Launceston Film Society

Mature themes

The simple, straightforward title of the film Married Life has intimations that more is going on in the marriage of Harry, (Chris Cooper) and Pat, (Patricia Clarkson), than appears on the surface.

The year is 1949, and Harry confides over lunch to his friend Richard, (Pierce Brosnan), who is a notorious lothario, that he has fallen in love and he’s going to leave Pat because he wants to be truly happy. When Kay, (Rachel McAdams), arrives Richard understands why. Richard is smitten, so when he finds out that Pat may be in love with someone else but won’t tell Harry because she fears he would be too hurt, Richard can’t decide if he should let all the cats out of the bag. He’d unite pairs of lovers, but he’d lose Kay. Harry, for some monumentally egocentric reason, decides that Pat would rather be dead than face life without him and so he decides to kill her.

With shades of Douglas Sirk and Alfred Hitchcock this rather quaint piece of cinema by co-writer/director Ira Sachs is both intriguing and ultimately really moving.

The complicated betrayals are delicately handled in a surprisingly non-Moralistic way. Chris Cooper, an actor for whom the word dour might have been invented, is a really interesting piece of casting, and a brilliant one.

You have to believe the significance of Kay in Harry’s life and his opting for homicide as a merciful act. Cooper achieves both beautifully.

Pierce Brosnan is perhaps the odd one in this mix but he’s actually perfect as Richard, who narrates the film with a wry knowingness. And the two women, Clarkson and McAdams, are just splendid.

Sources: imdb.com, abc.net.au, atthemovies

Compiled by Jack Morton

Mature themes, coarse language, and sexual references

 The story of Harvey Milk commences in his 40th year until his death, when he was living in New York prior to settling in San Francisco. This film provides a biographical account of an American activist who fought for gay rights, becoming the first openly same-sex attracted elected official. The film follows Harvey from New York to San Francisco where he starts to gather supporters around him, as gay activist agitating for political change. Milk finds purpose in being a politician for the gay community, irrespective of whether he is elected or not. It is through these periods that the film craftily explores both Milk’s romantic and public relationships across many political causes, including his tenuous affiliation with troubled Supervisor Dan White.

 Directed by Gus Van Sant, who does marvellous work recreating the feel for the times using flashbacks from recorded statements and archival footage, but it is Sean Penn performance as Milk who carries the movie away with his impressive, vivid portrayal.

 While others have already told the Harvey Milk’s story Van Sant takes it to another level. Many will find Milk a powerful film,irrespective of the subject matter, that resonates and while others have already covered the topic, this is by far the most engaging.

Sources: IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Rolling Stone

Complied by: William H. Doudle

Drug contents, profanities & graphic violence

Academy Award for Best Live-Action Short Film. “In Bruges” was filmed on location; Bruges (pronounced “broozh”), the most well-preserved medieval city in the whole of Belgium, is a welcoming destination for travelers from all over the world. But for hitmen Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson), it could be their final destination; a difficult job has resulted in the pair being ordered right before Christmas by their London boss Harry (two-time Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes) to go and cool their heels in the storybook Flemish city for a couple of weeks.

 Very much out of place amidst the gothic architecture, canals, and cobbled streets, the two hit men fill their days living the lives of tourists. Ray, still haunted by the bloodshed in London, hates the place, while Ken, even as he keeps a fatherly eye on Ray’s often profanely funny exploits, finds his mind and soul being expanded by the beauty and serenity of the city.

But the longer they stay waiting for Harry’s call, the more surreal their experience becomes, as they find themselves in weird encounters with locals, tourists, violent medieval art, a dwarf American actor (Jordan Prentice) shooting a European art film, Dutch prostitutes, and a potential romance for Ray in the form of Chloë (Clémence Poésy), who may have some dark secrets of her own. And when the call from Harry does finally come, Ken and Ray’s vacation becomes a life-and-death struggle of darkly comic proportions and surprisingly emotional consequences.

Sources IMDB (internet movie database), Rotten Tomatoes & Allmovies

Complied by Sue Aylett