Wild – 7.5

Reese witherspoon was extremely nice company to spend two hours with, and I don’t begrudge any awards she might garner. Not having read Cheryl Strayed’s book, however, I never quite got why or how she carried out such a daunting wilderness trek, why she didn’t get lost or sick or see more fellow hikers. The views of nature disappointed – compared to The Horseman – but the feel-good vibe, typified by the Jerry Garcia memorial concert, made the journey pass pleasantly – for this viewer, at least.

The Imitation Game – 8

This was a schizophrenic film: was it about Alan Turing’s cracking the Nazis’ Enigma code, or was it about Britain’s cruel criminalization of homosexuality? The film’s scenes jockeyed back and forth, up to and including the closing credits. Fortunately, both stories were quite good, although my two biggest reservations sprung from the latter: Benedict Cumberbatch’s excellent acting went over the top in his final scene with Keira Knightley, and the boy Turing was too adorable to justify being picked on so brutally. My other complaint relates to the film’s trailer, which we saw a good half-dozen times: every one of the best lines, and I do mean every one, had been given away before we could experience them in context. What I especially liked in the actual film were the cooly, crisp characters played by Mark Strong, Charles Dance and Matthew Goode. The complete competence and intelligence displayed by MI6’s Menzies (Strong) was refreshing in a government official. The period sets and costumes drew me in right away and I remained engrossed until the end. The character played by Keira Knightley (not to mention others) may have wildly diverged from historical accuracy, but there is little I wouldn’t forgive for the chance to watch Keira Knightley.

Top 5 – 5.5

This romcom was more romance than comedy, and once you got past the disappointment of its not being very funny you could see its sweetness, in a hip-hop way. Rosario Dawson was the center around which it swirled; if we didn’t know Chris Rock was a star in his own right he would have seem miscast. Then again, so is Woody Allen, and you could think of this as a black Annie Hall.