1. Fracture (with Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling)
Synopsis: Ted Crawford (Hopkins) murders his adulterating wife, then hands over the murder weapon and confesses to the whole thing. Willy Beachum (Gosling) is the Deputy District Attorney who believes putting the guy behind bars is going to be a cakewalk -- that is, until the entire case begins to fall apart, piece by piece.My Two Cents: I thought this was a phenomenal movie. What I call "A Thinker." Something great about this movie was that it was skillfully subtle with its plot twists, rather than overtly dramatic. It was such a well written script: the viewer watches Crawford commit the crime and admit to it, and then the fun part is watching him masterfully wiggle out of the whole thing. But besides all that, isn't it just so much fun to see Anthony Hopkins play yet another deliciously creepy character?
2. Gone Baby Gone (with Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan and Morgan Freeman)
Synopsis: Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane. Little girl goes missing in Boston. Patrick Kenzie (Affleck) is a private investigator hired by a member of the family to help the police find her. Extremely unexpected complications ensue.My Two Cents: I took away a few things from watching this film. #1) Ben versus Casey in front of the camera = Casey victorious any day. It's clear now which brother is the better actor. #2) Having said that, Ben Affleck did a great job directing this one. Let's hope it was a career epiphany for him that sticks. #3) Human character really sucks sometimes.
3. No Country For Old Men (with Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin)
Synopsis: Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. In Texas, Llewelyn Moss (Brolin) happens across a drug dealers' exchange that left no survivors. But, there is a big box of cash lying around at the scene, so he takes it. Anton Chigurh (Bardem) is a homicidal maniac who is after the money and will try to kill anyone and everyone standing in his way.My Two Cents: This movie won four Academy Awards, including "Best Picture," and told an interesting story in an interesting way. But man, Javier Bardem's character freaked me the hell out.
4. Iron Man (with Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow)
Synopsis: Based on the Marvel Comics. Tony Stark (Downey) is a wealthy businessman who also happens to be a mathematical, engineering genius. His company primarily designs, builds and sells weaponry. After a near-death experience, Stark has a change of heart (literally ... just see the movie) and decides to build the greatest weapon of all -- this time, to be used for good, not evil. Of course.My Two Cents: I was skeptical that this movie was going to be anything beyond amusing, but in actuality, it wasn't so bad. Not the best Marvel Comics adaptation, by any means (because those would be the Batman movies), but still, the screenplay was nowhere near as bad as I expected. Honestly, I believed this was going to be like Transformers, part two. Just one major concern, however ... Does it worry anyone that this film makes Middle Easterners The Bad Guys? Is that politically correct in this day and age? It's reminiscent of the Cold War, when Russians were suddenly The Bad Guys in every other film. Are the children of this generation going to grow up automatically prejudiced against persons of Middle Eastern descent if filmmakers keep casting shadows over them? I see a danger here.
5. Michael Clayton (with George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Sydney Pollack and Tilda Swinton)
Synopsis: I don't think it's possible to sum up this movie in only a few sentences, but let me try. Suffice it to say that Karen Crowder's (Swinton) employer is doing something illegal. Michael Clayton's (Clooney) employer is the law firm that represents that company. When the law firm's top litigator suffers a sort of mental breakdown and runs away, Clayton is responsible for bringing him back. But it's just never that simple, is it? Once Clayton learns the company's terrible secret, a hit is put out on his life, and he has to find a way to expose them.6. Atonement (with Keira Knightley and James McAvoy)
Synopsis: Based on the novel by Ian McEwan. Briony Tallis, younger sister of Cecilia Tallis (Knightley), accuses her older sister's lover, Robbie (McAvoy), of raping a guest in their home. Even though he's innocent, the court finds him guilty according to Briony's false account, and he is sent to jail, and then to the battlefields of World War II. The rest of the film revolves around Cecilia and Robbie's attempts to clear Robbie's name and reunite.My Two Cents: If you hear that this movie was "visually stunning and extraordinarily powerful," it's not just a cliched review, this film was truly something special. The storyline really stayed with me, long after I left the theater. In fact, the plot was so engaging, that I had to buy the book. I'm a huge fan of reading books that were adapted into movies, and I can't wait to see what this story looks like on paper. It's next on my reading list.
7. Leatherheads (with George Clooney, Renee Zellweger and John Krasinski)
Synopsis: Somewhere in the 1920s, Dodge Connolly (Clooney) recruits a star college football player and war hero, Carter Rutherford (Krasinski), to save his rapidly deteriorating team. Lexie Littleton (Zellweger) is a newspaper reporter out digging around for a story that will prove Rutherford isn't as polished as he looks. The two men vie for her affections while changing the face of football, all while Littleton gets closer and closer to finding what she's looking for.My Two Cents: This movie could be described as charming. While it didn't make me feel as though I'd just had a raucous good time, it was cute in its own right. It kind of reminded me of Some Like It Hot, and I think that's what the director (Clooney) was going for -- something of an old (old, old) school romantic comedy. Let's put it this way: I wouldn't run out to rent it tomorrow, but if it happens to come on HBO the next time you're flipping through the channels, it would be worth watching.
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