RUNNING ON EMPTY (SIDNEY LUMET, 1988)

Sometimes a great movie finds a successful formula because of its components. Because it’s done in a unique or stylish or funny way. Other times, a film makes an impression on you simply because it is a great reflection of life. Running on Empty happens to be all of those things.

One of the very first films I covered for this blog was a Sidney Lumet movie – the 1981 police thriller Prince of the City, a film that was unaccepted by critics and audiences 30 years ago, and still hasn’t received the attention it deserves. A few years after that film was released, Lumet directed another interesting movie, about a family on the run from the law, and it is the film that I have decided to discuss today.

Sidney Lumet was born in 1924. He directed television in the 1950s before making his big screen debut in 1957 with the smash hit, 12 Angry Men, which was up for Best Picture at the Academy Awards the following year. Lumet continued to direct throughout the 60s but failed to re-capture audiences the way he did with his big debut. It took almost two decades for Lumet to find success again, but the 1970s were very kind to Lumet. He produced several masterpieces including the 1973 Al Pacino drama Serpico. He followed it up with Murder on the Orient Express, based on the novel by Agatha Christie, starring a host of famed actors at the time. In 1975, he re-teamed with Pacino on Dog Day Afternoon, another critical and financial success. In 1976, he directed Network, perhaps his most famous work, which narrowly lost the Best Picture Oscar that year to the underdog film Rocky. His career took a detour the next several years, after releasing clunkers like The Wiz, an all black remake of The Wizard of Oz, and Deathtrap, a suspense thriller starring Christopher Reeve and Michael Caine. But Lumet kept making movies, and in 1988, he directed one of his best, Running on Empty.

Starring Judd Hirsch, Christine Lahti, and River Phoenix, Running on Empty centers on a family of four who have been fleeing the law all their lives. The parents, played by Hirsch and Lahti, are former liberation army members who are wanted by the FBI. Instead of turning themselves in, the duo run from the law, with their two kids in tow, to avoid them. The family settles into a small New Jersey town where Phoenix’s character is approaching high school graduation and decides he wants to utilize his musical talents and go to nearby Julliard for college. This of course would disrupt the family circle, which is further complicated by the fact that he falls in love with Martha Plimpton, who happened to be Phoenix’s girlfriend in real life (they met on the set of the Harrison Ford movie The Mosquito Coast two years prior).

This is River Phoenix’s career role. He participated in several high profile films such as 1986’s Stand By Me, as a young Indiana Jones in the third installment of the series, The Last Crusade, in 1989, and the Gus Van Sant coming of age drama My Own Private Idaho in 1991. He continued to act over the next several years and garnered a lot of attention for his acting prowess. On October 31st, 1993, Phoenix walked outside of the club The Viper Room, and died of a drug overdose. He had turned 23 years old two months earlier. His brother Joaquin Phoenix, several years younger than River, is a two-time Oscar nominated actor.

Sidney Lumet is now 86 years old. His last film, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead was released in 2007. Given his age and poor health, it is probably the last film he will ever direct. Lumet’s most famous works are the gritty movies he made in the 70s and early 80s filmed on the streets of New York. The city was a playground for several groundbreaking filmmakers in the 70s and 80s, like Martin Scorsese, John Cassavetes, Woody Allen, and later on, Spike Lee and Abel Ferrara.

Running on Empty is not your typical family drama about domestic disputes. It is a sharply written film that stimulates the mind and touches the heart. The chemistry between Phoenix and Plimpton is extraordinary and gives no hint that what we are watching is a movie, a play, something planned and pre-ordained. Their exchanges are as real as life itself. The movie left me with a smile on my face, because I knew that Lumet had delivered another winner. I made myself discuss the film today because it would be a real shame not to. It’s that good.

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (DAVID LEAN, 1965)

They say that David Lean's 1965 magnum opus was the last great epic in Hollywood history. Whether or not this statement is true is debatable. What is clear though however is that in the long career of David Lean, it might be Doctor Zhivago that is his most glorious accomplishment.

Lean's career began as an editor in the 1930s. He began directing during the early 1940s and by the end of the Second World War, he was regarded as one of the top filmmakers in all of Britain. 1945 saw the release of his first big success, Brief Encounter, which has now been adapted into a Broadway show earlier this year. Brief Encounter was a stark portrait of a romance between two star crossed individuals who meet at a train station over the course of several years. A year later, Lean began collaborating with actor Alec Guinness, a working relationship that lasted until Lean’s final film in 1984. Lean won his first Academy Award in 1957 for The Bridge on the River Kwai. A war epic about an American soldier forced into building a bridge while in a Japanese POW camp, it won 7 Oscars, including Best Picture. Five years later, history repeated itself, and Lean won his second Oscar for Best Director for the film Lawrence of Arabia. The film exceeded the Oscar tally of its predecessor, winning 8 Academy Awards, nabbing Best Picture as well. For his next project, lean tackled the famed Russian novel by Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago.

The 1960s turned out to be the most turbulent decade in cinema history. The decade saw the release of many French New Wave films which sent shock waves through the industry. New Hollywood films also changed the way movies were to be made for the next several decades. The old studio system was falling, and individual freedom for filmmakers was rising. The coming years would be unkind to aging film legends like John Huston, George Cukor and John Ford, and saw the arrival of younger, edgier talent like Martin Scorsese, Mike Nichols, and Francis Ford Coppola. This is what makes Doctor Zhivago so unique and impressive. Made exactly at the time of this important transition, it utilized the old school ideals of a generation of filmmakers that were now being abandoned--and succeeded with flying colors.

Doctor Zhivago stars Omar Sharif as a young doctor struggling to survive with his wife and family during the turbulent Russian Revolution. It also stars Julie Christie as a nurse who begins an affair with the young doctor, and Alec Guinness as the title character’s brother. Spanning several decades from the early 20th century until Stalin’s prime year in the 1930s, it is an epic story of love, suffering, and war. That is probably a logline that has been attached to many films over the course of cinema history. Doctor Zhivago excels in every department in order to stand out. The cinematography feels as if a classic painting has come to life. The acting was marvelous and it is shocking that not one of the principal actors received a Academy Award nomination for their performances.

This was Lean’s final masterpiece, and he only directed one other film before retiring in 1984 with A Passage to India. Despite the fact that Lean has gained attention and fame for his Best Picture winning films A Bridge on the River Kwai, and Lawrence of Arabia, it is Doctor Zhivago that remains the best piece of an epic career.

THE BRD TRILOGY (RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER, 1979-1982)

Rainer Werner Fassbinder is, among film students, historians, critics and aficionado’s, one of the most infamous cult figures in the history of cinema. The man who spearheaded the New German Cinema movement of the 1970s managed to direct over two dozen films from the time of his debut in the late 60s until his death in 1982 from a drug overdose. His most famous work, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul was released to critical acclaim in 1974, and invoked memories of classic 50s melodramas. Indeed, it was the work of American director Douglas Sirk, famous for directing melodramas, that Fassbinder was most influenced by. Shortly before his death, Fassbinder directed a set of films that formed what he called The BRD Trilogy (BRD stood for Bundesrepublik Deutschland, the official name of West Germany and of the united contemporary Germany). The trilogy consists of the films The Marriage of Maria Braun, Veronika Voss (otherwise known as The Longing of Veronika Voss), and Lola, all completed between 1979 and 1982, the year of his death. To this day, the trilogy stands as a testament to his legacy as a filmmaker and artist.

The first film in the trilogy, The Marriage of Maria Braun is a typical melodrama. Set amidst the end of World War II, Maria Braun marries a handsome young man, who then disappears amongst the chaos of post-war turmoil. After months of looking for him, she gives up and has an affair with an black-skinned American soldier. She miscarries their child, and then is surprised to find that her husband is actually alive and well. Beneath the surface is a career performance from long time Fassbinder collaborator Hanna Schygulla (she starred in 23 of his films). It is not a film without flaws, but looking at it from the perspective of an artist, it is astonishingly well shot and put together with an enigmatic ending that even Fassbinder himself probably couldn't solve.


His follow up, Veronika Voss, which is an improvement over the first installment, is a bleak drama shot in black and white. Filled with beautiful, dreamy imagery, the film deals with a fading actress, the eponymous Veronika Voss, and a sports reporter who falls in love with her and desperately tries to save her from a mad doctor who treats her for depression. The story was based on Billy Wilder’s classic 50s Hollywood drama Sunset Blvd. It was also heavily influenced by the life and story of famed 1930s and 40s German actress Sybille Schmitz.


The final installment in the trilogy is Lola. An overly flamboyant portrait of a whorehouse and its inhabitants, the story is centered on the eponymous Lola, an aspiring singer falls for a wealthy businessman staying at her mother’s bed and breakfast. The film can be considered the exact opposite of the previous installment, Veronika Voss. A very colorful film, Lola is as glossy as a weekly gossip magazine, and perhaps the lesser film in the trilogy.


There are certain elements that bind these films together. The most important of which is the theme of torn women in Post-World War II Germany. The stories also all converge around the time of the 1954 World Cup, and all three films feature an African-American soldier, played by the same actor, but who meets different ends in each film, suggesting that the films don’t exist in a normal world, but in the hyper-dramatized world of Fassbinder’s creation.


Rainer Werner Fassbinder completed only one other film after the conclusion of this trilogy. On March 17, 1982, Fassbinder overdosed on sleeping pills and cocaine. He left behind a deep collection of complex work, and at the time of his death, he was working on a new film, Rosa L, based on the life of German Socialist, Rosa Luxemburg. The film would later be written and directed by Margarethe von Trotta starring Barbara Sukowa, who played the title character in Lola. Fassbinder was only 37 years old when he passed away.

BLACK SWAN (DARREN ARONOFSKY, 2010)

Let me preface this by saying that in the year 2010, there was no other film that I anticipated more than Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. I eagerly awaited the latest efforts from both Martin Scorsese and David Fincher, and I eagerly await Sofia Coppola’s new film as well as the Javier Bardem-starring film, Buitiful. It is Black Swan, however, that I have awaited since word was released that it would be made. Aronofsky, the visceral and thoughtful director of Pi, Requiem for a Dream and 2008’s The Wrestler, directs Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis in a psychological thriller about a pair of ballerina’s who develop a strange relationship while performing together in a production of Swan Lake.

Natalie Portman is flawless in her role as Nina, a shy, repressed girl who still lives with her mother even though she is an adult. At first, it’s hard to buy her as such a repressed girl when she possesses so much natural beauty and charm. But Portman does a marvelous job with the character and I would not be surprised at all if, come awards season, she was the one female left standing among the best of the year. Vincent Cassel does a good job as her controlling, and fiery director, trying desperately to unleash the inner emotions that lie beneath Nina’s hard shell. That, essentially, is what the movie feeds on: Emotion. And lots of it. The film features so much emotion and feeling packed into a 108 minutes, that by the end, you feel exhausted, like you’ve just endured a 108 minute roller coaster ride. The musical score, composed by longtime Aronofsky collaborator Clint Mansell, is a feast for the ears and should receive high praise for illuminating the tragedy of the story.


It was a lot scarier than I thought it would be. It reminded me a lot of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, with Natalie Portman being a stand-in for the Jack Nicholson character. A person who is on the brink of genius, slowly losing her mind, and eventually seeing, feeling, and experiencing things that aren’t there. The one difference, is that in The Shining, we buy into it and for a moment begin to believe in the supernatural and that it is possible to speak to the dead. In Black Swan, however, I found it hard to believe that some of the bizarre occurrences were really possible.

Indeed, Black Swan feels like a film from another time and generation. The movie evokes memories of classic films such as The Red Shoes and Ingmar Bergman's 1960s mind-bender Persona. Another life-imitating-art tale, The Red Shoes centered on a young dancer who’s life begins to mimic the story of the production she is performing in. Released all the way back in 1948, this British film, in vivid Technicolor, certainly must have served as an inspiration to the filmmakers.


The supporting cast of Black Swan is another big factor in the success of the film. In addition to Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey also exhibits some of the form that made her a star in the 1980s. Mila Kunis does a fine job as well as a sexy and dark rival to Natalie Portman’s Nina. Even Winona Ryder makes a small but memorable appearance. Aronofsky’s direction is finely tuned, like that of a skilled and seasoned director. The story did take some odd twists and turns that ultimately did not satisfy. I left the film astounded, like I had just stepped out of an opera. But I also left wanting more. More from the story, more from the characters, more from the filmmakers. A unique, and brave film it is. But a true masterwork, which it tries so hard to be, it is not.

MENTAL MASTURBATION PART IV

Another list of understated films that don't get the attention they deserve...

Les Enfants Terribles (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1950)
Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1950)
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Robert Ellis Miller, 1968)
Claire’s Knee (Eric Rohmer, 1970)
Vanishing Point (Richard C. Sarafian, 1971)
Papillon (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1973)
1900 (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1976)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
Over the Edge (Jonathan Kaplan, 1979)
Foxes (Adrian Lyne, 1980)
Strangers Kiss (Matthew Chapman, 1983)
The Brother from Another Planet (John Sayles, 1984)
Static (Mark Romanek, 1985)
As Tears Go By (War Kong Wai, 1988)
Alice (Jan Svankmajer, 1988)
Metropolitan (Whit Stillman, 1990)
The Rapture (Michael Tolkin, 1991)
Orlando (Sally Potter, 1992)
Living in Oblivion (Tom DiCillo, 1995)
The Taste of Others (Agnès Jaoui, 2000)
Everything Put Together (Marc Forster, 2000)
The Cell (Tarsem Singh, 2000)
Manic (Jordan Melamed, 2001)
Better Luck Tomorrow (Justin Lin, 2002)
Kontroll (Nimród Antal, 2003)
Somersault (Cate Shortland, 2004)
Control (Anton Corbijn, 2007)
Afterschool (Antonio Campos, 2008)
Redbelt (David Mament, 2008)
Funny People (Judd Apatow, 2009)

THE SOCIAL NETWORK (DAVID FINCHER, 2010)

The Social Network is a David Fincher film. No, no, I mean it is a David Fincher film. It has all the qualities of a Fincher movie. The script was brilliantly penned by Aaron Sorkin, who is quickly becoming one of the, if not the best screenwriter in the business. The performances were well directed and nuanced, headlined by the amazing Jesse Eisenberg who should rightfully receive an Oscar nomination. The shots, the music, the timely social topics are all brands of Fincher’s filmmaking style.

We all know what the film is about. It’s about Facebook. The $25 billion sensation (as of this writing), the website that has attracted 500 million users worldwide (again, as of this writing), and perhaps the biggest thing since sliced bread itself. Facebook first went online in the winter of 2004. Originally it was spearheaded by best friends Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin. Within the year however, Zuckerberg took majority control of the company and drove out Saverin which lead to a huge lawsuit and an out of court settlement. However, the heart of the movie lies in the simple question of whether or not Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from a couple of Harvard students who approached him with a similar idea. In late 2003, Zuckerberg was approached by the Winklevoss twins, a set of athletic rowing men who came from a privileged family. Supposedly, while he was developing their idea into a site, he was creating his own website called “The Facebook”. After two months, the site was finished and up and running. Once the twins got word of this, they brought on a lawsuit as well which ended with a $65 million settlement.

The movie answers the question and doesn’t answer it at the same time. It makes Zuckerberg out to be an ambitious punk, but not necessarily a thief. Justin Timberlake stars as Sean Parker, the inventor of late 90s music sharing company Napster, who served as President of Facebook for a short while before being ousted after a cocaine bust at a party he attended. Timberlake does a great job in his limited role and has certainly evolved from baby-faced pop icon into an actor of serious note. Another stand out performance can be found in the Eduardo Saverin character who was portrayed by Andrew Garfield, a young brit who has yet to make his big splash. He does wonders with the role, and it will be interesting to see what he does with his career in the future.

As for Fincher, The Social Network is his best film in a long time. It is a timely, socio-political topic that the masses can understand and want to understand.

500 million people use Facebook and they are curious as to why they do, and why they are so infatuated with it, why they are so addicted to it, and where the origins of the site are.

Well, essentially, some girl broke Mark Zuckerberg’s heart.

And that’s when Facebook was created.

The awards season is young, and there are many films to look forward to. But The Social Network is the best film of 2010 thus far, and will certainly rack up the nominations when the Oscars roll around next year.

THE LATHE OF HEAVEN (FRED BARZYK AND DAVID R. LOXTON, 1980)

In the DVD version of the The Lathe of Heaven, there is an introduction that precedes the start of the movie. It goes that in 1979, PBS produced a televised film version of the Ursula K. Le Guin novel of the same name, The Lathe of Heaven. Unfortunately, after its premiere on TV, the materials were lost forever and the film was in limbo for years. Finally, recovered was a videotape of the film and from this tape, the movie was carefully color corrected and refined into the current version on DVD. It is a poor edition of the film, and in this day and age, it might even turn some people off. However, the film itself is a masterpiece, and perhaps the best televised film ever made.

Set in the near future, The Lathe of Heaven centers on a young man who attempts to commit suicide by swallowing a bottle of pills. He is unsuccessful in his attempt and is sent to do mandatory therapy. While at the therapist, he reveals to his therapist that he attempted to commit suicide because he suffers because of a strange ability that he possesses. The ability? His dreams can change reality.

The author undoubtedly was inspired by classic sci-fi novelists and writers of the 1950s and 60s like Rod Serling and George Orwell. In fact, the main character’s name is George Orr.

Starring Bruce Davison as Orr, it is a chillingly brilliant sci-fi brain twister. A thoughtless remake was made for TV in 2002 starring James Caan and Lisa Bonet. The original 1980 version still stands as one of the greatest science fiction films of all time.

The only flaws of the film are the special effects, which are admittedly sub par. But considering the film was produced in the late 70s, and had a modest budget to work with in the first place, you have to forgive the filmmakers for the laughable effects.

It is a film for thinkers. It is a film for outsiders. It is a film for science fiction fans. It is a film for people who enjoy movies that think outside of the box and offer more than just casual mindless entertainment.

I’ll end with an interesting trivia bit: The Lathe of Heaven was unseen for nearly two decades because of a copyright issue. In one scene, George Orr plays a record of The Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends". The film was finally allowed to be rebroadcast when The Beatles' version of the song was replaced with one sung by a different vocalist.

DÉJÀ VU (HENRY JAGLOM, 1997)

Déjà Vu is an odd film. It is almost magical. At first glance, you will see a simple film. A simple film about simple people set in simple times. In fact, I will admit, reading about the film beforehand, it sounds a bit boring. It is a typical romantic drama of two married people who meet by chance and fall in love.

That is the log line when viewed from afar. When you dig deeper, you will find a fantastic and warm film about people just like you or me or anyone else really.

Dana Howard is an antique shop owner and travels around the world looking for new artifacts for her store. On a business trip to Israel, she has a chance encounter with a strange, but lovely woman who approaches her and tells her of a story of when she was a young girl during the war, and falling in love with an American GI. The love affair was not to be, however, the woman leaves behind the only artifact that still remains from the relationship, which was one half of a pin. The woman leaves for a moment, and suddenly Dana realizes that things are not what they seem to be. For example, sitting behind her were two female soldiers. But as the woman left, suddenly two completely different people appeared out of nowhere and claim to have been sitting there the whole time. Thus begins, a unique and fascinating journey to find the woman, which leads her to meet a British man who sweeps her off her feet.

Déjà Vu is a love story, yes. But it is a love story in the classic sense of the term. A movie that feels not of its time, the 1990s, but of another time and place. A movie that belongs in that great era of movie-making in the 1930s and 40s. The “golden age”, as they say. The entire movie can be better represented by a story told by one of the characters midway through the film.

The story goes that when Katherine Hepburn was a young lady, before she became a movie star, and the most famous actress in the world, she was once in a car, being driven by her driver. On the way to their destination, the driver needed to stop off at a store to buy some things. So, they stopped off, and the driver went inside. And Katharine remained in the backseat of the car. A few moments later, another car pulled up a few feet away from Miss Hepburn’s car. The backseat passenger of that car rolled his window down and a young man peered out. A very good looking man. The two of them glanced at each other, just glanced, and the whole world just stopped. Nothing existed anymore. Nobody existed; it was just the two of them. And later in her life, Katharine Hepburn said that she knew at that moment, that they were meant for each other. That he was made specifically for her, and she was made specifically for him. But the driver returned, and they drove off. And she never saw him again. Katharine Hepburn lived to be 96 years old. She was quoted as saying that not a day went by that she never thought of that young man, never thought of what could have been. The point of the story is also the point of the movie, and might also be a way of explaining true love and the purpose of existence in general. Sometimes in life, you are presented with an opportunity. A rare opportunity. And you have two choices: you either go with it and see what happens or you ignore it and perhaps end up regretting it forever.

Déjà Vu is an amazing and unique film and even if only one person reads this and watches it, I will smile and know that this film had an impact on at least one other person than myself.

LAST ACTION HERO (JOHN McTIERNAN, 1993)

Last Action Hero might feel like a weird choice to be added to a list of underrated films, but I think it’s worth the distinction. This is one of those action movies that tried to be an innovator in its genre instead of being a typical explosion filled cliché machine. Ironically, it is explosion filled, and it does feature a crazy number of clichés, but that’s the point. It’s a very self mocking action picture. And it’s also a movie within a movie. How many times have you seen a high profile action movie starring one of the most famous a recognizable faces with a concept like that?

Directed by John McTiernan, known best for helming Die Hard and Die Hard 3, Last Action Hero was originally conceived by a couple of college friends including Zak Penn who would later pen several X-Men movies, excuse the pun. A big budget film which notoriously flopped at the box office, it is ultimately plagued by two elements of production. The shots and the cuts. Some of the shots look as if they shot for a low profile television show or commercial. And the editing was awful. There were tons of shots that should have been taken out, but due to pressure from the studio boss, the movie was cut in just two months, not nearly enough time to produce a blockbuster of this large a magnitude.

Schwarzenegger at the time was the biggest star in the world, pulling in $15 to $20 million a picture. He decided to take a departure from serious sci fiction films such as Total Recall and Terminator 2 and focused on a high concept action-comedy where he would be portraying a thinly veiled version of himself.

Filled with cameos from stars such as Sharon stone, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Schwarzenegger’s wife Maria Shriver, Jim Belushi, and Robert Patrick (who starred opposite Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2), Last Action Hero is a movie about movies, the clichés we all know and expect, and the obsession the public has with movies and celebrities in general.

The most significant reason for this movie’s failure at the box office and with critics as well, is that the audience never had the desire to see a movie about a movie. They don’t want to see death and explosions within another film. People watch this film and essentially the fourth wall is broken and that scares people because it breaks the illusion that film provides us with.

This film was a big risk for those involved. Schwarzenegger’s star managed not to drop too far off after the release of this film. He quickly followed it up with his third venture with James Cameron on the hugely successful action-spy thriller, True Lies.

McTiernan went on to direct Die Hard 3 just two years later; it ended up being one of the most successful installments of the popular series. The concept, however, has never managed to scratch the surface of celluloid again. Because as this film proved, people don’t want that illusion broken for them. They need the movies. They need it for entertainment. For fantasy value. For escape. For some, Last Action Hero was a neat twist on an old formula. For others, it was a failed experiment that did not ultimately satisfy. Either way, it is a unique piece of action cinema, and definitely worthy of a second look for those who have not thought of it in several years.

THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE (REBECCA MILLER, 2009)

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is an appropriate title for a wonderful film directed by Rebecca Miller. Released in 2009, the indie flick centers on a 40-ish, still pretty, blonde wife and mother who moves into a retirement village with her much older husband, played by the always amazing Alan Arkin. Despite the 30 year age difference, they have great chemistry together as husband and wife. While she adjusts to this new life, she begins a strange friendship with the son of a neighbor, played by Keanu Reeves. Wright-Penn (or is it just Wright now?) plays the title character of Pippa Lee, a woman who slowly begins to lose her sanity and occasionally drifts back on moments of her life. Pippa’s mother, who is portrayed by Mario Bello, gives a standout performance in very little available screen time. In fact everyone does. The cast is stunning. In addition to Wright-Penn, Arkin, Reeves and Bello, you also have supporting roles from Winona Ryder, Julianne Moore, Monica Bellucci, Zoe Kazan, Mike Binder, and the absolute best surprise of them all, Blake Lively, who plays Pippa as a teenager, and who falls in love with a 50-ish Arkin and marries him.

It is quite possibly the best written drama of the last 18 months. Although it got no love from the Academy (not surprised there. They rarely reward the best films anyway), it did make quite a splash on the indie circuit. The film is in fact, based on writer/director Rebecca Miller’s book of the same name. Miller is of course married to the two-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis, who starred in Miller’s last effort, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, released in 2005.

Pippa Lee excels where others fail. It manages to hold our attention, even though it jumps back and forth between time periods and characters, which is mostly comprised of a core of (very talented) female leads.

The story is so nicely woven together, almost like a beautiful piece of fabric. It is so pleasant to simply listen to the characters talk as if they really exist, and not just speak as if they are in a play or something. Of course, when you deal with such professionals as Alan Arkin and Robin Wright-Penn and Rebecca Miller, you know you will receive a good package.

It is Blake Lively, however, that held the center of my attention the most. Watching her onscreen was a pleasure. A real pleasure. She was only 21 or 22 years old at the time of filming and yet she gave a mature and provocative performance. Her career will go to far depths if she continues on this path. Although, with limited knowledge of the business, it is difficult to surmise what outside influences are really controlling her career choices at this time. In any event, we will always have The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. A career high for several of its stars. And one of my favorite films of 2009.