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THE NAMESAKE: I am a sucker for family sagas that span several generations, so I loved this movie. It tells the story of two generations of a Bengali family. Ashoke Ganguli is an East Indian man, who after several years of living in New York, travels back to Calcutta to let his parents find a wife for him. The beautiful Ashima agree to marry him because "he is the best of a bad lot." She leaves her home and her family to start a new life in America. (Tabu, who plays Ashima, is one of India’s most esteemed actresses.) The clash of cultures and the displacement that newcomers to America feel is beautifully represented in The Namesake. Ashoke and Ashima’s first child is a boy whom they "temporarily" name Gogol after the Russian author. As Gogol struggles to be a "real" American, he rejects much of his parent's culture. He even dates Maxine (Jacinda Barrett) a blonde from a wealthy and very "waspy" Manhattan family. His relationship with Maxine is a form of rebellion against his parent’s Bengali values. Kal Penn (Harold and Kumar) gives a star performance as Gogol. This loving family portrait is told with humor and pathos, and we were totally involved in the story. All the actors fit their roles beautifully. It was directed by Mira Nair whose previous films include Monsoon Wedding in 2001 and Vanity Fair in 2004. She has a sympathetic collaborator in Sooni Taraporevala, the Indian screenwriter who also wrote her first two features, Salaam Bombay! (1988) and Mississippi Masala (1991). Kal Penn said in an interview that seeing Missisippi Marsala convinced him that people who looked like him could be in the movies. Some critics may feel that the film borders on melodrama, but we think it borders on "wonderful." GRADE A-

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE: Napoleon is the ultimate nerd. He even makes nerds look good. His pathetic attempts to be cool are the basis for the humor in this rather slim film. Napoleon (Jon Heder) lives with his grandma and his 31-year-old brother (who cruises chat rooms for ladies) and works to help his best friend, Pedro (Efren Ramirez), win the Student Body President election. I confess to laughing several times, but Gary claims he only laughed once. The problem I had with the film was that Napoleon, Pedro, and their friend, Deb (Tina Majorino), all talk in boring monotone voices with completely deadpan faces. Except for Napoleon's uncle Rico (Jon Gries) the film is devoid of energy. It wears you down after a while. Some scenes were totally out of context and appeared to be thrown in on the chance that they'd get a laugh. Most didn't. However, there were quite a few young people in our audience and they laughed frequently. Also, Movieviewers Diane and Lee U. thought it was mildly amusing. We saw it later on the same day we saw Before Sunset, so I'm afraid Napoleon Dynamite suffered by comparison. Gary says D; I say C-. GRADE C-/D

NATIONAL TREASURE: I think reader Peg C., Los Angeles, CA said it all. She wrote: Lots of stuff to criticize like dumb dialog and things that don't mesh, but on the whole a fun film--good puzzle with nice acting. I enjoyed it even with my feelings of Wha? You expect me to believe that?'That's pretty much how we both felt. The action kept us involved even when the events strained our credulity. It's not as good as the Indiana Jones movies, but it is definitely in that genre. Nick Cage is Benjamin Gates, the youngest member of a family who has been chasing after a mysterious treasure which dates back to the Knights Templar and may, or may not, be hidden somewhere in the United States. Jon Voight is Benjamin's father, a man who feels his life has been wasted looking for the fabled treasure. We liked Diane Kruger who plays Abagail Chase, a National Archives specialist. In the film they identified her as German-born to explain an ever-so-slight accent. Kruger was, indeed, born in Germany. Harvey Keitel appears as a most unusual-looking FBI agent. No use trying to explain the plot because like all plots in this adventure genre, it's rather silly. Gary says B-, but I can't go higher than C+. GRADE C+/B-

NATURALLY NATIVE: There is no doubt this film is well intentioned, and we wanted it to be good. It wasn't. It is the story of three sisters who were adopted away from the Reservation when they were young. Now grown, they decide to start a cosmetic company using native recipes. In the process, their differing attitudes toward their native heritage cause conflicts between them. Eventually they all make peace with their roots. The last ten minutes were moving, but the rest of the film was pretty bad. We're not sure which was worse, the script or the acting. Both were amateurish and just plain awful. Too bad, because we need more films that give us a realistic picture of the native American culture. GRADE: D

THE NEW WORLD: Watching this film for 2 hours and 15 minutes is like watching maize grow,only slower. Barbara and I had high expectations for this film. Many critics gave it high marks and the trailers made it look interesting. Sadly, I didn’t find it so. Colin Ferrell plays Capt. John Smith and 14-year-old O’orianka Kilcher makes an impressive debut playing the young Indian princess we have come to know as Pocahontas. This version is not much closer to historical truth than the romanticized version we were all exposed to in grade school. In reality Capt. John smith was 27 years old at the time and Pocahontas was 11. Ferrell and Kilcher have very little dialogue, but a great deal of screen time. Actually, I found no fault with leads and supporting actors. It was directed by the reclusive Terrance Malik who has directed only four films in over thirty years. If you want to see this film on the big screen, you had better act fast. I predict it will quickly move to DVD and VHS. GRADE C.
Barb’s Comments: I had much the same reaction as did Gary, although I might grade the film as high as C+, primarily because of the gorgeous photography. I also liked Christian Bale as John Rolfe, the Englishman who married Pocahontas and eventually took her to England. Terrance Malik, who wrote and directed this film is a rather interesting character. In 1978, he wrote and directed the exquisite Days of Heaven. There wasn’t a lot of dialogue in that one either. After Days of Heaven it was a full 20 years before he directed his next film, The Thin Red Line. In his contract for the 1998 film Malik stated that no current pictures of him could be published or shown anywhere. GRADE C/C+

THE NEXT BEST THING: Rupert Everett is the only thing that keeps this movie from a grade of D. He is charming and likeable. Madonna is not. We found it difficult to handle all the references to how beautiful her character is when we both think she is rather plain and unappealing. We also think her acting ability is limited. The set up of the film is OK: A gay man (Everett) consoles his best friend (Madonna) on her recent breakup, and, after way too many martinis, winds up in bed with her. When the woman gets pregnant, the two decide to live together as best friends and as parents to their child. Problems occur when the little boy is six and Madonna falls in love with Benjamin Bratt (looking rather splendid). From this point on the plot is implausible and trite and the motivations are impossible to believe. The coutroom stuff is ludicrous. I was hoping for better. GRADE: D+

NICHOLAS NICKLEBY: I've never seen a Dickens movie that I didn't like. This one is no exception. All the classic Dickens characters are here: the handsome and good hero who must undergo many vicissitudes before the happy ending, the beautiful young heroine, the evil uncle (or in some cases stepfather), the kindly comic characters, the cruel schoolmaster, etc. All are beautifully played. Christopher Plummer is Ralph Nickleby, the uncle that Nicholas and his mother and sister are forced to turn to for help. With relatives like him, who needs enemies. He sends Nicholas to work at a private school run by Wackford Squeers. It is a horrible place where the young boys are cruelly treated by Squeers and his wife. According to Roger Ebert, "The sadistic boarding school proprietor, Wackford Squeers, was a portrait taken so much from life that it resulted in laws being passed to reform the private education industry." Nicholas leaves Squeers School along with a young crippled boy named Smike, played by Jamie Bell of Billy Elliot fame. Nathan Lane is most amusing as Vincent Crummles, a thespian who gives Nicholas a job in the theater as he and Smike make their way back to London. Dame Edna plays Mrs. Crummles. A theater version of Nicholas Nickleby lasted nine hours--the movie version lasts just under two hours. Charlie Hunnam is appropriately handsome and upright as Nicholas, and Anne Hathaway is the sweet and lovely heroine, Madeline. I think this is a B+ movie, but Gary, who is not quite the Dickens fan that I am, says B. GRADE B+/B

NINE QUEENS: Two con men meet in unusual circumstances and decide to become partners for the day. They stumble into a chance to pull off a profitable scam by selling some fake stamps to a collector. There are nine stamps called the Nine Queens. All the way through this film you know that someone is getting taken, but you're never sure just who is scamming whom. This film won a screenplay competition in Argentina, and its director was given the funds to film this South American answer to The Sting. While it's not as good as that great Newman/Redford film, it is fast paced and fun to watch. It is subtitled and some of the dialogue is quite fast, so you have to read quickly. The two stars are very good and the ending is satisfying. Entertainment Weekly gave the film an A, Ebert gave it three stars, and we give it a GRADE B.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN: Josh Brolin is having a banner year. He was excellent as a corrupt cop in An American Gangster, and he is outstanding in this latest film that the Coen brothers adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel. Brolin is a hunter who stumbles upon some dead bodies, a stash of heroin and more than $2 million in cash. He decides to keep the money. It’s a bad decision. It leads to untold mayhem. Brolin and the money are tracked by a sociopathic killer named Anton Chigurh, chillingly played by Javier Bardem. You won’t soon forget his dead eyes and his deadly smile. Critics have compared this film to Fargo (1996), but, because it didn’t have the humor of Fargo, it reminded us of the brothers’ first effort, Blood Simple (1984). It is a taut tale of evil. The tension is palpable, relieved occasionally by the wry philosophical musings of Tommy Lee Jones, as the local sheriff. Jones, who never fails to impress, is the moral center of the film—a third-generation sheriff who is confounded by the evil sweeping the world. The well-known British actress, Kelly Macdonald, affects a spot-on Texas accent as Brolin’s wife. The ending doesn’t answer all the questions, and it may leave you wondering, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. With its stark beauty and flawless filming technique, No Country For Old Men will rank as one of the Coen brothers’ best. However, several implausible events kept Gary from giving it an A. He says B+. I have to say A-. GRADE A-/B+

From Roger Ebert’s review:

This movie is a masterful evocation of time, place, character, moral choices, immoral certainties, human nature and fate. It is also, in the photography by Roger Deakins, the editing by the Coens and the music by Carter Burwell, startlingly beautiful, stark and lonely.

NO END IN SIGHT: This extraordinary film should seen by every adult who took an interest in the Iraq War, including anyone who was even tangentially affected by it. Of the ten professional critics who reviewed the film for "Yahoo! Movies," seven gave it an "A" and the other three reviewers gave it "B+," "B+," and "B-." The film is narrated by Campbell Scott and both Barbara and I think it is one of the saddest, but most worthwhile viewing of the year. My sadness’ is exacerbated by the depressing realization that almost no one will see it. No End In Sight is an examination of mistakes made after the initial military "victory." It adeptly avoids the controversy of why the U.S. invaded Iraq and focuses on subsequent mistakes made in the planning and execution of the Iraq regime change. Charles Ferguson, a political scientist with a doctorate from MIT, wrote, directed and produced this historical overview that relies mainly on interviews with people who were either inside the Bush administration or on the ground in Iraq. The film chronicles how actions taken in the early days of the occupation inevitably led to far longer, bloodier, and costlier conditions than needed to be. Barbara gives the film a "B+", but I have to give it an "A." GRADE B+/A

NO MAN'S LAND: This Academy Award nominated Foreign film also won the Best Screenplay award at Cannes and a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. It is a seriocomic look at the Bosnian war and the idiocy of war in general. Two soldiers, one Bosnian and one Croatian, find themselves trapped in a trench between enemy lines. They are being fired upon by both sides. To add to their predicament, another soldier is lying on a land mine that will explode if his weight is removed from it. A UN peacekeeping team tries to rescue them, and the international media jumps all over the human-interest story. The actors are excellent and the suspense kept us completely engaged. The comic and tragic aspects of the story are equally well handled. The situation the three soldiers find themselves in is analogous to the Bosnian war. Roger Ebert believes the director's (Danis Tanovic) position " is that the conflict has escalated into the arena of the absurd: There are so many grievances on both sides that revenge and redress are impossible, and the land mine symbolizes the unhappy situation Bosnia finds itself in." NO MAN'S LAND is in Bosnian with English subtitles. We both liked the film and if we had a vote, would give it our nod at the Oscars. GRADE B+

NO RESERVATIONS: In 2002 we reviewed a German film titled, Mostly Martha. No Reservations is based on that film. In our 2002 review, I wrote Gary enjoyed the movie, but the cooking scenes didn't do much for him. He gives the film a B, but I think it deserves an A-. The same could be said for No Reservations: Gary would give it a B, but in this case, I would agree. I thought the German film did a better job of establishing the characters. Hollywood didn’t change the story much. It’s still about a chef, named Kate in this version, who has no life outside her job. Her life is well-ordered until two things happen. First, her sister dies in a car accident and Kate must take over the care of her young niece. Second, her boss hires a sous-chef who cooks Italian dishes, sings opera while he cooks and totally disrupts Kate’s kitchen. As with Mostly Martha, the ending is predictable, but getting there is fun. Catherine Zeta-Jones is her usual charming self as the uptight chef, and Aaron Eckhart is equally charming as the ebullient sous-chef. Abagail Breslin, so wonderful in Little Miss Sunshine, is delightful here as Kate’s niece. In this film, the writers added a therapist, played by the always interesting Bob Balaban. When Kate says that she wishes she had a recipe for life, her therapist replies, "As a chef, you know that the best recipes are those you create yourself." Once again, I loved the cooking scenes, Gary, not so much. GRADE B

NORTH COUNTRY: Usually Barbara and I are extraordinarily close in our evaluation of films. Since we differ more than usual on this one, we will each write separate short reviews. North Country states in the opening credits that it is "inspired by true events." The screenplay is a fictionalized version of events surrounding a 1989 class action lawsuit for sexual harassment. It features powerful performances by Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, and Richard Jenkins and is set in the Mesabi Iron Range in Northern Minnesota. I am perhaps more easily enraged by injustice than most so it was no surprise that I was deeply moved and enraged by this film. All the critics I read liked the first half of the film better than the second half. They feel the courtroom scenes sacrifice realism for dramatic or melodramatic effect. I liked the first half better too, but I was not as offended by it and I feel quite comfortable rating North Country B+.
(Barb's comments) I agree with the critics who liked the first half of the film better. In a few of the second half dramatic moments I thought the manipulation was too obvious. Also, I thought some of the courtroom theatrics lacked credibility. The final courtroom scene, designed to pack an emotional punch, was, for me, more of a light jab—mostly because it was too melodramatic. I have no quarrel with any of the actors, nor with the cinematography. The iron mine was dark, dirty and dismal. What an awful place to work! I am a fan of Theron, McDormand, and Spacek, so any film with the three of them is eminently watchable. Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) was also impressive, but I can’t give the film more than a B-. GRADE B+/B-

THE NOTEBOOK: This film is an old-fashioned love story and it is unabashedly romantic. Many critics have an aversion to movies this sweet and sentimental, but Gary and I loved it. Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) and Allie Nelson (Rachel McAdams) are two young people who fall madly in love one summer. The problem? She is from a rich family and he is, as her snooty mother (Joan Allen) points out, simply "trash." Allie goes off to college and Noah goes off to fight in WWII. Will they meet again? Will first love be triumphant? What do you think? Yes, it is schmaltzy, but it's well-written schmaltz. McAdams (Mean Girls) is luminous--she lights up the screen. Gosling is also appealing as a regular guy. Be warned that this is a tear-jerker but, as Roger Ebert says, it's a good one. James Garner reads the young lovers' story to Gena Rowlands, and the scenes between these two legendary actors will require more than one Kleenex. The screenplay is taken from a novel by Nicholas Sparks whose books inspired the films Message in a Bottle (1999) and A Walk to Remember (2002). Gena Rowland's son, Nicholas Cassavetes directed. GRADE B+

NOTES ON A SCANDAL: We are bound together by the secrets we share. That isn’t the tag line for this film, but it should have been. Barbara (Judi Dench) is a bitter spinster school teacher almost ready to retire. She reveals in her diary that she has contempt for her students and most of her colleagues. Sheba (Cate Blanchett) is a first year art teacher. She is blond, lovely, and sensual. Barbara wants desperately to be Sheba’s friend, and, with time perhaps more than a just a friend. When she discovers that Sheba has been having an affair with a 15-year-old student, she realizes that her silence will buy Sheba’s friendship. As you might expect, things do not go well. (Critic Richard Roeper calls Dench’s Barbara "one of the most menacing spinsters this side of Kathy Bates in Misery, but without the hobbling.") It takes an actress of Dench’s ability to play such an unpleasant woman and yet reveal enough humanity to engender some sympathy. Blanchett is also successful at making Sheba sympathetic, in spite of her criminal behavior. Her husband is played brilliantly by Bill Nighy. There’s a bit of hope at the end that Sheba may have learned something positive from the experience. Barbara, on the other hand, is completely unrepentant. The screenplay is based on a novel by Zoe Heller titled, What Was She Thinking: Notes On A Scandal. Some critics disliked the Phillip Glass background music, but we thought it fit the story quite well. GRADE A-

NURSE BETTY: This movie didn't work for us. Director Neal LaBute was trying to make a quirky, violent comedy in the manner of the Coen brothers with touches of Tarentino, but he didn't. First, lets take the two hit men, who have those now obligatory inane conversations as they track the stolen drugs: Morgan Freeman is simply too wise and kind and sweet to be believed as a hired killer, and Chris Rock is not funny! I think LaBute told him not to smile, and that was a mistake. Without the smile he's just nasty. (And the scene where Betty's husband (Aaron Eckhardt) gets whacked is horribly violent.) Then there's Renee Zellweger: her puffy face and squinty eyes have never appealed to either one of us, although I must admit she was quite good in her role as a coffee shop waitress in love with a soap opera doctor. Greg Kinnear is the soap opera medico and we liked him a lot. No one can play a charming jerk better than Kinnear. Alison Janey (American Beauty and TV's West Wing) is also very good as the producer of the soap opera. In fact, the movie picked up considerably when Betty finally got to Los Angeles and began to interact with Kinnear. We also thought the ending was the best part of the movie. The good parts kept Nurse Betty from a grade of D. GRADE: C-