but he will be remembere as a deeply principled "man for all seasons."

This clip is proof that you can make a great movie and a bad trailer for it.  

    

Positive Tomato: Such a film as A Man For All Seasons makes the silly efforts of avant-garde and "new" picture directors look raw and hideous. This film combines so many qualities of excellence that it stands alone as an example of what a motion picture can be. Marjory Adams - Boston Globe

Negative Tomato: Despite the awards which have been extravagantly heaped upon it and the cool brilliance of Paul Scofield's performance, it remains a costume drama which adds nothing to our understanding of the times, or indeed of men.  Craig McGregor - Sydney Morning Herald

This film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and won 6 including Best Actor, (Paul Scofield), Best Picture, and Best Director (Fred Zinnemann). While I agree with all of those selections, I think the award that highlights the greatest strength of this film is the Oscar for Best Cinematography going to Ted Moore. Moore gives us a gorgeously filmed picture from beginning to end. 

Resiliency: Paul Scofield won a Tony award and an Oscar for his portrayal of More.  

Top 100: I sometimes am questioned about whether my list of top 100 films is for technical excellence or for how much I enjoyed the film.  I have yet to land what I would call a satisfactory answer to that question.  I will say this, the excellence of the Zinnemann direction, Moore cinematography, and the Scofield portrayal of More are 3 reasons why this film resonates so much with me and why it is certainly in my top 100 favorite films.  

Next Time: Not the spy you're looking for.