Currently browsing the "Nicole Kidman" tag.

Just Go With It

I was soooo ready to hate this movie. But I didn’t. I actually found it quite entertaining in a mindless, escapist, chick flick romantic comedy sort of way.

Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole is a decent but not very deep drama about a suburban couple struggling to cope with the loss of a young child. It features quiet, stripped-down performances from Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart as the grief-stricken parents who find it difficult to turn to each other for support. There’s nothing really wrong with the movie, but it’s not exactly happy Christmas Day fare.

Nine

If you are already a musical fan, you might enjoy Nine. I, however, am not a big musical fan so I went to see it hoping that it would be transcendent. It was not. The star-studded cast drew me in. Daniel-Day Lewis, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, even Sophia Loren… how could I resist? But I left underwhelmed. Only Marion Cotillard gave what I considered an excellent performance.

Australia

I kind of wanted to see it when it was in the theaters, but it didn’t stay around that long and I missed it. Glad I saved the 9 bucks. Australia is a mess. There are four writers credited and I suspect there were lots more. And Good God, it is long! And what is it really about? Who’s story is it? Is it the beautiful boy’s? He is the best part, but even there the story is a muddle. As for genres, it’s western/romance/war epic/political drama with a dash of the Wizard of Oz for good measure. And it is one layer of cliches on top of another. Oh, and about that romance – the chemistry between Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman is not even remotely there. The politically correct thread about the treatment of the Aborigines is just not that affecting. In fact, none of the epic qualities that they tried for really work. They have so many elements here to work with– the vast otherness of Australia, the archetypal evil rival cattlemen, the dark coming of the war, the upper crust English lady cum fish out of water meets outback Drover romance, the wickedly misguided white people stealing the Aborigine children — and yet there is no focus. They are trying to tell too many stories at once and end up seeming to say nothing.