WILBUR WANTS TO KILL HIMSELF -- Lone Scherfig, dir

©2002
studio: Sundance Channel Home Entertainment
production company: Zentropa Entertainments, Wilbur Ltd., Scottish Screen, Sigma Films Ltd., TV2 Danmark, Glasgow Film Office, Sveriges Television (SVT), Palisades Pictures Entertainment Group
director: Lone Scherfig
screenplay: Lone Scherfig & Anders Thomas Jensen
cast: Jamie Sives, Adrian Rawlins, Shirley Henderson, Lisa McKinlay, Mads Mikkelsen, Julia Davis, Susan Vidler, Robert McIntosh, Lorraine McIntosh

Two brothers, one suicidal, meet a single mother and her daughter, and their lives become intertwined in remarkable ways.

I really wanted to like this movie more than I did. I laughed out loud; I nodded in appreciation for the way some things were done; and yet when the movie was over I felt completely ... nothing.

The acting was all quite good (some of the smaller roles were incredibly fun to watch [Mads Mikkelsen in particular]), and the directing showed some great skill, but the screenplay took more than a couple of bizarre leaps in the storyline and perhaps tried just a little too hard to give all the leads equal time and by doing so, none of the storylines were clear enough to follow.

Perhaps it's a "chick" thing, but I never understood the attraction that the women had for Wilbur. Why was he so irresistable that women were throwing themselves at him? And what was it about Alice that he fell for her when none of the other women could get his attention?

Too many things happened with no explanation as to why or how, which made the relationships not seem real to me. Without the relationships being real, the story didn't have any impact.

I may actually watch this again to see if I can figure out what I'm missing because, as I said, I wanted to like this film.

BEN-HUR -- William Wyler, dir

©1959
studio: Warner home Video
production company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
dir: William Wyler
producer: Sam Zimbalist
cast: Charleton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O'Donnell, Sam Jaffe
screenplay: Karl Tunberg (and Maxwell Anderson and Christopher Fry and Gore Vidal -- all uncredited)
based on the novel by General Lew Wallace
winner of 11 Academy Awards

When a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.

I don't know why, perhaps due to the 3-1/2 hour length of the film, but I've never seen this picture from beginning to end, I've only caught bits and pieces. However, because it's the picture of the month on my calendar, I sat down to watch this epic.

While I'm glad to be able to say that I've actually seen this film, it did very little for me. I think that it tried to do a little too much, and yet it still took some incredible leaps in the story (from galley slave to adopted son of a Roman Consul in under five minutes?). And how quickly these people were able to go from Rome to Nazareth and back again!

Visually, it's quite stunning. Great use of the widescreen format. The chariot race really is quite exciting, and I love how they never show the face of the man playing Jesus. The plotline of the mother and daughter as leppers didn't work for me at all. I really felt like that was just one more thing that we had to wade through before the movie could end.

I did enjoy some of the special features on the discs that I watched -- particularly the conversations with Gore Vidal on his contributions to the work. I especially liked his discussion on how the initial reunion scene between Judah Ben-Hur and Massala wasn't working and he (Vidal) treated it like a lover's quarrel, hinting, ever so subtly, that there was more to their history than just friends. That certainly adds to the drama of a scene, and it was done so well that the viewer doesn't catch it!

If you've got a rainy weekend and your looking for a movie to watch, this would make a good choice.

EL BOLA -- Achero Mañas, dir

©2000
studio: Film Movement
dir: Achero Mañas
cast: Juan José Ballesta, Pablo Galán, Alberto Jiménez, Manuel Morón, Ana Wagener, Nieve de Medina, Gloria Muñoz, Javier Lago, Omar Muñoz, Soledad Osorio, Alfonso Vallejo, Manolo Caro
screenplay: Verónica Fernández and Achero Mañas
Spanish -- subtitled
Winner of 4 Goya Awards (Spain's Academy Awards) and more then 20 other film awards

A young boy, living in a violent environment, befriends a new boy at school and sees a different kind of family life.

This is Film Movement's first offering in their independant movie of the month club, and it is a powerful story of child abuse.

Everything about this film speaks volumes. The acting is wonderful, the story well done, and even the low-budget filming adds a gritty, realistic quality to the picture.

The ending seems moderately open to interpretation, but I think that is because it is symbolic rather than outright obvious. A wonderful break from Hollywood blockbusters.

This DVD includes the Academy Award winning short film, MORE, which is really a wonderful tale as well.

Watch this DVD.