Movie Reviews and News from Vince Patton

Happy Endings Fails Material and Great Performances

Happy Endings, the latest ensemble dramedy from director Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex and Bounce), showcases some of the finest acting one will see from the world of independent film this year. The film features actors on the rise, those who may never have a better moment, and those who have fallen from grace and have taken full advantage of the opportunity Roos and the studios have given them. Roos wisely gives his actors a wide range of emotions to portray and nearly all of the actors rise to the occasion. In fact, some such as Steve Coogan and Jesse Bradford deliver the best performances of their careers. Its three semi-connected stories include a rejuvenated Tom Arnold falling for a gold-digging Maggie Gyllenhaal after she's successfully seduced his gay son; Lisa Kudrow as Mamie, a counselor who is being blackmailed with the truth that she's given up a child for adoption; and Steve Coogan as Mamie's gay stepbrother whose partner Gil is the sperm donor of their lesbian friends' child.

The film is not without its startling revelations and plot twists. A major crisis occurs in all of the stories; some situations even rise to the level of the bizarre; all while the level of acting remains exceedingly high. Tom Arnold, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Lisa Kudrow are particularly effective. Arnold, a recovering alcoholic in real life, is nearly forty pounds lighter here. He portrays a middle-fortyish millionaire with such cockiness and bravura that his distant relationship with his son, Jason Ritter, feels as real as the latter's own resemblance to his real-life father, the late John Ritter. Maggie Gyllenhaal is wonderfully seductive and sly. She doesn't so much possess menace as a potent mixture of frivolity and calculation. Lisa Kudrow, light years from her mannered and restrained work on HBO's moribund series The Comeback, has a particularly poignant moment when she counsels another character who is contemplating having an abortion. Her eyes tell the story of a woman tortured by her own truth yet locked in a world that won't allow her to reveal her pain.

Although Roos deserves high marks for assembling such a diverse group of capable actors, he diminishes any dramatic momentum the film gains with captions that complete major blocks of narrative for the audience. The captions tell parts of the story that could have been easily been told with the rest of the film and annoyingly communicate who knows whos thoughts about characters and the convoluted situations they find themselves in. One can almost imagine Roos and the writers in a room watching tapes of the film brainstorming what clever commentary they should add about each of the characters. The captions, which extend the running time at least an additional fifteen minutes, are laced with sardonic wit and humor that will likely generate laughs, but the situations the characters find themselves in demand anything but such. Roos has gathered the best ingredients for a fine ensemble piece about choice, love, life, sex in the post-millennium culture, and the lack of clarity of it all, but ultimately undercuts the true power of his own creations.

Grade: C+

Happy Endings is playing at the Baxter Avenue Theatres.

News and Notes about Oscar Contenders

Ang Lee has been tapped to direct Brokeback Mountain, which is based on a novel by Annie Proulx. Proulx won the Pulitzer Prize for The Shipping News. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal will star in the film.

Bill Murray will likely be nominated for an Oscar for his performance in Broken Flowers, which is set to be released in September. The film about a man who discovers he has a son and then sets on a trek to find him by reuniting with each of the five women in his life. Jessica Lange, Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, and Jeffrey Wright also star.

Woody Allen has apparently directed his best film in years in Match Point. It's reminding industry insiders of Crimes and Misdemeanors. The film is set to be released in the fall.

Steven Zaillian, who won an Oscar for Best Screenplay Adaptation, is directing All the King's Men, a remake of the 1949 classic starring Broderick Crawford.

Steven Gaghan, a Louisville native who won an Oscar for his screenplay of Traffic, will direct Syriana. Steven Soderbergh, who directed Traffic, Erin Brockovich, The Limey, and The Underneath, is serving as a producer.

Terrence Malick, who directed The Thin Red Line and Badlands, will direct The New World. The historical epic about John Smith is set to be released in November.

Jamie Foxx is slated to star in Jarhead, a Desert Storm tale. American Beauty and The Road to Perdition director Sam Mendes will direct.

Look for Universal Studios to re-release Cinderella Man, which was released in June. Studio executives were disappointed in the film's box office sales and believe they have an Oscar contender.

Paul Haggis, who was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, could receive a nomination for his Crash screenplay.