Performance of the Month: Matt Damon in “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1999)

Matt Damon, ignored by the Oscars, but utterly fascinating in "The Talented Mr. Ripley"

Matt Damon has the very good fortune to be not only a bankable movie star, who’s starred in the hugely successful Bourne franchise, but also a talented actor, given his Oscar-nominated performances in “Good Will Hunting” and “Invictus”.  And even now, as the handsome boy grows older, but more textured as an actor, solidly supporting in films like “True Grit” and “Contagion”, I wonder if he will ever give a performance more impressive than that in Anthony Minghella’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley”.

The most impressive quality about Damon’s work in the picture is that he’s always performing more than one role, sometimes juggling multiple roles at once, in playing a character who is never quite who he is pretending to be, since he’s being someone else at the same time.  (If that sounds confusing, consider that I wrote it after re-watching the film at 4am.  As Tom Ripley himself says “I always thought it was better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody”, and there are several different Tom Ripleys just as there is no Tom Ripley.

His entire performance works on the premise that he’s a chameleon, who with a borrowed jacket becomes a Princeton alumnus, fast friends with some free living American expatriates in Italy, a murderer, the person whom he killed, and so forth and so on.  If you work on the presumption that Tom Ripley doesn’t exist, but rather becomes whatever persona the situation requires, then the film is a multi-layered meditation on identity.  For Tom’s identity is as fluid as the sea where he first meets Dickie Greenleaf.

He constantly reinvents himself, and the viewer is never sure if they are ever seeing any of the real person- that is, if there is a real person there to begin with.  As the film progresses, Damon’s work becomes a Rubix Cube of constantly turning sides.  There is a different Ripley for every other character in the film, and this is one very well-cast film, with heavy hitters like Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman playing opposite Damon.  But Damon’s main co-star is himself.

What begins as an attempt to insinuate himself into Dickie’s life becomes an absorption of Dickie’s lifestyle; an intensity that builds to a romantic attraction to Dickie, which to me reads as the major crisis of Tom’s identity.  The initial murder is in fact provoked because Tom’s affections are rejected; he acts like a spurned lover, and we recall the intimacy and not at all subtle hints of homoeroticism from earlier scenes between Tom and Dickie (the duet of “My Funny Valentine” and the bathtub chess game).  And yet Tom glides from this to an attempted seduction of Dickie’s fiancée Marge (Paltrow), but this again is the absorption of Dickie’s life into his own.  Then there is the flirtation with Meredith (Blanchett), and the jealousy of Dickie’s friendship with Freddie (Hoffman), and finally the “is he or isn’t he” game with Peter (Jack Davenport), who probably gets closer to the enigma of Tom Ripley than anyone else in the film, and pays the price for it.  It matters very little to me whether Tom is or isn’t gay, because I think his motive is ultimately to be anything to anyone, at any time.

The complexity of the role had to be a big attraction for Damon, who was just coming off the success of “Good Will Hunting” when this film was released in 1999, because the dark nature of the material doesn’t seem to be the obvious choice for someone concerned with being golden boy at the box office.  It is a complex juggling act, and Damon never once drops a ball.  He keeps the different Toms/Dickies/Whoevers in constant motion, with the possibility of seduction or murder coexisting at every moment.  It is a brilliant performance and quite an achievement for the young Mr. Damon.  And I’m not certain, but I’d be willing to bet that Tom Ripley was a Scorpio.

Time Passes By: “Another Year” (2010)

Lesley Manville in what should've been an Oscar nominated performance in Mike Leigh's 2010 film "Another Year".

Mike Leigh’s “Another Year” was one of the pictures that I really wanted to see last year, especially after the performance by Lesley Manville began picking up critical buzz and award recognition, but, alas, it slipped through the cracks of my viewing schedule until now, since it has finally aired on the Starz channels.

I’ve thought highly of previous Leigh films like “Life is Sweet“ (1992), “Secrets & Lies” (1996), and “Vera Drake” (2004), (note I said I thought highly of them, not that I enjoyed them), but his films aren’t really about enjoyment.  They’re seriously constructed character studies, with real actors as opposed to movie stars, and generally they can deal with some rather unpleasant subject matter, or at least, something other than a carefree night at the movies.  In other words, Leigh makes films for adults, with mature subject matter, and his films remind me sometimes of the best works of Robert Altman (about the highest praise I can give to a filmmaker), in that they often appear cluttered with too much (too much talk, too much going on, etc.), when in reality what they are is an approximation of the clutter of real life: things are complicated, people have issues, and problems are not always neatly solved during the course of two hours.  I think that it’s this realism in his films that makes Leigh such a great filmmaker, whose works, as I said, may be a bit on the depressing side, but are worth a viewing.  For “Another Year”, he earned an Academy Award nomination for the Best Original Screenplay, but lost to “The King’s Speech”, which is a shame.

“Another Year” follows, through the course of four seasons, an older middle-aged couple, their family and friends.  On paper, that doesn’t sound like much, and it’s true that Leigh’s films are better than a simple description of them could ever be.  His characters reveal themselves through their own words and actions, through their relationships with others, and also through how well identifiable they are with the audience.  The central characters are Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen), and it is through this couple and their circle of family and acquaintances that we move over the course of the picture.  Tom is a geologist and Ruth is a counselor, and the pair share a very active gardening hobby on the side.  The other major character, and the standout performance in the film is Mary, played by Lesley Manville, in a role that won  her the National Board of Review’s Best Actress award last year.  Mary is a co-worker of Ruth, and though she appears a friendly chatterbox, she is in reality a desperately unhappy woman who seeks to drown her loneliness in the nearest available bottle of wine.  Manville’s character is so uncomfortably real that at times she is difficult to watch, especially if you’ve had real life experience with a ‘Mary’ of your own.  Her overbearing flirtation with Tom and Gerri’s son Joe is also embarrassing to watch, as he is nearly half her age, and has no interest whatsoever in  Mary.  A latter scene where she is introduced to Joe’s girlfriend shows her clearly having a meltdown in full view of everyone, which she blames on problems with her car.

Manville may be the film’s standout performer, but that is to take nothing away from the solid work done by Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen who anchor the story and provide a calming center that comforts the viewer.  Their characters have accepted their movement into older middle-aged, while Mary and another friend Ken rail against their lost youth, and fight the passage of time and their own aging.  Exceptional work is also done by noted actress Imelda Staunton (Oscar nominated for her work in Leigh’s “Vera Drake” and more popularly known as Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter universe.  Staunton has a small role as a depressed woman who Ruth is treating.  Her character, like Mary, is so painfully real that we feel we are invading this poor woman’s privacy by watching her two brief scenes.  

Not a lot happens in “Another Year”, at least not on the surface.  But underneath, the ebb and  flow of human emotion, the passing of time, and the life experience itself go about like they do.  We glimpse these characters for a single year, and in that span of time, quite a lot actually does happen, as it does every year.  Reflection on mortality, and the passage into older middle-age, which is rarely, if ever examined in American films is done so masterfully in “Another Year”, one of the quiet cinematic treasures of  2010.

That Old-Time Religion: “The Apostle” (1997)

If there were a competition for the greatest living American actor, I’m sure that devotees of Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, and Robert DeNiro would all make compelling arguments for their candidates.  But for my money, the title belongs solely to Robert Duvall, who has been giving unforgettable film performances since his debut in 1962’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”.  He’s been honored for his work in films like “Tender Mercies” (Best Actor Oscar- 1983), “The Great Santini (Best Actor Nomination- 1980), “The Godfather” (Supporting Actor Nomination- 1972), “Apocalypse Now” (Supporting Actor Nomination- 1979), and “A Civil Action” (Supporting Actor Nomination- 1998).  Additionally, he’s given wonderful performances without Oscar recognition in such films as “M*A*S*H” (1970), “Network” (1976), and even as recently as last year, he deserved a nomination for his work as an elderly hermit in the independent comedy-drama “Get Low”.

The crown jewel of Duvall’s career, however, was another low-budget film, one that Duvall raised the money to make, wrote the screenplay and directed, and gave the performance of a lifetime, as Sonny AKA ‘The Apostle E.F.“ in 1997’s “The Apostle”.  In a year of such honored and in some cases over-honored films like “Titanic”, “L.A. Confidential”, “Boogie Nights”, “Jackie Brown“, “The Full Monty”, “Ulee’s Gold”, “As Good as It Gets”, “Mrs. Brown”, and “The Sweet Hereafter”, none has had the effect on me in quite the way Duvall’s film does.  Now perhaps, if you were (as I was) brought up with a clearly  defined sense of religion, beliefs in God, the Devil, Heaven, and Hell, the film will resonate on levels that may not have the same reaction in other viewers.  In any event, a  viewer can appreciate the labor of love quality of “The Apostle”, with the knowledge that the  film was indeed Duvall’s baby, and that he has an appreciation for the subject matter, unlike many films which take a superior, intellectual pleasure in mocking religion or religious people.

This is not to say that the film is without flaws, but they don’t detract from the success of the picture overall.  Though he has directed before, perhaps Duvall was too close to the material to realize that certain shots seem redundant, and certain scenes don’t quite fit the feel of the picture.  The locations add much texture to the picture: the dirt roads, croaking bayous, and makeshift roadside churches are as much characters in the film as are the actors, and for the most part, Duvall the director has cast his film well, with a mixture of talented actors and believable, fresh nonprofessionals.  Among the known actors, John Beasley does fine, quiet work as Reverend Blackwell, Walton Goggins, long before his career-defining work in television shows like “The Shield” and “Justified”, is a naïve young man who falls under Sonny’s charismatic spell, and Billy Bob Thornton has two scenes as a troublemaking local who falls to Duvall both times, but in completely different ways.  The freshest female performances in the film were by the two nonprofessional women that Duvall cast as the friendly-rival queen bees of his church., but the professional actresses were failed unfortunately, either by Duvall the director or Duvall the screenwriter.  The late Farrah Fawcett plays Sonny’s unhappy wife Jesse, whose actions set the real story into motion, and, not to speak ill of the dead, but I find it a very flat, lifeless performance.  Now, I realize that the character of Jesse has a lot of repressed emotions, and has been unhappy and perhaps even lifeless in her marriage, but I expected to see at least a moment or two of spark from Fawcett.  Even more disappointing was the misuse of Miranda Richardson as Toosie, the secretary at a radio station The Apostle broadcasts over.  Richardson is a brilliant actress, but here her character is never developed enough beyond a potential love interest for Sonny, and we’re never clear on what her motivations are.  

But when the film is in the church, and Duvall is in ‘preacher’ mode, it soars.  It has a power, and a realism that touch me to my core.  And yes, Duvall is impressive when he’s ‘onstage’ before his congregation, delivering the well-rehearsed monologues of a lifetime of a traveling country preacher.  But they never sound rehearsed, and even when we hear snatched of dialogue repeated in different sermons, Duvall still makes them compelling.  He’s a bundle of charisma, religion, and control, and yet still has the nerve to play Sonny as a real person, with concerns, troubles, and his own persecutions that he knows will eventually find their way to him.  Duvall is just as watchable in the scenes where he’s not preaching, because even in quieter scenes, with June Carter Cash as his loving mother, or Billy Joe Shaver as an old confidante, he’s still in character- but not as a preacher, simply as Sonny.  

For many, I suppose the big emotional moment of the film concerns Thornton’s second and final appearance at The Apostle’s church, and it is a scene that gives me a chill; it’s that real, and honest a piece of filmmaking.  For me though, it is Duvall’s final sermon, knowing that his past has found him, church building surrounded by the blinking lights of police cars that cuts into my heart.  Duvall (as Sonny) knows that this is his final ‘performance’, and so Duvall (as The Apostle E.F.) gives the sermon of a lifetime.  And as many times as I’ve seen the film, I never failed to be moved to tears by the scene where a character that has been an enigma during much of the film stands up in his pew.  Just writing about it gives me a jolt.  It feels too personal, too intimate a thing to be watching, and yet, during my childhood, I frequently saw the same thing happen on many a Sunday morning, and I myself did that on a Sunday morning in the summer of 1980.  

The Apostle’s exit is by no means a downer, but rather a triumphant continuation of the journey he’s been on.  The roaring sound of his church’s choir calling out their encouragement as he leaves his church for the last time is thrilling, and a final coda over the credits shows that The Apostle is true to himself (as Duvall is true to the character) no matter where he is or what he’s doing.  And despite the fact that my personal beliefs, views, and attitudes have changed immensely since that summer of 1980, there is something in this film that moves me.  And this my friends, is exactly why I love the movies.

She worked hard for the money: “The Help” (2011)

I’ve tried a couple of times to get through the novel “The Help”, but never quite been able to complete it. But, being Southern, and generally loving things concerning Southern women, and, too thinking that Viola Davis is one of the greatest and most underrated actresses working today, I was thrilled to hear quite a while back that a film was made of the book, and that Davis played one of the primary roles.  That film opened about four months ago, and, as excited as I was about it, I have just now gotten around to seeing it.  That’s not a measure of my interest in the film decreasing, but rather the business of my own life increasing, and so often, life does get in the way of things like seeing new movies, or unloading the dishwasher, or remembering to record the new episode of “Modern Family”, so I hope that I may be excused by whatever diety is in charge of the picture business: hopefully the ghost of Bette Davis.

“The Help” isn’t a bad movie, but it is a very familiar stew, made up of a a little of “The Color Purple”, mixed with a dash of “Fried Green Tomatoes”, a bit of “Steel Magnolias”, and other, earlier Southern women flicks.  The script wants to be taken seriously as a period piece, but undercuts this intent with cardboard cutout characters, and moments of almost slapstick comedy that don’t fit the general tone of the film.

Viola Davis as Abilene Clark, should certainly earn her Best Actress nomination, if for only the scene where she tells Skeeter (Emma Stone) about how her son died, and Octavia Spencer’s Minny will be a strong Supporting Actress contender for her scenes with Celia (Jessica Chastain), the outsider desperate to fit into the cream of Jackson, Mississippi society circa 1963.  Only a curmudgeon like myself would object to the Johnny Cash & June Carter duet of “Jackson” being played during the film, if only because I know it wasn’t recorded until much later in the 1960’s.

Stone’s Skeeter is the only one of her girlfriends who hasn’t married or started breeding, and it’s apparently because she’s the only one with any ambition, despite the efforts of her cracked belle Mama (Allison Janney) to make her be the perfect little Southern lady.  Stone surprised me here, because I was afraid she might be out of her league working with some of these other performers, but she handles the role well, and combined with her comedic work in “Easy A” mark her as a young actress with a truly special range.

Chastain as well is very touching as the vulgar girl who got pregnant before she married (the grand bitch’s ex boyfriend, of all people), and her desire to be a good wife and a member of the social set in town is a valid supporting plot to the main story of the domestics’ desires to improve their quality of life.

Sissy Spacek, still with some of the spit and vinegar she had way back in “Coal Miner’s Daughter” has a lovely small role as the grand bitch’s mother, whose mostly off her rocker but still has moments of clarity where Spacek proves she’s still a hell of an actress.

Now, to the low point of the film’s performances; the previously mentioned ‘grand bitch’ Hilly Holbrooke played by Bryce Dallas Howard.  Howard acts like she’s in a cartoon, and she never moves from the single note of hysteria that she finds in her character, and keeps on pounding away on that note throughout the entire movie.  Granted, the character wasn’t developed, but Bryce’s performance didn’t help matters at all.  Neither did some of the more uncomfortable moments of unconscious cruelty displayed to various members of the serving class, most of which were put into motion by Hilly herself.

Overall, I enjoyed “The Help”, mainly for showcasing a (mostly) fine group of actresses in (mostly) decent roles with depth and texture that is often lacking when an actress finds herself playing “Hooker #2” or “Ex-wife of the Star” in whatever big-scale action movie has just opened.  Now I just need to get around to reading that book!

Big Screen Sitcom: "Harper Valley PTA" (1978)

There must've been a lot of need for drive-in type family fare in 1978.  That's the only explanation I can come up with for the production of the 1978 comedy "Harper Valley PTA".  First off, the film was based on a clever novelty song from a full decade earlier that won the Country Music Association Award for Single Record of the Year, and was also such a huge crossover hit that it spent a week at #1 on the Billboard Pop Chart in late 1968 as well.  And three years after the film's release, there was even a short-lived (two seasons) television spinoff that appeared on NBC, all of which either proves the power of a well-crafted piece of music that stands the test of time, or that the tastes of the American public have been somewhat questionable for quite some time now.

There's really no need to discuss anything as technical as directorial style, character development, or other such terms when discussing "Harper Valley PTA".  The direction (by Richard Bennett) is on par with most of the television sitcoms of the era, but not nearly as stylish as milestone 70's sitcoms like "M*A*S*H", "Taxi", or "All in the Family".  The set-ups are in place, the jokes are predictable, the characters are cardboard with mostly a single defining trait to differentiate them from the others in the film.  If the film had been made with a giggling laugh track, it wouldn't seem as out of place as it does on the annoyingly bad NBC sitcom "Whitney".

Briefly, the plot revolves (as does the song) around widow Stella Johnson, who enjoys having her friends over, drinking a few beers, and wearing the miniskirts that show off middle-aged Barbara Eden's still impressive figure.  Stella's daughter Dee faces expulsion from school by the hypocritical PTA members, who are memorably "socked" by Stella during an open meeting (conveniently held that same day).  While the song ends with the group receiving their comeuppance from the feisty Stella, the film takes off into various scenes of revenge against the various PTA snobs, engineered by Stella and nutty sidekick Alice (a delightful performance by Nanette Fabray, and the brightest one in the film).  The punishments fit the crimes in each case; i.e. the lecherous realtor is beaten up by a woman he tries to seduce, and the town drunk sees real-life pink elephants marching through his house.  Some misplaced subplots show up and are dealt with rather swiftly: Dee's crush on schoolmate Carlyle, and Stella's romance with rebel PTA board member Will Newton (Ronny Cox, realizing his career has nosedived from "Deliverance" to this) seem just scenes to add length to the film until we get to the next unbelievable act of vengeance committed by Mrs. Johnson.

It may not sound like I think very highly of "Harper Valley PTA, but actually, it is one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies.  It reminds me of childhood, when I'm sure I must've seen it at the old Duncan Theater, or perhaps even the Sunset Drive-In.  And like old sitcom reruns, it is familiar.  It's humor never gets mean-spirited, and for the most part, the cast plays along with the joke.  The best thing about the whole project might be that Jeannie C. Riley's original Grammy winning title song plays in it's entirety over both the opening and end credits, and that during the film, instrumental versions of the song are played during various scenes.  For example, there is a 'sad' version, a 'romantic' version, and even a carnival version played on the merry-go-round at a fairground scene.  And despite all the Collector's Editions, and Criterion Discs in my personal library, "Harper Valley PTA" remains one of the most prized DVDs in my collection.  Go ahead and call me crazy.  It's been said by more qualified people than you!


  

Oh, the Horror...of a truly bad movie: "Horror House" (1969)

Showtime aired this howling dog of a flick Monday afternoon, and like a car accident, I knew I shouldn't look, but I couldn't turn away. It aired under it's alternate title "Haunted House of Horror", yet the house itself doesn't seem haunted, and the horrors (both of them) are not very horrifying. Despite some other comments about this movie, these characters are NOT teenagers! Frankie Avalon is already fighting middle age spread as the sole American in a cast of British never-heard-of's who split from a groovy mod party to a dusty deserted old house where naturally, a murder happens. And later another, and another...ending with a resolution that feels like the writer thought it up on the last day of filming.

The spookiest things in this movie don't even happen at the old house, and most involve the female cast. At the party, glum, chubby, bucktoothed Madge dances around with a feather boa, nicely displaying a big bruise (or birthmark) on her arm. Grim Suzanne, who's ended an affair with a strange older man, can't stay at the old house because she simply must go for coffee, and spends the entire movie looking disinterested (or perhaps constipated). Dorothy, the blonde with the panda eye makeup, and Sheila, the blonde with the massive hair are respectively the sweet waif and the cunning minx. Both are horribly miscast, although both Dorothy and Madge get nice little breakdown scenes. Madge's is especially moving. In a move that I'm sure won her a few supporting actress votes that year, she weeps, gnashes her teeth, lets her stringy hair fall into her face, and nearly rends the fringed hem of her blue party dress. Despite this glut of talented ladies, most of the supporting male cast are interchangable, in their staggering assortment of mismatched clothes, the exception being Gary, who forgets what movie he's in and seems to be auditioning for the road company of "Equus".

And then there's Frankie. What on earth possessed Frankie Avalon to ditch Annette on the beach and journey to England for this film? He even brought his 'Beach Party' hair with him. He sticks out like a sort thumb, and there's never a reason given for why these cool Brits hang out with this goon. I kept waiting for one of them (preferably Madge) to accidentally call him 'The Big Kahuna'.

The set designer for this film deserves a special honor for the sequential throw pillows that appear in Sheila's apartment. Each has a different design on it and when placed beside each other, they form a lovely image.

This movie is laugh-out-loud funny...too bad it's supposed to be a suspenseful horror film

A hidden gem disguised as a 70's drive-in flick!: "Crazy Mama" (1975)

Cloris Leachman was spinning off from a supporting role on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" to headlining her own series "Phyllis" in 1975, the same year this goofy road movie was released. Leachman stars as Melba Stokes, who runs a beauty parlor in Long Beach, California with her mother Sheba (Ann Sothern) and her daughter Cheryl (Linda Purl). When the shop is repossessed by banker Jim Backus aka Thurston Howell III (a great little cameo) Leachman and ladies head back to Arkansas and the family farm which was stolen away from them when Melba was a girl. Along for the ride is Cheryl's boyfriend, surfer boy Donny Most aka Ralph Malph who finds out he's going to be a daddy thanks to Cheryl. The ladies knock over a filling station, which sets about their plan to rob their way back to Arkansas earning the money to buy back the farm.

Stopping over in Las Vegas, Melba hooks up with Jim Bob Trotter (Stuart Whitman). Cheryl falls for greasy biker Snake (Bryan Englund, Leachman's real life son), and Sheba makes a friend in elderly Bertha (Merie Earle) who believes that the secret to casino winning is to spout cliches before she pulls the handle on the slot machine. Jim Bob and Melba decide to have a phony wedding so the makeshift gang can rob the chapel, and then it's back on the road!

The ladies continue their crime spree, knocking over a grocery store and a bank. Meanwhile, back in Texas, Jim Bob's depressing wife (Sally Kirkland) is startled to hear that he's been kidnapped. Another plan by Melba and company to raise money, this one turns out in a bad way for the group. When Melba and her gang finally return to Jerusalem, Arkansas they are disappointed to see that the farmland of their youth has been turned into a country club. Needless to say, there is a hijacked wedding and more car chases.

This is a funny movie (with a GREAT final scene) that is given spirited performances by Leachman, Sothern, and especially Merie Earle as the nursing home escapee who finds a few thrills in her last days. There is some surprising violence, an eclectic 50's soundtrack, and control over the whole crazy-quilt through the direction of Jonathan Demme. The most touching scene in the film is when the weary travellers stand under a tree and remember their fallen friends by "shouting them into Heaven".