2007 is the centenary of quite a few who touched the movies one way or another:
the poet W.H. Auden, novelists Robert A. Heinlein and Daphne Du Maurier, singers Gene Autry, Kate Smith, and Connee Boswell, bandleader Cab Calloway, film score composer Miklós Rózsa, director Fred Zinnemann, and the actors Dan Duryea, Cesar Romero, Buster Crabbe, Laurence Olivier, John Wayne, Barbara Stanwyck, Fay Wray, Burgess Meredith – and one Katharine Houghton Hepburn of Connecticut.

We have already seen tributes to Wayne, and no doubt Olivier and Stanwyck will also be acknowledged. In honor of Miss Hepburn, Warner has issued a rather odd and quite endearing six-disc boxed set of films not previously available on DVD. They range widely in both chronology and quality, and few would put these particular films at the very top of the Hepburn canon, even the one that won her her first Oscar. But as I watched this motley group of films – two from RKO in the 1930s, three from MGM in the 1940s, and one TV film from the late 1970s, I was reminded what a treasure she was and is. Even in the midst of misguided melodramas and not-quite-good-enough romantic comedies, she gives unique, memorable performances. In two cases, her acting may in fact be memorably off-key rather than memorably wonderful, but she makes all these worth seeing.

Morning Glory (1933) won Hepburn an Academy Award. She’s excellent as a stage-struck young woman who is trying to make it as a Broadway actress. Her eccentric, fascinating performance can even be seen as a stylized self-portrait. The film itself, directed by Lowell Sherman, is dated in fascinating ways: the stilted storytelling, the 1920s/1930s view of Broadway as the ultimate place to become a dramatic star, the sexual mores. Although it’s presented rather obliquely, the parts of the plot involving Hepburn ending up in bed with big producer Adolphe Menjou, falling instantly in love with him and being just as summarily dumped, may leave your jaw dropping both at the “adult” subject matter and the attitudes of another era. Of course, Hepburn eventually understudies for a star-making part, and gets her chance to shine. The bittersweet last scene is both wonderful and a bit ridiculous; this isn’t just from an earlier time – it seems to be from another planet.

Without Love (1945) is often described as the worst of the pictures Hepburn made with Spencer Tracy. It’s no classic, but if you set your expectations accordingly, it’s very entertaining. Defense industry scientist Tracy and well-to-do young widow Hepburn decide to enter into a marriage “without love,” based on mutual respect rather than, well, sex. This being Hollywood, you can guess how long that lasts (about ten minutes less than the running time). Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn have amusing supporting roles – it’s fun to see Ball playing a sexy sophisticate, leagues away from Lucy Ricardo. The competent but uninspired direction is by Harold S. Bucquet. His name was up until now unknown to me, but he co-directed another film in this very DVD set (see below), after doing mostly Dr. Kildare series movies before that. And although this is based on a play by Philip Barry, in which Hepburn starred on Broadway in 1942, it is a much less satisfying piece than Holiday or The Philadelphia Story, two earlier Barry-Hepburn collaborations. But she’s very charming and perfectly cast.

Dragon Seed (1944) is the oddest of these six movies. It features a largely Caucasian cast playing poor Chinese farmers during the Japanese invasion of the 1930s. It’s just about impossible for a 21st-century audience not to respond with appalled laughter at what seems now like a stunt. But the script, based on a Pearl S. Buck novel, is nothing if not sincere, and it has its effective moments. Still, seeing the inconsistent and almost entirely unconvincing ways the Hollywood makeup artists try to make Hepburn, Walter Huston, Agnes Moorehead and others look like Asians – well, this is entertainment in itself, after a fashion. But only for half an hour or so, and the film runs a stultifying 148 minutes. It was lavishly produced by MGM. The co-directors were Bucquet (of Without Love) and Jack Conway. Hepburn manages to project some real feeling through the silly makeup and the platitudinous dialogue.

Hepburn gives the nearest thing to a poor performance (in this set, I mean) in Vincente Minnelli’s noirish melodrama Undercurrent (1946). Married to yet another war-era defense scientist (Robert Taylor), this one with a mysterious past, she’s supposed to be meek and scared, and as we all know, that just ain’t Hepburn. But the glossy production, along with Minnelli’s gift for décor and movement, keep this one interesting, even, or especially, when it’s ridiculous. Robert Mitchum plays a supporting role that many have called inappropriate for him, but I think he’s just fine, as is Edmund Gwenn as Hepburn’s father (he turns up again in this set, too).

Although it’s flawed, George Cukor’s Sylvia Scarlett (1936) is probably the best movie in the set. It features a fierce, sexy, and delightful performance by Cary Grant as a Cockney con man – a role quite different from most of his starring parts. Hepburn is on the run from the French police with her gambler father (Gwenn again), and to put them off the trail she cuts her hair and dresses as a boy – Sylvia becomes Sylvester. This leads to some startling and very entertaining scenes with a bit of bisexual innuendo: a woman kisses and tries to seduce “Sylvester,” and both Grant and Brian Aherne find themselves strangely attracted to this young man. At one point, Grant and Sylvester are set to bunk together in close quarters. “It’s a nippy night out,” says Grant, “and you’ll make a nice little hot water bottle.” Sylvester flees in fright, even though Sylvia of course has a crush on Grant. The Grant and Aherne characters are both visibly relieved when Sylvester transforms back into Sylvia, but the audience may feel a letdown: Sylvester is a captivating, unusual presence, while Sylvia tends to mewl and whine too much. The later twists and turns in the comic-melodramatic plot are far from convincing, but it’s all stylish and fun nonetheless.

I considered cheating a bit on this review and skipping the 1979 The Corn Is Green, also directed by Cukor. But although it is formulaic, it hooked me right away and I enjoyed it right through to the happy-teary climax. The story is a familiar one, a la Pygmalion and To Sir With Love, an 1890s period piece about a teacher, done up in the Hallmark Hall of Fame manner, and Hepburn is probably 25 years older than the part as written. (Bette Davis, born a year later than Hepburn, played this same role in a 1945 film when she was about 36; Hepburn was about 71! Still, Ethel Barrymore was over 60 when she played the part on Broadway in 1940.) There is beautiful Welsh scenery and a fine cast, and Cukor guides it home like the old pro he was by 1979.

Produced under the auspices of Turner Classic Movies, the discs all offer splendid picture and sound quality, and all include short subjects from their era, such as a Tex Avery “Wolf” cartoon and a fabulous Technicolor travelogue of Los Angeles in the forties. Maybe you only want to see the pedigreed Katharine Hepburn classics like Little Women and Adam’s Rib and Summertime; if so, only Morning Glory and Sylvia Scarlett come close to that grade here. But the other, less familiar movies offer aspects of Hepburn you may not see elsewhere, and their Hollywood craftsmanship, as wrapped by Warner and Turner Classics in nice shiny packages, provides several hours of great entertainment.

Season 2, Episode 1: Aired on June 11, 2007.

Part 3 (Pt 2) (Pt 1)

This is the last part, I swear!

Home Plus. Don expresses his concern that things might be awkward, what with him having to work with Bill and then go home and hang out with Bill’s wife. Bill? Not concerned. “(Barb)’s making this into something much bigger than it is.”

Don: Apparently, this type of thing happens a lot with regular married people.

Heh. I really love Don. He’s just so nice and unassuming and the exact opposite of Bill, who says that he keeps thinking, “What would Abraham Lincoln do?”

Wait a sec. Was Lincoln a polygamist and I somehow didn’t know? After consulting Wikipedia, it doesn’t appear that he was, so I really don’t know what Bill thinks he and ol' Abe have in common. Also, Microsoft does not like the word “wikipedia.” Anyway, Don wants Bill to come to his prayer group but Bill is not interested.

Sister Wife Central. Nicki and Adaleen are having lemonade and gossiping. Adaleen says that Roman’s busy, of course, with all the banning of music that he’s been doing. Nicki approves of this, to the surprise of no one. Now they just need Kevin Bacon to come in, so that he can teach Chris Penn how to dance and plan a prom. Adaleen informs Nicki that Alby thinks his poisoning was a conspiracy involving “your husband’s brother,” which Nicki deems “ridiculous.” Adaleen admits that she and her sister wives all suspect each other, which I find really funny for some reason.

Nicki reveals her marriage problems, what with Barb leaving and everything. “Margene’s care has fallen to me,” Nicki sighs heavily and dramatically. She’s worried that she’s not prepared to be first wife and says that she feels there’s a special place in hell for the person who did this to Barb. She assumes it was Wendy and wants to teach her a lesson.

Adaleen: Do I understand what you’re asking, honey?

Nicki just looks at her and I have to admit that I wasn’t sure what Nicki was asking until I saw the Hummer stalking Wendy later in the episode. Oops! Spoiler! Adaleen tells her to stay strong and then gives her a gun sent from Roman. “For your protection. Be careful, it’s loaded.”

Home Plus. Don is listening in on Wendy’s phone calls and hears her discussing her sick cat with a friend. However, Don seems to have thought that she was talking about a person this whole time, so when she mentions a litter box, he is surprised and says “Oh god,” into the phone, which Wendy could apparently hear. She looks around and because Don is a moron (he’s sweet, but still a moron) and has left his office blinds open, she sees that he’s on the phone and looking guilty.

Juniper Creek. Joey has gotten himself a lawyer, who tells Roman that they want the investigation taken out of Juniper Creek’s jurisdiction and transferred to the state. Roman will consider it and then interrogates the lawyer about his religious views. He is LDS and Roman clearly does not approve. He argues that you can’t change religion on a whim. Joey and the lawyer leave, walking by Rhonda who is playing … something with some young boy. Don’t they usually run the young boys off the compound? Why is Roman letting his young bride finagle with a boy her own age?

Margie and Nicki are sitting in their car outside Home Plus, talking to Bill on the phone, who is standing across the parking lot. Margie is filling them in on her convo with Barb and the finality of her tone. Nicki tells him to either go bring her home or “cut her loose – a free break,” and make her first wife. Bill rightly tells her she’s being “a bit extreme and a little alarming.”

Margie starts talking to herself, sounding slightly crazy: “I’m sitting around, happy as a clam. Poof! My family collapses around me. The story of my life.” Then, she quotes to Bill (by yelling in the phone, which Nicki is holding) what Barb told her about it “going further back than you think.”

Wayne (or Raymond) takes this opportunity to poke his head out of the open window (child lock, ladies!) and scream at his Daddy. Bill tries to wave discreetly. Hee. As Nicki and Margie try to talk some sense into their ass of a husband, we see the back door of the car swing open behind them. Uh-oh.

The boys hop out and neither mom is the wiser. Nicki says that he has to do something, right as he spots the boys running toward him and bugs his eyes out. Margie sees them too and gets this hilarious "oh shit" expression on her face before hopping out and running after them. Bill is trying to shoo them away when Margie runs up and grabs their hands and steers them back toward the car. That was really funny. I want more scenes like that, with children running toward their father and getting shooed away and ignored.

Bill gets all woe-is-me and lists all of his burdens and it’s not worth getting in to. He blows off his second and third wives and storms inside, where he is confronted with Wendy telling him that she is getting a lawyer and that he cannot harass her. She resents Bill and Don ganging up on her and bullying her. You know, I like Wendy. Yes, she’s kind of a bigot, but she’s not afraid to stand up for what she believes in or to go up against Bill, and that I can always get behind.

He tries to get her to calm down, but she knows that he’s trying to get rid of her “because of what happened at the Governor’s Mansion, which I told you I had nothing to do with, but you won’t believe me!” But, she says they both know that she knows who and what he is. “Now, you listen to me,” Bill says, standing up. Oh no, Daddy’s mad! He says he’s not asking anything of her and asks if she understands what he’s saying. “Yes,” she says. “You’re trying to tell me that I don’t know what I know I know.” Oh, let’s not get into the whole they-don’t-know-that-we-know-they-know-we-know thing. Friends has perfected it.

He basically threatens that he’ll sue her to protect his corporate reputation, which, from some of my law and Ad/PR classes that I’ve taken, I think he can actually do. She really has no proof and she’d essentially be defaming his reputation, which could hurt Home Plus and for which he could therefore sue. She storms out.

Sister Wife Central. Barb is trying to sneak in and get some things, but runs into Sarah, who asks if she’s back. Nope, not just yet. Sarah asks her if she thinks Bill will go with her if she leaves and Barb just says she doesn’t know. Sarah then admits that Bill is driving her to work and will therefore be there in five minutes. Barb says okay, kisses Sarah, and then bolts. “I’ll bring you some things!” Sarah calls. Aw. She’s a good daughter. Unlike her alter ego, Lilly Kane. Man, this show loves those Veronica Mars kids, don’t they?

Juniper Creek. Roman is bullying and manipulating Joey. He wants Joey to promise him votes on the UEB Council, and he’ll make the whole investigation go away. Then, he shows Joey a scrapbook-type thing that has Wanda’s picture in it and some other information. The cover says “Bridal Registry.” I wasn’t sure what this was at first, but then Roman goes on to say that he could reassign her to another righteous man, like Alby or Joey’s father, Frank. So, I’m thinking that the book is a list of all the women at Juniper Creek and who they’re married to, and that Roman can basically dictate who they marry and how long they stay married. Or something. Joey looks concerned.

Home Plus. Wendy is leaving for the day, wearing sneakers and carrying her heels in her hand. I find this adorable. No need to walk in heels when you don’t have to! A Hummer pulls up behind her and we all know what that means. But, in case you don’t, it means that Adaleen has sent someone to scare Wendy into submission. Roman’s henchmen typically drive Hummers. She gets in her car and manages to back out of her space, but then she totally freaks out when the Hummer comes charging at her and she crashes her car, getting knocked out by the airbag.

We are at a church, in an assembly hall. We hear Sarah’s voice. “Hi, I’m Laurie. I know this is a group for ex-Mormons and I’m not really a Mormon anymore. I mean, my father and mother – they became fundamentalists. Polygamists. My little sister thinks it’s normal and I don’t. I just don’t. And I’m thinking about leaving this whole thing. Um … it’s not like – it’s not like the compounds you see on TV, we’re more like, we’re more like regular LDS, except for the fact that we have to … we have to hide from the church and from everybody. Um … and … I just really don’t have anybody to talk to. I hate it. I just feel like … I’m living the most dishonest life … of everybody in Sandy, Utah.” Bravo, Amanda. Well done.

When she finishes, there is silence. We cut to her storming out, with some guy calling after her. He has glasses, combs his hair to the side and generally looks like a big dork. He’s cute. He asks where she’s going and she says she’s going home to her 182 brothers and sisters. Hee. He introduces himself as Scott and asks if she’s okay. She says no, actually, she felt like a freak and he explains that they’ve never had a polygamist before. He doesn’t want her to leave all upset and further explains that the people in the meeting obviously just don’t know where she’s coming from and therefore don’t know how to support her. He wants to find someone who does, so he gives her his card and tells her to call him. I think I smell a romance. Anyone else?

Embry House. Which is huge and gorgeous and is totally my dream house. The sister wives sit on the front porch and Barb tells them that she wants to get a Masters in social work. In fact, she’d like to be a marriage counselor. I actually think she’d be lovely at that. Nicki tries to get Margie to go away by asking her to go get more hot water, but Margie awesomely just says, “No.” Nicki gets all drama queen with her exasperated “Fine!” She then turns to Barb and demands to know what she’s doing. Barb and Bill were sealed in a temple and she can’t just leave. Nicki goes on to say that she didn’t just marry Bill. “I married you and Bill. And I need that back.” She tells Barb that Bill will do this with her or without her, by which I guess she means the plural marriage. I don’t understand Nicki. One second, she’s practically scheming to be first wife and now she’s all trying to talk her into coming home. The mind, it boggles.

Bill is meeting with the guy from the First Lady’s Office. They don’t know who exposed them, or they’re protecting the identity of who did it. The Attorney General has no interest in pursuing the case, so Bill should just let it go. It’s been an embarrassment for everybody, but Bill has paid his taxes, so as long as he keeps his hands off of underage girls, he’ll be fine! Bill does not like the judgment, but he just wants to live peacefully with his family. He is told, “Then drop it.”

Somewhere in the Nevada Desert. Oh, wait. This isn’t Heroes. We’re in Utah. Bill prays and gets a bit weepy.

Embry House. Bill kneels on the living room floor with Don, Ben, Beaver and some other guys.

Bill: I believe in the covenant of family. I believe in the covenant of plural marriage. I believe family is the key to celestial heaven. We’ve taken up our heavenly Father’s challenge – lived the principle of plural marriage at a time when it is most difficult. I believe it is my duty to keep my family together on this Earth and I pray for the guidance to do just that. To hold my family together.

That was one of the few times I liked Bill. Also? They need to give Beaver something to do. He barely spoke in this episode and all he did first season was obsess over Ben’s sex life and his penis. Hey, I have an idea. They should hook him up with Heather. Wouldn’t that be great? Too bad we don’t know if they have good chemistry or anything. It’d be really convenient if they’d been in something else together.

Bill heads upstairs to talk to Barb, who is locked in Beaver’s room. Peg tells him Bard doesn’t want to see him, but then points out which room she’s in. Heh. Peg is pretty awesome. No wonder Don can’t handle her like Bill handles his wives. Anyway, Barb will not answer, so Bill points out that she can’t blame him for something she signed on for. She argues that she only did it for him and that this isn’t supposed to be her life. He asks what she wants.

Barb: Maybe this whole thing has been a mistake.

Bill: Our family is not a mistake! Nicki, Margene, Wayne, Raymond, Ben and Sarah, Teeny, Aaron, and Lester are not a mistake.

I’m kind of surprised he came up with all of those names off the top of his head. And it’s interesting that he listed his and Nicki’s kids first, as opposed to his eldest.

Barb: Don’t you lecture me on my family! I sacrificed our love for the love I have for this family.

Bill looks over at Don and his wives, and Don shuts their bedroom door. But, we don’t get to hear what Bill or Barb says next for some reason.

Sister Wife Central. Roman calls and offers his condolences to Bill for the trials that the Hendrickson family has been going through. “On this, we stand as one. As family must,” he says and then just hangs up. Creeepy.

Drums of doom. Wait, what? Why are there drums? Oh! Pam and Carl have planned a luau, you see. Because they are big dorks. They seriously have a huge tiki hut in their backyard and they are wearing Hawaiian shirts and leis. I just adore them. They engage in small talk and Pam asks about Margene, but in the way that you ask someone about a spouse. Bill looks alarmed and Pam clarifies by asking, “Do you see her much?” Bill just says he thinks she’s fine. You know, this scene kind of confirmed for me that Pam does know what’s going on but that she’s okay with it because she loves Margene. I may be wrong, but that’s the impression I got. Carl keeps babbling and I really have no idea what he’s talking about.

Just then, Barb come hustling out and says that her meeting ended early. Bill looks at Pam and Carl awkwardly and says that he told them she had a headache. Barb totally plays it off, admitting that they had a squabble. She joins them and Pam brings up Mother of the Year, but in the wow-you’re-awesome way and not the you-got-outed way. Barb admits that it was a disappointment due to the disqualification, which she says was because of her grandmother’s fleeting past friendship with the Governor which brought up nepotism. I found this interesting because Pam and Carl look surprised to hear about the disqualification, which got me thinking that most people probably just think she didn’t win and don’t know about her being disqualified.

Pam and Carl look suitably upset for her and then Pam admits that they didn’t think Bill and Barb liked them. Barb makes “Nonsense!” noises. But then Pam brings up Nicki (“A real polygamist living on our street!”) and how they thought Bill and Barb took her side. She says that’s why Margie broke up with them. Barb tells her no, Margie broke up with them because she’s pregnant again and she thought they’d judge her. HAH! Barb is so smooth. Pam and Carl don’t even know what to say.

Bill and Barb walk across the street. He tells her she was great and asks her to come inside. She wants to discuss it right here. He says he’s tried to make things right but he needs to know if she’s with him – with this family. Then, he apologizes. I know. Pick your jaws up off the floor. Barb, smartly, asks him, “For what?”

He admits that he pushed her into plural marriage because he knew she’d do it for him. He took advantage of her and her love and he’s sorry. I believe him.

Barb: I’m not the wife I was for those first twelve years. That marriage ended. I can’t keep pretending to be who we were. What happened made me realize how angry I’d been at you.

Bill: Something good is gonna come from all this. I swear. (pause) Are you coming inside?

Barb opens her car door, but only gets her bag out. She walks right up to him and he takes her bag. Nicki and Margene watch from the window and only turn away when they see them heading inside. All is not well. But it will be.

Okay, I promise that I’m really gonna try to keep it shorter next time! I just need to get used to it. Thanks for hanging in there and see you next week!

Miss Cordy is a senior at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. She is seeking a double-major in Political Science and Advertising/Public Relations. She has written for her local newspaper, focusing on the world of entertainment — movies and television. Her favorite movies are the Lord of the Rings series and her favorite TV shows are Heroes, Lost, The Amazing Race and Dancing with the Stars.

Most kids growing up imagine a world they can escape to, a magical place where they are in control of the things that happen. Director Gabor Csupo's Bridge to Terabithia, co-written by David Paterson (the son of the writer whose novel provides the film's source material), is the story of two kids and the bond they create while imagining a magical place to call their own.

Jesse (Josh Huterson) is a quiet and thoughtful outsider in a school that seems full of bullies. Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb) is a confident and rather odd newcomer to the small-town school. While at first it might not seem that these two could be friends, they soon discover what they have in common and become inseparable. Leslie opens Jesse’s eyes to a world that he couldn’t see clearly, and she helps him to open his mind to his surroundings. Together the two create Terabithia and fight the wicked servants of the Dark Master, who is a clawed, shadowy figure.

The emphasis of the movie is on the friendship being built by these two unpopular children. While both come from different backgrounds, and their home lives are completely different, there is one common theme — loneliness. Jesse always seems to be the odd one out at home. His sisters receive most of the attention, especially the second youngest, May Belle (Bailee Madison), and Leslie seems to have all this free time while her parents, who are novelists, write.

The story that unfolds is simple but well-done. Having never read the book, I cannot make comparisons, although now I’m sure to add it to my reading list. Jesse and Leslie give each other things the other was looking for — friendship, understanding, hope — all things a person of any age can relate to on some level.

I was braced for the tragic incident that happens halfway through the movie but still I cried. (If you have seen the movie or read the book you know what happens.) Yes, that’s right. I cried and clutched my tissue like the soft-hearted fool I am. The incident was handled very well though, well-acted and thoughtful. It dealt with guilt and sorrow on a level that was easy for a younger audience to understand. I was surprised by the discussion involving religion. It seems in such a politically correct world something like that would be a big hot button. But again, it was handled thoughtfully.

I have to admit that I wish there had been more fantasy. I realize that this is a movie about friendship and the relationships you form with your family with the fantasy element secondary to that. But the glimpse at the end with the bird-cage person and the view across a shimmering landscape just made me wish for more.

The DVD comes with some nice special features. The transformation from novel to movie is discussed in the "Behind the Book" section; there are interviews with the author Katherine Paterson, the actors, as well as school teachers who discuss the themes of the book. But the most interesting part for me was Katherine Paterson and her son David talking about the book The Bridge to Terabithia and its base in reality.

When I first saw previews for Terabithia I thought, ‘I have to see it’ but once it hit movie theaters I just didn’t have the time. Having just now finished it on DVD, I’m not sure if I’m glad I waited for it or not. There are several things about this movie that stand out and some that don’t. But overall, I have to admit that this was pretty good as long as you have a box of tissue with you.

In high school, the week before school ends is always known as "Hell Week." This is because all the teachers realize they have to cram in another chapter of the textbook, give a couple of tests, and prepare us for the dreaded finals. I have just survived another Hell Week. Well, after I survive something like that, I am totally ready for something fun. So, I saw Nancy Drew with my family.

Nine out of ten girls have read the Nancy Drew series. I read the Notebooks, which was the junior version. They are the only thing I remember reading in elementary school. I probably would have read the series, but I got turned off from reading after some of the required books in school. I don't care if it's a classic, I hated To Kill a Mockingbird! A lot. I remember wanting those adventures Nancy Drew had! Let's face it, life can be pretty boring and Nancy Drew spends her day deactivating bombs. I mean, I'm not daredevil, but compared to Geometry, I'd rather be there!

Nancy Drew (Emma Roberts) is a teenage girl who was never ordinary. She has an addiction to solving crimes and wears penny loafers. Nancy is forced to leave her home in River Heights, with her friends, including her love interest, Ned (Max Thierot), to move in Los Angeles with her father (Tate Donovan). She promises her father she will not solve any mysteries in L.A., because it's much too dangerous. Her father got a job offer from Dashiel Zachery Biedermeyer (Barry Bostwick), a high profile lawyer.

Well, as expected, Nancy disobeys her father. She was allowed to pick the house, so she picks one with a mystery that hasn't been solved for years. Of course, it includes a creepy caretaker played by Marshall Bell. The mystery centers around Dehlia Draycott (Laura Harring), a movie star. Dehila disappeared for five months. When she reappeared, she holds a party, but is killed before she could even greet the guests. Nancy just can't resist to solve the mystery after she finds a mysterious note involving her will.

Well, Corky, a twelve-year-old boy, played by Josh Flitter, befriends her. Corky was involved with a joke aimed to embarrass Nancy and decides to hang out with her instead. Behind the prank was Inga (Daniella Monet) and Trish (Kelly Vitz). Inga is Corky's sister, but he speculates she is also the devil. The two girls aren't very nice to her, despite the fact that Nancy really tries to fit in. Someone also drives Nancy's car and makes a surprise visit into town to help solve the mystery.

Somebody is trying to kill Nancy. Leshing, the caretaker, warned her whoever messed with the case, always finds trouble. Nancy doesn't listen. She receives threatening phone calls. Then, someone tries to run her and Corky over. Someone puts a bomb in her precious car. Nancy considers letting go of the case, but then remembers that people tried to kill her and she wasn't going to let them scare her.

The acting is really good. Emma Roberts is perfect for Nancy Drew. She was in Aquamarine recently and did really well on that also. I think she is more successful on the big screen. She starred in the Nickelodeon show, Unfabulous, for two seasons until it got the ax sometime last year. She was good, some of the supporting cast were not, so the show was not very good, in my opinion.

Speaking of the supporting cast, they did well too. Daniella Monet (Inga) seems to play the bitchy teenager a lot and is quite good at it. I'm not quite sure that she could pull off Nancy. After seeing her play the mean girl, I just could never see her as sweet Nancy Drew.

I remember seeing Max Thierot (Ned) in Catch that Kid and I hadn't seen him since, which really depressed me. I see his costar, Corbin Bleu, who I am absolutely in love with, all the time. Corbin went on to High School Musical and released his album last month.

I liked Marshall Bell (Leshing) a lot, although he scares me. Josh Flitter (Corky) was pretty good too, but he annoyed my mother. It's rare to see a movie that you can't complain about an actor, which is my favorite thing to do.

Kay Panabaker (Summerland, Read it and Weep) makes a brief apperance as George, Nancy's friend in River Heights. George, although huge in the books, is practically non-existent in the movie. I had a huge fight with my sister whether or not that was Kay Panabaker and I won! In the movie, Kay Panabaker has shorter hair. It was weird. I never win. My sister always recognizes actors and I can't.

The one and only complaint I have about the movie is the beginning. I didn't feel it. It was Nancy solving some case in River Heights. I thought it was a weak beginning. I hate when movies start like that. I hate when shows and movies start in the middle of stories. I felt like I came in the last twenty minutes of some movie.

Admit it. Everyone likes solving mysteries before the ending is revealed. Well, I can never do it. My sister can do it as soon as the criminal walks on the screen. It's amazing. Drives me mad. Well, Amanda, again, reached the conclusion early. My father, who is dense like me, figured it out. I could tell you why he figured it out first, but it would give it away. I, of course, figured it out when the bad guy started chasing Nancy. That's how I am.

I would recommend this movie. Now, granted, I like most movies, but that's because I don't see that many in theaters. My father liked it though! Now if a forty-year-old man liked it, it must be good, because it is something that you would expect a forty-year-old man to like. He didn't want to see it either. He wanted to see Knocked Up, but my sister's a prude and wouldn't allow it. Since he vetoed Fantastic Four, which is too bad, because Chris Evans is hot and I would love spending two hours looking at him. Heh. As a result, my father was dragged to Nancy Drew. Anyway, the point is Nancy Drew has romance, suspense, and, obviously, mystery and was totally worth ten bucks (or nine, because I have a student discount). Everyone should see it, because it was awesome.

Filmed almost entirely in his own Brooklyn brownstone, Matt Zoller Seitz's Home (2006) follows various interpersonal relationships as they unfold over the course of a party. The cast is large and diverse, from a brash salesman (T. Stephen Neave) to a writer of some acclaim (Pavol Liska) to musicians and philosophers and music aficionados. Seitz takes us from room to room, conversation to conversation, canvassing the proceedings, as if he's making sure there isn't something interesting he's ignoring.

When I'm at a party, I do the same thing.

This allows us to follow the Altmanesque web of stories Seitz has created while staying true to our two leads, Bobby (E. Jason Liebrecht) and Susan (Nicol Zanzarella), and their tenuous potential pairing. Bobby, as played by Liebrecht, is a bit of an introvert, often content to stand on the outskirts and just watch (he tells Susan that he's a great observer) when perhaps the best course of action would involve being a bit more proactive. And Susan? Well, Susan isn't over her ex, just yet. They intersect numerous times over the course of the evening, then withdraw, and each time we hope for that crucial moment where they'll really connect. So wonderfully elliptical is the dialogue that we're never quite sure when that might happen, if it will at all. Still, we hope.

When they do withdraw, Jonathan Wolff's camera floats around the room, more often that not finding the poetic images that are so often inherent in these types of situations. Some of them fall flat or seem to be the result of not having a good place to put the camera or not having fully thought out what the framing is trying to convey, but these are a minority. Likewise, with a cast this big and a budget this small, there are performances that are, let's say, less than good, but mostly those are the smaller roles. The key characters handle themselves well, their performances are largely solid.

At the end of the day, there's little that's extraordinary about Home (although there's several short stretches that are close), but a whole lot to like. Seitz displays a real talent, a grasp of the medium. Clearly, a filmmaker to watch.

Home is available for purchase on Amazon, or it can be rented from Netflix. Visit the film's official website. Matt Zoller Seitz's blog writings can be found at The House Next Door.

Starring: E. Jason Liebrecht, Nicol Zanzarella, Erin Stacey Visslailli, T. Stephen Neave, Pavol Liska, and Minerva Scelza
Cinematography by: Jonathan Wolff
Written and directed by: Matt Zoller Seitz[1]
91 min/Brooklyn, NY

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I almost made the mistake of blowing this movie off as another comedy I wasn't much interested in. If not for my wife and nine-year-old son, I might not have seen it. I say might not have because the trailers were so darn interesting.

I'm not particularly a fan of Ben Stiller's. His movies are generally hit or miss with me. I watch them with my teenagers occasionally, just to keep my coolness factor intact. But I don't feel a driving need to see his films.

However, Stiller performs wonderfully in Night At The Museum, and he's aided and abetted by Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Owen Wilson, Robin Williams, and Carla Gugino in roles that are simple but elegant. Stiller stars as the divorced father of a young son, a boy who tries to worship his father as a hero, but who keeps getting his heart broken because his dad is a near-do-well and can't even seem to hold a job.

Larry Daley (Stiller) goes to pick his son up for the little league hockey game and hesitates about telling him he's lost his job again and will have to move. The impassioned speech between Larry's son Nick (Jake Cherry) is an emotional one that touches the heart. I felt that the father/son scenes were better in this movie than even all the moviemaking magic used to bring the exhibits to life. It all felt so honest and real.

Determined not to let his son down, Larry goes to the employment agency to get a job — ANY job. He ends up taking the position of a night guard at the museum. Although he isn't happy about the job, Larry's ecstatic that he isn't going to let his son down.

However, the job at the museum turns out to be nothing like Larry had ever thought it would be. At night, you see, all the exhibits come to life and run around the museum. Larry ends up losing his notes about what to do, then has to be saved by Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams).

One of the things that strains the credibility of the film is how much pure knowledge Larry is able to accumulate in one day before his next shift. He goes in with a plan, and it almost works.

Watching Larry fail and succeed and fail yet again is great. This is what family stories, and comedies, seem to do best. The special effects are breathtaking and hilarious. I found myself laughing again and again, sometimes over the most inane thing because it was so brilliantly executed.

I can't go into the plot much more without giving away too much. I advise buying the DVD to add to the family movie collection. Night At The Museum belongs there.

Written by Caballero Oscuro

The Treatment is an adaptation of a novel by Daniel Menaker chronicling an emotionally stunted schoolteacher’s fractious relationship with his therapist as well as his budding romance with a wealthy widow. If that sounds like a setup for a Woody Allen film, it’s no surprise that the novel and film are also set in New York and expend significant time chronicling the psychotic tics of the main character. Sadly though, this is no Woody Allen film.

Jake Singer (Chris Eigeman) is a single, 40-something teacher at a prestigious private school, a bookish but pleasant man who has been unlucky in love in spite of his weekly visits to his deranged Argentinian-Freudian therapist (Ian Holm). When he meets a beautiful and enchanting socialite widow named Allegra Marshall (Famke Janssen), they embark on a romantic relationship in search of permanent happiness. Unfortunately, Jake keeps experiencing visions of his therapist offering unsolicited advice at completely inopportune times, seemingly haunting him in opposition to his first steps at finding true love. Yes, the therapist angle is as strange as it sounds, and even though it’s faithful to the novel it hampers a potentially strong love story.

The usually reliable Ian Holm completely hams it up in his role as the unhinged therapist, Dr. Ernesto Morales, maintaining a ridiculous Argentinian accent as well as chewing his way through the silly lines allocated to him. He offers inappropriate suggestions, comes out of left field with preposterous statements, and generally makes a nuisance of himself to the point where Jake is hallucinating conversations with him outside of his therapy sessions, often in the heat of passion with Allegra. It’s mystifying why Jake continues to see him when he doesn’t seem to offer any positive impact, and he’s such an unbelievable character in Jake’s reality that he serves as a major distraction and detriment to the film when he begins appearing in Jake’s imagination as well. In short, although the Dr. Morales character gives the film and novel its title (as he’s giving Jake “the treatment”), his excision from the film would have given it a chance to fully focus on what it does right: the budding romance between Jake and Allegra.

Allegra is still recovering from the unexpected death of her husband the previous year, and takes time to open up to the idea of a relationship with Jake. Jake is also damaged from the sudden end to his previous relationship, especially when his ex quickly finds true love, marriage, and pregnancy after leaving him. He’s far from an alpha male to begin with, plus he’s firmly in the middle class, so his ego has a difficult time realizing that the wealthy and refined Allegra might truly be interested in him. Their tentative steps toward each other, as well as the absolutely charming performances contributed by Eigeman and especially Jannsen, give the film a warmth and heart that make it worthwhile seeing through to its predictable conclusion.

The Treatment is now playing in limited release, check local listings for additional information.

Written by Hombre Divertido

Kevin Costner actually plays a part with some range, though it took the addition of William Hurt to really add depth to Mr. Brooks. It is the relationship between Earl (Costner) and Marshall (Hurt) who both are encompassed by Mr. Brooks that makes him so intriguing.

Mr. Brooks is a successful businessman, dedicated family man, pillar of the community, who just happens to have a penchant for murdering people. Goaded along by Marshall, Earl Brooks picks people, and then picks them off with a great attention to detail, while bringing a class to the story of a serial killer not seen since Dr. Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs.

Director Bruce A. Evans who also co-wrote the film with Raynold Gideon, manages to endear the killer to us with scenes that are light and humorous. The film has an An American Werewolf in London quality to it as we are shocked by the graphic violence, yet still amused by many aspects.

The normal aspects of Mr. Brooks make him relatable to us, which only makes his nocturnal endeavors far more terrifying. The audience can’t help but find itself not only rooting for him to get caught, but to get well.

The supporting cast equally brings a level of quality to the endeavor as does their storylines. Demi Moore as the successful detective out to catch Mr. Brooks and others while dealing with a messy divorce, and Dane Cook as a voyeur who blackmails Mr. Brooks to gain insight into his world, both shine in their respective roles.

This is an entertaining 121 minutes, though Costner’s portrayal and the depiction of the character in the script both seem inconsistent as he is established as somewhat of a nerd, who eventually becomes as smooth as the murderer inside him. Nonetheless, the relationships inside Mr. Brooks and the dialog that stems from said relationships make this film worth seeing.

Scheduled to be the first in a three part story, it will be interesting to see if the cast returns and if the disease is indeed hereditary.

Recommendation: Should make for an interesting visit to the theatre and create good post-viewing conversation.