by Nathan J Norman

Gathering together after the tragic death their mutual friend, Chris, a group of friends find themselves reconnected to each other. Memories and realities of past hardships surface, though, and the possibility of receiving forgiveness is thrown into doubt.

Cinematic Review

Hidden Secrets is easily one of the most overlooked movies of 2008. While there are slight issues with some heavy-handed scenes, Hidden Secrets is an effective story about a group of friends who don’t all share the same beliefs and have all walked a hard and difficult path.

Mostly taking place in the home of Sherry, the deceased’s sister, the story throws individuals from all walks of life together. A former youth pastor struggles with affections for his old flame, Sherry, and his “almost-fiancé.” A successful writer of Christian books is continually challenged by his judgmental “fire and brimstone” wife. One of Chris’s former bosses is an atheist, and seemingly antagonistic to the Christian faith. And a former homosexual does not see how God could forgive him for his past.

Hidden Secretsaccurately portrays the guilt, pain, but ultimate redemption of a Christian life. This sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking film truly shows Christianity in its true form – flawed and imperfect, but ultimately beautiful.

Morality

The film is not rated, and while it is Dove approved, families of younger children might want to preview the film first because it deals with adult themes including sex, fornication, abortion, homosexuality, doubt, and death.

For most viewers, though, Hidden Secretsis a film that will help challenge and affirm the faith we hold strongly to.

Conclusion

Hidden Secrets is one of the best Christian films released last year. For anyone even remotely interested in faith-based films, I cannot recommend this film enough. There are no flashy special effects, no big name stars, but it is a real story about real people finding grace amidst their own bitter flaws.

©2009 ChristianCinema.com

A native New Yorker, Nathan now resides in Southern California where he serves as a youth pastor, attends seminary at Biola University, regularly blogs and continues writing sci-fi/fantasy novels.Nathan and his talented wife Kristin both serve at Valencia Hills Community Church where Nathan also maintains a youth blog. His first book Untold (2006) is currently available over at Amazon or over at his personal website.

by Greg Wright

One of the fun (if often unpleasant) aspects of plowing through independent DVD releases is never knowing quite what to expect. When dealing with studio films, everything tends to be formulaic and tailored for the broadest possible appeal. As one mainstream director has noted, however, independents have the advantage of aiming for maybe only a tenth of the mainstream audience—hence, they only need to spend one-tenth as much. All too often, though, bargain-basement production values are all too obvious.

But I decided to gamble on Imprint in spite of its pedigree: a release from MTI Home Video, the outfit that has seen fit to also bring us the watered-down, R-rated porn-industry franchise Pirates. But hey—guilt by association is a pretty poor way to review films, and MTI even offers a line of honest-to-gosh family films.

So I’m happy to report that I’m actually pretty glad I bit on the promotional blurb for this “supernatural thriller”:

Synopsis

Shayla Stonefeather, a Native American attorney prosecuting a Lakota teen in a controversial murder trial, returns to the reservation to say goodbye to her dying father. After the teen is killed, she hears ghostly voices and sees strange visions that cause her to re-examine beliefs she thought she left behind.

The Unexpected

So here are some things I wasn’t expecting.

First, this isn’t the usual PG-13 horror flick. Instead, it’s a far more sober-minded ghost story of the Sixth Sense variety. Co-writer/director Michael Linn never opts for the lowest-common-genre-denominator, eschewing gratuitous gore, exploitive treatment of women, and hysterical mayhem. The story—which involves murder, knife attacks, spectral intrusions, and familial tensions—certainly would allow for such indulgences. But necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, and Linn follows his low-budget plan down a nicely restrained story-telling road in a highly creative and refreshing fashion.

Second, this isn’t just one of those stories with a “Native American” setting, sensitively fronted by Anglos and, for all intents and purposes, nothing but a mainstream tale sensationally plopped into an Indian setting when any old locale would do (think, perhaps, of Thunderheart, or even Windtalkers). No, Imprint is rooted in the American Indian experience and Indians are its stars. While I’ve expected such casting from personal, cause-oriented films like Clearcut and Smoke Signals, I don’t at all expect it from a genre film like Imprint. Whodathunk that Indians tell ghost stories, too? Duh.

Third, Imprint tells a uniquely interesting tale of mystery and the macabre that reminds me a great deal of the collections of classic ghost stories I used to read as a kid: stuff from Ambrose Bierce, Edgar Allen Poe, and Marion Crawford. In this case, Shayla Stonefeather returns to her father’s bedside distraught over her brother’s disappearance years before, her complicity in sending a potentially innocent Indian youth to jail, and her father’s incapacitated faculties. Upon taking up residence in a disused upstairs room, she also hears noises and sees shadows that no one else can. What really happened up in her brother’s room? What’s the significance of the block and tackle? What’s that wolf doing following her around the reservation?

As a medicine man tells her, “There are messages all around us, but few are listening. Few understand.” And when Shayla finally decides she needs to start listening, we follow along as she tries to sort out the clues the spirits are sending her. And unlike so many ghost stories, this one takes us in directions we can’t possibly guess... unless, perhaps, we’ve spent a little too much time dissecting the film’s trailer. Don’t. The ride is too fun to spoil.

Actors to Keep Your Eyes On

Finally, I’m not used to being so pleasantly engaged by performance from relative unknowns. Not since One False Move, perhaps, have I felt like I’ve spent quality time with so many actors of whom I hope to see much more in coming years. Tonantzin Carmelo is particularly good as Shayla, and I’ve got to say that I’m monumentally grateful to Linn for letting her keep her clothes on. He doesn’t even send her out in a rain storm.

About the only thing predictable about this film, given its setting, is that the scenery is beautiful. Linn has captured South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation in stunning detail, and he’s done a fine job of showing off the country in literally the best light possible.

The only reservations I have about Imprint are the lighting and sound quality for some of the interior scenes, and the musical score. Most of the time, you couldn’t distinguish this film from its higher-budgeted counterparts; but Imprint is so captivating that I just wished that the cinematography, sound, and score were as consistently good as their finest moments.

Still, if you’re up for a very different ghost story experience—one that might let you shake off the grimy feeling with which Hollywood horror tales often leave you—take a chance on Imprint and cut it some low-budget slack. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Rating

Imprint is rated PG-13 for “violence, some frightening images and drug references.” Honestly, aside from the fact that this is a ghost story, there’s very little here that would be out of place in a PG film. I wouldn’t hesitate at all to sit down and watch this film with my grade-school kids. If I had any.

Courtesy of a national publicist, Greg screened a promotional copy of "Imprint."

Greg Wright is Managing Editor of both Past the Popcorn and Hollywood Jesus. An ordained pastor, Greg is the author of Tolkien In Perspective: Sifting the Gold from the Glitter (2003) and Peter Jackson in Perspective: The Power Behind Cinema’s The Lord of the Rings (2004). A widely-known lecturer on Tolkien, Lewis, film, and fantasy, Greg resides in the Seattle area with his precious wife Jenn and their two cats, Grynne and Bearrett.

by Greg Wright

Noteworthy Documentary

As a critic, I rarely find myself in the position of feeling like a shameless promoter... but this is one of those rare instances. I really can’t find enough opportunities to champion Dan Merchant’s documentary Lord, Save Us From Your Followers; and I don’t feel bad about that in the least. It’s not only a film whose content is deserving of an audience from Christians and non-Christians alike, it’s also entertaining and knows precisely what the limits of low-budget filmmaking are. It never overextends itself, and it never rests on its indie laurels.

If you’ve been tracking the market for documentaries over the last ten years, you’re probably not surprised that the top five non-IMAX grossers in that period are Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins, Sicko, An Inconvenient Truth, and Bowling for Columbine. The Michael Moore model of documentarianism has captivated the minds of careerists and bean counters alike, and—in keeping with larger cultural trends—documentaries now flaunt their biases and take positions that are guaranteed to fan the flames of controversy. Last year, two documentaries from the polar extremes—Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed and Religulous—waded into the top-twenty list by adhering to that very model.

It’s a model that literally makes me sick to my stomach.

Dan Merchant understands and also leverages that model—but it’s precisely the subject of his film, as well. While he understands that nobody’s forcing us to tune in to CNN or Fox News, or ramming movie tickets down our throats, he also keenly observes the growing commercial value of polarizing rhetoric. “It’s my choice to be offended or not,” Merchant notes, “but it’s becoming easier to be... This country is polarized, and we’re loving it.”

If the Church Has the Answers, Start Acting Like It

Of particular interest to Merchant is the Church’s role in all of this. To help investigate popular opinion of Christian sloganeering, he toured the country as “Bumper Sticker Man,” a roving reporter with a microphone and white coveralls plastered with slogans from the right and the left. What he found might be surprising. Opponents of Christianity often understand it quite well; but more often, Christians have no clue about the values of secular culture, indicative of a head-in-the-sand mindset worthy of Sergeant Schultz from Hogan’s Heroes.

What’s really great is that Merchant talks with and features the highest-profile minds from both sides of the debate: Rick Santorum and Al Franken; Michael Reagan and Janeane Garafalo; Bill Maher and Matthew Crouch. It’s a balanced and fair presentation that says, “Hey, we’re all at fault. But if we believe the Church has the answer, we’d damned well better start acting like it... or expect the consequences.”

To be fair, Merchant’s film is at times equally provocative. At the conclusion of one such sequence, though, he confesses: “I can do hyperbole, too... but it doesn’t remind me of Jesus. ... We have—I have—to do better.”

In the interest of modeling what “better” means, Lord, Save Us heavily features clips with Tony Campolo, John Perkins, Bono, and Rick Warren, and keeps the focus squarely on “waking up the faithful” rather than pointing out the faults of “the wicked.”

The third act of the film turns on three powerful illustrations: first, Merchant’s stint operating a confession booth at a Portland, Oregon, Gay Pride festival—in which Merchant himself starts the ball rolling by confessing his own sins, and those of the Church; a heartfelt tale from Tony Campolo about how, as a youth, he stood by and did nothing while a classmate was literally persecuted to death; and a visit to Bridgetown Ministries’ Nightstrike at the Burnside Bridge in Portland, a regular event at which those who care can minister to those in need: food, clothing, medical assistance, haircuts, and, yes, footwashings—just the sort of thing that Jesus commended to his followers, and that his brother James called “true religion.”

“I’m not used to hearing anyone who’s a Christian say anything nice,” says one of the visitor to Merchant’s confession booth.

Well, quite frankly, neither are many Christians. And Merchant’s film is a good start toward changing that.

I’m pleased to report that the DVD of Lord, Save Us is once again available for purchase at the film’s official site, in support of Merchant’s 2009 tour of college campuses. Soon, hopefully, he’ll also get the details of a mainstream distribution deal nailed down.

If you’re at all interested in being part of a larger cultural conversation that’s more about answers than complaints, more about love than about fear, and more about Jesus than about ourselves, take the opportunity to watch this film. You might not agree entirely with Merchant’s theology; but honestly, the hungry, the sick, and the hurting don’t much care about splitting hairs. Let’s give the divisiveness a rest, eh?

Rating

Lord, Save Us From Your Followers is at present unrated. Be aware that, while Merchant doesn’t go in for potty language and gratuitous provocateuring, his look at the gay culture in particular is frank. If your family wouldn’t be able to handle a visit to a Gay Pride festival, you don’t want to sit down and watch this film with them, probably, either. On the other hand, if you’re interested in getting your family over that particular hump, a screening of this DVD might be exactly what you need.

Courtesy of the filmmaker, Greg screened both an online press copy and the present “Movement Edition” DVD of "Lord, Save Us From Your Followers."

©2009 ChristianCinema.com

Greg Wright is Managing Editor of both Past the Popcorn and Hollywood Jesus. An ordained pastor, Greg is the author of Tolkien In Perspective: Sifting the Gold from the Glitter (2003) and Peter Jackson in Perspective: The Power Behind Cinema’s The Lord of the Rings (2004). A widely-known lecturer on Tolkien, Lewis, film, and fantasy, Greg resides in the Seattle area with his precious wife Jenn and their two cats, Grynne and Bearrett.

by Michael Karounos

For people without a life, watching movies on DVD or via Netflix is the only outlet to a world of escapism such as that Max Payne provides. In “On Fairy-Stories” Tolkien writes that fantasy should have an “arresting strangeness.” In this case, the strangeness comes from the video game which has the added value of Satan worship. Although that is not explicit in the film, it does feature devils of its own. Revenge is the theme du jour as evidenced by recent films such The Spirit, The Dark Knight, Quantum of Solace, etc., and that is the case here as Payne (Mark Wahlberg) seeks revenge for the murder of his wife and daughter by drug addicts.

The easily-graspable premise allows the writers the luxury of developing character without having to spend a lot of time on an intricate plot. Unfortunately, they only manage to portray six degrees of shallowness. Emotion, not intricacy, drives the interest of the story. Wahlberg admits as much in an interview, saying, “We were trying to make a movie that was entertaining and driven by emotion.” In film, rage is the poor man’s gold and Wahlberg stays angry the entire movie which provides the justification for the mayhem he indulges.

A Simple Plot

The plot is simple. A corporation is contracted by the government to produce a serum which enables soldiers to become super-human. The corporation is called Aesir, the drug is called Valkyr, Payne’s partner is Balder, and the bar where the bad guys hang out (I’m not making this up), is called Ragnarok. As an English teacher, I’m glad to know that the writer’s youth was not entirely misspent on Sega Genesis and that he was able to squeeze some Norse mythology into his data bank.

Every movie has a worldview. In these highly partisan times, that worldview is invariably political. One can determine the orientation of the writing/directing team by the portrayal of the movie’s archetypes and social institutions. In the case of Max Payne, the evil element in the film comprises not only the vile capitalists in the Aesir corpororation but also the military and the police. The message is that the prevailing economic and social culture is evil and has corrupted the institutions of society. Since these can no longer be trusted, they must be eradicated with help from the outside. In Mission Impossible III, The CIA (i.e. America) is corrupt, the Vatican (i.e. Christianity) is corrupt, and the only good guys in the movie are the foreigners employed by the CIA and the Chinese people who help Cruise’s character kill the evil Americans. In other words, to find good people you have to go to a Communist country. China is portrayed as a benign and bucolic land with helpful citizens, quaint cone hats, and smiling, eco-friendly people on bicycles.

Similarly, Max Payne teams up with a beautiful Russian spy to kill the capitalists and the rogue American military. This wishful thinking on the part of Hollywood is so common as to be a standing joke. It is the thematic variant of “Four legs good, two legs bad!” which Hollywood dutifully chants to itself.

As the movie develops, Payne learns that the drug induces hallucinations in the people who take it. That hallucination is a “Valkyrie”—a “soldier’s angel” who of course looks nothing like an angel and everything like a devil. Draw your own conclusion. Payne finally exposes the people who are distributing the drug but not before he is compelled to take the drug himself and channel his own inner demon in order to slaughter a dozen or so running dogs of capitalism. Visually, the film is successful and will appeal to fans of pure violence. Emotionally and intellectually, it is yet another failed endeavor at propaganda and consequently it bombed, like so many of its cousins: Rendition, Redacted, The Valley of Elah, Lions for Lambs, Stop-Loss, ad nauseum.

Max Payne is not recommended for general Christian audiences, but for viewers who care nothing about an amoral worldview, excessive violence, and some nudity, then this one may be the ticket.

Rating

Max Payne is rated PG-13 for violence including intense shooting sequences, drug content, some sexuality and brief strong language.

Running time: 1 hr. 40 mins.

Directed by: John Moore

Screenplay: Beau Thorne

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Beau Bridges, Ludacris, Donal Logue, Chris O'Donnell

©2009 ChristianCinema.com

Michael Karounos is an assistant professor of English at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville. He has a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in Victorian literature and has published papers in Studies in English Literature, the Age of Johnson,The Robert Frost Review, and in Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries.

by Jeff Walls

Steve Martin returns as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther 2, a sequel to the 2006 remake that itself probably never should have been made. Now, that’s nothing against Martin. You won’t find a much bigger Steve Martin fan than yours truly. Whenever I’m in a funk, he has always been my go-to guy to bring me out of it. But as much as I admire Martin and think he’s a comic genius; he is completely wrong for this role. In fact, I don’t see how any actor other than Peter Sellers could be right for this role. Trying to walk in his footsteps is kin to another actor playing Richard Blaine or Don Corleone.

Since stumbling his way into becoming a national hero by retrieving the famous Pink Panther diamond in the first film, Clouseau has been assigned by Chief Inspector Dreyfus to a super important detail: parking meter cop. However, when a villain known as The Tornado steals such historical artifacts as the Magna Carta, an imperial Japanese sword and the Shroud of Turin, he is recruited to join an international dream team of detectives to solve the case.

As you would expect, Clouseau spends most of the movie seemingly making matters worse for his investigation by burning down restaurants, unwittingly ruining evidence and even sitting on the Pope’s hat; then, of course, he discovers one crucial—and somewhat far-fetched, honestly—piece of evidence that turns the entire case around.

It's About the Gags, Not the Plot

If you think I am giving anything away about the plot, don’t worry, I’m not. It doesn’t really matter anyway. The movie is not so much about the plot as it is about the gags. Unfortunately, the gags range mostly from unfunny and just plain stupid to minimally clever, generating something little more than a chuckle with only a very few exceptions.

One thing you can say about Pink Panther 2 is that it does put together quite an impressive cast. In addition to Martin and the also returning Jean Reno and Emily Mortimer, the film features Andy Garcia, Alfred Molina, John Cleese and Lily Tomlin. Jeremy Irons also shows up, but his role doesn’t amount to much more than a cameo; much like Clive Owen’s appearance in the first film. They each have their moments, but in general the great cast is just wasted. Not to mention the accents that are just plain awful to the point of being a distraction. Strangely enough, the only accent that sounds somewhat appropriate is John Cleese’s, who doesn’t even make an effort to sound like a Frenchman.

I carry around a certain affection for the original Pink Panther films and honestly, it has been awhile since I have watched them so I can’t even say for sure that the gags in those films were any more clever than what we are getting today. Then again, the gags in those films—particularly The Pink Panther and A Shot in the Dark—felt more original. They were also performed by Sellers, who also disappears into Clouseau’s many disguises much easier than Martin.

If you are one of those responsible for the 2006 Pink Panther’s $160 million take, than you will probably like the sequel just as much as there is plenty more of the same. Otherwise, I recommend seeking out the original films and discover the comedy true comedy gold.

Rating

The Pink Panther 2 is rated PG for “some suggestive humor, brief mild language and action.” The only thing I really noticed is the suggestive humor, referring to some sex and racial gags, but I’d say this movie is appropriate for all ages.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of "The Pink Panther 2"

A self-described movie geek, Jeff Walls is an official DVD-aholic who works days in the insurance industry and blogs about movies for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

by Jeff Walls

Watching Push, the latest "real people have superpowers" thriller, I couldn’t help but wonder why they did not just call it Heroes: The Movie. It’s basically the same premise: a group of ordinary citizens try to cope with their extraordinary abilities and avoid the menacing corporation that wants to bring them all in to be studied. Still, it’s hard to blame the movie’s producers for staying away from the Heroes label, because they’ve probably seen the last two seasons of the once hit television show and want to stay as far away from that image as possible.

Actually, in Push it is not really a corporation, but rather a branch of government called “The Division” that is targeting those with abilities, with the hopes of turning them into weapons. It’s been going on since World War II when the Nazis were doing it, immediately tying the Division in with the evil empire.

The heroes of Push aren’t necessarily discovering their abilities for the first time either. In fact, most with abilities are second generation, but they may not have met their full potential if they’ve been hiding their powers all their life to avoid capture.

Nick, endowed with telekinetic abilities, watched his father get murdered by Division leader Henry Carver when he was a kid and is currently hiding out in Hong Kong with hopes of one day avenging his father’s death. Unfortunately, he hasn’t even developed his powers to the point where he can win at craps, something that hasn’t sat well with the local mob.

Cassie, meanwhile, is a Watcher, meaning she can see the future. What she sees she draws on her sketch pad, but it doesn’t always make sense to her. Her visions bring her together with Nick and she recruits him to help her to find a missing girl who may just know the secret that will keep her and Nick from meeting the fate of death that she has envisioned for them. The girl, however, may not be exactly who she seems to be.

In addition to characters who can see the future and move things with their mind, there are also those who can put thoughts into the heads of others, some who can wipe a person’s memory and others that can yell really, really loud. These were my least favorite, for sure.

Fun and Entertaining Action Movie

Although the movie felt at times like a cheap rip-off of The Matrix or X-Men, there was enough entertaining action and enough clever plot twists to keep me interested for most of the film’s 111 minute running time. There’s a creative action scene involving a gunfight achieved without either of the participants actually holding a gun that is pretty clever and although the use of powers gets a little crazy in the climactic battle, it’s still very entertaining. The movie tends to lag a bit between action and there is a love story that feels a little forced, although I enjoyed its resolution within the plot.

The film is directed by Paul McGuigan, whose last movie was the revenge caper Lucky # Slevin, which I really enjoyed. What made that film so enjoyable, however, is what is really missing from Push. Thanks to a charming, powerful cast that included Josh Hartnett, Lucy Liu, Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman, along with a more lighthearted edge, the previous film had a more enjoyable feel to it, whereas Push is grimmer, with a less accessible feel to it. The cast which includes Chris Evans as Nick and Dakota Fanning as Cassie, also didn’t seem to be having too much fun.

Still, there is still a lot to recommend in Push. The effects are adequate for what I’m sure was a much lower budget film than most films of this ilk and I loved the plot device of the little red envelopes. It’s not going to wow anybody, but this is still a fun action movie.

Rating

Push is rated PG-13 for “intense sequences of violence and action, brief strong language, smoking and a scene of teen drinking.” There’s maybe one violent looking death, but for the most part the violence is fairly tame in terms of gore. The language is minimal, but 13-year-old Dakota Fanning does get drunk, so if that kind of thing turns you off, it may not be for you.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of "Push"

©2009 Past the Popcorn

A self-described movie geek, Jeff Walls is an official DVD-aholic who works days in the insurance industry and blogs about movies for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

by Angela Walkers

Before “Extreme Makeover Home Edition” and “The Amazing Race” took over Sunday nights and before the “Desperate Housewives” were old enough to get married, Disney movies ruled Sunday evenings. Families would gather around the television set and watch the latest inventive, and often touching, entry from Disney Studios.

In a return to the feel of those popular films, writer Matt Lopez penned Bedtime Stories, a charming story about an uncle whose bedtime stories for his niece and nephew start coming true. The film stars Adam Sandler as Skeeter Bronson. Joining him as his best friend and sidekick Mickey is British comedian Russell Brand, who Sandler met on a trip to England.

At a recent press conference, the two comedians kept the room of cynical journalists in stitches as they traded lines back and forth. Obviously, the pair had a great time working on the film under the direction of Adam Shankman (“The Pacifier,” “Hairspray,” “The Wedding Planner.”). Joining them was co-star Keri Russell, who plays Jill, and writer Matt Lopez.

Start with a great story

“Matt Lopez wrote a great script,” Sandler said. “I have kids now and I’ve always wanted to do a family movie. Growing up every Sunday night we’d watch a Disney movie. I was a big fan of Kurt Russell growing up and always wanted to be the modern-day Kurt Russell.

“I knew Shankman was there to bring a great visual creative look. He has great style; he’s a great man.” Also influencing Sandler’s decision to do the film was mothers’ reactions to him on the street. “A lot of times kids end up seeing the movies I make and mothers yell at me and tell me I’ve corrupted their child. I’ve influenced them to pee on walls. So I wanted to make sure I did one movie in my career that mothers hugged me for. This could be it.

“Keri and I both are new parents. When I heard kids laughing in the audience (at an early screening), I teared up because I realize I did a nice thing. I’m so happy to hear kids laugh and know that this movie gives parents a place to take kids,” said Sandler.

“I keep thinking about grandmas because of my mother. My mother sometimes will take my kid to a movie, and I think, ‘Oh, that will be cool. Grandma and Grandpa will have a nice time with their grandkids.’ I did have a great time doing it and I would love to do it again.

“When I’d come home at night, I’d think, ‘I feel like a good person,’” Sandler stated. “I’m not making every decision due to my children and hope they never see some of these films I’m doing. But I do want to do more of these family-friendly movies. I do feel good doing them, but it’s not my way of life. I’m a comedian.”

The film is a charming balance of fantasy and comedy, making one wonder what could happen if the things we imagined really did come true? What if we could take all of our disagreements into a Medieval jousting match? Would a duel in outer space settle once and for all our arguments about who is better suited to a particular job?

Making the fantasy bigger

Screenwriter Lopez was thrilled with the end result of the film. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think it could be that cool. The biggest change from my original script is one that enhances the movie so much. The original has the same story with the kids and the sister, but the bedtime stories all took place in medieval times and the story was like a parallel story that ran through but all in the same place,” he said.

“[This film] is about the fun of storytelling. If you’ve ever tried to tell a 4-year-old a story, you know they take it in whatever direction they feel like. You can be telling them a story about a knight, and they could say, ‘Tonight I feel like the story should be about a princess,’” Lopez explained when asked about the origins of his idea.

“I thought if there was this guy who actually had to live through these stories, we’d have a lot of fun if he thinks he’s in control of them. For a while he is sort of in control of them, but not really.”

The idea to have the bedtimes stories take place in different locations and time periods was the brainstorm of producer Jack Giarraputo. “My last draft started to head in that direction,” said Lopez, “then they took it (the space and chariot ideas) and ran with it. The additional locations add such a cool layer of wish fulfillment for kids. It was really exciting to see.”

Adds director Shankman, “It was really fun for me because I got to audition my next project. I was like, ‘Do I want to make a space movie or a Western or a gladiator movie?’ So I’ll be making a gladiator film next.”

Working with children

One of the challenges in making the film was working with children. They can only work for a certain number of hours in the day and their attention span can be really short. A director needs them to be very focused, so Shankman was pleasantly surprised with the ability of Laura Ann Kesling, who plays Skeeter’s niece Bobbi, calling her “hard-core.”

Remarked Sandler, “They are funny, nice, sweet kids. I was their go-to guy for a while, but when Russell’s part started a month into the shoot, they slowly left me and fell in love with Russell [Brand].”

Keri Russell also enjoyed working with the children. “It was so fun. There were kids running around all over the place. Elephants would be on the set one day and everybody brought their kids to have pictures with the elephants. I was dressed as a mermaid one day and all the kids took pictures with me. It was that kind of set.”

Sandler called her the “mother on the set”. “She was nice to the two kids the whole time. I ran out of stuff to say. I tred to make the kids laugh and got a couple of laughs. Then they’re staring at me for more, and I’m like, ‘Really? Go talk to Keri Russell over there.’”

Additional challenges

An unexpected challenge that happened during shooting was an accident Sandler had while playing basketball with his nephew. Director Shankman received a call the night it happened and wasn’t happy at all. “I said, ‘What do you mean he broke his ankle?’ and they said, ‘More details later.’

“Conveniently, the next thing we were shooting was him sitting telling the kids the stories. We shot that for a week and figured out during that week what we could and couldn’t do. “I played a game during the movie called, ‘Can walk, Can’t walk.’” Shankman said. “I had to think, ‘Oh, yeah, he can walk there, he can’t walk there,’ and we kept going.”

How did they work around it? One way was to make the boots Sandler wears during the space sequence a mock-up of the boot he was wearing for his ankle. They took the orthopedic boot and made a copy of it for the other foot. When asked if they ever considered shooting with crutches, Sandler said, “No, I can handle pain.”

Comics in Action

Watching Sandler and Brand interact in person brought up a question about their working relationship. Brand admitted, “I loved working with Adam. It was an education in how to do film acting for me. I hadn’t done many films before and I’ve learned loads of stuff, some controlling things. Things like how to improvise within sensible parameters. How to not swear. It was a wonderful education. We laughed a lot. It was a comedic and cinematic education.”

Brand came to the project at Sandler’s invitation. “Adam asked if I’d like to do this film, and I said, ‘Yes, all right. I’ll learn stuff and it will be a lark.’ Then going forward I found out more about it, that Adam Shankman would be involved. I found out all his movies make loads of money.”

At this point, Brand gave everyone in the room an economics lesson. “Now, if people associate you with the idea of loads of money, they will in turn give some of that money to you. For example, you see how they are allowed to only give their families one Christmas present? (Earlier, someone asked about Christmas and Keri Russell and Adam Shankman discussed their families’ choices to limit gift-giving)

“I used to be poor,” Brand continued. “I’ve loads of money now, so my family is getting loads of things. I’m giving the stuff away! I’m getting things for people I don’t even know! I’m like Willy Wonka!”

That kind of wacky humor is what caused Sandler to call on Brand for this film. “When I met him, I thought Russell was hilarious. I went over to England with four or five of my friends and we all talked about Russell afterward. We all thought that kid was incredible. He’s so funny and so smart.

“I was a guest on his show [on MTV] and didn’t have to say very much. Russell did most of the talking. It was very cordial. He’d ask me a question and I wouldn’t come up with anything too funny. Russell would butt in for a huge laugh, and the girls would gasp about how great he was.

“I told Russell it was two times that nobody paid any attention to me on a show. Once I was on a show with the band N Sync and no one looked at me. I was on a show in England with Russell and no one looked at me. It was just girls staring at Russell.

“When we screened the movie the first time, we looked at the scores for favorite characters. Skeeter Bronson got a 91, and I said, ‘I’ll take that.’ Then I looked at Russell’s and he got a 96!”

An early review

Early reviews and responses to the film have been great, with the exception of Sandler’s young daughter Sadie. He brought home a copy of the film on DVD and she watched an hour of it. “It was going well, and then she started saying ‘later, later,’” remembers Sandler. “I said, ‘Come on, let’s finish it.’ She repeated, ‘later, later.’ And I said, ‘it’s almost done,’ and she said, ‘Baboo eat Daddy’s movie,’” (referring to the family dog).

Hopefully when Sadie sees the complete film, she will be as enchanted as other children were at early screenings. When asked about his hopes for the film, director Shankman said, “I personally hope [the audience] would take away a couple of things. First of all, that magic can happen when family is together, because that’s the trigger of it all. And the importance of imagination because we’re now living in difficult times where the old stuff hasn’t been working, and it’s going to take a lot of imagination to move us forward in life, and I mean globally.

The other important issue for Shankman is creativity. “I want people to think about spending time together being creative and using your imagination. There are no limits, and there are, and can be, happy endings. That’s what a happy ending is – there’s hope.”

What do others want the audience to take away with them?

“Their litter,” said Russell Brand.

Bedtime Stories opens nationally on Christmas Day and is rated PG for some rude humor and mild language.

©2008 ChristianCinema.com

Angela Walker is Executive Editor for ChristianCinema.com, your source for faith-affirming and family-approved entertainment. She gets to know the person behind the cameras while gaining an inside look at the process of movie-making. More news and exclusive interviews with today's top filmmakers and Christians in Cinema can be found at http://www.christiancinema.com/catalog/newsdesk.php.

All photos by Merrick Morton. ©2008 Paramount Pictures Corp. and Warner Brothers Entertainment. All rights reserved

by Angela Walker

When John Grogan wrote his best-selling book Marley & Me, about his family’s wonderfully neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life, he had no idea it would become a movie starring two of today’s hottest film actors. At the pleading of his nieces and in-laws, director David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada, Band of Brothers) decided to read the book, and immediately realized its cinematic potential.

When adapting a book into a film, the filmmakers often have to contend with questions from all quarters. Everyone has an opinion about what must be in the film, and what can be omitted. Usually the list of what has to go in is considerably longer than the list of what can be left out.

Since I finished reading the book by John Grogan at 3:00 AM the day before seeing the film, it was fresh in my mind. I had my own idea of non-negotiables for it, and was curious to see how the film measured up.

Happily, the movie lived up to my expectations and then some. It is a portrait of an ordinary couple growing in their relationship, their marriage and their roles as parents to three children and an unruly dog named Marley. The result is a movie that many people can relate to, and whose story some may even envy.

A regular complaint about the films Hollywood produces is that marriages are rarely portrayed as fulfilling and successful. (I have made that complaint myself.) In truth, many marriages in the United States are not successful. According to a recent Barna survey conducted in 2007 – 2008, 33% of 3,792 adults have been divorced at least once.

Celebrating Marriage

“It’s true that in the movies when you see a marriage, it seems like it’s always a struggle,” commented Owen Wilson (Night at the Museum, Cars), who plays John Grogan. “In my scene [with co-star Eric Dane (Grey's Anatomy)], I’m saying ‘Everything’s OK,’ and Eric says, ‘Really?’ like he doesn’t believe it.”

The irony is that Eric is the only one of the stars who’s married.

“We all embraced the opportunity to make a movie that supports true love in a happy marriage,” said Frankel in a recent press conference. “Yes, there are ups and downs and difficult times, but mostly it’s about appreciating the choices you made and appreciating the joys of family. The challenge for us was finding the drama in what is essentially a portrait of happy people.”

Even though only one of the three leads is currently married, they were all appreciative of John and Jenny Grogan’s story. Jennifer Aniston (Friends, Along Came Polly), who plays Jenny Grogan, explains the appeal of the story for her. “I wanted to be in the movie because it’s not the girl trying to get the guy, or the guy trying to get the girl. It’s not the chase, and then they ride off into the sunset. It’s sort of the sequel to that. You get to see the ins and outs of a relationship and see them over 15 years. There’s this human thread that takes you through, and it’s funny because life is funny.

“This particular movie is rare that you hit all the notes, so to speak. It was unbelievably creatively fulfilling. This one was sort of a homerun, and they don’t always happen that way.

“It’s a true and simple story,” Aniston said. “I think people go to movies to escape, and often they have these big crazy plotlines. But here’s a movie where people are going, ‘That’s me,’ or ‘I did that,’ or ‘I lived that.’ You don’t have to have a dog or be married to relate to these things.”

Wilson agreed, mentioning the international appeal of the story. “It’s not just America. I remember talking with John Grogan about the reaction in Argentina. They loved the book. I think there’s something that has a sort of universal appeal that people are able to connect with.”

“There’s a universal yearning for unconditional love, and I think that’s what the book is about and hope that’s what comes through in the movie,” said Frankel. “I think it’s a good movie for the whole family. My in-laws said it was one of the most beautiful books they’d ever read about life. They hawked me mercilessly and said, ‘You’ve got to do this.’”

Working with Dogs and Children

One of the major challenges Frankel faced was using dogs and children, something an old theater adage warns against. But for Frankel, working with the dogs was easier than working with children. “I have two kids myself and I thought I was prepared, but the toddlers and the infants are a challenge to work with. Even untrained dogs responded better to their cues, and you can manipulate them with a treat, but babies don’t respond the same way.”

Dog trainer Mark Forbes brought Clyde, one of the main adult Marleys, to the press day. When asked about training for the dogs, he immediately answered, “We didn’t train them. We did what I like to call ‘anti-training.’ We just encouraged every bad behavior you can think of and told them it was good.”

“I think you worked with my dog,” Wilson quipped immediately.

“We just let them go on the set,” continued Forbes. “I was very pleased with the dogs. The most important thing was not to rehearse them, because they were always best on the first take. So we would prepare and then try to grab the magic on take one.”

“Honestly, Clyde was very easy to work with,” said Aniston. “I would say the younger Marleys (11 puppies were used for the film) had more problems hitting their marks, so it was more challenging for their trainers. But we had a ball! We never had a hard time.

“The scene where we were taking Marley in the car to get neutered was pretty challenging, but we had the trainer in the back seat.”

Always the funny guy, Wilson added, “Clyde was always good at getting his stuff, but getting the puppies to do things like pee on command was harder. Some things had to be done with a green screen.”

A Story for the Whole Family

While the story is laced with plenty of comic moments, there are also difficult moments for the couple that take this film beyond just a cute movie about a dog. A miscarriage, a violent crime and death are just some of the more serious incidences portrayed.

Director Frankel believes it’s still a good film for the whole family. “For me, it’s a movie for people of all ages, and there is real merit in advertising it in a way that families will go. My kids are going to go see it next week and they’re seven. They’re excited, and I welcome their questions. I think that’s the joy of family, discussing the aspects of life, the good and the bad.”

Wilson agrees. “It’s also right that as adults you sometimes underestimate kids’ abilities to absorb or handle things.”

Inevitably, comparisons arose to “Old Yeller.” Could this be the classic dog movie for this generation? You’ll have to see it and judge for yourself.

Rating

Marley & Me opens on Christmas Day and is rated PG for thematic material, some suggestive content and language.

©2008 ChristianCinema.com

Angela Walker is Executive Editor for ChristianCinema.com, your source for faith-affirming and family-approved entertainment. She gets to know the person behind the cameras while gaining an inside look at the process of movie-making. More news and exclusive interviews with today's top filmmakers and Christians in Cinema can be found at http://www.christiancinema.com/catalog/newsdesk.php.

All photos by Barry Wetcher. ^TM and © Twentieth Century Fox and Regency Entertainment. All rights reserved.

Born in New Orleans on the night World War I ended in 1918, Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) has the physical frailties of an 80-year-old man. When his mother dies after giving birth, his father (Jason Flemyng) tries to rid himself of his heartbreak by leaving the baby on the doorstep of Nolan House, a retirement home.

Queenie (Taraji Henson), the African-American caretaker, takes him in, loving him as though he were her own. She raises him among the elderly, where Benjamin feels at home because outwardly they are like him. Yet even as they are dying, he is growing younger.

One day Daisy (Elle Fanning) comes to visit her grandmother. When she meets Benjamin, the two form a kinship that will last the rest of their lives. Daisy (played as an adult by Cate Blanchett) sees past his wrinkles and crippled body to the young soul inside that, like herself, is just beginning to explore the world.

Like any young boy, Benjamin longs for adventure. He leaves Nolan House behind and sets out on a journey that takes him across the Atlantic Ocean, to the Winter Palace Hotel in Murmansk, into the throes of World War II, and eventually back home to New Orleans.

Along the way, he finds and loses love, discovering the joys of life and the sadness of death. In the middle of his life, he encounters Daisy again, and they have a handful of precious years together before his unusual aging process separates them again. When they have a child together, he asks Daisy, “How can I be a father when I’m headed the other way? You can’t raise the both of us.”

At the end of their lives, Benjamin and Daisy are reunited once more at Nolan House, their lives coming full circle where they first met. As she lies on her deathbed in a New Orleans hospital with Hurricane Katrina is approaching, Daisy tells their story in flashbacks to her daughter (Julia Ormond).

Review:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a beautiful film. From the careful reproduction of early 1900s New Orleans to the splendor of the Winter Palace Hotel, there is incredible attention to detail on all levels. Visually, it flows from scene to scene without any jarring cuts or abrupt editing.

Brad Pitt agreed to do the film only if he could play the character at all stages of life, creating a challenge for director David Frankel. He enlisted visual effects supervisor Eric Barba, who worked with Academy Award-winning special make-up designer Greg Cannon to create prosthetics and effects that believably age and de-age Pitt throughout the film.

Pitt and Blanchett are both very powerful in their roles, Pitt as a young soul in an old body learns early on that life and the people we meet are only with us for a short time, and then we move on. Blanchett is luminous as the beautiful Daisy, who loves Benjamin as a withered, crippled child, then a strong, middle-aged man, and finally as a child again. Her love looks beyond his outward appearance to the soul inside.

Taraji Henson as Queenie infuses the role with amazing compassion, embracing the child left on her doorstep with the same kindness she shows to those at the end of their lives. With patience and love, she takes him in as her own and raises him as she would her own child.

Eric Roth, who wrote Forest Gump, wrote the screenplay and conceived it as if it could be anybody’s story. “It’s just a man’s life, and what affects this odd character affects everyone.” The screenplay is very carefully written, with intersections of characters and events woven almost seamlessly together in a way that feels like a meandering journey.

The success of the film is that anyone watching it will be able to identify themselves at some point in Benjamin’s life. Whether it’s the young (at heart) learning to walk, someone anticipating their first kiss, or the aging person wanting to know if they’ll still be loved when they have acne and wet the bed, each stage of life is explored and experienced.

It is one of the kindest treatments of aging that I’ve ever seen portrayed on film, and rather than railing against life’s inevitable decline, it gracefully, even somewhat passively, accepts what comes. And that is my main contention with the film. It’s a fatalistic piece of storytelling, leaving us at the end to feel that we must accept whatever comes our way and make out of it what we can.

Even though Benjamin and Daisy love each other for what’s inside, looking beyond wrinkles and canes, they have no expectation that their love can triumph over their circumstances. And when Benjamin tells Daisy that she can’t raise both their daughter and him, she acquiesces rather than fight for their love. Is she afraid of explaining their unusual relationship to outsiders, or is she afraid that as he grows younger, she will appeal to him less? Rather than stay and fight through what may come, Benjamin decides it’s easier, and better for all concerned, to leave while everything is still enjoyable.

This theme pervades the film and is like a mirror reflecting back our own culture. When things get difficult, abdicate because there is no hope and there is no sense fighting the inevitable. Why waste your energy?

It may be coincidental but at a time when marriage is being hotly contested, there are no positive marriages in the film. Of the two central to the story, one is simply a marriage of convenience, and the other suffers from neglect and extramarital affairs. Benjamin and Daisy don’t marry; they come together for a few years and then go their separate ways, eventually reuniting at the end of their lives.

While the film is peppered with moments of inspirational thoughts like “It’s never too late or too early to be who you want to be,” the overriding feeling is one of accepting the inevitable. The look and sound of the film underscore that with darkened tones that contain a few moments of color and brightness.

While I enjoyed the film for its cinematic accomplishments, I left the theater feeling like I had received greater insight into what those without Christ must feel about life. It’s not hopeful, it’s a series of random connections, and we’re left to make of it what we will.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button opens on Christmas Day and is rated PG-13 for brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking.

John Grogan is married to the girl of his dreams, has a successful newspaper column, three kids, and a dog that eats everything in sight, including jewelry. It’s the life he always wanted, or is it?

John Grogan’s best-selling book “Marley & Me” comes to the screen this Christmas with stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston as John and Jenny Grogan. When Jenny realizes she can’t keep a houseplant alive, she worries that she won’t make it as a parent.

Concerned about their preparedness for children, John confides in his permanently single friend Sebastian (Eric Dane), who encourages him to get a puppy as a delaying tactic. Soon John is taking Jenny to a breeder’s, where they find the perfect puppy.

The 12-pound yellow Labrador quickly grows into a 100-pound steamroller of unparalleled energy that completely turns the Grogans’ world upside down. He changes their lives in a way they never expected, introducing them to unconditional love and companionship through all the seasons of life.

Review:

If you think this is just a story about a dog, you’re in for a wonderful surprise. It is rather a celebration of marriage, of the ordinary events that shape our lives on a daily basis. Without being overly dramatic, it hits on almost every aspect of a family’s life and reinforces the beauty of the family, with all its flaws and foibles. The Grogans are settling down, not settling for something.

The film is perfectly cast, with Owen Wilson bringing a deeper presence than is usually seen in his comedic roles. He struggles with the path his career has taken, longing to be out in the field with his best friend Sebastian, at the same time wanting to enjoy his family and home.

The charm and believability that won her acclaim on “Friends” is showcased here by Jennifer Aniston. Where someone with lesser comic instincts might be overwhelmed by Wilson, she provides a perfect foil for him. She actually comes through as the stronger of the two characters, making the hard choice to leave her career to become a stay-at-home mother of three children and a very unruly dog.

In one of the most poignant lines of the film, Jenny says, “No one tells you how hard this is going to be. But this made me who I am,” and she convinces us she made the better choice when she chose motherhood over her career. She doesn’t immediately become the mother of the year, and I thought Aniston made very realistic choices about her portrayal of Jenny.

Other Cast:

Eric Dane is Sebastian, John’s alter-ego. His life is a never-ending succession of girlfriends and foreign assignments, and he ends conflicts by leaving the relationships. When John confides about some trouble he and Jenny are having, Sebastian advises him to leave her. Instead, John tells him he’s committed to “mending it, not ending it.”

Alan Arkin plays John and Sebastian’s boss at the newspaper. Early on, he recognizes John’s gifts lie more in the creation of columns that celebrate daily life than in investigative journalism. He pushes John to accept his abilities for what they are, and tells him that he’ll surprise himself one day.

Drill sergeant dog trainer Ms. Kornblutt is portrayed by Kathleen Turner, who tries unsuccessfully to help the Grogans tame their uncontrollable beast. If you look closely in her scenes, the real John and Jenny Grogan can be seen in the background as participants in the dog training school.

Conclusion:

Since the book covers a period of 15 years, I was curious to see how the film would make the same progress. About midway through, there’s a montage narrated by John that shows the passage of time in the family’s life. Perfectly conceived and executed, it’s a reminder that our lives are marked by events within the framework of our family.

Emotionally, the film hits every mark without being too sentimental. I laughed at Marley’s antics, cried with John and Jenny as they suffered a miscarriage, and rejoiced over the birth of their children. It’s beautifully filmed and edited, with a soundtrack that supports but never directs the emotional course of the story.

If you’ve read the book, you know the end of the story, which receives my one complaint. It dragged on, extending beyond what is reasonable. It also seemed to elicit a greater emotional response from John than the loss of his and Jenny’s first child due to a miscarriage.

This is a great film and promotes marriage and family in a very wonderful and realistic way. It is definitely not just a film about a dog. It does introduce topics like miscarriages, crime, and death.

Marley & Me opens on Christmas Day and is rated PG for thematic material, some suggestive content and language.