Movie Reviews: "My First Mister" - Albert Brooks, Leelee Sobieski
|
|
"My First Mister"
with Albert Brooks & Leelee Sobieski
Directed by: Christine Lahti, 2001
|
Search our Site for any Title or Keyword
Art Beyond the Bubble! TM
"the act of giving your thoughts to one you love can be as important as the thought itself"
ABOUT MY MOVIE REVIEWS
First, I've enjoyed seeing and writing about movies, as I've enjoyed most the arts, since I was very little, though I didn't actually start writing about any til I did some movie reviews in the late 70's, for the school newspaper at the University of Houston Downtown College (I'll have to see if the campus is even still called that :-)
I particularly remember striking it strong with ""Car Wash,' A Sudsy Cleansing for the Blues." When I find my copy of it again, I'll be sure and post it.
Second, I don't go searching for reviews ahead of time to get ideas from, compare to, or attempt to contrast from. All prior or concurrent (w/the writing of my review) research is for actors' and director's names, year done, etc.
I mention this mostly because I hit on many of the same themes and feelings most people who've written a review also remarked on. An example, from my music reviews, is that of the one I did of Brett Dennon's concert at Antones on my birthday last year.
Authenticity of his performance was a key chord both my wife and I immediately felt on hearing him perform. Evidently, later, when seeing other reviews while doing an online search of reviews on Brett to see if mine even showed up :-) , I saw that authenticity was equally recognized by others as an important of his.
Third, though I try to give a well rounded review, of the story, the actors, the visuals and/or music, etc, I don't try to as a "have to" covering everything. Basically the review is of what struck me as a person and arts interested person.
Fourth, beyond my enjoyment of the film or the impact it had on me, and that this is a fun thing for me to do along side all my other arts interests, there is no particular reason this film was reviewed and not one of the literally thousands of others I could recommend as having been truly worthwhile for me. It just appealed to me to write about.
This little "pre" review "about my movie reviews" is probably something i'll keep from now on, updated slightly as changes occur
Albert Brooks
I start with Albert Brooks not because he was one of the main two characters, but because I've had so much trouble liking him in roles despite wanting to.
Something told me he should be interesting to watch, but I kept being put off by the passing perception he was too whiney and too much a push over. I say passing perception because these were impressions I made from the previews of several of his films; I kept thinking to myself, God, I hope I'm not like that!
Fortunately, this movie, and the one I saw with him and Michael Douglas recently, the 2003 film "The In-Laws," fulfilled more of what I felt he could bring to the screen, a nuanced low-key, fairly vulnerable yet strong enough to stand up when needed characterization - now, I thought, that's more like me :-)
Initially, in the first half of the film, my only qualm as his exceptionally mature handling of the young female co-lead's character's rebellious appearance and behavior; but once we knew he had leukemia, his character and manner were wed in the script. My viewer perception of him and his screen persona were perfectly joined.
His low key humor and patience were a delight.
Leelee Sobieski
Meant as a pure compliment, i kept seeing Helen Hunt in this young actress' eyes and smile and general all round well nuanced performance, but with even slightly more edge.
In doing a search for Ms.Sobieski, I wasn't familiar with her and wanted to be sure and spell her name right, I saw links to what looked like an interesting range of roles she's done. It may well be this role in "My First Mister" is a departure or strengthening of her range. It'll be fun to find out.
Leelee's transition (I feel more comfortable calling her by her first name now :-) from a heavily pierced pining-for-angst teen to a really lovely openly caring young woman was solidly believable.
The Movie
Almost broken like a flower's stem into two parts, the meeting and merging of the two age-divided characters (who were otherwise alike) and the follow through full-acceptance and life-savoring by each character of each other and, finally, others in their lives, the movie was carefully kept organically together by director Christine Lahti til the healing left one complete cinema.
The couple of plot surprises, including discovery of Brooks' onscreen previously unknown son, are woven in with more of "oh, yea..." than a bump in flow or attention.
Almost all the characters were continued from beginning to end with great continuity except for Brooks' co-worker / salesman (I believe Henry Brown) who had too good a relationship with Albert's character, Randall, to have been ignored without a follow through to the end.
A particularly well used character though was John Goodman's "dad" to Leelee's Jennifer ("J"). When he first appeared early on, I thought it'd be another of his under utilized spots, but his distance in the bulk of the movie made for better impact at the end during the dinner scene. His quirky screen filling presence was extremely useful and needed to balance the tear inducing relationship rendings at the end.
Meanwhile, Carol Kane's performance provided steady patience and continuity to the daughter she so clearly loved.
Despite all the ensemble performances though, I always felt it was Christine Lahti's direction that eventually made it all work so well. The cohesiveness and smoothness, even of the soft surprises, was so gentle, it just felt like my image of her.
Not sure why, but maybe something of the movement of the film, from roughly improbable to "no problem" plausible, the tone maybe, reminded me of "Gracie's Choice," Kristen Bell's movie that got me to see all of "Veronica Mars," and now watch "Gossip Girl."
Future Follow-Up
I know I'll have to eventually review Kristen's movie and TV series; and it's odd, because in her two examples, Kristen is the driver of what made those work, yet, i still feel a significant connection between "Gracie's Choice" and "My First Mister. Possibly the heartwarming-ness and encouragement regarding human nature and our potential fates, but it just seems more than that somehow...though maybe it should be enough :-)
thanks ya'll,
adan
www.adanlerma.com
|
Back to Adan's Arts Content List
Original Works
Poetry Index
Back to Review
Subscribe to the Email Newsletter Your information will not be sold, lent, rented, or distributed to anyone without legal authority. Unsubscribe at anytime. Newsletter is intermittent, covers a variety of art related interests, and is also available online. Feel free to bookmark. Thank you.
Please Note: All comments received are eventually reviewed and may be removed or not posted at the sole discretion of the moderator.
Copyright Adan Lerma - All Rights Reserved
* rss feed available each page *
|
|
Search our Site for any Title or Keyword
|
|
Posted by Adan Lerma on 3/1/2008 4:19:28 PM |
Permalink | Make the first comment
|
|
|
|