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Children on Their Birthdays (2002)
Disappointed
This is a great Truman Capote story about a grifter that gets away with stealing money from poor country folk and an odd little girl who gets run over by the bus that's supposed to take her to Hollywood. It also contains perceptive observations about race relations in Depression era Alabama.
The movie version has the horrible moppet catch the bad guy, return the stolen loot and get on the bus for fame and fortune. To add insult to injury Celine Dion sings over the closing credits. The racial themes are all but obliterated.
Fans of Capote be warned that none of his wit or satire was retained for this film that plays like an after-school special.
I Heart Huckabees (2004)
I HATE Huckabees
Imagine Amelie as a UPN sitcom, that's how I felt watching "I (heart) Huckabees" a painfully unfunny film. A good cast and interesting themes are thrown away in this ugly movie, that has no respect for it's characters or the actors that play them. It is hard to make Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman boring but this movie succeeds. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the release of Alfie was delayed in hopes that academy voters (with their notoriously short attention spans) will forget Jude Law's misguided performance here when the wheels are set in motion to get him an Oscar. Jason Schwartzman fares better, he gives no performance at all, normally this is not a good thing in a movie, but in this case being just a void while everyone else looks like they're trying too hard, works in his favor. When ever he's on screen you know you can go out for popcorn and not miss anything. I had been warned but had to see for myself, don't make the same mistake, if you must see it wait for the DVD, the big screen only amplifies this movie's flaws.