One of the most critically acclaimed movies of 2013 was American Hustle (reviewed here on January 6, 2014, B+), a story loosely based on the real life Abscam scandal from the late seventies. As I noted in my review, the story is pretty complicated, and expending too much energy attempting to follow the convoluted money trail is not a suggested course of action for most viewers. All you need to know is a general sense of what's happening. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy a great cast performing in a highly entertaining tale.
I was reminded of this when I recently watched Body Heat for the first time since its original release in 1981. The story centers on a murder scheme between a lawyer of questionable skills and his "hot" mistress. The target is her megabucks husband who, conveniently, is almost always on the road. About half-way through the story, the viewers are introduced to an ancient legal principle called The Rule Against Perpetuities, a concept to which I have never given a second thought since I took Real Property in my first year of law school. Thankfully, even though key references to The Rule are made off and on throughout the second half of the film, the movie viewer does not have to know precisely what The Rule is to follow the clever script. All you should be aware of is that a carefully drafted will won't contain any bequest which violates The Rule. If you pay close attention to the conversations in which The Rule is mentioned, that will suffice. No need to consult Black's Law Dictionary.
Here are the movies I've seen on TV during the first three months of this year.
2. Dallas Buyers' Club (2013 drama; Matthew McConaughey is a Texas rodeo cowboy who contracts AIDS and battles the FDA when he discovers that Mexican pharmaceuticals, outlawed in the US, provide effective treatment for his disease.) B
3. The Departed (2006 cop drama; Leo DiCaprio is an undercover state cop embedded with the Boston mafia led by Jack Nicholsson, and Matt Damon is a "rat" inside the Boston city police department.) B+
4. Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1947 war drama; Robert Mitchum is a Marine corporal who washes ashore on a south Pacific island, inhabited only by nun Deborah Kerr.) A
5. Lillies Of The Field (1963 comedy; Sidney Poitier is a solo traveler who stops by an Arizona desert convent and gets talked into building a chapel for five German nuns.) B
6. Marty (1955 drama; Ernest Borgnine is a bachelor Brooklyn butcher who, at age 34, is convinced he'll never find love, and then has to weigh the merits of a new romance against maintaining friendships with his moronic home boys.) B+
7. The Pink Panther (1963 comedy; Peter Sellers is famous French sleuth, Inspector Clouseau, bumbling his way through an investigation of a potential heist of a precious gem, the Pink Panther, owned by Claudia Cardinale, a princess.) C+
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