TheTVObserver: Movie Report #2

This week only four movies have been selected to make the report. It was nice to see Julia Roberts back in the game. As for Valentino, the godfather of fashion, and all his dogs…my goodness. They are treated better than kids in third world countries. His is an interesting movie if your are a fashion fan or junkie. The Cage is also back and there is some pattern developing with his type of movie selection. Is someone feeling like a super hero?

Here is this weeks Movie Report with TheTVObserver’s picks.

Movie: Duplicity

Oscar winner Julia Roberts and Clive Owen reunite for 'Duplicity,' from writer/director Tony Gilroy (seven-time Oscar-nominated Michael Clayton).

In the film, they star as spies-turned-corporate operatives in the midst of a clandestine love affair. When they find themselves on either side of an all-out corporate war, they discover the toughest part of the job is deciding how much to trust the one you love.

CIA officer Claire Stenwick (Roberts) and MI6 agent Ray Koval (Owen) have left the world of government intelligence to cash in on the highly profitable cold war raging between two rival multinational corporations. Their mission? Secure the formula for a product that will bring a fortune to the company that patents it first.

For their employers--industry titan Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson) and buccaneer CEO Dick Garsik (Paul Giamatti)--nothing is out of bounds. When the stakes rise, no one knows who is playing whom, and the trickiest secret for Claire and Ray becomes their growing attraction. As they each try to stay one double-cross ahead, two career loners find their schemes endangered by the only thing they can't cheat their way out of: love.

Movie: Hunger

In 1981, a deadly serious battle takes place in the infamous H-block of Belfast's Maze Prison. Republican inmates, led by Bobby Sands (played with unflinching passion by Michael Fassbender) refuse to eat until the British government acknowledges the IRA as a legitimate political organization. Is it suicide or martyrdom?

Directed by Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen and co-written by acclaimed Irish playwright Enda Walsh, 'Hunger' is a stunningly assured debut, both artistically powerful and deeply resonant in its humanity. A work of astonishing precision and attention to detail, 'Hunger' won the 2008 Cannes Camera d'Or, among other top international prizes, was also an official selection of the Toronto, Telluride and New York film festivals.

Movie: Knowing

A time capsule containing a cryptic message about the coming apocalypse sends a concerned father on a race to prevent the horrific events from unfolding as predicted in this sci-fi thriller directed by Alex Proyas ('Dark City') and starring Nicolas Cage. 1958: As the dedication ceremony for a newly constructed elementary school gets underway, a time capsule containing student drawings of the future is buried on the grounds and scheduled to be unearthed on the school's fiftieth anniversary. Instead of submitting a drawing, however, one little girl scribbles a series of seemingly random numbers on her paper before it is buried. Fifty years later, the time capsule is unearthed for a new generation of students to examine. Young Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury) is one of those students.

The mysterious sequence of numbers falling into his possession, Caleb takes the paper to his father, Professor John Koestler (Cage) for examination. Studying the numbers, Professor Koestler soon discovers that they aren't random at all, but an encoded message containing the precise dates, death tolls, and coordinates of every major disaster since the time capsule was buried. Not only that, but the document also indicates that there will be three more such events, the last of which indicates a doomsday scenario that appears directly tied to Professor Koestler and Caleb. His desperate plea to authorities falling on deaf ears, Professor Koestler realizes that his only hope for preventing more lives from being lost is to take personal action. Though the author of the prophecies is no longer living, Professor Koestler is eventually able to track down her daughter Diana Wayland (Rose Byrne), and granddaughter Abby, who reluctantly agree to aid in the investigation. As the final date on the list draws near, Professor Koestler enters into a frantic race against time to prevent destruction on a global scale, in the process realizing that in order to save millions of lives, he may have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Movie: Valentino: The Last Emperor

One of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Valentino Garavani developed an interest in design as a teenager and entered the world of haute couture in the early 1950's, working under Jacques Faith, Balenciaga and Jean Desses. In 1959, Valentino opened his own house of fashion in Rome, and he soon became one of the leading lights in European design, known for his trademark shade of red and his clean, stylish lines. With Giancarlo Giammetti, who has been Valentino's business partner and significant other since 1960, the designer built an empire that remained one of the most prestigious in the fashion world until Valentino announced his retirement in the fall of 2007.

Filmmaker and journalist Matt Tyrnauer, who has written about Valentino for Vanity Fair, examines the public and private lives of the fashion icon in his documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor. Granted unprecedented access to Valentino's home and office, the film offers an unusual look at his relationship with Giammetti, how his creations are made, his lavish lifestyle and how changes in the world of haute couture have impacted him. Featuring an original score by Nino Rota, Valentino: The Last Emperor received its North American premiere at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival

By TheTVObserver
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