Jane Heller

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

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Movie Night: “Bridge of Spies”

October 16, 2015

Bridge of Spies

I loved this movie. Loved. It. I couldn’t stand the last Spielberg film I saw, which was “Lincoln” (aside from Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance I was bored stiff) and before that “War Horse” (overly sentimental), nor do I have much interest in spy stories (I fell asleep during the most recent film based on a John Le Carre novel). But “Bridge of Spies” got such great reviews today and Michael loves anything having to do with the CIA, so off we went. And I was riveted from the opening credits.

Based on a true story that I didn’t remember from my history books, Tom Hanks plays James Donovan, an insurance lawyer who is tapped to defend Soviet spy Rudolf Abel (played by the great Mark Rylance in a best supporting actor-caliber performance) in order to arrange an exchange for American spy-plane pilot Francis Powers, who’s being held in a Russian prison. Donovan rises to the occasion and mounts a spirited defense of Abel, risking the wrath of his fellow Americans, including his family, and soon becomes embroiled in espionage involving the intelligence communities of the USA, Russia and East Germany.

The story moves at a brisk pace, despite the movie’s nearly two-and-a-half-hour running time, and the plot hurdles toward an extremely tense and touching finale that left me both breathless and weeping. Yes, I actually shed tears at the end of a spy movie! The ending is uplifting and full of patriotism without being in-your-face-rah-rah. And the cinematography is outstanding. It not only captures 1950s era New York but also the bleakness of East Germany. And the script is great, thanks to a rewrite by the inimitable Coen brothers, who inserted humor in what might have been an otherwise grim film.

I can’t recommend “Bridge of Spies” highly enough. I expected it to be prestige-type Best Picture Oscar bait, but I didn’t expect it to move me the way it did. I was on such a high leaving the theater that I forgot my Yankees cap and had to go back and fish it out from between the seats. If the rest of the fall/winter movies are this good, it will be a stellar Oscar season for sure.

 

 

Filed Under: Mainly Jane, Movies Tagged With: Bridge of Spies, Mark Rylance, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks

Movie Day: "Saving Mr. Banks"

December 14, 2013

saving_mr_banks_teaser_poster_1000.1

Today’s Cinema Society screening was one of the few this season I wasn’t looking forward to. Judging by the trailer to the film and the subject matter (I’ve never been a “Mary Poppins” fan), I figured it would be hokey, corny, saccharine, just not my thing.

Surprise. I liked it. It charmed me in spite of my initial cynicism, in part because of the performance of the great Emma Thompson, who stars as P.L. Travers, the Poppins author who famously resisted Walt Disney’s entreaties to make a movie – a musical, no less – of her beloved character. Tom Hanks is a wonderful Disney – a crafty businessman who loves to make everybody happy. He promised his daughters he would bring their favorite nanny to the big screen and spent 20 years trying to get Travers to let him option the rights. But when he brings her to L.A. for two weeks hoping to court her and convince her to go along with the deal, he discovers just how difficult she is. And during her stay, we come to understand why she’s so angry through flashbacks to her childhood in Australia with her dreamer, alcoholic father (a very good Colin Farrell).

The film’s director, John Lee Hancock,  who directed Sandra Bullock to Oscar gold in “The Blind Side,” knows how to showcase strong, difficult women with a soft center, and he does it again here. Yes, it’s schmaltzy and yes, the script takes liberties with the real story of Travers and Disney, but it all works somehow and turns out to be holiday fare for the whole family.

 

Filed Under: Mainly Jane, Movies Tagged With: Cinema Society, Emma Thompson, John Lee Hancock, Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers, Saving Mr. Banks, Tom Hanks

Movie Day: "Captain Phillips"

October 6, 2013

Captain_Phillips

Wow. What a movie. I’m still breathless after the Cinema Society screening this morning. When people talk about a movie being an “edge-of-your-seat thriller,” they’re talking about “Captain Phillips.” It’s rare when I don’t have at least one nitpicky thing to say about a movie, but not this time. And most amazing of all is that it’s based on a true story as told in the book A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty.

Just as British director Paul Greengrass did with “The Bourne Ultimatum” and “United 93,” he uses almost a documentary style to tell the story of the 2009 hijacking of the U.S. container ship Maersk Alabama by a crew of Somali pirates. Captain Phillips, played by Tom Hanks, is a devoted family man from Vermont who captains a container ship bound for treacherous waters near Somalia. En route to his destination, an armed band of young Somali men, working for their “elders” and hungry for what they believe will be millions in ransom, charge onto the ship, ultimately take Phillips hostage in a tiny lifeboat and attempt to stave off the American navy dispatched to rescue the captain. The rescue operation is heart-stopping, but so is the relationship/test of wills between Phillips and Muse, his Somali counterpart, a wild-eyed, emaciated man-boy.

The movie has so many layers, both human and geo-political, and Hanks is absolutely superb. At first I thought he’d be playing yet another Everyman, but his stoicism gives way to such a visceral fear that I couldn’t help reaching for the tissues. There will be a lot of competition in his category this year, but he gets an Oscar nomination for sure.

There was a Q&A with Greengrass after the screening, followed by a reception for him. I spent time with him and he couldn’t have been more accessible. When I asked, for example, if a director who specializes in global thrillers ever watches comedies, he said, “Oh yeah! I love the ones with Will Ferrill. He’s hilarious.”

Filed Under: Mainly Jane, Movies Tagged With: Captain Phillips, container ship hijacking, Paul Greengrass, Somali pirates, Tom Hanks

"Larry Crowne" – Euwww

July 3, 2011

No, I didn’t go see it. Why would I? The trailer says it all: bomb.

http://youtu.be/uS155D2HlwY

Apparently, it actually is a bomb, doing extremely weak business this holiday weekend. Should we be surprised, given that the movie pairs two mega-stars? And it’s being billed as a rom com that even grownups can enjoy.

No surprise. Here’s a bulletin for Universal: I’m a grownup but I happen to enjoy rom coms that have the following:

  1. Actual chemistry between the two leads (I can’t even stand the thought of these two kissing).
  2. A story that doesn’t defy credibility (two extremely rich movie stars playing down-and-out characters can be tricky, especially if one of them has already done the dumb thing in “Forrest Gump”).
  3. Snappy dialogue (“Brain freeze” is a line the studio picked for Julia Roberts to say in the trailer? Really?).
  4. At least one or two fresh twists on the standard formula (not just she hates him in the beginning).

My fear is that Hollywood will go, “Look how that movie bombed. Let’s forget rom coms and grownups altogether and just make ‘Transformers’ and ‘Hangovers.'” Please no.

 

 

Filed Under: Mainly Jane, Movies Tagged With: Julia Roberts, Larry Crowne, movie, romantic comedies, Tom Hanks, Universal

So Much For The Oscars

February 27, 2011

What a coma-inducing show that was.

(Courtesy: tsgquickdishing.com)

I was briefly hopeful at the very beginning when Hathaway and Franco were digitally inserted into the Best Picture nominated films, but I knew soon enough that I and the rest of the viewing audience were in for a looooong night. Were the dresses pretty? They were gorgeous. Were there any surprises in terms of the awards themselves? Not a one. Did everybody behave? Sure, except for Melissa Leo’s F-bomb. This is what you get when you don’t hire comedians to host the Oscars: a boring, boring broadcast. You want funny? Get funny people as your MC’s.

Herewith some other suggestions:

  • Don’t bother telling the winners not to thank everyone. They will anyway. They can’t help themselves.
  • Don’t try to make the show shorter by cutting the stuff we actually enjoyed – like the clips of previous winners.
  • When you do the “dead people montage,” let the audience clap if they want to.
  • If you’re going to bring back Billy Crystal, have him hang around for more than 10 seconds.
  • Persuade Sandra Bullock to present more than one award; she’s entertaining.
  • Ditto: Tom Hanks.
  • Where were Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton, not to mention the others on my “women of a certain age” list?
  • Find a new writer for the show – someone who can actually write jokes.

    Michael said after the final award was given out, “That’s it. I’m never watching the Oscars again. It was such a waste of four hours.”

    He says that every year, but this time I can hardly blame him.

    Filed Under: Mainly Jane, Movies, Popular culture Tagged With: Academy Awards, Anne Hathaway, Billy Crystal, Diane Keaton, James Franco, Melissa Leo, Meryl Streep, Oscars, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks

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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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