THE GAZETTE
Wednesday, December 18, 2013 r
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WYNONNA
AT THE MOVIES
Martin Freeman stars as Bilbo in the fantasy adventure “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.”
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WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Jackson picks up the pace in latest ‘Hobbit’ BY
MICHAEL PHILLIPS
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
One year and several hundred films later, I confess my mind isn’t over-full of vivid memories of director Peter Jackson’s first “Hobbit.” It did the job, in its leisurely, fill-out-the-trilogy fashion, albeit looking like clinically detailed crud when viewed in 48 frames-per-second digital projection. Maybe my eyes will catch up to the glories of this alleged improvement. Maybe not. Format aside: Why so much “Hobbit,” when the book itself supplies just enough story for one, maybe two movies? Here’s a bit from last year’s review. “Turning the relatively slim 1937 volume ‘The Hobbit’ into a trilogy, peddling seven or eight hours of cine-mythology, suggests a better deal for the producers than for audiences. When, in Jackson’s film, someone describes a character’s
THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG n 3 stars n PG-13; 182 minutes n Cast: Sir Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace n Directed by Peter Jackson
‘love of gold’ as having become ‘too fierce,’ you wonder if the warning might apply to ‘The Hobbit’ in other ways.” Now we have the sequel. And you know? It’s livelier and better than its predecessor. The first movie’s harrumphing throat-clearing has given way to a swift, imposing adventure boasting several wing-ding action sequences. My favorite is the bit where the dwarves do battle with a
near-endless supply of enemies, while speeding down a raging river atop their stolen barrels. It’s exciting, improbable, funny in its derring-do and a reminder that Jackson, as a filmmaker, can do many things, including finding the precise way to send arrow after arrow through skull after skull, while tossing in a few beheadings, and yet somehow maintain a PG-13 rating. And the right spirit. At its best, “Hobbit 2,” which carries the subtitle “The Desolation of Smaug,” invites comparisons to Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” threesome. Bilbo Baggins, again played by Martin Freeman, is sidelined a bit in this middle chapter. The script interpolates sections of “The Quest of Erebor,” one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s so-called “Unfinished Tales,” setting up an alliance between Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and our old pal Gandalf (topbilled, not yet visibly bored
Ian McKellen). The dwarves want their kingdom back, and Smaug is the dragon in the way. Benedict Cumberbatch, who now rules the world, provides the voice of Smaug. Whatever one’s personal investment in the Tolkien mythology, the dragon on screen is one hell of a dragon. Smaug’s first closeup finds the beast asleep beneath mountains of gold coins, and when we see one eye open, it’s a wonderful, awful sight. Elsewhere there’s a truly scary giant-spider sequence, a little long — everything’s a little long in “Smaug” — but more than enough to give younger viewers some fairly bad dreams. Much of Part 2 unfolds in the coastal burg of Laketown, which has fallen on hard times since Smaug took over Lonely Mountain, or Lonesome Valley, or Honorary Dragon Way, or whatever Tolkien called it. We’re left with the threatened decimation of Laketown. Part 3 opens Dec. 17, 2014.
TENORS
‘Mary Poppins’ tale owes its zing to Thompson BY
MICHAEL PHILLIPS CHICAGO TRIBUNE
No feathers, animated or otherwise, will be ruffled by “Saving Mr. Banks,” director John Lee Hancock’s genial fictionalized account of how Walt Disney seduced “Mary Poppins” author P.L. Travers into allowing, for 5 percent of the gross, the supernatural caregiver to become a shiny Disney version of herself. Mainly the film is a testament to Emma Thompson. She’s swell as Travers, the Australian-born resident of London who travels to Los Angeles in 1961 for a couple of contentious weeks in the pre-production life of the film released three years later. There are other fine actors on screen, among them Tom Hanks as Disney and, in a fabricated role of a limo driver and horn-rimmed sounding board, Paul Giamatti. But Thompson’s the show. Each withering putdown, every jaundiced utterance, lands with a little ping. Then she makes you cry, by gum. If Thompson wins an Academy Award for “Saving Mr. Banks,” well, sometimes these Oscars go to elevator operators — performers who lift routine material to a higher floor. Travers went into Disney negotiations for her stories’ film rights with certain rules in mind. No animation of any kind. An all-English cast. As little overt sentiment as possible. She had script approval and, though the movie fudges this, her own script treatment in development. But Disney won out. The songs, in part, won her over. Travers left L.A. with wildly mixed emotions but pleased with the financial prospects, and “Mary Poppins” became a monster hit. With diagrammatic purpose, “Saving Mr. Banks” breaks down its hard-shell
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SAVING MR. BANKS n 3 stars n PG-13; 125 minutes n Cast: Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson, Paul Giamatti, Colin Farrell, Ruth Wilson, Rachel Griffiths, Jason Schwartzman, B.J. Novak n Directed by John Lee Hancock
protagonist’s exterior with a series of interlaced flashbacks, revealing how, and why, young Georgia Goff became Pamela Travers. Saddled with a charming but alcoholic father (Colin Farrell) and a despondent, suicidal mother (Ruth Wilson), the Goff girls living in the remote turn-of-the-century Australian outback were saved by the presence of their stern but loving aunt (Rachel Griffiths). This was the Poppins prototype, the savior figure in the young Travers’ life. “Saving Mr. Banks” turns Disney into a Missouri-born version of Sigmund Freud, doggedly solving the riddle of his reluctant author’s unhappiness to secure her legal approval to shoot “Mary Poppins” the Disney way. The writing scenes make for some rich high comedy. As Disney house songwriters Richard and Robert Sherman, Jason Schwartzman and B.J. Novak act as puppy dog foils. Screenwriters Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith treat everyone gently and with the utmost respect. The sharper edges of the Disney/Travers relationship, well-documented by various sources, have been rounded off, but the actors suggest what they can, where they can. Travers’ personal life is not dealt with. There’s a single oblique reference to her own son. Some of this relates to streamlined storytelling; some of it, I think,
roll around, Judd takes the time to give back. “It’s a time of year when things get really simple for me,” Judd said. “I don’t rely on a lot of gifts. I give to charity and I send cards and say, ‘Merry Christmas, I love you,’ and that’s it. It’s the end of my year. I’ve worked 364 days … I have more than I need and it’s a chance for me to give back and sing the music I grew up listening to as a child. “It’s a big, big deal to me. I get home, I think, on Christmas Eve. Then I’ll wear my pajamas for a week.” Judd’s life changed forever in August 2012. Her husband, musician Cactus Moser, was in a motorcycle accident and lost his left leg and his left hand. Judd said that, if anything, the accident brought them closer together. “We have a tolerance for one another that can only come from being in this kind of adversity,” Judd said. “He’s such a comedian and a blessing to so many people. I met him when I was 20 and was in love with him then. Mom got sick and I ended up going with her to the Mayo [Clinic] and he went out to L.A. to be a drummer, so we lost touch for awhile, but we reconnected. “When this happened, I literally stood with him in the shower being his left side. It was not easy for me. It was not something I ever dreamed I would have to do. It bonded us for life.” Moser still has his sense of humor, which Judd admits she has a hard time understanding how he can be so funny. “The other night he was on stage during a song and he did a little soft-shoe — and I mean shoe,” Judd said. “He started to laugh and I’m like, ‘You know what, only you can have this kind of sense of humor.’ Me? I don’t know if I could have that. … He has such a positive attitude — it’s almost irritating at times.” Once the holidays come to a close, Judd will put the finishing touches on her next album, which she said she’s having a blast recording in a little shack. It will also sound a little different to her fans.
PHOTOS FROM FRANÁOIS DUHAMEL
Emma Thompson stars as P.L. Travers in “Saving Mr. Banks.”
Tom Hanks stars as Walt Disney. has more to do with avoiding potential ruffled feathers. This is, after all, a Disney film, in large part about Walt Disney, to whom Hanks lends gravity, sincerity and high, true motivations for getting at Travers’ secrets. Director Hancock knows
a few things about directing crowd-pleasing heartwarmers, having made “The Blind Side.” This one wouldn’t work without Thompson. Happily, she and Julie Andrews have something in common as performers: a sparkle, and a wizardly combination of wiles and ease.
Glocca Morra?” a song about being homesick for Ireland that was part of the Broadway show “Finian’s Rainbow.” “It’s about green glens and comely maidens,” he said. “It’s the Hollywood version of Ireland, which is sadly no longer there.” The tenors will also be singing spiritual songs such as “How Great Thou Art” and “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” Then in the second half comes the “upbeat, fun stuff,” he said. People sing along and clap along” to songs such as “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Silent Night,” “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “Jingle Bells,” and “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” said Kearns. Also on the set list is “Fairytale of New York,” a song popular in Ireland and England about an Irish immigrant in New York, written by the Celtic punk group The Pogues in the mid1980s. Kearns said he knew when he was a child growing up in a village in County Wexford in southeast Ireland that he wanted to become a professional singer. “It was my goal since a very early age,” he said. “I loved singing and I love music.” Kearns sang in school and entered singing competitions, slowly making a name for himself. He knew he was good, but he also soon discovered that it’s tough breaking into the entertainment world. “I had confidence in myself but I didn’t have the right connections,” he said. Then, in 1993, Kearns won a national radio competition for tenors to celebrate the country’s issuance of a new 10-pound note (a “tenner”). His success at singing “Danny Boy” and “The Impossible Dream” for the show lead to an appearance on Irish national TV. “That was my lucky break — I was on my way,” said Kearns, who went on to study singing privately and the Leinster
KRISTIN BARLOWE
Country music legend Wynonna Judd will be performing holiday favorites Dec. 23 at the Bethesda Blues and Jazz Supper Club.
“I’ve done the three backup singers and the horns and the production [before],” Judd said. “I’m doing what we call the Dave Grohl [of the Foo Fighters] garage band thing where we’re making the record in one of those sheds that you use to put your lawn mower in. And we’re having the best time. … We laugh until we can’t see straight and we have the best time because we have joy and nothing to prove since we’ve been doing this for 30 years.” Judd has plenty of stories to tell, which she said she does regularly on stage. She has a lot from which to work — her time on “Dancing with the Stars,” her famous family, and her numerous appearances on TV just to name a few. She’s able to find humor in almost any situation, which she said is a blessing in the face of adversity. “When I talk about the human stories,” Judd said. “Ashley and I living on a mountain top with no TV and no telephone … and I make jokes about how I would tie Ashley up and leave her there for hours and say, ‘I’ll be right back,’ and come back and she’d be screaming and I’d say, ‘This is going to help you with your acting career!’ People just die laughing because they know I’m telling the truth and they know because they’ve been there themselves. “I could do a whole standup comedy routine on [my family].” wfranklin@gazette.net
THE IRISH TENORS n When: 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday n Where: Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda n Tickets: $36-$78 n For information: 301-581-5100 strathmore.org
School of Music and Drama in Dublin and the College of Music in Cardiff, Wales. Kearns said he also loves performing in operas, being part of a production that tells a story “from start to end.” “It’s a fairy tale kind of world,” he said. “For five or six weeks, you’re one big family. You do four or five performances and then you pick up and go on again.” In 1998, Irishman Bill Hughes and several other producers got the idea of forming a group modeled on the three Italian tenors — Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras and Plácido Domingo — whom they had seen performing at the Cannes Film Festival. Kearns joined forces with tenors Wright and Tynan, and they soon started performing specials for the Public Broadcasting Service in the U.S. In 2001, they filmed their third special, “Live from Ellis Island,” a tribute to U.S. immigrants with actor Martin Sheen, whose mother, MaryAnn Phelan from Tipperary, was Irish. “It was a huge success,” said Kearns, about the collaboration with PBS. “It raised over $10 million [for PBS].” Today, the tenors pursue their own solo careers while also continuing to tour. Kearns said despite the traveling, he never tires of singing. “I could be bleary-eyed … but once you put on the suit, it transforms you,” he said. “You’re out on stage and see the smiling faces — you have to pinch yourself. I’m very, very fortunate.” vterhune@gazette.net