The Lucky Ones (2008)

4/5

Neil Burger's The Lucky Ones is a surprisingly poetic, true-to-life dramedy about three soldiers coming back from Iraq. Tim Robbins plays Cheever, a married man coming home to his wife and college-bound son. Michael Peña plays TK, a young soldier who thinks he knows more about the world than he does. Rachel McAdams plays Colee, a naive girl with too much trust in and openness towards others. They may seem like cliches on paper, but with excellent acting and writing, they become unbelievably human on the screen. And as the movie progresses, they seem to develop, mature, and change. But they don't, as much as we might want them to. Similar to the characters in The Band's Visit, here exist honest representations of real people. They are unable to change, just as we are. What changes throughout the film is our impression of them; we are allowed to witness more and more intimate details about their lives, personalities, and feelings and construct who they really are out of that. Their journey from New York to St. Louis to Las Vegas was no doubt memorable, depressing, and inspiring, but a few days on a road trip with random strangers would not make any of us quit our jobs or move to Canada. And neither will watching a memorable, depressing, and inspiring movie. The world just isn't that easy.

Despite my adulation of the film's realism, it is not without its share of problems. I didn't notice anything regarding the film's technical properties, which is more an indication of its mediocrity rather than greatness, I suppose. My main problem was with the plot, and in particular the preposterous situation in which Cheever must acquire $20k immediately to pay for his son's college tuition. Has nobody heard of student loans? As a lot of the movie does hinge on this desperate need for money, I can see how people might get hung up on this incredibly silly notion (I certainly was when I saw 21), but for some reason I was able to look past it here. I can easily recommend this film to anyone looking for a touching yet hilarious foray into humankind.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0981072/

The Illusionist (2006)

3/5

I saw The Illusionist with Sameer and my brother last night and was very entertained by it. However, I did have some complaints. It builds itself off of one big mystery. The rest of the movie is relatively pointless in that you could have seen the movie without the other parts and left the theater feeling exactly the same. There is no point to watching it more than once; the mystery is solved and that's about all this movie has to offer. Also, magic tricks in a movie just aren't that exciting. I especially disliked the use of in media res (starting in the middle of the action and then explaining how you got to that point). It didn't actually serve any purpose and merely justified sloppy (technique-wise) voiceover narration.

The "big mystery" itself was really refreshing and intriguing; I found myself guessing and just not finding the answer. Acting by Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti was superb as always, but they didn't particularly stand out in their roles for this movie compared to other projects they've done. Jessica Biel was mediocre; neither laudable nor laughable. The cinematography was pretty good, but I was vexed by Burger's choice of some queer angles. One thing I really like seeing was Paul Giamatti's teeth when he solves the big mystery. That almost made me happier than finally having the mystery solved.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0443543/