Holiday movie season kicks off

Saw two movies this weekend, very different:

P.S., I Love You

Rather disappointing. Not as romantic as I was expecting, or as romantic as it had the potential to be. Great cast, fine performances - I have no complaints on that score. But the last half hour or so was almost completely pointless, and many important moments were so contrived that it was distracting. My friend Dawn and I agreed that if you're going to make it, make it work. I wanted to root for Holly, but it was hard to get caught up in her. I think this was partly due to the way the movie went back and forth in time - it was somewhat disjointed and made it harder to feel involved. And you're waiting (and waiting and waiting) for Holly to move on and fall in love again, but that's not really what the movie is about - it's more about her mourning and her remembering why she loved Gerry, but the film didn't devote itself completely to that either. It just wasn't very emotionally satisfying and that's a shame, because they had good people and wonderful locations, but it just wasn't enough.

Charlie Wilson's War

Exceeded my expectations, which were low, even though the screenplay was written by Aaron Sorkin. I got the impression that the film was kind of dopey and that the subject was old and therefore not timely, but I was quite involved while watching and found the performances and the story to be very interesting. It was certainly revealing about the way that Washington works - all back room deals and end runs around the press and any kind of accountability. And I especially enjoyed the way that they drove home the very timely point that everyone is willing to fund a war, but they all get bored and distracted when it's time for the rebuilding. I don't believe that I've laughed this much at political satire since Wag the Dog. CW's War was funny and thought-provoking, and that moves it to the top of my 2007 movie list.

ADDENDUM

I also watched Jesus Camp on video over the weekend.

I was quite disappointed in this film, though I'm a fan of documentaries. Maybe because I had already heard about the movie and expected it to be more shocking or upsetting than it was (reading on imdb.com I discovered that the filmmakers were trying to be "objective," though I thought the result was rather bloodless). I found much of the information in the film to be old hat and not very revealing. It's not like it's any great secret that evangelicals are homeschooling their kids and that they reject Darwin and that they align themselves with conservative politics. Maybe I'm more informed than most. Bottom line, I felt sorry for those kids because they're already so frozen in their perspective, despite being awfully young - it's a shame they aren't allowed to have a broader understanding of the world and then draw their own conclusions. Most of all, I wanted to laugh when Becky Fischer said "God hears the cries of children." Hah! Tell that to the kids in the slums of Buenos Aires or Calcutta. Or for that matter, I wonder what Elizabeth Smart thinks of that assertion. Whatever. The film just added to my cynicism, especially the appearance of Ted Haggard, one of many, many high profile religious hypocrites. I could only wonder what depravity these young believers would ultimately engage in while hiding behind their extravagant public devotion.