Review of film: “ONE DAY”

2011, 08-21:

Review of film:  “ONE DAY”

In 2009, I was pleased to meet & hear a talk by Danish director LONE SCHERFIG about her fine film “AN EDUCATION” shown at the Chicago Int'l Film Festival (as reported by me at = http://voice-of-film.blogspot.com/2011/02/review-of-film-education-report-on-q-re.html )...

...  On August 20 of 2009, I saw an advance screening of the impressive action / thriller “FIFTY DEAD MEN WALKING” about the IRA “troubles” in Northern Ireland...

...  Attending that was its star, actor (& musician) JIM STURGESS, who showed himself to be very relaxed & personable during (& after) his Q&A talk concerning the film (as I reported at = http://voice-of-film.blogspot.com/2011/02/review-of-film-fifty-dead-men-walking-q.html )...

...  I bring that up because this new film I’m about to review was DIRECTED by the same LONE SCHERFIG, & stars JIM STURGESS (who’s also been in 2007’s “ACROSS THE UNIVERSE” & 2008’s “21” & “THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL”)...

...  In this new film, a class is to graduate from a college in England...  It’s July 15^th in 1988, and somewhat “nerdy” eyeglass-wearing Emma (ANNE HATHAWAY) joins sexy “ladies man” Dexter (JIM STURGESS) in going out with others to celebrate the event...

...  Anne wants to do things like writing, & outgoing Jim in-effect wants to find something “easy” to do that’ll make him a lot of money... 

...  They get to TALKING a lot about themselves & life, & tho Anne would clearly like to “get” with Jim “romantically”, they end-up just being good FRIENDS...

...  The “catch” in this film is, it gathers together what’s “GOING-ON” with Anne & Jim as of ONE specific day each year after that for 20 years, namely, on the same July 15^th when they first became friends...

...  Anne did not find a job where she could really USE her education & talents, instead ending up as a manager at a Mexican-themed TACO restaurant...  Jim became a minor TV “STAR”, as the host of a rock-based MUSIC program...

...  They often get TOGETHER with each other on each July 15^th “anniversary” (besides seemingly some other times), & they talk-over what’d been “HAPPENING” with their lives & what they hoped to be doing in the future... 

...  And, even when they don’t meet, they usually at least TALK to each other via the phone... 

...  Jim (especially in the “early” years after their first real talk) tries to encourage Anne in her WRITING plans and the like, & she tries to encourage him to find things that give him some long-term happiness (as opposed to just living SUPERFICIALLY for the “MOMENT”, as he tends to do)...

...  As the years go on, Jim becomes increasingly self-centered.  Even tho his mom, Alison (PATRICIA CLARKSON), has become quite ILL, rather than spend some quality time with her (as she & her husband Steven {KEN STOTT} very much WANT him to do), Jim prefers to go elsewhere to look for some frivolous-type “FUN times”...

...  Anne tries to persuade Jim to be more thoughtful with his mom Patricia, but he seldom really LISTENS to her, preferring to get DRUNK and / or “HIGH” with some pretty women or the like...

...  One year on July 15^th, Jim & Anne spend time together in PARIS...  He sort of gets “close” to a sexual relationship (which Anne would clearly welcome), but nothing much COMES of it...

...  Jim starts to see how his poor attititude has proven HURTFUL to him & others (including his Mom Patricia, who DIED not long after their short meeting together)--  but, he’s seldom truly “MOTIVATED” enough to do anything to really CHANGE his ways, as Anne keeps URGING him to do...

...  At one point, Anne gets close to a pleasant employee of her restaurant, a guy named Ian (RAFE SPALL), whose goal is to be a stand-up comedian...

...  Rafe’s not very “exciting” (or even FUNNY)--  but, he’s “TAKEN” with Anne, &, having nothing “better” in her life, she starts LIVING with him for a while, tho there doesn’t seem much “warmth” there from her side...

...  Jim’s fortunes tend to go “DOWNHILL”, with him doing increasingly minor work as a TV host (& that “DOWNWARD” situation “increases” as his DRUG usage does the same)...

...  He regularly tries getting “with” a bunch of pretty WOMEN, such as Tilly (JODIE WHITAKER) & Tara (AMANDA FAIRBANK-HYNES) & Sylvie (ROMOLA GARAI)...  

...  In time, --  because he in-effect sees nothing “BETTER” to do--, Jim MARRIES one of the women, & they have a baby GIRL... 

...  He starts out being a sort of “attentive” papa--  but, like MOST things he does in life, that attitude fairly quickly “FADES AWAY”, & he in time gets a DIVORCE...

...  After years of being really good FRIENDS, he & Anne finally reach a point of getting involved with each other ROMANTICALLY (as Anne had wanted from the beginning)...

...  Would finally being around Anne regularly start to really “CHANGE” Jim for the better (which RAFE at one point comments she’d always tried to do)?...  Would Jim be able to help ANNE grow & promote her using her abilities more?...

...  Would the love between Anne & Jim really LAST, or would something happen to “interrupt” that?...  What “CHANGES” will we see in their lives & in the lives of those “around” them?...

...  I found this to be a movie that’s unusually good in being THOUGHT-PROVOKING, particularly about the way people’s dreams & plans quite often “FIZZLE-away” & periodically CHANGE as time goes on (especially when no effective “active” efforts are made towards real PROGRESS)...

...  Altho Anne’s “Yorkshire” English accent is at times “IRREGULAR” in its quality, the basic ACTING by her, Jim & others in the main roles is quite GOOD...

...  The concept (of seeing life thru the stages of “anniversaries” of an event) is an intriguing one, with a lot of “UNDERSTANDING” of the “ways & byways” of life as experienced thru the lives of various characters with different & varying “agendas”...

...  The very end of the film struck me as “PUZZLING”:  there’s a to-me bizarre choice of having a “FLASHBACK” of much earlier times between Anne & Jim (odd in the way it flies in the “face” of PREVIOUS “events” we’ve seen, to no clear worthwhile “POINT” that moves the story “ahead” in any effective way)...

...  So, all things considered, while it’s an INTERESTING “unconventional” love story, it’s so bittersweet & sort of “confused” / incomplete in its unsatisfactory ending, I am only able to rate it at like 7.25 out of 10 stars...

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Report # 1 on: Chicago Mayor RAHM EMANUEL’s “FIRST 100 DAYS” TALK at WBEZ-hosted event, + other CITY OFFICIALS

2011, 08-24:

Report # 1 on:  Chicago Mayor RAHM EMANUEL’s “FIRST 100 DAYS” TALK at WBEZ-hosted event, + other CITY OFFICIALS 

On August 1, 2011, the CHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM e-mail bulletin announced plans to hold a special DISCUSSION --  free to the public --  on the subject of Mayor RAHM EMANUEL’S “FIRST 100 DAYS” in office...

...  Within 48 hours of the announcement, the available tickets were “SOLD OUT”, with a waiting list besides...

...  Originally, it was announced that WBEZ’s ALISON CUDDY would host Mayor EMANUEL along with Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard & Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, with the idea being to “engage local leaders and residents in a dialogue about change within the city of Chicago and plans for the future in this dynamic, interactive discussion...”

 ...  On August 24^th, I ATTENDED the event with a schoolteacher, ED BUCHALO.  The auditorium at the HISTORY MUSEUM was completely filled (with others hoping to get in)..

...  Most of the public was surprised to learn that Mr. Brizard & Ms. Preckwinkle would NOT be with us, & we would instead have various other City of CHICAGO officials for the talk (with 1 chair that later turned out to be “empty” onstage)...

...  Before the talk, a gentleman onstage advised us that the Mayor would NOT be taking questions from the AUDIENCE (at the mics that were set up on the sides of the auditorium), & that he would instead respond to ones posed by Alison & ones recorded via CALL-INS done prior to the event...

...  Mayor RAHM EMANUEL appeared in a timely fashion, & dealt with questions put forward by Alison...

...  During his 40-minute or so appearance, he commented on how, his goal was NOT to make GOVERNMENT “LOOK good”, but rather, to try to be of help to the CITIZENS of the city who’d chosen Chicago as a place to live and go to school & work & start businesses, to make things BETTER for them in their lives & pursuits..

...  In talking about his “First 100 DAYS” & his hopes for the FUTURE, the Mayor exhibited both a good sense of HUMOR & an unwillingness to be “pushed” into making statements in “places” he didn’t want to “GO”... 

...  At one point, the Mayor spoke of the recent announcement that the City would be working with the ACCENTURE company to do an in-depth analysis & evaluation of the City’s PROCUREMENT procedures (which it was estimated would eventually save the city around $ 25 million via “improvements” they’d recommend)...

...  To Alison’s gently pointing out that the contract was done on a NO-BID situation (which she inferred was in opposition to his pre-election words about “TRANSPARENCY” & the like), the Mayor said, the company involved had a history of doing EFFECTIVE work in the field, & thus they (in-effect) were “WORTH” dealing with on the agreed-upon basis...

...  The public applauded to Rahm’s stated commitment to find ways to help the STUDENTS in the City feel SAFE & secure & with good SCHOOLING that could help insure their getting a good foundation for successful FUTURES...

...  He spoke with passion about how he feels students in the area have been shortchanged by the unusually-SHORT amount of time they spend in their school days compared to the rest of the country... 

...  To questions about teachers supposedly not being offered added compensation for the idea of their teaching LONGER days, Rahm said that the teachers were getting RAISES for various of their school-related duties, & there were “ways” they’d be further rewarded, which he hoped the teachers would accept during future discussions with the City...

...  While he stayed 10 minutes or so LATER than [the 30 or so minutes] he’d seemingly originally agreed to, with some humorous comments (about how he’d been speaking recently to the public on the Brown Line rail route, etc.), he declined to stay for MORE questions as Alison wished, saying, he wanted to get home to his FAMILY...

...  After he’d left the stage (with thanks to the audience), Alison then brought various other CITY OFFICIALS onstage, & THEY worked to answer numerous ADDITIONAL questions:

...  As shown in the photos below, the participants were as follows:

...  Superintendant of POLICE Mr. GARRY McCARTHY (to Alison’s right on the right-hand side of the group photo) talked openly about police efforts to try to make the City a SAFER place for all, including going after people who do things like break windows in buildings... 

...  He feels, if you work on seemingly “small” problems like that, it will set an effort to forestall potential LARGER problems in the future, & encourage citizens (like a man in the audience who’d posed a question) to THEMSELVES strive to make & keep their neighborhoods safer & more inviting...

   

...   FORREST CLAYPOOL (at the far left side of the group photo) heads the CTA transit operation...  He answered questions from Alison & the audience about plans to improve the operation of the Authority, such as adding lots more SECURITY cameras around stations, trains & buses...

...  He strongly agreed with Garry’s words, citing how having the police working to deter “small”-looking troubles like people jumping TURNSTILES has reduced BIGGER problems: 

...  As he pointed out, such “jumpers” are not there to do “good” things on their rides, & it discourages people from doing things like trying to STEAL items from passengers on trains...

...  On the left-side of the group photo is Chicago’s Commissioner of the Department of CULTURAL Affairs & SPECIAL EVENTS, Ms. MICHELLE BOONE.  She had a big “cheering” section in the audience when introduced...

...  Michelle spoke of how her Department, like most in the City, is working on a REDUCED budget, with fewer workers, to try to deal with the shortfall the City has...

...  She commented on how they’re working to try to find effective ways to COMBINE what had been 2 previous departments, & yet still provide good events for the public...

...  In charge of the City’s debt management & cash flow is Chicago’s CONTROLLER, Mr. AMER AHMAD... 

...  To a recent graduate lady who posed a question, he said, he’ll be glad to look at her resume --  but, like other Departments, they’re operating on a REDUCED budget & mainly need experienced people to handle the complex work they do...

...  Amer (to Michelle’s right in the group photo) spoke of his efforts to gather & provide financial RECORDS about the City’s operation...

...  Besides the people onstage, WBEZ did a good job at providing additional City officials who spoke (responding to questions) from the FLOOR of the auditorium (near the mics), including the City’s INSPECTOR General, JOSEPH M. FERGUSON...

...  Another speaker there was the man in charge of planning TECHNOLOGY efforts for the City (who talked about his work to provide information to the public on the internet)...

...  And, there were other well-known people, including a previous ALDERMAN who talked about improvements he’d like to see...

...  A lady writer for CHICAGO magazine got hearty applause from the audience when she said, while she APPRECIATED the participation of people from the City’s administration, she would have preferred that Mayor EMANUEL stay to DIRECTLY answer QUESTIONS posed from the audience...

...  There were some very good questions & comments from the spectators, including a young African-American gentleman who wondered what the City was doing to improve the situation (including JOB possibilities) on the South & West sides...

...  Questions were posed about enforcing curfews for young people, starting separate BUS lanes on certain streets, etc...

...  The speakers were unusually direct in their responses at times, such as Forest’s pointing out that ALL public transit authorities in the country LOSE money & probably always WILL, & thus there’s not likely to be any PRIVATE companies “eager” to provide “RESERVED” transit in special highway lanes or the like...

...  Further, it’s very difficult to find ways --  with the state of the economy – to find money for CAPITAL improvements of infrastructure...  But, as Forest pointed out, they’re in the midst of doing STUDIES to try to find the BEST ways of handling the money they DO have & are likely to have in the future...

...  After the event, I privately spoke to Forrest & Amer & THANKED them for helping provide an INTERESTING forum.  They were gracious enough to thank me & others for COMING to the event...

...  All-in-all, a FASCINATING event, with (considering they’re “political” appointees) an unusual number of “STRAIGHT” responses to a number of inquiries...

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Review of film: “THE HELP”

2011, 08-16:

Review of film:  “THE HELP”

The situation regarding CIVIL RIGHTS is, in a lot of ways, very DIFFERENT today than they were in the middle of the 20^th Century...

...  This 146-minute PG-13 movie takes us back to MISSISSIPPI around the 1950’s.  Based on a popular book, it tells the story of various families living around Jackson, concentrating on well-to-do WHITE ones & the much poorer BLACK people who often worked as servants around the whites’ homes...

...  “Skeeter” (Eugenia) Phelan (EMMA STONE) grew up in a prosperous white family, with her mother Charlotte (ALLISON JENNEY) & her dad Robert (BRIAN KERWIN)...

...  Allison is always fretting about the way Emma is still SINGLE, & worries about her not making more “efforts” towards attracting a husband (& tries to “PUSH” her to go out more)...

...  As was typical in such wealthy families, Emma was often raised by a black nanny named Constantine Jefferson (CICELY TYSON), & was very ATTACHED to her... 

...  She was very upset when Cicely suddenly “disappeared” from the household some time around when Emma was away at college...

...  Emma’s goal was to be a WRITER, &, shortly after she returns HOME from college, we see her eagerly trying to get a job at a local NEWSPAPER...

...  Although it’s not quite what she was “hoping” for, wanting to get “started” on her career, Emma accepts a job to be the writer of a column about giving household tips, which she must do under a pseudonym...          

...  Emma’s old best friend in town is Hilly Holbrook (BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD), a “social butterfly” who’s very “pushy” in the way she tries to RUN things in her clique of wealthy women... 

...  Even Bryce’s mother, Missus Walters (SISSY SPACEK) appears pretty “FED-UP” with the way Bryce keeps trying to “MANIPULATE” things in her crowd...

...  Bryce is quite RACIST (as many such women were at the time), acting too “busy” (= disinterested) to actually take care of her OWN children.  That job is left to her black housekeeper named Minnie Jackson (OCTAVIA SPENCER), a great cook who loves the kids and vice versa...

...  But, while diligently devoted Viola is great with the kids and cooking & the like, Bryce regularly treats her as a “LESSER” human being:

...  Bryce feels her kids could be “hurt” if Viola ate from the “white” tableware or used the same washroom as white people, & insists on her using an “ISOLATED” toilet she had specially built inside her house...

...  Yes, it was the time of supposedly “SEPARATE-but-equal” treatment in the American south, which usually focused on just the “separate” part:  Blacks had to use DIFFERENT entrances to places like movie theaters, different washrooms, separate DRINKING fountains, etc...

...  The blacks (naturally) HATED such treatment--  but they were vastly in the underclass economically, & stoically felt they had to “TOLERATE” such dehumanizing treatment to keep their jobs & the like...

...  Another friend of Emma’s is Jolene French (ANNA CAMP), who – as the “flighty” wife of a wealthy man – meekly submits to what BRYCE tells her to “do” in life...

...  She seems ill-equipped to raise her sweet-but-overweight young daughter.  Anna eagerly leaves all the work to her housekeeper, Aibileen Clark (VIOLA DAVIS), who happily tries to give the put-down youngster a feeling of love & self-confidence...

...  After getting her new newspaper job, Emily decides to attend a regular gathering of Bryce’s regular CARD-playing group meeting at Anna’s home... 

...  Since they hadn’t seen Emma since she’d returned from college, those women -- plus Elizabeth Leefolt (AHNA O’REILLY), Mae Mobley (ELEANOR HENRY), etc. --

greet Emma EXCITEDLY...

...  Emma talks about the household-tips column she’d be writing, & asks permission to talk to VIOLA to get some IDEAS for it.  After in-effect “checking” with BRYCE to see if she had any “problems” with that, Anna said that seemed to be OK...

...  As they’re playing cards, Viola chances to overhear the women talking about their “society”, including INSULTING comments about their black help... 

...  At one point during one of their games, BRYCE say she’d gone so far as to draft a “Home Health Sanitation Initiative”, wherein she wanted the City Council to adopt a law REQUIRING EVERY white house to have a SEPARATE bathroom for their “help”...

...  Later in the film, Bryce keeps “reminding” Emma that she’d like her to get her newspaper to PUBLISH her “Home Health Sanitation” Initiative, to try to drum-up “support” for it...  Emma keeps coming up with “EXCUSES” to DELAY doing that...

...  Viola gives some housekeeping ideas to Emma, & does so willingly because she’s clearly the most “OPEN-MINDED” & NON-racist of the young women... 

...  At her own home, Bryce keeps in-effect PUTTING-DOWN OCTAVIA...  She’s livid when she thinks Octavia had used a “WHITE” toilet in her home (because she’d NEEDED such a place immediately), & FIRES Octavia for her supposed “transgression”...

...  Because Bryce had “BAD-mouthed” Octavia to her “crowd”, Octavia couldn’t find a NEW job--  which she deeply needed for her kids & to keep her abusive husband “away” from her...

...  Desperate for work, Octavia reluctantly agrees to talk to a woman Bryce HATES & purposely avoids named Celia Foote (JESSICA CHASTAIN)... 

...  Jessica was talked about as being a “loose” woman (mainly because she got with an EX-boyfriend of Bryce’s), & she was NON-racist, which made her in-effect “forbidden” to Bryce’s group...

...  Octavia found Jessica was very socially awkward, TERRIBLE at running a home (especially cooking-wise), & sometimes “peculiar” in her flustered & “DITSY” behavior... 

...  Jessica makes clear she needs Octavia’s help--  but wants to keep her hiring a SECRET from her new husband Johnny (MIKE VOGEL) who she fears might not like the fact that she’d been employed & that it’s not really Jessica who’s initially going to be making the good FOOD she’d be offering him...

...  Octavia finds Jessica’s behavior (such as hugging her & the like) very “STRANGE” overall--  but, she seems to be SINCERE, + Octavia greatly needs the job offered...  So, she arrives & leaves early, in a “secretive” fashion...

...  Emma becomes deeply DISENCHANTED with the behavior of Bryce & her “crowd”, & comes up with an idea to try to write a book from the point-of-view of the BLACK help  that white women employ in the area...

  

...  Emma contacts a potential PUBLISHER in New York about her idea...   But, the editor there, Elaine Stein (MARY STEENBURGEN), says she DOUBTS Emma would be able to get cooperation in such a venture...

...  As Mary explains to her:  “No maid is ever going to tell you the TRUTH.  That’s a hell of a RISK to take in Jackson, Mississippi!...”

...  But, Emma wants to TRY to write the book...  She furtively contacts VIOLA about her idea, but she’s very fearful about cooperating on it...  But, certain circumstances (such as the way Octavia was fired & all) convince her to TRY to offer some “HELP-ful” information...

...  Bryce keeps becoming more & more “demanding” of others, which upsets Emma & the various black housekeepers all the more...

...  Because Mary said she needs MORE than just Viola’s stories, Emma tries to convince OCTAVIA to add some of her recollections...

...  Octavia’s extremely LEERY of doing that, but finally agrees to do so--  including giving some “news” about something she’d done to get “back” at BRYCE...

...  It was a thing so “shocking”, she feels Bryce would go out-of-her-way to avoid admitting it was JACKSON that the book was “set” in, for fear of having the “shameful” episode concerning her “SPREAD-AROUND”...

...  Will Jessica’s “surprise” be revealed about employing Octavia?...  What exactly is the “secret” Octavia was keeping about BRYCE?...  Would that secret get “OUT”, &, if so, what could be “DONE” about a “reaction” to it?...

...  Would any OTHER housekeepers tell THEIR “stories” to Emma?...  What shocking info will Emma learn concerning the truth of CICELY’S leaving as her mother’s employee?...

...  What will be the “reaction” to the release of Emma’s BOOK in the form that it comes out?...  Will there be any “BACKLASH” about it, & if so, WHAT will it be?...

...There has been some “to-do” over the fact that this movie about black help was made partly by WHITE people, with the idea that their “outlook”may not be “VALID” for such a narrative...  I find that a RIDICULOUS contention about the film:

...  Thanks in part to the way it helps build-up a story about unexpectedly growing trust & FRIENDSHIPS, this is a finely THOUGHT-provoking movie...

...  I know that some of the segregated attitudes we “see” in this movie about the SOUTH also existed in some areas of the NORTH...  But, I also know there were some good-hearted & CARING people who could be found in ALL areas:

...  I well remember stories told to me by fine black character actress IRMA P. HALL (“BIG MAMA” in “SOUL FOOD”, & the lady Tom Hanks tries to kill in “THE LADYKILLERS” --  + playing the role of a MAID in various movies):

...  Irma’s own mother JO worked as a MAID for a white family in the Chicago area, which treated her very kindly.  At times, she brought Irma along to the job, & she ALSO was treated wonderfully...

...  Irma thus grew up thinking basically GOOD things about people of ALL colors, & initially thought it “strange” that anyone would “expect” that she’d be “fearful” to go into “white” areas, since she herself had always been treated just fine... 

...  She eventually learned that not everyone was so lucky or that ALL people treated others with such a GENEROUS nature...  But it helped “condition” her to the idea that, we’re all of just ONE basic race—“the HUMAN race!...”  

...  I was reminded of that by this film.  It comes across as really FINELY-told, with a number of excellent performances (especially by Emma, Bryce, Jessica, & particularly Viola & Octavia)...

...  The times, they were a-CHANGING – sometimes not as much as many wanted, or always in the “way” people hoped...

...  But you’ll recognize both a deep level of “PROGRESS” that’s been made, & a reminder of how much MORE needs to be done in certain areas of civil rights for all...

...  This movie has serious sides, FUNNY elements, and an “UPLIFTING” message...  Accordingly, I’m rating this enjoyable film at 8.5 out of 10 stars...

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