With some trepidation, as I am not a fan of the films directed by Clint Eastwood, I went along to one of Melbourne's comfy theatres (there are many - but among my favourites is the Balwyn Cinema) to see 'Invictus' and was pleasantly surprised at how involving it is.  Despite the trademark Eastwood tinkling piano music that quickly palled (this time by Kyle Eastwood) the strength of Morgan Freeman's performance carried the film way past the usual soapy tale.  I remember clearly the Mandela protests in London, a small group standing outside St. Martin in the Fields church keeping a long vigil which eventually became one of the ingredients in his release from Robben Island.  Our then teenager son was at school in London in those days and would sneak off to join in the protest. He was stunned to think that such a man of peace could have been treated the way he was.  That's 'humanity', eh?  There are thousands of potential Mandela storylines.  The one in 'Invictus' deals with the fall and rise of the national South African Rugby team, the Springboks and while I can't bear rugby as a sport, it was an enthralling and involving journey for the audience.  Matt Damon's understated performance balances Freeman's well and the rest of the cast formed a strong, supportive ensemble.  There were a few clanger lines in usual Eastwood cornball style, but I think that the importance and relevance of the film will stand as a classic for many years.

It is long but really didn't feel like that.

This is highly recommended as a great way to escape the autumn heat - go on cheapskates' Tuesday in the morning if you can and you will have the extra bonus of being  in an almost empty theatre that does NOT smell of popcorn.  Yaaay for that!

If I had to give stars out of five for entertainment, 3.5 would be my pick, nudgng to a 4.

Sooooo I just watched 'Mao's Last Dancer', a film I had been anticipating and couldn't wait to see.  Disappointing.  The script and acting were uniformly bad but I don't believe the latter was the fault of the actors:  the Script (by Jan Sardi) was sooooooo trite and corny that it robbed the story (which is a goodie) of any impact whatsoever.  I felt that had the story been told by Chen Kaige or some other Chinese director, it would have had more meaning.  As it was, Sardi's heavyhanded script, reliant on such devices as fart jokes and fish-out-of-water misunderstandings of language, was like fingernails on a blackboard.  Li Cunxin was an extraordinary dancer and the dancing segments were good to look at but his personal discipline and fortitude really were given scant attention.  

The acting was hampered by the fact that all American fakes (including Penne Hackforth Jones) were caricatures with terrible accents including Jack THompson's cameo as a judge who saves the day. Just get an American for Pete's sake and write lines that echo the cadence of American speech!!!

But one thing was intriguing:  the set for the Stravinsky ballet (choreog. Graeme Murphy) and the device of the flame flashing up the shards was IDENTICAL to David Atkins' Opening and closing central motif.  Given that David has always been a central part of Sydney's modern dance scene, this may not have been a coincidence.  But if I had been the set director, I would have asked for a credit in Vancouver. Or maybe not... after all, it failed to function there!

Peter James' cinematography was spot-on and you could see he had a lot of budget-coverups to achieve.

I was just so disappointed in this overall production and annoyed that such a good story was completely squandered by what has become the Sardi stamp of corniness.  As with "Shine" (Dir.: Scott Hicks, 1996), the hero was made out to have no warts and the lack of rounding of his character made for an annoying, flat as a tack story which, for me, could not be covered up by the dancing.  The saturation of dance events and shows on our screens at the moment also means that we are so accustomed to seeing footwork and line covered well, that it is hard to tolerate anything that misses the chance to go for art rather than workmanlike coverage.

But, hey!  It is way better than some of the films out of Australia over past years.

Peter Jackson's film, 'The Lovely Bones' is being touted around as being up for Oscar consideration.  'Fraid it doesn't rate that well in my estimation.  it has a couple of glaring flaws, the most annoying ones being the narration (radio with pictures), a music score that does nothing for the narrative, some very 'out of kilter' scenes that pop up for no reason and some very odd casting.  The animation, also, is somewhat klunky.

Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz are cast as the parents of a deep-thinking, pubescent girl, her younger sister and brother in a 1970s house that allows Marie Mark to wear his fine mullett and flares.  Rachel is by far too pretty for the part and Mark looks kind of kerflummoxed throughout.  Stanley Tucci, however, is just grand in his portrayal of a serial killer and his presence on the screen each time sends chills down viewers' spines. 

Saoirse Ronan plays the central part, a young girl murdered by a serial killer.  We see the story through her (dead) eyes which is often blown out for no apparent reason with musical montages and interludes of heaven and purgatory.  

The screenplay is quite clumsy and there is no real view of character outside that of Mr. Harvey,  (Tucci) and somehow, the film took me back in design to Jackson's breakout film, 'Heaveanly Creatures' 1994.  By far the best scene was with the sister, Lindsey, conducting her own detective work and had the film contained more of these suspenseful moments it would have been less of a trial to watch.

Adaptations are always difficult but this one seems to have only contained enough material for a short film and  I had the feeling that it was padded out to movie length with pointless straying into Elysian fields.

 If you see only one film a month, don't choose this one.  If you are a writer, however, watch it on DVD when it is released near you and try to figure out how you would approach a rewrite!  At least then you won't have wasted your time watching the film.