Your New Movie Releases for the week of March 12th, 2010

[Earende]

Green Zone - Matt Damon is a rogue U.S. Army officer hunting through covert and faulty intelligence before war escalates in an unstable region. **FEATURED**

Remember Me - Tyler, a rebellious young man in New York City, has a strained relationship with his father ever since tragedy separated their family. Tyler didn't think anyone could possibly understand what he was going through until the day he met Ally through an unusual twist of fate. Love was the last thing on his mind, but as her spirit unexpectedly heals and inspires him, he begins to fall for her. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810076910/trailer

She's Out of My League - Kirk, an average Joe, can't believe his luck. Though he's stuck in a  seemingly dead-end job as an airport security agent, against all odds, Molly, a successful and outrageously gorgeous babe, has fallen for him. Not only is Kirk stunned, but his friends, family and
his ex-girlfriend, too. Now he has to figure out how to make the relationship work, even though he'd be the first to admit she's totally out of his league. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810011669/trailer

Mother - Hye-ja is a single mom to 27-year-old Do-joon. Her son is her raison d'etre. Though an adult in years, Do-joon is naive and dependent on his mother, and a constant source of anxiety, often behaving in ways that are foolish or simply dangerous. Walking home alone one night down a nearly empty city street, he encounters a young girl who he follows for a while before she disappears into a dark alley. The next morning, she is found dead in an abandoned building and Do-joon is accused of her murder. Thanks to an inefficient lawyer and an apathetic police force, Do-joon's case is quickly closed, but his mother refuses to let this be the end of the story. Trusting no one, Hye-ja's maternal instincts kick into overdrive and she sets out to find the girl's killer and prove her son's innocence. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810090591/trailer

Our Family Wedding - Two overbearing dads must put aside their differences to plan the wedding of their son and daughter in less than two weeks. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810093971/trailer

[Earende]

A personal comment on Mother:

Kim Hye-ja is a veteran actress, though little known in the west, even by fans of Korean film, because most of her work has been in television. I gather that she has played a lot of mothers in that medium, but I'd be impressed if any of them are quite as memorable as this one. It takes just a few wordless moments to get a handle on her character: When we first see her, she's slicing herbs at work, but distractedly, always looking out the window at Do-joon, with affection but also a great deal of worry, and no small amount of weariness; she's had to be much more worried for much longer than most parents. The true brilliance of her performance, though, is not how immediately we recognize and understand the character; it’s how, as Hye-ja grows more desperate and frantic and we learn more about her, we seldom have moments where we shout out "aha, this explains that!" Kim's performance is so perfectly formed that everything fits together without individual bits needing explanation, even as she gets more complicated.
And she does, even as the murder mystery deepens. Bong and his co-writer Park Eun-kyo build a story that splits time between Hye-ja's investigation and her relationship with her son without creating connections that feel coincidental. It's an impressive balancing act; character-oriented mysteries are some of the toughest things to write well. They do everything right, though; the solution to the mystery is built from clues hidden in plain sight, and the solving of it tells us interesting things about Hye-ja without it necessarily being an obvious parallel to the case. Both threads converge as the story moves to its conclusion without either diminishing in importance, creating a story that is both about Hye-ja specifically and makes a larger point about alienation and loneliness.

The movie's not just about Hye-ja, of course, although she's clearly the central character. Big praise must also go to Won Bin, as Do-joon is an extremely tricky character. He's slow, but can't be obviously simple from a glance, and "slow" can't be his entire personality. He's unhealthily dependent on Hye-ja, but also feels smothered by her; he can be funny but also angry. He's a character, not just a disability.
Bong Joon-ho's last film, "The Host", was a great big special effects extravaganza that set the record for ticket sales in South Korea. In many cases, one would expect a director to try and top that in his next outing; instead, Bong stepped back and made another more intimate film about murder in a small town, one which will remind audiences of his "Memories of Murder", both by its subject (a murder in a small town) and its quality (very good indeed).

[Smokey]

Nice Earende. I wouldn't have thought twice about this movie if you wouldn't have pointed it out. It sounds like it's worth a peek.

[Dazzling Zoomer Gal Diana]

I agree, wonderful review, thank you Earende !

[Junebaby]

This was a haunting and some what disturbing film portrays the plight of a desperate mother to save her son and in the process holds a mirror up to the audience and makes you ask yourself just what you would do to save your own child?

Thank you for the suggestion Earende. This movie made my weekend.

[Zen Elipsys]

My wife and sis-in-law are going to see this one. I'll make sure I ask what they thought....

[Smokey]

I'm going to see this movie tomorrow. I'm hearing good things about this one. I know that it will be subtitled, so just a heads up to those of you who don't like that.