crankyhanke
theaterlistings Friday, November 16 – Tuesday, November 20 Due to possible last-minute scheduling changes, moviegoers may want to confirm showtimes with theaters.
movie reviews & listings by ken hanke
JJJJJ max rating
additional reviews by justin souther contact xpressmovies@aol.com
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pickoftheweek The SeSSionS JJJJ
Director: Ben Lewin (The Favour, The WaTch and The very Big Fish) PLayers: John hawkes, heLen hunt, wiLLiam h. macy, moon BLooDgooD, annika marks UplifTing facT-baSed drama
raTed r
The Story: Fact-based story about a man in an iron lung and his efforts to have sexual relations. The Lowdown: The Sessions largely fulfills its promise as a frequently amusing, sometimes touching little movie of the uplifting variety, but never quite transcends this sense of well-intentioned TV drama. The Sessions is almost certainly going to be one of the more successful — possibly the most successful — “art” titles of the year. It comes with a raft of good — even great — reviews. It fetched an unusually high price at Sundance, which translated into a strong campaign from purchaser Fox Searchlight. It has Oscar buzz (mostly for star John Hawkes). And it won the Audience Award at Sundance. (It’s that last recognition that might give you some cause for pause because Audience Award winners are often pretty dire.) The truth is, it’s almost exactly what you’ve been led to believe — an uplifting, mildly comedic, fact-based story with an attention-getting premise and central performance. It’s competently made in every possible capacity — and that may be its biggest drawback. Take away the nudity and the frank sex talk and you’d pretty much be left with a high-minded TV movie — with unusually good actors. As for the filmmaking…well, let’s just say that it’s no great surprise that writer-director Ben Lewin’s last job was an episode of Touched by an Angel. The film deals with the attempts of poet/ journalist Mark O’Brien (Hawkes) — a polio survivor confined to an iron lung for all but a few hours out of the day since the age of 6 — to experience sex. At the time the movie takes place, O’Brien is 38 and fully cognizant of the fact that he’s nearing his “use by date,” so there’s a certain urgency to the situation. His immobility from the neck down and his
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aSheville pizza & brewing co. (254-1281)
please call the info line for updated showtimes. The expendables 2 (r) 7:00 house at the end of the Street (pg-13) 10:00 The odd life of Timothy green (pg) 1:00, 4:00
Helen Hunt and John Hawkes in Ben Lewin’s fact-based drama The Sessions. general situation has effectively scotched his own efforts in the matter, so — after getting the go-ahead from his priest, Father Brendan (William H. Macy) — O’Brien enlists the aid of a sex surrogate, Cheryl (Helen Hunt). She’s a thorough professional — but has kind of a hippie vibe (the film is set in the late 1980s) with a guitar-playing philosopher (read: unemployed) husband (Adam Arkin). She quickly lays down the guidelines: There are to be six sessions — and that’s it. Of course, in order to make this any good as drama, it doesn’t turn out to be as cut and dry as that sounds. Nothing that follows is exactly surprising — at least until the altogether too pat powerfailure-ex-machina wrap-up — but it’s generally agreeable, not in the least because the film doesn’t tend to overly sentimentalize the material. The decision to portray O’Brien as slightly naïve, but ironically amused by his own situation goes a long way to make the film more likable than it might have been. Hawkes’ performance — while not the brilliant characterization it’s been painted as — is good enough to make that aspect work. All of the performances are solid, if sometimes a little simplistic. (Macy’s Father Brendan makes Bing Crosby’s Father O’Malley in 1944’s Going My Way look pretty complex, but that’s as much in the writing as the acting.) Hunt starts out rather awkwardly, but is better in the latter part of the film (though I’m not sure I buy her 1980s character’s perfectly pruned pubes). Now, whether or not her willingness to take off her clothes makes this a “brave” performance — no, I don’t think it does in any meaningful sense. Am I saying that The Sessions is a bad movie? Well, no, not exactly. I mean, if you’re looking
for something that’s exciting as cinema, this isn’t it. Similarly, if you’re looking for a story of any complexity, you could do better. However, if what you’re after is a nice little, obviously well-intentioned picture that would probably feel more at home on a TV screen, The Sessions will probably fill the bill. And a lot of people, I suspect, will absolutely love it. Rated R for strong sexuality including graphic nudity and frank dialogue. reviewed by Ken Hanke Starts Friday at Carolina Asheville Cinema 14 and Fine Arts Theatre
Skyfall JJJJ
Director: sam menDes PLayers: DanieL craig, JuDi Dench, Javier BarDem, raLPh Fiennes, naomie harris, aLBert Finney, Ben whishaw JameS bond acTion
raTed pg-13
The Story: James Bond comes to grips with whether his type of agent still has a place in the modern world while taking down a revenge-seeking cyber-terrorist. The Lowdown: Slick and good to look at, Skyfall does some things very well, but goes on too long and wants to be weightier than it is. Let’s get the easy part out of the way first: Yes, it’s better than Quantum of Solace (2008), but honestly, lots of things are. Skyfall — or The Dark Spy Rises — is a great-looking movie with all manner of interesting things in it. It also has a mostly swell villain and a couple of really good sequences. All in all, it’s an entertaining watch — though longer than it needed to be
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carmike cinema 10 (298-4452)
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carolina aSheville cinema 14 (274-9500)
argo (r) 11:30, 2:10, 4:50, 7:30, 10:10 cloud atlas (r) 11:30, 3:00, 6:30, 10:00 flight (r) 12:15, 3:30, 7:15, 10:15 lincoln (pg-13) 11:00, 12:00, 2:10, 3:15, 5:20, 6:00, 8:30, 9:45 The perks of being a wallflower (pg-13) 11:45, 2:15, 4:50, 10:10 (sofa cinema) The Sessions (r) 11:15, 1:30, 3:45, 6:00, 8:15, 10:30 Seven psychopaths (r) 11:20, 1:50, 4:30, 9:30 (sofa cinema) Skyfall (pg-13) 12:30, 1:30, 3:30, 4:30, 6:30, 7:30, 9:30, 10:30 The Twilight Saga: breaking dawn — part 2 (pg-13) 11:00, 11:45, 12:30, 1:45, 2:30, 3:15, 4:30, 5:15, 6:00, 7:00, 7:15, 8:00, 8:45 10:00, 10:30 wreck-it ralph 3d (pg) 4:40, 9:30 wreck-it ralph 2d (pg) 11:45, 2:15, 7:10 n
cinebarre (665-7776)
brave (pg) 10:40 (sat-sun), 1:10, 4:10, 7:10, 9:30 The campaign (r) 11:00 (sat-sun), 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 9:35 house at the end of the Street (pg-13) 10:55 (sat-sun), 1:25, 4:25, 7:55, 9:45 The odd life of Timothy green (pg) 10:50 (sat-sun), 1:15, 4:15, 7:15, 9:40 Trouble with the curve (pg-13) 10:45 (sat-sun), 1:20, 4:20, 7:20, 9:50 n
co-ed cinema brevard (883-2200)
Skyfall (pg-13) 12:30, 4:00, 7:30 n
epic of henderSonville (693-1146)
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fine arTS TheaTre (232-1536)
a late Quartet (r) 1:20, 4:20, 7:20, Late show Fri-sat 9:30 The Sessions (r) 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, Late show 9:15 n
flaTrock cinema (697-2463)
life of pi (pg) Starts wed., nov. 21: 3:30, 7:00 Seven psychopaths (r) fri-Tue only 4:00, 7:00 n
regal bilTmore grande STadiUm 15 (684-1298)
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UniTed arTiSTS beaUcaTcher (298-1234)
For some theaters movie listings were not available at press time. Please contact the theater or check mountainx.com for updated information.
mountainx.com • NOVEMBER 14 - NOVEMBER 20, 2012 57