BEST FILMS OF 2012 ANNOUNCED
Members of the Political Film Society, having cast ballots during February, have chosen the following:
Best Film on Democracy of 2012: Lincoln (Steven Spielberg, director)
Best Film Exposé of 2012: Argo (Ben Affleck, director)
Best Film on Human Rights of 2012: West of Thunder (Steve Russell & Jody Marriott Bar-Lev, directors)
Best Film on Peace of 2012: West of Thunder(Steve Russell & Jody Marriott Bar-Lev, directors)
SAVING LINCOLN HONORS PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORABILIA AND A BODYGUARD
Reproduced photos from the Library of Congress of the Lincoln era provide the background sets for scenes in Saving Lincoln, directed by Salvador Litvak, whose “cine-collage” is largely in a very comfortable black and white. The story is a biopic not only of Lincoln (played by Tom Amandes) but also of his bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon (played by Lea Coco), who provides occasional voiceovers. Informed in part by Lamon’s 1872 biography of Lincoln, the film traces Lincoln’s first meeting with Lamon and their long friendship. Lamon, Lincoln’s law partner in Illinois, later performs both a “secret service” role and calms Lincoln in stressful moments with humor and music, and the film explains why he was not present at Ford’s Theatre. Although the obvious aim of the film is to humanize Lincoln as a president who was much less self-possessed than other cinematic portrayals, the effect is to display how he interacts with bombastic if eloquent political leaders who comprise the intellectual environment in Washington. Lincoln’s personnel management capabilities show him allowing any citizen an audience while responding to silly opinions by self-serving politicians with laconic, logical points of view. The narrative errs by pretending that the Emancipation Proclamation was written without pressure from the abolitionists; Harriet Beecher Stowe’s visit with Lincoln is not featured in the film. Nevertheless, the focus on Lamon prompts the Political Film Society to nominate Saving Lincoln as best political exposé of 2013. MH
ZOLOFT IS NOT THE MEDICINE IN SIDE EFFECTS
Hitchockian thrillers are very few nowadays and must be treasured. Similar to the surprise ending in Shutter Island(2010), the film Side Effects exploits someone’s mental illness to trap filmviewers into the wrong mindset. In this case, Emily Taylor (played by Rooney Mara), while waiting for her husband to be released from prison for several years, has been seeing psychiatrist Dr. Victoria Siebert (played by Catherine Zeta-Jones). After her husband returns home, however, she switches to the care of psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Banks (played by Jude Law), presumably on a tip from someone at work that he is particularly competent and will prescribe a medicine in a clinical trial. A subplot about the side effects of medicines for depression then pretends to be the main plot as three dramatic events occur: Emily slams her car into the wall of a garage, nearly steps in front of a New York subway, and stabs her husband, leaving him for dead. On trial for murder, she claims that she was delirious in the first two incidents and has no memory of the third. The judge accepts a verdict of guilty by reason of insanity and commits her to a state mental institution. Dr. Banks, meanwhile, is derided in the press as the “pill killer,” so his position in a psychiatric firm is in jeopardy. He becomes so obsessed about the case, which has ruined his career, that his wife and son leave him. Trying to clear his name, he discovers that no such person at Emily’s work made the referral. Filmviewers will doubtless wonder (as I did) how the prosecution was able to find for testimony the very same subway officer who tried to save Emily from getting too close to the track, but that does not openly surprise Dr. Banks. In any case, this review will not supply spoilers, such as a gap in the plot, out of respect for director Steven Soderbergh and all those who would try to emulate Hitchcock. MH