Powder Blue

'Powder Blue' tries hard to be effective but for the most part it falls flat. The film is about four isolated lives which at some point during the movie, connect with one another. Yet, the stories are half-baked and theatrical and the characters actions hardly make sense. Moreover they're loaded with cheesy dialogues that are poorly delivered. The characters beg the viewer's sympathy but I found myself caring less for what happens to them. 'Powder Blue' tries to be like 'Magnolia' and it grossly fails to reach anywhere near the superiority of that movie. Forest Whitaker appears too whiny. His best scenes are those with Kudrow. Ray Liotta perhaps has the best role and he does a fine job here. Jessica Biel has her moments of good acting and abysmal acting but she proves to be a very good dancer. Eddie Redmayne looks confused most of the time. There are small appearances by Lisa Kudrow, Kris Kristopherson, Riki Lindhome, and Patrick Swayze but their characters lack development. Swayze is barely recognizable and he successfully provides comic relief. Lisa Kudrow delivers the most natural performance as she stands out in a small role (in my opinion, a role too small to do justice to her immense talent). I liked how the film was executed, mostly under a cold colour tone reflecting the gloominess of the atmosphere and the cold Christmas weather. The use of digital camera also gives the film a raw look that adds to the scenes. 'Powder Blue' is not among the worst films but it seriously needed rewriting because now it is almost very much a half-baked and insipid soap opera

"Powder Blue" wasn't one of those big cinema releases, yet it was a film with a gripping powerful story of the intersecting of complex paths in the city of L.A.. And the all star cast made the film watchable. Set in modern day L.A. on the tough and rumble streets the films main focus is on four characters and it involves the showing of their everyday hardships and problems only all will collide by luck, destiny, and happens chance. Jessica Biel who's always beautiful and such a pleasure to view really shines as a young desperate single mom with a dying kid who's only hope is to earn money to support her cocaine habit by doing nude dancing as a stripper. Enter Ray Liotta as an ex con just released yet he has terminal cancer only he will discover thru Biel's character that life finally does have some touching emotional moments. And Forrest Whitaker is a character you feel desperate for as he is a man with no will to live after losing his wife as he will go to any lengths to be killed. And to round out you have a young mortician played by Eddie Redmayne who's lonely only in the end destiny will have it he will find love with the Biel character. This film is pretty powerful for it's message it sends that no matter how desperate life is for some unexpected hope can be found and everyone has a destiny. Plus no matter how different and complex people are they are all the same as their paths were meant to cross to help one another as in the end that leads to a heavenly and peaceful ending. Overall great film with an all star cast that proves life is a harsh struggle yet with help and connecting their is hope.

Allow me to get one thing out of the way right now: if you are a straight male (or gay woman) between the ages of 18-50 you might as well consider this movie required viewing simply because of Jessica Biel's topless scenes. To be honest it's not the greatest thing since sliced bread and it's not really in a sexualized context, but just to say you saw it should be enough. A little juvenile? Sure...but there it is. I'm kidding of course (kind of) but really...not bad.

Basically what you have here feels kind of like a lame rip off of Crash. A lot of stories happening in the same time line that feel like they should intersect a lot more than they do. Without that intersection it feels like a lot of little pieces rather than a whole. I can't help but feel like some of these actors were slumming it, particularly Ray Liotta. Has there been a movie since Field Of Dreams where he didn't play either a dirt bag or a stand up guy with a shady past? Talk about typecasting. There also seems to be a waste of perfectly good Lisa Kudrow in the film. I guess I don't understand casting her in the movie at all for such a small part when I'm sure they could've found someone just as good for a lot less money.

One small technical annoyance...the film has a pronounced grain to it that I assume is supposed to give it a gritty feel. The problem is that the subject matter isn't as gritty as the production values, so it feels a bit over done. Aside from that it's not a bad movie, but not a good movie either. I would have liked it a lot more if the writers had tried to tie the stories together more. As I said before, the way it is feels more like a collection of pieces more than a whole film. I wouldn't pass it by, but I certainly wouldn't tell everyone I know to check it out. It is what it is...pretty mediocre.

No doubt this movie had potential. The cast offers a handful of well-known actors, several of which are more than capable of good acting (Whitaker in particular is usually superb). Unfortunately, most of the well-known stars in this film only had bit parts. Kristofferson, Swayze and Kudrow each maybe have five lines of dialogue in the entire thing. There were several scenes in the movie, one in particular near the end, which simply had no business being in the film at all. Even worse, NONE of the characters' back stories were developed whatsoever, something which may have actually prevented the story from falling completely flat.

This film will obviously be compared to Crash and The Air I Breathe, as I've seen already in several other reviews. Just because a story is "gritty" and emotionally charged does not make it good or even entertaining. This film was plagued by the same issues as The Air I Breathe: mediocre writing, unnatural dialogue and virtually no character development. Crash was successful because it had character development, the story was poignant and somewhat believable, the film itself was artfully edited and the dialogue was well written and very well acted. As the audience, we need to be able to suspend our disbelief in order to accept a "strangers' lives intersecting" type of plot. I had no problem suspending disbelief in Crash. Not the case with Powder Blue.

Putting comparisons aside, was it the worst film I've ever seen? No. In fact, it was still considerably better than The Air I Breathe. The music and cinematography was actually above average. Liotta's character was disappointingly wooden (no surprise there). Whitaker probably did the best he could. Biel definitely offered a brave performance and appeared to really pour herself into her role, although seemed to lose momentum in the end. Bottom line: don't go into Powder Blue with too high expectations.

The comparisons to Crash (a great film) are inevitable. Powder Blue has a stellar cast in a story that is really a collection of stories that sometimes interconnect.

Forest Whitaker, Jessica Biel, Ray Liotta, Lisa Kudrow, Patrick Swayze et al. populate the dark world of Powder Blue. From the first scenes, we realize that this world is filled with crime, violence and poverty. This world becomes a "character" in the sense that it has as much (or more) to do with the motivations and actions of the characters as other characters do.

The first character introduced is a man, played by Forest Whitaker, who is living on the edge of desperation and hope. As the stories develop, we find that most of the characters are similarly dealing with issues of mortality and day-to-day negotiations with an uncaring world. Everyone is hurting.

Most viewers can probably identify with the sense of desperation that pervades the movie, either because they have experienced it or because they were in situations that could have taken them down a dark path. Thus, the film has an inherent honesty. Some viewers may not want to visit the demons that this film will resuscitate. But there are positive moments and acts of kindness in Powder Blue. For some viewers these moments may "redeem" the movie.

Overall, the acting is excellent. Although I thought Jessica Biel embodied her role as a mother who strips for a living, I felt that a few of her scenes were less convincing.