HBO Series Review: The Undoing

Posted on December 5, 2020 by jjcwn • Posted in Uncategorized • Tagged Hugh Grant, Nicole Kidman, whodunit • Leave a comment

Murder whodunit’s are as old as the movie industry, therefore the challenge for any screenwriter is to come up with something that has never been done before – a very tall order. The new 6 part HBO series “The Undoing” was created and written by David E. Kelly, arguably the most prolific television writer and producer of all time and because of this, probably the perfect person to come up with a new perspective for a murder-mystery series.

The Undoing stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant as Grace and Jonathan Fraser, who are both great in their roles as married medical professionals who become mired in infidelity when Jonathan has an affair with another married woman Elena Alves, who has a son he cured of cancer. Under the emotional circumstances of curing her son of cancer, it is understandable that Johnathan and Elena would have a powerful connection that would lead to an affair that for Elena would lead to obsession. This is a unique relationship that I have never seen portrayed before in any movie.

The remainder of this story is a winding and sometimes complex series of events where we are trying to figure out who killed Elena with a hammer. This part of the movie, where we see too many times, Elena get hit in the head with a hammer, was completely unnecessary. Even during the courtroom scenes, in the last two episodes of this 6 part series, there were way too many pictures of Elena’s unrecognizable face – was too over the top, because we have seen this horrendous picture too many times already.

The legal aspects and acting in this movie were very impressive starting with Jonathan’s lawyer, Haley Fitzgerald, played by Noma Dumezweni. Haley believes that Jonathan is guilty, but her job is to always defend her client, no matter what. This defend at all costs dilemma is made clear several times in this series, especially when the murder weapon is uncovered. I was most impressed with the end of the 5th episode where Nicole Kidman’s locks eyes with another person who has the murder weapon and she is all but convinced at that moment in time that she knows who the murderer is.

The simplicity of this story, the way it was told and the uncommon nerve wracking conclusion were all very impressive. The acting that also includes Donald Sutherland as Grace’s father is also outstanding throughout. I highly recommend The Undoing.

Netflix Movie Review: Hillbilly Elegy

Posted on November 24, 2020 by jjcwn • Posted in Elegy, Uncategorized • Tagged Amy Adams, Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy • Leave a comment

The new Netflix movie “Hillbilly Elegy” is based on the best selling book that was released several years ago, about a man who made it out of extreme poverty and being raised by a single mother who was a drug addict.

Despite a horrific start in life, the main character in this film J.D. Vance, played by Gabriel Basso became a lawyer and even attended Yale Law school after joining the Army. This is an amazing feat, considering how his life began, and his abusive childhood progressed.

This film has two well known actresses: Glenn Close who plays J.D.s grandmother and Amy Adams as J.D.’s mother and one of the best directors, Ron Howard. Despite all of this, including what I thought was outstanding acting throughout, the critics on Rotten Tomatoes are giving this very strong movie only a 26% rating. In all my years of comparing the opinions of critics, this has to be the all time champion in regards to a group of critics who have no understanding of the the quality and significance of a film. The only good news is that the audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes is a very high 89% – in line with the quality of the screenwriting and acting. A rating of only 26% makes no sense, expecially considering the critical opinions are so completely different than the audience opinion.

Anyone who has a background of poverty or near poverty will appreciate what it is like to live in a situation where there is no hope, no future and no chance. Perhaps the critics who reviewed this film cannot relate to the stark and depressing reality of many millions of people who in so many cases, need miracles to survive. With this story, the poverty also comes with extreme levels of drug addition, with many depressing scenes where J.D.s mother is either shooting heroin, taking pills or overdosing. All of this was well done and well acted.

I agree with the audience rating for Hillbilly Elegy of 89% and highly recommend this movie.

On Demand Movie Review: The Secret: Dare to Dream

Posted on November 19, 2020 by jjcwn • Posted in Uncategorized • Leave a comment

About 10 years ago, a video was released called “The Secret”. This video became so popular it even made it to the Oprah Winfrey Show. The message in this video was very simple, “if you think about something that you want so badly often enough and strongly enough, then the universe will give it to you”. It would be great if something like this were true, and the popularity of this message was mostly caused by so many millions of people wanting it to be true, rather than it being actually true. The fervor of the video and this message eventually died down, only a few short years later. Since then, I have not seen any sign of the The Secret, not until the new movie “The Secret: Dare to Dream”, starring Josh Lucas and Katie Holmes was released through On Demand some days ago.

I agree with most of the critics who have said that this story is too much like a small Nicolas Sparks book. While the story is rather simple and “Nicolas Sparks” like, I thought that overall, the story and message was good enough to give this film marginal recommendation.

The main character Miranda Wells is played by Katie Holmes. She is raising 3 kids as a single mother, ever since her husband died 5 years earlier. Her life is all about having no money and being in huge debt, with both a car and house that is falling apart. Then enters Bray, played by Josh Lucas who is a professor of Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University. Through a series of coincidences that all start with a minor car accident, Bray starts to help Miranda and her 3 children with some of their money problems – the worst problem is fixing up their house after a Hurricane. I thought that the story did take too long to wind down, as Bray is carrying a huge secret from Miranda, all the way down to the last minutes of this movie. Other than that, the story was well told and the acting was well done.

The 28% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes are absurd – with the audience ratings of 76% far more accurate. My rating is 70% and I do give this movie a marginal recommendation.