Thank you, Cubs

The Cubs rest high on my gratitude list today -- and especially this marvelous guy pictured here: Aramis Ramirez. I belong to a family in which the members practice different religions -- Cubsfanaticism and Soxfanaticism. Needless to say, animosities abound. What a fine weekend this has been! The gloat factor is stratospheric. My, my, my. I do love baseball. If you are a Cub fan, make sure you join Westside Rooters Social Club. (http://www.westsiderooters.com/). And, when they ask you who urged you to join, enter donnarnold@rocketmail.com. Thank you for your support.

Review: The Visitor

The Visitor ***1/2

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 92%

The Visitor has been playing in Evanston for the past two months. I thought it would never come to the Western Burbs, but this week it finally did. It was worth the wait.

The film tells the story of a Connecticut college professor of Economics who clearly is just going through the motions. His syllabi never change from class to class; his sparsely attended lectures are dreary and tired; his latest collaborative paper was actually researched and written by a younger colleague seeking tenure. He attends an academic conference in New York where he has an apartment. He enters his apartment and discovers that a young couple, illegal immigrants, are living there. The man is from Syria; the woman is from Senegal. They rented the apartment in good faith and are more than willing to leave when they discover they have been scammed.

Walter watches them as they leave, walking the street with their baggage. And there the story really begins. He decides to allow them to stay in his apartment. I don't want to reveal anything else about the plot; suffice it to say that there is no pat happy ending. The professor, however, played by Richard Jenkins (the father on Six Feet Under), is transformed, renewed, and revitalized by the end of the film. The change that occurs opens him to the world and to the other human beings who populate it.

The film does an excellent job portraying the plight of hardworking illegal aliens, desperate to stay in this country, but it is Jenkins' performance that makes the film worth watching. His acting is subtle and nuanced. We understand a great deal about him, his life, and his relationship with his deceased wife, but little of this understanding comes to us through dialogue.

Nonna's Ratings:
$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price
$ = Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it

Review: Sex and the City

Sex and the City: ***
Nonna Rating: $$$
Rotten Tomatoes: 53%

This review is simple. If you are a fan of the show, male or female, see the movie. You'll love it. If you're female and not an avid watcher of the series, but you're not a hater of the series, see the movie. If you're male and have no relationship of any kind with the series, DO NOT SEE THE MOVIE. Do not even accompany your significant other who is a fan out of love and selflessness. You will not like the film and you will slip and say SOMETHING that just ticks her off. I guarantee. Better to avoid this film than do anything that interferes with the pleasure of a woman who is out to see what is, in essence, five episodes of the most girly TV show in history back to back.

What can I say? It's fun. I'd love to talk about my favorite scenes, but I'd spoil them for all of you who are planning to see the movie. See it with girlfriends. Go out for cosmos afterwards. Celebrate sisterhood!

Nonna Rating System:
$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price
$$ = Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it

Four Movies to Consider -- At Least

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: **1/2
Nonna Rating:$$$
Rotten Tomatoes: 65%

Max, my 10-year-old grandson, loved this movie. For that reason alone, I say "Pay for a matinee and take a kid with you." The film differs from the first one, and, I confess, I liked it better in many ways -- perhaps because, although I've read Prince Caspian, I don't remember much about it, but I did remember The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe very well and had some very specific expectations of that movie. I remembered nothing about Prince Caspian, and so was continually surprised by the storyline. Caspian is much more of an action film -- filled with battle scenes and fewer charming, loquacious animals. It is set hundreds of years in the future, long past the time of the Snow Queen's rule in Narnia. The children all turn in excellent performances and Lucy (Georgie Henley pictured above) is as charming as ever. Anna Popplewell, who plays Susan, actively participates in the final battle and seems to be channeling Legolas from Lord of the Rings with her bow and arrow. Ben Barnes, who plays Caspian, is guaranteed to make many adolescent hearts flutter. I agree with quite a few of the critics who have predicted this will be a breakthrough movie for him and possibly lead to many other meaty roles. Caspian is definitely a movie to be seen on the big screen with its very big special effects.

And, oh yes, Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan is terrific, but I always feel odd about reviewing Aslan's character. It's like critiquing Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Just not done.

Persepolis: ***

Nonna Rating:$$$
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%

Every once in a while a movie appears that pushes the boundaries of what we've come to expect from the medium. Persepolis is one of those films. It's a cartoon. In black and white. It tells the story of a young Iranian girl, Marji, who grows up under the repressive regime of the Shah. The Shah is overthrown and everyone around Marji rejoices, envisioning freedom and a new Iran. Instead, soon enough, they discover the new government of religious fundamentalists is even more repressive than the government of the Shah. All this history is interpreted through Marji's innocent, intelligent eyes. Seeing this history through a child's perspective makes it even more ominous and horrifying. But Marji is exactly the opposite of the stereotyped submissive Muslim woman. She is outspoken and ready to fight for her rights. This frightens her parents; they send her to school in Europe where she will be safe. But Western society is no haven for Marji. She doesn't fit there and she doesn't fit in Iran either. Much of the film chronicles her turbulent adolescence and confused coming of age. She marries, is unhappy, and returns to Iran. But neither Europe nor Iran is this a solution to her confusion and angst. She leaves Iran again, a stronger young woman who knows herself and accepts that she must live day by day in ambiguity.

(Note: Anyone else reminded of the Madeleine books and Miss Clavell when you look at the picture above?)

Chicago 10: **1/2

Nonna Rating:$$
Rotten Tomatoes:

In the summer of 1968, I was paying a lot of attention to my newborn son, Peter. My campus activist days were on hold. I was a house-bound nursing mother in Omaha. Before Pete was born, I had worked on the Eugene McCarthy campaign in Omaha. In our office, there was a picture of Robert Kennedy on a dart board. As far as we were concerned, he was a part of THE PROBLEM. Gene was clean. On June 6 the picture came down. Pete was only 10 days old, so I didn't see it happen. I just heard about it.

Even though I had not been a Kennedy supporter, his death and that of Martin Luther King just two months before were emotionally devastating. My wasbund and I followed the news from Chicago about the coming convention. The park filled with demonstrators. Friends became more rabid about "bringing on the revolution" by the minute. We all knew there would be a confrontation in Chicago before or during the convention. It was inevitable. We didn't own a TV, so we rented one for the convention. What I will never forget was holding Pete in my arms, crying, and watching The Today Show the morning after THE riot. They were showing film of the night before, sometimes in slow motion. Over it, they were playing Frank Sinatra singing "My Kind of Town."

Chicago 10 chronicles the trial of those accused of conspiracy to start a riot. There were 8 "conspirators" and two lawyers included in the 10. The trial was, with no exaggeration, a circus. The judge, Julius Hoffman, was as much a buffoon as Abie Hoffman (no relation) was. Each day brought on more outlandish behavior and as many four letter words as possible. For the documentary, the filmmaker, Brett Morgen, uses archival footage, dramatization, and cartoons to tell the story. Interestingly, he chose to use music popular now rather than the golden oldies of the Sixties. This has an interesting effect. The older music would have placed the film firmly in the revolutionary context of the sixties without the perspective of "what we know now." The newer music serves as an ironic commentary and keeps forcing us to face how different these two worlds are. It's a fascinating film. It's not a great film but it deserves viewing -- if only for it's creative use of media in its storytelling.

There Will Be Blood:***

Nonna Rating:$$$
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%

Warning: I am a huge fan of Daniel Day-Lewis. (Long ago, I was actually a fan of his father, Cecil Day-Lewis, once the poet laureate of Great Britain.) I am also a big fan of the film's director, Paul Thomas Anderson, who directed what I still think is one of the great unrecognized films of the 20th century, Magnolia.

Blood is well-written and beautifully directed. The cinematography of the American southwest is expansive and gloriously shot. The supporting actors in the film make significant contributions to its overall excellence. Paul Dano is especially disturbing, prophetic, and magnetic. But, there is really only one good reason to see this film: the performance of Day-Lewis. The first word that comes to mind is complex. Many things, like his character's motivation, are left unexplained in the movie. Day-Lewis' performance complements this ambiguity in the writing perfectly. He truly deserved his best actor Oscar, his Golden Globe, and his other awards.

Nonna Rating System:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$ = Wait for cable

# = Skip it