FILM REVIEW
Maggie Smith in The Lady in the Van.
GOLDEN YEARS 45 YEARS / THE LADY IN THE VAN BY M. FAUST THIS BEING THE WEEK OF VALENTINE’S DAY, I am reminded of the once perennial tag for ro-
mantic movies: “See it with someone you love.” Exactly the opposite might be the best advice for the Oscar nominated 45 Years, which opens Friday at the Amherst and Eastern Hills cinemas: Couples still getting to know one another should be okay with it, but those who have been together for any length of time may find it prompting uncomfortable conversations. The title refers to the duration of the marriage between Kate and Geoff Mercer (Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay). Childless and retired from their jobs as a school teacher and a factory manager, they live a sedate life in a bucolic English village. We observe them in the week leading up to a party celebrating their anniversary. (They missed having one for their 40th because of Geoff ’s heart surgery.) The Monday mail brings a letter for Geoff from Switzerland. The body of a woman has been found after 50 years in a crevasse, brought out now by global warming. The authorities believe it to be Katya, his girlfriend at the time, who fell during a hiking trip. Kate vaguely knew of this, but she and Geoff never talked about it. They chat some about it now, bringing up a few details she had never known. Funny, they both muse, how two people can now each other so long and still have hidden parts of their past. But as the week goes on and she continues to prepare for their celebration, Kate becomes consumed by doubt. What did this woman really mean to her husband? And do his secrets change the nature of their marriage as she has understood it for so many years? Adapted from David Constantine’s short story by writer-director Andrew Haigh (the HBO series Looking), 45 Years is reminiscent of James Joyce’s classic “The Dead.” It’s spare material in which much goes unsaid and you have to watch carefully for revealing details. But as acted by two performers whose careers extend back to the glory days of British cinema in the 1960s, it builds to a devastating conclusion. Rampling, who is nominated for Best Actress, has the showier part, but Courtenay is
AT THE MOVIES A selective guide to what’s opening and what’s playing in local moviehouses and other venues
BY M. FAUST & GEORGE SAX
OPENING THIS WEEK 45 YEARS—Tom Courtenay and Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling as a long married couple whose relationship is called into question by news of the death of an old lover of his. Directed by Andrew Haigh (HBO’s Looking.) Reviewed this issue. Amherst (Dipson), Eastern Hills (Dipson) THE LADY IN THE VAN—Based on the true story of a homeless woman (Maggie Smith) who spent the last decade of her life living in a decrepit van parked in the London driveway of playwright Alan Bennett (Alex Jennings). Directed by Nicolas Hytner (The History Boys). Reviewed this issue. Eastern Hills (Dipson), North Park WHERE TO INVADE NEXT—A new documentary buy Michael Moore in which he stages mock “invasions” of other developed nations to see what we can learn from them. Reviewed this issue. Amherst (Dipson)
ALTERNATIVE CINEMA ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS (1940)—Raymond Massey’s Oscar-nominated performance as the small-town lawyer earning the respect of his neighbors before he embarks on a political career. With Gene Lockhart and Ruth Gordon. Directed by John Cromwell (Anna and the King of Siam). Sun 11:30am North Park
20 THE PUBLIC / FEBRUARY 10 - 16, 2016 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM
equally strong. Couples should be warned that, along with leaving the theater wondering about your partner’s life prior to meeting you (and whether you want to know any of it), you may find yourselves on opposite sides as to who most deserves your sympathy. *** SOMEWHAT LESS REWARDING but much safer for a Valentine’s Day date is The Lady in the Van. This “mostly true story” gives Maggie Smith fans plenty of opportunity to watch her in the kind of effortlessly arch and eccentric performance that made her dowager countess of Grantham the highlight of any episode of Downton Abbey. Granted, on the surface her character here could hardly be more different: Miss Shepherd, which may or may not be her real name, is a homeless woman who spent most of the 1970s and 1980s in the London neighborhood of Camden. She resided in a ramshackle van, painted a color that can only be found in cans labeled “primer,” which was operational only enough to keep her ahead of parking regulations. As much a nuisance for her tart tongue as her malodorousness, Miss Shepherd was tolerated by the locals, nouveau riche whose liberal guilt prevented them from having her carted away. Chief among these was Alan Bennett, the playwright and all-around British institution on whose memoir the film is based. (The director is Nicolas Hytner, who previously filmed Bennett’s The History Boys and The Madness of King George.) Retiring by general nature as much as by being gay at a time when homosexuality had only just been decriminalized, Bennett found himself her barely willing sponsor, letting her move her van into his driveway when the authorities insisted that she get off the street. The story is tricked up with melodramatic revelations and the gimmick of having two Bennett’s (both played by Alex Jennings) to represent barely discernible sides of the author’s character; there’s even a finale lifted from a scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Forget all that—it’s Dame Maggie’s show all the way, and she throws herself into it with the kind of gusto the British use to freshen up a character you’ve seen them do before. That she didn’t get an Oscar nomination for this role is a rare example of the Academy restraining its sentimentality. It opens Friday at the North Park and P Eastern Hills Cinemas.
THE BETTER ANGELS (2014)—Independent film about the young childhood of Abraham Lincoln in the harsh rural environment of 1817 Indiana. Starring Jason Clarke, Diane Kruger, and Brit Marling. Directed by A. J. Edwards. Sat 11:30am. North Park BLEAK STREET—Arturo Ripstein’s black-and-white feature peering into the lives of sex workers, beggars, and other marginalized people in urban Mexico. A review will be posted at dailypublic. com. Presented by the Kaleidotropes film series. Wed Feb 17 7pm. Squeaky Wheel CASABLANCA (1943)—No one involved in its making expected it to be anything extraordinary; the story had been making the studio rounds for awhile, various actors had been cast and rejected for the leads, with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman settling into the roles through no particular piece of casting inspiration. The ending was up in the air until after shooting was finished, and Bogart’s last line was written and dubbed in during post-production. Call it a miracle of studio craftsmanship, a whole that exceeds the sum of its parts, and an almost mythological example of why we love movies so much. Directed by Michael Curtiz. With Paul Heinreid, Claude Rains, and Peter Lorre. Thu 7:30pm. Riviera; also Fri-Sat 7:30pm. Screening Room ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE (2013)—Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as vampires despairing of the modern world. Co-starring John Hurt, Anton Yelchin, Mia Wasikowska, and Jeffrey Wright. Directed by Jim Jarmusch (Broken Flowers). Presented by the Roycroft Film Society. Sun 4pm. Parkdale School Auditorium, 141 Girard Ave., East Aurora. roycroftcampuscorporation.com PATHER PANCHALI (India, 1955)—The first film in what would become director Satyajit Ray’s epic Apu trilogy follows his father as he leaves his rural Bengal village in order to find a better life for his family. Presented as part of the Buffalo Film Seminars. Tue 7pm. Amherst (Dipson) YOSEMITE—James Franco co-stars in this adaptation of three short stories from his collection Palo Alto, about his experiences grow-
ing up in suburban California. With Henry Hopper, Steven Wiig, and Barry Del Sherman. Directed by Gabrielle Demeestère (The Color of Time). Thu 7:30pm, Sat 5:30pm. Screening Room
CONTINUING THE BIG SHORT—If you want to learn about the deep and complex causes of the 2008 banking crisis that nearly brought down the American economy, you’d be better off watching a documentary on the subject (especially Charles Ferguson’s Oscar-winning Inside Job). On the other hand, you can’t argue that a fictionalized movie starring Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Brad Pitt, and Ryan Gosling, directed and co-written by Will Ferrell partner Adam McKay, is likely to reach a lot more people. Working from the book by former Wall Street insider Michael Lewis, the film whirls around several unconnected characters who all came to the conclusion that money could be made by using the market to bet on it’s own inevitable failure. Its explanations can be confusing, though McKay makes that part of the story—the narration notes that the financial world is designed to make outsiders feel stupid. Co-starring Marisa Tomei, Rafe Spall, and Melissa Leo. –MF Amherst (Dipson) ENDS THURS 2/11, Four Seasons, Regal Transit BRIDGE OF SPIES—Steven Spielberg isn’t the most intellectually or aesthetically penetrating director of the last three decades—not nearly—but given good, exploitable material, he can expertly tell a story, and does so here. Tom Hanks stars as James Donovan, a New York lawyer of the 1950s who takes a pro bono case to defend a Russian man accused of spying against the United States. Because of this he is enlisted to negotiate with the Soviets for the release of captured American spy-plane pilot Francis Gary Powers. Scripted by Joel and Ethan Coen with Matt Charman, this is a big, large-spirited movie that relies on small scenes of human interaction. With Mark Rylance, Scott Shepherd, Amy Ryan, and Alan Alda. –GS McKinley (Dipson)