The Virgin Spring (1960)

(Originally released as Jungfrukällan)

Starring: Max Von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindbolm, Birgitta Pettersson, Axel Duberg, Tor Isedal

First, the Lowdown: A young girl is murdered. Her killers unwittingly turn to her father for shelter in the night.

Dawn breaks on a farm in the Swedish countryside. A pregnant girl, Ingeri, rousts the fire and begins the early morning chores in the farms main house, but pauses to say a prayer to Odin. Later she is chastised, by Mareta, her devoutly Christian foster mother for staying up too late dancing.

At breakfast, Tore, the head of the household asks Mareta where their daughter, Karin, is because she hasn't helped with any of the daily chores, and they need her to deliver candles to the local church in time for Good Friday. (Tradition holds that a virgin deliver them on.) Mareta insists that Karin is too ill to make such a journey, but Tore is firm. In Karin's room, it turns out that she is not sick at all, merely lethargic from sleeping too much. Upon being woken by her mother, Karin greets her brightly and insists on being dressed in her finest yellow silk shift, fur-lined cape, and embroidered skirt.

Outside, Tore and Mareta prepare Karin's horse. Karin insists that Ingeri join her because the road is long and lonely. Ingeri reluctantly agrees. Along the way they encounter a woodsman's cabin at the edge of the forest. The darkness of the forest frightens Ingeri, and she panics. The woodsman offers to take her in so that Karin can continue her journey.

Further down her path, Karin encounters three herdsmen – two men and a boy – who are instantly attracted to the young girl. Quickly the rush to introduce themselves, at least one of them does – the other adult has had his tongue cut from his mouth and the boy is too shy. They ask Karin who she is and where she is from. Karin tells them a story about being the daughter of a great king in a giant castle, which they all laugh about. She invites them to share her meal.

Meanwhile Ingeri stay at the woodsman's cabin is putting her more on edge. The man tells her that it has been far too long since he has has a woman with him. He also says he recognizes Ingeri as a worshiper of the old ways and shows her his offering to Odin. (Which includes a finger.) Frightened, Ingeri flees the cabin to try to catch up with Karin.

Karin's meal with the herdsmen goes well, until begin pressing how pretty she is. At first Karin takes the compliments demurely, but upon looking at her guests their hidden intentions suddenly dawn on her. She tries to flee them, but they quickly catch her and force themselves on her. After they finish they begin looting her belongings and the mute herdsman clubs Karin to death with a staff. On a nearby hill, Ingeri witnesses this all, too frightened to act. Ashamed at her inability to act, Ingeri runs home.

Later that evening, Tore and Mareta worry about their daughter. Tore is sure that Karin decided to stay the night at the church because of how late it is, but Maret is inconsolable. At the door, however, the herdsmen come calling. They seek shelter from the coming evening and Tore invites them in to wait out the night.

This is the first Bergman film I've had the opportunity to watch and I have to say I loved it thoroughly. I've heard many a filmgoer complain about the open silences that populate his films, but here it adds to the atmosphere. Coming from an era where even stereo sound wasn't possible in theaters, having spans of nothing by ambient sounds playing only makes the viewing experience more immersive.

One thing I was intrigued by is that for a film filled with archetypes, the characters (for the most part) are fairly well rounded. Karin is indeed virginal and naive, but in way that is the product of a sheltered existence. Ingeri is the foil to Karin's virgin, and she is in many ways – she's disobedient, rebellious, and not even devout. And yet the movie only pits them against each other briefly.

Even more interesting for me is Max Von Sydow as Tore. Like most Americans, the earliest role I've seen him in was that of Father Merrin. There, and in every role I've subsequently seen him in, he looks about 60. So it's very odd for me to see him be almost youthful. It's his strength of presence that I think carries best here. Von Sydow looks very much like a farm's patrician, meting out discipline with the same strength he uses to turn his fields.

Line of the movie: “It's the same with people. They quiver like a leaf in the storm, afraid of what they know and what they don't know.”

Four and a half stars. Monkey enema!

Happy Endings (2005)

Starring: Lisa Kudrow, Steve Coogan, Jesse Bradford, Bobby Cannavale, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Ritter

First, the Lowdown: A series of connected stories about people's lives and loves.

Mamie is an abortion counselor who as signed up for a massage. She's nervous at first, especially when she finds out she is going to be serviced by a man instead of a woman. Her tension only increases when the Latino masseur begins to seduce her. The tension is broken, however, when the pair of them start laughing, Turns out Mamie has been dating her regular masseur, Javier (a big no-no in the massage profession).

Meanwhile, Mamie's neurotic stepbrother, Charlie has problems of his own. Charlie's partner, Gil, was the sperm donor for a lesbian couple (one of whom is Gil's best friend) who are now the happy parents of a beautiful boy. The problem is, the couple claim that they used alternate sperm to sire the child because Gil's wasn't compatible. Charlie isnt' convinced they were wholly honest with them about it, however, and is determined to find the truth, one completely neurotic way or another.

Otis works at Charlie's restaurant. And is gay. But doesn't know how to tell anyone, especially his rich father. Desperate to cover up his homosexuality, he lets himself be seduced by professional golddigger, Jude. Jude, being the opportunist she is, quickly trades up Otis for his father, Frank. Frank recently lost his wife and has been dating women young enough to be his own kid to try and recapture a sense of vitality: even as they fleece him for all he's worth.

Mamie, however has bigger things to worry about. A desperate filmmaker, Nicky, knows about the whereabouts of the child she had given up for adoption when she was 17. Desperate to get into the American Film Institute, Nicky tries to set up a reunion between Mamie and her estranged kid so he can film it. Mamie tells Nicky where he can stick that idea, however, so instead Nicky decides to use the information he has on her to blackmail her into making a documentary instead.

Got all that?

Ever since Paul T. Anderson's Magnolia hit the screen there have been multiple imitators trying to put a new spin on the “talking heads” movie by having it involve people who are only tenuously connected to each other. Director Don Roos wants to go one step further toward “originality” however, by putting witty captions between scene changes. While the titles are very witty (my favorite: “When you're a gay man, you have to feel good about yourself when a urologist says, 'Yeah. I pick you.'”), they otherwise come off like that super-annoying guy who has seen the movie thousands of times before and can't help but give you annoying spoilers while you watch it for the first time.

Not only are they kind of unnecessary, but the way they're implemented makes it feel like the director is too afraid of his material becoming too moody and depressing. (Example immediately after one of the characters is hit by a car a caption assures us 'She's not dead'). The meat of the movie comes from the interplay between Jude, Otis, and Frank. Jude's focused cynicism cuts through the foggy cluelessness that both Frank and Otis share. And the movie unfairly seems to focus on them more than any of the other plot threads. It's as if the director emulated the wannabe filmmaker Nickie by coming up with something that one only partially thought through.

Line of the movie: “She's a mother. It's a sick, sick bond. Think of yours; think of mine. It's unwholesome.”

Three and a half stars. Insert witty comment here.

Donnie Darko (2001)

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Holmes Osborne, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnell, James Duval, Daveigh Chase

First, the Lowdown: A teenage boy starts hallucinating about a man in a bunny costume. And then it gets weird.

Fall 1988. America finds itself saying goodbye to the Reagan Administration, and finds itself not yet ready to let go. Meanwhile, in the Darko household, the dinner conversation takes an uncomfortable turn as the eldest sister, Elizabeth, announces to her Republican-leaning parents that she's voting for Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. (Personal aside, despite finding Dukakis a less-than-evil choice to Bush, Sr., I find it difficult to see how anyone would vote for a person whose name has “cock” in the middle of it.) The resulting debate ends with Elizabeth being excoriated for her choice, and thusly steering the conversation to a more immediate concern: the fact that Donnie has stopped taking his medicine.

Donnie has been diagnosed with unspecified emotional problems and is a chronic sleepwalker. One evening during one such bout of somnambulism, a figure in a disturbing rabbit costume named Frank appears to Donnie and tells him that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. That same evening a jet engine detaches from its plane and plummets into Donnie's room. If he had not been sleepwalking, he would have been killed.

The next day, the FAA come to the Darko family and offer to house them in a hotel whilst they repair their house. As further incentive, they give the Darkos a substantial settlement for their inconvenience, provided that they family signs a non-disclosure waiver preventing them from talking about the incident to anyone. Curiously enough, the feds are having difficulty identifying the engine, as there were no flights within the vicinity of their area, and the serial numbers that would tell them what plane it came from are burnt away.

On the way to his therapist, his dad nearly hits an elderly recluse that the town's children have dubbed “Grandma Death.” They swerve out of the way, and as Donnie escorts her back to her house, the old woman whispers something in his ear that disturbs him. That evening, Donnie dreams about walking into the boiler room of his high school and flooding it. Waking up the next day he finds out that indeed someone has chopped open the water main of his school, buried the hatchet used into the head of the school mascot (the “Mongrel”), and spray painted “they made me do it” underneath.

Later on, Donnie meets Gretchen, a new girl at the school with problems of her own. It seems that her stepfather tried stabbing her mother to death, now the two of them have moved to a new city under a new name to prevent any further problems. Gretchen is intrigued by Donnie's quirky intelligence and the two of them begin dating in earnest. Donnie's lashing out to authority figures (the high-strung gym teacher, the confidence counselor during a presentation) only endears her more to him.

Donnie Darko is certainly a bizarre flick, which is surprising that it is as accessible as is to most people. The fact that Donnie is in high school (at the same time period as much of the movie's audience) is probably the major factor. I admire the fact that the Darko family has its rough edges, but the filmmakers don't take the “let's put the fun in dysfunctional” tactic. It's been too easy a cop-out for writers to say “oh, the main character isn't craze, it's his family that's making him crazy.” As the film explores Donnie's interactions with the adults in his life, it's easy to see how difficult it is to find a common ground with an emotionally troubled teen. Donnie's parents, especially his mother, are somewhat distant towards him, but in a way that shows they're scared of upsetting him further.

Another intriguing aspect is the “maybe crazy people see the world differently” angle the movie takes. People have often tried making a comparison between Frank in this movie and Harvey with Jimmy Stewart. Unfortunately what they don't realize is there is nothing whimsical about Frank (at most he gets enigmatic, which is not quite the same thing.) Where Harvey is a symptom of empowerment through imagination, Frank is most certainly a symptom of Donnie's illness (and not always an empowering one). Combine that with a time-travel subplot (just stick with me here) and you've got one weird flick.

Line of the Movie: “The children have to save themselves these days because the parents have no clue.”

Four stars. Avocado is the new black.