At the Movies with Joyce & Don Fowler

Posted 2/9/22

AVON

 

DRIVE MY CAR * * * * (Don) * * * (Joyce) Japanese Melodrama

While three hours was a little too much for Joyce, I found myself enthralled with the characters in this …

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At the Movies with Joyce & Don Fowler

Posted

AVON

 

DRIVE MY CAR
* * * * (Don) * * * (Joyce)
Japanese Melodrama

While three hours was a little too much for Joyce, I found myself enthralled with the characters in this Japanese melodrama that plays out in a variety of languages including Japanese, Chinese, English, Korean and sign language.

Don’t worry, there are English sub-titles.

Hidetoshi Nishijima plays Yusuke, a theatrical actor/director who is commissioned to direct the Russian classic, “Uncle Vanya” in Hiroshima, using actors who speak all the languages mentioned, with subtitles over the stage.

Before this happens, we are exposed to Yusuke’s past. His wife died, leaving behind some painful memories and unanswered questions.

Moving ahead two years, Yusuke auditions actors and begins rehearsals for the “Uncle Vanya” production. He stays at a hotel an hour from the theatre and spends the driving time listening to tapes of the play.

The theatre contract requires him to use a driver, and a local young lady is assigned to him. Eventually, they become close and share much of their history and thoughts.

Joyce thought that the characters showed little emotion, but I passed it off as their culture. I likened Yusuke to Uncle Vanya and felt his suffering.

The movie does move slowly, but so much is revealed about the human condition and the connection between two people from two different worlds.

Much of the plot revolves around the young actor that Yusuke chooses to play Vanya and the complications that result in his choice.

There are many subtleties in this drama that slowly come to the two main characters facing themselves and their pasts, leading to an emotion-packed ending.

WARWICK SHOWCASE 

MOONFALL
* * ½
(Out of control disaster movie)

Patrick Wilson and Halle Berry star as former astronauts charged with saving the world from the moon falling out of orbit and destroying earth.

John Bradley plays the frumpy, weirdo scientist who predicts the crash when no one will believe him.

At times I thought that the long, dragged-out movie was a parody of all disaster movies, but the actors play it straight with every cliché ever used in the genre.

The military wants to blow it up, which would result in millions of deaths on earth, but our trio launches a spaceship, lands on the moon, fights a black mass, and discovers some fascinating facts about the core of the moon.

This is all utterly ridiculous, going on forever, and made even more ludicrous by the scientific mumbo jumbo they engage in.

To drag out the movie even more, all the main characters have a back story that plays out like a predictable soap opera.

Loads of special effects can’t save this disaster movie from being a disaster.

SUNDOWN
* * ½
(Biggest Downer of the Year)

The movie opens with a wealthy British family (Brother, sister, niece and nephew) enjoying their vacation at a posh Mexican resort.

A phone call tells them of a death in the family. They arrive at the airport with the man (Tim Roth) revealing that he has lost his passport. He sends the others ahead promising to locate it and follow them home.

The man finds a seedy hotel in a rundown neighborhood and immediately mixes with the natives, picking up an attractive bodega operator.

His sister calls to check on the passport and is told that it is the weekend, and the embassy is closed until Monday.

Her brother spends his time drinking beer, swimming at the local beach and shacking up with the local woman.

Two weeks go by. The sister returns to Mexico to find out what her brother is up to. He tells her he wants out of their successful business partnership and refuses to leave Mexico.

If you haven’t figured out by then what his reasoning is, you missed a lot of signals. If you think the movie was depressing, wait for the ending.

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