Avatar (2009, U.S.)

This was possibly the most underwhelming movie of the year. (Okay, maybe not fair to this movie. The Hurt Locker was worse.) It was not the biggest epic of all time, as all the hype would have you believe. Something tells me that the main reason for the hype is that it looked amazing on the big screen in 3-D. I do think it deserved its Oscars for Art Direction, Cinematography, and Visual Effects, but Best Picture nomination? I don't think so.

Avatar is like a combination of the Matrix and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. (Actually, Dances with Wolves might be a better example, since the soldier goes native.) Not a good combo. A bunch of Americans colonize an alien planet in order to get their hands on this valuable rock, but they don't even bother to say why this rock is so valuable. It seems like they were so focused on visuals that they ignored the need for a clear plot. In addition to that, the blue people seem to be a racist mix of Native- and African-Americans. Terrible.

I've always been a fan of James Horner, but this score seemed very recycled. Some of the music sounded reminiscent of Titanic, which I guess isn't a huge surprise. But then there was a repeated strain that sounded identical to one from Troy. I looked it up, and lo and behold, Horner composed that score too. Seems like the well of creativity is dry. Not that it wasn't good, it just didn't seem original.

Overall, this movie was just one big disappointment. Visually beautiful, at least!

Rating: 2.5

The Human Stain (2003, U.S.)

I saw this movie on TV a couple of years ago and had an overall good impression of it, but I didn't see the whole thing from the beginning. So I decided to watch it again. (Also, I needed a bit of a Wentworth fix before Prison Break stated back on Monday... but that's a post for another day.)

To begin with, The Human Stain has a stellar cast—Sir Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Wentworth Miller, Gary Sinise. Even Ed Harris, who I normally could live without, is quite good in this film. Add to that a wonderful score by Rachel Portman, who's one of my favorites. (Little surprise here—Portman has been nominated for two Oscars and has won a third... the first woman to do so.) So all in all, the film just couldn't be bad.

And the plot is also quite great. Coleman Silk, a seemingly white man born of black parents, living his life as a Jewish classics professor, is accused of making a racist remark, which costs him his wife and his career. Nobody knows about his heritage, but the viewer discovers it through flashbacks of his young adulthood. (Enter Wentworth Miller, who was great in this role. Interestingly, Miller's father is supposedly black, though you may not know it to look at him. I bet this role was strange for him.) At this point, other people start coming into Silk's life. A white-trash woman (Kidman) with an abusive ex-husband (Harris) and a closet full of skeletons. A novelist (Sinise) suffering from writer's block and hiding out from the world.

Through his interactions with these people and the accompanying flashbacks, Silk's history slowly unfolds. It's about racial idenity and living a lie and how it changes a person and his life. It was really well crafted, yet I found myself wanting more. I felt like I was having to make to many connections / analyze too much myself. It just could have had more... something. I feel like I need to read the book to get the whole story now. In fact, I think I will.

So I liked it, but I could have liked it more.

Rating: 3.5

Something New (2006, U.S.)

I have to put this one in the romantic comedy genre, even though it was more romance than comedy. Anyway, according to the Shakespearian definition (in which it ends with a wedding), the term "comedy" still applies. (Oops, did I give the ending away? Not like you didn't know how it would end!)

I thought this was a great little movie. I thought it was tastefully done. It definitely made the color-blindness of love an inarguable point, but it wasn't preachy. I can't say what a relief it was to see an interracial relationship that didn't include Eva Mendes. Not only do I not like Eva Mendes, but it seems like interracial relationships (in the movies) are only okay if the characters have more "similar pigmentation" than black/white. As a Hispanic woman, Mendes works with Will Smith or Nicolas Cage. She works with Denzel Washington or Joaquin Phoenix. In this film, we finally have a black/white couple -- and that's the point. But even though the filmmakers were trying to prove that point, it still seemed natural. (Side note: why have all the movies I've seen with black man / white woman relationships involved Julia Stiles?)

I think that the thing I liked most was the way their relationship grew and developed alongside the landscaping in her backyard. As her yard's beauty was revealed, so was the beauty of her true self, which she hadn't taken the time to discover before. It was "hidden in weeds," to continue the metaphor. I don't think everyone watching this movie would necessarily see the purposeful parallels drawn there, but I'm sure they were intentional. In fact, Bloom was a working title for this film.

One last note... I also liked both of the lead actors, and I liked that they weren't big name stars. In fact, the biggest name in the film was Donald Faison, but he just had a small role as the main character's brother. I think it's hard to look at celebrities and see them as "real people" sometimes, even if they are great actors. The lesser-known cast here contributed to the naturalness and the viewer's ability to relate.

Although I've never been known to give a romantic comedy more than a 3.5, this one just had too much substance to overlook as "just another" in the genre.

Rating: 4.0