MOVIE REVIEW - Definitely, Maybe (2008)

Ryan Reynolds tries to move into a more romantic genre instead of dumb sophomoric comedy. He's able enough, but this script is a dud. He tells his daughter (Abigail Breslin) of the three girls he dated, hiding their names so she didn't know which one was her mother (divorced from Ryan). Dad's sexual escapades are just what a daughter needs to hear - yee haw. I love Rachel Weisz (one of the three conquests), though her storyline was the least interesting. Elizabeth Banks (another of the three) just doesn't have the special quality an actress needs to jump out from the pack. And Isla Fischer, while cute, has the most obvious of the roles. Ryan's character worked on the Clinton campaigns, and the frequent overt liberal themes got tiring (most movies keep their rabid liberalism a tad more subtle than here). With all its many flaws, I was most uncomfortable with hearing Abigail ask so many questions about details unbefitting a daughter.

MOVIE REVIEW - Rachel Getting Married (2008)

Long wedding rehearsal, where most everyone gave a toast to two people I don't know or care for. Whiny sister (the unattractive Anne Hathaway) who demands to be maid of honor and constantly complains about rehab. Long wedding, with the entire ceremony shown on film. Jumpy camera shots, like a live wedding reception video. Family dysfunction galore. Sister who killed baby brother because she was high. Oh yeah, this is a movie made for me. NOT.

MOVIE REVIEW - Reader, The (2008)

The first third of The Reader is set in post-WWII Germany and is a tawdry tale of a 30-ish woman having an affair with a 15 year old kid. Ick beyond my ability to express. Kate Winslet doesn't act. She just shows her boobs and frowns. And frowns. And frowns. She has the exact same expression (a tight frown) whether showing anger or sadness or ecstasy or stubbornness. The kid is a newcomer, with only slightly better acting than Kate's frowns. For far too long, the movie drags, with only their affair as the plot, and with a strange and contrived plot devise that Kate likes being read to more than anything else in the affair. It ruins no plot point to say that she is illiterate, as this "surprise" is made painfully obvious during their affair. Kate ends the affair one day by vanishing. The kid goes to law school and gets involved in a trial of Nazi concentration camp guards (women), and one of the defendants is - surprise - Kate. Once the trial starts, the movie picks up a bit - though Kate continues her tight frown as though this is the pinnacle of acting (hey, Meryl holds the same single expression in Doubt, so why not Kate here - Oscar worthy!). Ralph Fiennes is typical, dull, Ralph as the kid in later years. I did love Lena Olin's small role - a gorgeous woman who has aged very well and knows how to hold the camera. But mostly, this dreary story doesn't warrant the acclaim, and certainly not a Best Picture/Actress nod.