Movies: Final Portrait, A Quiet Place, The Leisure Seeker

Final Portrait

This is an intriguing peek behind the curtain of Swiss Italian artist Alberto Giacometti.  It is set in 1964 Paris when the artist asks American writer James Lord to sit for a portrait that was scheduled to take one day.

The film takes the audience on a wild ride through the vulgar chaos, insight, and the ‘artistic process’ of the famed painter.

Geoffrey Rush is completely at home in the character of Alberto Giacometti.  Armie Hammer is comfortable in the skin of James Lord.  Clemence Poesy is the painter’s mistress while Sylvie Testud stews as the painter’s wife.  On the up side, Tony Shalhoub shines as the painter’s brother.

The film is equal parts frustrating, charming, bewildering, intriguing and insightful.  It is rated R for language, sexual references and nudity.  Its genre is noted as Art House & International, Documentary, Drama.  The run time is 90 minutes.  Written and directed by Stanley Tucci.  English and French with English subtitles.

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A Quiet Place

This film is intense and terrifying at the same time.  The premise is simple.  If anyone makes any kind of noise at any time, day or night, some birdlike dinosaur comes and kills the noisemaker.  That’s it!

So humans slink around by day or night to survive.  Think of this film as an update on the creature feature genre of the 70’s and 80’s.  We were actually a bit surprised to see the theater quite full for the first showing on a Saturday.

All that said, the acting makes this production work.  Emily Blunt is perfect.  John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe and Cade Woodward deliver solid, convincing performances.

The film is rated PG-13 for terror and brief bloody images.  It is not suitable for children.  It was directed by John Krasinski.  The genre is listed as Drama, Mystery & Suspense.  We thoroughly enjoyed it!

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The Leisure Seeker

Well now…where to begin?!  First, let’s be clear, the critics almost universally panned this film as “clumsy”, “stale” and “lost”.  And those were the kind words!  This film was first released in early February and just now re-released.

That said, the on screen chemistry between Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland characters alone are worth the admission price.  The acting was balanced, solid and believable, even some of the flashbacks and sidebars.  That’s not easy for a story line built on the issues associated with end of life.

The film is listed as Drama/Romance.  It is rated R for some sexual material.  It runs a whopping 112 minutes.

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