The story of The Woman in Black has gone through so many changes and different endings since Susan Hill’s original mystery/thriller novel was first published in 1983 that it’s now hard to talk of specific plot points without pointing out what version you’re referring to.

After the success of Hill’s novel, the story became a TV film in 1989, then a live stage show, which, after fifteen years, is still currently running on the London stage as a musical, and now, after a thirty five year absence from the film industry, the illustrious Hammer Horror Film Productions – the studio that made stars out of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee during the sixties – has produced a new, high-production value movie version, and it’s as successfully creepy as the best of ghost stories should be.

Arthur Kipps (Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe) is a young, recently widowed lawyer who is sent by his London firm to the small coastal village of Crythin Gifford to tidy up the paperwork and to sell the house of the recently deceased Mrs. Alice Drablow.  Once he arrives, the local villagers are anything but friendly.  After spending a night alone in the large, now abandoned mansion, Kipps hears the screams of a drowning child in the marshes then starts to see things; a creaking rocking chair that moves independently, Victorian wind-up toys that suddenly become animated, faces in the windows, and worst of all, the eerie sight of a mysterious woman perpetually dressed in black, and she’s not happy.

Surprisingly, Radcliffe effectively convinces as the young lawyer.  It’s his first on-screen adult role after the conclusion of the Potter series, and even though for the most part his character is required to project apprehension and bug-eyed fear more than anything else, he does it well.  Whether he can sustain leading adult roles in the future is hard to determine – his acting chops need to be developed further before anyone can truthfully judge any depth of character performance – but what is required of him in The Woman in Black is a good enough platform to begin distancing himself from teenage heroes.  The film also does a good job of making his diminutive frame look larger.

Even though Jane Goldman’s script takes liberties with plot points from the original creation, it all works and adds depth to the proceedings.  The TV film, while entertaining in its limited way, appeared to be missing several elements that left you hanging; this version fills in the gaps.  The ending may divide audiences – it has the best of both worlds; happy and sad at the same time – but I believe it’s a fitting end, and it works far better than the original TV movie ending.

The chills are effective; the Victorian setting in the house of horrors is suitably spooky, and the ghosts – expressionless, creepy, pale-faced children, not to mention the Woman herself – are the stuff of nightmares.  Depending on your tolerance for scary movies, for the most part The Woman in Black delivers spine-chilling thrills, though the many ‘Boo’ moments - those sudden, out-of-the-blue scares that make audiences jump – tend to come at you with far more aggression than necessary.  Does every jump need to be accompanied by shrieking violins?  The scare is successful on the visuals alone. The film is at its best when eerily quiet and anticipation is stretched.

 MPAA Rating: PG-13     Length: 94 minutes       Overall rating: 8 (out of 10)

It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s a wonderful cinematic feeling.  Sometimes the performances of an ensemble of players in a film can appear so natural you actually forget you’re watching actors in a work of fiction and not a documentary.  That’s what happens when you watch A Separation, a film from Iran of great emotional depth and full of wonderful performances throughout.

In A Separation a middle-class marriage falls apart.  The wife, Simin, doesn’t want her child to grow up in present-day Tehran.  She wants the whole family, including the elderly father-in-law suffering from Alzheimer’s, to move out of the country, but the husband, Nader, refuses to leave.  Under Iranian law, nothing can happen without the husband’s consent, so Simin can neither leave nor have the divorce she desires.  Instead, the couple separates. What follows has devastating results: what begins as a simple hiring of a lower-class female caretaker to help in the house results with Nader under arrest for a possible murder.

The film gives us a glimpse of ordinary, daily Iranian life, away from what we think we know about the country, which is always welcomed.  The courtroom scenes are riveting as all parties try to present their side of the unfortunate events while a no-nonsense, but seemingly fair judge dismisses anything that doesn’t sound relevant.

The way writer/director Asghar Farhadi allows events to unfold you become gripped in the way a thriller might reach out and grab you.  It’s also very human.  All characters appear to be withholding important information at some point, and not all are honest with each other, let alone with themselves.

A Separation has garnered a nomination for Best Foreign language Film and Best Original Screenplay.  I wish it the best.  This is an outstanding film.

MPAA Rating: PG-13   Length: 123 minutes    Overall Rating: 9 (out of 10)    Subtitled

The hit New York comedy My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish and I’m in Therapy by Steve Soloman is currently playing on Stage West at the Herberger Theatre downtown until February 19^th.

The show’s star and sole performer is comedian/actor Ron Tobin who dropped by the studios to talk to us about the show, how he handles ad-libbing, and the importance of audience reactions.

To hear our full interview with Ron click on the following link.  Interview with Ron Tobin

 To find out more about the show, including tomes, dates and tickets CLICK HERE to go directly to the official website.

The man who has literally been singing songs in the rain since early January joined me this morning to talk about the live stage version of the famous MGM musical Singin’ in the Rain, currently showing at the Arizona Broadway Theatre.

Michael LaMasa plays the part made famous by Gene Kelly and talked about the show, the rain effects, and life on stage at a dinner theatre.  To hear our full interview with Michael click on the following link.   Michael Lamasa

The Arizona Broadway Theatre is located in Peoria on W. Paradise Lane.  To find out more regarding times, dates and tickets, CLICK HERE to go directly to the ABT website.  Plus, look for details regarding the special Valentine’s Day performance on February 14^th.

Albert Nobbs is clearly a labor of love for Glenn Close.  She first played the role on stage in 1982 and has spent several years since that time trying to get the financing off the ground for a film version.

Looking like something you might see as a Masterpiece Theatre presentation on PBS but with higher production values, Albert Nobbs tells of a woman trying to survive in Ireland a few years after the First World War.  With short hair always combed back and neatly in place, a butler’s uniform, and a benign, almost expressionless face designed never to bring attention to itself, the woman successfully passes as a man but lives in constant fear that at any moment the façade will be discovered.

The pacing is slow and deliberate and the performances throughout from all in the cast, including Pauline Collins, Mia Wasikowska, Brendan Gleeson, and particularly Janet McTeer, are uniformly good, but after a short while you sense that Albert Nobbs exists only as a showcase for Glenn Close.  The film leaves you with little impact other than an admiration for Close’s purposely underplayed performance.

The one question you’ll probably find yourself asking is this:  If you met Albert Nobbs, would you be fooled into thinking she’s a man?  The answer I fear is no.  “You are the strangest man I have ever met,” states Mia Wasikowska as Helen the maid.  The same with Janet McTeer as Hubert who has found herself to be in a similar situation as Albert.  However, both actors are convincing enough in their gender-switching pretense that you suspend your disbelief for the duration of the film.  There’s even one, very moving scene, where both women disrobe out of their male, everyday work clothes, and don feminine dresses and bonnets in order to run free on a beach as themselves for the first time for years, and it looks odd.  We’ve become so used to seeing both these fine performers pretending to be male that when they run free in dresses for just a few moments, they actually take on the appearance of men pretending to be women.

Those who enjoy catching up with Oscar nominated performances before the awards are handed out should see Albert Nobbs.  It’s no surprise that Close has been nominated for an Oscar in the Best Actress category, or that Janet McTeer snagged a Best Supporting Actress nomination – they are both deserved even if they don’t win - but when you leave the theatre it is Close and McTeer and only Close and McTeer you’ll remember.  The film serves as a platform for two outstanding talents but leaves no real impression in of itself.

MPAA rating:  R    Length:  103 minutes      Overall Rating:  6 (out of 10)

Following in the footsteps of Snakes on a Plane or Hobo with a Gun, Man on a Ledge says it all in the title; it’s about a man and he’s on a ledge.

 Obviously there’s a little more plot development that unfolds during its 102 minute running time, but essentially you get the idea.  Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) is an ex-cop who is now a fugitive and appears to be suicidal. “I’m ready to die,” he declares.  “It’s important that you know that.”  He books a room in a New York City hotel, climbs out onto the ledge and creates a media frenzy with his threats to jump.  Enter Elizabeth Banks as a negotiator who is giving the task of talking Nick out of taking the leap… only he doesn’t really intend to jump.  Even before the truth behind Nick’s attention grabbing action is revealed audiences will sense something else going on, but to say anything further would involve plot spoilers, so we’ll end the story synopsis right there, except to say that as soon as we meet Ed Harris as businessman David Englander it’s obvious he’s a bad guy and has something to do with why the guy is on the ledge in the first place.

There’s something odd about Sam Worthington.  He’s a perfectly fine Australian actor, his American accent is convincing, and he handles action scenes well – as we have already seen in films such as Avatar, Clash of the Titans and The Debt – but he has the kind of presence that leaves little impact once he’s off screen, almost to the point where you have to remind yourself what he even looks like.  I’m not convinced he has the gravitas to be the center of a film like Man on a Ledge where almost all of the attention is on him – he’s far more effective when part of an ensemble – and that’s one of the reasons why the film fades from memory almost as soon as it’s over. 

There’s fun to be had while watching events unfold, but it’s lightweight – a step above a TV film because of its high production values and cast – but it doesn’t resonate.  By the time you’ve reached your vehicle in the parking lot there’s a good chance you might already be straining to recall exactly what happened; the film seems to fizzle from memory quicker than most.  And there’s a moment during the big climax that demands a literal leap of faith where you might find yourself saying, I’m not buying it.

The real fun is delivered by Jamie Bell as Nick’s younger and more troublesome brother and his colorfully sexy girlfriend, Genesis Rodriguez. They’re a bickering couple who may be way out of their league while trying to break into a safe, but watching them attempting to steal a priceless diamond from under the nose of its owner and arguing then making up again while doing it is more entertaining than anything else in the film.

 MPAA Rating:  PG-13     Length:  102 minutes     Overall Rating:  6  (out of 10)

For many, sitting through We Need to Talk About Kevin is not going to be easy, and it may not even be considered entertainment, but it’s hard to look away.

Reminiscent of last year’s drama Beautiful Boy where an unsuspecting married couple’s son commits a horrendous mass murder, We Need to Talk About Kevin follows a similar path but with several obvious differences.  Whereas the parents in Beautiful Boy had no clue what their son was capable of doing, Kevin is trouble from the beginning.

The events are revealed out of order.  Watching Kevin is like staring at the individual pieces of a jigsaw; you catch glimpses of something that might be important but you’re not quite sure how, and the full picture is never revealed until the last piece of the puzzle snaps firmly into place.

From the beginning we know Kevin has done something terrible but we don’t know what.  We know the family is torn apart but we don’t know how, and we know that his mother now lives alone and needs a job, but we don’t know why.

Through flashbacks and the haunting memories of the mother, the events leading up to Kevin’s shocking action – and it is truly shocking – are slowly revealed.  Each time we travel back we begin to get a slightly clearer picture of what is going on.  We can’t be certain but maybe Kevin was responsible for the death of the family pet.  It’s also possible that it was Kevin who caused his younger sister to lose an eye during an accident with some cleaning fluid.

It’s Tilda Swinton, outstanding as the mother, who suspects Kevin is the behind these events and is seriously concerned about the boy’s behavior, while John C. Reilly as the father dismisses the accusations.  The way the father so easily brushes the problems aside and is unwilling to discuss them in any depth you get the impression that maybe he might actually be more concerned about his son than he’s letting on, but finds it easier to handle the situation by simply not talking about it.  You can almost hear the father’s inner thoughts as he ignores his wife’s concerns; whatever is Kevin’s problem, he’ll grow out of it.

I’ve always believed that the real definition of evil is the selfishness of a person with a total lack of empathy.  If you cannot feel or imagine the feelings of another person and couldn’t care less what happens to them, what would it matter if you caused them pain?  It’s them, not you, so what’s the problem?  When the parents try to talk to Kevin at the dinner table about the accident with his sister’s eye, Kevin appears unconcerned.  If there is one scene in the film that truly highlights Kevin’s ability for evil, that’s the scene.

There’s no other way to put this: We Need to Talk About Kevin is depressing and not the kind of film that mainstream audiences will want to watch, but it’s also powerful filmmaking, made all the more powerful by the performances of the leads.  Ezra Miller as the disturbed Kevin is totally convincing.  The impact is ultimately shattering, and even though you can’t help but admire the craftsmanship of the film, your heart will be broken.

 MPAA Rating:  R   Length:  112 minutes    Overall rating:  8 (out of 10)

Currently showing at the Phoenix Theatre until February 5^th is the comedy musical The Marvelous Wonderettes, a nostalgic musical review that takes us back to the innocent high-school days of the late fifties then jumps ahead in the second half to the slightly less than innocent late sixties.

Two of the four Wonderettes, Katrina Hagofsky and Shayla Benoit dropped by the studio this morning to talk about the show, their auditions and what happens when you drag an unsuspecting audience member up onto the stage to be included in the cast.

To hear our full interview with Katrina and Shayla click on the following link:  Interview with The Marvelous Wonderettes

 For times, dates and tickets to The Marvelous Wonderettes CLICK HERE to go directly to the Phoenix Theatre website.

Hot on the heels of Contagion is director Steven Soderbergh’s new film, a tightly-wound action-thriller called Haywire which does something that most action-thrillers with a female as its central character don’t always do; it casts a woman who actually looks as though she can cause the damage the script calls for.

It’s a simple plot presented in a convoluted manner. Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is the center of a botched mission in Dublin.  She’s a freelance covert operative who is sent packing pistols on missions the US government want accomplished but can’t legally authorize.  When Mallory discovers the Dublin mission was a setup to have her killed she uses all of her skills to get back to America and to exact revenge on those who done her wrong.

The cast is full of good names, including Michael Douglas, Ewan MGregor, Bill Paxton and Michael Fassbender, but it’s the central character that makes the impression.  Gina Carano, daughter of ex-Dallas Cowboy Glenn Carano, is a martial arts expert who appeared on TV as Crush in American Gladiators.  An obvious athlete with the developed physique of someone who can maintain femininity while carrying shapely muscle, Carano may not have the acting chops of a theatrically trained performer, but at the center of a hard-hitting, adrenaline booster such as Haywire (original title; Knockout) she is perfect.

Despite its star director and its charismatic leading lady, Haywire offers little new for aficionados of action-thrillers.  It’s short – a scant ninety minutes with no padding – and has very little in the way of plot surprises.  Even though there are flashbacks, and occasionally even a flashback within a flashback, the elaborate style of story-telling can’t disguise the fact that Haywire is really a simple, uncomplicated diversion, but it scores big with its well choreographed fight sequences. The kicks to the body and fists to the face really look as though they hurt.  There’s a vicious quality to the action that never quits, but Carano carries it so well there’s a good chance you’ll be cheering her on rather than being turned off.

Convincing female action stars are in short supply – Angelina Jolie springs to mind, but personally I’ve never bought her as one who could really cause damage in hand to hand combat; it’s all in the editing – but all that has changed with the casting of Gina Carano.  After Haywire it will be difficult to watch anyone with arms slimmer than Carano’s trying to make an audience believe she can really hurt someone.  The bar is now officially raised.

MPAA Rating:  R      Length:  93 minutes     Overall rating:  7 (out of 10)