Three More Movies

Amidst March Madness, I found some time for a few movies, two current, and one oldie.

Let's start with this Oscar nominated gem.

In a semi-autobiographical film, director Kenneth Branagh tells the story of life in Belfast, Northern Ireland during the height of "The Troubles", the civic unrest (to put it mildly) that existed between Catholics and Protestants, Irish and British.  The movie focuses on one family: two sons, Mom and Dad, and one set of grandparents, with the youngest son, Buddy, being the main focus of the story.

We see the violence and the hatred that took so many lives and completely split a country apart.  At the same time we see one family trying to hold things together amidst unimaginable horrors.  While stores are being bombed and looted, and gangs fight with guns, clubs, and bombs in the streets, Buddy goes to school, plays soccer in the street, develops a schoolboy crush, a grandparent gets sick, bills have to be paid, people go to the movies, dances are held in the neighborhood, and jobs, regular jobs, have to be performed. In short, life goes on amidst unimaginable horrors, and a family, particularly the Mom, has to struggle just to keep going.

Filmed in beautiful black and white, Belfast is nominated for five major Oscars:  Best Picture, Branagh for Director, actor Ciaran Hinds and Judi Dench for Supporting Actor and Actress, and Best Original Screenplay.  It has been three days since I watched this movie and it gets better and better in my mind the more I think about it.

Three and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

After his success with the remake of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express a few years ago, Kenneth Branagh is back directing and starring in another Christie classic, Death on the Nile.  I won't go into the details of the plot, but "Death on the Nile" is considered one of the classics in the Christie Cannon, probably in her Top Ten, and Branagh does a good job in telling the story.  Like Orient Express, this one has the perquisite All-Star Cast including Branagh as Hercule Poirot, Gal Godot, Tom Bateman, Armie Hammer, Emma Mackey, and Annette Bening.  All are good, the scenery is gorgeous, and the plot is most satisfying whodunit.  Christie fans should be pleased.

In this one, Branagh provided a back story for Poirot.  Why do film makers do this?  Back in 2019, Amazon gave us a version of another Christie classic, "The A.B.C. Murders" that gave Poirot a totally ludicrous back story.  Branagh's version was a lot better that THAT one was, but was it really necessary?

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

The death of actress Say Kellerman last month prompted me to seek out this 2006 comedy.  It is a romantic comedy from director Susan Seidelman about love and romance among widowed and divorced seniors living in a retirement community in Florida (think The Villages).  When I first saw this back in 2006, I was only 55 years old, Marilyn and I were still working, but planning on retirement and looking at a long life ahead of us, I was not yet volunteering at the Caring Place, so the idea of "grief" was still a very abstract concept, if I even thought of it all.  Boynton Beach Club was a funny movie, but pretty much just another movie, a RomCom for geezers.

Now, in 2022, the movie takes on a different look to me.  The Caring Place has taught me about the grieving process, and the Grief Journey that many of us will take at some point in our lives.  Marilyn's death last year put me on that journey, and made me well aware of how lonely it can be when a partner of 47 years is no longer with you.  Therapy has taught me that while it's not easy and can be scary, you need not take that journey alone.   Trust me, a first date can be terrifying, when the last "first date" that you had was 49 years ago.

The movie starred Joseph Bologna, Len Cariou, Michael Nouri, Dyan Cannon, Brenda Vaccaro, Sally Kellerman, and Renee Taylor.  All were good in their roles, all were at various times funny, vulnerable, scared, loving, and very, very human.  Sadly, Bologna, Cariou, and Kellerman are all no longer with us.  You will laugh a lot at this movie, but it is most certainly not just a RomCom for old people.  There is much more to it than that.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.