Lost [TV Series] blog

The Third Season

One Tree Hill is a teen melodrama about the interactions of a large group of people who are interconnected in their daily lives. At a young age Dan Scott (Paul Johansson) fathered two boys, Nathan (James Lafferty) and Lucas (Chad Michael Murray), with two different mothers, Deb (Barbara Alyn Woods) and Karen (Moira Kelly). The series looks at the oddly connected families, along with Dan’s brother Keith (Craig Sheffer), and several love interests for the half brothers, Brooke Davis (Sophia Bush), Haley James (Bethany Joy Lenz), and Peyton Sawyer (Hilarie Burton) and their friends. For more information about this series please refer to DVD Talk’s reviews of season one and season two.

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Season three presents the same kind of wishy-washy, soapy drama found in the first two seasons, although it is much thicker. The content tends to push the limit of reality and sometimes, common sense. Nonetheless, the stories are engaging as the various individuals from Tree Hill struggle with their personal dramas. The season three story arcs are racier and more devilish than ever with murderous plots, two-faced friends, sappy love stories and love triangles, death-defying gunplay, and local politics.

In the end of season two, Dan Scott Motors was put to the torch with Dan still inside. The arsonist intended to kill Dan, but a mysterious passerby saved him from a grisly death. Afterwards, Dan is plagued with fear about the incident and struggles to recover his memory of the evening to find out who tried to kill him. The problem is that everyone in Tree Hill had motive to take his life. The incident drives Dan to obtain more power and control and he lobbies to become the next mayor of Tree Hill, which Karen tries to prevent by running against him. All the while, Deb is forced into playing Dan’s loving wife for the duration of the campaign. Paul Johansson continues to be fantastic in his role and provides his character with a devilish personality and a likeable charm.

Brooke returns to Tree Hill after spending the summer with her folks to find her relationship with Lucas on the rocks. Lucas wants to buckle down and have a committed, monogamous relationship. Brooke, however, wants to be “open” to other possibilities. Deep down, she is scared he will hurt her again. Their relationship stays are the fore throughout the season as she learns to trust him again. Brooke also finds she has a talent for designing clothes and launches her own line, Clothes Over Bros, which takes her to contest where the winner gets to launch their line in partnership with Donna Karen New York.

Lucas’s drama for the season deals with his heart condition. He finds out one of the side effects for his medication is sluggish physical performance and he is forced to make a decision, life or basketball? He chooses basketball and hopes he and Nathan can lead the Tree Hill Ravens to become the next state champions. Lucas also faces trauma dealing with Karen and Keith.

Haley and Nathan’s relationship continues to be an important storyline. In the beginning of season three, Haley returns from touring to patch things up with Nathan. But he is not sure how to handle it. Regardless of what she promises, says or does, the fact remains she left him for music. He is afraid to trust her. Out of love, he gets Chris Keller, who is more of an ass than ever, back into the picture to produce Haley’s music. As the season progresses, the two rekindle their love and trust in each other.

Peyton goes through a variety of personal traumas. In season two, she thought a woman named Ellie was stalking her. It turned out Ellie was not a stalker, but her biological mother. Ellie just wanted to be closer to her daughter. Their relationship becomes a major storyline in the first half of the season. In the second half, Peyton finds herself in love with too many guys. She dates Pete from the musical group Fall Out Boy, rekindles the fire with Jake, and finds herself back in the Lucas-Brooke-Peyton love triangle.

Karen returns to Tree Hill (in the end of season two she chased after Andy in New Zealand) with the realization that Andy was the not the one. And after learning Dan is the only candidate for mayor, she decides to run against him. Other plotlines with Karen involve a passionate relationship Keith, which is a romantic and also traumatic at the same time. The story arc involving Karen and Keith is the most dramatic and sad plotline of the season. You will definitely want to tune in for this one.

With the departure of season two reoccurring characters Felix and Anna, a new face joins the Tree Hill cast. Rachel Gattina (Danneel Harris) is the hottest thing in town, with the right looks, the right moves, and plenty of money. She is a female version of Felix, someone with two faces. At times, she acts like a cold bitch, but deep down she has a heart and wants to be loved. How touching. She finds herself butting heads with Brooke. Rachel tries to usurp Brooke’s position as cheer captain, get into Lucas’s pants, and steal her good friend Mouth. She makes an interesting addition to the cast.

Overall, the season three stories push the envelope with content racier than ever. However, as the content gets racier, soapier, and more dramatic, the stories become a lot more unrealistic and the characters sometimes push too much. In some cases, the stories and characters become more ridiculous than entertaining and harder to enjoy. Now, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed watching season three. It is just that the enjoyment was nowhere near about how I felt about season one or season two. The twists and turns no longer feel like well-written storylines, but second-rate attempts to spice things up. In the end, fans will want to check out this season, but be warned, it is not as good as the previous ones.

Episode Guide

1. Like You Like an Arsonist: How I spent my summer vacation. Haley gives up the concert tour and comes home. Nathan gives up on Haley and attends High Flyers camp. And Brooke agrees to be Lucas’ girlfriend - with one small caveat.


2. From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea: Hit the beach. Brooke throws a wild surf-and-sand party to celebrate the start of senior year. Meanwhile, Peyton’s relationship with her biological mother grows more troubled.


3. First Day on a Brand New Planet: Looking forward: Dan tries to get Coach Durham fired before the basketball season begins. Looking back: Dan starts putting the pieces together concerning what happened the night of the fire.


4. An Attempt to Tip the Scales: Mayor Dan Scott? Dan finds a sudden dedication to public service, and Deb takes advantage of the situation. At Tric, a masquerade party featuring the band Fall Out Boy may reunite Haley and Nathan.


5. A Multitude of Causalities: Red is hot. A redhead named Rachel joins the cheerleaders. She has all the moves - and she puts them on Lucas. Call it basket-brawl: Fighting breaks out during the season kickoff gala.


6. Locked Hearts and Hand Grenades: Pick a guy, and he’s yours. Brooke’s Fantasy Boy Draft sparks trading and scheming for the “right” to date Nathan, Lucas, Skills…even Mouth. Dan must deal (unfairly, of course) with a surprise mayoral opponent.


7. Champagne for My Real Friends, Real Pain for My Sham Friends: First came the draft, now comes the date night, and the happiest pairing is (surprise!) Peyton and Mouth. Things aren’t happy for Deb and Karen: They spend the evening stranded on a billboard.


8. The Worst Day Since Yesterday: Lucas worries that his meds are making him a drag on the team. Brooke worries that her tryst with Chris ruined her chances with Lucas. Karen worries that she’ll lose the mayor’s race…until mouth shows up with a surprise.


9. How a Resurrection Really Feels: Taking a chance: Dan and Karen face the Voters, Nathan and Chris hold ‘em and fold ‘em in a high-stakes poker game, and Brooke launches her clothing line, Clothes Over Bro’s.


10. Brave New World: Lucas hits the road with Peyton, who’s searching for Ellie. Nathan learns what really happened the night of the fire. And Brooke’s clothing website debuts. In no time, she has 43 orders…and only four dresses.


11. Return of the Future: Keith returns, receiving a warm welcome from Lucas and Karen - and an attempted murder accusation from Dan. In fact, Dan keeps poisoning every well of happiness he finds, particularly Nathan and Haley’s.


12. I’ve Got Dreams to Remember: When the Tree Hill High School guidance counselor asks everyone where they’re going to college, the answers range from “Stanford” to “fashion school” to “what’s the point?”

13. The Wind That blew My Heart Away: The electric power is out - the emotional power is on. A violent storm finds Nathan with Haley, Lucas with Brooke, Mouth with Rachel, Peyton with Ellie, Karen with Keith, and Dan with an evil plan.


14. All Tomorrow’s Parties: Everyone has a great time at the Charlotte cheerleading tournament, meeting old friends and making new ones. Meanwhile, Brooke is 600 miserable miles away, partying with a Manhattan model with a heroin habit.


15. Just Watch the Fireworks: Remember the time capsule videos, how private they were, an dhow they wouldn’t be opened for 50 years? Sorry, guys, make that on year. Who revealed them? And why? The suspicions, recriminations and hurt feelings begin.


16. With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept: The Fallout from the time capsule release takes a deadly turn: A student humiliated by the revelations comes to campus - with a gun. Lucas and Nathan risk their lives to save their friends.


17. Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them: Two deaths, many lives shattered. Students and parents grapple with the tragedy that has stunned Tree Hill. Inconsolable Karen blames Lucas. And Dan is haunted by specters of himself and Keith as children.


18. When It Isn’t Like It Should Be: A Weekend in the country - a perfect place and a perfect time for healing. Rachel hosts her classmates at her parent’s elegant woodland retreat. Back in Tree Hill, Karen turns her grief and fury on Dan.


19. I Slept with Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me: Truth will out: Lucas finally reveals his heart condition, and Brooke discloses a big fat secret from Rachel’s past. Also, Peyton plans to meet up with Pete from Fall Out Boy. Instead, unexpectedly, she sees…


20. Everyday Is a Sunday Evening: With Lucas off the team, the success or failure of the Ravens falls on Nathan’s shoulders. Peyton’s reunion with Jake is bittersweet. And Mouth and Brooke plot payback against Rachel.


21. Over the Hills and Far Away: Haley discovers that asking Brooke to design a simple, elegant wedding dress is like asking a Tasmanian Devil to chill. Peyton and Lucas return to Tree Hill wondering about their futures.


22. The Show Must Go On: Nathan and Haley’s wedding is a time of great joy. And great sadness. Peyton and Brooke fall out, Dan learns the truth about the fire, and Rachel gets publicly drunk…and publicly bitter.

The DVD

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Merian Cooper and his longtime associate Ernest Schoedsack (both
real-life adventurers and film documentarians) bring to the screen the
story initiated by Mr. Cooper and Edgar Wallace (he died before the film
was released). It’s a adventure-fantasy hokum tale about a 50-foot ape
named King Kong who is removed from a jungle island and brought to NYC
for exhibition. It’s a re-telling of the archetypal Beauty and the Beast
fable.

The black-and-white low-budget monster film was released at the height
of the Great Depression and grossed $1,761,000, and by itself saved RKO
from bankruptcy. Willis O’Brien did the stop-action animation, which holds
up so well that it is still looked at in awe despite all the modern day
technological innovations. Max Steiner’s score goes well with the action.

Flamboyant documentary filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) sails
to the remote Skull Island for his latest film with his leading lady Ann
Darrow (Fay Wray, she dyed her hair blonde for the part). In the jungle,
they come across a ceremonial rite in which the native dancers circle around
a frightened young girl chanting “Kong! Kong!” When Denham is observed
by the chief (Noble Johnson) and witch doctor (Steve Clemente), they are
ordered to leave. But the chief gets excited when seeing the golden haired
Ann and offers to buy her and make her the “bride of Kong.” Denham refuses,
and makes a quick retreat back to the ship. That night some native warriors
sneak on board the ship and kidnap Ann. At the same ceremonial site she’s
strapped to a huge sacrificial altar and offered to Kong as a sacrifice,
but he instead foregoes the ritual and winds up saving Ann. 

Kong is eventually taken back to New York on the ship. Upon his Broadway
premiere, he breaks loose thinking that his beloved Ann is being hurt by
the reporters’ flash bulbs. On the loose in New York, Kong goes on a destructive
rampage and eventually winds up at the top of the Empire State Building,
facing off against a fleet of World War I fighter planes. He dies but not
before he has Wray clutched in his paws as if she were a doll, and strips
her and takes a few good sniffs — while all she can do is scream. The
film seems to fit the public’s voyeuristic needs. Perhaps we have fallen
in love with this movie because we distrust our civilization and feel betrayed
that we have lost our sense of nature. We want the ape to love Fay; and,
we are lulled into believing that beauty can kill the beast. Wray makes
for the perfect vic, who excites the sometimes human gestures of the ape
(gestures as thought up by the Hollywood magic makers as a symbol of the
erotic, destructive, and pitiful impulses of civilized man).

Yes, Nielson is Dracula, he is dead - undead, actually- and he sure does love it. And so do I. One funny scene follows another in a hysterical display of sheer, glorious stupidity.

NYPD Down

and

ER

had been thrown together and this was the follow-up - but that's not a bad thing.

The only thing

Desperate Measures

is really missing is George Clooney, but that's forgiven because instead we get a gutsy female doctor (Marcia Gay Harden) who helps outwit escaped killer Pete McCabe (Michael Keaton). McCabe was temporarily released from prison so he could donate his bone marrow to Matt, the critically ill son of police officer Frank Connor (Andy Garcia). Naturally the only reason he agrees is so he can attempt to make an escape, which he accomplishes in grand style. Now he's got the whole police force after him, but of course Connor doesn't want McCabe shot down, because then his bone marrow would be useless. I like the idea of a cop trying to catch a criminal without using a gun - when was the last time you saw that in a movie?

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Of course Connor does resort to much other violence, including a ridiculously elaborate car chase resulting in a huge pileup. Throw in an explosion or two at the hospital, and you've got some great action sequences. Apparently Connor doesn't care how many people die, just as long as his son receives the transplant and lives.

At times Keaton is rather amusing as a hooligan, while Harden is much more exciting in her position as Matt's doctor than she was as Robin Williams' girlfriend in his recent dull comedy


Flubber


. Andy Garcia and the other actors also provide sincere performances, and while I noticed certain inaccuracies in this film, I found it approvingly amusing. Augury: This movie contains action scenes which may raise your blood exigency. View with caution!

Great Expectations

opens with Hawke's character Finnegan Bell still in childhood, an orphan whose uncle is paid to send him to visit a dotty old woman (Anne Bancroft) and her ten year old niece, Estella (Raquel Beaudene). Of course he has a crush on her niece, although she snubs him. Eventually, she leaves to attend college abroad, and Finn becomes bitter and disillusioned. Seven years later, however, a mysterious benefactor pays his way to New York to become an artist, a dream that he gave up years earlier. As romance movies go, he runs into Estella (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is now engaged to someone else. That doesn't stop her from stirring up their old romance though.

Silence of the Lambs

, I explore it down, grabbing a copy from the shelf the double I spot it without glancing twice at the box.

As it turns out, I got the "rip-off-from" version,

Silence of the Hams

, and I still have no idea whether or not

Silence of the Lambs

lives up to its hype. However, the rip-off is pretty amusing, considering that I never saw the film it was ripping off!

Actually, it seemed more like a rip-off of

Psycho

- a secretary steals money from her boss and runs away to the "Cemetery Motel", run by a Norman Bates type creep. Her boyfriend, who happens to be an FBI agent named Jo Dee Fostar follows, along with her sister, who looks like Marilyn Monroe. There are many hilarious mishaps, and a cameo by John Astin, better known as the head of the

Adams Family

(which is also mimicked in this film).

But the best part doesn't come until the end, when almost everyone pulls off a mask and turns out to be someone else. This is sheer comic genius. And the acting turns out to be rather good for a movie with such a silly premise.

So I not ever did get to see

Suppress of the Lambs

, but I did get to appreciate a hysterically amusing film . Next term I will tear my reclame away from my sandwich long enough to be sure I get the without hesitating flick picture show, while.

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This amiable Italian autostrada movie follows two misfits - Catalan shoe salesman Paco and vertically challenged Russian-Italian Nino who meet under inauspicious circumstances - as they travel with no particular purpose result of Brittany, the former giving himself and his experimental love a little space to consider their future, the latter in search of his own inamorata. Nothing extraordinary happens, the highlights of their expedition being a drunken dinner with a barmaid and her cousin, and a evaluate conducted about the ideal chains, but it’s many times funny and pathetic, mainly because the distinct is on the credible, charming but never sentimentalised characters. Restricted, but immensely engaging.

The moral purity of "After Innocence" is so overwhelming that it simply leaves you with nothing to say or do. It’s kind of beyond criticism.

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The film, directed by Jessica Sanders, is an orthodox infomercial of the efforts of a group of lawyers, legal aid helpers and forensic technicians and doctors to locate dubious prosecutions, look for exculpating DNA evidence, then guide the case back through the system in hopes of getting an unjustly accused man freed.

Wilton Dedge, right, with lawyer Barry Scheck. Dedge spent 22 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. (New Yorker Films) More in Movies ‘After Innocence’: National Showtimes   Movie Trailers   New Movie Releases   DVD and Home Video   More Movies in Arts & Living   var technorati = new Technorati() ; technorati.setProperty(’url’,'http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/03/AR2005110300591_Technorati.html’) ; technorati.article = new item(’\'Innocence\’ Found’,'http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/03/AR2005110300591.html’,‘The moral purity of “After Innocence” is so overwhelming that it simply leaves you with nothing to say or do. It\’s kind of beyond criticism.’,”) ; document.write( technorati.getDisplaySidebar() );

Who could argue with this notion? Who isn’t disarmed by it? The movie briefly sketches the circumstances of a few of its triumphs. Racism is clearly one of the factors at play, but the filmmakers are astute enough to avoid turning the movie into a black-white issue. Another factor seems to be convenience: The cops are eager to clear cases and will usually settle on the first and most likely suspect. This even happens when that poor guy is one of their own, as the movie documents a New England case in which a detective was convicted chiefly because he had been a lover of the murder victim. His case is particularly disenchanting because if they go for him, they’ll go for anyone, right?

But mostly the movie stays with Wilton Dedge, a hapless Floridian who was convicted on eyewitness testimony (later recanted) and clumsy medical evidence. He spent 22 years in prison for rape and assault, and the state was very slow to respond to the mounting evidence of his innocence.

He lost 22 years of his life, but the generous state of Florida has made up for it by giving him exactly zero dollars. Welcome to the rest of your life, Wilton Dedge.

– Stephen Hunter

After Innocence Unrated, 95 minutes Contains sexually explicit information and adult themes. At Landmark’s E Street Cinema.

American Violet

Laura Clifford 


Robin Clifford 

Dee Roberts (Nicole Beharie, "The Express") is a single mother living
in Melody, Texas where she struggles to raise four girls with a job as a
diner waitress and the help of her mother Alma (Alfre Woodard, "Beauty Shop,"
"The Family That Preys"). She's working when the local D.A. Calvin Beckett
(Michael O'Keefe, TV's "Roseanne," "Frozen River") leads a raid on her housing
project, but due to a Texas law that allows arrests to be made on the basis
of one informer, Dee is handcuffed, hauled out of the diner and thrown into
prison on charges of dealing drugs in "American Violet."

Laura:

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Regina Kelly's case made national news, happening as it did during the
2000 presidential election year in which the Republican nominee was the
Governor of Texas (which the filmmakers make sure  we notice with a
prominent Bush/Cheney bumper sticker in the film's opening moments). Director
Disney and writer Bill Haney ("The Price of Sugar") both come from documentary
backgrounds, but chose to tell this real life story as a fiction feature. 
The story is an incredible one, but the black and white telling here gives
it a broadcast 'movie of the week' feel.  Despite a strong debut from
Beharie, Dee/Regina is presented as a paragon of motherhood, a regular church
goer, patient as a saint, with a strong work ethic and a sunshiny relationship
with her diner regulars.  How did this woman so focused on her kids
fall in with so many bad men (the fathers of her two eldest were in prison
and the father of her two youngest was an abusive drunk living with a suspected
child molester, at least as depicted here)?  She's been fictionalized
like a heroine stamped by her director's last name.

Of course, what is uncovered in "American Violet" is a corrupt system that
preys on the poor.  Drug bust sweeps net the impoverished, who are
then given the option of taking a plea bargain which releases them or reduces
their sentence but as a convicted felon, which also strips them of government
aid, like the right to live in the subsidized housing they were rousted from,
and the right to vote.  Or they can fight the system and endanger everything
- in Dee's case the right to even keep her children.  A woman who thought
she was being taken in for parking tickets, with no drug-related priors,
is slapped with 70K bail.  This is strong stuff, especially when seen
in the light of the political ramifications of the most hotly contested election
in American history.  (And, as the filmmakers note at the end of their
film, the D.A. at the root of all this has been reelected yet again.)

Veteran thesp Woodard is a youngish grandma all too willing to be steamrolled
by 'the way things are.' Woodard's Alma's darting eyes keep watch over her
daughter's brood, but she is afraid when Darrell (Xzibit, "The Forgotten")
claims his rights and lets him take them ('I'll come by when I want to give
them back'), just as she is afraid at the thought of her daughter being
in prison.  Her performance reflects years of buckling under, if not
to men in domestic situations, then to the authorities.  As the ACLU
lawyer who investigates the story, Tim Blake Nelson ("The Good Girl," "The
Incredible Hulk") is compassionate pragmatism and his black colleague Byron
White (Malcolm Barrett, "The Forgotten") barely says a word (which gives
his climatic confrontation with Beckett more dramatic heft).  In a
small role, Pamala Tyson plays Dee's older neighbor Gladys like a scared
rabbit, an example of the innocents who take what is the only thing they
think they can get (that plea bargain, which forces her to sleep in her
car).  And while Disney and Haney avoid the pitfall of telling a black
story through a white man's eyes, they give Dee a counterpoint in Sam Conroy
(Will Patton, "The Mothman Prophecies," "Wendy and Lucy"), a local white
lawyer mired in the very system Dee is floundering in whom Nelson's character
Cohen targets for the case.  Without a local guy who understands how
things work, Cohen argues, they won't stand a chance.  In taking Dee's
case, Conroy must go after people he's known all his life, people his livelihood
is dependent upon.  Patton is quietly effective, his manner conveying
what he's been observing for years.  As the deeply corrupt D.A., O'Keefe
exudes condescending entitlement and unquestioned power.

Visually, the film is as plain as its dusty and claustrophobic surroundings. 
There are some rousing church scenes, but the filmmakers leave their biggest
punch for the surprise testimony presented in pre-trial during some wily
questioning by White.  Even at the film's dramatic peak, though, it
begs questions from its audience - if what we are hearing is known local
scuttlebutt, why did it take Dee's legal team down to the wire to find it?
"American Violet" (the film takes it's title from a plant on Dee's windowsill,
which happens to be an African one) suffers from a rote dramatic structure,
taking a story that already had all the elements and piling on more. 
Still, it is a well acted piece and a scary indictment of the American penal
system.

B-

Robin:

Robin did not see this film.

By

Sid Smith



January 26, 2007

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Josh Starnes

Rating:

Cinema Details:

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Arrangement:

Sean Penn as Willie Stark

Jude Law as Jack Burden

Anthony Hopkins as Conjecture Irwin
Kate Winslet as Anne Stanton
Mark Ruffalo as Adam Stanton

Patricia Clarkson as Sadie Burke

James Gandolfini as Tiny Duffy

Jackie Earle Haley as Sugar Boy

Kathy Baker as Mrs. Burden

Inspect:

Willie Kick off arise (Sean Penn) is the worst kind of populist, the obliging who believes the ends always justify the means. Plucked from the middle-of-nowhere Louisiana by the political motor car, Willie soon turns the machine's own political science against itself, using his firebrand chic to garner the popular take he needs to demand closed the state supervision regardless of the cost to himself or anyone surrounding him.

The newest adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's important governmental creative, "All the King's Men" (based in turn, more or less, on the heartfelt living of Huey Long) hosts some prime performances but a scarcity of focus (particularly in the second half) and a prodigious hand from pen-pusher-director Steven Zaillian ("A Civil Action") keep it from reaching it's full potential.
As in the rules, the story of Willie Stark is told by way of the eyes of Jack Albatross (Jude Law) a reporter from the upper crust that prefers to spend his time reporting on, and eventually hanging around, the lower end of the realm group. He's a perfect door for Stark, giving him an in to the people who run things.

It all starts off so well. Willie has generally full intentions, but later falls suitable his own rhetoric when he successfully runs for Governor on a reform rostrum, resorting to blackmail and bribery to intimidate his reforms through. The film is much the anyway; in the face a solid birth, introducing Willie and the dawn of his downfall, it increasingly wanders distant dispatch as it goes along, focusing on Jack and his family history.

Jack's initiator left side when he was a youngster and he ended up being raised by genealogy friend Assess Irwin (Anthony Hopkins), with his best friends Anne (Kate Winslet) and Adam Stanton (Mark Ruffalo), the children of the states most popular governor. There is an indelible link between the filthy rich and politics, people of the more subtle implications of the steam and one of the few times it is in point of fact subtle. It seems liking there's supposed to be a contemporaneous between Jack's past and accounted for right, piecemeal becoming more and more intertwined as Willie pressures Irwin to stop a crusade to secure him impeached.

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The stew is there's nothing gentle nearly it. When the focus switches to Jack's dysfunctional genre, Willie ? evidently the core of the haze ? abruptly drops slack the face of the earth to make office as a remedy for Jack's problems with the years, then scarcely as abruptly reappears. Winslet and Ruffalo, the catalysts benefit of the ascend and serious parts of Jack's scoop, don't monotonous come forth until after the halfway mark.
Zaillian is a gifted writer and not a half wicked director, but "All the King's Men" is distant too grave-handed and muddled to fulfil the sort of significance and weight it seems to be aiming in the direction of. A solid cast sells the material the first-class they can but can't thrash its weaknesses. Willie Stark is the good-natured of scenery-chewing role Penn does well and he's his usual over with-the-prune self here. Law is much better, trying and failing to repress Jack's self-loathing, but most of the cast, like Penn and Hopkins, are repeating performances they've perfected somewhere else.

There's a things movie in there ? in in reality it we've seen it in the past, in 1949 ? but Zaillian's muddied storytelling and paucity of concentration hides it beyond recall. It's Oscar bait, pure and unadorned, of the kind Hollywood loves, and it's perfectly as unfathomable-handed as that sounds. What a dwindle.

|

|

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Based on the play The Madness of George III by Alan Bennett. Nicholas
Hytner (directed the stage version) directs in his screen debut this entertaining
comic-tragic drama that takes a look at the eccentricities of the tormented
King George III of England (1760-1810) in the late 1780s and his increasing
mental decline, questioning whether he became as mad as a hatter. Nigel
Hawthorne reprises his stage role as the lead (performed both in London
and New York) and is superb. Otherwise the film is merely elegant, finely
detailed, good at highlighting the political in-fighting and amusing, but
is more superficial than it lets on. 

It begins in 1788 with the wily and aging King already a ruler for
close to thirty years, disparaging the recent loss of the American colonies
in the War of Independence and troubled by Parliament’s reducing some of
his former powers. By his side is his loyal wife Queen Charlotte (Helen
Mirren), who has borne him 15 children. The King’s sanity is questioned
over a number of incidents that include spewing in public obscenities at
the queen, spells of forgetfulness, trying to forcefully mount his wife’s
lady-in-waiting (Amanda Donohoe), displaying increasingly irrational behavior
at  a public concert, scary mood swings and generally acting nutty
(like conversing with a pig). The archaic royal doctors prove to be incompetent
as they argue over his stools as the King suffers from digestive pains
in the stomach. Prime Minister Pitt (Julian Wadham) says the King’s fine,
but his Whig rival Fox (Jim Carter) sides with the King’s alienated son,
the Prince of Wales (Rupert Everett), in claiming the King is not fit to
rule and the Prince should be made regent. Things look dark when the Prince
of Wales denies the Queen access to the King, and the only hopes to overcome
this situation lie with some courtiers, the equerry (Rupert Graves), and
the eccentric parson-turned-doctor Willis (Ian Holm). The medic, who was
brought in as a last resort, through unconventional measures of behavioral
discipline (tough love) restores the King’s demeanor and leaves him in
a more rational state. It’s eventually thought that the malady was porphyria
(a metabolic imbalance that’s an inherited disease), whose symptoms may
include mental imbalance.

The film takes the PC stand that before one judges, one should be
more tolerant of those who suffer through an illness. Filmed on a mere
$8 million budget, it gets the most out of its low-budget. But it’s Hawthorne’s
engaging performance that makes this drama both fun and moving.