It's About Love

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“About Time” About Love

By Skip Sheffield

“About Time” is about love, actually. “Love, Actually” was a big hit for writer-director Richard Curtis in 2003. Now he is back a decade later exploring the fleeting, frustrating, elusive qualities of romantic love.

The gimmicky hook on this one is the fantasy of time-travel. In this case the gift of time travel comes automatically at age 21 to men of the Lake family of Cornwall.

“About Time” opens at the twenty-first birthday party of Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson), an awkward, freckle-faced ginger-haired English lad who aspires to be a lawyer. Tim’s father (Bill Nighy) takes him aside and tells him a big family secret. If you want to go back in time and correct some wrong you may have committed, all you have to do is go in a dark place, clench your fists and Presto! You can return to any previous moment in your life. You can’t change world history, but you can alter something you have already experienced.

Tim has been fruitlessly pursuing Charlotte (Margot Robbie) the gorgeous goddess girlfriend of his troubled sister Kit Kat (Lydia Wilson). As Ray Charles sang in “You Don’t Know Me,” “Afraid and shy, I let my chance go by.”

Tim goes to London sadder and no wiser at the end of summer to begin his law practice in earnest.

At a chance meeting at a night club, Tim is introduced to Mary (winsome, versatile Canadian actress Rachel McAdams), a young woman almost as shy and insecure as he is. Tim is literally bumbling around in the dark, as that is the gimmicky theme of the club. When he tries to go back and make a better impression, he goes too far and misses his connection with Mary, who has no clue as to who he is. There are certain rules that go with time-travel. Tim learns them by default.

Domhnall is the son of the great Irish actor Brendan Gleeson. You could say he is a chip off the old block, with perfect comic instincts and a regular guy appeal that is impossible to dislike. The supporting cast is equally adept, with Tom Hollander as the sardonic playwright who takes Tim under his wing and Vanessa Kirby as Mary’s tart best friend, Joanna. Bill Nighy, who has been in several of Curtis’s films, creates his most moving character to date.

The chemistry between Gleeson and McAdams is just perfect. This movie may recall those giddy moments of your first love. It did for me.

Hate Banks? You'll Love "Capital"

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Crooks Conspire in “Capital”

 By Skip Sheffield

Hate banks and the white-collar crooks who run them?

“Capital” is a French film by legendary Greek-born director Costa-Gavras (“Missing,” “Z”) that will confirm your worst suspicions.

When the CEO of the French bank Phenix collapses and dies on a golf course, an ambitious underling named Marc Tourneuil (Gad Elmaleh) is tapped as his successor.

Tourneuil thinks he is in charge, but he is just a pawn in the treacherous power games that ensue with the hostile takeover attempt from an American hedge fund led by ruthless, pitiless Dittmar Rigule (Gabriel Byrne). It doesn’t help that Tourneuil can’t help falling for exotic supermodel Nassim Liya Kebede.

“Capital” is Robin Hood in reverse. Bankers “rob from the poor to give to the rich.” As one of the characters notes, “They’re grown-up children.” This is fiction that is all too close to the truth.

AARP on the Loose in Las Vegas

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Top-Drawer Talent Gets Silly in Las Vegas

By Skip Sheffield

Old Guys Have Fun Too

On a much lighter note we have “Last Vegas,” which is a silly situation comedy for the Social Security set, directed by Jon Turteltaub (“National Treasure”).

In light of his current marital woes, this could be seen as art imitating life for Michael Douglas, 69, now separated from his beautiful, much younger wife Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Douglas plays Billy, an aging confirmed bachelor who is the last of his Brooklyn gang to attempt a commitment to marriage. Impulsively at his Malibu mansion, Billy proposes to his girlfriend, who is less than half his age. This prompts his childhood friends to throw a last bachelor party in Las Vegas. This takes some doing, as Paddy (Robert De Niro, 70) has hardly left is New York apartment since his wife died.

Archie (Morgan Freeman, 76) lives as a virtual prisoner with his protective son in New Jersey.

Sam (Kevin Kline, baby of the group at 66) has retired, moved to Florida with his wife and is bored out of his skull.

The best I can say of “Las Vegas” is that it is funnier than I thought it would be. These guys are old pros after all, and though screenwriter Dan Fogelman’s script is creaky with old-age clichés, the actors seem to be enjoying themselves. The best thing about the film is Mary Steenburgen as Diana, a retired accountant who has decided to reinvent herself as a night club singer. Steenburgen, 60, is a wonderful advertisement for a woman aging gracefully- and she’s a darn good singer too.

"12 Years a Slave" Powerful, Disturbing

Chiwetel Ejifor, Steve McQueen

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By Skip Sheffield

There are several worthy new film releases this Friday. Standing head and shoulders above the rest is “12 Years a Slave.”

Be advised “12 Years” is not light entertainment. It is perhaps the most realistic depiction ever of slavery in the USA. Slavery is never a pretty sight or sound.

Interestingly, the two main forces of “12 Years,” director Steve McQueen and star Chiwetel Ejiofor, are from the United Kingdom.

“12 Years a Slave” is a true story based on the account of his abduction and enslavement by African-American man Solomon Northup, published in 1853. The screenplay is by another African-American, John Ridley, who wrote the stirring tale of Tuskegee airmen for “Red Tails.”

Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) was a free-born American man living in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1841 with his wife Margaret (Quvenzhane Wallis) and two children. One evening in Washington, D. C. Northrup was approached by two men with a proposition to earn quick, big money touring with a circus show. The men plied Northrup with wine until he was quite drunk. When he woke up in the morning he found himself in chains and manacles. He was forced aboard a sailing ship bound for Louisiana manned by slavers, where he was sold to the highest bidder by Theophilus Freeman (Paul Giamatti).

The high bidder was William Ford (British actor Benedict Cumberbatch), a Baptist minister who was relatively benign as slave owners go. Unfortunately Northrup ran afoul of  Ford’s cruel, racist foreman John Tibeats (Paul Dano), who forced Northrup’s sale to Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), a disreputable, sadistic slave-driver if there ever was one. Epps’ wife Mary (Sarah Paulsen) was not much better, and she was particularly cruel to her husband’s favorite slave Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o). Patsey is the anguished face of total submission and humiliation, raped regularly by Epps and ordered whipped until lacerated and bleeding by Mary.

There will be many instances when you will want to avert your eyes, and perhaps that is the point, painfully, powerfully driven home. Slavery was ugly and horrific and it was a tragedy it lasted as long as it did in the alleged “Land of the Free.” It is an interesting coincidence that Brad Pitt, who played a sleazy operator in the lousy film “The Counselor” plays the good guy, Canadian abolitionist Samuel Bass in this film. Michael Fassbender, who was also in “The Counselor” and two previous Steve McQueen films “Hunger” and “Shame,” pulls out all the stops in portraying one of most reprehensible villains ever seen on film. “12 Years a Slave” is strong yet still necessary medicine to remind us what tore our country apart a century and a half ago.

Laugh, Don't Despair at the D Word

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Don’t Cry; Do “D Word- A Musical”

By Skip Sheffield

“D Word- A Musical,” which has opened at the Rinker Theatre of Kravis Center in West Palm Beach for a run through Nov. 10, is not really a musical, but a musical revue of catchy songs on the themes of being “Ditched, Dumped, Divorced and Dating.”

Orlando’s Jeanie Linders, who created the wildly successful “Menopause: The Musical” franchise, has crafted a similar comic approach to the very real hurt of a marriage breakup. Linders calls it, quite accurately, “a party show.”

Linders and director/choreographer Mayme Paul have cast four women representing distinct types representing women in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.

“D Word” has been honed with previous runs in Orlando and Las Vegas. This experience shows in the precise vocal performances of four solo-quality voices performing in perfect harmony to recorded tracks a set of 14 mostly familiar songs about the flip side of romantic bliss. Unlike “Menopause,” which had parody lyrics to popular songs, the songs have their original lyrics. What is new is biographical information and dialogue from the characters.

The setting is a 6-minute speed-dating event. Erica (Angie McKnight) hasn’t gotten lucky in 14 years. DeeDee (Maddie Castro) is in the dumps after the breakup of her 20-year marriage. Kate (Laura Wright) feels her biological clock ticking. She just wants a “sperm donor.” Jen (Sarah Hester Ross) is trying to rise above the humiliation of losing her fiancé of six years to another guy.

The mood is set with the Gloria Gaynor anthem, “I Will Survive.”

After the one-off original “Single Ladies” we go back to the 1950s doo-wop of Lieber & Stoller’s “Fools Fall in Love” and even farther back to “Just a Gigolo.” Greatest hits such as The Miracles’ “Shop Around,” “The Way of Love” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger” (What Doesn’t Kill You) get new renditions as the ladies drink, talk, cry a little, fight a little and reconcile.

Although this is an ensemble, you will probably have a favorite chanteuse. It seems unfair to single anyone out, but DeeDee Castro is the comic sparkplug as “Your Booty Parlor Babe,” who glories in her first date in years with “Hot Stuff” and bounds into the audience with “Before He Cheats.”

Less than a musical; more than a revue, “D Word” is pure fun in 90 minutes without an intermission.

Tickets start at $39. Call 800-572-8471 or go to www.kravis.org.

"The Counselor" a Major Misfire

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Whatever Happened to Ridley Scott?

By Skip Sheffield

Whatever happened to the Ridley Scott who scared the dickens out of us with “Alien” in 1979; who dazzled us with “Blade Runner” in 1982 and who confused us, but still maintained our interest in “Prometheus” in 2012?

That noted British directed is nowhere to be found in “The Counselor;” a misbegotten mystery-thriller if there ever was one.

The same could be asked of Michael Fassbender, who roused our emotions in Inglourious Basterds” in 2009 and shocked and provoked us in “Shame’ in 2012.

And most ingloriously, whatever happened to the sweet Cameron Diaz we all fell for in the irresistible “There’s Something About Mary” in 1998?

Granted, Diaz has one indelible screen moment in “The Counselor” that will go down in cinematic infamy. It involves a Ferrari owned by another wasted talent, Javier Bardem (with more bizaare hair), the windshield of said Ferrari, and a spread-eagled actress acting slutty but looking silly.

We could go on and on. When did Brad Pitt stop being a hunk? When was Penelope Cruz de-sensualized?

Perhaps the biggest question is how can a script by Cormac McCarthy (“No Country for Old Men,” “The Road”) be so bad and banal?

“The Counselor” of the title is played by German actor Michael Fassbender. He is never given a proper name; just Counselor.

The Counselor goes into hock to buy a huge diamond for his fiancée Laura (Penelope Cruz). He can’t be a very smart lawyer, because he thinks he can make some quick, dirty money dealing with drug baron Reiner (Javier Bardem) and his treacherous girlfriend Malkina (Cameron Diaz).

It’s a bad idea that keeps getting worse and worse. The setting is El Paso, Texas, which is a hotbed of drug cartels and illegal immigration. Do we need to be told again how bad drug cartels are? How they have no regard for truth, decency or human life? How their main motivating factor is greed?

Evidently the Counselor must need remedial training in this obvious lesson. It is neither entertaining, uplifting nor educational to endure this brutal, sadistic exercise. I did so you don’t have to.

Running for the Shelter of Mama's Little Helper

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“Next To Normal” Nothing Like Ordinary

By Skip Sheffield

Slow Burn Theatre’s “Next To Normal” is an extraordinary production of an extraordinarily dramatic musical show. You can find out how extraordinary weekends through Nov. 2 at West Boca High School Performing Arts Theatre.

It takes a lot of nerve to take on the challenge of a Pulitzer Prize-winning modern musical about mental illness. In its fifth season Slow Burn has plenty of nerve, courage, chutzpa- call it what you will. Without first-rate, heartfelt performances backed by precision live musical accompaniment, enhanced by dynamic lighting (Lance Blank), appropriate suburban costumes (Rick Pena) and a serviceable, evocative set (Sean McClelland), “Next To Normal’ could easily be a train wreck. This train stays on the track and arrives on time after two and a half hours of sometimes gut-wrenching emotion, often leavened by dark, sardonic humor.

Patrick Fitzwater is the engineer or director of this hot-burning train and Manny Schwartzman is the musical director, or in old railway terms, the fireman.

The combustible fuel is a cast of six wildly talented singer-actors of various ages, sizes and attitude.

Brian Yorkey’s book is a parable about the incomprehensible sorrow of bi-polar disorders and the detrimental effects on all who try to comprehend and coexist. The story is propelled by Tom Kitt’s musical score in a variety of styles, from rock to schmaltz and waltz, wistful ballads and stand-up-and-be counted anthems.

Diana (Sharyn Peoples) is a forty-something mom who was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder 16 years ago; not too long after giving birth to a daughter Natalie (Anne Chamberlain), now 16 and quite resentful.

Slow Burn co-artistic director Matthew Korinko is Diana’s infinitely patient, frustrated husband, Dan Goodman. Jason Edelstein is Henry, a 17-year-old who has a serious crush on Natalie.

The song “Just Another Day” is the setup for another chaotic day in the profoundly dysfunctional Goodman household. It’s 3:30 a.m. and mom is up, sleepless. A son sneaks in late and is scolded. Natalie is up at 5:30 getting ready for school. Dad is getting ready for another day at work, which is often interrupted. The chorus is completed by a young man with an angel’s voice who we learn later is the son named Gabe (Bruno Vida).

In the course of the first act we will see mom undergo various treatments with her doctors (both played by Clay Cartland). Strange as it may seen, delusions can be funny when mom imagines her shrink is a rock star.

That’s probably enough plot for now. Anyone who has been touched by bipolar disorders will be familiar with all the painful outcomes, including the most drastic.

All of this high drama is sung beautifully in duets, trios, quartets and sextexts in razor-sharp harmonies. This is not Rodgers & Hammerstein and “Oh What a Beautiful Morning.” It is music that makes you think about what may be unthinkable. If you can take it, you will be rewarded. You may even see the light.

Tickets are $40 adults, $35 senior citizens and $25 students. Call 866-811-4111 or go to www.slowburntheatre.org.