A Tough But Admirable "Six Years" at Caldwell

“Six Years” Admirable, Tough at Caldwell Theatre

By Skip Sheffield



“Six Years” is a production to be admired, not loved. The heavy-hitting drama by Sharr White continues through Sept. 4 at Caldwell Theatre Company, 7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton.
The title refers to the six-year-intervals of the play’s five scenes. Scene one is set in 1949 in a St. Louis motel. Phil Granger (Todd Allen Durkin), a dazed and confused World War II veteran, has returned to his distraught wife Meredith (Margery Lowe). Meredith is distraught because Phil simply disappeared in 1944, when he stopped writing home. Phil never told Meredith where he was or what had happened to him.
Phil has a really bad case of what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Back then he would been labeled “shell-shocked.”
While the couple has been reunited, their relationship will never be smooth. Phil has a volatile temper and severe mood swings. Meredith has filed preliminary divorce papers.
The role of Phil is a challenging opportunity, and Todd Allen Durkin runs with it in his Caldwell debut. He can be charming and funny one moment, acidly sarcastic the next, and frighteningly furious without warning.
The role of Meredith is much less flashy. Mostly it is that of quietly suffering, but Margery Lowe conveys real pain, and when she finally begins to stand up for herself, we feel her pride.
Other roles are more sketchily drawn. The Grangers’ son Michael (Michael Focas) is hardly there; a casualty of war if you will.
Meredith’s brother Jack Muncie (Gregg Weiner) has some short, powerful moments of interaction with unpredictable Phil.
With their marriage in shambles, two additional characters are introduced into the Grangers’ marital drama. Tom Wheaton (David Perez-Ribada) is only too happy to provide a shoulder to cry on- and more- for Meredith. Dorothy (Betsy Graver) is a seductive character who is shocked witness to one of Phil’s scariest breakdowns in a California motel.
Director Clive Cholerton uses video projections and vintage recordings to depict the five different eras. Tim Bennett’s set utilizes a turntable to enable quick, smooth scene changes.
“Six Years” is mostly about bad stuff: war, mental instability, infidelity, cruelty, divorce, the rise of cookie-cutter suburbs and even the effects of bad diet. In short it is a lot like real life, and real life, as most of us know, is never a picnic.
But if you are looking for thought-provoking commentary, heartfelt acting and historical reference, you should find much to admire in “Six Years”
Tickets are $38-$50. Call 561-241-7432 or go to www.caldwelltheatre.org.

Same Time, One Day

If You Love Love, You’ll Love “One Day”


By Skip Sheffield


A lot can change in one day. In the romantic comedy “One Day,” two college graduates meet on St. Swithin’s Day, July 15, and have an impetuous fling that changes their lives- but not right away.
St. Swithin has no bearing on University of Edinburgh graduates Emma Morley (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter Mayhew (Jim Sturgess) other than it is a funny name reference in David Nicholls’ novel “One Day.”
Nicholls adapted his novel and tapped Danish director Lone Scherfig (“An Education”) to helm this project. While the story somewhat resembles the play “Same Time, Next Year,” there are important differences. This is not about an affair. It is about friendship that blossoms into love.
The fact that Scherfig is a woman with subtle sensibility helps balance the equation. “One Day” is equally about man and woman, and how they love.
On that fateful graduation day July 15, 1988, Emma and Dexter meet. She is a serious-minded scholar with big Harry Potter wire-rim glasses and minimal makeup. He is a glib, handsome, frivolous playboy type rather spoiled by his doting mother (Patricia Clarkson) and a gruff but loving father (Ken Stott).
Even when she is dressed-down, Anne Hathaway (with convincing British accent) is a radiantly beautiful woman. Jim Sturgess is a remarkably good-looking guy, so they make an appealing couple. When they impulsively make love on the night they meet, we intuit this will be more than a one-night stand, even though the morning after in the glare of day they vow to “just be friends.”
And so on July 15 over the course of 20 years, Emma and Dexter meet and part again and again. Her trajectory is upward. She becomes a teacher, then writes the book she has always been threatening to do.
Dexter’s personality and good looks make him ideal for television. For awhile Dexter’s career and finances soar as host of his own vapid, glitzy TV show.
Emma acquires a determined admirer in Ian (Rafe Spall), an aspiring comic who works a day job at the same restaurant Emma works.
Ian is a fool, but he is played with great dignity by Spall, and Emma is such a compassionate person, we can see her befriending him out of pity.
But we the viewers and readers know Emma and Dexter are destined for each other. When they meet in picturesque locales such as Paris and Calais, the mood is rapturous. Guided by Scherfig, Hathaway and Sturgess make us feel the giddy elation of love. Conversely, we feel love’s flip side, the depths of despair.
“One Day” is a first-class weeper. It is also an ideal date movie. I suggest seeing it with someone you love. You may just get lucky.

Cowboys, Aliena and Incurable Romantics

A Fine Madness Called “Crazy, Stupid Love”


By Skip Sheffield


Is there one perfect soulmate for every person? A lot of people think so. They are called “incurable romantics.”
“Crazy, Stupid Love” is a very funny romantic comedy that has fun with the notion there is that perfect person, and if you find him or her, you should hang on for dear life and never give up.
That incurable romantic is named Cal Weaver and he is played by Steve Carrell, who also co-produces. Cal’s soulmate Emily, with whom he fell in love at age 15, is played by Julianne Moore.
Both Cal and Emily Weaver have good jobs and two great kids who live at home and another who has already left the nest. What could possibly go wrong? In Dan Fogelman’s clever script, plenty. Fogelman is a bit of a Cinderella story, having struck it rich first as an unknown with the surprise hit “Cars.” He is now one of the hottest young screenwriters in Hollywood. Fogelman has a way of stating simple, obvious truths in a very funny, ironic way.
Without warning Emily drops a bombshell: she wants a divorce. She has lost sight of what she had and lost her head over a snarky co-worker.
Kevin Bacon is quite adept at playing snarky. His David Lindhagen is a jerk of the first order and a perfect foil for the impossibly pure, squeaky clean Cal, who has been with only one woman in his life.
“Twenty-five years of marriage, and you have nothing to say?,” Emily demands her shell-shocked mate.
True, most guys tend to clam up in this kind of emotional situation, and Cal is more tightly-jacketed than average. Jumping out of a car is pretty extreme, but here quite funny.
In real life it would be hard to imagine some studly dude noticing the morose Cal nursing drinks in a bar every night and deciding to do a Henry Higgins makeover on a complete stranger.
That is just what happens in this fantasy, directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the same guys who directed the gay romance “I Love You Phillip Morris.”
Jacob (Ryan Gosling) is a chick magnet with killer pickup techniques. He decides to impart his ways with women on the hapless Cal, and bit-by-bit it works.
This gives Carrell ample opportunity to do his bumbling geek schtick that he honed in “40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Dinner for Schmucks” and “Dan in Real Life.” The funniest of these bits co-stars Maria Tomei as a spitfire eighth grade teacher.
Cal is not the only incurable romantic in the story. So is his 13-year-old son Robbie (Jonah Bobo), who is smitten with his 17-year-old babysitter Jessica (Analeigh Tipton). Also discovering her possible soulmate is Cal’s eldest daughter Hannah (Emma Stone), a junior lawyer.
This is shaping up as the summer of Emma Stone, and once again she and her gorgeous blues eyes acquit themselves well.
“Crazy, Stupid Love” is not going to change anyone’s notion of romantic love, but it may help those who have been romantic saps recognize and laugh at themselves.

“Cowboys and Aliens” Neither Fish Nor Fowl

When I did an advance on “Cowboys and Aliens” for Atlantic Ave magazine earlier this summer, I thought to myself this could be daringly brilliant or really dumb. The answer lies somewhere in between. This Steven Spielberg production looks great, has a dynamite cast and a script that both honors and spoofs the movie Western traditions, but it gets headed off at the pass once those darn aliens start jumping around.
Steely, blue-eyed James Bond actor Daniel Craig looks good in a cowboy outfit, and does some convincing choreography as badass gold-robber Jake Lonergun. Harrison is more grizzled than ever as his nemesis, Col. Woodrow Dolarhyde, and Olivia Wilde is stunningly lovely as the obligatory babe, Ella Swenson. Ella has a very special secret in this tall tale adapted by director Jon Favreau from the 2006 graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg.
“Graphic novel” is just a nicer way of saying comic book. Like “Super 8’ earlier this summer, “Cowboys and Aliens” goes off the rails- way off the rails- and off a cliff. The advance screening crowd seemed to enjoy it and even applauded after the grand finale, but they didn’t pay for tickets. This movie will please neither fans of Westerns nor alien monster movie fanciers. I guess that leaves fanboys (the film debuted last week at Comic-Con). We’ll see if there are enough of them for this film to earn back its production costs.

"Anita" a Tale of Survival and Hope in Argentina

“Anita” a Story of Survival and Hope

By Skip Sheffield

Argentina is a fascinating country on the other side of the world from the USA, yet in many ways familiar.
There are probably more European immigrants in Argentina than any other South American country. Both former Nazis and Jews fleeing from persecution resettled in Argentina before, during and after World War II.
I offer this as background for an Argentinean film called “Anita.” The Anita of the title is a young Argentine woman with Down syndrome. Anita lives with her mother (award-winning Argentine actress Alejandro Manzo) in Buenos Aries. Anita’s mother runs a small stationery shop she inherited from her late husband. One morning her mother leaves Anita in the shop so she can attend a Jewish anti-defamation league meeting. She locks the door and cautions Anita not to leave.
A horrendous explosion occurs while Anita is up on a footstool. The blast blows out the windows and door of the shop. Anita is knocked unconscious, but she recovers and wanders out through the wreckage in search of her mother.
Writer-director Marcos Carnevale was inspired by an actual anti-Jewish terrorist attack in Buenos Aries on July 18, 1994. The attack claimed the lives of 86 innocent victims and injured hundreds more. It was the single deadliest terrorist attack in Argentine history. The perpetrators have never been located or prosecuted, though the origins of the attack are strongly suspected to be in the Hezbollah anti-Israel, anti-West hate group in Iran.
But “Anita” is not about politics, violence or religion. It is about one mentally-challenged woman’s survival, with the help of complete strangers. “Anita” celebrates human compassion. Not all of Anita’s protectors are willing or selfless. Some pass the buck, so to speak, but conscience inevitably draws them back in.
For this reason I find “Anita” a wondrously hopeful film. If you believe in the inherent goodness of human beings, it is the “feel-good” movie of the season.

into eternity

“Into Eternity” a Truly Scary Movie

By Skip Sheffield

Forget your monsters, aliens, giant righting robots, vampires or zombies. “Into Eternity” is one of the scariest movies I’ve seen in years.
“Into Eternity” is a documentary film by Danish multimedia artist Michael Madsen. It is only 75 minutes long in English, Finnish and Swedish language, with subtitles, but it will stop and make you think for a long, long time.
Onkalo is the name of a subterranean storage facility on a remote island in Finland. “Onkalo” means hiding place in Finnish, and that is what the government intends to do with the radioactive nuclear waste from its power plants: bury it in bedrock far below earth and then seal it up for all eternity- or at least for 100,000 years, which is how long it takes for radioactivity to dissipate from plutonium and uranium. The huge challenge is that humans have never constructed anything that has endured even a tenth of that time. What will the world be like 100,000 years hence? Will there even be human life?
“Into Eternity” poses very basic philosophical questions as the director films the work in progress at the gloomy, eerie site. Excavation for Onkalo began in 2003, and construction won’t be finished until the 22nd century. There is a debate as to whether the site should have prominent warning signs on it, or be totally unmarked. Given the curious nature of humans, some future treasure-hunter could discover the concrete seal and think great riches are contained inside. Because language and communication is always changing, would humans understand any of the current languages or international symbols?
The tragic recent earthquake in Japan has driven home the very real threat of radiation sickness and death unleashed from the world’s nuclear reactors after natural disasters. Finland is only 16th in the world in nuclear power. The USA is No. 1, with France and Japan in second and third place. How safe are the current above-ground nuclear waste storage containers? How long will they remain safe?
These are very troubling questions. It is a credit to the people of Finland that they have decided to do something about it. We face serious potential problems here in America that could affect us and our offspring for all eternity.
“Into Eternity” is the opposite of an escapist movie. It is a film that challenges, frightens, troubles and angers the viewer, yet there a spooky beauty to it, accompanied by an equally spooky soundtrack contemporary composer Karten Fundal and the great Finnish
composer, Jean Sibelius. Proceed at your own risk. Life is complicated, and growing more complex every year.

Waldermar Torenstra and Karina Smulders in "Bride Flight"

As Newspapers Go, So Goes the New York Times?

By Skip Sheffield

Love it or hate it, the New York Times sets the standard for US journalism. What would happen if the great gray lady of newspapers sickened and died?
That is the disturbing question posed by the documentary “Page One: Inside the New York Times,” opening at FAU’s Living Room Theaters.
Filmmaker Andrew Rossi uses a kind of scattershot approach, starting with gloomy obituaries on once-great newspapers, then focusing on talking heads such as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, then moving on to editors, reporters, editorial writers, pundits and famous authors like Gay Talese and Tom Wolfe.
One guy who keeps popping up is NYT columnist David Carr, a raspy-voiced guy who is a self-admitted former crack addict. Carr has a wry sense of humor, but he is an odd choice to represent the most respected news source in America. More conventional is current executive editor Bill Keller, whom we see holding editorial meetings, but we don’t really learn about the complexities of gathering the news worldwide. We do see the NYT’s gorgeous new headquarters, which ironically has already been sold and leased back to the newspaper
It helps to care about print newspapers to be interested in “Page One.” I care deeply about newspapers, though I no longer make a full-time living as a journalist. I think a transition to mostly online is inevitable. I subscribe to New York Times online, and it helps me feel plugged in.
For the foreseeable future I think we will still have flagship print papers such as New York Times and Washington Post, but smaller, lower level papers such as the entire now-bankrupt Tribune Company will continue to close their doors. However, I think community newspapers such as Boca Raton Tribune will continue to be read as long as they are supported by advertising.


“Bride Flight” Sprawling, Sexy and Soapy in New Zealand

“Bride Flight’ is a big, sprawling, soapy, sexy saga using a real event as a springboard: the final 1953 Great Air Race from London to Christchurch, New Zealand aboard the winning KLM Dutch airliner.
Aboard the plane are three women who strike up an instant friendship. Esther (Anna Drijver) is a Jewish fashion designer whose family was wiped out in the Holocaust. Marjorie (Elise Schaap) aspires to conventional marriage and motherhood, but it will not turn out exactly as she hoped. Ada (Karina Smulders) is a dewy beauty who instantly falls for handsome passenger Frank (Waldermar Torenstra) although she is promised to another man in New Zealand.
That man is Derk (Micha Hulsof) is a priggish ultra-conservative minister who spurns Ada’s advances on their wedding night, yet becomes a stern father to three kids.
It is the on and off relationship between Ada and Frank that provides the sexy part of the story. Marieke van der Pol’s screenplay veers between 1953 and sometime in the 1960s, when Frank has become a successful winery owner. The very beginning and very end of the film is set near the present and the death and funeral of Frank.
Director Ben Sombogaart has a way with the camera and the scenic vistas of New Zealand. “Bride Flight” is gorgeous and a bit too long at two and a half hours, but between the soap opera-complicated plot devices, there is some hot stuff, Dutch-style. Yes, Smulders smolders.

Cars 2 a Flimsy Retread

“Cars 2” an Unreliable Re-Tread

By Skip Sheffield

“Cars 2” just isn’t the same without the voice and presence of Paul Newman. The young audience won’t notice or care about this, but an old gearhead like me is affected adversely. Movie star Paul Newman, who died Sept. 26, 2008, was probably the most famous non-career car racing enthusiast in America.
Newman’s character of Doc Hudson, represented by a 1951 Hudson Hornet, was the heart and soul of “Cars,” the 2006 Pixar computer-animated release. Doc was both a doctor and a judge in the fictitious town of Radiator Springs, Arizona. The town was located on the once busy Route 66, which famously “winds from Chicago to L.A.” When the new and improved Interstate 40 was built, it by-passed Radiator Springs and many other small towns like it.
“Cars” was an unexpected hit because there are so many car freaks in America, and the story, written by Pixar founder John Lassiter and Joe Ranft, honored history and folklore while providing light entertainment by an all-star cast of anthropomorphic motor vehicles.
Alas “Cars 2” is a shoddy re-tread of the original concept. Lassiter is back as co-director with Brad Lewis, but Joe Ranft was killed, ironically in a car accident before the first film was released.
Lassiter and screenwriter Ben Queen must have felt the need to transplant the two main characters: young racer Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and his tow-truck sidekick Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) to foreign locales for fun and merriment. The fatal flaw in this plan is that it gave way too much screen time to the comedian who calls himself Larry the Cable Guy. Larry is a one-trick pony; which is drawling, dim-witted rube.
Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer voice two new characters: Finn McMissile (Caine in James Bond mode) and Holly Shiftwell (Mortimer as a Bond babe).
These characters get sidetracked as Lightning and Mater blunder their way through Japan, Italy and the U.K. Returning voices Cheech Marin, Jeff Gordon and Bonnie Hunt are largely ignored.
The film is in 3-D, which I am told by my fully-sighted friend Beth, is quite effective. The theater which hosted our advance screening chose to play the film at deafening volume, perhaps in an effort to keep everyone awake. Sorry kids, I’m afraid “Cars 2” will try the patience of even the most loyal Disney/Pixar fans.