The problem is that Penn can't play just any agent trying to do his job. He has to have his own traumatic back story and overflowing well of grief over a dead wife, because what's a Penn performance these days without the actor emoting in close-up for a camera frozen in awe? (You can practically hear the director say, "And now, ladies and gentleman, the stylings of the premier actor of his generation.")While you're at it read this article by Bryan Curtis on the movie's director, Sidney Pollack.
In The Interpreter, Pollack lets [Africa] off easy: It's merely being ravaged by a genocidal lunatic. Whether this represents a leap forward in artistry is debatable, but it does point out Pollack's great talent. He can take any scenario—from the ridiculous to the horrific, from Streep to strife—and mold it into benign mush.Surprisingly, Ashton Kutcher's latest, A Lot Like Love, gets a thumbs up from Manohla Dargis.
"A Lot Like Love" isn't half bad and every so often is pretty good, filled with real sentiment, worked-through performances and a story textured enough to sometimes feel a lot like life. If nothing else, "A Lot Like Love" is a pleasant reminder of a Hollywood time, seemingly long gone, when boy met girl in a midlevel romantic comedy without arty aspirations (half of Woody Allen's "Melinda and Melinda") or low-brow yucks (paging Brittany Murphy).I think I'll skip it anyway.
Finally, Joy has some thoughts on Kingdom of Heaven, a movie about the crusades.
In these days and times, a movie about the Crusades is hot stuff, not to be approached light-heartedly. Will it be a politically correct movie, or will it hint that those were Christian lands from the word go, and had been most active centres of Christianity for centuries, before being overrun by Muslims? As far as I know, nobody bothered too much about German and Japanese sensitivities when making films about WWII. I hope it won’t be just another chapter in the Cupio Dissolvi Western Saga.
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