Eiza González | A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies.

The new movie “In the Grey” is one of those rare, below-average January movies that are released in May. This film is another example of several well-known stars agreeing to appear in a bad movie due to a favor, contract, or previous verbal agreement, forcing them to act in a movie with a bad screenplay. This film was both written and directed by Guy Ritchie, and I was surprised by how low-quality this movie is, considering the huge experience Guy Ritchie has as both a screenwriter and director. afsgasdfa

The Grey has five well-known bankable actors, including Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal, Fisher Stevens, Eiza González, and Rosamund Pike. It is possible that the screenplay below average was on hold for a long time, with money already committed to its production. Then a decision was made to hire these five well-known actors to try to save the box office. Due to the very low 47% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, saving the box office for this movie is highly unlikely.

Eiza Gonzalez plays Rachel, who is an independent operative who is hired to coerce huge debts from very wealthy criminals around the world. She works with mercenaries, played by Gyllenhaal and Cavill, with much of this story explaining how they will try to force a wealthy drug dealer Manny Salazar, played by Carlos Bardem, to pay them 1 billion dollars. The story is erratic, too disconnected, and too convoluted to recommend as an action or drama movie. The acting is just OK, with action scenes that are nothing we have not seen many times before.

I agree with the low 47% Rotten Tomatoes rating and recommend this B-movie for right-to-DVD.

Number one on Netflix today is the new movie “I Care A Lot”. A highly unusual title for a film about a crime that is far too common in this country – criminals preying on older people to steal their money. Marla Grayson played by Rosamund Pike is a swindler who poses as a legal guardian along with her partner Fran played by Eiza González within an elaborate scheme that involves a corrupt nursing home and an incompetent judge who OK’s Marla’s legal guardianship of many older people. Most of these senior citizens are put in the corrupt nursing home, even though they are capable of taking care of themselves. Their cell phones are taken away and they are given drugs to keep them quiet while their life savings are being stolen from them.

Unfortunately for Marla, one older woman, Jennifer Peterson played by Diane Weist has a son – Roman Lunyov, played by Peter Dinklage who is a gangster in the Russian Mob. This is a satisfying story idea, because all of us love to see horrible people get what they deserve, especially those who have no decency or conscience while they steal millions from the retirement savings of older people. Many of us go to the movies because we love to see justice done, in a highly unjust real world.

One huge flaw I found in this movie is that when you use criminals like the Russian Mob in a screenplay, you have to be realistic. Murdering criminal members of the Russian Mob just kill people immediately by shooting them in the head or some other part of the body that guarantees death. Rather annoyingly, far too often in this film, the victim is not killed immediately which is not realistic, because it allows the person to stage a miraculous comeback. This might be good for an elaborate and longer lasting story twist or a James Bond movie, but this has nothing to do with real life. I thought the ending was very well done and highly ironic with a satisfying conclusion, especially for those who believe in Karma.

The acting in this movie is outstanding, especially with the 3 main characters played by Pike, Gonzalez and Dinklage. The Rotten Tomatoes rating is a very solid 81% and I agree with this rating and recommend this movie.