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Blog by Don Kennedy

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Sherlock Holmes

December 26th, 2009
Sherlock Holmes is the most portrayed movie character ever according to the Guinness folks and IMDb lends credence to that with 223 entries to date going back as far as 1908 in listing films and TV series featuring that consultant detective. Guy Ritchie must have felt a lot of pressure to bring new life to the role but he’s helped immeasurably by the superb cast featuring a buffed Robert Down ...

Nine

December 26th, 2009
Nine is the film version of the stage musical based on the celebrated 1963 classic Italian film 8 1/2 that is still revered today - a loosely autobiographical Federico Fellini film that starred Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi. This musical is also set in 1963 but the famous yet troubled protagonist is now Guido Contini played by Daniel Day-Lewis. He’s the first to admit he’s no singer y ...

It’s Complicated

December 26th, 2009
It’s Complicated stars Meryl Streep as Jane, a California divorcee who has an affair with a married man around the time of her middle child’s college graduation. The laugh (and a last one at that) is that the married man is her ex-husband Jake (Alec Baldwin) who is now cheating on his current trophy wife Agness (Lake Bell) with whom he used to cheat on Jane. This is sweet music to Joanne (Mar ...

A Single Man

December 26th, 2009
A Single Man takes us back to a time when gay men were politely referred to as “light in the loafers”. As for impolite references, here not many come up other than in the faces of neighbours who live across from a suburban house which ironically is mostly glass. It’s the home of George (Colin Firth), a British émigré professor teaching English in California just as the Cuban missile crisis is ...

Did You Hear About the Morgans?

December 20th, 2009
Did You Hear About the Morgans? Features a philandering New York lawyer named Paul Morgan (Hugh Grant) on the outs with his wife Meryl (Sarah Jessica Parker) the Big Apple’s go-to Realtor. While negotiating marital peace they witness a murder that lands them in the witness protection program. They’re sequestered in a Wyoming hamlet with Clay Wheeler (Sam Elliott) the town Sheriff and his pist ...

The Young Victoria

December 20th, 2009
The Young Victoria is a regal trip back to the early 19th century and the beginning of the longest reign of a monarch in British history that lasted through the apex of the empire days for England. Heavy is the head that wears the crown and in this case it was true even before the installation of that bejewelled head gear. Emily Blunt carries the film masterfully as the bullied but headstrong ...

Helen

December 20th, 2009
Helen has Ashley Judd returning to Vancouver for the first time since the late 90’s when she spent a lot of time filming in Canada. Like last years Bug she puts on an acting clinic in another film that portrays the dark recesses of minds going off the rails. As Helen she’s a gifted music professor on her second but serenely romantic marriage to the suave David (ER’s Goran Visnjic) who has way ...

Broken Embraces

December 20th, 2009
Broken Embraces stars Lluís Homar playing Mateo Blanco with a curious split personality as he currently prefers to go by his pen name Harry Caine. He’s successful in the film business with an odd affliction for a director / screenwriter – he’s totally blind. He maintains his success with the help of his loyal agent Judit García (Blanca Portillo) and her son Diego (Tamar Novas). When a mysteri ...

Invictus

December 13th, 2009
Invictus is a work by 19th century poet William Ernest Henley who because of health issues was himself somewhat of a prisoner. Although it is often quoted it seems to have been tailor made for Nelson Mandela who used it as a constant source of strength during his 30 years of incarceration while South Africa’s apartheid policy was the rule of law. That came to an end in 1991 and by the mid 90’ ...

Up in the Air

December 13th, 2009
Up in the Air stars George Clooney with the suave, rogue personae that he seems born to wear. As Ryan Bingham he is living the dream in a job that would make anyone else suicidal. It entails over 300 days of air travel per year but that’s not the really depressing part. Upon arrival at all those destinations he’s the ice man hired by faltering companies downsizing in a brutal economy. Ryan is ...

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