I usually can't stand the raspy-voiced Brittany Murphy, but I'm a sucker for Dakota Fanning, so when my mom suggested renting Uptown Girls,
I hoped my enjoyment of the latter would outweigh my irritation with
the former. Happily, not only was Fanning winning as always, Murphy was
perfectly tolerable, and the story that developed around them was both
funny and touching.
The titular girls in this Boaz Yakin film
are Molly Gunn (Murphy), a 22-year-old free spirit who inherited the
fortune of her musician parents after they died in a plane crash when
she was eight, and Ray Schleine (Fanning), an uptight eight-year-old who
runs through nannies faster than Jane and Michael Banks. Molly's world
comes crashing around her for the second time when she discovers that
the man in charge of all her money has skipped town and left her
practically penniless. Suddenly, the girl who's never worked a day in
her life, who's too scatterbrained to keep any of her appointments,
whose cluttered abode is littered with candy wrappers and take-out boxes
has to figure out how to fend for herself.
Molly scores the
nanny gig after a first job attempt goes hopelessly awry. Her cheerful
pal Huey (Donald Faison) pulls some strings, and she finds herself in
the employ of the acid-tongued eight-year-old. While Molly is clueless
about how to be a responsible adult, she's also pretty guileless, and
her attempts to connect with her charge are genuine. But Ray, hardened
after years of inattentive parenting, is a hard child to reach, and both
girls have a lot of learning to do before they will be able to reach a
happy medium.
Thrown into the mix are subplots about Molly's
friends - the rather shrill and controlling Ingrid (Marley Shelton),
whose friendship with Molly is tested when she offers to share her
apartment (with strings attached), and Huey, whose affable manner makes
him a solid source of comfort - and a romantic interest, an
up-and-coming musician by the name of Neal (Jesse Spencer). Having
become familiar with Spencer on House, I enjoyed seeing him in the role of a sensitive singer-songwriter, and I must say that I've never seen him quite so cute.
Among the smaller parts in the film are two appearances by Short Circuit
alums, and as huge fans of that 80s comedy about a robot who develops a
personality, my parents and I thought it likely that the director had
been involved in that film in some way. I can't find any evidence to
support that, however, so if the inclusion of Austin Pendleton and
Fisher Stevens was an homage to Short Circuit, it must have been
just because Yakin liked the movie. More likely, it was a coincidence.
Also coincidence? The fact that Molly has a pet pig she gives to Ray
after Ingrid refuses to house him, making this one of two movies thus
far in which Fanning has shared considerable screen time with a porker.
After watching the deleted scenes, my mom observed that had they been
included, this film would have been much raunchier. (Unfortunately, an
inoffensive scene featuring the adorable Michael Urie as a dog walker
was also cut, removing the Ugly Betty co-star from the movie.) As
it was, it rarely earned the PG-13 rating; she was inspired to rent it
after the recommendation of my uncle, who watched it with his 9- and
11-year-old daughters, and it was perfectly appropriate for them,
especially since the bulk of the movie focuses on Molly's relationship
with Ray. As a romance, it builds to a sweet conclusion, but the real
focus is the way these two girls, in the words of the film's tagline,
"teach each other how to act their age," uplifting audiences in the
process.
Showing posts with label Brittany Murphy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brittany Murphy. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Cute But Chaotic, Happy Feet Can't Out-Pedal Cars
The first I heard of Happy Feet was probably about a year ago,
when a friend of mine played me a preview and informed me that this was a
movie that made life worth living. At least, he expected it would be,
given the fact that the preview filled him with happiness. Buoyed by his
enthusiasm, I anticipated the movie with excitement, but its opening
passed without me getting to the theater, and days turned into weeks and
then months. I still wanted to see it, but in his absence, my passion
for the film subsided, and I figured it was another one for the rental
queue.
But a couple days ago, I was invited to see it, as it had lingered at our dollar theater and I wasn't the only one who failed to catch it at full price. I confess some of the sense of confusion I felt throughout the film could be attributed to the fact that we got into the movie after it started. How long, I'm not sure; I don't think it could've been more than three or four minutes, but we did miss a bit of set-up. However, we did see when Mumble, the adorable little penguin featured in so much of the film's advertising, discovers he can't sing.
If you saw The March of the Penguins - and Happy Feet almost seems to operate under the assumption that you did - you'll recall that Emperor Penguins find their mates by listening for their unique call. They operate by sound rather than sight, which is what audiences have to do to some extent in this movie, since it's pretty hard to have several penguin characters with unique physical characteristics. We identify the birds mostly by sound, and they assert their individuality through their "heart songs". Their entire culture revolves around music, with chicks learning from the earliest age that singing is a key component to their survival. So Mumble is in trouble, even though he's a fantastic tap dancer. He just doesn't fit the mold.
Mostly, Happy Feet is a typical Rudolph-type story about an outcast who makes good, managing to use the characteristic that causes him to be ostracized as a means by which to do something heroic. But Mumble's quest is meant to have consequences that extend beyond the confines of the movie. The fish are dying. Noah (Hugo Weaving), the crotchety Scottish elder who leads Mumble's group of penguins, blames the little dancer for the food shortage. Our young hero knows that can't be true, and an encounter with a traumatized sea bird convinces him that the explanation must lie far away with the fabled "aliens". So while the story is part coming-of-age tale and part romance (with Gloria, a spunky young penguin with the best singing voice in the colony), it also becomes a plea for ecological awareness that gets a little trippy once Mumble comes face-to-face with these strange creatures, who are actual live-action people. I really think that green message is the reason this film took the Oscar for best animated movie; in terms of overall quality, Cars should have beaten Happy Feet hands-down.
The film boasts an all-star voice cast, which helps with differentiating the characters, though I didn't recognize all of the actors when I heard them. Elijah Wood stars as Mumble once he hits young adulthood, which happens disappointingly quickly; I think the advertising was a bit misleading here, as it seemed to focus primarily on itty bitty Mumble (Elizabeth Daily), leading me to believe the majority of the film featured him as a chick. Of course, he still looks chick-like throughout the rest of the film; though he's larger, he matures more slowly than most of his peers and still hasn't lost his baby fuzz. Moreover, his voice has a very juvenile quality to it. Still, he is an adult, as is Gloria, who I can't take too seriously as the most silky-voiced penguin of them all when she's voiced by Brittany Murphy, whose tonal quality has always screeched "nails on a chalkboard" to me. Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman fare better as maternal Norma Jean and Elvis-like Memphis, and Robin Williams is over-the-top as always in dual roles: spicy Latino Ramon, a sharp-tongued little penguin from a neighboring colony who garnered most of the film's big laughs, and Barry White-esque, tuft-eared Lovelace, who serves as a guru to the smaller penguins until his "talisman," a series of plastic rings from a six-pack of beer, chokes away his vocal abilities. The latter character also serves as the film's narrator in what seems to be a throwback to Morgan Freeman. Also appearing briefly: an elephant seal voiced by Steve Irwin in his last film role. The end of the credits include a dedication to him, which is especially appropriate given the movie's conservationist bent.
I appreciate what the movie is trying to say, both about embracing our unique qualities and finding solutions to our ecological crises. However, I found Happy Feet to be strange, too dark for young children (especially in one scene involving a vicious leopard seal) and probably too political as well, particularly in its portrayal of Noah as a religious fundamentalist whose backward views threaten to doom his colony. Most of all, I found it too chaotic, with characters - especially Ramon and his four buddies - often speaking over top of one another and with half a dozen different songs going at once. It seemed like the list of songs took up half the credits, and personally I found very few of the renditions to be particularly pleasant. Mostly, they gave me a bit of a headache, though I did find the toe-tapping displays to be visually appealing. The animation quality in general was pretty high, though I still wouldn't rank it up there with any of the Disney / Pixar collaborations.
Happy Feet is a cute movie about a penguin trying to find his place in the world. It's also a film about trying to preserve the wild spaces of the Earth from dangerous human interference. In fact, the blatant environmentalist message reminds me of another film in which Williams took part: Ferngully, an animated movie from the early nineties about a rainforest facing obliteration by an evil force using human machinery as his vehicles of destruction. Both films are pretty dark, but Ferngully has an elegant passion that gets lost in the shuffle of Happy Feet's miasmic music marathon. I'm happy I finally got around to seeing Happy Feet. But I'd also be happy not to see it again.
But a couple days ago, I was invited to see it, as it had lingered at our dollar theater and I wasn't the only one who failed to catch it at full price. I confess some of the sense of confusion I felt throughout the film could be attributed to the fact that we got into the movie after it started. How long, I'm not sure; I don't think it could've been more than three or four minutes, but we did miss a bit of set-up. However, we did see when Mumble, the adorable little penguin featured in so much of the film's advertising, discovers he can't sing.
If you saw The March of the Penguins - and Happy Feet almost seems to operate under the assumption that you did - you'll recall that Emperor Penguins find their mates by listening for their unique call. They operate by sound rather than sight, which is what audiences have to do to some extent in this movie, since it's pretty hard to have several penguin characters with unique physical characteristics. We identify the birds mostly by sound, and they assert their individuality through their "heart songs". Their entire culture revolves around music, with chicks learning from the earliest age that singing is a key component to their survival. So Mumble is in trouble, even though he's a fantastic tap dancer. He just doesn't fit the mold.
Mostly, Happy Feet is a typical Rudolph-type story about an outcast who makes good, managing to use the characteristic that causes him to be ostracized as a means by which to do something heroic. But Mumble's quest is meant to have consequences that extend beyond the confines of the movie. The fish are dying. Noah (Hugo Weaving), the crotchety Scottish elder who leads Mumble's group of penguins, blames the little dancer for the food shortage. Our young hero knows that can't be true, and an encounter with a traumatized sea bird convinces him that the explanation must lie far away with the fabled "aliens". So while the story is part coming-of-age tale and part romance (with Gloria, a spunky young penguin with the best singing voice in the colony), it also becomes a plea for ecological awareness that gets a little trippy once Mumble comes face-to-face with these strange creatures, who are actual live-action people. I really think that green message is the reason this film took the Oscar for best animated movie; in terms of overall quality, Cars should have beaten Happy Feet hands-down.
The film boasts an all-star voice cast, which helps with differentiating the characters, though I didn't recognize all of the actors when I heard them. Elijah Wood stars as Mumble once he hits young adulthood, which happens disappointingly quickly; I think the advertising was a bit misleading here, as it seemed to focus primarily on itty bitty Mumble (Elizabeth Daily), leading me to believe the majority of the film featured him as a chick. Of course, he still looks chick-like throughout the rest of the film; though he's larger, he matures more slowly than most of his peers and still hasn't lost his baby fuzz. Moreover, his voice has a very juvenile quality to it. Still, he is an adult, as is Gloria, who I can't take too seriously as the most silky-voiced penguin of them all when she's voiced by Brittany Murphy, whose tonal quality has always screeched "nails on a chalkboard" to me. Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman fare better as maternal Norma Jean and Elvis-like Memphis, and Robin Williams is over-the-top as always in dual roles: spicy Latino Ramon, a sharp-tongued little penguin from a neighboring colony who garnered most of the film's big laughs, and Barry White-esque, tuft-eared Lovelace, who serves as a guru to the smaller penguins until his "talisman," a series of plastic rings from a six-pack of beer, chokes away his vocal abilities. The latter character also serves as the film's narrator in what seems to be a throwback to Morgan Freeman. Also appearing briefly: an elephant seal voiced by Steve Irwin in his last film role. The end of the credits include a dedication to him, which is especially appropriate given the movie's conservationist bent.
I appreciate what the movie is trying to say, both about embracing our unique qualities and finding solutions to our ecological crises. However, I found Happy Feet to be strange, too dark for young children (especially in one scene involving a vicious leopard seal) and probably too political as well, particularly in its portrayal of Noah as a religious fundamentalist whose backward views threaten to doom his colony. Most of all, I found it too chaotic, with characters - especially Ramon and his four buddies - often speaking over top of one another and with half a dozen different songs going at once. It seemed like the list of songs took up half the credits, and personally I found very few of the renditions to be particularly pleasant. Mostly, they gave me a bit of a headache, though I did find the toe-tapping displays to be visually appealing. The animation quality in general was pretty high, though I still wouldn't rank it up there with any of the Disney / Pixar collaborations.
Happy Feet is a cute movie about a penguin trying to find his place in the world. It's also a film about trying to preserve the wild spaces of the Earth from dangerous human interference. In fact, the blatant environmentalist message reminds me of another film in which Williams took part: Ferngully, an animated movie from the early nineties about a rainforest facing obliteration by an evil force using human machinery as his vehicles of destruction. Both films are pretty dark, but Ferngully has an elegant passion that gets lost in the shuffle of Happy Feet's miasmic music marathon. I'm happy I finally got around to seeing Happy Feet. But I'd also be happy not to see it again.
Sunday, August 10, 2003
Just Married Is Just Appalling
When I heard the news that Ashton Kutcher was the top contender along
with Prince William for the distinction of Bachelor of the Year, I could
scarcely believe it. What kind of a comparison is that? Prince Charming
vs. Lord of the Goofballs. I never found out who won; I was afraid I
might discover that Ashton had inexplicably received the honor (and why
was he even considered a bachelor, with his high-profile relationship
with Demi Moore?). Okay. So I don’t like Ashton Kutcher. And his
starring in Just Married was one of the reasons I had so little
interest in the movie. That, and I just thought it looked really dumb.
But I caught it at the dollar theater with a couple of friends, curious
to see if it was as awful as I thought it would be. Suffice it to say,
it was.
Ashton plays Tom Leezak, a clueless bozo reminiscent of his role as Kelso in That 70s Show. He meets Sarah McNerney (Brittany Murphy) as a result of a freak accident on the beach, wherein he knocks her out with a football. By the next morning they’re smooching away in a beach house declaring their love for one another. When Roger and Anita knocked each other in the pond and fell in love in 101 Dalmatians, it was cute. In Just Married, it is just the beginning of many catastrophes to come.
Sarah lives the good life. The really good life. She’s filthy rich, while Tom scrapes by a living as a disk jockey. While Sarah’s parents encourage her to accept the affections of Ivy Leaguer Peter Prentis (Christian Kane), Sarah insists that it is Tom whom she loves. In fact, they’re already living together for quite some time before the marriage makes it official. Throughout the entire period leading up to the wedding, Tom’s self-serving, juvenile behavior won no points with me. In one scene, apparently intended to be one of the biggest laugh-generators of the film (it did get quite a chuckle from the audience in my theater), Tom throws a ball out the second-story window and Sarah’s dog leaps out to catch it and is hit by a car. I found the scene cringe-worthy. To make things worse, Tom lies about what happened, an act which will come back to haunt him later in the movie.
The movie itself is mostly one long flashback, as it begins with Sarah and Tom huffily leaving the airport and resuming their own lives, separately. Tom soon becomes miserable, however, and reminisces on their relationship and what went wrong. So we know from the start that the marriage is doomed, at least for a while. It takes all but about ten minutes at the end of the movie to see it played out with as many cheap gags and gross-out moments as possible. I probably laughed two or three times in this movie. The rest of the time I groaned.
As their vacation mishaps pile up, Peter shows up in Italy to try to win Sarah back. He is, of course, supposed to be the Evil Boyfriend Approved By Parents of such films as Far and Away and Titanic, but other than the unscrupulous act of wooing someone on her honeymoon, he seems like a pretty decent guy. I found Tom so thoroughly unlikable, I was actually rooting for Evil Boyfriend! Though, to be honest, I didn’t like Sarah a whole lot either. She’s pretty whiny and obnoxious herself, though more palatable than Kutcher, at least in personality. Her voice really grated on me, though. It sounded throughout the film as though she had a sore throat, and I’m not sure if that was an affectation for the movie or her actual voice. I haven’t seen enough of her to know. Either way, I found it very unpleasant to listen to.
Of course, by the end of the movie, there’s a big happy reconciliation. How couldn’t there be? Tom crashes Sarah’s mansion and spouts out some romantic spiel, and she runs back into his arms. Hooray. What a surprise. I guess in the end they deserve each other, but the only thing happy about the ending as far as I was concerned is that I didn’t have to suffer through this movie anymore.
Ashton plays Tom Leezak, a clueless bozo reminiscent of his role as Kelso in That 70s Show. He meets Sarah McNerney (Brittany Murphy) as a result of a freak accident on the beach, wherein he knocks her out with a football. By the next morning they’re smooching away in a beach house declaring their love for one another. When Roger and Anita knocked each other in the pond and fell in love in 101 Dalmatians, it was cute. In Just Married, it is just the beginning of many catastrophes to come.
Sarah lives the good life. The really good life. She’s filthy rich, while Tom scrapes by a living as a disk jockey. While Sarah’s parents encourage her to accept the affections of Ivy Leaguer Peter Prentis (Christian Kane), Sarah insists that it is Tom whom she loves. In fact, they’re already living together for quite some time before the marriage makes it official. Throughout the entire period leading up to the wedding, Tom’s self-serving, juvenile behavior won no points with me. In one scene, apparently intended to be one of the biggest laugh-generators of the film (it did get quite a chuckle from the audience in my theater), Tom throws a ball out the second-story window and Sarah’s dog leaps out to catch it and is hit by a car. I found the scene cringe-worthy. To make things worse, Tom lies about what happened, an act which will come back to haunt him later in the movie.
The movie itself is mostly one long flashback, as it begins with Sarah and Tom huffily leaving the airport and resuming their own lives, separately. Tom soon becomes miserable, however, and reminisces on their relationship and what went wrong. So we know from the start that the marriage is doomed, at least for a while. It takes all but about ten minutes at the end of the movie to see it played out with as many cheap gags and gross-out moments as possible. I probably laughed two or three times in this movie. The rest of the time I groaned.
As their vacation mishaps pile up, Peter shows up in Italy to try to win Sarah back. He is, of course, supposed to be the Evil Boyfriend Approved By Parents of such films as Far and Away and Titanic, but other than the unscrupulous act of wooing someone on her honeymoon, he seems like a pretty decent guy. I found Tom so thoroughly unlikable, I was actually rooting for Evil Boyfriend! Though, to be honest, I didn’t like Sarah a whole lot either. She’s pretty whiny and obnoxious herself, though more palatable than Kutcher, at least in personality. Her voice really grated on me, though. It sounded throughout the film as though she had a sore throat, and I’m not sure if that was an affectation for the movie or her actual voice. I haven’t seen enough of her to know. Either way, I found it very unpleasant to listen to.
Of course, by the end of the movie, there’s a big happy reconciliation. How couldn’t there be? Tom crashes Sarah’s mansion and spouts out some romantic spiel, and she runs back into his arms. Hooray. What a surprise. I guess in the end they deserve each other, but the only thing happy about the ending as far as I was concerned is that I didn’t have to suffer through this movie anymore.
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