Review: The Lovely Bones

Review: The Lovely Bones

Rating: *1/2

Nonna's Rating: $

Rotten Tomatoes: 37%

I had high hopes for this movie. I was moved by the book and thought Peter Jackson would be able to handle its translation to film. I was wrong. What a mess! A child is brutally murdered. A family is ripped apart. The murderer has designs on another child in the family. Yet, these emotion-fraught situations seem to generate little heat in the film. Perhaps, in part because they are interspersed with scenes of the dead child observing her family's struggles from a strangely vapid purgatorial place. (If it is the anteroom to heaven, let's hope heaven is a vast improvement.) The book is an eloquent exploration of grief. In all fairness, probably not that easy to translate to film. As one critic said, "Some books should stay between their covers."

Nonna's Ratings:

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

Review: The Young Victoria

Review: The Young Victoria

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$

Rotten Tomatoes: 72%

IMDB (International Movie Data Base) lists Queen Victoria as a character in 96 films and television shows. I daresay that, in the vast majority, she is portrayed as an older, frumpier, very Victorian Victoria. Think of The Little Princess, Mrs. Brown, and, lest we forget, Monty Python and Blackadder. Emily Blount, however, is a new Victoria: young, slender, and feisty. The period is recreated in exquisite detail, both visually and historically. The evolving relationship of Victoria and Albert (Rupert Friend) is convincing, intimate, and passionate. Such a portrayal helps us understand why Victoria chose to spend the last 40 years of her life in mourning for Albert. Blount and Friend do an excellent job in their roles, but Jim Broadbent as King William walks away with the movie every time he's on screen. His well-documented antipathy toward Victoria's controlling, grasping mother (Miranda Richardson) shoots bolts of energy into protocol-laden palace scenes that could have been quite dull.

Nonna's Ratings:

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

Review: The Blind Side

Review: The Blind Side

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 72%

Sandra Bullock has been doing "spunky" better than everyone else ever since she became a breakout star in Speed. In The Blind Side, she is at her ultimate spunkiness -- and it works beautifully. I saw this film in the 7th week of its release. The theater was packed and the audience was appreciative. And now Bullock has deservedly won the Golden Globe for her performance. If you're not a fan of formulaic sports movies, don't let the fact that this film is about the high school life of NFL star Michael Oher deter you from watching it. It focuses on so much more, especially Leigh Anne Touhy's (Bullock's character) dogged determination to get her new "son" the special attention he'll need in order to succeed. Make sure you stay for the credits, which are filled with pictures of the real Leigh Anne Touhy, Michael Oher, and their family.

Nonna's Ratings:

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