Jane Heller

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

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Movie Night: “Steve Jobs”

October 24, 2015

Steve Jobs: The Movie

Let me just get it off my chest without any preamble: I hated this movie. I hated it so much I was tempted to trash all my Apple devices as soon as I got home.

I had no expectation that I would walk out of the theater thinking Steve Jobs was a swell guy. By all accounts, he was a prick as well as a marketing genius, and the film, based on Walter Isaacson’s bestselling book, captured his prickdom in all its ignominy. No, my problem with the movie was the movie. Aaron Sorkin has been a brilliant screenwriter over the course of his career – from “A Few Good Men” and “Moneyball” to “The West Wing” and, one of my favorite films in recent memory, “The Social Network.” His snappy dialogue and “walk and talk” sequences are legendary. But somewhere in the development process of “Steve Jobs,” Sorkin must have been allowed to hold the movie and its director, Danny Boyle, hostage. The result is Sorkin on steroids – a never-ending series of scenes in which Jobs, his marketing director Joanna, and Lisa, the daughter he refused to acknowledge as his own until late in the film, argue. Oh, wait. Jobs also argues with Woz, his old partner, and John Sculley, his old boss. Each of these arguments occurs directly before or soon after the launch of a new product, and each ends with Jobs staring at the person he’s just insulted as if nothing has happened. Nearly the entire movie takes place backstage or on stage in whatever venue Jobs is making his presentation. We hardly see him at home or doing regular people sorts of things. He’s an entity that exists to present products and receive applause for his creations, which is fine except that it has the effect of making the movie an exercise in claustrophobia.

Reviewers have praised “Steve Jobs,” in part, for its unusual structure – i.e. it doesn’t follow the usual chronology of a Hollywood bio-pic and there are no flashbacks or time cuts to provide background or depth of character. All fine and good. I like films that take chances or I wouldn’t adored last year’s “Birdman.” But to sit there for two hours listening to otherwise great actors like Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet speechifying Sorkin dialogue made my eyes glaze over. Bottom line: I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

 

Filed Under: Mainly Jane, Movies, Popular culture Tagged With: Aaron Sorkin, Danny Boyle, Jeff Daniels, Kate Winslet, Michael Fassbender, Seth Rogen, Steve Jobs

Movie Night: "Contagion"

April 15, 2012

 

I love catching up on the movies I missed in the theaters during the Oscar season last year, and “Contagion” was on my list of must-sees. A thriller about a lethal virus that spreads around the world, the infectious disease specialists trying to contain it and the people affected by it, it’s a tense, fast-paced, snappy looking film that made me want to wear Purell and a mask every time I leave the house! I can’t say I enjoyed it exactly, but I did find it gripping and, from a scientific and medical point of view, fascinating.

It boasts an all-star cast in the tradition of all those disaster flicks (“Towering Inferno,” to name one) but with a hip, contemporary style all its own – the perfect rental for a Saturday night.

P.S. Every time I watch Kate Winslet act, I’m amazed how perfect her American accent is. Her performance in “Contagion” is yet another chance for her to show off that skill. Meryl Streep may be famous for all her different accents, but Winslet’s American one is spot on.

 

 

Filed Under: Mainly Jane, Movies Tagged With: Contagion, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Towering Inferno

Movie Night: "Carnage"

March 31, 2012

I missed Roman Polanski’s film version of the play “God of Carnage” when it was in theaters, so it seemed like the perfect On Demand rental choice for tonight. With a stellar cast (Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz) and a tidy 90-minute running time, I was looking forward to it – and I wasn’t disappointed.

A black comedy about two sets of parents who convene to discuss the schoolyard fight between their sons, “Carnage” escalates into a chance for each parent’s veneer to be stripped away.

I’ve never seen Jodie Foster so funny. She plays an uptight, politically correct Brooklyn mother to the hilt and looks like she had a blast doing it. But then all four actors are top notch. The movie is stagey – its setting for the entire 90 minutes is Foster and Reilly’s living room – but watching them all form alliances and then turn on each other is priceless.

“Carnage” is too slight to be considered a Polanski classic, but it made for diverting entertainment.

 

 

Filed Under: Mainly Jane, Movies, Television Tagged With: Carnage, Christoph Waltz, God of Carnage, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet, Roman Polanski

Why Must Every Movie Be Remade/Rebooted/Rewhatever-ed?

January 31, 2011

The other day I read that Clint Eastwood will be directing a new version of “A Star Is Born.” Oh, and he’s cast Beyonce in the role of the woman whose talent eclipses that of her husband’s. Maybe you’ve watched the original with Janet Gaynor and Frederic March. Or maybe you’re a fan of the Judy Garland/James Mason version. (I’m raising my hand here; I love, love, love that one.) Or maybe you fell for Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson as the star-crossed lovers. My question is…Does the world really need yet another retelling of this story, which makes me cry every single damn time I watch it?

(Movie trailers sure were overheated in those days, weren’t they?)

Now HBO is committing the ultimate sacrilege when they unveil their remake of one of my all-time favorite oldies, “Mildred Pierce.” My husband Michael hates Joan Crawford and we argue about this movie whenever it’s on TCM (he says she looks like a drag queen), but I think she was terrific in it. I’ve seen it so many times I can recite almost every line of dialogue.

HBO’s “Mildred Pierce” won’t be a feature film but rather a mini-series that will air in March. I have great respect for Kate Winslet as an actress, but I just can’t picture her as Mildred. Cannot. And I’m trying, believe me.

See what I mean? The mini-series just seems – I don’t know – artificial, as if director Todd Haynes was trying to imitate the look and feel of the original only with more bells and whistles. I’m sure I’ll tune in the night it debuts, but I suspect that I’ll mutter throughout: “Why couldn’t they have left well enough alone.”

Filed Under: Mainly Jane, Movies Tagged With: A Star Is Born, Beyonce, Clint Eastwood, HBO, James Mason, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce

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About Jane Heller

Jane Heller is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Her fourteen breezy, witty novels of romantic comedy and suspense are now entertaining millions of readers around the world, along with her two books of nonfiction.

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