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Starring: Renée Zellweger Harry Connick Jr., Siobhan Fallon Hogan and JK Simmions

Directed by: Jonas Elmer

Rated PG for language and some suggestive material

By John Delia

Zellweger is at the top of her game in New in Town, a quirky little film that made me laugh a lot. What makes this film work so well is the sharp direction by Elmer. If you like films that make laughter from screwball antics, have a moment of emotion and move along at a good pace, then this film should be high on your radar.
Lucy Hill (Zellweger) is an ambitious, up and coming executive living in Miami. She loves her shoes, she loves her cars and she loves climbing the corporate ladder. When she is offered a temporary assignment - in the middle of nowhere - to restructure a manufacturing plant, she accepts the opportunity, knowing a big promotion is close at hand. Working in Minnesota, anyone can do that. Right! Well when Lucy gets there in the dead of winter, she starts getting second thoughts. Especially since the locals are not ready for change and more so not from a woman. What begins as a straightforward job assignment becomes a life changing experience.
I liked Connick, Jr. as the love interest in this film. His character Ted heads up the union that is involved in Lucy’s manufacturing plant and he has to go head-to-head with her on several occasions, most of which hinder a budding romance. In support of the hilarity, Hogan plays Blanche Gunderson, a nosey woman who ends up being the matchmaker. Her accent along with the others in the central northern state makes for even more laughter.
Directing a comedy is probably the toughest genre since timing and choreography of the blunders are very important and Elmer nails it in New in Town. Elmer’s Lucy finds herself falling off a porch or fighting with a zipper so she can pee or getting a heel caught in a grate, putting her in some of the most bungling situations that are timed with some good dialogue.
The only downside with the film is it’s predictable ending. But you know what? So what, it’s a fun comedy, and to watch Zellweger doing what she does best is well worth the price of admission.
The film is rated PG but plays well to the whole family. A word of warning, however there is some language and some suggestive material.

FINAL ANALYSIS: New in Town is a film for those who want a lot of laughs. (3.5 of 5 Palm Trees)

TAKEN

Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen and Leland Orser

Directed by: Peter Morel

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language

By John Delia

One of the best non-stop pressure packed films I have seen in a decade, Taken takes a simple plot and pushes the envelope to the extreme. Welcome back Liam Neeson, it is great to see you performing like your early days. For those that like a lot of strong-minded attitude with their action, Taken is for you.
Bryan (Neeson) on his cell phone to one of the kidnappers: I don’t know you who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you’re looking for a ransom, I can tell you, I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills acquired 
over a very long career in the shadows, skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that will be the end of it. I will not look for you. I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you. And I will kill you.
When the answer comes back…Good Luck! Bryan starts a pursuit of his kidnapped daughter who had started a trip across Europe beginning in Paris. He has 96-hours to find his daughter before she is sold into slavery and gone forever. Using his commando-like skills, connections in France, superior brainpower and ruthless mind-set, the former government operative takes on the slave traders with reckless abandon.
Neeson does a terrific job playing the revengeful father who lets nothing get in his way of getting his daughter back. Much like Mel Gibson’s role in Ransom, when it comes to family, the persons responsible for the kidnapping are going to suffer. Neeson’s nothing can stand in my way attitude translates boldly in Taken, and he never wavers out of character.
Direction by Morel of the action thriller includes seamless scenes, excellent cinematography, choreography and pinpoint timing making the fight/action scenes very realistic. His slow buildup of family relationships at the beginning of the film allows the audience to see the personality of the characters important to the plot. He brings the energy of the storyline to the screen without a lot of meaningless CGI. Using effective stunts, realistic martial arts and pyrotechnics, he raises the bar on excitement.
The film is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language. Actually I do not know how they got this rating due to the realistic killings, so please take extra caution when deciding to let your teen see the film.

FINAL ANALYSIS: Taken is a realistic pressure packed film for action lovers. (4.5 of 5 Palm Trees)

Seen @ Sundance Film Festival 2009: PAPER HEART
Nicholas Jasenovec and Charlyne Yi won the WALDO SALT Screenwriting Award for PAPER HEART.


2009 Sundance U.S. Dramatic Competition Film
PAPER HEART (Running Time: 88 min; Rated: PG-13)
Reviewed by Denise Castillón

Paper Hearts’ documentary within a documentary style thoroughly seduces you into its’ love-seeking journey, laughing every step of the way with its’ convincingly, uncomfortable seeker, Charlyne Yi, that you totally forget this is largely a fictional story.

Actress and comedienne Charlyne Yi takes us along on her cross-country trek to conduct interviews with real-life people, who have experienced true love, in hopes she may uncover her own capacity to fell in love. Lo and behold, Yi meets fellow comedic actor, Michael Cera, at a party. From then on, the film focuses on their hilariously, clumsy courtship that develops into an equally hysterical, uneasy relationship.

When Charlyne Yi accepted the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for her film PAPER HEART, co-written with her director, Nicholas Jasenovec, she noted the irony that the film went into production with only fifteen written pages of script, with the rest of the films’ dialogue improvised on the set.

Seen @ Sundance Film Festival 2009: ADAM
Max Mayer, director of ADAM, won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize for
outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme.


2009 Sundance U.S. Dramatic Competition Film
ADAM (Running Time: 95 min; Not Rated)
Reviewed by Denise Castillón

ADAM is a wonderfully unique romantic drama. Oxford-educated actor, Hugh Dancy delivers an outstanding performance as the titular “Adam”, a gifted engineer with Asperger’s Syndrome, a high functioning form of autism. In spite of limited social skills, Adam struggles against his isolated and programmed life to form a romantic attachment with his new neighbor, Beth (Rose Bryne, FX’s Damages). Dancy (soon to be seen in Disney’s comedy, Confessions of a Shopaholic), portrays Adam’s single-minded effort to emotionally connect so movingly, that you cannot help but fell in love with him yourself. And, despite the monumental obstacles these two lovers face, you’ll be rooting for a happy ending.

Max Mayer’s directorial debut stars Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving, Frankie Faison. Also, written by Max Mayer. Produced by Leslie Urdang, Miranda de Pencier and Dean Vanech. Executive Producers are Christina Weiss-Lurie and Daniel Revers. An Olympus Pictures Production in association with Serenade Films, Dear Path Productions and VOX3 Films.

ADAM was acquired by Fox Searchlight for worldwide theatrical distribution. This is a terrific small film, therefore you may only have the pleasure of catching this at a cineplex if the two relatively unknown, but talented, leads breakout in a bigger film this year.

ADAM, directed by Max Mayer, received the Alfred P. Sloan Prize for 2009. The prize, which carries a $20,000 cash award to the filmmaker provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is presented to an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character.

SEEN @ SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2009: AN EDUCATION
AN EDUCATION won the Audience Choice award and the Cinematography award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.





AN EDUCATION (Running Time: 95 min; Not Yet Rated)
Reviewed by Denise Castillón

Set in the early 60’s during Britain’s post-war/pre-Beatles period, AN EDUCATION is a brilliantly executed account of a young girl’s seduction into adulthood by a charismatic and, seemingly, worldly man.

Intelligent and pretty, Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is relentlessly prepped for admittance into Oxford by her conservative parents, cleverly played by Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour. With a keenness for existentialism and a passion for everything French, Oxford represents Jenny’s opportunity to be finally free from her old-fashioned parents and her eventual move to Paris.

This seems like very much an executable plan. Until the life-altering day, outside her elite girls’ school, Jenny has an enchanting encounter with the debonair David (Peter Sarsgaard), an older man.

After bewitching Jenny, David arrives at her home to mesmerize her parents, who eagerly agree to let him take out their school-aged daughter to a concert, followed by a late dinner at a nightclub. On their date, she is introduced to his beautiful and sophisticated friends, Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Helen (Rosamund Pike). From then on, Jenny exchanges her boring old life for the exciting new world David now offers, and transforms into a gorgeous, young lady -and grownup.

This multi-layered drama does contain plenty of humorous situations, such as when Jenny and David travel alone to Paris to fulfill Jenny’s plan of losing her virginity on her 17th birthday. At the moment when David presents a banana to “get the messy bit over with.”, she protests, “I don’t want to lose my virginity to a piece of fruit.”

Moral issues as well as new ideas of feminism are also explored. For instance, when Jenny questions her headmistress, played by Emma Thompson, “Why are you educating us?!”, as to the ultimate purpose for thrusting young girls so vigorously towards higher education. 2009 Sundance World Dramatic Competition Film


In the end, Jenny learns that she cannot take a shortcut to the life she wants to live, and divulges to her favorite teacher, “I feel old, but not very wise.”

AN EDUCATION’s stellar line-up consists of up-and-comer Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, Olivia Williams, Emma Thompson, Cara Seymour, Matthew Beard and Sally Hawkins.

This UK production was directed by award-winning Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig (ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS), and was based upon a memoir by British journalist Lynn Barber and adapted by popular English novelist Nick Hornby (HIGH FIDELITY, ABOUT A BOY) for the screen.

Creative team led by director of photography, John de Borman, (LAST CHANCE HARVEY, MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY). Production designed by Andrew McAlpine and costumes designed by Odile Dicks-Mireaux.

Produced by Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey. Executive producers are James D. Stern, Douglas E. Hansen, Wendy Japhet, David M. Thompson, Jamie Laurenson and Nick Hornby. Presented by BBC Films and Endgame Entertainment.

Lone Scherfigs’ AN EDUCATION won the Audience Choice award and its’ director of photography, John de Borman, won the Cinematography award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival’s World Dramatic Film Competition.

Financed by BBC Films for $12 million, Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North American and Latin American rights for AN EDUCATION for under $3 million, reportedly after a heated bidding war with Fox Searchlight. Irregardless, the film-loving audience is the ultimate winner here.