Dan In Real Life

I really like Steve Carrell and I liked this movie. I don't think there was a lot of message to it, more of a situational story. I guess you could say it was love can overcome, or family is important, or that sort of thing, but really it was just a story for me. I'm not a big fan of Juliette Binoche, but I thought she was fine. I really liked the family relationship that was on display here, a big family that was comfortable with each other as opposed to the stereotypical sniping that is so often on display. I liked Carrell's relationship with his daughters, it seemed honest. I also liked the bit where his daughter tells him to stop flirting with Binoche. It was very refreshing to see somebody in the movie recognizing the obviousness of the developing relationship that the audience was treated to. A rare thing, and a good one. There were some bits that rang hollow, like the driving issue with the oldest daughter. But, for the most part, it was a good, easy story, with some good laughs. A pleasant, ordinary movie.

Gone Baby Gone

I liked this one a lot. I found out after the fact that it was based on a book by Dennis Lehane, the same guy who wrote Mystic River, which I also really liked. I did not think this was great at the beginning. The arc of the story did not really devlop the way I expected. There was a bit of a surprise ending and then it turned out that the movie was only about halfway done. Several interesting bits after that as well. I thought Casey Affleck was great. Maybe it was just his Boston accent, but I thought he did a great job. I thought Amy Madigan was also very goos ina supporting role. I thought Ed Harris did a good job playing the grizzled old cop. I might give a best supporting facial hair to Titus Welliver's world class stache. Morgan Freeman was not very good, which is odd because I usually like him. I also liked the questions the movie asked. Is doing the right thing always the right thing, is doing the wrong thing ever acceptable? I think it presented an answer of sorts but did not exactly tell what it thinks about its own answer. I think it was developed by someone who had not spent a lot of time around social workers, as the role that could have been filled by them here was significant, but I'm willing to forgive that. A very good movie, in my opinion.

Michael Clayton

This was good, as hoped for. I really liked George Clooney's character. I don't think he can play much different than George Clooney, but this was George Clooney having a bad run of luck, and I liked it. I thought Tom Wilkinson played crazy very well. I thought Tilda Swindon really did a good job with her character, the unsure lawyer, trying to get on the garb of the evil corporate attorney. I thought Sydney Pollock was also goo, though he might also have been playing himself. I was pleased with the ending of the film as well. Good stuff here.