smasonnc Reviews

Expats (2023–2024)

What have they done to an exquisite novel and an exquisite city?

[2/10 · 23 February 2024]

I read this book and loved it so I was very excited to see it brought to the screen. Having been an expat in Hong Kong and lived that life, the book resonated with me and the characters were richly drawn and interesting. What happened? This is a mess on so many levels.

1. Casting. Each of the leads is completely inert. Nicole Kidman conveys grief by speaking in a monotone, then occasionally whispering. Suddenly she's dancing for no reason. The actress who plays Mercy is vacant as well except in bed or when she's sneaking into a swanky swimming pool. I guess that's supposed to be depression or guilt or some such thing. Hillary was a very lively, interesting character in the book, but this actress plays her as some sad, angry character in beige. I was unable to care about any of them, partly because I was so distracted by Kidman's lips.

2. Hong Kong. This spectacular city looks gritty and crowded, OK, fair enough, it is. However, it's a tragedy that the viewer doesn't get the breathtaking skyline or the mash-up of cultures where temples and hungry ghost shrines sit next to glittering, futuristic skyscrapers. This was supposed to have been set during the protests in 2014. I was there living right in the middle of it and the Hong Kong people were heroic in their tolerance and unwillingness to start violence. All we saw were glimpses of tents, not the whole tableau of peaceful protest.

3. Details. No one sweats in their designer clothing despite being in a climate that's so humid it's like living in a dishwasher. Wearing Ferragamo stilettos on a 16 hour flight? Nope. There were so many small things that were just not authentic to anyone who's lived there and many of the things the author described that were so spot on are missing.

4. Pace and structure. There were too many shots of characters just staring, manufactured relationships, irrational behavior, and more filler than Nicole Kidman's face. Skipping around just makes the narrative confusing.

5. The Ending. WTH? The ending of the book provided closure, forgiveness, and resolution. This just ended. Nicole Kidman abruptly stays behind, abandoning her remaining children yet she has no apartment, no belongings, and no visible means of support. Mercy can't work and even a ratty apartment like hers is hideously expensive. What exactly did she major in at her Ivy League school that only prepared her to work as a Hong Kong cater-waiter?

I was excited to see Hong Kong in all her glory and to see these wonderful characters come to life on the screen. Instead, we got this plodding mess with wooden acting and mere snippets of the tapestry of cultures that makes Hong Kong truly interesting. This could have been extraordinary but instead it's riddled with wasted opportunities.

***In answer to the reviewer who remarked on Nicole Kidman's husband not speaking the language, there's so much English spoken everywhere, including offices, and Cantonese is so complex that most expats never learn.***

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

I went the distance and the payoff was minimal

[2/10 · 4 November 2023]

I just got released from this interminable film and I feel like I've been robbed of half a day. I really can't fathom all the love for this movie. Despite a strong start to an interesting and tragic story, it quickly lost steam. It would also have been more so if told from the Osage point of view.

Usually brilliant DiCaprio looked confused like a Godfather impersonator with some sort of vague Southern accent. If they give an Oscar for jutting out your jaw and speaking as if your mouth is filled with mush, he'll be holding a gold statue. At 48, he's too old to play the character, Ernest Burkhart, who was around 30.

There was no need for this to be 3.5 hours long. None. Toward the end I was ready to yell at the screen, "Just. Stop. Talking!" And that little bit of business with the radio play at the end was too cute by half. A couple of end cards would have done the trick. Someone needed to edit this bloated heap down to a manageable amount of time, but apparently nobody had the guts to reign in Scorcese.

Things started to pick up in the last third or so, when Jesse Plemmons and the FBI rode into town, but it is unclear how they uncovered the whole truth. The birth of the FBI and the techniques developed to solve the crime were glossed over in favor of long, repetitive conversations and multiple lingering shots of a fire that had nothing to do with the rest of the story.

The courtroom scene was a mess. Brendan Fraser dropped in to munch on some scenery, but for no other apparent reason. I was so bored by that time, I don't remember why Ernest suddenly decided to flip despite threats from Fraser and Robert DiNiro.

The real tragedy is that this is an important story bogged down in the poor storytelling and self-indulgence of a director who believes that his body of work renders everything else he does legendary. I'll consult Wikipedia to figure out what I just watched.

1923 (2022–2023)

What a letdown!

[2/10 · 6 March 2023]

Beautifully filmed with legendary lead actors, the first couple of episodes looked promising. Then it started to get absurd. The sneering, cartoon bad guys, the fetishized violence, and the awful accents made it almost unwatchable.

Jerome Flynn does his best as a one-dimensional baddie with an unintelligible accent. Is he Irish? Is he Scottish? Who knows or cares? Timothy Dalton is fun to watch as the evil businessman until they decide to make him pervy instead of just a central casting Snidely Whiplash villain. Whose idea was it to hire a Shakespearean actor and have him watch prozzies whip each other with a belt? These two outstanding actors are completely wasted, but still eminently watchable in poorly written parts.

What is the fascination with people beating one another? Nuns don't just rap knuckles, they beat them until they bleed or do nasty things to their young charges. Then a sadistic priest has a go. One nun gets a ferocious beating, gives a beating, gets another beating, and eventually gets murdered. We have to wait until the next season to find out what the Catholic school had to do with anything because they never link it to the Dutton family.

Let's talk about the vigilante priests. More ferocious beatings? By priests? Since when did priests get all macho? We get it. Hollywood doesn't like religion, Catholics in particular. Low hanging fruit, people.

The accents are a farce, even Helen Mirren's, but her acting bails her out. Not so the girl who plays Alex. Her main purpose is to be blonde and spout perky gibberish in a fake English accent. And she's a countess. Of course she is. It's tragic that there are no actresses in England. They had to find a California girl shallow enough to play such a twinkie.

This series had so many possibilities but just went wrong in so many ways.

Hacks (2021– )

Great performance by Jean Smart but...

[7/10 · 30 May 2022]

...who hired the girl who plays Ava? She's boring and vanilla and adds nothing. I still hope the show makes it, though, because Jean Smart is hilarious.

Operation Mincemeat (2021)

Excellent story, wonderful cast, except...

[8/10 · 23 May 2022]

...why the made-up romantic subplot? The notion that male and female movie characters have to be romantically involved is trite and uninventive. Despite the affront to the viewers' intelligence, I didn't deduct as many points as some other learned reviewers. After all, in the presence of not one, but two Mr. Darcys, perhaps the filmmakers couldn't help themselves.

Colin Firth and Matthew McFadyen are expectedly excellent and Penelope Wilton is always a joy to watch. Kelly MacDonald is always welcome, even when she's not in top form, and Jason Isaacs is in his wheelhouse playing yet another egotistical, sneering villain. The film is a very exciting historical caper and well worth a watch even if the dramatic tension gets dragged down by fluff at times.

The Last Letter from Your Lover (2021)

Enjoyable, but missed opportunities

[6/10 · 29 July 2021]

This was fun to watch for the period vibe, but Shailene Woodley was miscast. Although she is a wonderful actress, she is neither glamorous nor vulnerable enough to make it work. Her strong suit is emotional range, but she is more of a strong 21st century type than a lonely, forlorn socialite. I never forgot that she was in costume and she didn't have much chemistry with "Boot." Instead of sparks, it was more like they were flinging wet matches.

Speaking of costumes, Woodley's wardrobe was often ill fitting or anachronistic (Did fashionable people still wear pillbox hats in 1969?) and once even made her look dumpy when she was supposed to be radiant. She would look good in a grocery bag so how did they even do that? Better 60s music would have taken us there and touched emotional chords. I thought the two elder leads had more chemistry and it was great to see Ben Cross. Sorry to see him go.

Amnesia...really? Is this the Young and Restless? Nobody buys that.

Not bad, but I liked ithis movie better when it was called "An Affair to Remember."

The Four Seasons (1981)

Doesn't hold up well

[4/10 · 16 June 2021]

Alan Alda wrote this at the height of his Hollywood clout and the jokes have a stale ring to them, as if.there were rimshots and a laugh track like his sitcom, M*A*S*H. The difference between M*A*S*H the movie and M*A*S*H the TV show is that one has a sense of gravitas and the other is a "line up the joke and knock it down" American TV formula. This is the latter. There are some nice moments and Carol Burnett grounds the piece much like she did in her film outings in that era.

We start out on vacation with the original group. The constant, artificial, maniacal laughter tells us that they are all great, lifelong friends. Even a loaf of bread is hilarious. Ba-dum-bum.

On the first vacation, Spring, according to the cutesie tie-in with Vivaldi, one guy confides to another friend that his marriage isn't fulfilling. Is that a shock? His wife is boring, vacuous and her profession is photographing vegetables...badly. Her husband is miserable...understandably to most of us. Instead of support from his lifelong friend, we hear preaching. Admittedly, how did it take him 21 years to realize how pointless his marriage was? In my group of friends, the movie ends here because there are no more joint vacations. But this crowd soldiers on.

New girlfriend, played by Bess Armstrong, is sweet and guileless, undeserving of the snark she gets from the rest of the group. She makes us nostalgic for a simpler time when the second wife had her own lips and boobs. Why does she continue to vacation with such petty, judgemental people? Oh, right. No more movie unless she does.

Fall sees us visit two of the couples' daughters a college, but, in a fit of blatant nepotism, the actresses are both Alda's daughters, not to mention that the aforementioned "artistic" photos of vegetables were taken by his wife. And the fact that the entire entourage needs to be there is just weird. It's part of the forced Four Seasons trope. I'm trying to envision bringing a group of my friends to see my kids at college parents' weekend. Nope. Can't do it.

The Winter (Four Seasons again) vacation sees everyone is at each others' throats at a ski lodge, which makes me wonder why there IS a next vacation. My long-term marriage is not rocked by others' shenanigans or foibles. The central couple starts no-holds-barred fighting...why? Because someone in the group has a new, very amorous relationship? Uh...no. The guy who calculates what everyone owes has been that way for years. Why is is just now becoming a problem? Alan Alda, the closed off main character suddenly gets called out for it. Had they met him before? Somehow, these people have been traveling together for years and are just now starting to grind each other's gears.

Nothing about this movie rings true except the jealousy when one guy dumps his wife for a hot new girlfriend. Lots of 1980s movies don't hold up well, but what the producers should really be flayed alive for is casting EGOT winner Rita Moreno, then giving her nothing to do except being the doting wife of a whiny fat guy.

This one belongs in the vaults. It has no relevance today.

Reckoning (2019)

Where do I start with how bad this is?

[1/10 · 29 January 2021]

Terrible acting, glacial pace, and exactly one likeable character. Now that we've reached the end of the internet, we resorted to this. No wonder everyone is sick of lockdown.

The cop, who should be the good guy, is a tightly wrapped workaholic. His wife flirts with the next door neighbor, and their kids are a mess. The killer is pleasant enough when he's not hitting on school girls. Even if he weren't a killer, he'd still be a creep. I will give him credit for more than one facial expression.

The killer's wife (terrible actress with a slight lisp) is a religious fanatic who used to be a stripper. (yeah, right) and his son is a weirdo. Also, his neighbor is a creep and a weirdo. Another suspect is an arrogant SOB and his late wife was promiscuous. Is there anyone who ISN'T a creep or a weirdo? Yes, there is one like-able character? The cop's partner.

TV like this is one more reason to pray for an end to the pandemic. UGH!

Manhunt (II) (2017–2020)

Season 2--More about "Hollywood Hillbillies" than Richard Jewell

[2/10 · 16 December 2020]

The the part of the story that's actually about Richard Jewell is pretty good. Then they change venues to small town North Carolina to find Eric Robert Rudolf and it turns awful. Here are some of the problems:

1.Laughable dialogue where everyone talks in earnest, eloquent speeches 2. Terrible acting. The folksy bomb guy is pretty good, but even he wears thin with his homespun wisdom and cringeworthy parables. 3. Egregiously bad Southern accents and dialogue. Are there no Southern actors in Hollywood? The dialogue sounds like how a Hollywood screenwriter thinks Southerners talk. Note to Hollywood, not all Southerners say "ain't" or spout nonsense about the government. 4. A bloated script that could have been at least 2 fewer episodes without all the traipsing in the woods and puke-worthy bonding moments. The reporter going home in disgrace was totally unnecessary and her sisters acted like Cinderella's ugly stepsisters. What part of the plot did that serve?

Worst of all, they trot out every stereotype about the small town South. The whole town aids a murderous fugitive because of their religious zeal and distrust of the "guvmint." Implying that everyone in a small Southern town is militia is like saying everyone in a small New Jersey town is mafia. Then all the central casting, flannel and camo wearing "hillbillies" perpetuate every cliche, including drinking moonshine out of Mason jars.

The FBI agents enlighten the dumb country folk, showing them how misguided they are, and they all bond together to go after the fugitive. But first, the agents get kidnapped and threatened with death by the hillbilly militia. Naturally, there will be no consequences because they're all buddies in the end and the noble bumpkins help them find a bomb.

Who writes this stuff? Worse yet, who signs off on it? Have they ever been to the South? I doubt it.

They eventually get back to the Richard Jewell part which isn't nearly as goofy as the rest of this mess, but it has already been done better in a Clint Eastwood movie.

Virgin River (2019– )

You've gotta be kidding.

[2/10 · 5 January 2020]

I gave it two stars because a couple of the actors aren't egregiously bad and the scenery is beautiful, but this is very well-trod territory. Hackneyed characters talk in cliches and act in non-sensical ways. Three of the leads are OK, but the supporting actors come from the Pia Zadora Academy of Dramatic Arts. They recite their lines like Miss America discussing world peace.

So many things don't add up. First there's the hunky bar owner. Apparently owning a business only involves wiping the bar, serving drinks and dropping everything to chauffeur our cute nurse practitioner. In his spare time, he is both Chip and Joanna Gaines, refurbishing and redecorating a run-down cabin, (fetching farmhouse-style, of course) for the cute nurse.

It makes no sense that everybody loves a stubborn, ill-tempered busybody with a stupendous ability to hold a grudge, who happens to be the mayor but doesn't actually perform any mayoral duties. And does nobody call the police when a car is found abandoned with the occupants missing? Armed pot growers operate with impunity right across the river and nobody calls D.E.A.?

This is a show written by and for people who know about small town life from the Hallmark Channel, but have never actually been to one themselves.

Mindhunter (2017–2019)

How do they do it?

[8/10 · 21 August 2019]

This is a compelling portrait of investigators who track serial killers. Watching them do so is fascinating. How do they come so close to evil people every day without enduring psychological harm?

Season 2 seems a little rambling, but it is still hard to look away. I have one complaint, though, For the love of all that's holy, hire a real Southern actor to play a Southern character. The poor acting and hilarious accents during scenes of prisoner interviews took me right out of it.

Grantchester: Episode #4.1 (2019) Season 4, Episode 1

Grantchester fans deserved better.

[2/10 · 16 July 2019]

I have loved this show since the beginning and knew that it was inevitable that James Norton would leave. I just thought that his final show would have everyone in floods, but the writing wasn't up to the quality of the rest of the series.

I thought it was pretty cool that they tackled civil rights. Too bad they bungled it by hiring British actors whose American southern accents are worse than Kevin Spacey's. The resolution of the first mystery was very hollow. A professor was enraged that his wife danced with a black man THAT HE INVITED TO ENGLAND?

Then suddenly Sydney's alcohol use is at a crisis level. Just as suddenly, he forgets how he pined for Amanda, falls in love at first sight and runs off to Alabama, of all places. Did he know ANYTHING about Alabama? Obviously not.

It ends with another mystery being solved via a coincidence that was too big to ignore, the clue being a necklace appearing in a photo.

I hope the rest of the series gets better. The new vicar has possibilities, but not the gravitas of James Norton, nor the chemistry with Geordie. I hate to see this show stick around in decline. Pull the plug if you can't do better than this episode..

Paris Can Wait (2016)

Biggest disappointment of the year

[2/10 · 13 July 2017]

Can you go wrong with a movie featuring Diane Lane, French food and scenery, directed by a Coppola? Apparently yes. First, the dreary cinematography makes the French countryside look unappealing. How do you manage that? The movie is slow, there is no chemistry between the leads and the whole thing is a giant cliché. Even the ever watchable Diane Lane turns in a one-note performance, relying on familiar expressions. We've seen this performance before in better movies. I just don't get all the good reviews. I expected a lot more.

Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong (2015)

More Hong Kong, less of these two

[4/10 · 9 May 2016]

I wanted to love this movie because Hong Kong was portrayed so beautifully. They got a lot of aspects of Hong Kong right, but the two main characters had no chemistry and the acting was so bad it was distracting.

The script, assuming this drivel wasn't all ad-libbed, was contrived and unimaginative. First of all, the guy, Josh, was in finance and the girl, Ruby, encourages him to "follow his dream" of becoming a writer. Why do the villagers all have their pitchforks out for bankers? It's low hanging fruit. He wants to be a writer, but for someone who minored in English lit, his grammar is atrocious. What if his dream is to live in one of the most exciting cities in the world and not have to sell his blood to live?

So Josh, on the advice of a girl he met once, quits his cushy bank job and decides to write full time. Paying rent in Hong Kong is tough even on a banker's salary. I hope he saved a lot of those bonus checks, so he can afford to be an unemployed writer in one of the most expensive cities in the world. He's so much cooler, though, what with the hipstery beard and plaid shirt and all.

I noticed a few technical aspects which were probably dramatic license. The night they first meet, Josh offers to show Ruby to Lan Kwai Fong, which is 10 minutes away. The way he took her was the complete opposite direction and the escalator only goes up at night so they couldn't have taken it to Lan Kwai Fong. They even threw in a shot of a tram which is not even close to where they were going. Was he being creepy taking her the long way or was it for scenic effect?

I gave it 4/10 because the Hong Kong scenery looked gorgeous. I have to give the filmmakers credit for making the Temple Street Night Market actually look like fun instead of a vast assortment of cheap tourist crap. Another transit issue, they went through all that to find a taxi to HK Island when the fast, cheap MTR is right there. That's probably because the MTR is not nearly as cozy and romantic a setting in which to decide whether or not you are cheating on your significant other. BTW, if you have to keep a relationship secret, you are.

As a love letter to Hong Kong, this works. As a love story, it falls flat. I would watch it again, only this time with the sound off.

State of Affairs (2014–2015)

Unintentionally Hilarious

[2/10 · 19 January 2015]

I saw a few minutes of this on a plane during a 17 hour flight. I just couldn't take it seriously so I opted for the in-flight magazine. At first, I thought it must be a spoof of Homeland.

Katherine Heigl acted her little heart out, but she's still a cream puff. I know she played a doctor on Greys Anatomy but KH just doesn't come off as smart or serious. She looks and acts more like a Midwest pageant winner than a top CIA analyst. How did she get such a high powered job with responsibility for the well being of the entire country? Oh, right. She was engaged to the president's son. Wait, what?

KH and her mom should catch an episode of Homeland or Madame Secretary. I gave them two stars for casting the always wonderful Alfre Woodard even though they failed to use her to her full capabilities. It's a sad "State of Affairs" that Ms. Woodard has to be part of drivel like this.

Jane Eyre (1983)

Perfect casting, faithful to Bronte

[10/10 · 8 November 2006]

When my now college age daughter was in preschool, this miniseries appeared on A&E from 8-9 each morning. My neighbor and I made a pact that we wouldn't miss a minute of Jane Eyre and our kids were late for preschool every morning for the whole week. Good choice.

I'd forgotten how much I loved this movie until I got out my old VHS copy recently. Timothy Dalton is very handsome, but still perfect as Rochester. The dark, craggy face, the imperious demeanor tempered with humor and tenderness were straight from the pages of the book. Although Dalton eats a little scenery, I couldn't sit through an adaptation starring wimpy William Hurt or grumpy Ciaran Hinds. The magic here is that women love Dalton and get caught up in the romance.

I would love to know what's become of Zelah Clarke. She is dead on as Jane, quiet, formal, saying volumes with but a look. The sparkle in her eyes gives viewers a glimpse of the strength and spirited nature that helped Jane survive the mistreatment she endured in youth. Criticism of her performance as "wooden" is misplaced. A servant in a proper English household would have maintained just such a demeanor, but she speaks passionately when overcome with emotion. Unlike many other screen Janes, she appears plain enough to be Jane yet pretty enough to allow the audience to buy Rochester's attraction to her.

Bronte's dialog is a large part of why the book endures the script keeps much of it intact. Dalton and Clarke capture the interplay between Jane and Rochester with wit and quiet intensity. Although Jane appears as plain and sweet as vanilla custard, she refuses to be cowed by the dark, blustery Rochester. The two leads play off each other beautifully.

This is the most perfect adaptation of the best romance novel ever.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004)

Beautifully costumed, dreadfully miscast

[3/10 · 22 February 2006]

A cast of Oscar winners, based on a novel by Thornton Wilder...how could one go wrong? For starters, a script that sounded like gibberish had the actors spouting pages of dialog that sounded like they'd learned it phonetically.

Second, DeNiro must have done this because he needs the money, not because the work appealed to him. Even if he hadn't been phoning it in, his performance brought to mind that of Tony Curtis in Sparticus, "I yam a sing-ger of sawngs." Couldn't Oscar winner DeNiro spring for a few diction lessons to get rid of the accent? Harvey Keitel manage to suppress his accent more successfully, but whose idea was it to cast a couple of New York tough guy types as Peruvians?

This movie had potential, but it looked as if they put a reasonable sized production budget in the hands of people who became producers after successful careers in costume design and art direction. The costumes are beautiful and the film is handsomely shot. Unfortunately, they neglected to hire a screenwriter who could make sense of Wilder's very complex novel. The writer was just not up to the job. Maybe they ran out of money after all the beautiful sets and costumes had been assembled and just decided to have somebody's assistant crank out a script.

What a mess.