Both interesting films, by the look of them, i'll be watching them on the weekend, but they're not the one. I think the one i'm talking about is not entirely a trading movie...i'll keep looking, if only i knew the name of the actor... Thank you both.
Has anybody seen 'In America'? Came out about 6 years ago. It's a movie by Jim Sheridan, who wrote and directed My Left Foot and In the Name of the Father. No Daniel Day Lewis in this one, but all of the acting was great. Sarah Morten, Sjimon Hounsou, the young girls were fantastic actors. There's a line at the end of this movie that one of the girls says to her father that hit me like a freakin' truck. I've never felt anything like that before or since. ...such an intense mix of emotions. This was a very good, interesting, emotional family drama. It's under-appreciated.
"In America" is a wonderful movie. The 2 little girls are adorable (and very good actors!). If you're a Sheridan fan, have you seen "The Boxer"? One of his best, w/DDL. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118760/ Harold
In Bruges ***SPOILERS*** This is a most disarming movie, one that starts off as a sweet, funny buddy picture (even if the buddies are hitmen) that gets progressively darker (and funnier), until the brutal, ultra-violent, ironic black comedy of the third act. In some ways it feels like a stage play in the way it's structured, all the little incidents and coincidences that occur as the story goes along come back into play in the plot later on, but it never feels contrived, everything seems to fit just perfectly. There are many scenes of absurdist comic irony, such as the one where the older hitman, Ken, is about to make a hit on his young partner, Ray, but instead ends up saving Ray's life as he is about to kill himself. In another scene the hitmen's boss, Harry, who has been portrayed as savage and cold, has come to Bruges to kill Ken as payback for not killing Ray, then reveals himself to be a sentimental man who has his own code of honor as he cannot bring himself to do the deed. This scene is quickly followed-up by another twist as these two then turn on each other in an instant due to another surprising turn of events. The whole last act is full of these kinds of ironic twists and turns, all arising out of the behavior of believable characters and cleverly plotted circumstances. The climax of the film is sublime black comedy and again, deeply ironic, as Harry, believing he has killed a child (who is actually an adult dwarf) kills himself due to his uncompromising sense of "sticking to your principles". The dialogue is brilliant, witty and sharp, and at times the conversations between Ken and Ray, one older and heavy, the other younger and thin, goes round and round; it has the feel of the classic absurdist patter of an Abbot and Costello routine but w/an modernist spin, such as this exchange after Ken has saved Ray from shooting himself: Ken: What the fuck are you doing, Ray? Ray: What the fuck are _you_ doing? Ken: Nothing. Ray: Oh, my God . . . you were gonna kill me. Ken: No, I wa-- You were gonna kill yourself! Ray: Well . . . I'm allowed. Ken: No, you're not! Ray: What? I'm not allowed, and you are? How's that fair? "In Bruges" is that rarest of breeds, a modern tragi-comedy that really works. The city of Bruges is presented as a kind of purgatory, where 3 very bad men are given a last chance to redeem themselves and where, despite themselves, in a perverse way, they all actually do.
Eastern Promises ***SPOILERS*** I once saw a documentary on undercover "sting" operations and one of the authorities interviewed said something along the lines of "The best undercover cops have to be the greatest of actors." I think this is at the core of Viggo Mortensen's amazing performance as a cop posing as a criminal chauffeur in ES. We're never really sure how long Nokolai has been playing the role of gangster, but it must be some considerable length of time, as he's managed to work his way deep into the heart of the crime family he's investigating. And at one point late in the film he's completely naked and we see his body is covered in the signature tattoo's of the Russian mob, giving one the sense of his utter commitment to his role, while also signifying that perhaps Nikolai may never really be able to escape the character he's turned himself into. As Mortensen plays him, Nikolai, in order to cope with the horrors he witnesses and, at times, must commit himself, has learned to bury his moral decency under a veneer of removed indifference - when asked by Anna (Naomi Watts) how he can be a part of the atrocities in which he is involved he responds, "I'm only the driver." One of the most brilliant aspects of the film, and Mortensen's performance, is that we never get to know much of who Nikolai really is, except in the most brief glimpses. It eventually becomes obvious that he is a good man by his actions, but is his cold detachment merely part of the role-playing, or, more interesting, something from deep within himself that he has brought to the character? When we finally learn a little bit of his horrific past we come to suspect the latter, that perhaps his indifference is a defense-mechanism he's developed in order to cope with his rage and anguish. The plot sounds cheesy, involving a baby that may hold the key to bringing down a notorious gangster and the efforts of a nurse to protect her. But the movie is not sentimental, it's often very cold and savage. In fact without Naomi Watts sympathetic character it would be too cold; she provides balance by portraying, in the most believable fashion, a normal, good person in the midst of extraordinarily evil circumstances. When Anna, against all common sense, confronts the gangsters in front of the restaurant, Watts doesn't play the feisty heroine, she is quite obviously terrified, yet she can't stop herself. She feels the same kind of moral obligation to the child and her mother that Nikolai feels toward his job. Everything in the movie fits together and the last few scenes are just about perfect. Nikolai rescues the baby, who's DNA will prove that his boss raped an underage girl, thereby getting him out of the way so that Nikolai may advance in the family. When asked by Anna, who still believes he is a gangster, why he did it, he once again responds in character - "To be the king, I have to get rid of the king." He never lets on to her the fact that he is undercover, yet she senses the decency that drives him. There's a lovely moment when he and Anna, who is holding the baby, are standing close, and director Cronenberg shoots it as a classic tableau of the family that we know Nikolai may never have. Here we sense Nikolai's longing for normalcy, and without words these two great actors, Watts and Mortensen, convey a picture of what might have been between these three wounded people in another time and place. It's deeply touching. The last two scenes are studies in contrast, warm and cold - Anna, who had a failed pregnancy, is taking care of the baby she has now adopted, fulfilled and happy in her home, sunlight fills the kitchen; Nikolai, sitting at at table in the closed, darkened restaurant of the gangster that he shall soon replace, has also achieved his goal, but he looks miserable, trapped, and we wonder if will ever escape the world in which he has become so deeply entrenched. Harold
Found it!! it's called "25th hour" enjoy, http://www.youaretheworst.com/great-trading-scene-from-the-25th-hour/
You know what, I was all fired up to see The Boxer when it came out, but I didn't care for it. Maybe I had my expectations too high. I only saw it that one time in the theater though. Maybe I'll have to take a second look. Thanks for the feedback.
I saw it for the first time this week, I've actually seen it twice now. My favorite character was Shelly "the machine" Levene. Such a pathetic loser, you couldn't help but love him. The scene where he went out on the sit and came to the guy's house while he was soaking wet, then he crossed his legs and the pant leg came up above his sock, made him look so pathetic. The way the character tried to talk smooth but couldn't was brilliant too. It sounds like on his last call to his daughter that she had been moved from the hospital, but I'm not sure? The scene with Alec Baldwin was written for the movie, it wasn't in the original play. Alec did great in it, I was convinced.