One from the Heart

One from the Heart (1982) starring Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, Raul Julia, Nastassja Kinski. Directed by Francis Coppola. This was a vanity project for Coppola, and boy did it flop. Second-rate acting and a weak script make this one of the worst movies I've ever sat through. In fact, I fell asleep watching it, something that virtually never happens. Seriously, Francis, what were you thinking? Grade: D

Her

Her (2013) starring Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson (voice), Amy Adams, Rooney Mara. Directed by Spike Jonze. In the year 2025, Theodore (Phoenix) falls in love with his computer's operating system (voice of Johansson). What's more, the OS "falls in love" with him. But of course it can't be that simple. Suffice it to say that his OS has the ability to learn and evolve, and their relationship goes places one wouldn't dream it could go. This is a very interesting "what if" sort of movie. It's not believable for a second, but it poses some fascinating questions about the nature of intelligence and emotion, and of the future of computers. It certainly made for a good evening's entertainment. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available.) Grade: B+

Friendly Persuasion

Friendly Persuasion (1956) starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins. A pacifist Quaker family, living in southern Indiana during the Civil War, struggles to maintain ideals while under threat of attack by Rebel raiders. Surprisingly, the war section of the movie occupies only a fraction of the screen time; much of the rest of the film is filled with comic vignettes from the lives of the main characters. Cooper stars as Jess Birdwell, the patriarch of the family, and McGuire plays his minister wife, who tries to restrain her son Josh (Perkins) from going off to fight the Rebels. The film starts slowly but builds momentum until the final action scenes put an exclamation point on the story. Very entertaining, well acted, and ultimately moving. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+

The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music (1965) starring Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn. Directed by Robert Wise. Andrews stars as Maria, an aspiring nun who is assigned to be governess to the seven Von Trapp children, and who falls in love with Captain Von Trapp, the children's widowed father. Set in the late 1930s, the film shows the Von Trapp family fleeing from Austria to Switzerland to escape the Nazis. This is a musical, and the songs pretty much make the movie. Andrews practically glows as she befriends the children and teaches them how to sing. The film won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Songs include "Do Re Mi," "Climb Every Mountain" and the title tune. (English subtitles for the hearing impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: A

About Time

About Time (2013) starring Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy. Tim (Gleeson) learns on his 21st birthday that the men in his family can travel in time. When he falls for Mary (McAdams), he finds that his talent is essential to winning her love for himself. Complications inevitably ensue, but for the most part they work out. The movie has its heart in the right place, but the time-travel paradoxes are not very well worked out, and ultimately, for me, the film failed. It was entertaining and the ending was satisfying, but the internal logic just didn't work. Plus, in a practice I find increasingly common and very irritating, the "bonus" part of the disc is off limits to renters and can only be obtained by buying the Blu-ray disc. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are supplied on the disc.) Grade: B-

Petulia

Petulia (1968) starring Julie Christie, George C. Scott, Richard Chamberlain, Arthur Hill, Shirley Knight. Non-linear storytelling stands out in this dramatic romance wherein Petulia (Christie) is a kook who decides to pursue Archie (Scott), even though she is already married to David (Chamberlain). The movie starts in the middle of the story and then tells the rest through flashbacks and flash-forwards. Although this movie has been highly praised by critics, I found the film's style to be distracting and not particularly pleasing. Although all the pieces are there, they're scattered around, and I couldn't see that any particular purpose was served by scattering them. Not one of my favorite movies. (Subtitles in English, as well as closed captions, are offered on the disc.) Grade: B  

Brief Encounter

Brief Encounter (1945) starring Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey. Directed by David Lean. Two ordinary people -- a man and a woman (Johnson, Howard), both married to others -- meet by chance at a railway stopover. Over the course of a few weeks, they fall hopelessly, desperately in love with each other. But the movie, told from Johnson's  point of view, shows that she has a kind and loving husband and two adored children at home. She never meant to fall in love with someone else, it just happened. The love affair between Johnson and Howard is never consummated, and they eventually come to their senses and give up their affair. One gets the feeling that Howard wants it to continue more than Johnson does, but he does the noble thing and takes a job in South Africa, which will keep them apart and prevent them from doing anything foolish. This is a small, sad movie with an inevitable ending -- but one which, in 1945, must have titillated audiences no end. It's a British production, which may account for some of its reserve. The film makes excellent use of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, which weaves throughout the action. Really a perfect little movie, in its own way. (English subtitles are provided for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: A- 

Bus Stop

Bus Stop (1956) starring Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O'Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Hope Lange. A young cowboy named Bo (Murray) decides it's time to find himself a gal, and he falls immediately in love with Cherie (Monroe), a saloon singer. This is the film in which Monroe proved that she really could act, and she's very good. The plot flows as it should, with Bo proclaiming that he and Cherie (he calls her Cherry) are going to be married, while she insists that she is not going to marry him. He "kidnaps" her, and they end up stranded together at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere. That's where the drama plays itself out. I found this to be a very satisfying movie. Although not a great work of art, it was enjoyable to watch and the ending was a happy one. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B

An American in Paris

An American in Paris (1951) starring Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guetary, Nina Foch. American ex-pat Jerry Mulligan (Kelly) lives in Paris, tries his hand at being a painter. He falls in love with a French girl (Caron) while being sponsored by a rich American woman (Foch), who tries to advance his career. There's lots of singing, dancing and music involved, and it all results in a "happy" ending. I was only slightly bothered by the age difference between Kelly (40) and Caron (20), making her motion-picture debut. There was a long ballet number toward the end of the movie that I found rather boring. Overall, the movie holds up rather well, though I found it somewhat dated. (Subtitles in English are offered on the disc for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B  

Aimee & Jaguar

Aimee & Jaguar (1999) starring Maria Schrader, Juliane Kohler. In 1943 in Berlin, two women fall in love with one another. One is a young German hausfrau with a husband and four children, the other turns out to be a Jew. Even though war is being waged all around them, they try to love each other through it. It might sound like an outlandish plot, but it has the virtue of being true. Unfortunately, it does not have a happy ending -- another characteristic of true stories. The movie is quite well made, and the love scenes between the two women are tastefully done. In German, with English subtitles. Grade: B+ 

South Pacific

South Pacific (1958) starring Rossano Brazzi, Mitzi Gaynor, John Kerr, Ray Walston. In the early days of World War II, on a Polynesian island, American sailors and nurses and French plantation owners pursue romance. Every once in a while, someone breaks out into song. The cast gives it their best shot, but the star wattage is low. You'd almost hardly know there's a war on, since about 90 percent of the movie is about two romances. The songs, by Rodgers and Hammerstein, are fine (highlights include "Some Enchanted Evening," "There is Nothing Like a Dame"). This is a likable movie, just not quite as great as it could have been. (Subtitles in English are available, as are closed captions.) Grade: B  

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012) starring Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Connie Britton, Adam Brody. An asteroid is hurtling toward Earth, with three weeks to go before Armageddon. Dodge (Carell) and Penny (Knightley), newly thrown together by circumstances, go on a road trip to try to find lost loves and say goodbye to family. Along the way (of course) they fall in love with each other. This movie has some pretty funny bits having to do with impending doom, and also some pretty alarming bits. Ultimately, though, I found the ending to be a little downbeat. It's not a feel-good film. It sends mixed messages, which may explain why it did rather poorly at the box office. (The subtitles are good, but closed captions aren't offered as an option.) Grade: B-

Torrid Zone

Torrid Zone (1940) starring James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Pat O'Brien, Andy Devine. Light-hearted, lightweight movie takes place in the tropics, where Cagney plays a banana plantation manager who desperately wants to go back to the states, while Sheridan stars as a nightclub singer who wants to continue traveling south to try her luck in South America. Naturally, they fall in love. While Cagney tries to move bananas, an outlaw named Rosario tries to push the plantation off the land and reclaim it for the original inhabitants. The film doesn't take much of anything seriously, and gives the impression of having been tossed off in a couple of weeks in 1940 to fulfill the need for movies to play in the theaters. It's not bad. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B

The Adjustment Bureau

The Adjustment Bureau (2011) starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt. Rising political star David Norris (Damon) meets the girl of his dreams, Elise (Blunt) on the bus. They seem fated to be together, but strange forces start interfering in their lives, trying to drive them apart. Who or what are these strange forces? My best guess is that they are angels and the Chairman they answer to is God. They could just as well be alien beings interfering in life on Earth. The movie never really makes it clear. All I can say is that I was vaguely disappointed by the happy ending, but that it was a lot of fun getting there. The film features subtitles for the hearing impaired, but no closed captions. Grade: B+

Starman

Starman (1984) starring Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith. In response to Voyager II, launched in 1977, an alien (Bridges) comes to visit Earth. He takes human form as Scott, Jenny's (Allen) dead husband. The movie paints a really ugly picture of the human race, as just about all the alien encounters is hostility. But humanity is exonerated by the actions of a few, and the film has a fully satisfying ending. Bridges was nominated for an Oscar for his work as an alien in a human body. The subtitles and closed captions are adequate. Grade: A-

Sea Wife

Sea Wife (1957) starring Richard Burton, Joan Collins, Basil Sydney. Set during World War II, Burton and Collins survive a ship being torpedoed, and he falls in love with her afterwards, not knowing she is a nun. His name becomes "Biscuit," because he dispenses the biscuits in their life raft. She is called "Sea Wife," another name for a mermaid. Why Sea Wife chooses to keep the fact that she's a nun a secret never became clear to me while watching the movie. I didn't think the chemistry between Burton and Collins was particularly good. I found the ending particularly unsatisfying. The film has good subtitles and closed captions. Grade: B-

Return to Me (DVD)

Return to Me (2000) starring David Duchovny, Minnie Driver, Carroll O'Connor, Robert Loggia, Bonnie Hunt. Directed by Bonnie Hunt. A contractor named Bob (Duchovny) loses his wife in a car accident, and her heart is transplanted into a stranger named Grace (Driver). Naturally, Bob and Grace are destined to meet -- it's just a question of when and where. The dramatic tension arises because Grace is extremely shy about revealing that she has had a heart transplant. And the tension is ratcheted up a notch when Grace, by chance, learns that the heart she has is from Bob's dead wife. After she tells him, will Bob be able to look past the conflict and still love Grace? What do you think? Duchovny and Driver have convincing chemistry on screen. This movie has no English subtitles, but it does have closed captions. Grade: B+

Letters to Juliet (DVD)

Letters to Juliet (2010) starring Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Egan, Gael García Bernal, Vanessa Redgrave, Franco Nero. Sophie (Seyfried) journeys to the Italian city of Verona with her fiance Victor (Bernal) on a "pre-honeymoon." But Victor is so busy talking with suppliers (he is about to open a restaurant in New York) that Sophie is left pretty much on her own. She ends up helping a group of Italian women who write replies to letters to Juliet, of "Romeo and Juliet" fame, which are left on a wall under a balcony in Verona. When she answers a letter from Claire (Redgrave), a British woman who was in love with an Italian named Lorenzo, she is surprised a few days later by Claire herself, who shows up in Verona searching for her long-lost love. With Claire is Charlie (Egan), Claire's grandson, who takes an instant disliking to Sophie. But since Sophie is free, the trio sets out to find Claire's Lorenzo, who they hope is still alive and living in the area. The setup is so romantic, you just know somebody is going to fall in love. Now let's see, who could it be? My bet is, you'll see it coming a mile away. But you'll have to see the movie to be sure. The subtitles are good -- even the songs are subtitled. And I enjoyed hearing Italian spoken, in the few scenes where it made up the dialogue. Grade: B

The Eclipse (DVD)

The Eclipse (2009) starring Ciaran Hinds, Iben Hjejle, Aidan Quinn. Supernatural thriller in which widower (Hinds) senses a presence in his house and at first can't figure out what it could be. Meanwhile, as one of the organizers of a literary festival, his life becomes entwined with a couple of authors (Hjejle and Quinn). This movie has elements of horror, drama and romance, but none of them are really explored fully. It felt incomplete, and all the plot elements got short shrift. The only subtitles available for this disc are closed captions, which serve adequately. Grade: C+

The Time Traveler's Wife (DVD)

The Time Traveler's Wife (2009) starring Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams, Ron Livingston. This is one of those infuriating DVDs that makes you sit through several previews of coming attractions before you can access the movie. I find this quite irritating, and I won't be swayed to see any of the films advertised just because I have been forced to sit through the preview.... But that doesn't necessarily have a bearing on "The Time Traveler's Wife." In the movie, Henry (Bana), due to a genetic defect, travels through time at random and unpredictable times and places. His soul mate is Clare (McAdams), whom he meets as a young girl when he's older, but doesn't remember when they meet as adults (it's complicated). The time travel has the odd effect of making their love inevitable from the start, so that the movie can't end with a happily ever after. Some will find the time travel aspect of the film to be too gimmicky, but I found it fascinating. The subtitles are very good. Grade: B+