The Long Game – Not Just for Golfers

3 ½ Stars (out of 4)

It’s wonderful that this movie has arrived at the beginning of golf season.  For those of us in the South, the season is never ending.  Yet, for our northern neighbors it is just the sort of nudge that makes golfers ache to get out onto the greening fairways.  But this movie is not just for golfers – just as “Lassie Come Home” is not just for dog lovers; “Bambi” is not just for deer lovers; or “Black Beauty” is not for horse lovers.  This is a heart warming movie for everyone.     

“The Long Game” is based on a true story of a group of Mexican-American teens in Del Rio, Texas – a stone’s throw from the Mexican border.  The high schoolers work on the weekends as caddies at the excusive Del Rio Country Club.  As often happens with caddies, this is their first taste of a game that they will passionately adopt and take with them into their declining years.  Being poor but full of hunger for the game, they build their own mini golf course in the middle of the Texas desert and teach themselves to play the game with an assortment of outdated equipment. 

In the mid 1950’s, JB Pena (Jay Hernandez) arrives in Del Rio with an old set of golf clubs inherited from his dad and a new position as superintendent of public schools.  His life-long friend, Frank Mitchell (Dennis Quaid), is a retired golf pro who taught JB the finer points of the game and is a member of the exclusive (white only) Del Rio Country Club.  JB longs to join the club and is encouraged by Mitchell to apply for membership, only to be shot down because of his Mexican roots.

When JB discovers the make-shift desert golf course built by the five teens, he enlists the help of Mitchell and establishes the San Felipe High School’s first golf team.  His initiative will ultimately break some barriers of exclusivity of the game.  JB’s objective for his team is to reach and win the Texas State High School Golf Championship.

This objective does not come without some serious pain.  JB is as much concerned with the rules of etiquette inherent in the game as he is with the skills of playing the game.  With his quick tempered star, Joe (Jilian Works), this is a huge undertaking.  But the team comes together, accepting their small wins as successful stepping stones toward their larger goal of winning the State Championship – which they achieved in 1957.  This is also a precursor to the entry of Latinos into the ranks of golf touring pros – the most notable being Lee Travino who began his winning career in the 1970’s.

The cast is excellent with notable performances by the entire crew.  My own favorite is the surprise performance of Cheech Marin as Pollo, the grounds keeper.  Perhaps you recall the comedy team of Cheech and Chong popular in the ‘70s and ‘80s.  His character is both humorous and sage-like. 

“The Long Game” is a “feel good” film.  The problem with a “feel good “ movie is that it often addresses a social or moral “wrong” which has a way of smarting after the good feeling passes.  Often it’s because the “wrong” has not really been redressed in the broad brush of society.  While Latinos may have broken the barrier in the PGA, there is still the simmering hostility concerning immigrants at our southern border and the inequalities in our own community.   

I saw this film in the front row at Park Plaza Cinema with my friend and movie buddy Kathy.     

Wicked Letters – Such Language!

3 ½  Stars (out of 4)

What are we to make of this quirky black comedy/mystery which uses such a super abundance of creative profanity that we are gob smacked just about the same time we fall laughing into the aisles?  Based on a true event, the film is set in a down-at-the-heels British seaside town, Littlehampton, in 1920. 

Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) is a spinster church-lady who still lives with her parents – her abusive and dominating father, Edward (Timothy Spall), and her submissive mother, Victoria (Gemma Jones).  However Edith may justify her existence, she is the archetypal sibling left behind to tend the fires and see mom and dad into their dotage.  Her outward demeanor is prudish and reeks of a holier-than-thou attitude.  Always wearing an angelically smug smile, profanity would never pass her lips.  Ah, but her pen is another matter entirely.

Someone has been sending Edith the most outrageous letters, dripping with such profanity they would make a lumberjack blush.  The police (think, keystone cops) have yet to solve the mystery.  Virtually everyone in the town thinks the culprit is the Irish immigrant: foul-mouthed, pub-crawling Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley), Edith’s former friend and next door neighbor and single mother to little Nancy.  It isn’t long before Rose is arrested and Edith is on the road to nomination for sainthood.  Poor Rose cannot even afford the three pounds to make bail.

In the meantime, policewoman officer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) and members of the local ladies whist players (think: Bridge) conduct their own hilarious investigation.  PC Moss has already been suspended from the police department for exploring the obvious: whose handwriting matches that in the letters?  Rose, who can barely read and write, or someone with an education?   

We soon discover Edith is the author of the scornful and crude letters whose expanse now reaches well beyond the confines of Littlehampton.  We recognize her letter writing as a suppressed rebellion against her repressive father and passive mother and her uniquely miserable existence.  Soon, all ends, more or less, well.     

But there are obvious levels of sensitive subjects which are casually glossed over, since this is an  English comedy at its core.  The sexism, chauvinism, Christian piety, poverty, domestic abuse  and cruelty are boldly witnessed but never addressed.  Those are issues for some other offering.  We need only take “Wicked Little Letters” as the farce that it is and tut-tut as those more serious issues present themselves.  I wouldn’t have minded a few captions – especially when Edward Swan was speaking in a rasping bogue only a native Brit might understand.  But there was no mistaken the hilarious and imaginative profanity which scrawled across the screen as the credits were rolling. 

The wonderful character actors give this film a rich texture.  Both Colman and Buckley were magnificent.  I would see this movie again – if only to examine the creativity of such a plethora of profanity.  

I saw this film in the front row of my favorite theater, Park Plaza Cinema, with my movie buddy, Tracey. 

  

Arthur the King – for Love of a Dog

3 Stars (out of 4)

When we think of courageous dog movies, who can forget “Lassie Come Home,”  “Old Yeller,” “Rin, Tin, Tin” and “Benji?”  The most recent canine hero movie to add to the mix is the heart-string tugging film “Arthur the King” – a moniker for a Santo Domingo street dog who befriends an adventure racing team on a grueling 700-km (435-mile) race across the Dominican Republic.

Michael Light (Mark Wahlberg) is a disgraced American runner who stubbornly led his adventure racing team to a humiliating defeat in Costa Rica when he refused to listen to his wiser team mates and was stranded with the ebbing tide on the first day of the race.  Three years later he is still brooding about the loss and tries to assemble a new team for an adventure in the Dominican Republic.  His wife, Helena (Juliet Rylance), a former teammate of that Costa Rica disaster encourages him in this endeavor.

Early in the adventure, Michael befriends a mangy street dog by offering him packaged meatballs.  At the next race checkpoint (transition camp), the dog suddenly appears, having mysteriously crossed more than 200 miles of jungle.  When the dog saves the team from falling off a cliff, the team adopts him as their mascot and names him Arthur the King. 

There are ups and downs in this adventure film and Arthur is beloved by everyone – especially the audience.  Rather than relate any more of the heroics of the team and Arthur, I urge you to see this movie and share this unique race which includes biking, kayaking, climbing and running.  Not only are these adventure races real, the actual story of Arthur is based on a true story.  As a real-life adventure, the audience gets to share photos of the actual Light family and their dog as the final credits roll.  This is something I always relish – looking for similarities between the real life people and the actors cast to play them. 

While the film is slow at its start and the director, Simon Cellan, might have figured a better way to introduce the dog Arthur at the onset of the film, it is very impactful and engaging when we finally get to the actual race. 

In an interesting aside, last Saturday’s showings at the Park Plaza Cinema were set aside to benefit the Hilton Head Humane Society with patrons encouraged to bring their dogs to the theater for canine festivities. 

As is often my custom, I saw this film in the front row at Park Plaza Cinema with my movie buddies Kathy and Tracey.

One Life – A Story We Never Knew

3 of 4 Stars

If my star ratings were based on emotional impact alone, this biographical drama would be off the charts.  The story is based on true events in the life of Sir Nicholas “Nicky” Winton at the beginning of WWII and its aftermath.

At the age of 29, Nicky (Johnny Flynn) visits German-occupied Czechoslovakia at the urging of his friend Martin Blake (Ziggy Heath), where he discovers whole families who have fled Nazi Germany and Austria just before the outbreak of WWII.  Nicky, a London stockbroker with a clear humanitarian bent, is moved by the poverty, squalor and fear of the refugees living in Prague.  He meets Doreen Warriner (Romola Garai), head of the Prague office of the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia (BCRC), an organization responsible for relocating adult refugees.  With avenues for relocation of the refugees in scant supply, Doreen and her colleagues are overwhelmed by the task set before them.  It is difficult just to keep the families alive.  But Nicky’s compassion turns to the children who will surely die if they are not given asylum.  He decides to take matters into his own hands by devising a plan of escape for the children.

With the assistance of his mother, Babi (Helena Bonham Carter), herself a Jewish refugee, and friend, Martin, Nicky embarks on a bold campaign to move the children to foster homes in England.  This requires raising funds, a shift in focus of the BCRC, removal of bureaucratic impediments, enlisting British foster parents, and coordination of transit plans – all before the borders are closed by the Nazis. 

The film shifts between an aging Nicky (Anthony Hopkins) fifty years after the initial evacuations and 1938-39 Prague.  Few people were aware that Nicky helped 669 primarily Jewish children flee to safety in Britain.  But when Nicky decides to donate his papers to an archive, his story is revealed and the recognition that he never sought is thrust upon him with heart-rending results, as he comes face-to-face with the now-adults of the many children he helped escape to freedom.  Since so many of the children lost their birth families to the Holocaust, a great number remained in Britain.

While the film is somewhat slow in the beginning, and we are not quite sure where the appearance of the elder Nicky will lead, the movie quickly picks up speed in a race against time and the impending threat of the Nazis and the plight of the children.  This was an amazing event which has been all but lost to our collective consciousness of the Nazi campaign to exterminate the Jews and others thought by Hitler to be undesirable.  It is a film well worth seeing and an amazing piece of history that needs to be highlighted. OKKKKL 

I saw this film from a front-row seat at Park Plaza Cinema along with my movie buddies, Kathy and Tracey.   

Oscar Picks for 2024

Last week I spoke about how “Oppenheimer” is likely to sweep the Oscars, which isn’t my favorite outcome.  Having seen all but two of the movies nominated in the top categories, I’d like to talk about my favorite picks and why.

Best Picture:  My pick is “American Fiction.”  Since it debuted so late in the season, it has little chance of winning – with the top flick going to “Oppenheimer.”  But the timeliness of the subject matter of “American Fiction”– racism in the arts – the fabulous cast, and effortless flow of the movie with not a scintilla of dead space make this my top choice among the nominees.  Unlike “Oppenheimer,” which is frankly boring in many places, “American Fiction” is engaging every moment.

Best Actress:  Emma Stone is positively mesmerizing in “Poor Things.”  It is a rather weird film and what she is called to do in the film is extraordinary.  I applaud Carey Mulligan’s performance in “Maestro” because it is often nuanced.  But Emma Stone is simply over the top.     

Best Actor:  I know Paul Giamatti is a favorite in “The Holdovers,” and I loved his performance, too.  Bradley Cooper was fabulous in “Maestro” and his recreation of Bernstein’s style and panache overcome what I believe to be a lousy script which misses the musical genius of Bernstein and merely settles for the the prurient.  I also loved Jeffrey Wright in “American Fiction” but the character of Bernstein was more challenging.

Best Supporting Actress:  My hands-down pick is the favorite:  Da’Vine Joy Randolph in “The Holdovers.” This is essentially an ensemble movie with only three characters.  Randolph’s role as the school’s chef is pivotal and keeps the movie grounded as she espouses the wisdom of the obvious.

Best Supporting Actor:  I love DeNiro in “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Gossling in “Barbie.”  Even Downey is mesmerizing in his paranoia in “Oppenheimer.”  But Mark Ruffalo’s role in “Poor Things” is memorable as he loses control and slips over the edge.  The nominees are a remarkable group of talented men.

Best Director:  My nod goes to Yorgos Lanthimos for “Poor Things” since it is a movie with so many strange characters and moving parts.  But the sentimental favorite who has long been overlooked by the Academy is Chrisopher Nolan of “Oppenheimer.”  I so wish that Noland had been willing to pare down an over-long script.

Best Original Screenplay:  This has to go to “The Holdovers” when placed against its competition.  Had “Maestro” focused more on the musical genius of Bernstein rather than his sexual proclivities, this would have been a winner.  But the premise was all wrong.

Best Adapted Screenplay:  This is a toughie.  “Barbie” deserved to have a lot more nominations.  For that reason, it is my pick.

Best Cinematography:  I’ll pass on this one.  If filming the incredible landscape of New Mexico is a major criteria and the “big blast” in the desert, my nod goes to “Oppenheimer.”

Best Editing:  “Oppenheimer” needed to leave a lot more footage on the cutting room floor.  I simply have no pick in this category.

Best Costume Design:  I applaud “Barbie” in this area.  But Barbie’s clothes were already designed by Mattel.  Whereas the mini skirts and knee-highs in “Poor Things” are a standout in what is supposed to be the Victorian Era.  Simply too imaginative for words.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:  If this award were given to the actor most unlike the character he/she plays, it would have to go to Helen Mirren in “Golda” for her portrayal of Golda Meir.  While I give high-fives to Badley Cooper for the the hooked prosthesis he wore on his nose, it does not compare to the authenticity the makeup transformation gave to Mirren as Israel’s formidable prime minister.     

Why Oppenheimer Will Sweep the Oscars

Although not my personal choice for Best Motion Picture, “Oppenheimer” is likely to sweep the Oscars.  In defense of the power of “Oppenheimer,” it was the first Hollywood extravaganza to emerge post Pandemic and a bright spotlight suggesting that Hollywood is not dead and that, just perhaps, we do not have to spend the rest of our lives streaming mostly mediocre, made-for-TV films.   

Let me, however, state what I believe is the obvious:  movies that come very late in the “Oscar Season” get seriously shortchanged.  Things like Best Picture, Best Director and, often, Best Actor have often been decided long before the “holiday” movies roll out at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  For movies falling into the late calendar year to win significant Oscars, the other nominees in those categories have to be seriously anemic. 

Beside timing of release, another factor at play in Oscar selection is: Who selects the winners?  Every once in a blue moon, the Academy will throw a bone to a female director or an Afro-American, Asian or other minority actor or film.  This helps the white males, who have the most clout, sleep at night and dupe themselves into believing that they are fully evolved.

The final factors influencing the “sweep” are the many the award ceremonies that precede the Oscars:  Golden Globe, Critics Choice, Emmy, Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and BAFTA Awards.  With the exception of the Emmy (which is only about television), every award for Best Picture has gone to “Oppenheimer.” There is simply no room for the Academy to find otherwise.  The Director, Christopher Nolan, is an incredible talent who is long overdue to receive an Oscar for his directing.   

Furthermore, “Oppenheimer” received so much hype before anyone even saw it, proving that dollars do speak.  It was epic in length and the subject matter was something that everyone on the planet knew about – the Atomic Bomb.  Interestingly, “Barbie” came out at the same time and was also promoted with much hype and awaited with baited breath.  Many movie fans saw both films with a dinner pause between shows.  The duo was referred to as “Barbenheimer.” 

I saw both films; but the audience and its reactions were worlds apart.  “Oppenheimer”  attracted a mixed audience of male and female.  After the movie, many moaned about the length of the movie, the linear biographic quality of the movie and its faithfulness to the 700+ page book of the same title.  But few in the audience I attended where mesmerized by the movie itself.  The cinematography – especially of the bomb blast in the desert – and the awful reality of the event were discussed, but I never felt there was a real embracing of the movie for all its grandeur.  Despite its three hours in length, the characters who emerged most fully formed were not the primary stars.

On the other hand, the “Barbie” audience was predominantly female – young and old – many dressed in pink to honor the icon of their childhood.  But the take-away from the film was not as epic as the atomic bomb; it was on a visceral level.  The take-away was Barbie’s discovery that the “real” world, not the Barbie Land world where women were presidents and leaders of industry – no, the “real” world was run by men.  While many of us have realized this for years, it was a revelation to Barbie – and maybe a wake-up call for us all.

My next review will be my personal selection for the major Oscar winners.  Stay tuned…. 

Ordinary Angels – a Bit “Soapy”

3 of 4 Stars

It’s 1994 in Louisville, Kentucky.  Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank) is a hairdresser working at her friend Rose’s salon (Tamala Jones as Rose).  Sharon is beset by a lot of demons.  Actually, her unacknowledged alcoholism is at the center of her problems, but she is not ready to confront this head on.  Instead, she centers her energy on the family of recent widower, Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchson), and his five year-old daughter, Michelle (Emily Mitchell), who is dying of liver failure. 

No sooner had Ed’s wife, Theresa (Amy Acker), died after a lengthy and expensive illness, but Ed is now facing financial ruin as his younger daughter requires an expensive liver transplant in a distant city – assuming a donor match could be found before the clock runs out.  And, of course, Ed has no family health insurance which accounts for a staggering $400 thousand dollar debt owed for wife Theresa’s hospital care.  If this sounds like a soap opera, it’s best to warn you that the movie is based on a true story.  Truth is often stranger than fiction.

Sharon hears about the Schmitt family on the local TV news – as little Michelle’s predicament becomes a cause celebre.  Sharon is so moved by the family’s plight that she starts a one-day fund raiser at Rose’s salon – with the hair-care proceeds going to the Schmitt family.  Sharon shows up on the Schmitts’s doorstep with an envelope full of cash – over $3,000.  Although grateful, Ed is secretly humiliated.  Not only is he unable to provide for his own two children, but a total stranger has imposed herself onto the family – and it is only the beginning.  

Sharon makes short shrift of winning over Ed’s daughters, Michelle and Ashley (Skywalker Hughes), and grandmom Barbara (Nancy Travis).  As Sharon becomes a household fixture, Ed resists her nurturing and uncanny accounting and sales  skills.  Following a devastating tornado, Sharon helps Ed get back on his feet as a contract roofer.  Still, Ed is embarrassed by Sharon’s ministry.

In the event a matching organ is found for Michelle, its life span is short term.  It takes tricky planning to figure out how to get Michelle to the distant hospital with time to allow for a pre-op.  It is too far to drive and commercial airlines are out of the question with only hours to spare door to door.  Sharon soon finds a solution to this dilemma also.

It’s past Christmas, and Little Michelle is fading fast.  As Ed’s luck would have it, just as Louisville is experiencing a winter blizzard of the century, a matching liver becomes available.  Roads are closed and airplanes are grounded.  Sharon does come to the rescue, again, but you will have to see the movie to find out how she manages this improbable fete.

While the film feels a bit “soapy” in many ways, it moves along quicky with surprises at every turn.  It is interesting to try to unravel the mystery of Sharon and the stubborn machismo of poor Ed.  He is simply no match for Sharon.  I suspect few people are.  At the close of the movie, we see photos and clips of the real life characters – which is always fun.  Spoiler alert: Michelle does get her new liver transplant.         

I saw this movie at my favorite theater, Park Plaza Cinema, sitting in the front row with my movie pal Kathy.  The popcorn was delicious.

Origin – a Doctoral Thesis

2 ½ Stars/4

“Origin” is an interesting and accurate adaption of Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 best seller Caste: Origins of Our Discontent.  But as a compelling narrative it lacks emotion and real connection with the audience regarding its main thesis:  Racism and antisemitism, and perhaps a number of other “isms,” are essentially based on a caste system which pigeonholes classes of people into inescapable hierarchies from which there is no escape.  We are born into these classes and there is little tolerance for mixing the classes or making advancement.                         

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor performs convincingly as author Wilkerson.  She is beautiful, articulate and sophisticated; but as the first person narrator (so to speak) she fails to make the case that classifying racism as caste advances the case for social justice.  What is lacking in this film is a sense of soul.  

Yes, the love demonstrated between Wilkerson and her husband Brett (Jon Bernthal), her mother Ruby (Emily Yancy) and her cousin Marion (Niecy Nash) is heartwarming and provides an opportunity to add a human aspect to a rather dry academic discussion.  Without the human aspect, this film comes across as a doctoral candidate defending her thesis.  The thesis being that white supremacy, Nazism, racism and other prejudices have their roots in an ancient caste system.  Even if we embrace this thesis, what are we to take away from this film?

My ultimate question is:  So what? Does this tidy classification make all of the injustices inflicted on the hopelessly down-trodden classes of people across the globe less real or more palatable?  For Wilkerson, making the connection between racism and caste was an “aha” moment – but not for me.  I did find the book Caste engaging – though not a major page-turner.  Director Ava DuVernay’s earlier works regarding racism – “13th” and “Selma” – I found very compelling and they struck a chord on a visceral level.  They each had a powerful impact on their audiences, too.  They had a certain punch which “Origin” simply lacks.

One ray of hope suggested in the film is evidenced in modern Germany’s treatment of the holocaust and the rise and fall of Nazism.  There are no memorials to fallen Nazis in Germany.  The sites where crimes were committed against its own citizens in the name of “racial purification” are held up as constant reminders of its shameful past.  The country has owned its role in advancing its hideous crimes against humanity.  This has yet to happen in the USA, where there are still monuments to our racist past and indigenous people are still segregated on “reservations.”    

From an intellectual and historical perspective it is worth seeing this film.  While the thesis is interesting, I cannot see how it changes anything.  I wish it did.

I saw this film from the front row at my favorite theater, Park Plaza Cinema. 

American Fiction – True/False?

4  Stars/4

For a movie experience of hilarity and pathos and a screwy, if not accurate, peek into the book publishing (and media) industry, I highly recommend “American Fiction.”  This is writer and producer Cord Jefferson’s directing debut and he got the tone and characters just right.  Based on Percival Everett’s novel Erased, this film examines the inane stereotypes our contemporary culture imposes on most of us.  In many cases it’s like pounding a square peg into a round hole – with enough muscle, it can be done – even if it doesn’t look right.

Let’s start with the star of this trope – Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), borrowed from the iconic black American jazz pianist and composer.  Our Monk is a sophisticated novelist of some renown whose writings, however diverse the subjects, have been glossed over and left him classified on book shelves as an “African-American writer.”  Monk comes from an upper middle class black family whose dad was a physician and whose two siblings have followed in their dad’s footsteps, to some degree. 

Sister Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross) is an overworked physician in a neighborhood clinic.  Brother Cliff (Sterling K. Brown) is a west coast plastic surgeon who flaunts his recent “outing” as a gay man.  But Monk is the golden boy who inherited much of his father’s genius.  They all come together at the family’s beach home on the death of the family patriarch.  Mom (Leslie Uggams) is struggling with dementia while still holding by a tether to her children and her life.  In a running two-fold plot, we see the evolution of the Ellison family as well as Monk’s frustration with society’s obsession with blackness reduced to a cliché.

Monk’s agent, Arthur (John Ortiz), has just told Monk that his latest novel simply will not sell because I isn’t “black enough.”  To prove a point, Monk quickly hammers out a trashy black novel complete with bad-ass, gun toting characters.  He has authored the book as Stagg R. Lee (you can’t make up this stuff), a pseudonym because the author is ostensibly a fugitive from justice.  The publishers are all over the book – which is bound to be a best seller.  Monk is stunned and does everything in his power to dissuade the publishers from taking on the project, including retitling the book F-word.  No problem.  This is just the type of authentic blackness the white publishers are seeking.  And so it begins.

There is so much to recommend this movie, not the least of which is the careful selection of the characters.  But Wright is the real star.  Throughout the ridiculous turn of events, Monk remains true to himself and his intention to shine a light on the hypocrisy of the media in prolonging the lie of black mythology.  Wright is singularly masterful as he navigates the perils of sudden fame while staying grounded in his scholarly upbringing and his pursuit of reality.  All the while, the drama of his family life unfolds with a mixture of triumph and tragedy, joy and sorrow that pretty much represents our human condition.

This is a singularly fantastic movie that is not to be missed, and one which I will see again and again.  I saw this at the Park Plaza Cinema with friends Kathy, Tracey, Linda,  and the other Linda. 

Driving Madeline is elegant

4 Stars/4

This is an exquisite film that you will not want to miss.  While I am not a fan of reading subtitles in foreign films, this film’s dialogue is sparce enough and simple enough that you will not have a problem reading the dialogue and studying the expressions of the characters at the same time.

Madeline (Line Renaud) is a 92 year-old elegant Parisian woman who has called for a taxi to drive her to her final destination –  a nursing care facility across town.  Her taxi driver, Charles (Dany Boon), is overworked and constantly under water – working long hours, six days a week,  to pay for his cab lease and provide for his family of three.  But this promises to be a lucrative fare, so Charles accepts.

When I first saw the tile of this film, I was immediately reminded of the winsome “Diving Miss Daisy” – where the wealthy and spunky Jessica Tandy is driven across Atlanta by her chauffeur, Morgan Freeman.  While Miss Daisy is determined to keep her independence, Madeline has come to terms with her loss of independence as she slowly moves across Paris to the place that will be her final stop in life.  Daisy and Madeline could not be more unalike.  As Charles and Madeline motor cross Paris, Madeline casually reveals her shocking history and slowly pulls Charles into a frame of mind where regret and self-pity have no place.

Through nostalgic and sometimes fuzzy photography, Madeline’s past opens before us – from her first encounter with love at the age of 16 with a handsome American GI at the end of WWII to her abusive relationship with her husband Ray (Jeremie Laheurte).  Madeline’s spunk is both shocking and redemptive after a fashion.  No spoilers here.

In telling their tales to each other, Charles and Madeline make memory stops across the city which culminate in a dinner at an lovely French restaurant, with Charles footing the bill.  In a brief conversation with the nursing facility, Charles advocates for Madeline’s final moments of freedom with the attendant, stating that their charge will be substantially delayed in checking in.

Line Renaut is actually 95 years old and is beautiful in that slow and lovely way that the years sometimes happily play over us – if we are lucky.  There is nothing rushed about this day in Paris.  As the day unfolds, our hearts are open to the incredible bravery which both Madeline and Ray show their true characters to be.  

The film is produced, written and directed by Christian Carion (“Joyeux Noël”).   

I saw this film at the Park Plaza Theater with my movie buddy Kathy.  Front row, center.