A coda

A coda to Gone Baby Gone-Patrick makes a hard decision at the end of the movie, but was it the right thing to do? I have found that (as I read in a book once and it's still true) that the hardest thing to do is usually the right thing. It's easy to let things go as they are and not make changes-it's difficult to make changes. The right thing to do can be hard and change is always difficult but you have to live with yourself and the things that you did and didn't do. Wouldn't you rather know that you did the right thing and live with the consequences? However, to paraphrase Harry Truman-it's not hard to do the right thing-but it's hard to know what the right thing is.

Gone Baby Gone

I went to see Gone Baby Gone this weekend-it was very good, but it brought to mind a series of other issues, both technical and not, so I'm just going to start with a review. Yes, I liked it, but I still have a few quarrels with it. The cast was good-I had my doubts about Casey Affleck as I remembered him primarily as having an annoying, whiny voice. However, he turned in a great performance as Patrick Kenzie, dedicated to finding a little girl who has been kidnapped and baffled as to what actually happened to her. He and his partner (more on her later) have been hired by the little girl's aunt-her mother is upset by the disappearance, but she's also treated the girl badly and is both a drug addict and a drug mule for the biggest dealer in town. Patrick's dedication to finding out what happened leads to a place he really doesn't want to be-where he has to make a choice between telling the truth and doing what may or may not be right-and it hurts. I've read all the books by Dennis Lehane with Kenzie and Gennaro and the portrait of Patrick Kenzie, his friends, his neighborhood and his life is pretty true to the book-with one flaw. Ah, Angie Gennaro. She of the foul mouth and strong personality. The one who doesn't hesitate to call it like she sees it-the one who fell in love with Patrick's best friend and after he died, fell in love (again) with Patrick. Which leads me to ask who this woman is in the movie? She looks the part, but all she does is stand there and look pretty. What is that? It is NOT the Angie Gennaro I know from the books. The problem is that she says so little in the movie besides "You know I love you" that when she leaves because of Patrick's decision, you don't really care. This sort of role leads me to one of the issues bothering me-the quote from a top Hollywood exec saying that they weren't making any more movies starring women anymore-presumably because they didn't make any money. But what bothers me in a movie like this is that the top female character doesn't have a personality. Would it have been so hard to give her more lines? Is it the fault of the role or the actress? I really don't know because Amy Ryan as the girl's mother is fabulous-but she also has a great part. So when I see a movie like this where the female lead could have been so much better (and it's all there in the book, so it isn't like it's hard to get) ti seems to me that it would give the execs just another reason to not make movies with/starring women any more, instead of looking at the whether the movie is any good or not.
This leads to me to another issue I thought of while watching this movie-a question of movie editing. I read a quote from Steven Soderbergh the other days in which he said that he thought that movies today were better edited on a micro-level but worse on a macro-level. I thought about that while watching and I thought about an interview I read with Martin Scorcese's long-time editor, Thelma Schoonmaker. She told the interviewer (who wanted to watch her for a few days while she edited) that it was hard to explain what she did without watching the whole process, that in the process she decided who got more time, more character and she used that (among other things) to balance the movie. If one character had too much screen time, she edited to make them not so "heavy" and to balance the movie. Clearly, I'm not an editor but I see what she meant-that editing is a whole process to balance the movie and is not just what is edited in a single scene. This movie is well-edited in each scene, the shots from the character's point of view (mainly Patrick's) and the decision on which shot to use, when to cut and how to do it has clearly been thought out-in fact, everything in this movie has been given a lot of thought. But I kept thinking about Thelma Schoonmaker and what she said about editing and about Steven Soderbergh and his comment. Would different editing have changed my perception of Angie or was it the actress herself? I don't know. If hadn't read the books and knew what Angie was like in the books then I would have thought the character of Angie was just "The Girl" (and I have to say I am TIRED of movies where the woman in it is just "The Girl") but having read the books, it just makes it a little disappointing. However, it's still a good movie. It takes a tough subject and looks at it from both points of view and each side makes a compelling case. If you found the truth, what would you do with it? If it hurt your friends, your family, those you loved would you still look for it? This movie asks a tough question and doesn't shy away from it at the end. In these days blockbuster popcorn movies, that something for which I am grateful.

Eastern Promises

It took me awhile to finally see Eastern Promises, but it was worth the wait. I have to say I'm glad that I did NOT see on the same day as A History of Violence, though. I have a highish tolerance for violence but the two together might have been a little too much. Eastern Promises is fairly violent. I read a review that said there was violence only at the beginning and the fight at the end-maybe they forgot the throat-cutting in the middle? It's the story of Anna (Naomi Watts), a midwife at a London hospital, who, while trying to save the life of a 14 year-old prostitute and her unborn baby, becomes involved with the Russian mob. She finds the girl's diary, which details not only her dreams, but how she was sorely used by those who said they would help her. The diary leads her to a Russian restaurant, and its seemingly kindly owner, played by Armin Mueller-Stahl. She also meets his crazy son (Vincent Cassell) and the driver with the highest cheekbones in the world (of course it's Viggo Mortenson). She can't read the diary because it's in Russian, but Armin generously offers to translate it-until she finds out though the translation by her uncle (also a Russian, played by the Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski) that the kindly restaurant owner runs a brothel, raped the girl himself and his the baby's father.. At this point, threats take over. Armin threatens his son, Armin threatens Naomi, Viggo threatens her uncle and who kidnapped the baby? Will Vincent take over? And will Viggo survive the fight in the Russian baths even though he's fighting naked? This is a good story, with good details and excellent performances. Viggo is great, as usual, all hair slicked back and dark glasses, and while Naomi's part may not be showy, she more than holds her own with every other actor in the movie. I have to say that my favorite scene is the end though. Viggo sits in the dark restaurant, black suit, white shirt, while Naomi walks out into the sunlit garden. They have each chosen their lives.