elcome 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 Magnificent Ambersons

Orson Welles’ follow-up to the groundbreaking Citizen Kane built on the techniques he established in that legendary film to tell the story of two families, one wealthy, one not, rising and falling against the backdrop of the rise of the automobile industry. Starring Welles muses Joseph Cotten and Agnes Moorehead, the legendary filmmaker creates a compelling examination of love, family and perceived entitlement.

Booth Tarkington’s novel seems like a strange choice for Welles as a filmmaker. There’s no grand central character whose motives are tarnished by greed, wealth or revenge, depending on whom you consider the key figure of the film. It would be very easy to suggest that George (Tim Holt), the spoiled son of the Old Money Amberson-Minafer family. He appears on screen far more frequently than Eugene (Cotten), the bootstrap-raising young inventor who develops the idea for and makes a fortune off of the horseless carriage. Both characters diverge in types of personality and perseverance. One recognizes the value of hard work while the other squanders his opportunities assuming his cash will always be there.

Yet, in the conflicted relationship between George and Eugene, the attraction of a filmmaker like Welles becomes more evident. Holt is overbearing as George, instilling in him a genuine selfishness that helps bolster the character, but ultimately grates on the audience’s nerves for all the wrong reason. George and Eugene are at war over Lucy, George’s mother and the woman Eugene desperately wanted to marry but lost hot to George’s father Wilbur Minafer (Don Dillaway). While Eugene was pining for Lucy, Aunt Fanny (Moorehead) fancies Eugene, but their potential pairing never occurs. Moorehead is a tremendous, compelling force late in the film, but some of her early scenes when engaged in a shouting match with Holt’s George are shrill.

Welles was a master of perspective and framing. There are few segments of the film where you can’t see his painterly touch at work. Take for instance an early scene in a dress shop where a handful of gossips are discussing the young Amberson-Minafer boy. They are all kept in deep focus, moving in and out of the conversation with ease. It’s a stunning shot for a mere expository scene. Later in the film, when grave news arrives for the Minafer clan, Welles uses the vertical heights of a gorgeous staircase to frame George and Fanny, a beautiful composition. These are the reasons why Welles was such a tremendous and important filmmaker. His influential touch is felt in nearly every scene (at least the ones the studio didn’t have re-shot and re-edited over Welles’ objections) even if it’s a slight step below his prior masterwork. And of course, there is so much more about the film that can be discussed, but not enough time to do so.

RED 2

One of the great pleasures of the original RED was seeing aging actors take on the roles of masters of espionage, their age barely an impact on their abilities. RED 2 gives us more of what we loved from the first film with a bit more predictability and some clunkier dialogue.

The C.I.A. wants Frank (Bruce Willis) and Marvin (John Malkovich) because of their participation in a top secret assignment called Nightshade, which resulted in the sneaking in of a nuclear weapon into Moscow. As Frank and Marvin escape their pursuers, including C.I.A. handler Jack Horton (Neal McDonagh), expert contract killer Han Cho Bai (Byung-hun Lee) and one of their former associates, master sniper Victoria (Helen Mirren). This plays out as Frank is forced to drag along his girlfriend, Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker). They meet a wine-loving espionage master (David Thewlis) and one of Frank’s old flames (Catherine Zeta-Jones) as well as an old Russian chum (Brian Cox).

The same complex character interplay is still present, each character running with the concepts they built in the prior film, while new actors are forced to quickly improvise importance to the plot. Zeta-Jones is, surprisingly, the weakest link, but is still performing at a comfortable level. Even Anthony Hopkins gets to have a bit of fun in a role that will have audiences snickering to themselves for quite awhile. TV director Dean Perisot handles his return to the big screen after a 14 years with an undefined style that gets out of the way of the actors delivering their humorous one-liners while keeping the action and frequent plot twists moving forward.

Were it not for Willis, Malkovich, Parker and Mirren, this franchise would implode. Only because of their familiarity and their ability to convey how much fun they’re having is this movie even half as entertaining as it might otherwise be. It’s a step down from its predecessor, but is still tremendously entertaining.