secordman

Cellular has such a contrived plot with silly coincidences and lots of dramatic licence, yet at the end of it all, it was fun to watch. Think Point Break or Con Air, movies so silly and far-fetched, you just sit back and go with it, and you are rewarded with a brisk paced fun little movie.

Chris Evans was a good lead man in his role as the young guy who is drawn into a kidnapping scenario. Kim Basinger does her best femme fatale role, and Jason Staham chews up the scenery as a nasty bad guy. Rick Hoffman does a nice turn as a jerk whose car (and phone) are taken by Evans. He has potential as a good comic relief actor.

Last but not least, there is the great Macy, William H. Macy to be exact. The day spa subplot involving him just cracked me up, and when he is wounded and manages to beat up a brawny thug, and goes flying through the air in a goofy action sequence with gun in hand, you just have to love it.

Sit back, have fun, shout comments at your TV set as the contrived plot devices pile up, and enjoy the eye candy and car chases. Most unexpected fun I've had in a while.

I wanted to like this film, and certainly there is room for a psychological character-driven movie which doesn't go for the cheap thrills. Yet, for the enjoyment of a movie, one requires a believable plot, some pacing and editing, and a feeling of involvement. In The Clearing, what starts out as an intriguing mystery, with a kidnapping and unknown motives, turns into a slow draggy pointless exercise. Nothing much really happens, and the so-called character-driven angles (as expressed by the director in his commentary) really don't add up to much.

Fine actors are wasted here. Robert Redford does his best trying to engage and outwit Willem Dafoe. Dafoe brings a bit of nuance to his character, insofar as one can feel somewhat sympathetic towards him. It's unfortunate that Dafoe has been typecast as a villain, he's gone into the Christopher Walken Hall of Fame of Typecasting.

Wendy Crewson is usually good but her character's entry into the movie was brief and contrived, and I was wondering why they even bothered to introduce her character. By far the biggest waste of talent was Helen Mirren. In the director's commentary, all I heard was how fabulous a talent she is. I agree, she's a great actress. Then why was she not used properly? Only towards the climax of this movie does she get to show herself, but by then the viewer has quit caring.

Too bad, I liked parts of this movie, but as another reviewer wrote, once you're halfway in you know the film is not going to get much better.

White Oleander was a great book, but there are a few nagging omissions in the movie. For some reason, Michelle Pfeiffer is an artist and not a poet in the movie (was the focus group confused?) Noah Wyle's character's name changed from Ron to Mark for some unknown reason.

More importantly, so much was left out of the movie. Before Alison Lohman's character goes to Claire's place (Zellwegger's), she endures lots more than what the movie shows. There is zero mention of the Van Nuys house with the racist foster mom, the black woman next door, the next place which was the Argentinian woman who had a padlock on the fridge etc.. In the book, Claire's place was like an oasis of peace and tranquility, and love. This did not come through the way it should have. Claire was just a short episode in the movie too, which was wrong.

On the plus side the acting was great, Pfeiffer; beautiful but with that dagger glare; Wright Penn as the white trash hypocrite; Renee as the insecure actress and Alison Lohman as a girl going through foster homes and living in her own prison. Good enough movie if you haven't read the book, but a letdown for me.