The Thin Blue Line (1988)

10 Popcorn Boxes

Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris' ground-breaking film 'The Thin Blue Line' looks at a murder, the police investigation, the trial, and the outcome, and the aftermath.  Mixing interviews, taped interrogations, still photographs, and recreations, this film asks the simple question: was the right man convicted of this crime?

Morris originally wanted to make a film about 'Dr. Death', a Texas psychiatrist who helped get many men committed to death row.  While he was looking into that story, he learned of the case of Randall Dale Adams, who was serving life in prison for the murder of a police officer.  Questions had existed since the police investigation as to whether they had the right man, or whether a hitchhiker Adams had picked up actually committed the murder.

This documentary had me riveted; here's a man whom the state of Texas, and a jury,  decided was a killer.  Morris wasn't sure, and the more he dug into the case, the more it seemed as though something terrible had gone wrong.

Morris has made other documentaries which are admirable in their own way, but 'The Thin Blue Line' stands alone as a magnificent piece of film making.  I cannot recommend this more strongly.  See it!

The film is not rated, but probably should be PG-13 because of subject matter

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

7.0 Popcorn Boxes

Directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a action movie set in New York, London, and Moscow.  The film also stars Chris Pine as Ryan, Keira Knightly as Dr. Kathy Muller, and Kevin Costner CIA operative Thomas Harper.

The film opens with Jack Ryan volunteering for military duty in Afghanistan after the attacks on the World Trade Center, which Ryan views on television while a student in London.  His helicopter is shot down, and he is seriously injured.  He's sent back to the States for rehabilitation and recovery, where he is placed under the care of Dr. Muller.  He's attracted to her, and asks her out.  They become a couple.

Later, he's recruited by Harper to work for the CIA.  He works on Wall Street as an analyst, where he looks for terrorist activity.  He goes to Moscow to look into this, where he is surprised to find Kathy in his hotel room.  She's followed him, suspecting his trip is to conduct an affair.  With the help of Harper, he finds that a Russian company headed by Viktor Cherenvin (Branagh) has planted a bomb on Wall Street, and who hopes to capitalize on the stock market turmoil that results from the terrorist act.

The movie unfolds as you'd expect from an action/thriller.  There are explosions, fights, gunfire, car chases and unremarkable dialog, thrown in with a few kissing scenes between Ryan and Muller.  The production design is very good, with London standing in for Moscow (though there are a few scenes shot in Moscow establishing outdoor shots).  The movie is heavy on the action, and little character development.  The acting is sufficient, though Branagh fails to convey a sense of terror and evil.  Pine is somewhat wooden as Ryan, and Knightly is as lovely as ever.  It's a good way to spend an evening.  You get what you expect here.

Antonia's Line (1995)

3 Popcorn boxes

Set in Holland right after the end of World War II (about 1945 or 46), this film stars Willeke van Ammelrooy as the title character,  Els Dottermans as her daughter Danielle, and several actresses as her daughter Sarah.

The film is more of a series of vignettes than a conventional film.  There is no plot to speak of; the film just drops in at various points of time and explores the relationship between Antonia and the other members of the small Dutch town she moves back to.  Since leaving some 20 years earlier, Antonia comments when she and Danielle move there, that things haven't changed at all.

The photography is very good, the set design fine, and the acting is on par with what you'd expect in a film.  However, the characters are abrasive and off-putting; somehow seem to get the whole village on their side in their running effort to close down the local Catholic church.  There are various births (though few of the women bother getting married), deaths, and a few farm animals thrown in.  This has been described as a feminist fantasy, but I found little to like here.

It's a subtitled film, and the subtitles are easy to read, and seem pretty accurate.   

Rated R for sexual content

The Notebook (2004)

8.0 Popcorn boxes

Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner and Gena Rowlands star in this film set both in the 1940s, and in the modern era.  Told in flashbacks and the present day, the film is an unabashedly romantic film.  Goslin stars as Noah Calhoun, as brash young man who works as a laborer in the local sawmill.  He meets Allie Hamilton (McAdams), from a well-to-do family, at a carnival.  She rebuffs his advances, but he persists and they finally go on a date.  They spend the summer together, much to the chagrin of Allie's mother Ann (Joan Allen).  Her father demurs, stating this is just a summer fling, and the two will soon part when Allie goes off to college.  After many years, they get back together.  Meanwhile, an elderly couple Duke (Garner) and an elderly lady with dementia (Rowlands), spend time together in a nursing home, as he reads to her from a notebook (hence the title).  She falls in and out of lucidity, while he is there to care for her under any circumstances.

The acting is generally very good; with all four actors winning or nominated for a variety of acting awards.  The script is sentimental, and the over-all tone of the film is likewise.  The film was shot in South Carolina, and utilizes existing and newly-built sets in that area.  Gosling's remodeled house is particularly affecting, and it was especially built for the film.  The set design is very good, and production values are also very good, capturing the lush, indolent life of the south in great detail.  The cinematography is excellent, with light and dark scenes very well lit.  The period cars and the re-done store fronts give the 40s era portion of the film an authentic look.

This is a 'chick flick' at its best.  Personally, this is not my favorite genre, since films of this ilk can be cloying and maudlin.  There are elements of each here, but overall the film avoids falling into an overly sentimental trap.     

Rated PG-13 for some sexuality

Flash of Genius (2008)

7.0 Popcorn boxes

Robert Kearns (Greg Kinnear) has an idea; why not have windshield wipers operat only as needed; in other words, intermittently.  He gets to work, and devises one.  He patents it, and thinks of starting a manufacturing plant to produce his wiper system, but realizes it's too expensive to do.  So he shops it around the auto manufacturers.  None of them want to buy it, but Kearns later finds out the one of the companies he's shown the device to, Ford, has introduced one of their own, without acknowledging it was Kearns who came up with the idea first.

 Kearns isn't ready to throw in the towel; he decides to sue Ford for stealing his idea.  Ford claims they've come up with the idea themselves, and they refuse at first to settle.  After Kearns sues, Ford makes a paltry offer, which his attorney Gregory Lawson (Alan Alda) urges him to accept.  Kearns wife supports taking the money, since the lawsuit has been taking over his life.  But Kearns refuses, noting the Ford sells millions of cars with his device, and he should get a cut of every sale.  He turns down subsequent offers, because Ford refuses to acknowledge the wiper system was his idea.  His obsession with the case becomes all-consuming, and puts strains on himself, and his relationship with his family.

Kennear fully inhabits his role as the obsessive Kearns, while Lauren Graham does good work as his wife Phyllis.   

My Life (1993)

8.5 Popcorn boxes

An successful and hard-driving public relations executive (Michael Keaton) is brought up short when he learns he has life-threatening kidney cancer.  He's forced to look at his life, and the relationship he has with his family, and with his pregnant wife (Nicole Kidman), and realizes that he may never even see his child.  He decides to make a video for his unborn child, giving him the fatherly advice he'll never be able to give.  Along the way, he pursues treatment options, until he's informed there are no options left for him to try.  He finally realizes all the anger he has inside, and comes to terms with the new reality of his life.

Some reviewers have criticized the film for being too distant and contrived, but cancer patients and others who have faced similar situations probably will identify with many of the subjects raised in the film, and rate the film more highly.  Keaton does a great job here, piloting the transition from successful, highly-charged businessman to one who can't control what is happening to him.  Kidman is good as well, though this is mainly Keaton's film.

Rated PG-13 for mature subject matter

If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969)

7.5 Popcorn Boxes

A large ensemble cast including Suzanne Pleshette, Ian McShane (as tour guide Charlie Cartwright), Norman Fell, Peggy Cass, Mildred Natwick, Murry Hamilton, Sandy Baron, Michael Constantine, Marty Ingels, and others star in this funny film about Americans on a quickie tour (18 days) of Europe.  Filmed on location, it gives a humorous look at post-war travel to the continent.

Starting in London, the group proceeds to see (sometimes by just driving by) well-known tourist destinations.  Then there off to Belgium, Holland, Rome, Venice, West Germany, Bastogne, Switzerland, Luxemburg, and Liechtenstein.  Charlie the tour guide has a girl in every stop on the way, but problems with the tour group keep getting in the way.  He soon is attracted to Samantha Perkins (Pleshette), but she keeps putting him off.  Other complications include one of the group getting on the wrong tour bus and going on a tour of Japanese tourists, complaints about the food, the early rising time, the fast pace of the tour (the tour company is named 'Whirlwind Tours') and homesickness.

The funny premise and the great locations throughout Europe are the main attractions here.  There are a few out-and-out laughs, and a lot of smiles throughout the film.  Since it was made over 40 years ago, the film is a bit dated, but the plot and the great photography on location redeem the film.  The dresses are short, the look is mod, and the word 'groovy' is tossed about on occasion. Singer Donovan makes an appearance here signing a forgettable song.

Rated G

Galaxy Quest (1999)

8.0 Popcorn boxes

While half-heartedly signing autographs at a convention, actors Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen), Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver), Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman), Tommy Weber (Daryl Mitchell) and Fred Kwan (Tony Shalhoub) are approached by a group of strange-looking people who attempt to speak to Nesmith, who played Commander Taggart on the long-cancelled Galaxy Quest science fiction television series.  The group are aliens, Thermaians from the Klaatu Nebula, who are being threatened by a hostile race led by Sirris, a reptilian humanoid who commands a powerful starship.  The Thermians believe the Galazy Quest television series they have watched are 'historical records', and the events on the program are real.  They want the 'crew' of the NES Protector (the ship on the series) to come to the exact duplicate they have built, to help save their race.  The Thermians convince the actors to come to the ship, and soon fall into battle with Sirris.  The actors have no idea how to run a starship, as the Thermians expect them to do

The film is a comedy that pokes gentle fun at people who are consumed with the minutiae of science fiction programs like Star Trek.  These fans are the type to dress up and attend conventions in costumes of the characters from the series.  As such, the film works very well in capturing the ambiance of the sci-fi convention scene. It also captures the ennui of actors who can't find a satisfying career after their hit series, a problem that is well-known in the entertainment industry.  These are examples of actors who can't shake the association that the public makes between actor and role.

The acting is fine, the set design very good, the special effects top-notch, and the production values good.  I enjoyed watching the film, and, for what it sets out to do, it does very well.

Rated PG for mild language and sexuality

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

9 Popcorn boxes

Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a good-looking Czech brain surgeon who has more than luck with women; they hunt and pursue him.  Consequently, he has more than his share of one-night stands, as well as several on-going but intermittent love affairs.  He's called out to a spa in a rural part of the country to perform an operation.  There, he sees and is smitten by pretty Tereza (Juelitte  Binoche).  He follows her to her job in the spa's bar.  Once she notices him, she's interested as well.  They meet after her shift, but Tomas must leave to get back to Prague.  He tells her he maybe back one day, and leaves.  Tereza can't forget him, tracks him down in Prague, and goes to his apartment.  An affair ensues.  Tereza soon learns, though, that Tomas has no intention of giving up his dalliances with other women.  One of his long-term affairs involves Sabina (Lena Olin), who grudgingly accepts the new woman in Tomas' life.

As all of this is happening in the Spring of 1968, during the so-called Prague Spring, when the bonds of long-time communist rule is loosening a bit.  There's a new freedom, to dance, party, and criticize the government.  Tomas, who is motivated more by a woman's glance than politics, nevertheless gets into the spirit of things, and writes an article that is critical of the communist government.  Soviet tanks begin to rumble into Czechoslovakia, and the crackdown begins.  Tomas and Tereza flee to Geneva, but she goes back to Prague when she realizes Tomas is back to his womanizing ways. 

The film is a long one (171 minutes over two DVDs), but it doesn't drag one bit. Day-Lewis is excellent as Tomas, and man who loves women, but not just one at a time.  Binoche is young and pretty, and convincingly vulnerable and sensitive.  Olin is effective as the steady-as-a-rock Sabina, who befriends Tereza when she realizes how ill-equipped she is to handle the complex relationship.  The set design is good, and gives a glimpse of how the ordinary Czech must have lived.  The scenes in Prague are beautiful (as is Prague itself, though most ot the film was shot in France).  There are scenes of the actual Soviet invasion, and Day-Lewis and Binoche are interwoven into the old footage.  It's effective.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a very good and romantic film.  It's about a mature topic, handled well.  The oppression that was the USSR is on display here as well.

Dogma (1999)

5 Popcorn boxes

Cast out of heaven for all eternity, angels Bartleby (Ben Affleck) and Loki (Matt Damon), eager to return to paradise, concoct a way to re-enter heaven without being forgiven and welcomed back: they must travel to New Jersey and pass through the portals of a church being rededicated.  If they do, they will receive a plenary indulgence, and can pass directly into heaven.  There's one catch; if they do this, they destroy the world, since it will prove that God can be disobeyed without consequence.  Bethany Slone (Linda Fiorentino) is appointed by God (through Alan Rickman) to prevent that from happening.

The movie sparked widespread condemnation before its release, primarily from the Catholic league and fellow defenders of Catholicism.  Other Christians are likely to take offense at the language in the film (heavy on the f-word) and various behaviors of so-called religious figures in the film.  That said, the movie is an entertaining riff on Christianity, especially the Catholic church.  Director Kevin Smith wrote the film based on decades of thinking about what he learned in parochial school.

Affleck and  Damon are able as the two disgraced angles, Fiorentino is quietly and subtly in her role as Bethany Slone.   Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith) are two prophets who are sent to assist Slone in keeping Bartleby and Loki out of the church, and, thus, heaven.  Alanis Morrisette and Bud Cort (in a small role) play God.  Alan Rickman, who is 'the voice of God', has a major part and, as usual, acquits himself well.  The late George Carlin ably plays Cardinal Ignatius Glick in a minor, yet memorable part.  The set design and production values are very good in the film, and portray the sometimes gritty side of New Jersey well.  The special effects are OK, but not great, but Smith didn't have a large budget to work with here.

Persuasion (1995)

9 Popcorn boxes

Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds star in this adaptation of the Jane Austen novel of the same name.  Set in England in Bath and along the English coast, the film concerns the relationship between Root's Anne Elliot and Hinds' Captain Frederick Wentworth.  The two originally met when Wentworth was a junior office without money and prospects.  She's persuaded to reject his advances, in hopes of finding a mate with money and connections.  Now, the Elliot family is beset by debts, and are forced to rent out their home in hopes of regaining their fortune.  The new tenants are related to Captain Wentworth, and he's around the property.  They meet again for the first time in nine years, and Anne comes to regret her previous decision to reject the Captain.

Amanda Root won plaudits for her performance, and rightly so.  She plays Elliot as a plain, but intelligent and sensitive woman who has to live with her past decision.  She is sympathetic as the mousy Elliot, and underplays the role, suiting her personality in the film.  Hinds is somber, intelligent and somewhat dashing as the newly well-to-do Wentworth.  Both are very believable in their roles.  The supporting cast is very good as well.  The production values are a star here.  The effort was made to use clothes that looked lived in.  The set design was very good as well.  My favorite adaptation of Persuasion.

Mighty Aphrodite (1995)

8 Popcorn boxes

Woody Allen writes, directs, and stars in this smart and funny comedy about relationships that play out over several years in New York City.  Allen plays Lenny Weinrib, a sports writer who's married to Amanda (Helena Bonham Carter).  Against Lenny's wishes, Amanda pushes to adopt a child.  They finally do, and Lenny comes around and dotes on the boy, Max.  Max turns out to be a handsome, intelligent child, which prompts Lenny to wonder about the woman who gave him up for adoption.  He sets out on a long odyssey, in fits and starts, to locate the birth mother, whom he believes will be intelligent, good-looking, and classy.  Instead, he finds a sketchy character of dubious morals, Linda Ash (Mira Sorvino) 

Sorvino won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Ash, and it's well deserved.  She's both ditzy and deep, scatter-brained and complex.  Smart she's not, but there's an inner center that she doesn't deviate from.  It's a surprise that she could be Max's birth mother, but there she is.

Allen is at his peak at his craft here.  It's a funny, insightful turn with a solid script and good execution.  As usual, the cast is solid.  Along with Sorvino, Michael Rapaport offers a strong, funny performance  as a boxer, who's about a dumb as Linda.  He's success in his mind because he's won all but eight matches in his twelve career bouts.  He aspires, not to greater glory as a boxer, but to be a man of the dirt, an onion farmer.  Carter is quite good as Allen's wife, though her character is more one-dimensional.

(Throughout the film, we're treated to an literal Greek chorus who observe, comments on, and advises Allen.  It's a funny touch.)

Feeling Minnesota (1996)

4 Popcorn boxes

Sam Clayton's (Vincent D'Onofrio) getting married.  At the last minute, his brother Jjaks (Keanu Reeves) shows up.  The bride, Freddie, (Cameron Diaz) is reluctant to go through with the ceremony, but perseveres nevertheless.  During the reception, she has a liaison with Jjaks in the bathroom of the brother's mom's house.  Sam learns of the betrayal and the rest of the film concerns this dysfunctional trio's goings on.

None of the three is without a past.  The viewer tends to root for Jjaks, but that's in spite of his prison record and his tendency to hold up convenience stores.  He's the least objectionable one of the three.  Freddie may or may not love Jjaks, but she uses him to escape her unhappy marriage, and she has a funny way of showing affection.  Sam is the worst of this loser bunch.  He doesn't seem to have a prison record, but he's not above stealing and waving his gun around, a lot.  There is also a lot of fistfights with his brother, when they aren't cursing at each other.  One of the worst cases of sibling rivalry around, probably.

 The film tries to throw a bit of comedy around in the otherwise dreary occurrences.  But it's not enough to rescue the film, which devolves into truly nasty interactions between the three characters.  A few people end up dead, some people are arrested, others knocked around.

The film probably does the best it can with the script, but it's not a film you're going to want to watch again.  Reeves and Diaz turn in a decent performance, but D'Onofrio has a tendency to start chewing the scenery a bit, as his want, based on his performance in the Law and Order television series.  The set design is good to very good, with the sets believable and adding to the atmosphere of the film.  There is some violence, but not overly so.  Some simulated sexual scenes that Diaz pulls off well, though her hair stays remarkably neat and orderly after some spirited goings-on.

Dan Akroyd and Tuesday Weld give good supporting work in the film as well.

Bicentennial Man (1999)

7 Popcorn boxes

Robin Williams and Sam Nell star in this science fiction tale about an android who is purchased by a family to help run the household and raise the children.  He soon is curious about being human.  he longs to be human, even though he outlives his original family, and realizes that being human will mean eventual death.  The drive to feel and act human is just too desirous to him.

Williams does a good job in android make-up and costume.  He also manages the transition from android to human well, as he slowly changes from metal man to biological human.  The acting it good, and Nell and Wendy Crewson do fine work as the parents in the family.  The costuming is very good, you believe that Williams is actually an android, though he is very recognizable as Robin Williams.

I'd watch it again.  It's a sweet and slightly weird story.  The ending is poignant.

The Day After Tommorrow (2004)

1 Popcorn Box

This ridiculous film is so ludicrous that it's almost unwatchable.  The centuries-long effects of global warming take place instead in a few weeks instead of decades.  Scientifically laughable, the film fails to deliver on its sermon of avoiding fossil fuels and living in peace and happiness among the birds and the flowers, with solar plants and wind farms.

I give films somewhat of a break when it comes to plausibility.  I know that time travel cannot exist, but a film like Looper (2012) or Superman (1978) can be entertaining in spite of that.  The Day After Tomorrow, though, fails again and again on matters of science, so as to make it virtually unwatchable.

I could go on and on about the bad science in this movie, but a few examples will suffice.  Tornadoes in Los Angeles; yeah, maybe, but three at once?  That's pretty rare (I seen examples of only two at a time).  And they're twisting around and playing games with each other, and though they're pretty small, they can totally destroy huge skyscrapers.  And the news helicopter flies within a mile or so of the twister without being thrown out of the sky.  Not plausible.

More helicopters; this time in Scotland.  It's cold, but suddenly the temperature drops by 200 degrees.  Really?  Now it's minus 150 degrees, which is colder than the South Pole.  The fuel freezes in the 'copter, and it crashes.  The crew is frozen instantly when they open the door.  The cold metal door can protect them?  Really?

The whole US needs to evacuate to Mexico.  Somehow, the Mojave desert is now too cold, but head 100 miles south, and its warm and balmy.  Right.  And Southern Texas, right across the border from Mexico, isn't good enough, but you cross the Rio Grande, and it's fine.  Laughable.

One final example.  The whole US in now iced over, apparently, as is Europe and probably Asia too.  Yet Florida has flooded because of global warming.  Wait!  The Earth is freezing, soaking up billions of gallons of water, yet the sea levels are rising so as to flood the Sunshine state?  C'mon!

On and on it goes.  One howler after another.  I know they can't wait 100 years to watch the sea levels inch up because that would be boring, but to condense all this action in a month or so?  And how comes the Earth pretty much freezes over?  Isn't this global warming?  (Yes, I know about the North Atlantic conveyor, which moves warm water to the North of Europe, which by the way in this movie drops by 30 degrees in seconds.)

Crummy, crummy, crummy.  There's a love story of sorts thrown in, between students Jake Gyllenhaal and Emmy Rossum. together with a noble doctor (Sela Ward), the helpful sidekick, and a doomed scientist (Ian Holm).   The one positive?  Decent special effects.

Mind-numbingly bad.  Avoid at all costs.

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980)

  8.0 Popcorn Boxes

This film won the 1980 Academy award for Best Foreign Language Film.   It's in Russian with English subtitles (which are unusually clear and easy to read even from across the room).

Three young women in their 20s decide to move to Moscow (in 1958) to improve their career prospects, find better living conditions, and, last but not least, meet young men.  The latter proves to be the biggest problem.  The three, Katerina, Antonina, and Luidmilla first live in poor accommodations, in a worker's dormitory.  They cook up a scheme to house sit in a luxurious apartment, and pretend to have glamorous jobs.  They then throw a party, and invite a variety of attractive, desirable men to socialize with.  The party starts to fall apart when they can't describe what they do in their jobs.  They each do met an man, and start relationships.  Pregnancies follow, and two of the girls are discarded along the way.

Flash forward 20 years to 1978.  We see the girls now grown.  The story starts to revolved around Katerina, who has moved up in her factory from the floor to a director of the firm.  She meets the man who impregnated her, leaving her with a now 20 year old daughter.  She has no interest in him, however.  She subsequently meets a man on the train.  He's smitten and follows her off the train, and hails a cab for the both of them.  They then have a relationship.  The rest of the film follows their somewhat stormy pairing.

The film is 150 minutes long, and that seems about the right length to tell the three women's stories, then and now.  It's in color, and the set design and production values are good, especially for 1980s USSR.  One of the interesting things about the film is that it gives us a look at the Soviet Union a decade before it fell apart.

The living conditions for the three are generally pretty good, having access to nice apartments and modest country houses.  One suspects, though, that being produced under the auspices of the Soviet government, that the apartments are a bit nicer than they would have been for the average citizen.  I've been to Russia, and while it's true that there are two Russias, Moscow and everywhere else, the living situations I saw where much shabbier than portrayed here.  For example, the grocery store is extremely well-stocked, with more goods than your average US store.

I liked the film.  It's a nice slice-of-life, coming-of-age film set in a foreign country that used to be our sworn enemy (and maybe will be again).  The women are on average pretty well acted, and the supporting cast is good.  I'd recommend the film to anyone interested in seeing a time capsule of the old Soviet Union, and also those interested in relationship dynamics.

Little Women (1994)

9.0 Popcorn Boxes

Winona Ryder heads a cast of very capable actors in this adaptation of the book by Louisa May Alcott, published in two parts in 1868 and 1869, just after America's Civil War.   The book is partly based on Alcott and her three sisters, and is set during the Civil War..

In addition to the strong female characters (around which, of course, the film revolves), there are significant male roles, in particular Gabriel Bryne, who plays Friedrich Bhaer, a German professor who falls in love with Ryder's character, Jo.  (Trini Alvarado plays Meg, Claire Danes is the doomed Beth, and Kirsten Dunst plays Amy, rounding out the four female leads.  Susan Sarandon is the girl's matriarch.)

My impressions:  The acting is very good.  Winona is in the film the most of all the girls, and she's very good here.  The set design is very good as well.  The period is captured well in the sets, and the production value is good.  The script holds together well, and flows nicely.

A strongly recommended film.  This has been billed as a woman's film, but I thought it worked well as a period film that doesn't stint on the male characters.

Rated PG