Little Children (2006, U.S.)

Kate Winslet is one of the greatest actresses of her generation, if not all time. And Patrick Wilson is great when the psychologically disturbing and dramatic stuff (see Hard Candy). So a film with such a small cast that revolves around the two of them is sure to be a winner.

In an upper-middle class suburb, the lives of a woman with a porn-addicted husband, a man with a disinterested wife, a disgraced ex-cop, and a convicted sex offender dance around each other. It's hard to tell how they'll align (despite the common neighborhood), but eventually all runs together.

I guess this is supposed to be a film about people who can't control their impulses, but to me it seemed more like a film about people who are trapped in unhappy lives and deal with them in inappropriate ways.

It was sad watching these people pathetically run their lives into the ground. And while it was a powerful film, I think it was just too bleak for me. Still, definitely worth watching.

Rating: 3.5

Watchmen (2009, U.S.)

I finally saw Watchmen. Seemed like one of those things that you have to see. I'm not a graphic novel reader, because I always find myself having read to the end of the page and not looking at the pictures—therefore I have no idea what's going on. (Though usually I enjoy the film adaptations.) And that's kind of how I felt watching this movie. It was all tangled up, and I'm still not sure I know what happened and why. Also, I thought it was incredibly slow-paced for an action movie; it almost bordered on boring.

But even though it was not my favorite movie of all time, it did have some great points. For instance the music was... wow. They used the most unusual songs in the most unusual places. It was bizarre, and sometimes jarring, but somehow it worked. The ones that stick out in my mind are The "Sound of Silence," "99 Luftballoons," and something that sounded incredibly like Mozart's "Requiem in D Minor" (and I think that's what it was). Very interesting. The score that was composed for the film was obviously designed to blend rather than stand out, as the rest of the music did, but it was well done also.

Of course, thanks to the graphic novel origins, the visuals were fascinating. The use of extreme geographies, from Mars to Antarctica to a dark and filthy city provided interesting contrast. Also, Dr. Manhattan's glowing blueness was just as mesmerising as Rorschach's gritty and ever-changing mask. Those two characters were definitely the most interesting. I don't know if that's just because of who they were or because they were the two who got a lot of deep, rambling narration.

And in that vein, the casting was quite wonderful. Jackie Earle Haley, who I'd never heard of, was especially fantastic as Rorschach. With or without his mask, he was creepy and disturbing and yet oddly easy to relate to. Simply amazing.

That's about all I've got. I do want to make one comment about how annoyed I get with superhero girls and their long hair flying all over the place. Really, it would get in the way, and they would not be able to fight crime that way. I'm just saying.

So, rating. As I said, it had some fabulous elements, from music to acting to cinematography. But the plot was just too hard for me to follow and the film felt way too long. Balancing out, that earns it an "okay."

Rating: 3.0