When Harry Met Sally

The mythology of the Vietnam War is as fixed and immutable as that of the Trojan War, at least so far as the Hollywood left are concerned. Will flattering them get Michael Caine an Oscar?

Here is the story of Message in a Bottle, directed by Luis Madoki. A desperately sad widower and boat-builder, the strikingly handsome Garret Blake (Kevin Costner), puts letters to his dead wife in bottles and throws the bottles into the sea. They are found by a beautiful young, unattached single mother called Theresa (Robin Wright…

A slacker comedy with some tentative and swiftly-disregarded pretensions to seriousness

Nurse Betty, the new film by Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men, Your Friends and Neighbors), is wonderfully enjoyable all the way through until its last ten minutes when suddenly the wild and thrilling ride it has offered us comes to a dead end. The story concerns Betty (Renée Zellweger), a small-town waitress from…

David Gordon Green’s thoughtful indy strives for worthiness as well as likability but falls foul of its own earnestness

[See discussion under “My Diary” for July 9, 2014] Discover more from James Bowman Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email. Type your email… Subscribe