The DVD Report #28

Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a big fan of cartoon movies, but every once in a while one comes along that is so hyped up it’s hard to ignore. Ratatouille is one that is worthy of the hype. The film from Disney Pixar ( Toy Story, Cars) is beautifully lit, so much so that the lighting director is credited over the cinematographer in the end credits, the first time I’ve been conscious of that.

The story, which revolves around a rat who dreams bigger than life, is about lots of little things, but mainly it’s about how the rat succeeds in a world of humans thanks to a willingness to suspend disbelief by just a few people with really big hearts. Well, all great fairy tales are supposed to have messages, aren’t they? This rat’s dream takes him to a world class French restaurant where he becomes its secret chef. Peter O’Toole ( Venus)supplies his considerable charm and wit as the voice of an acerbic food critic named Monsieur Ego.

Michael Moore’s ( Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11) latest high profile documentary, Sicko, like his previous efforts, basically preaches to the choir, and is unlikely to change anything soon, but one can hope. The film illustrates the horrors of the failed U.S. health system juxtaposed with the virtues of universal health care in countries like France, England, Canada and even Cuba. It expels the myth that free health care in other countries is of lesser quality and the even bigger myth that socialized medicine is the first step in turning a country to Soviet style Communism and the subjugation of human rights. England has had socialized medicine since 1948.

Marion Cotillard ( A Good Year) gives one of the year’s best performances as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. The DVD, out today, includes a documentary called Slipping into Character on Cottliard’s amazing transformation into the Little Sparrow. Part standard biography, part stream of consciousness wandering back and forth between various periods of her short, sad life, Collilard’s inspired performance is the reason to see it. It’s directed by Olivier Dahan ( Crimson Rivers 2) and the best known actor amongst the supporting cast is Gerard Depardieu ( Cyrano de Bergerac) in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him performance.

A musical biography from another era is With a Song in My Heart, subtitled The Jane Froman Story. One of the most requested video titles for more than 25 years, it is finally available. Though Criterion and Warner Bros. are routinely praised for their restoration of old movies, Fox’s restoration department is usually right up there with them. They really had their work cut out for them on this one. Even the best TV prints have looked faded over the years. Now you can see the faces clearly, although the vibrant 55-year-old color film, which is 50% music and 50% drama, has a slight grainy look to it. Three documentaries accompany the film, including a remembrance by her 89-year-old former husband, the army pilot who saved her life in a near fatal plane crash. The film won an Oscar for scoring and was nominated for four others including Best Actress for the luminous Susan Hayward and Best Supporting Actress for Thelma Ritter, their third each, while Robert Wagner’s two scenes made him a huge star.

Also out today from Fox are two lesser known screen musicals, Bloodhounds of Broadway with accompanying featurettes on author Damon Runyon, star Mitzi Gaynor and featured player Sharon Baird; and The Girl Next Door with accompanying featurettes on the film, star Dan Dailey and featured player Billy Gray.

Kevin Costner ( The Upside of Anger) has one of his best roles as Mr. Brooks, a small town businessman who is also a serial killer, but he is the whole show. The novel premise may sound interesting but the film has nowhere to go. It’s filled with all kinds of absurd characters, such as Demi Moore’s ( G.I. Jane) wealthy policewoman who works a dangerous job just to prove to her father that she’s as good as any man, and Costner’s alter ego, played by William Hurt ( A History of Violence), that recalls Ed Harris’ character in A Beautiful Mind. Even more ridiculous is Marg Helgenberg ( CSI) as Costner’s wife who is so clueless she doesn’t even notice something is wrong when it looks like her daughter is following in her father’s dastardly footsteps. Most bizarre of all, though, is Dane Cook ( Waiting) as a witness to one of the killings with an agenda of his own. This was director Bruce A. Evans’ ( Kuffs) second film, his first in fifteen years.

John Hurt ( The Naked Civil Servant) provides another of his splendid performances as a world-weary priest and Hugh Dancy ( The Sleeping Dictionary) is properly naïve as an idealistic teacher in Beyond the Gates, a harrowing tale of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Scenes of raped and murdered nuns, machete killings of young mothers and their babies, and emaciated dogs feeding on fresh corpses in the streets are not for the faint of heart, but they are not the worst aspects of the horror. That would be the U.N., with its power to intervene, not only standing by and doing nothing, but eventually abandoning the European-run school, leaving more than 2,500 Rwandan refugees to face certain death. The film, originally titled Shooting Dogs, unlike the similarly-themed Hotel Rwanda, was filmed in the actual locations of the massacres. Directed by Michael Caton-Jones ( This Boy’s Life, Rob Roy), the film co-stars Clare-Hope Ashitey (Kee in Children of Men) as a young Rwandan runner.

Based on the true story of a con artist who impersonated the reclusive director in the early 1990s, Color Me Kubrick is meant to be a comedy, but doesn’t really succeed as such unless you find stealing from the less fortunate to be something to laugh about. John Malkovich ( Ripley’s Game) doesn’t help with his unsympathetic performance. Sometimes he’s soft-spoken. Sometimes he’s loud and boisterous. But he’s always calculating. He also speaks in a strange accent that is vaguely British tinged with broad Texas affectations and Brooklyn style ‘dese’, ‘dems’ and ‘dose’. Luke Mabry ( The Prince and Me) and Richard E. Grant ( Withnail and I) are among his victims. It was directed by Brian Cook, who was an assistant director to the real Kubrick on Barry Lyndon and The Shining.

An effective tearjerker, The Ultimate Gift is the Crystal Heart Award-winning screen version of the best-selling novel of the same name. Drew Fuller (TV’s Charmed and Army Wives), James Garner ( The Notebook), Abigail Breslin ( Little Miss Sunshine), Bill Cobbs ( A Mighty Wind) and Lee Meriwether (TV’s Barnaby Jones) star in the story of a wastrel who must perform a series of life affirming tasks before he can inherit his grandfather’s fortune. It goes mostly where you’d expect it to, but Fuller makes his journey of self discovery an easy pill to swallow and the always-good-to-see Garner is an added treat.

Ed Asner ( The Mary Tyler Moore Show) received his umpteenth Emmy nomination for playing the little old matchmaker in the TV movie, The Christmas Card, about a soldier stationed in Afghanistan (John Newton) who receives a Christmas card from a small town do-gooder (Alice Evans) and spends his next leave tracking her down. It turns out the young woman has a traveling wine salesman boyfriend (Ben Weber) who is slowly getting around to pop the question, but it’s OK because her dad (Asner) takes an instant liking to the soldier. Although it’s supposed to be a contemporary piece, it plays like something out of an earlier era where everyone in town goes to the same church, nobody cusses or has premarital sex, and grown women blush and run away when they kiss a guy for the first time. Still, if you’re looking for something with nice scenery you can watch with your Great Aunt Tillie, this is your ticket. It was directed by actor/drama coach Stephen Bridgewater.

Your time might, however, be better spent on Image’s brand new release of the 1980 TV miniseries version of A Tale of Two Cities. It compares favorably to the 1935 classic with Chris Sarandon ( Dog Day Afternoon) acquitting himself quite nicely as both Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay. The cast also includes Alice Krige as Lucie, Peter Cushing as Dr. Manette, Kenneth More as Dr. Lorry, Barry Morse as St. Evermonde, Flora Robson as Miss Pross and Billie Whitelaw as Madame Defarge. All are as good as the cast of 1935’s A Tale of Two Cities except for Whitelaw who has the impossible task of trying to match Blanche Yurka’s career-high performance as the epitome of evil.

If that’s not enough to keep you busy until my next article, Columbia is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Barbara Stanwyck’s birth by releasing a restored edition of GGolden Boy, the film in which she generously allows newcomer William Holden to steal their scenes together. Extras include 1930 footage of Stanwyck at play as well as a Ford Theatre episode entitled Sudden Silence in which she made her TV debut in 1956.

Peter J. Patrick (November 13, 2007)