NeverLift

First: A great story, and told without sugar coating, and with simplicity. Harrison Ford imitated Branch Rickey perfectly; his makeup crew deserves an Oscar. I’m not sure that a perfect imitation is also fine acting, but it worked. My one problem with it was its pace. It often dragged and dragged, spending too much time and effort on simple matters. The worst example: I found the endless final home run rounding-the-bases in superslow motion to be embarrassingly trite, so ponderous that I found myself literally groaning aloud, thinking, "I got it, I got it already. When will this end?" I have no idea what could have been included to fill the time. If there is nothing more to say, just stop.

If you are turned off by violence realistically portrayed (no computer-generated antics here), stay away. None of it is gratuitous, all are essential -- and it is strong stuff. The movie builds in intensity relentlessly, all the way through, maintaining a reality within its milieu, and left us almost breathless as the final encounter builds and builds. Every character is believable while the story line goes deeper and deeper into their desperation, arrogance, cowardice, greed, love, infidelity, stupidity, and sadistic domination. "Love Story" it ain't. But it is a gem of what it set out to be.

A magnificent assemblage from, I'd expect, thousands upon thousands of hours of film, from driver's meetings to home movies of the child and the man at play, at work, and in death. Be assured: You need not like, nor even know anything about, auto racing to be gripped by this film.

"The Help" tells us nothing new. Anybody who didn't know what it had to say has been in a coma for over half a century. But that isn't my problem with it. Rather, it is a mawkish, sophomoric, soporifically paced, predictable, grotesquely populated, "young adult" CHIC FLIC. Think of sitting through "Steel Magnolias" with a mixed race cast and "We Shall Overcome" as its incidental music. Twice. Non-stop. We need a new rating system, one that advises single adult males that attending particular movies can be injurious to their sanity. Since I was stuck in the middle of a full row, I refrained from disturbing my neighbors and so sat through the entire four and a half hours of it. (It wasn't that long? It sure seemed like it.) My desire, after the first fifteen minutes, was to leave, running to find the nearest sports bar as an antidote. And I hate sports bars.

A totally new, totally involving film, radical in its concept, perfect in its combination of live action and computer generation, and acted with authenticity and intensity. Do not go to it tired, or expecting to sit back and relax as if it were some light musical -- or even an easily followed blockbuster such as Avatar. Pay attention, get involved, the nuances from level to level are exquisite -- and take a few minutes after leaving the theater to re-enter reality. I drove very carefully for the first five minutes going home from this.