35 - White House Down (2013)

I find Channing Tatum has a lot of film charisma and makes a credible action hero. His name drew me to White House Down. Jamie Foxx plays a good companion character, so we quickly begin rooting for the two.

The premise is that single-dad John Cale (Tatum) takes Emily, his precocious teenage daughter (Joey Kiing) on a tour of the White House on a day that terrorists attempt to take down the symbol of state. Emily goes off to the bathroom just as all hell breaks loose and Cale spends much of the time trying to rescue the President (Foxx) and then Emily from the bad guys. There are plot twists (which I didn't find real surprises, but I also wasn't disappointed that they were rather obvious).

I expected the film to be a fun ride with great effects, which it was, but as the film played out, I became really mindful of how conceivably this might happen. Watching the Capital Building bombed and burning and the White House badly damaged (although not as completely as Independence Day), brought back some of the 9/11 feelings I thought I had gotten past.

I found it refreshing that the terrorists had nothing to do with the Middle East.

By the end of the film, I felt Tatum and Foxx made a good team and I had enjoyed the ride.

White House Down (2013) ****

9 - Side Effects (2013)

In this highly enjoyable Hitchcockian thriller, the role of psychiatric medicine and its side effects forms the basis for the plot.

Housewife Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) is having a psychiatric meltdown. Her husband Martin Taylor (Channing Tatum) has returned from prison, having served four years for inside trading. Emily’s response to her husband’s return is to begin sleepwalking. Then she rams her car into a wall, obviously an attempt to harm herself. When the psychiatrist on duty treats her, Dr. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law), she allows her to go home on the condition that she returns to his office. She becomes his patient. Dr. Banks tries different drugs with Emily, but most seem to have unwanted side effects—she has to be stopped from throwing herself in front of a train and her sleepwalking gets worse. Martin awakens one night to find her preparing a meal for three while still asleep.

[Spoiler alert] One evening Martin returns home to find his wife preparing a meal, cutting up vegetables. With no apparent reason, she stabs him to death. She then goes to bed and only in the morning realizes her husband is dead on the floor of their apartment.

Is Emily guilty? Was the murder the product of the new medication Dr. Banks had prescribed and for which he is getting paid? Is Dr. Banks culpable? Or is, perhaps, Emily not the victim she appears? Eventually Dr. Banks learns that he is not the first psychiatrist to treat her. He traces down and consults with Dr. Victoria Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who had treated Emily when her husband first went into prison. She suggests the problem lies with him.

Is Emily the victim of her doctors? Can Dr. Banks save his career?

With numerous Hitchcockian twists, Director Stephen Soderberg (Magic Mike, Oceans 11, Traffic) plays a pretty good game with us as to what is real and what is fake. As the film progresses, we switch our sympathies from Emily to Dr. Banks, but then find he may not be the innocent either.

The four main actors, helped by a literate script, do a good job of entertaining us. Jude Law plays the "perhaps innocent" victim caught in the middle, while Channing Tatum plays the Marian Crane/Janet Leigh part with charm. Mara and Zeta-Jones seem to relish their more complex characters, offering the viewer definite surprises.

The film may not be highly memorable, but it is an enjoyable ride worth seeing.

Side Effects (2013) **** 

Day One/One - Magic Mike (2012)

I went to Magic Mike expecting to mildly entertained. As the theatre filled with teen girls and grandmothers, I wasn't sure what to expect. One very loud elderly grandmother was explaining to her daughter and granddaughter how she and group of her friends had attended a strip club and how much she was looking  forward to the film. 'Buckle your seatbelt," I thought, "this may be a bumpy ride."

What I had not counted on it that the script was very well written. Reid Carolin has a great sense of dialogue which reminded me, believe it or not, of the overlapping speeches from Citizen Kane. It all felt very real and almost improvisational in style. Cody Horn and Channing Tatum had great rapport and were highly believable as two people falling in love.

The dance sequences in the film were outstanding. The dancers provided not just skin but energy and the cutting helped feed that excitement. Particularly outstanding besides Tatum were Alex Pettyfer, True Blood's Joe Manganiello and Matt Bomer. I often find Matthew McConaughey cloying but here his sense of shallowness seemed to actually support his character.

The surprise of the movie for me was Channing Tatum. I had not seen him in a film before so I expected a wooden Indian performance. I had seen him do his stripping on a SNL skit and had been impressed that he was not only an interesting dancer but actually had a personality that seemed to honestly come across. The camera loves him. He underplays most of his part and made all his reactions believable. Often the subtlety of emotion came from small facial gestures rather than melodramatic reactions.The interplay between him and the other actors--especially Cody Horn--really sold me on his performance.

When the movie finished, the loud grandmother said, "I expected to see skin, but I didn't realize I'd actually see a story. I loved it... I'd come back."

Magic Mike  *****