Waiting to Exhale

Tags

1990's, Angela Bassett, Comedy, Dennis Haysbert, Drama, Forest Whitaker, Gregory Hines, Lela Rochon, Loretta Devine, Michael Beach, Waiting to Exhale, Wesley Snipes, Whitney Houston

Film Title

Waiting to Exhale

Director

Forest Whitaker

Starring

• Whitney Houston as Savannah Jackson
• Angela Bassett as Bernadine Harris
• Lela Rochon as Robin Stokes
• Loretta Devine as Gloria Matthews
• Gregory Hines as Marvin
• Dennis Haysbert as Kenneth
• Michael Beach as John Harris
• Wesley Snipes as James

A glossy comedy drama concerning the love lives and friendships of four African-American women, Waiting to Exhale definitely has a lot of things going for it on the entertainment factor. But while it has some things to recommend, primarily a hot soundtrack and largely impressive casting, Waiting to Exhale just felt overall too slight of a film to make an impact on me.

A quartet of African-American women( Savannah, Bernadine, Robin and Gloria) all experience differences in romantic relationships and love . All living in Phoenix, their relationships with men are never easy and they often meet to discuss their various problems with the opposite sex over vino and food. Savannah is a television producer who has been having a relationship with Kenneth, a married man who keeps promising to leave his wife. Yet she is growing restless with his lying and contemplates taking charge once and for all. Bernadine thought she had a great marriage and lifestyle. That is until slimy John leaves her after eleven years for his secretary and she is crestfallen. She must deal with how best to move forward and reclaim her life as a single woman. The trouble is she never expected any of this to happen, so must go back to square one again and see what she can do. Robin is a flighty girl still hung up on a no good guy, but having casual flings with other guys while she waits for him to finally be in a proper relationship with her. And Gloria, who discovers that her ex-husband is gay, desperately craves company as her son is soon leaving home. Luckily, a new neighbour, handyman Marvin , moves in and she takes a shine to him. Throughout it all, the four women have their friendship to fall back on and rely on in confusing times concerning the heart.

Forest Whitaker adds touches of class as director and knows how to create nice imagery. I do believe he’s trying his best to bring these stories to life and he makes them at least watchable. The script and other areas are where Waiting to Exhale loses me. It just comes off as rather a few, slight vignettes than as a cohesive story, which is something of a detriment to Waiting to Exhale. I mean, I don’t mind me some episodic stories but usually its when they flow that I go for them, which sadly wasn’t the main case here. I did like the interactions between the women(which have humour to a lot of them and a nice dynamic), but I wish there were more of them to flesh things out a bit more. It was mainly Bernadine’s story that moved me the most; her story felt the most compelling as she grew stronger and shared a tentative attraction with a man going through crisis( a brief but memorable turn from Wesley Snipes). The other stories didn’t quite have the pulling power of Bernadine’s, even though Gloria’s pining for her neighbour was nicely observed. I can see that Waiting to Exhale provides escapism for many, I just can’t quite place my finger on why it felt somewhat flat for me. It started pretty well, but for me, it grew rather tedious and drawn out if we’re talking about the overall picture. I think it is a movie that does have some satisfaction and fun, but one that doesn’t really burn into the memory that well because of a lack of depth. The soundtrack however, with soul grooves, courtesy of Babyface, is really smooth and easy to listen to. It was a redeeming feature in a flawed movie.

A saving grace of this film is the main cast, especially Angela Bassett and Loretta Devine. Whitney Houston, looking gorgeous and stylish, gives Savannah a wry humour and quiet depth that is very beneficial and lovely. Angela Bassett is the main standout as the wounded but clearly not beaten Bernadine. As broken down as Bernadine is, the innate toughness Bassett brings to the screen always came off loud and clear that would be a fighter. I mean watching her torch her lying spouse’s fancy clothes and car was pretty satisfying viewing. Her blend of anger and vulnerability sold a lot of the emotion the film was going for and did it successfully. On the other end of the spectrum is Lela Rochon, who does a good enough job, but feels more than a bit stretched as the mixed up Robin. Don’t get me wrong, she’s quite appealing in parts, yet lacks the depth that the role later calls for and comes off as too weak in terms of acting chops. Loretta Devine really has a ball as the caring but hilarious Gloria, who represents a certain voice of calm amid all the entanglements. I loved her vivacious energy and timing, it was pretty spot on. Gregory Hines is a nice presence as the only really good guy(along with Wesley Snipes) in the picture. The rest, mainly Dennis Haysbert and Michael Beach, excel at playing the weasels who do nothing but promise sweet nothing to the ladies.

Undoubtedly entertaining as Waiting to Exhale is, I just found my interest levels lagging a lot. I will say that it all was shot nicely, had a soulful soundtrack and nice work from the cast(mainly Angela Bassett and Loretta Devine), but there was something missing that stopped it from being special.

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Hope Floats

Tags

1990's, Drama, Forest Whitaker, Gena Rowlands, Harry Connick Jr, Hope Floats, Mae Whitman, Michael Paré, Romance, Sandra Bullock

Film Title

Hope Floats

Director

Forest Whitaker

Starring

• Sandra Bullock as Birdie Pruitt
• Harry Connick Jr as Justin Matisse
• Gena Rowlands as Ramona Calvert
• Mae Whitman as Bernice Pruitt
• Michael Paré as Bill Pruitt

Its predictable and not much in the way of a surprise happens in it, but within its framework of a romantic drama, Hope Floats gains points for sturdy direction from Forest Whitaker and a moving performance from Sandra Bullock.

Birdie Pruitt thought she had a great life with her husband Bill. That was until she discovered that he had been having an affair with her best friend. To make matters even worse, this surreptitious relationship is revealed on a television show where Birdie thought she was going for a free makeover. Reeling from her husband’s betrayal and humiliated beyond belief, Birdie packs up her car and moves back to her Texas hometown with her young daughter Bernice. She doesn’t particularly want to go back home, but it appears to be the only place she can get as her eccentric mother Ramona is still there. Her mother is a get up and go lady who tries to help her daughter, though this is a big hurdle at first. Young Bernice is also miserable because she loves both of her parents, but being a child doesn’t quite understand the complexity of the situation and to top that off, she doesn’t fit in at her school. Birdie was once the popular girl in town who was elected Prom Queen and made the cheerleading squad, which made her the envy of a lot of girls. Now that she’s back in town and going through a rough time, her enemies and old acquaintances seem more than happy to see her on her knees. Potential support and a lift out of the doldrums takes the shape of old friend Justin Matisse, a good-hearted and handsome man who always had his eye on her in younger days. Slowly and with help, Birdie begins to take stock of her life and emerge from her hurting shell to experience life again through new eyes.

Forest Whitaker is in the directing chair and his vision is quite promising and colourful, even if the script is basically ticking off all the things you expect from this kind of movie. Whitaker’s direction is quite simple and allows the emotions to flow freely, giving the actors chance to do their thing. To summarise, Whitaker has a gentle and amiable touch to the film that while not anything revolutionary, provides you with something to smile about in the long run. What Hope Floats does that sets it apart from others if only by a small margin, is the way that it gets you to connect with the characters. There are moments of genuine poignant feeling in it that I will admit stirred my heart and soul. Yes I know it is schmaltzy and not a film that is going to get my brain working, but the sentiment of confronting life and rebuilding yourself worked its magic on me. Hope Floats isn’t afraid to show the difficult things in life that we go through, which makes the uplifting pervading tone as it goes on all the more arresting, albeit in an unoriginal though nonetheless pleasing way. The romance between Birdie and Justin in Hope Floats is a tentative yet nicely played one; it yields funny and affable results after much deliberation from Birdie after she begins to rebuild her life after licking her wounds. The easy visuals of sun dappled rivers and hued fields backs this up exceedingly well and you really can slow feeling Birdie warming up to Justin, apprehensively yet slowly letting that barrier come down. The biggest stumbling block in Hope Floats is that it sometimes stays too long on one situation, when it needs do get to the next point and could do it quite easily. That being said, the building charm and healing story more than compensate for that. A gentle selection of songs has a soothing edge that is just right for that stirring feeling Hope Floats is going for.

Sandra Bullock heads the film with a sensitive performance, gradually revealing a woman pulling her life back together after suffering immense embarrassment. Slowly, the effervescence we all love about Bullock comes out, but seeing her unaffected delivery and touching appeal in a lot of Hope Floats compliments the film very well and shows her twin talent of beings charming and convincing. It’s a quality performance that sells the sentimental nature of the film and rings pathos from it through an understated delivery that builds to a lovable unearthing from the luminous Bullock. Harry Connick, Jr is pretty impressive as the confident cowboy style guy who little by little breaks down Birdie’s blocks. The part is mainly there to be the dreamboat hunk, but Connick Jr is darn good at being amusing too. Gena Rowlands is an utter delight when playing the wildly dressed, pull yourself up by your bootstraps mother who attempts to help her daughter, in something of a roundabout and unusual way. Rowlands is thoroughly divine in the film and almost steals the show with her no cares what anyone thinks persona and amusing timing. As the young daughter of Birdie, Mae Whitman is marvellously mature and engaging, not coming off as just another child actor. Instead, she holds her own against her more experienced co-stars and positively shines as the little girl trying to understand what is going on. Michael Paré is there to play the jerk who cheated on Birdie, yet has scant little else to contribute.

Not exactly the most deep or challenging movie, but nor is it trying to be. Hope Floats goes straight for the heart and scores highly on that rating, bolstered also by a touching emotion to it. Clichéd as it is, I couldn’t help but be emotionally engaged with Hope Floats.

Arrival

Tags

2010's, Amy Adams, Arrival, Denis Villeneuve, Drama, Forest Whitaker, Jeremy Renner, Science Fiction

Film Title

Arrival

Director

Denis Villeneuve

Starring

• Amy Adams as Dr. Louise Banks
• Jeremy Renner as Ian Donnelly
• Forest Whitaker as Colonel Weber

A sublime science fiction drama with thematic heft and a welcome lack of outrageousness, Arrival stands as an intelligent film that poses many interesting questions for the viewer and grips with airs of mystery and fine performances.

Arrival begins with twelve strange spacecrafts landing at various places around the globe. No one is sure of why these objects have come to Earth and many questions lie on people’s lips regarding intentions of those aboard, particularly as they issue a seemingly indecipherable message. Brilliant linguistics professor Dr. Louise Banks is called up by the American government to aid in discovery of what the beings in the crafts want. Brought along by Colonel Weber and physicist Ian Donnelly, she travels to Montana where one of the ships is levitating. Every eighteen hours, the doorway to these pods open and under the direction of Weber, the team of Louise, Ian and other scientists enters the unknown in hopes of coming across answers. It is here that Louise encounters the alien beings, known as heptapods. At first, the attempts to establish contact with them are futile, but Louise, who is already carrying emotional baggage from the death of her daughter, is not about to give up that easily. Through pain-staking methods and committed diligence to the massive job at hand, Louise slowly but surely begins to form something of a bond with the heptapods and gradually through her patient drive, begins to form an idea of what they could be saying. Yet time is not on her side as foreign powers grow anxious about events and chaos takes hold. Many countries consider taking aggressive action against something they don’t understand and it is up to Banks and Donnelly to crack the language and code before mankind heads towards almost certain destruction by its own hand.

Denis Villeneuve masterfully constructs this mysterious puzzle of a film that probes the mind and moves the heart with excellent degrees of adroitness. The fluidity of his vision and how he chooses to shoot scenes is in full view, particularly in the expansive tracking shots of the spacecrafts and the claustrophobic feeling of the heptapods residing place, which is situated behind a fog enshrouded glass chamber. What is very admirable and most interesting about Arrival at least in my eyes, is the slow burning effect it emits. Villeneuve is clearly not in a rush to tell this story, choosing to slowly reveal things and keep the mystery going for us to unearth. And there are a few well-timed surprises to be discovered in Arrival, which bring out the puzzle box aspects of a jigsaw slowly assembling to create a clear picture. It is also very refreshing that for a movie that contains aliens coming to Earth, this is far from a generic science fiction film with explosive action and ridiculous ideas. As much as the story has global implications as to what the aliens want, it is also the personal story of Louise and the journey she embarks on to understand them. Already having significant personal troubles and sadness in her life, Louise is a character who becomes our entry point to the story and who it is hard not to be emotionally invested with. The timely message of how communication is key to understanding and one shouldn’t rush into the unexpected blindly is heard loud and clear in Arrival. This helps in bringing out yet another layer of exceptional food for thought for the audience to chew over. A subdued lighting scheme causes the movie to have a very mysterious impact as it clearly balances darkness with the occasional flash of light, especially in the case of the heptapods. And talking of those creatures, the effects used to craft them are breathtaking at shaping these strange beings into things of majestic and unusual beauty. Arrival’s soundscape is marvellously constructed, from the sound of the aliens that is difficult to decipher to the melancholy and evocative score of the film, the aural parts of this movie are on a very amazing level.

Front and centre of Arrival and one of its strongest parts is the utterly beautiful and affecting performance from Amy Adams. The dedicated Louise is our entry point to the story and we are put on the same emotional level as her; everything is mainly seen from her point of view and with Adams subtly playing the role to perfection, we feel what she feels. We experience her awe at first seeing the creatures and their way of communication(which resembles symbols formed by an inky substance), we feel her pain of the memories of her deceased daughter and we worry for her as she becomes overworked and determined to uncover the key to everything. It’s a performance of all-encompassing natural emotion that is largely contained and composed, yet always there for us to glimpse. It is quite simply a stunning piece of work from Amy Adams, who is having an excellent year with her other turn in Nocturnal Animals getting notice. Expect a few award notices for her vulnerable and soulful portrayal here. Ably supporting her is Jeremy Renner, who is affable, charismatic and amusingly geeky as the physicist helping Louise with deciphering the message. He works nicely alongside Adams, with the two establishing a good working chemistry of intellect and friendship. The always watchable and sincere Forest Whitaker gives off the definite feeling of authority here as the Colonel in charge of Louise’s mission, although through his eyes you can tell that he is worried about the possibilities of what may happen if contact and motives aren’t established.

Handsomely directed with dexterity by Denis Villeneuve, resonant on both an emotional and intellectual level and acted with soul, Arrival is one science fiction film that gets you to think while at the same time absorbing you with its thought-provoking story and ideas. If you want to see a movie this year that has a brain and a deep heart, make that movie be Arrival as you will be bowled over by what it has to offer.

Species

Tags

1990's, Alfred Molina, Ben Kingsley, Forest Whitaker, Horror, Marg Helgenberger, Michael Madsen, Michelle Williams, Natasha Henstridge, Roger Donaldson, Science Fiction, Species, Thriller

Film Title

Species

Director

Roger Donaldson

Starring

• Natasha Henstridge as Sil
• Ben Kingsley as Xavier Fitch
• Michael Madsen as Press Lennox
• Alfred Molina as Dr. Stephen Arden
• Forest Whitaker as Dan Smithson
• Marg Helgenberger as Dr. Laura Baker
• Michelle Williams as Young Sil

Scientists tampering with what they really shouldn’t and the horrifying product of this are given a sexy edge in Species; a sci-fi/horror-thriller. If you are looking for logic, look elsewhere as this film is all about the entertainment factor and that is where it delivers the goods.

After sending a telescope into space many years prior to search for extraterrestrial life, a highly secret government science lab gains the knowledge and means of how to splice human and alien DNA. The project, headed up by Xavier Fitch, is put into effect and sets about using these newly gained information for a genetic engineering program. The program is a success with the production of Sil; who appears to look like a young girl, but whose genetic make up christen her as a hybrid who grows from a baby into a young girl in a matter of days. When it becomes known to Fitch that she exhibits potentially dangerous parts to her, he decides to shut down the operation. He has cyanide gas pumped into her chamber in order to kill her, but Sil has developed agility and super strength and escapes from her confines. Worried that this experiment will be exposed, Fitch assembles a team that will track her down. The team features assassin Press Lennox, British anthropologist Dr. Stephen Arden, molecular biologist Dr. Laura Baker and empath Dan Smithson. By the time the rag-tag team has been briefed and begin searching for her, she has already matured into a beautiful woman who enters Los Angeles. Quickly absorbing things from the world around her, Sil sets out on a mission to mate and reproduce. The hitch is that as she is a predator when she feels threatened she attacks, leaving a host of dead bodies in her wake as she seeks out the perfect mate. The team follow her, but find it difficult keeping up with the spawn as her growing mind and alien abilities provide no shortage of confusion. If Sil does successfully conceive and give birth, it would produce a whole new kind of species that the world would not be able to handle. The mission to stop this is now on as the team discover the motives of the creature.

Roger Donaldson takes what is basically a clichéd and slightly silly plot and has a ball with it. He creates a fun ride that is scary and sexy in that order. His glossy filming style and handling of pace is also in evidence throughout Species. I enjoyed how Donaldson opened the film with not giving us a lot of information as Sil escapes. Something about it really stuck with me as enigmatic and a little atmospheric, as I do enjoy a cold open in a film that leaves you wanting to know more.I have to praise the practical effects that made Sil look so good and especially when the beast side emerges. The CGI used is however a bit underwhelming, and they should have really stuck with the ace practical effects and artistry instead. The script of Species is one that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence and is probably the weakest are of the movie. It tries to be both entertaining and intellectual, but is lacking in the latter part. When you hear the characters discussing either the genetic make up or scientific parts of Sil, it just rings more than a little hollow as it never provides much of an insight to her or the other characters. I think it is best to enjoy Species as what it is, a sort of B-movie given the Hollywood treatment and fun that doesn’t require much in the way of straining the brain. And on the horror front, Species hits bulls eye with some pretty icky and gruesome deaths arising from Sil and her insatiable desire. Though with the other positive elements to be found in the picture, the weak script can be sort of forgiven as the film hurtles along with thrills and horror. The exceptional score from Christopher Young has an unusual but necessary vibe to it; switching quickly from eccentric sounds to quickening thrills in a matter of minutes.

Despite the shortcomings of the script, a highly capable set of actors give life and personality to their parts. In what was her debut role, former model Natasha Henstridge plays the pretty predator who is half human and half alien. While Henstridge is physically ideal for the part with a gorgeous face and shapely body(that is displayed prominently), she also demonstrates considerable acting skill as Sil uses her instincts that she acquires at an alarming rate. Her reactions to the world are interesting to watch, as she soaks up what makes humans tick and then through primal desire, takes deadly control. She doesn’t know why she is the way she is, but slowly her vicious, cunning and savage need takes hold and her seductive smile is just the start of mayhem. Ben Kingsley is pretty good as the scientist concerned about the implications of his creation and pretty selfish in his motivations too. I enjoyed the presence of Michael Madsen as the wise ass man of action, whose sarcastic attitude and skill with a gun make him pretty forceful in hunting down Sil. You can tell that Madsen is having a good time in this part. Alfred Molina was pretty solid as the snarky guy in the team, while the sensitive vibe of the reliably good Forest Whitaker strikes more emotion into his part than was probably scripted. Marg Helgenberger does very well as the only female in the group who is the most curious member to be sure. And look out for a young Michelle Williams playing Sil when she looks like a girl before her transformation. All of the actors present rise above the flaws in writing to keep you watching as the carnage unfolds.

So the CGI can be dated, the script a bit scatter shot and the whole exercise more than a little sleazy, but Species still dazzles in a tongue-in-cheek way and with a glossy and sexy surface to it, among the gory horror and thrills.