Archive for month: May, 2009

Much – nay, most – of the fun in this movie came from a recognition of who the characters would become on the TV series of 40 years ago. If it sounds like I’ve got my verb tense confused, it’s only some time travel I borrowed from the film, specifically Leonard Nimoy’s Spock. The story was no better than a TV episode, and the special effects were probably sensational in IMAX, which I tried, but failed, to see. On the downside, there were Indiana Jones-like scenes that were embarrassingly out-of-place – e.g., Kirk running from a deranged dinosaur on an ice planet patently incapable of supporting such a life form. Credit to the actors, even Eric Bana as the villain, for not trying to do too much.

Ho-hum. This would’ve been a better series of newspaper columns than it was a movie; and as with all “based-on-a-true-stories,” you wondered what touches a screenwriter starting ab initio would’ve bothered including. The religious fundamentalism of the first cellist? The parlous state of the newspaper? The involvement of the L.A. mayor? None of these added much to the story; nor did the filming on location in Cleveland. Robert Downey Jr. did a credible job – much better than Tropic Thunder, for sure – but Jamie Foxx was too much a tour de force for my taste. As I said, ho-hum.

After a great game – and this was inarguably a great game – what’s more fun than sitting around dissecting the key plays? Now imagine having the chance to do that with all the key players who were involved in that game! Well, that’s only part of the pleasure of this film, which shows the TV replay of the Harvard-Yale game in 1968. An equal pleasure is meeting up with the participants 40 years later, seeing the contrast between the Yalies and the Harvards, seeing how they have come to terms with the event for which they all, except for Tommy Lee Jones, will best be remembered by history. Needless to say, the Crimson alums came across as more diverse, less privileged, less arrogant, and were especially fun to relate to the classmates I had just seen at my 40^th reunion. (One also wondered about Mike Bouscaren: was he joking when he described his evil intentions, and if so, does he think anyone other than his close friends will get it?) Kevin Rafferty’s documentary style – one camera, one interviewer, graphics-free credits – also reminded one that characters and the story make the movie, not bells and whistles.