Film Review: Seeking Asian Female (2013)

The title of this heartfelt documentary—Seeking Asian Female—is not descriptive of the finished film. Rather, it’s descriptive of the original impetus for filmmaker Debbie Lum’s project, which evolved into something very different from what she had set out to do.

An Asian women herself, Lum starts off the film with recollections of her own personal experiences as a target of white men’s leering attraction, otherwise known as yellow fever. As an American women, she wasn’t amused by white men’s impolite staring and foolish pick up lines (in Chinese, Japanese or Korean, no less). This phenomenon, according to Lum, had always made her uncomfortable, or ever disdainful. Curiously, she married a white man, but still set out to find such men by answering personal advertisements they placed on the Internet and convincing them to speak on camera.

One of these men, Steven, opens up to her to an extent much greater than she had expected. An aging cashier at a parking garage, who lives hand-to-mouth in a small, cluttered rental apartment above a store, he shares his inner passions and romantic hopes on camera with disarming honesty, showing Lum the meticulous records he had kept of his years-long quest of seeking Asian females.

The result is a gritty documentary about a 60-year-old man in search of a young Asian woman to share his life with, and what happens when he finds a much younger Chinese woman and brings her to American. The camerawork is up close and personal, and the couple’s story is told honestly, fairly and without hiding the most unpleasant, or even ugly moments.

Lum commendably produced, directed and filmed this documentary on her own. She managed to gain Steven’s trust as he searched for his dream Asian woman, and then Sandy’s trust, as well, during the couple’s difficult initiation into a shared life marred by severe incompatibility and near poverty.

On top of this incredible fit of multi-task filmmaking, Lum managed to serve as the couple’s interpreter, mediator and lay marriage counselor. As the story progresses, Lum genuinely agonizes—on screen!—whether her evolving role as the couple’s on-call conflict resolution expert tainted her qualifications as an objective observer and damaged her documentary’s true-life veracity. Did she inadvertently stop Sandy from breaking up with Steven and returning to China? Did she unfairly fail to translate Sandy’s harsh statements for Steven and thus kept his illusions alive? Was she reporting their story, or manipulating it?

But what Lum does not seem to realize, at least not explicitly on screen, is that she herself has become an integral part of the story: A born American of Asian descent, by virtue of her unique acquaintance with both cultures, she is uniquely positioned to help this ill-matching couple to bridge the immense cultural divide between them and prove that love does have a chance–even against all odds.

In the end, through Lum’s incredible sincerity (both as a filmmaker and as an accidental yet true friend to Steven and Sandy), this documentary ends up redeeming all those pesky white men, who had always bothered Lum with their yellow feverish advances, by making an unlikely hero out of the movie’s quirky male subject, Steven. The other oft-mentioned, disdainful assumption directed at these relationships is that the women are motivated by desire for green cards, not for the men they marry. But as Lum’s unforgiving, always present camera shows, Sandy not only gives up her Chinese family and friends, her old life and freedom, her mother tongue and culture, but also gives Steven her heart. Truly. This is a wonderful documentary. Watch it!

Avraham Azrieli is the author of ten published books, most recently “Deborah Rising” (HarperCollins 2016) a novel portraying the dramatic rise of the first woman to lead a nation in human history. www.AzrieliBooks.com

Book Review: Gone Girl - A Novel (2014)

This is your next read—if you want to be the nail-biting voyeur to a “normal” relationship between a married couple, which evolves into evil. Imagine watching a harmless-looking larvae gradually turn into the worst nightmare-inducing monsters, and you get the picture of Gone Girl.

It starts normally, lovingly even. Nick says: “When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. The shape of it, to begin with.” And Amy recalls their first meeting: “I smile because he’s gorgeous. ... His name is Nick. I love it. It makes him seem nice, and regular, which he is.”

From here, Gillian Flynn takes us on a journey of peeling off the mask of normalcy from this love story and finding a reality that, had it not crept into our heads so subtly, would have made us scream. Mainly because Flynn is so crafty a writer, we forget to scream as we turn the pages in a process of becoming increasingly horrified. Still, at the same time, we do believe that all this could really happen.

Gone Girl is Flynn’s third novel. It is excellent. We look forward to her next breezy, normal tale of absolute horror from her. Enjoy!

Book Review: Killing Patton (2014)

Readers who were fascinated, tickled, or outraged by the previous books in this series (Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, and Killing Jesus) will find this new O'Reilly installment -- Killing Patton -- no less fascinating, tickling, or outraging.

Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II’s Most Audacious General was written by Bill O’Reilly in partnership with Martin Dugard. O'Reilly is a leading public voice in the US as anchor of The O'Reilly Factor, the highest-rated cable news show in the country, as well as the author of a widely syndicated newspaper column.

General George S. Patton, Jr., one of America's more decorated military leaders, died shortly after his fame reached new heights with his decisive and well-photographed victory over the Nazis forces in Europe. Whether he did, or did not, aspire to a political future and elected office (as did his commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower) Patton's untimely demise in an odd car accident left many wondering about its true 'accidental' nature.

Almost seventy years later, suspicions continue to simmer about this extraordinary man's death. Was it an act of assassination? In his review of Killing Patton, Senator John McCain points out that Patton's "outspokenness about his controversial views on postwar security, particularly his animosity toward the Soviets, our erstwhile allies, might have made him a target for assassination."

But whether one believes in conspiracy, incompetency or fortuity, this book provides a lively and historically accurate picture of the dramatic last months of WWII and the events surrounding Patton’s anti-climactic death. The book leaves us with no doubt that many powerful players harbored an eager death wish for the crusty blunt General. But whether his enemies got lucky or got away with murder is a question this book presents with ample facts to support either conclusion.

Hence, readers will enjoy Killing Patton as an excellent historical murder mystery, or as a well-told story of a great warrior whose luck ran out just as he was about to move on to fighting the next great war for his beloved nation.

Avraham Azrieli is the author of ten published books, most recently “Deborah Rising” (HarperCollins 2016) a novel portraying the dramatic rise of the first woman to lead a nation in human history. www.AzrieliBooks.com

Film Review: Quants: The Alchemists of Wall Street (2010)

The word “Quants” refers to the mathematical wizards and computer programmers whose brilliant work product forms the DNA, the wiring, the plumbing, and often the automated decision-making process that generates the myriad, constant, countless trades that collectively we call “our global financial system.” More specifically, this documentary opens a window into the bowels of the global financial beast, its innermost workings, and the purported causes of the 2008 financial crisis and the resulting Great Recession. Besides, it provides a well-explained premonition about the next brewing crisis that could be ignited by the vast networks of computer-driven financial trading.

Quants: The Alchemists of Wall Street is a documentary done with great subtlety. It features soft-spoken geniuses and intersperses artistic scenes of mundane daily routines. Yet, like a well-done horror flick, this documentary’s seemingly pedestrian atmosphere takes us into the underworld of those who brought upon a global disaster and ruined millions of lives.

This documentary is especially good because it avoids the shrills of hyperbole accusations, inflated political declarations, and futile attempts at witch medicine. It is reminiscent of Hannah Arendt’s “The Banality of Evil.” It introduces us to those who invented and developed the complex mathematical models that were supposed to quantify–and predict–human economic behaviors. Between the lines, there’s a wary warning here about how those same methods are now being used by a new generation of quants to generate the financial technological wonder that allows instant trading in various financial products that crisscross the worlds continents.

In its essence, Quants tells us how Wall Street no longer has either a wall or a street, but rather exists in the borderless, lawless, and timeless world of the Internet. In that world, computers use mathematical algorithms to make automated instantaneous trades at the speed of light, where the only criteria is the spread between purchase price and sale price, while the actual value of the underlying product is irrelevant. It is an efficient, rapid and exciting way to make or lose large sums, all within the made-up bubble of the unconfined worldwide web. But the consequences of this virtual way of doing business might be very real and bloody painful.

Quants is an excellent documentary. Not a dull moment. Watch it!

* Avraham Azrieli writes novels and screenplays. www.AzrieliBooks.com

Film Review - The Judge (2014

Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) is a hard-charging, take-no-prisoners, win-at-all-cost lawyer. And, yes, all the aforementioned clichés do apply, but somehow the line isn’t crossed into cheesy. Nor is it crossed when he must—after years of estrangement—return to his all-American mid-western hometown for his mother’s funeral and confront a disapproving father, a festering family wound, and his high-school sweetheart (a single mom whose daughter may, or may not, be his daughter). To top off this kitchen sink overflowing with chewed-up plotlines, Hank suddenly has to use his courtroom skills to defend his father, Judge Palmer (Robert Duvall), who is accused of a deadly hit-and-run. The prosecutor (Billy Bob Thornton) is determined to get a conviction because—yes, you guessed—he hates Hank, who had beaten him and gotten a guilty client off the hook years ago.

Now, in hands less capable than Director David Dobkin, who assembled a highly skilled cast to work with, The Judge would have been a dud. But instead, this movie works the magic. Robert Downey Jr. is totally convincing across a challenging spectrum of emotions. Robert Duvall is incredible as a tough judge, a disciplinarian father (struggling with regrets), and a grieving husband who is facing his own death with great dignity. And Billy Bob Thornton does his disappearing trick where you forget it’s Billy Bob and take him at his role. Also delivering top-notch performance are Vincent D'Onofrio as Hank’s older brother, Glen, Jeremy Strong as the younger (and mentally disabled) brother, Dale, and Vera Farmiga as the ditched high school girlfriend who went on to make something of herself without losing that small-town sweetness.

If I had to bet on Oscars, I’d put my money on Jeremy Strong (who strikes a perfect balance in portraying a mentally disable grown man) and Robert Duvall who, interestingly enough, got his first major role as a mentally disabled "Boo Radley" in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). The screenplay, by Nick Schenk Bill Dubuque, also deserves high praise for building up the emotional pace of the movie to a most-satisfying conclusion and for connecting all the threads of story and human subplots quite beautifully.

The Judge is a wonderful drama that delivers suspense, conflict and familial emotions and hurts that would feel painfully familiar to many of us. Excellent!

Avraham Azrieli writes books and screenplays. His website is: www.AzrieliBooks.com

Book Review: Mysteries of Judaism by Israel Drazin

Mysteries of Judaism by Israel Drazin

Gefen (2014)

ISBN: 978-9652296511

Book Review: Mysteries of Judaism by Israel Drazin

In “Mysteries of Judaism,” prolific author Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin uncovers fascinating aspects of Jewish holidays, beliefs, and attitudes. Brims with deep and wide knowledge of Torah, Mishnah, Talmud and later Jewish writings, Dr. Drazin’s conversational style offers a frank and readable discussion of otherwise complex—and possibly troubling—subjects.

“Mysteries of Judaism” is divided into three parts: The evolving nature of each of the Jewish holidays from biblical times to today, the gradual transformation of Jewish laws, beliefs, and customs under succeeding rabbinical generations, and the onerous regression of the Jewish woman’s role and status under rabbinical laws.

This seminal work tackles a fundamental yet seldom discussed phenomenon in Jewish life – the continuing process of substantive change that had lasted from antiquity through modern times. In clear and dispassionate detail this book shows that observant Jews today practice a massive set of religious laws that were not, as many would believe, handed down by God on Mount Sinai, and were not, as most rabbis would insist, wholly rooted in the Holy Torah of biblical times; rather, Orthodox Judaism of today is an amalgamation of rules and regulations that have accumulated over centuries through rabbinical creativity.

While some of the ideas presented in this book might appear radical at first, the author’s breadth of knowledge allows him to substantiate each contention in unassailable traditional Jewish sources. As the author of a series of books covering the widely accepted “Onkelos” interpretation of the Torah, as well as an expansive, multi-volume study of Maimonides, Rabbi Dr. Drazin is uniquely positioned in both skills and knowledge to take on the challenge of uncovering the “Mysteries of Judaism.”

In summary, this highly credible scholarly work is easy to read, thoroughly interesting, and genuinely thought provoking.

* Avraham Azrieli writes novels and screenplays.  www. AzrieliBooks.com

Book Review: Sycamore Row – Grisham Brings Back Jake Brigance

Sycamore Row
By John Grisham
Doubleday (2014)
ISBN: 978-0385537131

Book Review: Sycamore Row – Grisham Brings Back Jake Brigance

Sycamore Row by John Grisham is a patiently constructed novel with deep moral conflicts, multilayered characters, and carefully developed storylines that keep intertwining until everything culminate in a final verdict. This is not a violent page-turner or a fast-moving action suspense, such as The firm or other Grisham novels, but a fully developed legal drama with deep roots in the good old South.

Sycamore Row picks up where Grisham’s very first novel left off. A Time to Kill (1988) was famously written by Grisham when he was still a young attorney, who rose up at dawn to put in an hour or two of writing before starting his lawyerly day.  The result was a story that combined complex legal, moral and human issues seamlessly, a novel many considered to be Grisham’s best book. Sycamore Row does justice to its prequel as it delivers equivalent intensity within a similar social unease in the context of whites and blacks facing injustice, adjudication and redemption.

Attorney Jack Brigance is back with the new case, almost as unpopular as the Hailey murder case in A Time to Kill. In Sycamore Row, he is tasked with defending the handwritten will of the wealthiest citizen of Ford County, Seth Hubbard, who killed himself after a long battle with cancer. The handwritten will cancels an earlier will, prepared by a prestigious law firm, that left his fortune to his children and grandchildren. The last minute, handwritten will bequeaths the bulk of Hubbard’s fortune to his black maid. The ensuing battle brings onto Grisham's wide canvas a large number of characters, including the unlikely heiress and her many family members, the disinherited family of the deceased, and many lawyers representing various parties and interests. We’re back at the Clanton courthouse before Judge Atlee, where the scars from last year’s Hailey trial have not yet healed.

Grisham is very good at weaving social issues into legal and human conflicts. In Sycamore Row, he does it again with issues of wealth and racism in the context of southern white-black history. The large cast of characters might be hard to follow throughout the long story, but the main players are well-developed and as alive and human as the characters in A Time to Kill. Sycamore Row takes us on a detailed journey, from the moment of the suicide through the discovery of the various legal documents and shocking facts (before and during the trial). The story leads to a satisfying conclusion that ties up closely with the painful and shameful past of injustice (and worse) in the deep South, going back all the way to the era that followed actual slavery with crimes no less horrendous.

In summary, for lovers of legal drama and trial fiction, Sycamore Road is as good as it gets. For astute readers, some surprises may not be wholly surprising, and to readers with professional legal background, some courtroom developments might seem unrealistic. But this is no more than nitpicking because, in all fairness, a real-life trial transcript will never make for an exciting novel, which must move along without getting stuck in the mind-numbing mud of legal humdrum. With Sycamore Row, John Grisham keeps up the pace, builds up the suspense, and makes us think hard and feel deeply while we turn the pages. True to the reputation he has built since A Time To Kill, Grisham is at the top of his game.

* Avraham Azrieli writes novels and screenplays.  www. AzrieliBooks.com

Book Review: Sailing Alone Around the World: First Solo Circumnavigator Tells His Story.

Sailing Alone Around The World
By Joshua Slocum
New York Century Co. (1901) (Pan American edition. Illustrated by Thomas Forgarty and George Varian.) (Currently available from various publishers. )
ISBN: 978-0486203263
Subject(s): Memoir, adventure, sailing.


Book Review: Sailing Alone Around the World - First Solo Circumnavigator Tells His Story.

Sailing Alone Around the World is a firsthand autobiographical story of Joshua Slocum, the first man to sail singlehandedly around the world. The book, first published in 1901, would be considered an “old book" if not for the fact that, by any other measure, it is a timeless story. Slocum’s personal words, illustrations, and maps combine to create a literary gem that serves as a memoir of adventure travel, a motivational and spiritual guide, and a lesson in modesty and resilience.

Sailing Alone Around the World is the story of an aging sea captain who, in 1893, found himself out of work, out of prospects, out of plans, and out of dreams, but somehow managed to put himself back to work, create his own prospect, make a daring plan, and pursue a new dream. In doing so, Slocum not only succeeded in realizing his seemingly impossible dream, but also succeeded in turning himself into a record-setting global hero, whose voyage was followed closely by newspapers in every country in the world. His is a timeless story of courage, of defying the odds and the naysayers, and of changing the world of sailing—and of dreaming—forever.

Before 1895, Joshua Slocum was a professional ship captain in an era of transition from sailing ships to steam ships. Like many commercial captains of that generation, he took his family along on the ships he captained while delivering cargo from port to port in different parts of the world. Rather than be away from his family for months or years at the time, his wife and children traveled with him. But in an era that life expectancy hovered somewhere in the mid-forties, Slocum at fifty found himself unemployed and without prospects of future employment. An acquaintance gifted him the decrepit remains of a small boat called the Spray. It was a 37-foot oyster sloop, whose wood had rotten away and left little of its original structure and none of its seaworthiness.

Slocum, an endlessly curios self-educated maritime expert had a good working knowledge of shipbuilding, which he applied to restoring the Spray, bringing it back to its proud, seagoing past. The boat was designed for coastal work, not for ocean crossing, but that did not stop Slocum. After he sailed the Spray locally up and down the New England coast, a publisher suggested a journey around the world—alone! No one has ever done that, let along in a small sailboat, but Slocum was undeterred.

Sailing Alone Around the World chronicles Slocum’s three-year journey, beginning in 1895.  He crossed the Atlantic to Gibraltar, then back west to South America, struggled valiantly through the traitorous Strait of Magellan, and sailed across the Pacific. He paid visits to various islands, visited New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, and then crossed the Atlantic for the third time, arriving back in Massachusetts with his sailing log at over 46,000 miles.

Slocum writes in a conversational, unassuming voice of a man who knows what he is doing and faces the elements with even temper and a cool mind. His descriptions and illustrations of fascinating foreign lands, many of them unexplored at that time, as well as sea and land animals, are priceless. The challenges that nature threw in his way across the vast oceans nearly destroyed him and the Spray many times. He faced pirates, savages, thieves, and a variety of mechanical and technical breakdowns, each potentially fatal. Defying all odds, he returned home to write the book while becoming a household name and serving as a role model for countless courageous sailors who risk their lives circumnavigating the globe even today.

The book’s fluid prose is clear and straightforward so that even the modern reader quickly forgets how long ago it was written. Between the lines, we can tell that Slocum was a humorous man, who took life seriously, but didn’t take himself too seriously. He risked his life repeatedly in a pursuit of a dream, but he writes about it with no pretentions. On the contrary, he makes it sound as if anyone could have done it.

An amusing anecdote tells of Slocum’s meeting with the popular, long-time president of the South African Republic, Paul Kruger, a man of German descent who was deeply religious. When Slocum was introduced to President Kruger as someone who was sailing around the world, the president became upset and insisted that Slocum was selling on the world, not around it. There followed a meeting with the president's team of scientists who were busy proving (at the president’s insistance) that the world was indeed flat and not round as most of people knew. With his typical humor, which got him through other tight spots throughout his long journey, Slocum made light of the disagreement and agrees to consider the world flat while he was on land. Thus earning President Kroger's affection, Slocum enjoyed extensive sightseeing trips across the magnificent South African topographical wonders, vibrant wildlife, and fascinating tribal cultures.

Even when describing horrendous conditions and near-death experiences at sea, the author tells his story matter-of-factly, explaining how he contended with each crisis in a practical and logical way. When he describes how he fell off his boat during a violent storm while trying to change sails, he mentions casually the fact that he had never learned how to swim. “What is the point?” He asks. In other words, it was the opinion of this lifelong seaman that, when a person falls off in the middle of the ocean, he is better off drowning quickly than treading water for long time only to suffer a slow death. Considering that his trip took place before radio or any of the modern communication devices that and can alert rescuers the distress, his logic appears sound, though extreme.

In summary, Sailing Alone Around the World is a fascinating story, well written, and suspenseful. It provides a snapshot of an old world, barely on the verge of modernity, yet it creates a panoramic snapshot that provides unique perspective and a spectrum of details without comparison. For those who love sailing, or any kind of extreme adventure, this book is obviously a must. Yet its appeal would be strong for anyone who appreciates human stories of overcoming incredible odds and setting a new path for others to follow. Reading Slocum’s Sailing Alone Around the World is as close as it gets to the literary equivalent of taking a journey around the world.

Avraham Azrieli writes novels and screenplays. www.AzrieliBooks.com

Film Review: The Big Wedding (2013): De Niro, Keaton, Sarandon, and Heigl Deliver a Modern Family Farce

The Big Wedding (2013)

89 min; Comedy

Tagline: A long-divorced couple fakes being married as their family unites for a wedding.

Director: Justin Zackham

Writers: Justin Zackham (screenplay), Jean-Stéphane Bron (motion picture "Mon frère se marie")

Stars: Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, Katherine Heigl, Ben Barnes, Topher Grace

Film Review: The Big Wedding (2013): De Niro, Keaton, Sarandon, and Heigl Deliver a Modern Family Farce

The Big Wedding is part comedy, part parody and part jeopardy game of who is who, who is with whom, and who the hell could have so much fun when your character's backstory foretells a tragedy. Yet, The Big Wedding somehow manages to deliver big laughs, deep sighs, and even a few wet tears. And it's no wonder, as the film is basically a ruckus and joyful get-together of mostly A-list stars on a quickie break from serious roles.

The patriarch of the groom’s family, Don, is played by Robert De Niro, who recaps his Fokker Family role, but without the paranoid spy gear. Here, De Niro is an aging sculptor who, while not shown actually sculpting anything, sports the expected long locks, facial hair and behavioral oddities, perhaps resulting from the stress of keeping all the character’s fictional balls in the air: He is (1) the father of a young physician, Jared (Topher Grace), who still lives at home and is abstinent from sex (unlike his father), (2) the father of an estranged daughter, Lyla (Katherine Heigl), who loves/hates him, (3) the adoptive father of Alejandro (Ben Barnes), who is about to marry the daughter of the deeply disliked couple next door, (4) the ex-husband of his children’s mother, Ellie (Diane Keaton), a woman he cheated on with her best friend, yet he still loves her (can you blame him?), (5) the lover, in a long  cohabitating relationship, of another beautiful woman, Bebe (Susan Sarandon) who is Don’s ex-wife’s ex-best-friend, and who helped him finish raising the children and complete a lot of house renovations, (6) a recovering alcoholic who still drinks, (7) the host of the wedding, including Alejandro’s biological mother, Madonna (Patricia Rae), a devout Catholic whose abhorrence of divorce forces De Niro to also pretend that he is (8) still married to his ex-wife. If for nothing else, it’s worthwhile to watch The Big Wedding just for the opportunity to see De Niro juggle all these conflicting roles without rolling his eyes (on camera) even once.

Diane Keaton as Ellie plays the betrayed wife, who had left Don after he cheated on her with her best friend, Bebe. Ellie has been away from her children, from the house of her dreams, and from the husband she loved. Now she's back for the wedding, and upon her arrival, she surreptitiously watches her husband fooling around with his live-in lover (her ex-best friend) in the kitchen. But despite all that potentially enraging past events, throughout the movie Diane Keaton seems happy to the point of constant giggling. If there is any bitterness or resentment, we never see it. She is warm to her ex-husband and to her ex-best friend and tries to make everybody as giddily happy as she manages to be. Perhaps Keaton had so much fun making this movie with such a terrific group of people that she couldn’t bother with her character’s painful past or otherwise muster the appearance of hostility towards those who had basically destroyed her perfect life.

The deepest feelings expressed in this film belong to Lyla (Katherine Heigl), the estranged daughter who had taken her mother's side and distanced herself from her father (and is now experiencing a breakup in her own marriage). Heigl’s emotional portrayal of this complex character reliably conveys the complex array of feelings a daughter experiences towards such complex parents. Yet she manages to go along with the over-the-top spirit of this movie, with dramatic fainting and projectile vomiting. As always, Heigl is a class act.

Susan Sarandon (as Bebe) similarly delivers an expert performance in a complicated and contradictory role that pulls in different directions. The real kicker, though, is Robin Williams, a funnyman whose brilliant potential seems to be constrained here by scripted dialogue and tight directing, barely allowing him to show his incredible talent in a role of Father Moinighan, an alcoholic, racist, and cynical priest. One can only imagine what Williams would have done with this role if he were only allowed to go wild.

Alejandro, played by Ben Barnes, is the adopted son turned Harvard graduate and multi-linguist, who is fluent in Spanish, English, Chinese and much more. The young Barnes manages to deliver an excellent portrayal of a character who could have appeared silly. He is charming, emotional, and funny. His fiancé, Missy (Amanda Seyfried) also has to balance conflicting pressures, especially in contending with her parents, Muffin (Christine Ebersole) and Barry (David Rasche), who are rich/poor, snobby/pathetic, and righteous/sex sinners. Seyfried capably goes along with the insanity underlying this story.

In summary, The Big Wedding is a farce of modern life with every known complication thrown in for good measure. Moviegoers should expect a riotous yet improbably story delivered by a group of incredibly good actors having fun on the screen. In fact, they're having so much fun that it’s hard to suspend disbelief about the huge bags of skeletons that each one of them is supposed to be schlepping around. But in the end, it doesn’t really matter as The Big Wedding is meant to be as good as fresh popcorn—light and airy, fun and crunchy, and not intended for the haughty, discriminating connoisseur.

Avraham Azrieli writes novels and screenplays. www.AzrieliBooks.com

Film Review: Centurion (2010): Michael Fassbender and Olga Kurylenko in Mesmerizing Roman Era Action

Film Review: Centurion (2010)
 97 min  -  Action | Adventure | Drama  -  30 July 2010 (USA)
Tagline: A splinter group of Roman soldiers fight for their lives behind enemy lines after their legion is decimated in a devastating guerrilla attack.
Director: Neil Marshall
Writer: Neil Marshall
Stars: Michael Fassbender, Dominic West, Olga Kurylenko

Film Review: Centurion (2010): Michael Fassbender and Olga Kurylenko in Mesmerizing Roman Era Action

For those who love historic action films from Spartacus to Gladiator and 300, Centurion is a wonderful addition to a genre that gets better with time as special effects technology advances to stunning heights.

What Centurion does better than most historic films is maintaining a fair balance. The common inclination among moviemakers is to portray one side as the bad guys and the other as the good guys, making life simpler for viewers at the cost of making films that aren’t lifelike. In reality, as we know, both sides in any human conflict—from major political conflicts to religious, business and personal conflicts—are convinced of their own moral high ground. Centurion takes an unusually brave approach by forgoing moral clarity. It walks a fine line between an honestly brutal portrayal of Rome as an expansionist, violent and oppressive empire, on the one hand, and the individual soldier’s personal struggle for honor, fierce loyalty to his comrades, and human yearning for survival, on the other hand.

Michael Fassbender in the lead role as Centurion Quintus Dias manages to perform in a breathtaking spectrum of scenes, from superb fighting action to physical suffering to emotional and psychological ups and downs. In his own way, Centurion Dias redeems Roman evildoing by being such a fine person, who tries to do the right thing under terrible circumstances and against conflicting loyalties.

Writer and Director Neil Marshall shows an uncanny ability to deliver almost non-stop violence in a series of cruel and bloody fights—most of which are face to face and murderously intimate—but do it all without either side making a clear case of good or bad. The invading Roman oppressors become the hunted underdogs, and the local rebels take on the inhuman methods of their foreign enemy—and even surpass it. The occasional voiceover of Centurion Dias telling his story gives the movie a personal tone of reflection, anchoring the disparate action scene in an underlying story of a man who is clearly decent and honorable.

Supporting Fassbender/Centurion Dias as his fellow Roman soldiers are a capable group of actors, including Liam Cunningham and Noel Clarke. Imogen Poots does an excellent job as a castaway witch who lives in the woods and has no loyalties but to whom she choses (guess who...).

But it is Olga Kurylenko, as Etain the mute, who is truly Centurion Dias’s nemesis—a role she performs with great skill. At times she is enchanting, at times frightening, and always she is spellbinding. Without a single line of dialogue, Kurylenko dominates the screen not only with her bursts of violence and deadly capable fighting, but with her body language, facial expressions, and mannerism. It is fair to say that Kurylenko’s eyes speak louder and clearer than the words of many of the other characters. And with a few facts sprinkled here and there by other characters, Marshall gives us enough information to understand why Etain does what she does and why it’s justified.

Special mention goes to the film’s cinematography, by Sam McCurdy as director of photography, which takes us from the expected—ancient England in harsh winter (or is it their summer—who can tell?) with wide vistas of a beautiful landscape to the minute details of primitive life of that harsh time. The visual experience is intense to the point of enabling the viewers to feel the cold, smell the stench, and touch the roughness of both garments and skin. Ilan Eshkeri composed the music, which ties it all together at a quality rarely heard by moviegoers, lifting us to emotional highs and sinking us to desperate lows along this journey of courage, cruelty, and the extremes of human frailty and strength.

In summary, Centurion delivers a classic historic film with all components working together like clockwork. It is an entertaining and often surprising action story with an excellent cast and a well-deserved (and well-executed) climax, topped by an unexpected yet logical twist at the end—which begets a satisfying resolution for the unquestionable hero, Centurion Dias. Highly recommended!

Avraham Azrieli writes novels and screenplays. www.AzrieliBooks.com

Film Review: The Human Stain (2003): Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman and Ed Harris Bring a Phillip Roth Masterpiece to Life

The Human Stain (2003)

106 min  -  Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline: A former college professor, hiding a 50-year-old secret of his race, sweetens the bitterness of his destroyed career with an unlikely romance with a younger woman, haunted by her own dark past and a malicious ex husband.

Director: Robert Benton

Writers: Philip Roth (novel), Nicholas Meyer (screenplay)

Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris, Gary Sinise

Film Review: The Human Stain (2003): Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman and Ed Harris Bring Phillip Roth Masterpiece to Life

This film takes on a daunting, herculean task: to adapt Philip Roth’s novel, The Human Stain, to the screen. To successfully adapt such a complex, emotional and tragic story, painful choices must be made by the screenwriter, the director, and everyone else down the line of production. This process of adaptation from page to screen requires wise choices, creating a tower of cards, with each card representing an artistic choice. A single bad choice, therefore, is like a weak card that brings the whole thing crashing down.

Adaptation choices start with the cutting of a painstakingly detailed story, as it appears on the many pages of a novel, to a quick, under-two-hours visual dramatization in a series of scenes. In other words, a plot must be created by cherry picking actions, conflicts, words, and images from the novel (or invented outside the source material when necessary). Then come the casting choices which, like settings and locations (but much worse) can make or break the spirit of the visual rendition and cripple the film before the camera even turns on. And then there are the performance choices, subtle but not less fateful, which actors and director make about the manner of the actual acting in each scene, both physical and vocal, aiming to maximize the effect of the cast’s combined talents.

From generalities to specifics, the adaptation of The Human Stains to the screen represents many painful choices.

First, the plot, adapted from the novel, is faithful overall to the written story. Those familiar with the novel will notice variations and omissions, which might be missed but do not diminish the overall effect of the story.

The main voice telling the story is that of Roth’s creation, the author Nathan Zukerman, played by Gary Sinise. From a storytelling respect, this works very well as the story goes back and forth in time, sometimes decades ago, to inject pieces of information needed for the viewer’s understanding of the events—past and present. Zukerman’s unique voice, oh so memorable and familiar to Roth's readers, is here. Sinise’s acting, as always, is excellent and sharp. But the original sin here—casting—takes away much of what could have been. Zukerman is supposed to be aging and infirm, a likely contemporary of the main character, while Sinise is youthful, vibrant and barely 40. Thus, even Sinise’s considerable talent is not enough, and Zukerman’s presence at the core of the story is greatly diminished.

The leading character, Coleman Silk, is played by two actors.

The young Silk, played by Wentworth Miller, is well cast and perfectly acted. Not many actors could pass for a black young man pretending to be white and, moreover, make that terrible decision believable both in its reasoning and its practical implication in his life. Miller does it all extremely well, including scenes as a young boxer, a scholar, a lover, and a son. His pain and joy are both apparent, and he is a pleasure to watch. His mother, Mrs. Silk, is equally well played by Anna Deavere Smith, as is his father by Harry Lennix.

The old Professor Silk is played by Anthony Hopkins. While his acting is as wonderful as always, the casting choice here again delivers a painful blow to the adaptation credibility. The viewer would search in vain for that hint of African roots (or resemblance to his younger self played by Miller) in Mr. Hopkins's appearance or behavior. And while he delivers an excellent performance both visually and vocally, the role unfortunately fails to deliver the emotional heat and hurtful jolts that Roth's novel so successfully manages with words alone.

Nicole Kidman as Faunia Farley, the young woman who's Silk’s last love, does an excellent job at bringing that complex and troubled character to life. While Kidman might be too beautiful and sophisticated to pass for a cleaning woman/dairy farm hand, her acting makes up for much of the discrepancy. Ed Harris, as her ex-husband, is wonderfully creepy and full of pain at the same time—a diamond in the rough, literally.

In summary, the film adaptation of The Human Stain is not the screen equivalent of the novel due to unfortunate casting decisions. Yet it is well worth watching, not only because of the wonderful cast of talented actors and the moments of screen magic that remain forever in our memories, but also due to its excellent storytelling quality in delivering a dramatic rendition of Roth’s unique novel and the human imperfections it so aptly explores.

Avraham Azrieli writes novels and screenplays. www.AzrieliBooks.com