October 22, 2003

Have I told you lately that I love In America?

I returned to the film earlier this week and somehow, on a fourth viewing, it still managed to catch my heart by surprise. Each time I see it, I remember why I love it so much. It is perhaps the most intimate film I have experienced in years.

The first act may be what sets me up. It’s quite good, but it’s definitely the set-up. Getting into America through the Canadian border… setting up house in Spanish Harlem… the junkies… the jobs… the adjustments of a new life.

In the second act, the distractions of change fall away and this family can’t escape its truths. The earthy strength of Samantha Morton’s mother character… the zombied out pain of Paddy Considine’s father character… and the girls. I don’t think there have ever been a better pair if children’s performances in a film. Real life sisters, the Bolgers are connected and yet absolutely different in the way that real siblings so often are. The younger sister - Emma in real life, Ariel in the movie – is am endless ball of energy and drive, her spirit unquenchable. Her elder sister – Sarah in real life, Christy in the movie – is quieter and more careful with her emotions. Yet when she finally speaks her truth, no one could be more eloquent.

And then there is Djimon Housou, whose performance in this film is right up there in raw power with Ben Kingsley in House of Sand & Fog, Benicio del Toro in 21 Grams and Sean Penn in Mystic River. He has the smallest role of the group, but his power is undeniable. His love and his pain come from the same faucet. Two men have been Oscar nominated in the last three years for work in a similar realm (I don’t want to tell you too much), but neither performance carried this kind of power.

It’s way too early and In America is way not too much about the Jewish holocaust to start making comparisons of this film to The Pianist. And yet, my heart wants to. It isn’t often that a movie feels so connected to me. It is the films that make me feel that way that I think of when people ask me what my favorites are. Movies like Singin’ in the Rain and All That Jazz and Network and The Godfathers and The Hairdresser’s Husband and North Dallas Forty and Penny Serenade and Crimes & Misdemeanors… the list gets longer… but as I am writing it, it is occurring to me that most of these movies have both strong characters of deep passion and death. Singin’ In The Rain is really the only one with a traditionally happy ending. No one dies in North Dallas Forty, but it is about the end of a career… about putting away childish things. I suppose that the idea of life and love facing the ultimate obstacle is of great interest to me.

After all, what greater love is there than that of a parent to a child… a sibling to another… a person examining their own soul? What is more powerful than the choices we knowingly make? What comes close to the power of death… except the power of life?

In America hits every one of those emotions in its portrait of just one year in the life of a family in a thrilling, scary, painful, exhilarating transition.

It’s funny, because when I chatted with Laurence Fishburne over the weekend, we were in some agreement that Mystic River and The Matrix Revolutions, which the Wachowskis have said is about death, are much from the same cloth, though their genres could not be much further removed.

We are in a year in which our best movies are being served up with some deep emotion, whether in the ennui of Lost In Translation, the bubbling subtext of Mystic River or the unabashed love of In America… a love of America… a love of aspiration… a love of family… a love of life… a love of faith.

Have I mentioned that I adore In America? I saw it Monday morning and I just can’t wait to see it again.

PREMIE ROTD: UK JOHNNIE writes about yesterday’s E ME question about whether y’all would be happy to read the last of the screener ban in this column: “Yes I am happy, although I enjoy the commentary on the movies. Somehow, though, I don't believe you are done.”

YES, MORE ON THE BAN: It turns out that I wasn’t nearly cynical enough yesterday and through this whole thing. My first response… that this was nothing more than an entitlement issue… is turning out to be true. As reported by the trades last night, we are now at the start of the “but we are an important part of the machine too!” battle. The intentional leaks over the weekend of the potential Academy compromise has led to the exposure of the fraudulent claim that all of this was a battle for the health of indie films, particularly the financial interest of indie films.

As Albert Brooks once said in some movie, you can go a long time without sex, but who do you know who has gone a single day without a rationalization? The bottom line is, people want their screeners. The reasons cover the fields of play like unstoppable weeds.

There are some who are truly sincere here. They want their screeners too.

READER OF THE DAY: BOMB BAY DOORS writes: “Seriously, this screener ban has absolutely been the silliest thing to read about in a long time. Sure piracy has become a serious problem, but this whole controversy has been about a small percentage of the population complaining about not having the chance to see The Last Samurai on Thanksgiving night.

The strange entitlement from those complaining about this issue, does make me scratch my head, and wonder "what the hell?" Especially the critics in LA who have the audacity to claim the lack of screeners would hinder their job. Yeah, sure, if they were the WYOMING MOVIE CRITICS ASSOCIATION, but certainly not the second market that receives movies most of us in the middle of the country either never see until they are on sat/cable or get 2 months after being released in LA and the NYC.

At least it's over, until sometime later in this decade, when someone or some group start to complain about having to still use their VCRs to watch these screeners. And what a joy that will be...”

MASTER OF ANOTHER DOMAIN writes: “I'd be curious to see what you might write about this knowing your feelings on script reviews and those who pen them. Although I suppose it's "okay" if they do it and not the likes of me, right? :) Still, this is twice now that the NY Times has critiqued scripts for projects before they aired. They didit with CBS' HITLER mini, too. Here goes: http://www.drudgereport.com/flash6.htm

E ME: No… not okay of they do it. Television is quite different as a medium. In this case, there may be some news value in a show produced by two gay men that features an attack on Reagan for anti-gay sentiments. But now, mainstream media adapting the premature evaluations of the web does not please me.

What pleases you? What movies zero in on your heart?