A Walk In the Woods (2015)

A WALK IN THE WOODS  (2015)  ¢ ¢ 
    D: Ken Kwapis
    Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, Emma Thompson,
    Mary Steenburgen, Kristen Schall, Nick Offerman
Grumpy old men on the Appalachian Trail, from the book by Bill Bryson. Redford originally bought the movie rights hoping to team up with Paul Newman, and there's one scene in particular, involving a narrow rock shelf overlooking a long, steep drop to some water that inevitably recalls "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Another movie this one risks being compared to is "Wild", the one where Reese Witherspoon hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, the differences being that Reese's character was half the age these guys are and hiked twice as far and did it alone. So score one for the lady. Redford and Nick Nolte play Bryson and his ne'er-do-well buddy Katz. As young men they bummed around Europe together, but that was then. They're in their 70s now, and nobody, but especially Bryson's wife (Emma Thompson) thinks the two of them setting off on foot in Georgia and heading for Maine is even close to being a good idea. So off they go. A scene early on suggests the kind of movie this might've been. Katz is bunking at Bryson's house before the trip, and with nobody else around, he slips into Bryson's office. There on the wall and the desk and the shelves are the tokens of a successful, productive life: awards, books, photographs, all well-kept and in order. As Katz takes it all in, the camera closes in on his face, and the visible evidence of years spent boozing, chasing women, knocking around and trying to stay out of jail. Nolte doesn't say a word. He doesn't have to. Everything you need to know about Katz at that moment is in the actor's eyes. Unfortunately, the script and Nolte's growly-bear performance reduce Katz to a cartoon, and it gets a little embarrassing when the boys go into a laundromat and Katz comes on to an obese woman having trouble with her underwear. It's exactly at that point that Bryson, trying to cross a stretch of mud under a freeway, turns into a cartoon character himself, and it's hard not to think you're being short-changed here, that there's got to be more to these two guys and their history than the movie's letting you in on. Nolte played Neal Cassady in a movie years ago, and you can see a little Cassady in Katz (assuming it's even possible to imagine Cassady as an old man). "A Walk In the Woods" has that kind of potential, and the scenery along the trail is undeniably gorgeous. But then you get Nolte in the laundromat, or Redford covered in mud, or the two of them in a bunkhouse gag that could be lifted from Laurel and Hardy: a case of potential diminished by too much cuteness and too many easy laughs. 

Listomania / Take 6

          Actors who were cast or considered 
          for roles that went to other people:

          Bela Lugosi as the Monster 
          in "Frankenstein"
          The role went to Boris Karloff.

          George Raft as Sam Spade 
          in "The Maltese Falcon"
          The role went to Humphrey Bogart.

          Marlon Brando as T.E. Lawrence 
          in "Lawrence of Arabia"
          The role went to Peter O'Toole. 

          Robert Redford as Benjamin Braddock 
          in "The Graduate"
          The role went to Dustin Hoffman.

          Steve McQueen as Sundance 
          in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"
          The role went to Robert Redford.

          Lee Marvin as Pike Bishop 
          in "The Wild Bunch"
          The role went to William Holden.

          Frank Sinatra as Inspector Harry Callahan 
          in "Dirty Harry"
          The role went to Clint Eastwood.

          Steve McQueen as Kurtz 
          in "Apocalypse Now"
          The role went to Marlon Brando.

          Burt Lancaster as Ambrose Bierce 
          in "Old Gringo"
          The role went to Gregory Peck.

          Paul Newman as Stephen Katz 
          in "A Walk In the Woods"
          After Newman's death, the role went to Nick Nolte.

The Star Packer (1934)

THE STAR PACKER  (1934)  ¢ 1/2
    D: Robert N. Bradbury
    John Wayne, Verna Hillie,
    George Hayes, Yakima Canutt
Sheriff John Wayne and his faithful Indian sidekick Yak ride out after a gang of outlaws under the command of a mysterious figure called the Shadow, who issues his evil instructions from inside a walled safe. Pure shoot-'em-up silliness, but even the Duke had to pay his dues somewhere. The actor playing Yak is the legendary stuntman and second-unit director Yakima Canutt. 

10,000 Saints (2015)

10,000 SAINTS  (2015)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
    Asa Butterfield, Ethan Hawke, Hailee Steinfeld, 
    Emily Mortimer, Julianne Nicholson, Avan Jogia
Here are a few things I took away from "10,000 Saints". Asa Butterfield, at this early stage in his career, looks a lot like a young Bud Cort. Ethan Hawke has become the go-to guy to play charming, irresponsible fathers. And huffing Freon any time, but especially on a cold night in the middle of winter, is a real bad idea. The movie starts out with a couple of teenaged boys (Butterfield and Avan Jogia) kicking around a small town, hanging out and getting high. Then a couple of bad things happen, involving the Freon and an unintended pregnancy, and overnight everything changes and it's time to start to grow up, real fast. Hailee Steinfeld (from "True Grit) plays the pregnant girl. Julianne Nicholson (the "good sister" in "August: Osage County") plays Butterfield's mom. Emily Mortimer (the flower girl in "Hugo") plays Hawke's girlfriend. There's nothing really new going on here, but a cast like that can keep you in the game. Butterfield, who played the lead in "Hugo" at 13, is definitely a young actor to watch. And if anybody out there plans to remake "Brewster McCloud" or "Harold and Maude", you might want to move on that while Asa still looks like a young Bud Cort.

Rhapsody In Blue (1945)

RHAPSODY IN BLUE  (1945)  ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Irving Rapper
    Robert Alda, Joan Leslie, Oscar Levant,
    Alexis Smith, Charles Coburn, Julie Bishop
Alan Alda's dad, looking vaguely like Liberace minus the glitz, plays George Gershwin in a good-parts-only biography of the great composer. It's the kind of life story where everybody defers to George, the obsessive genius who's driven to create at the expense of everything else. Apparently there were more than a few women in Gershwin's life, but you don't learn much about that side of the story here. He comes off as a workaholic celibate. Gershwin deserves better, in other words, but it's typical of the musical biographies Hollywood was making at the time. Musically it's a medley of Gershwin's greatest hits, with real-life Gershwin associates Paul Whiteman and Oscar Levant playing themselves. Any movie Oscar Levant's in is at least worth watching for Oscar Levant. 

Joan Leslie

(1925-2015)

Citizenfour (2014)

CITIZENFOUR  (2014)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Laura Poitras
The strange case of Edward Snowden, the NSA contractor who spilled the beans on how the government went from spying on possible terrorists to spying on virtually everybody in the years after 9/11. There's a theory of film that says every movie is a documentary about its own making , and that's true of this one more than most. Poitras was in contact with Snowden before the story broke, and she and her camera are in the Hong Kong hotel room when Snowden starts talking and leaking the news. It's not unusual for documentaries to get up close to the people and events they document, but the case of "Citizenfour" is exceptional. Poitras isn't just reporting the story, her participation makes her a player in it, too. She's eavesdropping on history directly, as it occurs, and watching her movie, so are we. Snowden himself remains something of an enigma, a brilliant guy with a conscience who took an enormous personal risk. For somebody who claims he has no skill or expertise at what he and the filmmakers are doing, he's remarkably composed and articulate onscreen. (As he prepares to leave the hotel for a future that's anything but certain, he also looks visibly scared.) What he did was illegal, but was it wrong? We're still wrangling over that one, but in a world where we're all being hacked, it's clear that the rules have changed in a way that's profoundly disturbing. Don't expect the debate to end any time soon.

David Copperfield (1935)

DAVID COPPERFIELD  (1935)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: George Cukor
    Freddie Bartholomew, Frank Lawton, W.C. Fields,
    Lionel Barrymore, Madge Evans, Roland Young,
    Basil Rathbone, Maureen O'Sullivan, Lewis Stone,
    Elsa Lanchester, Arthur Treacher, Una O'Connor
The Dickens tale about a boy who has many fateful adventures on the way to becoming a man (and coincidentally a writer much like Charles Dickens). The acting is melodramatic in a way that hasn't been seen since, well, this movie, but Dickens devotee W.C. Fields cuts through all that as the perfect Mr. McCawber.