Good (2008) - Mortensen stands out in under-appreciated Nazi drama

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+ Best German Movie of the Year

 

Viggo Mortensen sports a swastika on his black tie and looks dejectedly downwards on this praise-filled poster for Vicente Amorim's Good

Professor Halder, a literary man in 1930s Germany, learns to adapt himself to the new circumstances, when the Nazis assume power, and despite the protests of his Jewish friend he is appointed as an SS officer.

 

Good is written by John Wrathall (The Liability (2012)), based on the same-titled 1981 play by C.P. Taylor (And a Nightingale Sang (1977)), and directed by Vicente Amorim (The Middle of the Earth (2003)).

A heavy story comes to life here as an elegant film thanks to distinguished photography (by Andrew Dunn (Precious (2009))) and a characteristically outstanding performance from Viggo Mortensen (The Reflecting Skin (1990)) as Halder. This is a difficult character, whom we would otherwise be prone to reject swiftly as overly naive or as a fictitious construct, but here he stands out as a realistic, painful figure: A good, educated man, who simply doesn't have the imagination to realize what incredible atrocities his countrymen are actually in the midst of carrying out, and who therefore does what we humans are so apt at and simply adapts to the changing circumstances.

Good is a heavy and provocative film, - and it is very well-made.

 

Related post:

 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

Top 10: Best German movies

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 15 mil. $

Box office: 1.5 mil. $

= Box office disaster (returned 0.1 times its cost)

[Good premiered 8 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 96 minutes. Producer Miriam Segal had wished to adapt Taylor's play since seeing it in 1981. Mortensen had also seen and been impressed by the play in London in 1981. Shooting took place in Budapest, Hungary around May 2007. The film opened #68 to a 9k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked the following - and last - weekend at #66 in 8 theaters, grossing 27k $ (1.8 % of the total gross). The film's biggest 3 markets were Spain with 1.1 mil. $ (73.3 %), Brazil with 202k $ (13.5 %) and the UK with 89k $ (5.9 %). Amorim returned with Dirty Hearts (2011). Mortensen returned in The Road (2009); Jason Isaacs (Green Zone (2010)) in 2 TV-series and a short prior to his theatrical return in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009). Good is rotten at 33 % with a 4.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Good?

Friends with Money (2006) - Holofcener's poignant midlife-crisis dramedy

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Dramedy of the Year

The four great actresses top this simple poster for Nicole Holofcener's Friends with Money

Friends with Money is the third feature by great New Yorker writer-director Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said (2013)).

Olivia is the black sheep in her group of friends, who have all three married and become wealthy. She is single, lonely and works as a maid. But as it turns out, she is not the only one of them who has problems.

Holofcener has established herself as a strong chronicler of modern American urbanite lives and issues, and her intelligent and warm, sardonic humor shines through in Friends, which is filled with solely realistic characters.
They, - especially the ones around Olivia, who have "made it" and are off-puttingly aware of this at times, - are sometimes unsympathetic, but through the efforts of a great cast, we still never have enough of them:
Jennifer Aniston (Cake (2014)) proves her weight as a fine dramatic actress, and Catherine Keener (Into the Wild (2007)) and Jason Isaacs (Good (20008)) share especially one piercingly written and played scene SPOILER as a man and wife whose marriage has really hit the rocks. Frances McDormand (Olive Kitteridge (2014), TV-miniseries) and Simon McBurney (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)) are also great as a married couple who are pulled in each their own problematic directions as well, and particularly McDormand shines as a menopausal woman with an anger problem.

Simon McBurney and Jennifer Aniston in Nicole Holofcener's Friends with Money

The details:

The score is composed by the great Rickie Lee Jones (Femme (2013)) with Craig Richey (A Marine Story (2010)), but unfortunately, it doesn't add very much to the film.
Friends with Money is a fine film about menopause and midlife crisis for married and unmarried people, more than a film much about the issue of money between friends. One might have wanted to stay with the characters and story a little longer. Also, the film isn't funny enough to excel as a drama-comedy, and the drama also isn't really stirring enough for it to break out as more than 'good' as a drama.
Still this is a sensitive and smart film with some lovely actors.
Since Enough Said, Holofcener has jumped back on the TV wagon, and I'm sure I'm not alone in hoping that she comes out with a movie for us again some time soon. 

Related posts:

Enough Said (2013) or, The Southern California Mix-Up 
Enough Said (2013) or, There Is One For All of Us (by guest reviewer)
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 

This poster for Nicole Holofcener's Friends with Money presents the film as a happy-go-lucky, a-laugh-a-minute chick-flick, - which it isn't

 Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 6.5 mil. $
Box office: 18.2 mil. $
= Box office success
[Friends with Money premiered as the opening night film at Sundance January 19 and runs 88 min. It opened wide to 4.9 mil. $, but was mostly a limited release at less than 600 screens in North America, where it grossed 13.3 mil. $ (73.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 1.3 mil. $ (7.1 %) and the UK with 0.8 mil. $ (4.4 %). Friends with Money is fresh at 72 % with a 6.6 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Friends with Money?