›› FiLM
‘Greatest’ expectations Ironically titled weepy a cinematic lesson in overstatement Sunday, April 18, 2010 An Afternoon of Poetry & Music featuring local and regional poets & musicians at the Old Mill Park Amphitheatre Free Event 2 to 5PM Sponsored by the Mill Valley Library
An Evening Of Poetry featuring: Diane diPrimaSan Francisco Poet Laureate Nathaniel Mackey2006 National Book Award in Poetry Brenda HillmanNational Award-winning Poet At Angelico Hall, Dominican University Campus 50 Acacia Avenue, San Rafael Co-sponsored by Dominican University, Book Passage, Rebound Books & the Marin Poetry Center. $20 General / $15 Students & Seniors available at Book Passage, Rebound Books and Depot Bookstore or order online at
www.marinpoetryfestival.com 415.382.8022 or poetnews@sonic.net
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›› pacificsun.com Golden Globe Nominee
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by Re nat a Po l t
“T
he Greatest” is/was Bennett Brewer (Aaron Johnson), a model teenager: kind, athletic, popular, smart. But not smart enough to pull his car out of the middle of a road where he’s parked to tell his girlfriend Rose (An Education’s Carey Mulligan) that he loves her. Less than five minutes into the film, the car is hit by a truck and Bennett is killed. The rest of The Greatest, written and directed by Shana Feste, deals with the way Bennett’s family copes with his death— especially after Rose shows up at their doorstep, announcing that she’s carrying Bennett’s baby, and moves in. There are also flashbacks to the young couple’s romance: They knew each other all through high school, but only dated and had sex that one time. (Rose didn’t think you could get pregnant “the first time”—are today’s teens really still this naive?) The sign of a good math professor is less the logic of his calculations, than the stern look he gives leaning across his desk. Bennett’s mom Grace (Susan Sarandon) obsesses, while dad Allen (Pierce Brosnan) her that he’s had an affair. party in which Allen meets a naked stoner, represses. Younger brother Ryan (Johnny The story’s progress is aided by soapy etc.—are left hanging. Simmons), a self-confessed fu--up and pop songs and guitar muDid I mention that Allen is a college math druggie, is resentful of all sic at key points, such as professor (his scribbles on the blackboard the attention his role modwhen Allen dumps Grace are meaningless, according to my math proOPENING SOON el brother gets, even after into the ocean, after which fessor husband)? That must be how he and The Greatest opens Friday death. Rose, for her part, at the Rafael. See page 31 they kiss in the surf (why Grace, who seems to have no occupation, seems blithely unaffected, for showtimes. does that seem so familcan afford their fabulous, rambling house (in looking forward to the birth iar?). Predictably, Grace an unspecified, vaguely East Coast setting) of the baby. relents, Allen lets it all and their comfy beach house. ✹ The one who isn’t thrilled about the im- out and Ryan admits that he always loved Review our reviews at letters@pacificsun.com. pending birth is Grace. She’s cold toward his brother. In the meantime, several plot Rose, while Allen becomes (platonically) lines—Ryan’s near-romance with a girl in Reel off your movie reviews on TownSquare at friendly, even confessing to ›› pacificsun.com his grief group, a goofy
Academy Award Winner
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Academy Award NomINEE
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ViDEO Schoolgirl lessons
“‘The Greatest’ takes a piece out of you! A riveting cast plays it for real. Mulligan is wonderfully appealing. Sarandon nails every nuance.” Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
“The real revelation here is Brosnan!” New York Magazine
EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT
STARTS TODAY 32 PACIFIC SUN APRIL 9 - APRIL 15, 2010
NO PASSES OR DISCOUNT TICKETS ACCEPTED
In AN EDUCATION, 16-year-old Jenny Mellor (Carey Mulligan) has everything going for her.Top grades in high school have put her on the Oxford track and, barring some disaster, she’ll be headed there in the fall. But temptation comes along in the person of David Goldman (Peter Sarsgaard), a suave older gent who seems to embody everything that’s missing from Jenny’s ordered life: a flashy sports car,West End concerts and clubbing with his magnetic friends, plus buckets of personal charisma. David’s a man with the chutzpah to walk into Jenny’s living room and ask her parents if she can spend Molina and Sarsgaard face off in a pretentious-staring contest. the weekend with him—on the hunch, he knows too well, that the whole family is susceptible to a ticket out of middle-class drear. But is David too good to be true? Emma Thompson and Alfred Molina co-star in a slice of ‘60s England that rings with period detail, from the music and Teddy Boys to the first hesitant steps at racial integration—and for girls like Jenny, a glimmer of life for English women beyond the usual male accessory. Nick Hornby nicely captures that moment in adolescence when a new friend or two can provoke a harsh inspection of the dreams that have sustained us.—Richard Gould