In The Wings by Harriette Smith - February 20, 2012

IN THE WINGS by HARRIETTE SMITH – February 20, 2012

WELL, HELLO FROM 2012! Valentine’s Day has come and gone, and now that the Oscars are coming up, we’ll take a quick look back at some of LAST YEAR’S TOP FILMS. What a year 2011 was. Not very eventful except that we’ve gotten a year older. Not too many good movies to talk about and the same for outstanding theater. Perhaps I’ve gotten too jaded over the past year. Let’s hope 2012 will be much more exciting. We’ll see, but now we’ve had the Academy Award nominations and “big event” of the year is almost here. Who do you think will run off with the Oscars this year? Place your bets here.

My picks of the better films were: “My Week With Marilyn.” Michelle Williams, who looks nothing like Marilyn Monroe did, is an extraordinary actress and she “became” Miss Monroe throughout the film and did not waver one second. An interesting and unusual movie was the silent “The Artist.” Shows that a silent film can still hold up without voice. Outstanding actresses Glenn Close and Janet McTeer portraying women masquerading as men in “Albert Nobbs” (Close also co-wrote the script). Speaking of women living as men, we don’t often write about books, but have to give a shout out to Karen Kondazian’s wonderful new novel, “The Whip,” about a real woman, Charlotte “Charley” Parkhurst, who was a renowned Wells Fargo stagecoach driver in Northern California in the 1800s. Author-actress Kondazian is famous here in Los Angeles for her many portrayals of Tennessee Williams heroines and a riveting Maria Callas in “Master Class.”

More terrific females in film in 2011: Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, “The Iron Lady,” the Prime Minister of England, aging over several decades. “The Help,” the Civil Rights-era film about African American domestic help and how they were treated, has caused quite a stir with an extraordinary number of outstanding performances: the Oscar-nominated Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain, plus Cicely Tyson, Allison Janney, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ahna O’Reilly, Emma Stone and Sissy Spacek in one of her best roles in years. Glad that the Screen Actors Guild gave this group a Best Ensemble Cast award.

Spielberg’s “War Horse” is a moving World War I story, Angelina Jolie’s wonderful Bosnian War film which she produced and directed is “In The Land of Blood and Honey.” Matt Damon did not really buy a zoo. Leonardo di Caprio did an extraordinary job of portraying J. Edgar Hoover in “J. Edgar,” ably supported by the extremely tall and handsome Armie Hammer (who played the Winklevoss twins in last year’s “Social Network” and Judi Dench as his mother. (We wish her well in her recently announced battle to save her eyesight. She was also wonderful in “My Week with Marilyn.”)

There are some interesting new foreign films out now. “In Darkness” is sad but beautifully done by the well-known director Agnieszka Holland, filmed in Poland using the various languages of the characters. It is about Jewish refugees in World War II hidden in the sewers of Lvov to avoid capture by Nazis, kept alive for more than a year by a Polish non-Jewish sewer worker for money. What happens when the Jews’ money runs out?

Other foreign films seen included Iran’s “A Separation” and “Footnote” from Israel. Of these three, “A Separation” is favored by Oscar predictors, although we lean toward “In Darkness.”

COMING UP: On a lighter note -- as the new films starting arriving for 2012, we were absolutely delighted by the new Katherine Heigl film “One For the Money.” She brings mystery novelist Janet Evanovich’s “Stephanie Plum” to life – and, for the ladies, there are not one but two leading men in Stephanie’s life, and they’re both stunning: Jason O’Mara as “Joe Moretti” and Daniel Sunjata (memorable from “The Devil Wears Prada”) as a helpful law enforcement officer, “Ranger.”

AS FOR THE LIVE STAGE: The beautiful Broad Stage in Santa Monica (part of Santa Monica College but not located on the main campus) presented a very exciting and certainly different “Our Town,” Thornton Wilder’s classic starring Academy Award winner Helen Hunt, who plays the stage manager admirably. The Broad’s entire main stage was reconfigured to make the audience part of the production. An evening at the Broad is always a special event.

The Pasadena Playhouse had “Art” by famed author Yasmina Reza (“God of Carnage”). Less than ninety minutes long, this light, originally French comedy directed ably by David Lee featured three fine actors: Bradley Whitford and Roger Bart, who were thrown into crisis when visiting their friend Serge (Michael O’Keefe), who purchased a stark modernist painting for an extraordinary sum that challenges his wisdom, their value systems and their friendship. I had seen this many years ago starring Alan Alda and this is as good a production. It’s fun and worthwhile to see any production at the lovely Pasadena Playhouse.

We always enjoy productions at the Ruskin Group Theatre. Their current show, Martin McDonagh’s “The Lonesome West,” running through March 4, is no exception. Review follows.

Review of “The Lonesome West” (seen Friday, February 3, 2012)

It’s been said that even a bad Martin McDonagh play is better than a good one from a lot of other playwrights. This man can write dialogue! And the able cast at the Ruskin Group Theatre, on the grounds of the Santa Monica Airport, can deliver it. Standout in the four-person cast is Jason Paul Field as Coleman, a sleezy brother in a small Irish town. With his wild hair and belligerent stance, he’d be right at home in the mountains of Appalachia – right down to his smelly socks. Because of a messy family dynamic (is there any other kind?), he shares a small house with his neater brother, Valene (well played by alternate Jonathon Bray). During most of the several scenes, these two bicker and battle with such zeal and ferocity – over seemingly insignificant things like bags of crisps and Valene’s beloved collection of religious figurines, that it’s a wonder one of them hasn’t used the rifle mounted over the fireplace to blow the other to smithereens. Conor Walshe’s sad-eyed priest goes to drastic measures to try to get the brothers to reconcile, and their attempts at civility, marked by a scene of exaggerated politeness, is a delight. Rachel Noll rounds out the cast as Girleen, the schoolgirl with a crush on Father Welsh. (The night we attended, the cast was mixing up “Welsh” and “Walsh” with some funny ad-libbing.)
Scene changes are punctuated by toe-tapping recorded music – Irish, to be sure, by The Young Dubliners, but also reminiscent of Appalachian.
Dan Speaker & Jan Bryant did the excellent fight choreography – made more difficult by the big difference in size of the two actors. Look Speaker & Bryant up: they’ve done fights for Russell Crowe and other A-list film names.
Anyone who has seen and loved the film “In Bruges” will surely enjoy this play, especially for its robust dialog and memorable performances. The only thing it’s missing is Colin Farrell!

Runs Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through March 4. www.ruskingrouptheatre.com
(review by Flo Selfman)

Join us next time for more notes on film and theatre. Until then – see you at the movies and don’t forget to support your local live theatre!

# # # # #