Movie Review: Breach

Based on a true story, FBI upstart Eric O'Neill enters into a power game with his boss, Robert Hanssen, an agent who was ultimately convicted of selling secrets to the Soviet Union. The central dynamic of the movie is the double deception of aging master spy, Robert Hanssen and underling FBI agent Eric O’Neill. Hanssen is a devout Roman Catholic who betrays his country. O’Neill, a lapsed catholic skeptic, is assigned to “spy on the spy.” The acting by Chris Cooper is absolutely superb. Throughout the drama, trust is intermittently won and lost by both characters. As per Hollywood usual, there is Catholic-bashing a plenty. In the end, the young skeptic takes the moral high ground by doing in his boss.

Review of Rivers, Sea & Shore: Reflections on Water at The Dixon Gallery & Gardens

50 paintings are featured in the exhibition, RIVERS, SEA AND SHORE: Reflections on Water, which are traveling under the auspices of the Trust for Museum Exhibitions in Washington, D.C. This exhibit includes paintings of all manner of waterscapes- both oceans, lakes and rivers from the early 19th century up to mid 20th century. The earliest works feature primarily images of sailing ships, followed by steamships of the mid to late 19th century. Also included are scenes of previously prosperous Northeastern river cities such as Mystic , Noank and Old Lyme Connecticut. The late 19th century and early 20th century works are mostly Impressionist works.

Also featured are the works of Memphis native William Nowland Van Powell (1904-1977). Mr. Van Powell worked most of his life as an architect. Due to failing eyesight, he abandoned his architectural practice and produced a large number of marine paintings depicting moments in American maritime history. The collection is interesting. This exhibition is generously sponsored by Jane Maury Lovitt in memory of Lloyd B. Lovitt,Jr.

Lawyer Leffler Review of "Pursuit of Happyness"

The Pursuit of Happyness:

Life is full of temptations to cut corners. Maybe a nip and tuck hereand there on the tax return. Or pocketing the overpayment of change froma purchase rather than setting the record straight. Depending on thenature of the corner to be cut and the nature of the person cutting it,the temptation can run from manageable to overwhelming. The moredesparate the person, the more they will see the temptation asoverwhelming. But the poet Robert Browning said: "Why comes temptation,but for man to meet And master and make crouch beneath his foot, And sobe pedastled in triumph."The Pursuit of Happyness, based on a true story, concerns a man who,against all odds, mastered those temptations and found his pedastle oftriumph. Will Smith plays a hard working entrepreneur who hits hardtimes when his wife gets tired of living on the financial edge. Sheleaves him with their 5 year old son (played by Smith's actual child)and Smith faces even higher hurdles. He loses his home and the sale ofhis medical devices that he plowed all of his money into goes stale. He happens to meet a stock broker who suggests that Smith apply for theprogram run by his brokerage for new salesmen. He gets into the program(which only offers one of the many participants a position with the firmupon completion) while juggling the demands of a single father who hasthe added burden of being homeless and needing to find a place to keephimself and his son each night.There are numerous chances for him to cut corners. Chances that most ofus probably would have seized since the damage to others would have beennegligible. But the message of this uplifing movie is that doing thingsthe right and honest way pays dividends despite how hopeless thesituation may appear at the time.

Review of "Volver"

Raimunda lives in Madrid with her daughter Paula and her husband Paco, who is always drunk. Her sister, Sole, is separated and works clandestinely as a hairstylist for women. The two sisters lost their parents in a fire in La Mancha, their birth village, years ago. Their aunt, Paula, still lives in the village and continues to speak about her sister Irene, mother of the two sisters, as if she were still alive. When the old aunt dies the situation changes and the past returns(volver) in a twist of mystery and suspense.
The movie starts slowly. All the central characters are unmarried or widowed women. The central character, Raimunda, lives a bleak urban life in Madrid with her worthless husband and awkward teenage daughter. She was estranged from her mother for years prior to her death. All the characters hold grudges of some sort. By story’s end, truth ultimately emerges and heals the rifts within the family

Review of "Pan's Labyrinth"

"Pan's Labyrinth" is the story of a young girl who travels with her pregnant mother to live with her mother's new husband in a rural area up North in Spain, 1944, after Franco's victory. The girl lives in an imaginary world of her own creation and faces the real world with much chagrin. Post-war Fascist repression is at its height in rural Spain and the girl must come to terms with that through a fable of her own.
You are never quite sure if the girl’s fable or the often gruesome world she faces daily is true reality. The cinematography is dark, but imaginative and vivid. The acting is superb and not overdone.

The fascists are portrayed as hypocritical, morally and intellectually bankrupt. The Republican guerillas fight a short term lost cause, but adhere to a higher morality. The story line follows the same old tired theme of Christian institutions i.e. the Roman Catholic Church siding with fascist designs on eliminating the open minded i.e. The Republicans. Despite this, there is a central story of the shedding of “innocent blood” that results in redemption and renewal by movie’s end.

Review of "Epic Movie"

Probably one of the worst movies I've paid to see in recent memory. What should have been a glorious spoof of recent movies- including Chronicles of Narnia, Superman, Nacho Libre, Da Vince Code, Night at the Museum and X Men- fell flat on its collective face.

Surprisingly, the musical score was true to the themes of the characters and movies. The humor was low, base and saturated with sophomorish vulgarity.