Movie Review: "After The Wedding"

"After The Wedding": C.  A couple of weeks ago Momma Cuandito's sister, The Great Aunt Margaret, explained to her why she had given up watching the television mini-series Yellowstone. "To get into a show I need there to be at least one character I like."   From what I've heard, the Kevin Costner western drama does not meet that minimal requirement.  I thought about Margaret's statement about half-way through After The Wedding.  It was then I realized I was in the same boat as she.  At least with respect to the three female leads, I did not like any of them.  However, I did not walk out; I fulfilled my blogger responsibilities and took one for the team (the "team" being my plethora (?) of readers).  You're welcome.  (Note: Since the turn of the century I have walked out on only one movie, 2001's Moulin Rouge.)

The dialogue in After The Wedding is particularly hard to accept.  There are too many times when a conversation will be taking place in normal fashion, only to be turned upside down by a totally incongruous remark, some taking the form of an outcry.  This is a film with lots of face-to-face meetings, often when a simple phone call would have sufficed.  More meetings result in more dialogue.  Ordinarily I don't mind an above-average quantity of dialogue, provided the script is well-written.  But, the dialogue must flow, not end in a blow up coming out of the blue.

Isabell (Michelle Williams) runs a small orphanage in India.  She has dedicated her life to this mission.  Included among the children is a boy about eight years old named Jai (Vir Pachisia).  Later we learn that Isabell rescued Jai from the streets and has considered him her adopted son.  One day the orphanage learns that it is being considered for a six figure donation from a corporation headquartered in New York City.  This is beyond the wildest dreams of Isabell and her small, grossly underpaid staff.  Up to that point the movie's set up sounds promising.  Then a series of odd circumstances begins to unfold.

The CEO of the prospective benefactor is Theresa Young (Julianne Moore).  By phone, Young insists that Isabell, whom she's never met, fly to New York to discuss the details of the gift.  Young will not consider the orphanage's preference of sending Isabell's top assistant in her stead.  Isabell's absence will be very disruptive, but Young is adamant.  A few days later, when Isabell shows up for her appointment, Young is totally unprepared.  This is unheard of for an executive who runs a huge, highly profitable company.  Young only gives Isabell a couple of minutes of her time, then invites Isabell to her daughter's wedding which is to take place the very next day.  "We can talk more then."  Really?  At her daughter's wedding?

Isabell arrives late for the outdoor wedding.  It's there she spots Oscar (Billy Crudup), Young's husband and the father of Grace, the bride (Abby Quinn).  Isabell had no desire to go to the wedding in the first place, but felt she had to for the sake of keeping the prospective gift to her orphanage in play.  Now, having seen Oscar from the back row, she really does not want to be there.  The two share a history, and it involves Grace.

In the second half of the movie there is a revelation which makes some of the preceding oddities somewhat fathomable, but much of what transpires is still illogical.  In an attempt to avoid a spoiler, I will simply state that the big controversial event from the past which now stirs the pot does not rise to the level of justifying most of the behavior of the three female leads.

Moore is a talented actress, and almost all the super-dramatic moments in After The Wedding are allotted to her character.  Crudup doesn't have that much to do relative to the the females, but he is solid.  Knew You For A Moment, performed by Quinn, is a great song which airs during the closing credits.  I wish I enjoyed her acting as much as her singing.  As for Williams, this is the first of her many screen appearances which left me disappointed.  I still look upon her as a skilled artist, but I must score her work on this one a swing and a miss.

Movie Review: "Rocket Man"

"Rocket Man": B.  The year 1970 was one of the most interesting and important in the history of pop and rock music.  Of course, it was the year that the bickering Beatles officially dissolved.  It was the beginning of the period when songs getting radio play were more likely to be four and a-half minutes long instead of two and a-half.  People seemed to start paying more attention to lyrics.  That impression is supported by the popularity of such singer-songwriters as Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, who each made their Billboard debut in 1970 with Big Yellow Taxi and Fire And Rain, respectively.  Cat Stevens just missed the "cutoff" with Wild World, which hit the charts in mid-February, 1971.  The ensuing decade saw the emergence of what, today, we call "classic rock" bands, such as Journey, Styx, Heart, Boston and Foreigner.

Another singer-songwriter who came along in 1970 was Elton John, whose Border Song and Your Song both appeared on the Billboard charts that year.  The film Rocket Man is his story, taking us through most of the '70's by which time he was an international star.  Even though the movie is about a musician, I did not know beforehand that it was a musical.  Thus I was taken by surprise when the opening scene segues from a support group conversation, not unlike an AA meeting, into a full-fledged song and dance extravaganza to the tune The Bitch Is Back.  As it turns out, virtually all the characters with speaking parts are called upon to sing.

Twenty-nine year old British actor Taron Egerton, an Elton lookalike who does his own singing, plays the troubled entertainer.  In addition to vocal talent, the role calls for a display of a variety of emotions, mannerisms and oddities.  Egerton nails each challenge.  In fact, as I shall attempt to explain below, it is the performance of Egerton that justifies my grade of B for this film, which otherwise merits a B-.

Much of the story takes place via flashback, beginning with the sad childhood of Reginald Dwight, the real name of Elton John.  His mother, Sheila (Bryce Dallas Howard), is practically a floozy, while his father, Stanley (Steven Mackintosh), is as psychologically abusive as they come.  (Since director Dexter Fletcher takes great pains to match the sound track's many hits to the context of the respective scenes during which they are played, I wish the Foreigner song Cold As Ice had been an Elton song.  It would have fit perfectly when Stanley was on-screen.)  Were it not for little Reginad's kind-hearted paternal grandmother, Ivy (Gemma Jones), he may have run away from home.  It was Ivy who encouraged his musical gift and saw to it that her grandson found his way to London's Royal Academy Of Music.  In a predictable but still tender scene, Reggie astonishes an academy instructor who is auditioning him by performing a short complicated piano piece from memory.  Nine year old actor Matthew Illesley is adorably cute playing the part of young Reggie.

Once Reggie is on his own he changes his name to Elton John, a metaphorical act to put his childhood behind.  According to the film, he chooses "John" as his new surname on the spur of the moment while glancing at a picture of John Lennon.  I do not know if that snippet of information is fact or fiction, but it does beg the question of what name he would have chosen had a picture of Ringo instead of John been on the wall.

The film delves into Elton's sexual orientation without leaving much to the imagination, at least for a mainstream musical.  Early in his career Elton is outed by a member of a singing group for which he'd been hired as a sideman.  But it isn't until he crosses paths with manipulative manager John Reid (Richard Madden) that his private life turns in a decidedly different direction.  How will his relationship with Reid affect his acceptance with music fans, disc jockeys and record label execs?

Apparently it's standard that a story about a rock celebrity should include a manager who is either deranged, diabolical, disapproving or dishonest.  Examples include Brian Wilson's manager, Eugene Landy, in Love & Mercy (reviewed here June 20, 2015; B),  and Freddie Mercury's manager, Paul Prenter, in Bohemian Rhapsody (reviewed here January 29, 2019; B-) .  In Rocket Man we get a double dose with Reid, whose unethical professional practices contribute to Elton's drug addiction, and record label exec Dick James (Stephen Graham), who for the longest time fails to see the musical brilliance of his prospective client.  To give credit where it's due, however, James is responsible for setting up Elton with a gig at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, the gateway to success in America.  (Note: The film's most ludicrous episode shows Elton taking the stage for the most important moment of his career without rehearsing even one song with the house band which will be backing him up.)  

Among the shortcomings of Rocket Man is the short shrift given to two female characters.  The marriage of Elton to Renate Blauel (Celinde Schoenmaker) is possibly the low point of the movie. Who is this bride, what is her background, and how did Elton meet her?  None of these questions is answered.  My guess is that director Fletcher thought he needed to check that particular box, heterosexual marriage, to make the biopic complete.  I don't believe Schoenmaker is on the screen more than ninety seconds.  Secondly, I was dismayed by the failure of the movie to give any information whatsoever regarding Elton's duet partner, Kiki Dee (Rachel Muldoon), who teamed up with him on the hit Don't Go Breaking My Heart, one of my three favorite Elton songs.

The hero of the story is Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell).  Introduced to Elton by Dick James, Bernie was the guy who furnished the lyrics to Elton's music.  Bernie stood by Elton through all the ups and numerous downs.  In one memorable early scene, Elton makes a romantic pass at Bernie, who by this time knew Elton was gay.  Bernie, a heterosexual, smoothly and without insult, tells Elton, "I love you, but not in that way."  Message delivered.  Leave it to the man who makes his living with words to come up with the right language to say, in effect, "no" without severing the friendship and partnership.  Without Bernie's relatively unheralded contributions, we may never have heard of Elton John.

Fast-Tracked

Nobody likes a long sermon, or "homily" if you prefer that euphemism.  It follows that no one wants to read a lengthly piece about a sermon.  With that in mind I will keep this post on the short side.

This past Monday, August 5, the Catholic Church celebrated the feast of the Transfiguration.  As church holidays go, the Transfiguration gets scant attention.  For example, it is not a holy day of obligation, so attendance at Mass is not mandatory.  In 2002 Pope John Paul II decided that the three traditional sets of mysteries of the rosary (Joyful Mysteries, Sorrowful Mysteries and Glorious Mysteries) which had been in place for decades did not suffice, and he therefore added the Luminous Mysteries.  Until that proclamation the Transfiguration was not a mystery of the rosary at all.  There are not as many parishes named in honor of the Transfiguration as there are for other other mysteries such as the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Resurrection or the Ascension.  According to my crack research team, the number of parishes named for the Incarnation easily surpasses the number for the Transfiguration, even though most Catholics view the two events as commemorating the same thing, i.e., the human nature of God.

In all honesty, when I attended Mass at Our Lady Of Lourdes last Monday, I did not know it was the feast of the Transfiguration until the celebrant, Father David Haschka, S.J., who is the parish's senior associate pastor, announced it at the start of his five minute sermon.  I'm often guilty of tuning out sermons, but his intro caught my attention and it turned out to be five minutes well spent.  Any time a priest or minister has a personal experience to tie into a scripture reading, that's a plus.  Father Haschka's little talk has stuck in my mind all week, so I want to memorialize it here before I forget.

He started by stating he wanted to tell us a short story going back to his days as a young student at the Jesuit seminary in St. Louis.  At the beginning of spring break he made a cardboard sign that indicated his home destination, Omaha, and went out to the highway to thumb a ride.  "In those days you could do that sort of thing," he wistfully lamented.  As one who hitchhiked hundreds of miles in the sixties, I had to agree.  It certainly was a different time, in many ways.

Young Haschka wasn't standing on the side of the road long before a car picked him up.  The driver told him he was headed to Des Moines.  This was great news for Haschka, as Des Moines, 340 miles from St. Louis, was only 130 miles from Omaha.  Thus, a good chunk of his odyssey would be taken care of in one ride!  But about fifteen minutes into the trip, the driver pulled into the St. Louis airport.  "I thought you said we were going to Des Moines," the seminarian protested.

"We are," came the reply.  It turned out the driver owned a private jet and sure enough, he flew Haschka to Des Moines.  It took less than forty-five minutes!

"I guess you could say my journey home was fast-tracked," recalled Father Haschka from the pulpit.

He then recounted the story of the Transfiguration.  In a nutshell, the Transfiguration occurred when Jesus took three of his apostles, Peter, James and John, to the top of an unnamed mountain, ostensibly to pray.  While there, the face of Jesus changed brilliantly, his clothes became dazzling white, and two Old Testament figures, Moses and Elijah, stood next to him and conversed with him.  Shortly thereafter, a voice from an overhanging cloud proclaimed, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.  Listen to Him."

Keeping in mind that these three apostles were simple fishermen, you can imagine how astonished and terrified they were.  Up until that point they had witnessed a few miracles, but those were performed by Jesus, not to Jesus.  He had spoken of his Father, but this episode on the mountain was a first-hand experience for the three hand-picked followers.  They were seeing something previously unseen by any other human.  The Church considers this event, the Transfiguration, as a key to establishing two of its principles, the dual nature of Christ, human yet divine, and the existence of "God the Father."

The twelve apostles were selected by Jesus to spread his word.  To do that effectively, they had to believe in their hearts and minds that Jesus was truly the son of God.  Although all of the apostles (excluding Judas) and many other disciples were willing to follow Christ, the degree to which their faith was steadfast probably varied.  But for Peter, James and John, having been present for the Transfiguration and seeing it first hand, the challenge of acquiring the requisite faith was made easy.  As Father Haschka put it, "Their faith was fast-tracked."