Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Of all the love stories that have defined the British monarchy, none tugs the heartstrings quite like Victoria and Prince Albert.
The Young Victoria (PG) – partly filmed at Belvoir Castle – traces the romance from the initial sparks of attraction.
to marriage, revealing the private frustrations of the young queen as she attempts to walk a minefield of political intrigue and stringent social etiquette.
Everyone, it seems, wants to manipulate Victoria (Emily Blunt) for their own ends, all apart from Albert (Rupert Friend), who defies protocol to assist the princess in outwitting the schemers, telling her that she must stop being a pawn in other people’s games and take control. • Continue Reading?
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I’m thinking of a movie. Wait, don’t tell me, it’s on the tip of my tongue. It takes place in Albuquerque. There’s a beat-up old van, a lot of family dysfunction, a cute kid, a get-rich-quick scheme that doesn’t quite work out as planned. Alan Arkin is the grandpa. The title? Something about “Sunshine.”
No, not that one. “Little Miss Sunshine” came out in 2006. Why on earth would I be reviewing it now? I’m wondering that myself. A better title for the movie I am supposed to review — for the record, it’s “Sunshine Cleaning,” directed by Christine Jeffs from a script by Megan Holley — would be “Sundance Recycling,” since the picture is less a free-standing independent film than a scrap-metal robot built after a shopping spree at the Park City Indie Parts and Salvage Warehouse.
• Continue Reading?
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Two sisters start a biohazard-removal service. With Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin. Director: Christine Jeffs. (1:42) R: Sexuality, language, adult situations. At the Landmark Sunshine and Lincoln Square.
There’s an air of death and exhaustion around the characters in “Sunshine Cleaning,” but hang on — it’s not at all off-putting.
Though this well-observed, wry drama is determined to be quirky, its most endearing quality, like that of its heroines, is a willingness to wallow in foul moods and come out the other side.
Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams) is a thirtyish former cheerleader shambling through life in Albuquerque as a cleaning woman. • Continue Reading?
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The tenderhearted performances—from Amy Adams and Emily Blunt—and glowing characters in Sunshine Cleaning never get a chance to burst through a foggy plot about sisters scrubbing up after grisly crime scenes.
The Bigger Picture: The old adage says: The best roles for actresses fall into three categories—hookers, victims, and doormats. The two sturdy, quirky heroines of Sunshine Cleaning break that rule. Good for them. But a patchy plot and dull direction blot out what could be a radiant portrait of women grappling with loss, ambition and life’s general messiness. • Continue Reading?
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Actress Emily Blunt will have a Scotch on the rocks, if you’re asking. Or a vodka with a dash of soda water and a splash of cranberry. If the sun is shining, she will take a bottle of Corona beer with a lime wedge in the top. “Oh no, I’ve made myself sound like an alcoholic now, haven’t I?” she says, counting out her favourite poisons on the fingers of one hand.
It’s not the conversation opener I expected from the refined-looking Blunt. As the fantastically neurotic and snooty assistant to Meryl Streep’s magazine editor in The Devil Wears Prada, she stalked the set as if she had a coat hanger stuck down the back of her blouse.
Now she is the imposing lead in The Young Victoria, which depicts that famously rigid monarch as a young woman, her accession to the throne at 17, and the first bloom of her romance with Prince Albert. • Continue Reading?