bsilvey

"Blithe Spirit" has Rex Harrison in his acerbic bachelor mode unable to get rid of either of his dead wives. Now if that's not a knock-out premise, I don't know what is, yet this film fell flat for me. This came out the same year as David Lean's other 1946 release, "Brief Encounter," but it doesn't have any of that film's elegance and style. "Blithe Spirit" feels pretty anonymous from a filmmaking standpoint. However, this movie's strength is its writing. The screenplay is terrific, and all of the lines are delivered with such throw away dryness that I have the feeling I could watch this again and find everything funnier than I did the first time.

No quibbles with the performances, though no one is asked to stretch him/herself much. My favorite performance probably came from Kay Hammond, playing Harrison's first dead wife. Others rave about Margaret Rutherford, but I found her a bit too mannered and spastic.

I love that movies like this won Oscars for special effects. They're so quaint and fake, but you know the artists had to be so inventive to pull stuff like this off in the pre-computer era.

My most negative comments concern the quality of the DVD itself. I wholeheartedly agree with previous commenters on the horrible color and sound quality on display here. I wish the film had been in black and white, because the copy I saw was washed out and ugly. And my wife and I missed about the first 20 minutes of dialogue because of bad sound.

Grade: B-

I wouldn't have thought from previews that "Roger Dodger" would have an ounce of romance in it, but it does. The scene between Elizabeth Berkeley, Jennifer Beals (both very good by the way--who would have thought?) and Roger's nephew is incredibly sweet and touching, but without being overly sentimental or cloying. Campbell Scott gives a fabulous performance as Roger, illustrating how broad his acting range is.

My only complaint with the movie is its incredibly annoying cinematography. All of the compositions are cluttered and claustrophobic, sometimes so much so that the main focus of the shot is entirely obscured. And this trend toward hand-held cameras needs to be stopped. I think directors feel that hand-held cinematography lends a gritty, realistic point of view to their films, but more frequently it serves only to distract.

But a fairly minor quibble about an otherwise very good film.

Grade: A-

No one wanted to hate "Phone Booth" more than me, since I absolutely despise Joel Schumacher and almost every movie he's ever made. I've actually taken the trouble to think about who my least favorite director of all time is, and Schumacher won the booby prize. So blame it on my incredibly low expectations, but I really liked this movie. I agree with the other people here that the script is weak. No effort is made to develop characters--it seems as if the screenwriter began to add dimension to Forest Whitaker's cop and then thought better of it. But do you really want a lot of script in a movie like this? The film makers were wise to keep the running time to a swift 80 minutes, and while I didn't think they were especially clever in the set up or execution, it was competent enough to hold my interest.

I was pleasantly surprised by Colin Farrell's performance. He's great, and does much more with what he's given than the material probably warrants. I watched this by myself, but was still slightly embarrassed to find myself moved by his speech in which he confesses all of his sins to the assembled crowd. Even as I'm writing this review, I can't believe I didn't find this display hokier, but I guess I was in the right mood at the time.

This movie reminded me of the kind of "B" thriller they might have made in the 40's--slick, quick and not especially intended to impress. Frequently, because those films aimed low, they scored high, as does "Phone Booth" for me.

Grade: B+