WeeWillie

This quiet little gem deserves so much better than its rating here, but do not see it if you are young or if you need your movies inundated with the obvious.

Through the eyes of distant cousin Daisy (played beautifully by Laura Linney) it gives us a glimpse of the private life of FDR (Bill Murray). In the hands of director Roger Michell, Murray, far from his natural role as an annoying buffoon, skillfully reveals FDR's palpable vulnerability, his flaws, and his considerable charm, even if he is a-swim in estrogen in the shape of the strong-willed women around him (his mother, his wife and his mistresses).

The story centres on the weekend when the stammering English King Albert (well acted by Sam West) and his Queen come to America to ask for help in the war against Germany. This minor clash of cultures is the source of some gentle humor in the film, but it provides an excellent foil to show off FDR's quite remarkable charm and ability to reach people.

Not expecting to enjoy this film (for I dislike everything else where Murray is a major player), I was very pleasantly surprised indeed. Quite apart from anything else, it has some excellent cinematography.

Clever, quirky, romantic, colorful, good story, good action, and violent at times - "Slumdog Millionaire" has it all, and I am sorely tempted to give it a 10/10. It also sports a lively sense of the absurd - although this is latent and based on the unfolding of events! The movie is set in India, with protagonist Jamil as an unlikely candidate in the Indian version of "So You Want To Be A Millionaire". The gameshow is used to signpost the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" on Jamil's life and on his relationship with his love, Latika.

As far as I can see, the movie puts no foot wrong, and it doesn't hurt that the various incarnations of the seductive Latika are absolutely sizzling, all sporting to the nines that exotic beauty that the Indians do so very well!

This movie crackles, and I recommend it for anyone with a pulse!

NOTICE: I do touch on the plot, but not so as to spoil the movie...

This long and sensuous movie set in 1942 Shanghai during the Japanese occupation is centered on a beautiful and elegant young woman Wong Chia Chi (played by newcomer Wei Tang) who - with her platonic friend Kuang Yu Min (played by Chinese male hottie Lee-Hom Wang) - is a willing participant in a group of 6 young actor friends who, caught up in a frenzy of nationalism, hatch a naïve plot to kill a powerful and secluded Chinese traitor Mr. Yee (played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai).

As you might expect, Wong's part in this plot is to seduce Mr. Yee, and so, this story becomes a sizzling but dark story of a very dangerous affair of lust in the period in Chinese history where revolution is in the air but does not yet have China in its grip. In China's repressed sexual climate, the relationship between Kuang and Wong - for, of course, from the first he loves this dazzling girl – is a sub-plot that stirs in a real sense of pathos. An ominous pall – even a sense of dread - hangs over the entire story, and there is no hint of how it is to end.

The story is certainly a thriller and, under Director Ang Lee, it is a gorgeous movie, punctuated with those breathtakingly understated Chinese dresses and perhaps the hottest sex scenes you have ever seen in the movies, but it proceeds at an agonizingly slow pace and is steeped in the Chinese way. As such it will be controversial for Western audiences, but for me, I see this as adding to Ang Lee's mystique as a movie-making magician.