Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what I’ve seen over the past week either in film or television. On the film side, if I have written a full length review already, I will post a link to that review. Otherwise, I’ll give a brief snippet of my thoughts on the film with a full review to follow at some point later. For television shows, seasons and what not, I’ll post individual comments here about each of them as I see fit.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Peter Jackson spent long enough away from Middle Earth that he seems to have forgotten how to truncate. The first of three films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s children’s book The Hobbit is longer than it needs to be. Whether it’s the superfluous opening scene between the old Bilbo and Frodo or the lengthy exposition scenes, the movie needed a bit of cutting. It feels a tad like filler, but after being so long absent from the world of Hobbits, Dwarves and Elves, it was a welcome return to it.

Faults aside, there are some glorious climactic scenes in the film, each more stunning than the last. This is a film that builds steadily over its first half and then ratchets up the excitement and suspense in the last half. Most of it works and a lot of the more steady segments of the film are setting up confrontations due in the next two chapters. More so than The Fellowship of the Ring, An Unexpected Journey feels like it’s telling only a third of the story.

The success of this film will largely hinge on how the dynamics of the first film play into the dynamics of the latter film. We have two different events being set up here and the payoff promises to be spectacular, I’m just hoping that Jackson can learn from this film and trim a bit from his successive two films.

The performances are once again outstanding. Having McKellen back at the reins is a welcome treat, but it’s Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins that truly lights up the film. Freeman may not seem like the leading man type, but he commands the screen each second he’s on, ably delivering humor and pathos. Richard Armitage as the leader of the company, Thorin Oakenshield, is a compelling presence, as are Ken Stott as the aged advisor Balin, and James Nesbitt as the dimwitted, yet compassionate Bofur. Most of the other dwarves blend into the background for now, but Jackson has written distinctiveness into each character and they each promise to be endearing elements of future films.

Flight

There’s a reason Denzel Washington is being talked about as a solid nomination contender for this year’s Oscars. He is fantastic as an alcoholic whose defiant landing of a doomed airplane makes him a hero. What the public doesn’t know and he and the airline are trying to hide is that he was both high and drunk while at the controls of the plane.

Torn between his confidence and addiction, Whip struggles to save his own hide while systematically destroying his own life. A fellow addict, Nicole (Kelly Reilly) meets him in the stairwell of the hospital where they form a surprising bond. The resultant relationship seems to give Whip the confidence he needs to beat the case, but alcoholism has a nasty way of turning good men into louses. Washington as Whip spirals out of control in a stunning display of acting talent. One minute, you admire the man, the next you loath him.

The film struggles at times to keep pointless narrative departures at bay, seemingly padding the film. Robert Zemeckis does a terrific job framing and orchestrating the plane crash scene, but the subsequent film drags frequently. And unlike a lot of films that start out so sensationally, the film ends on a somber, hopeful note that isn’t precisely what the audience is expecting, but is nevertheless fitting.

Promised Land

Gus Van Sant’s exploration of corporate greed surrounding the controversial method of natural gas extraction known as fracking is a compelling film. Starring Matt Damon as one of the top field agents for a prominent energy company, the film follows two agents as they try to convince a small Ohio town that they want to sell the shale gas rights to their property for boatloads of money while neglecting to inform them of the dangers they face in the process.

If you don’t have an opinion about fracking, this movie might finally convince you of the hazards of the process. Moreover, the film tries to paint corporate greed as a prevalent issue in deceiving the public of their true intentions. Backed up by Frances McDormand, Hal Holbrook, Rosemarie DeWitt and John Krasinski, Van Sant’s film follows a different path than movies like Erin Brockovich. In Brockovich, we follow a concerned parent as she struggles to score a victory against corporate malfeasance. In Promised Land, the film follows Damon’s agent, a potential vice president of land acquisition who believes not in his company’s motives, but in their ability to rescue the financial stability of the folks they plan to drill from.

Van Sant commands honest performances from his actors and the film does a terrific job painting his subjects as honest people each trying to do what’s best for them while shining a light on he damaging and environmentally devastating process of fracking. Without feeling like he’s standing on a soapbox, Van Sant easily conveys his displeasure with the process while using a combination of subtlety and lack thereof to sway the opinion of his viewer.

Hyde Park on Hudson

If there’s a way to turn the intriguing nature of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s secret extra-marital affairs, into a laughable, dull period seriocomedy, Hyde Park on Hudson would be the result. Featuring substandard performances from Bill Murray, Laura Linney and a raft of largely unknown actors, Roger Mitchell’s tedious feature does very little to make its ideas interesting or appealing.

Set before and during the arrival of newly crowned King George VI and his wife Elizabeth to America, visiting Roosevelt in his home away from the White House, Hyde Park on Hudson drags the viewer along with a mildly humorous Murray as President Roosevelt as he navigates the diplomatic waters between the United States and England.

These actors are better than the material, but they aren’t given any opportunity to go beyond perfunctory compulsions. The characters have few motivations and when they do act, they seem to perform the same actions repetitively expecting different results each time. There is limited to no character growth and the screenplay is so amateurishly written, that it’s surprising it was greenlit at all.