Bovie Movie

Sarah Huttington, recently engaged, goes home to Pasadena with fiancé Jeff for a family wedding. She hears a rumor that “The Graduate” (book and movie) are based on her family. Did her grandmother and her mom have flings with the same man just before her parents married? Is she a strange man’s child; does this explain why she doesn’t fit in? Was her mother happy? Is she too facing a loveless marriage? Where can she seek answers: her mother’s dead, her father’s a pleasant naïf. Ask her salty grandma? Better to ask the man in the triangle, the real Benjamin Braddock. With Jeff’s blessing, Sarah heads for San Francisco, looking for the key to her past and to her future.

It might not have the Disney stamp, but this wonderful Warner Bros version of Ted Hughes’s The Iron Man is a first-class achievement in cartoon virtuosity that liberally borrows images from 1950s comic-book art and science-fiction movies to stunning effect. To a soundtrack of American Graffiti-style hits, this heavy metal ET tells the riveting tale of nine-year-old Hogarth, the giant alien robot he saves from electrical overload, and the fiercely protective relationship that develops between them. But the real thrills begin when a Communist-hating FBI agent arrives who is convinced that the walking Meccano set poses a Cold War threat. With political allegory and clever nostalgia for the adults, and dazzling visuals and excitement galore for the children, this poignant fairy tale is outstanding on every artistic level. 

Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom makes his English language debut with this neo-noir thriller that boasts plenty of sharp turns. Sadly, screenwriter Stuart Beattie’s (Collateral) plotting is all too predictable, as fellow commuters Lucinda (Jennifer Aniston) and Charles (Clive Owen) indulge in an extramarital flirtation. Apart from having zero chemistry, the circumstances under which the pair get talking seem contrived, and as a result all the Hitchcockian devices that follow are rendered futile. On top of that, the story fails to address Charles’s mounting sense of guilt, after one night with Lucinda at a cheap hotel puts his family at risk. Instead of drama and suspense, there is a rapid descent into casual violence. At least Vincent Cassel has some fun, hamming it up as the pompous French thug who blackmails Charles over the affair, but otherwise there’s nothing to buffer this wayward vehicle. 

The problem with this film from Meet the Parents co-writer John Hamburg is that it doesn’t know what kind of comedy it wants to be. Predominantly, it’s an agreeable romantic comedy, derivative yet cute, with Ben Stiller playing an overly cautious risk assessor who falls for wild former school pal Jennifer Aniston after his new wife cheats on him during their honeymoon. Stiller and Aniston’s performances are reassuringly familiar, demonstrating a comfortable chemistry that’s enjoyable to watch. However, getting gentle amusement from the foibles of modern romance is evidently insufficient for Hamburg, who insists on throwing in incongruous gross-out humour that would make even the Farrelly Brothers wince. Such attempts to widen the movie’s appeal give it an entirely uneven tone, and turn the usually brilliant Philip Seymour Hoffman into a nausea-inducing horror as Stiller’s vulgar best friend. Ultimately, it’s the characters’ pratfalls and behavioural idiosyncrasies that provide the loudest laughs, but more genuine bite, particularly dialogue-wise, could have worked wonders.