At the movies: Mamma Mia, The Dark Knight, and Tell No One

I’ve been to the movie theatre a few times lately. I saw: Mamma Mia, The Dark Knight, and Tell No One.

Mamma Mia was lots of fun and was very energetic! I felt a little exhausted myself after leaving the theatre. I knew that Meryl Streep could sing after seeing her in Prairie Home Companion. Here she was singing, dancing and running up and down lots of steps (the Greek isles are very hilly). She in fact, was never still for even a moment. The story is of the wedding of a young woman who is fatherless. She has invited the 3 men her mother had had affairs with before her birth assuming that one of them is indeed her father. She hasn’t told her mother she has invited them so when they inexplicably show up the fun starts!


The Dark Knight

I was disappointed in this film. I know that I am not one of the target audience (this film was definitely not aimed at middle aged women!). I didn’t grow up reading superhero comic books, nor is having super powers in among my many daydreams. So maybe I just don’t get it. I found the film cold; without any sensitivity or humanity whatever. It was full of some really great car wrecks, car chases and explosions. But just having Christian Bale in his Batman costume standing on a roof with the night sky behind him is not enough to get me to feel his angst or to get me to sympathize with him. It just left me cold. I didn’t care about him or anyone else in the movie and wondered why I had spent my time and money to go to this film. Well, the big reason I did was to see Heath Ledger one last time. I’m a big fan of his, my favorites being 10 Things I Hate About You and A Knight’s Tale. He’s a terrific romantic hero. And in this film he was a terrific Joker. He totally embodied the character of the Joker: his body, his voice, his face—he was the Joker. It was an incredible performance but I’m so sorry this is the last film Heath Ledger made. I hope it’s not the one he is most remembered for not because he wasn’t great but because the film wasn’t great. Even his performance wasn’t enough to win over this film for me.

Tell No One

This French film was made from the novel by Harlan Coben. The story is: a young doctor’s wife is kidnapped, possibly murdered. Fast forward 8 years and two bodies have been found at the sight of the kidnapping. The doctor is the prime suspect in the case. At the same time, the doctor begins receiving cryptic emails suggesting that his wife is still alive. So the doctor has the police after him as well as some bad guys (he doesn’t know who they are) while he is trying to find his wife and trying to figure out what exactly happened 8 years ago. It’s an exciting story that grabs and holds your interest. As opposed to The Dark Knight, you care about everyone in this film. It is filmed in and around Paris and takes you into the worlds of the rich, the criminal, and the ordinary. This is a film I recommend without reservation.