By Beth Lambdin September 06, 2011 ( Volume 80 , No. 5 )

Horrible Bosses (Rated R)

This is a fast-paced, foul-mouthed, not-bad film from director Seth Gordon, whose previous credits include the fascinating documentary, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007), about video game fanatics. The film stars Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Michael Day as Nick, Kurt and Dale, three average Joes (and friends), and responsible employees saddled with nightmare bosses. The bosses from hell, played smug and sadistic by Kevin Spacey, predatory and lascivious by Jennifer Aniston, and drunk and coked-out by Colin Farrell, make their days not just horrible, but terrible, no good and very, very bad.  

 

Stuck in their jobs for personal reasons (including blackmail, a sex offender charge and a tanking economy), they draw inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock’s murder mystery Strangers on a Train (1951), which they confuse with the Danny Devito/Billy Crystal vehicle, Throw Momma from the Train (1987). After seeking advice from an opportunistic hitman, (Jamie Foxx), the boys decide to murder their bosses. But, since they are bumbling milquetoasts, their efforts are more amusing than menacing.

 

Riffing on a number of buddy films, including the wildly successful Hangovers (2009 and 2011), the film is hardly original. Still, there are several reasons to see it. The performances are uniformly good, and two stand out: Jennifer Aniston’s as the sexually offensive dentist gleefully toying with the hapless Charlie Day. Although the material is wildly inappropriate, her comedic timing is superb. And Day’s is a break-out performance; he’s the Zach Galifianakis character from the Hangovers, but less odd and more relatable, which gives the film more universal appeal. While most of us don’t have bosses that stoop this low, we do carry a tale or two of workplace woe.

 

Crazy, Stupid, Love (Rated PG-13)

The film opens strong, sags in the middle, then redeems itself in the end, clichéd material elevated by a dream cast. The film tells three overlapping stories. First we follow Steve Carell as Cal, whose long marriage to Emily (Julianne Moore) dissolves when out of the blue she announces that she wants a divorce. Drinking his woes away in a trendy LA bar, he meets a major lothario, Jacob, (a charismatic Ryan Gosling), who teaches him how to pick up chicks. While an apt pupil, Cal is still smitten with Emily, and pines for his family.

 

Second, we follow our playboy, Jacob, as he meets his match in the spunky Emma Stone, who plays Hannah, a new lawyer on the romantic rebound. When they’re on screen the movie hums. Third, we follow Cal’s 13-year-old son, Robbie (Jonah Bobo), who acts out an obsessive crush on his little sister’s hot babysitter (Analeigh Tipton).

 

Inevitably these strands intersect, but not in realistic or believable ways. The film is sprinkled with eye-rolling soul-mate references, and its tone is uneven. For example, Cal, supposedly a devoted family man, great father and overall good guy, treats one of his numerous one-night stands, Kate (an underused Marisa Tomei), abominably. She and we deserve better. Yet, there’s a lot to like. Carell excels at playing the beaten-down-nerd man, but he’s also convincing when he gets his groove back, Moore is strong as his conflicted partner, and Gosling is fabulous as a sexy guy hiding inner sensitivity. His performance is worth the price of admission; throwing Stone into the mix creates cinematic heaven.     

 

Friends With Benefits (Rated R)

Charismatic leads, Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, buoyed by a superb supporting cast make this film directed by Will Gluck (Easy A) a satisfying movie experience. Earning the R rating, Timberlake frequently throws around the “f” word, and there is a liberal sprinkling of naughty, direct sex talk during nude scenes that showcase the stars’ perfect bodies. Although the film is predictable, it is also charming and emotionally moving.

 

Timberlake plays Dylan, a Los Angeles-based art director recruited by the fast-talking Kunis who plays Jamie, an executive recruiter Dylan likens to a carny barker. Responding to the lure of a job at GQ, Dylan flies to New York City, and after meeting cute on the luggage turnstile, Jamie employs her considerable charms playing tour guide, selling New York City, and in the process selling herself. They slip into an easy, believable rapport.

 

Looking to right themselves after recent break-ups, neither is interested in romantic entanglement. They agree to pursue a relationship mostly about sex – and to remain just, good friends. That works until it doesn’t. 

 

Jamie and Dylan are likable with just enough idiosyncrasies to make them believable. And, like everyone else, they tote emotional baggage, which provides obstacles to overcome. Jamie grew up with a loving but eccentric, unreliable mother (played hilariously by the great Patricia Clarkson) and an absent father. Dylan grew up with a loving father (Richard Jenkins in yet another heart-rending portrayal), now addled by early Alzheimer’s Disease, but a missing mother. Woody Harrelson is also good as Dylan’s randy fellow GQer.

 

The film, reveling in the spoken word, pays homage to numerous comedies of yesteryear and intentionally riffs on a clichéd rom-com within the film. Reaching high, the film aspires to invoke classic romantic pairs like Tracy and Hepburn and Colbert and Gable. While it might be a stretch to put Dylan and Jamie in that company, you’ve got to admire the film for trying.      

 

The Tree of Life (Rated PG-13)

Eagerly anticipated, writer/director Terrence Malick’s latest work was both revered, winning the prestigious Palme d’Or, and reviled by an audience that booed it at the Cannes Film Festival. It is stunningly gorgeous and a confusing head-scratcher.

 

The film opens with a quote from Job in which God asks Job, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth... when the morning stars sang together?" and then reveals its mysteries in a non-linear narrative loosely organized around big, unanswerable questions as they apply very specifically to one Waco, Texas family in the 1950s. The film’s dreamy, leisurely pace is punctuated by long bouts of impressionistic images without dialogue, and skips back and forth in time over millions of years from when dinosaurs roamed the earth to the present day.

The part I understood was about the family, the O’Briens, headed by a stern patriarch, played by Brad Pitt, a more free-spirited mother, played by lovely Jessica Chastain, and their three sons, with special attention devoted to the oldest, played by Hunter McCracken; he’s scary-good.

 

Mr. O’Brien, a civil engineer, also loves classical music and inventing things. But, when his dreams are thwarted, he unleashes his frustration on his family with Jack bearing the brunt of his disappointment. Sean Penn plays Jack in the present as a man scarred by his childhood, struggling to come to terms with his volatile father and the death of his younger brother.

 

What I didn’t understand was everything else. I caught elusive tendrils of intended parallels between a less-than-benevolent God and the father. I think too we’re supposed to ponder BIG questions about God, life and suffering. Then again, maybe Malick didn’t intend any such thing, but merely created a gorgeous canvas so we could impose our own take on it. What I was left with was a deeper understanding of humans, who may not always behave well, but usually mean well.    

 

Beginners (Rated R)

This melancholic, autobiographical picture from director Mike Mills wormed its way into my subconscious. Christopher Plummer seductively and sympathetically plays Cal, Mills’s father, who came out in his 70s, shortly after his mother died (Mary Page Keller), and after 44 years of marriage. Soon thereafter, Cal gets terminal cancer (not a spoiler: revealed in the opening scenes).

 

Ewan McGregor plays Oliver, the sensitive son, a graphic artist, who was keenly attuned to both his loving but distant father and eccentric mother. One plot line follows Cal’s courageous choice to embrace life more fully, and as he says to be more than just “theoretically gay.” His homosexuality surprises Oliver, but he’s adjusting well to his father’s new life (and non-monogamous boyfriend, played by Goran Visnjic), when he’s slammed by his father’s cancer, thrusting him into the role of primary caregiver. Under this umbrella of sorrow, their relationship blossoms and grows. Their affection for each other is shown in small, intimate moments; Oliver supervising a grumbling Cal taking his medicine, Oliver tenderly shaving Cal’s face.

The film also follows Oliver’s nascent relationship with a lovely French actress, Anna (Mélanie Laurent) temporarily based in a fancy LA hotel. They meet at a party and connect through clever notes since she’s temporarily lost her voice. Oliver, drowning in sadness, is surprised when Anna notices.

 

The film unfolds in a non-linear way, but it’s easy to follow and helped by certain consistent characters like Arthur the dog, played by Cosmo, an irresistible Jack Russell terrier, whose anthropomorphized thoughts are subtitled. Previously devoted to Cal, now he’s devoted to Oliver.

 

A perceptive character piece about familial love, the often erroneous assumptions we make about our parents, necessary losses, and the countless ways we imprison ourselves to stay “safe,” the film ultimately asks whether we’ll risk opening our hearts again—and again—to embrace the messiness of relationships.

Agree? Disagree? Tell Beth your opinions at beth@bethlambdin.com