The Time Traveler's Wife

Henry has a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel. He cannot control where he goes or when he comes back. Clare Abshire has known Henry since she was six years old and he was an adult; he time traveled into her past because in the present they are married. Clare fell in love with Henry as a result of his time traveling, and yet it is the time traveling that keeps them from being together.

The Time Traveler’s Wife is a confusing concept, but a beautiful romance at heart with an incredibly unique take on time travel. While the film is a lot softer and definitely can’t cover as much as the book I still found it to be touching and a very human story.

The biggest strength of The Time Traveler’s Wife is definitely its leads. Without the strength and talent of Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams the film would fall flat. This film has to cram an incredibly complex and truncated story into such a small period of time that there is no way Robert Schwentke could have made this movie with leads that could so easily pull the audience in to empathize and care for them. McAdams and Bana have a great chemistry together and were incredibly believable as two people incredibly in love with one another.

That being said I was not thrilled with the direction that Robert Schwentke provided. While the film was not badly directed this is a film that could have been played with, stylized and been stamped with more than just the typical breezy direction that a romance movie typically gets. There was nothing about the direction of The Time Traveler’s Wife that stood out and made me want to see more of Schwentke.

I would not buy The Time Traveler’s Wife as I am not a sucker for romantic movies, but I do think that it is going to hit a core audience (especially women) who adore a good romance and definitely be remembered.

Director: Robert Schwentke
Writer: Bruce Joel Rubin
Richard DeTamble: Arliss Howard
Henry DeTamble: Eric Bana
Clare Abshire: Rachel McAdams
Gomez: Ron Livingston
Dr. Kendrick: Stephen Tobolowsky
Alba: Hailey McCann

Buying the Cow

David is afraid of committing to his girlfriend of 5 years by marrying her; she goes to New York for work and he is left with the ultimatum of figuring out if he wants to get married or break up. This leads David onto his search for his soul mate – or at least figuring out if the soul mate concept exists.

I definitely watched this movie because it was a game of remote roulette. I was bored, I have many, many movie channels, and I had never heard of this movie – and it had Ryan Reynolds. So I stopped, started working on something else and watched Buying the Cow in the background. This is definitely a movie that should be viewed on TV – the commercial breaks and feeling glad that you didn’t pay for this movie definitely improves it.

The single best thing about this movie, and probably the reason I left it on is Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds is an actor that definitely deserves a lot more work and acclaim that he has gotten and watching movies like this definitely underscores this; in Buying the Cow Reynolds is a side character, but he definitely steals the show. Other than Reynolds, the movie is completely unmemorable.

Director: Walt Becker
Writers: Walt Becker & Peter W. Nelson
David: Jerry O’Connell
Sarah: Bridgette Wilson
Mike: Ryan Reynolds
Jonesy: Bill Bellamy
Amy: Alyssa Milano
Tyler: Ron Livingston

David Collins: You're the only people I've ever told.
Mike Hanson: Yeah, can you keep it that way? It makes you seem kind of creepy.

Swingers

Swingers is a film very few people would think of making. The title would scare a lot of people off because they assume it’s about overly promiscuous couples; when in fact Swingers is about a group single guys who idolize the Rat Pack and are trying to make it in Hollywood.

In essence Swingers is a period piece even though it was filmed during the era that it takes place in. Swingers is set in a very specific portion of the 1990’s, the few years where the club culture went retro and swing music and dancing exploded into the mainstream; this was the 1990’s, but it is a very specific set of people and culture. When this film came out it was one of the original indy bombs that exploded onto the market and made people take notice of a different kind of filmmaking from the main stream. This film gave us Jon Favreau, Ron Livingston, Vince Vaughn, Heather Graham and Doug Liman.

At its core Swingers is the simple story of Mike, who has moved from Hollywood to take his comedy career to the next level and can’t get over the girl he left behind. This girl infects his whole life and for six months his friends have been trying to pull him out of it. His best friends are trying to make it in the business to; Trent is the ladies man who does not appreciate the moderate success he is having, Sue is another struggling actor who backs up Trent and his rules on women, and Rob is new to Hollywood from the east coast, and is pissed that he went from playing Shakespeare off Broadway to getting auditions for children’s entertainment. Mike is being pushed by his friends to forget the girl he left behind, and find a new “baby” or two to change his outlook.

This film is a delightful romp into the single male psyche. It sizzles with wit, humor and heart. These characters a people that are utterly real, and if you didn’t know they were fictional you would expect to run into them on the city streets of Hollywood.

Swingers is a testament to what a passion for filmmaking, and a specific project can do to all those involved.

Director: Doug Liman
Writer: Jon Favreau
Mike: Jon Favreau
Trent: Vince Vaughn
Rob: Ron Livingston
Sue: Patrick Van Horn
Lorraine: Heather Graham

Trent: I don't want you to be the guy in the PG-13 movie everyone's really hoping makes it happen. I want you to be like the guy in the rated R movie, you know, the guy you're not sure whether or not you like yet. You're not sure where he's coming from. Okay? You're a bad man. You're a bad man, Mikey. You're a bad man, bad man.