HollywoodChicago.com: Film, theater, TV and DVD coverage from Adam Fendelman

No Matter How Hard You Believe Otherwise, ‘The X-Files: I Want to Believe’ Most Anemic Story Yet

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:01:00 -0700

CHICAGO – Following an addictive TV series that spanned from 1992 to 2002, I wanted to believe “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” would more dynamically pay homage to its television success than Chris Carter’s first film attempt in 1998. In take two, though, it didn’t happen.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

Carter – who serves as the writer, director and producer of the 2008 film “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” along with the TV series creator – not only has penned an even more anemic script than his film a decade ago but also manages to serve even less justice to a distinctly original TV series that has catered to people’s fantasies and curiosities everywhere.

Read Adam Fendelman’s full review of “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” in our reviews section.

View our full, high-resolution “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” image gallery.

What bewilders the mind most blatantly about “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” – aside from the strong character interactions based on comprehensive character development dating back 16 years now – is that its central plotline hardly feels like something from “The X-Files” at all.

No UFOs. No aliens. Hardly anything supernatural. There’s just a psychic character who – while being a central slice in this story – isn’t such a wild stretch from today’s real world.

In reality, some people actually believe in psychic abilities. This as the one and only “The X-Files”-like plotline is tame in contrast to some of the outlandish theories and concepts typically explored in the TV series.

“The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” which is directed by Chris Carter and stars David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly and Alvin “Xzibit” Joiner, opened everywhere on July 25, 2008.

Continuing reading for Adam Fendelman’s full “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” review.

Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are drawn back into the world of the X-Files in “The X-Files: I Want to Believe”.
Photo credit: Diyah Pera

Father Joseph Crissman (Billy Connolly) – a dark, complex figure with a haunted past – leads a team of FBI agents to a critical discovery in “The X-Files: I Want to Believe”.
Photo credit: Diyah Pera

Continuing reading for Adam Fendelman’s full “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” review.

Emotions of Sexuality, Gender, Social Order Wrestle During 1800s Paris in ‘The Last Mistress’

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:45:54 -0700

CHICAGO – Difficult as it is now, in 1835 women in Paris never really had many choices for an eventual lifestyle.

They could hope to marry rich and live in relative comfort or they could toil in a working-class marriage while raising children and working themselves to death. If they didn’t marry, they might be a maid or a governess. If they were really bored and bold, though, they could be “The Last Mistress”.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Asia Argento gives a truly fearless performance as the title character. She’s a Spanish temptress named Vellini who’s first seen clinging to an older husband. Her story is told in flashback as related by her lover Ryno de Marigny (Fu’ad Ait Aattou).

Read Patrick McDonald’s full review of “The Last Mistress” in our reviews section.

View our full “The Last Mistress” image gallery.

His status as a nobleman is in conflict with the illicit affair, which he has recently broken off after getting engaged to a woman of his social class. He tells the story of his mistress during an all-night session with his fiancée’s grandmother.

The obsessive love affair with Vellini began after a duel with her elderly husband.

During the next 10 years, their relationship would take them to Algeria in exile. Still, it never seems to rise above the gratitude of their sexuality. Despite their obsessive physicality, it is Vellini’s lower caste status that eventually dooms their legitimate togetherness.

The grandmother – properly satisfied with the story and reputation of Marigny – gives her final blessing. The couple is married under the eye of proper society.

“The Last Mistress,” which stars Asia Argento and Fu’ad Ait Aattou, opened on July 18, 2008 at the Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema in Chicago.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full “The Last Mistress” review.

Asia Argento in “The Last Mistress”.
Photo credit: Yorgos Arvanitis/Guillaume Lavit d’Hautefort/Flash Film

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full “The Last Mistress” review.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s ‘Willy Wonka’ Sure to Satisfy Your Child’s Sweet Spot

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:32:35 -0700

CHICAGO – Ah, it’s summer again. Kids in Chicago are playing in the Millennium Park fountains, teenagers are flooding in to see the latest cinema blockbusters and families are enjoying Lake Michigan’s beaches.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

But perhaps an even more important staple of this sunny season is the decision by Chicago theatre producers that it’s the prime time for stage productions to cater to those of us under the age of 12.

Lucky for the youngsters, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater has mounted a delectable stage adaptation of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” called “Willy Wonka”. It’s a musical that’s sure to entice and satiate even the bitterest of audiences. Fans of both Roald Dahl’s original children’s novel and the classic film will revel in this piece.

Only at the end of the play “Willy Wonka” is Willy Wonka’s (Sean Fortunato) purpose revealed. He not only rewards the good and deserving but finds fulfillment of his own search.
Photo credit: Liz Lauren

True to both Dahl’s tale and the movie score from Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Neweley, the production by the Chicago Shakespeare Theater is a goodie bag replete with fun costumes, playful Oompa-Loompa puppets, brightly colored set pieces and a small yet mostly stellar cast.

Though Dahl is one of the most celebrated children’s writers of all time, he’s most known for his willingness to incorporate solemn and dark themes into the most playful of his novels.

“Willy Wonka” director Joe Leonardo in Chicago demonstrably understands and reveres this. The production gleefully succeeds at taking its audience on a fantastic, chocolate-filled voyage while also paying credence to the more gloomy realities of each character’s plight.

The musical follows the familiar story of the Bucket family. They’re a down-on-their-luck clan residing in the slums of London.

Due to Mr. Bucket’s precarious job position at a toothpaste factory, the family is constantly on the verge of absolute poverty and destitution. The living conditions Leonardo has created clearly reflect their financial situation.

Living under the same patched roof (and in the same bed) are Charlie’s grandparents (represented by Meredith Miller’s ghoulish puppets), parents and young Charlie himself. Remaining steadfast to his message of hope, Charlie eventually scores one of the famous golden tickets from candy mogul Willy Wonka.

In “Willy Wonka,” the children’s journey is strewn with temptations. Augustus Gloop’s (George Andrew Wolff) gluttony – encouraged by his mother (Paula Scrofano) – proves to be his downfall.
Photo credit: Liz Lauren

Charlie then sets off to explore the chocolate factory in all of its delicious glory. Unlike most children’s stories, the antagonists here aren’t evil stepmothers, witches or monsters. They’re the children themselves.

Joining Charlie on his trek to the mysterious land of candy is the voracious Augustus Gloop (played by the golden-voiced George Andrew Wolff), the bratty Veruca Salt (Jessie Mueller), the gum-chomping Violet Beauregarde (Melanie Brezill) and the technology-inebriated Mike Teavee (played by Travis Turner on Hellys).

Though dealing with a noticeable deficit of character development, the actors perform these scrumptiously gluttonous characters with irresistible playfulness. Leading the brat pack is The House Theatre’s Patrick Andrews in the title role.

Unfortunately, he plays the precociously written Charlie a bit too childlike.

However, the wide-eyed and literal kid-in-a-candy-store excitement that Andrews brings to the table is undeniably enjoyable to watch. Also, everyone in the audience under 5-feet tall noticeably looked up (no pun intended) to Charlie as if he were a hero with a candy-cane crown.

RELATED READING
More theater reviews from critic Alissa Norby.
More theater reviews from our other critics.

However, the show is by no means ready to head to the Great White Way. Leslie Bricusse’s score and Tim McDonald’s book could definitely benefit from a trip back to Wonka’s inventing room.

With the exception of the songs made famous by the film adaptation (“Pure Imagination” and “The Candy Man”), the score is mostly forgettable along with the actor’s voices (specifically Sean Fortunato’s bland tenor take on Wonka).

But for the most part, the production thrives in its small-scale simplicity. Its age-old message of humility and kindness is still heartwarmingly contagious and its narrative is as fanciful as ever. Judging by the reactions throughout its opening, the kids will eat up every tasty morsel.

“Willy Wonka” runs every day but Mondays and Tuesdays through Aug. 17, 2008 at the Courtyard Theater at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, which is located at 800 E. Grand Ave. in Chicago. Visit here for tickets.

For a complete listing of all shows and reviews in Chicago, visit our partner TheatreInChicago.com. For half-price Chicago theater tickets, visit our partner Goldstar.

By ALISSA NORBY
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
alissa@hollywoodchicago.com

Andy Samberg, Witty Script Lift Animated ‘Space Chimps’ Off Launching Pad

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:07:09 -0700

CHICAGO – So far in the 2008 summer animation season we’ve seen cuddly martial artists (“Kung Fu Panda”) and robots in love (“WALL-E”).

Rating: 4.0/5.0

But where are the monkeys and how long before the first joke about flinging their poo? Both desires are satisfied in the playfully visual and wryly funny “Space Chimps,” which is anchored by the vocal talents of Andy Samberg (“Saturday Night Live”).

Read Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Space Chimps” in our reviews section.

View our full, high-resolution “Space Chimps” image gallery.

Samberg is the voice of Ham III: the chimp grandson of the first NASA monkey in space. He has been reduced to being an attraction in a cheap circus under the guidance of his grandfather’s old buddy Houston (Carlos Alazragui).

Meanwhile at Cape Canaveral, the reputation of the space program rests on the discovery of a wormhole in space that has sent a probe to a distant and life-sustaining planet.

On that planet, it turns out the probe has been captured by a rubbery, blue life force named Zartog (Jeff Daniels). Zartog’s intent is to use the multi-tasking machine to enslave his fellow inhabitants.

“Space Chimps,” which stars Andy Samberg, Jeff Daniels, Cheryl Hines, Patrick Warburton, Kristin Chenoweth, Carlos Alazragui and Stanley Tucci, opened on July 18, 2008.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full “Space Chimps” review.

Ham III (Andy Samberg) – the slacker grandson of the first chimp blasted into space before manned spaceflight – takes off into out-of-this-world adventure and comedy in “Space Chimps”.
Image credit: Vanguard Animation

Cheryl Hines voices Luna in “Space Chimps”.
Image credit: 20th Century Fox

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full “Space Chimps” review.

Despite Rollercoaster Energy, ‘Mamma Mia!’ Bellows Beloved ABBA Vocals With Feel-Good Appeal

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:03:32 -0700

CHICAGO – While it’d be embellishment to say you’d have the time of your life at the new musical film “Mamma Mia!,” any dancing queen or an admirer of seeing Pierce Brosnan croon a tune instead of trigger James Bond destruction can at least have some of the time of your 108 minutes.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Sandwiched amid three excellent female performances, Donna (played by Meryl Streep) is appreciated as the overwhelming lead of the middle-aged trio. She’s effectively complemented by a feisty Christine Baranski and a lone-wolf Julie Walters. The three ladies, though, dwarf three more energy-lacking male performances.

Read Adam Fendelman’s full review of “Mamma Mia!” in our reviews section.

View our full, high-resolution “Mamma Mia!” image gallery.

Working with Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård – both of whom at times feel somewhat in an unintentional slumber – Pierce Brosnan saves the middle-aged male trio with powerful, leading male vocals and his usual charisma.

The three men arrive at the wedding of Donna’s daughter, Sophie (played preciously by Amanda Seyfried), amid confusion of which one is Sophie’s true father.

While the camera yet again finds the heartthrob in Piece Brosnan, this time he’s a sensitive and singing heartthrob without all the high-tech James Bond gadgetry and penchant for blowing stuff up.

Still, it was enormously difficult to see him without beautiful ladies on both arms and things in his pocket triggering big Hollywood booms.

“Mamma Mia,” which opened everywhere on July 18, 2008, stars Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski.

Continuing reading for Adam Fendelman’s full “Mamma Mia!” review.

Left to right: Tanya Chesham-Leigh (Christine Baranski), Donna Sheridan (Meryl Streep) and Rosie Rice (Julie Walters) lead the Greek chorus in the musical romantic comedy “Mamma Mia!”.
Photo credit: Universal Pictures

Amanda Seyfried as Sophie Sheridan on the set of the musical romantic comedy “Mamma Mia!”.
Photo credit: Peter Mountain, copyright Universal Studios

Continuing reading for Adam Fendelman’s full “Mamma Mia!” review.

‘The Dark Knight’ Bestows Role of a Lifetime For Heath Ledger, Epic Proportions For Itself

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:01:00 -0700

CHICAGO – With only three short words comprising the film’s enigmatic title, “The Dark Knight” also boasts three epic claims to fame: the role of a lifetime for the late Heath Ledger as the hauntingly deranged Joker, one of the best films of 2008 and one of the greatest superhero films of all time.

In a year when Hollywood has the superhero woody comparable to when westerns where the greatest thing since sliced bread, “The Dark Knight” not only fares well against blockbuster competition with films like “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk” but also manages to rise above chartbuster status into a whole new league of undisputed justice.

FULL REVIEW
Read Adam Fendelman’s full “The Dark Knight” review.

RELATED IMAGE GALLERIES
View our exclusive Chicago red-carpet slideshow.
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RELATED READING
Read our comprehensive news on “The Dark Knight”.
More film reviews from critic Adam Fendelman.

Rating: 5.0/5.0
(rarely perfect)

Though a decidedly dark and outcast Batman is the heart behind the marketing machine for “The Dark Knight” from writer and director Christopher Nolan (who also directed the film’s first iteration in 2005 entitled “Batman Begins”), Christian Bale in the seminal role has his show stolen by Ledger’s villain.

While to some it may be surprising to classify Bale’s performance as “B” list and Ledger’s as “A+” list, you almost feel modesty in Bale’s screen time to honor the true man of this film’s 142 minutes.

While “The Dark Knight” completed principal photography prior to Ledger’s death, Bale delivers an intricately muted role as compared to Ledger. While entwined with the power inherent in his superhero marauding, Bale’s also humbled from working with another man who was delivering the culmination of his life’s work.

Health Ledger disappears so convincingly and completely into the Joker that you struggle to remember him in anything else.

This is a telling testament to an illustrious – albeit too short – career of an actor who memorably broke free in transformative roles in films including “Brokeback Mountain”. Nolan – who for this film was significantly influenced by the 1995 film “Heat” – says he selected Ledger for the focal Joker role based on his “fearlessness”.

Ledger’s Joker is developed to the finest of details even down to his unruly tongue action and the sounds of his excess saliva. Moreover, Nolan and co-writing brother Jonathan Nolan (David S. Goyer was also integral in the film’s story) deliver to Ledger the best profundities of any talent in the star-studded film.

“The Dark Knight,” which is directed by Christopher Nolan and features Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Eric Roberts, Anthony Michael Hall, Colin McFarlane, Joshua Harto, Michael Jai White and William Fichtner, will open everywhere on July 18, 2008 in traditional theaters and in IMAX. The film will show in IMAX for a continuous 72 hours for its opening Chicago weekend.

Continuing reading for Adam Fendelman’s full “The Dark Knight” review. View our exclusive red-carpet coverage of “The Dark Knight” in Chicago.

Heath Ledger stars as the Joker in “The Dark Knight”.
Photo credit: Warner Bros., copyright DC Comics

Gary Oldman at Chicago’s Navy Pier for the red-carpet premiere of “The Dark Knight” on July 16, 2008. In the film, Oldman plays Lt. James Gordon.
Original photography for HollywoodChicago.com by Kris Kasperek of iKLiKphoto

Christian Bale as Batman on his Batpod in “The Dark Knight”.
Photo credit: Warner Bros., copyright DC Comics

Continuing reading for Adam Fendelman’s full “The Dark Knight” review. View our exclusive red-carpet coverage of “The Dark Knight” in Chicago.

‘Lookingglass Alice’ a Proud Chicago Work of Jibber Jabber, Nonsensical Wonderment

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:43:58 -0700

CHICAGO – On the fourth of July in 1862, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson rowed a boat up the River Thames with 10-year-old Alice Liddell. Alice was the daughter of the new dean of Christ Church where Dodgson was employed as a lecturer in mathematics.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Three years later, Dodgson (with the penname Lewis Carroll) wrote of such adventures in a book entitled “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. Much like how the scholar preferred play to academe, the story of Alice celebrates the pooh-poohing of lessons and the embracing of fun-filled fantasy.

Beloved by millions, it was an unprecedented work of literary nonsense and utter surrealism. While it was adored by almost all, some critics wondered where the line between sense and nonsense should have been drawn. Now in its third year, Alice at Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre is once again face to face with this same question. This time, though, she fails to proffer a clear answer.

Lauren Hirte (left) as Alice and Lawrence E. Distasi as Lewis Carroll in “Lookingglass Alice”.
Photo credit: Lookingglass Theatre

In “Lookingglass Alice,” director David Caitlin doesn’t fear showing his audience an Alice they could barely have dreamt of before (let alone seen before). A hybrid of both “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There,” the play uses both the card-deck symbolism of the former and the chess board structure of the latter to tell its story.

Lauren Hirte, Jesse Perez, Anthony Fleming III and Kevin Douglas in “Lookingglass Alice”.
Photo credit: Lookingglass Theatre

But perhaps what’s most obviously different about this production of Alice is not the unique combining of the novels but the influence of one of the production’s producers: the Actors Gymnasium.

In this version, the characters tumble, jump, fall and fly with the ease of some of the greatest trapeze artists of our times. When I say fly, I mean fly. There are no harnesses, bungee chords or levitating brooms.

When the terrific and audacious Lauren Hirte (Alice) takes wing, she does it about 25 feet off the ground on a mere series of ropes (all in Mary Janes and a dress). Each of her triumphs seemed so unimaginable that it noticeably had the audience thinking “curiouser and curiouser” after each twist and turn.

Caitlin clearly knows how to entertain his audience even when these gymnastic feats are put on pause. There is more tricycle riding, juggling, bouncy-ball throwing, swinging and toppling in this performance than could might feasibly fit into a room.

If it sounds like I’m describing a new “Cirque du Soleil” show that’s loosely based around a celebrated children’s story, then you’re close to the money. As mystifying and engaging as these acts are, they’re just that: acts that serve as audience eye candy.

While watching this production, you get the sense that the artists spent more time on the acrobatics than on Carroll’s classic writing. That truly is a shame (if not literary sacrilege) because the eloquent semantic riddles that comprise the Alice books are truly unparalleled and would have surely been a tasty treat for the Lookingglass audience.

Caitlin’s choice to favor physical tricks over literary treats disappointingly permeates almost all aspects of the show. While Hirte is fantastic in portraying the warm-hearted, head-in-the-clouds Alice, the ensemble actors perform their scenes with such overwhelmingly heightened energy and volume that Carroll’s witty dialogue is swallowed by their very delivery.

Lauren Hirte as Alica and Kevin Douglas as Humpty Dumpty in “Lookingglass Alice”.
Photo credit: Lookingglass Theatre

The humor is updated as well. Forget fantastical dialogue about Jabberwocks and mock turtles. The humor in this Alice includes jokes about fecal matter and girls having cooties.

While everyone in the audience under the age of 10 vociferously enjoyed these jokes, it did make me wonder whether Caitlin believed the audience wouldn’t be intelligent enough or sufficiently well-read to enjoy Carroll’s original humor.

However, the narrative of the piece is refreshingly new (though unapologetically foggy at points). Told through metanarration, the piece explores Alice and Wonderland in an almost existentialist style.

The actual stage managers and lighting crew schlep Alice through her adventure to show that this is in fact no longer Alice’s adventure. Instead, it’s a series of occurrences that are happening to her without her own consent.

The character of Lewis Carroll himself is present at times in the play as a kind of puppeteer who pulls the strings of the story in which Alice now naïvely finds herself.

Even the chess board that Alice must make her valiant and perilous march across is an allegory for the vanishing of innocence and the literal move from childhood to adulthood.

It is a directorial notion such as this that makes many aspects of the Lookingglass Theatre’s production ingenious.

RELATED SLIDESHOW
See our six-image slideshow for “Lookingglass Alice”.

RELATED READING
More theater reviews from critic Alissa Norby.
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As fresh and different as it proudly stands, though, the piece also retains the majority of the story’s whimsy and wonder.

The kids in the audience will enjoy this familiar tumble down the rabbit hole with characters such as the mischievous Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the sultry Chesire Cat, that hookah-smoking Caterpillar (who in this production seems to be inhaling more than just tobacco), the vicious Red Queen and that White Rabbit who never seemed to set his watch just right.

At the end of the day, it’s still a story that audiences of any background and age can enjoy. Faults aside, the dream-like world of play and wonderment that the Lookingglass creates is unadulterated. By the end of the night, so many out-of-the-way things happen that you surely begin to believe that nothing is truly impossible.

“Lookingglass Alice” runs every day of the week except for Mondays and Tuesdays at various times through Aug. 31, 2008 at the Lookingglass Theatre at 821 N. Michigan Ave. in Chicago. For tickets or more information, visit here or call 312-337-0665.

See our six-image slideshow for “Lookingglass Alice”.

For a complete listing of all shows and reviews in Chicago, visit our partner TheatreInChicago.com. For half-price Chicago theater tickets, visit our partner Goldstar.

By ALISSA NORBY
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
alissa@hollywoodchicago.com

French Film ‘Tell No One’ a Journey of Mystery Down Road of Twists, Turns

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:55:57 -0700

CHICAGO – The most perfect description for the new French suspense film “Tell No One” comes from the most unlikely source: a 1957 American film called “Sweet Smell of Success”.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Describing one of the characters in that film, one line observes that he has “more twists than a barrel of pretzels”. Take that barrel and put it through the zigzag of a taffy-pulling machine and those results might be able to straighten out the labyrinth of circumstances in “Tell No One”.

Read Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Meet Dave” in our reviews section.

View our full, high-resolution “Tell No One” image gallery.

François Cluzet portrays Alex Beck: a physician whose wife, Margot, is murdered when they are celebrating an anniversary at a remote lake. Though injured in the attack, Beck emerges from a coma having to clear his name as a suspect and mournfully bury his beloved partner.

Eight years later and before gathering traditionally with Margot’s family to mark the day of the tragedy, Beck receives an e-mail message.

The message instructs him to link to a special address that seems to be a current video image of his dead wife. At the same time, three bodies are recovered from the attack site. This focuses attention back toward the widowed doctor as a possible suspect in his wife’s murder.

“Tell No One,” which features François Cluzet, Marie-Josée Croze, Kristin Scott Thomas, André Dussollier, Nathalie Baye and Marina Hands, opened in Chicago on July 11, 2008 at the Music Box Theatre.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full “Tell No One” review.

François Cluzet (right) and Marie-Josée Croze as Margot in “Tell No One”.
Photo credit: Music Box Films

François Cluzet (right) and Kristin Scott Thomas in “Tell No One”.
Photo credit: Music Box Films

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full “Tell No One” review.