Richard sits in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres, VOD and streaming services including Carey Mulligan’s archeological drama “The Dig” (Netflix), Denzel Washington as a cop with a troubled past in “The Little Things” (PVOD and select theatres), Naomi Watts’ family drama “Penguin Bloom” (Netflix) and the Nicolas Cage b-movie “Jiu Jitsu” (EST, VOD, DVD).
For the second time in less than ten years Naomi Watts is playing a woman injured while in Thailand. In “The Impossible” she was nominated for an Academy Award for playing a woman whose luxurious Thai holiday is turned to tragedy by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami that claimed 230,000 lives.
Now she stars in “Penguin Bloom,” the based-on-a-true story of a woman paralyzed after a fall during a Thai family vacation.
“Penguin Bloom” has considerably less action than “The Impossible” but both are about a family’s ability to pull together in times of crisis.
Watts is Samantha Bloom, a once active mother and athlete, now confined to a wheelchair after a fall left the lower two-thirds of her body paralyzed. Back home in New South Wales she has trouble adjusting to her new normal, despite support from her immediate family, husband Cameron (“The Walking Dead’s” Andrew Lincoln), Jan (Jacki Weaver) and kids, Noah (Griffin Murray-Johnston) who asked for his mother to sightsee with him that fateful day and now feels responsible for her injury, Oli (Abe Clifford-Barr) and Rueben (Felix Cameron).
When Noah brings an injured magpie home, nicknamed Penguin because of her black and white coloring, Samantha doesn’t want the bird in the house. Soon, however, Penguin becomes a guardian angel of sorts, giving Sam companionship and inspiration. If the bird can heal herself, Sam reasons, so can I.
“Penguin Bloom” is a story of healing written in broad strokes. It is an unabashed feel-good movie that feels a bit too on-the-nose from time to time—”It must be weird to have wings, but not be able to fly,” they say about Penguin, but the dual meaning is not lost on anyone.—but warmth and nice performances ultimately win the day.
Weaver is a pleasure, as always, and the younger kids bring a spark of adolescent realism to the events, but the movie belongs to Watts, who effectively portrays the mix of anger, frustration and tenderness that make her character compelling and Murray-Johnston as Noah, in his debut performance. The young actor brings a heartbreaking mix of kindness and regret to the role as he struggles with his feelings of responsibility.
“Walking Dead” fans will be disappointed that Lincoln is given little to do, but it is a relief to see him play a role that doesn’t require him to be covered in viscera.
“Penguin Bloom’s” story of struggle and survival, both human and avian, is predictable but, just as Penguin learns to take to the skies through trial and error, the film takes some wrong steps but ultimately makes your spirit soar.
Richard sits in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres, VOD and streaming services including the wet and wild “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run,” the crazed driver flick “Unhinged,” the old codgers on a mission film “Never Too Late” and the anti rom com “Spinster.”
“Never Too Late,” story of four friends, separated by distance, experience and fifty years starring James Cromwell, is sweet and sentimental but has a serious message at its core. The four Vietnam vets chase their dreams to VOD this week.
After a daring escape from a Vietnamese POW camp, Jeremiah Caine (Dennis Waterman), Jack Bronson (Cromwell), Angus Wilson (Jack Thompson) and Bruce Wendell (Shane Jacobson) were called The Chain Breakers. Half a century later they’re reunited at the Hogan Hills Retirement Home for Returned Veterans when Bronson checks himself in under the guise of recovering from a serious stroke. He’s conned his way into the facility not to hang out with his old pals but to reconnect with the love of his life, former combat nurse Norma (Jacki Weaver). “Sometimes it takes a lifetime to find a happy ending,” she says. But soon after the meet she is transferred to another hospital for a three-month drug trial for Alzheimer’s Disease, leaving Bronson and Company behind.
Thrown together once again in a different sort of prison, Bronson rallies the troops for one last operation of daring do. “We’re the Chainbreakers,” he says. “We don’t sit around feeling sorry for ourselves, we get the job done. I’m going to finish this mission.” They’re not as young as they used to be, but Bronson devises a plan, a run to freedom and Norma.
It’s “The Great Escape,” senior’s style.
“Never Too Late’s” feels like a light, old-codger comedy but at its heart, right next to the pacemaker, is a commentary on how seniors—and in this case, veterans—are treated in long term care. Hogan Hills is essentially a jail with barbed-wired grounds, attendants who behave like guards and while there are no bars, there are more locked doors than Riker’s Island. It’s a timely social issue and is given a fair treatment here.
The engine that keeps “Never Too Late” moving forward, however, are the actors. The Australians, Waterman, Thompson and Jacobson, offer up broad comedic performances tempered by enough sentimentality to make their hijinks likable. Cromwell and Weaver, however, bring the humanity. Their relationship, and their shot at happiness after fifty years, is the is the soul of the film. A subplot involving an evil doctor (Renee Lim) looking for revenge feels wedged in and briefly disrupts the movie’s flow.
“Never Too Late’s” predictability—let’s face it, we all know where this is going—is blunted by the actors and the warmth of the characters who get one more shot at adventure and happiness.
Richard joins CP24 anchor Nathan Downer to have a look at the weekend’s new movies including the return of Newt Scamander in “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald,” the political doings of “The Front Runner” and the arthouse heist of “Widows.”
Richard sits in with CTV NewsChannel anchor Marcia MacMillan to have a look at the weekend’s big releases, the continuing saga of magizoologist Newt Scamander in “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald,” the political intrigue of “The Front Runner” and the arthouse heist of “Widows.”
A weekly feature from from ctvnews.ca! The Crouse Review is a quick, hot take on the weekend’s biggest movies! This week Richard looks at the heartfelt dramedy “Instant Family,” the heist flick “Widows” and the political scandal of “The Front Runner.”
“Widows” may be one of the most subversive heist films ever made. Based on a British mini-series from the 1980’s it stars Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Erivo as four women bonded by debts left to some very bad men by their late husbands. It is part caper flick and part survival story that makes strong statements on hot button topics like sexism, poverty, prejudice, power and police brutality.
Set in modern day Chicago, the action in the story begins when Harry (Liam Neeson) and his crew of robbers gunned down and blown up after a heist gone wrong. His widow, teachers’ union executive Veronica Rawlins (Viola Davis), is left with a $2 million debt to local crime boss Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry). Manning is a tough guy attempting a stab at legitimacy by entering politics, running against corrupt local alderman, Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell). Manning wants his money and, after mistreating Veronica’s dog, gives her just one month to come up with the cash. “That money was meant to buy me a new life,” snarls Jamal. “That money was about my life. Now it is about yours.” If she can’t come up with the cash she’ll have to deal with psychopathic strong arm Jatemme Manning (Daniel Kaluuya).
It is a dire situation but Veronica has a plan, or rather, a notebook and a plan. Harry left behind a handwritten book detailing every bribe he ever paid and blueprints for a future heist. Putting the widows of her late husband’s hoodlum crew to work (Debicki, Rodriguez, and non-widow Cynthia Erivo), she creates a gang of her own to steal $5 million cash and save their lives. “I’m the only thing standing between you and a bullet in your head,” says Veronica.
Co-written by McQueen and Gillian Flynn, the author and screenwriter of “Gone Girl,” “Widows” is a tightly constructed thriller that builds with each passing moment. McQueen takes his time with the material, allowing the audience to get to know the characters, to learn what’s at stake if this caper goes south.
First and foremost is Davis, fierce and formidable. Her evolution from executive and unsuspecting wife to criminal mastermind is emotional, logical and very motivated.
Opposite her is Debicki as a damaged woman whose own mother suggests prostitution as a career choice to make things meet. Her shift from abused woman to a person completely in control of her life and the way she is perceived—“It’s mine to be ashamed of or be proud of,” she says. “It’s my life.”—is one of the film’s true pleasures.
The cast is universally strong. Farrell could use a different accent coach but Kaluuya is evil personified, a psychopath with dead eyes and an attitude.
“Widows” is a stylish art house heist flick that pays tribute to the genre but layers in not only intrigue but also social commentary about racism, the cost of political power and the imbalance of power between some of the female characters and their male counterparts. The thrills will appeal both to your heart and head.
Richard joins CP24 anchor Nathan Downer to have a look at the weekend’s new movies including the new Melissa McCarthy comedy “Life of the Party,” the topsy-turvy love fest “The Seagull” starring Saoirse Ronan and Annette Bening and the gory story of vengeance “Revenge”
Richard sits in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres, VOD and streaming services including Carey Mulligan’s archeological drama “The Dig” (Netflix), Denzel Washington as a cop with a troubled past in “The Little Things” (PVOD and select theatres), Naomi Watts’ family drama “Penguin Bloom” (Netflix) and the Nicolas Cage b-movie “Jiu Jitsu” (EST, VOD, DVD).
