Sundance – Day 5 (Wednesday, January 21, 2009)

The Greatest

Run time: 98 minutes
Director/Screenwriter: Shana Feste
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon, Carey Mulligan, Johnny Simmons, Aaron Johnson, Michael Shannon
Theater: Library

Synopsis and review (by Geoffrey Gilmore in the Sundance Film Guide):

Crying your eyes out at the movies used to be commonplace. But the difficulty of affecting a contemporary audience emotionally demonstrates how much respect a work like The Greatest engenders: it is an enormously moving, intelligent exploration of pain and grieving, a film that will touch you and stay with you.

The death of their teenage son, Bennett, in a car crash is almost too much for the Brewer family to bear, not just because his was a life of such promise but also because the impact of his death unleashes the turmoil that was just beneath the surface of their lives. His mother becomes obsessed and can’t let go; his father, in turn, can’t face it at all; and his brother’s secondary status is magnified and entrenched. And when Bennett’s girlfriend appears, the family must come to grips with circumstances that complicate their loss even further.

An ensemble film that is the debut of Shana Feste, a particularly talented young filmmaker, this sensitive and heartbreaking feature showcases Susan Sarandon and Pierce Brosnan at their best and launches a career for young actress Carey Mulligan that is certain to be impressive. This is one of the standout works of this Festival and is as fine a debut as we can present.

Notes and observations:

This movie had moments of sheer brilliance; for example, one of the opening scenes with the family in the limousine was filmed in one long shot and so completely and totally told the story of each of the family member’s roles with no dialogue. It was an amazing scene to watch. Pierce Brosnan had a number of scenes which were incredibly acted. Susan Sarandon’s performance, although good, was nothing that we haven’t seen from her before (think Lorenzo’s Oil). Carey Mulligan was charismatic and impressive as was the remainder of the cast’s performances.

After seeing The Greatest, I decided to stand in the wait list line and see if, by chance, I would get into Shrink. They start giving away wait list numbers about 2 hours prior to the movie. When I got there just after 2 hours before the start of the movie, I was number 128. I waited about 2 hours and they only let in 40 people so I decided I would just go back to the condo, take a nap and get ready for the late movie. As I was walking out, a staff volunteer asked me a question which I heard as “Are you single?” I answered “no” and then politely asked to repeat her question again. She asked me “Are you a single?” meaning only needed one ticket. I said “yes’ and she handed me a ticket so I got in the movie!!! What a nice volunteer … I wish I had gotten her name so I could have thanked her again.

Shrink

Run time: 110 minutes

Screenwriter: Thomas Moffett

Director: Jonas Pate

Cast: Kevin Spacey, Keke Palmer, Mark Webber, Dallas Roberts, Saffron Burrows, Robert Loggia

Theater: Eccles

Synopsis and review (by John Cooper in the Sundance Film Guide):

What happens when the people we count on to hold us together … are barely holding it together themselves? Jonas Pate’s Shrink is a striking, fast-paced expose of the “other” Hollywood, featuring folks living outside their comfort zone and the people who put them there.

Henry Carter (Kevin Spacey) is a psychiatrist with an A-list clientele, including a once-famous actress (Saffron Burrows), an insecure writer (Mark Webber), and a comically obsessive-compulsive superagent (Dallas Roberts). Henry is not in a good place, however. He has been asked to take his first pro bono case, a troubled teenage girl from a neighborhood far from the Hollywood hills. Considering his present state of mind, is he ready for the real-life troubles of a young woman who loves the world of movies he has become so jaded by?

At its core, Shrink is a study of control and our endless need for it, even when it grows increasingly impossible to obtain. Writer Thomas Moffett uses classic archetypes in this modern Hollywood tale, but never pushes them over the edge of credibility. Performed by a well-matched cast at the top of their form, the result is both satisfying and exhilarating. Watching Shrink makes us feel like voyeurs looking through a window into the lives of people who look great, feel worse, and end up behaving badly.

Notes and observations:

To see Kevin Spacey in the flesh at the Q&A was surreal! Keke Palmer, Mark Webber, Dallas Roberts, Saffron Burrows, Pell James and Robert Loggia were at the Q&A as was the director, Jonas Pate and his wife, Jennifer Pate, who was also in the film. The movie was a good movie but not one of the best I’ve ever seen.

As the Q&A was about to start, I overheard the lady sitting next to me tell someone on her cell phone that she wasn’t feeling well so she was going to see if she could sell her ticket to someone on her way out. She got off the phone and apologized to me for coughing throughout the movie. I told her (honestly) that I hadn’t noticed her coughing and gave her my Vicks tip since I had just been sick and it worked for me. She said she was going to skip her next movie and I asked her what she was going to see. She said “Motherhood” and I told her that I hadn’t been able to get a ticket for it. She offered to sell me hers and I bought it! So, I got to see both of the movies that I wanted to when I didn’t think I was going to get to see them. The only downside was that it was going to get out too late for me to catch the last movie with Lisa and Ron.

Motherhood

Run time: 90 minutes
Director/Screenwriter: Katherine Dieckmann
Cast: Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards, Minnie Driver, Jodie Foster
Theater: Eccles

Synopsis and review (by David Courier in the Sundance Film Guide):

Eliza Welch is having a really bad day. A middle-aged mom in post-9/11 Manhattan with two kids, an oblivious husband, and an incontinent dog. Eliza is a consummate multitasker facing the soul-crushing fear that her dreams of being a writer are going down the diaper bin.

Motherhood takes places in a single day – a day when Eliza becomes a magnet for the entire city’s hostility. She has to throw her daughter’s sixth birthday party, battle for a parking space, chase her toddler son, navigate playground politics, repair a botched birthday cake, contemplate a fling with a sexy messenger half her age, juggle a career-changing opportunity, find time to have a breakdown, briefly run away from home, and realize what is truly valuable in her life – all in one day.

As Eliza, the irresistibly charming Uma Thurman is up to the task. Anthony Edwards and Minnie Driver lend expert support. With a keen eye for the delicious details that define authenticity, Motherhood depicts a world we may think we know and injects it with freshness and humor. Written and directed by Katherine Dieckmann, Motherhood is a funny and poignant comedy about one woman’s quest to hold onto her true self as she embraces the foibles, heartache, and joys of being a mother.

Notes and observations:

Uma Thurman, Minnie Driver, Anthony Edwards and Jodie Foster were all at this premiere. Wow!!! So cool to see them all and so close! The movie was good and all of them gave solid performances. Again, it wasn’t one of the best movies I had ever seen but I enjoyed it. The director and screenwriter, Katherine Dieckmann, was there and quite humorous during her responses to the questions.

I was sad that I didn’t get to see “Push” with Ron and Lisa because it was supposed to be one of the standout films of the Festival. They both said the movie was incredible and gave it the highest rating on the audience voting ballot. I will have to hope that it gets picked up for distribution so that I can see it as some point.