Reel Movie Thoughts

Synopsis: Adapted from Isak Dinesen’s novel, OUT OF AFRICA, this film plaintively tells the story of two troubled adults who meet and fall in love in the African wilderness. Karen Blixen-Flecke (Meryl Streep) is a modern woman, caught in the shortcomings of a practical marriage. Finch Hatton (Robert Redford) is a gallant British hunter, lonely, [...]

Synopsis: Writer/director Nancy Meyers (What Women Want, Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday) directs Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin in It’s Complicated, a comedy about love, divorce and…

Jane (Streep) is the mother of three grown kids, owns a thriving Santa Barbara bakery/restaurant and has–after a decade of divorce–an amicable relationship with her ex-husband, [...]

Synopsis: Kate (Catherine Keener) has a lot on her mind. There’s the ethics problem of buying furniture on the cheap at estate sales and marking it up at her trendy Manhattan store (and how much markup can she get away with). There’s the materialism problem of not wanting her teenage daughter (Sarah Steele) to want [...]

Synopsis: THE PROPOSAL could have been a strictly script-by-numbers affair, but hilarious performances by Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds improve this romantic comedy. Publishing powerhouse Margaret Tate (Bullock, TWO WEEKS NOTICE) is used to getting her way. She bullies her ambitious assistant, Andrew Paxton (Reynolds, DEFINITELY, MAYBE), earning the ire of all the underlings at [...]

Synopsis: Director Kevin Macdonald moves from documentaries and the Idi Amin drama THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND to this fictional thriller that feels all too real at times. Based on the BBC miniseries of the same name, STATE OF PLAY stars Russell Crowe as Cal McCaffrey, an old-school-style journalist working for the Washington Globe. [...]

Synopsis: Mark Millar’s violent comic tale of wannabe superheroes is adapted by writer-director Matthew Vaughn (LAYER CAKE) with this Marv Films production. Aaron Johnson stars as a teen who steps out of his house one day with a mask and a painted baseball bat and starts to fight crime even though he has no [...]