Away We Go, and The Big Year, Reign Over Me, and My Week with Marilyn

Sorting through the Netflix selections outside of the big hits there comes a couple of movies that I highly recommend.

At first the subject matter of these movies may not send you headlong into their selection. But these movies have some good writing and some effective cinematography.

Away we Go is a movie about a couple about to have a baby. They think that they will have this baby near a set of grandparents that will be a part of the new child's life. As it turns out the grandparents move to Brussels to start a new phase of their lives. Being of current generation where location and work are not mutually inclusive, the couple sets out to look for a location to raise their new child yet to be born. They travel to places where there are relatives and friends from pieces of their lives. They discover that each has a different and not so wonderful take on raising a child. The extra film that is included in the movie says that the entire movie was shot with a few exceptions in Connecticut. Florida is pretty hard to fake in Connecticut so they had to move there for the Florida scenes.  Its a good solid movie. The soundtrack by Alexi Murdoch is appropriate for the film. He is a Scottish folksinger, songwriter. I tracked down the soundtrack in emusic and also picked up another album from my emusic allotment.

The Big Year has many well known stars. The direction is wonderful as it keeps Bob Black and Steve Martin on script. When they are on script and mostly do not improvise into their zany comedy sketches they do the best. I am sure it took a serious lid to keep them under control. The movie is about competitive bird watching. Its a very entertaining movie with a couple of love interests and the complete gamut of North American scenery. The bird enthusiasts take off on a year long quest to obtain "sightings" of as many species of birds as they can. The movie demonstrates the camaraderie among birders and also their competitive nature. Its got some good writing and some interesting prospective on the lives that affected by the people around them that are not birders. 

For an off the wall performance by a well know actor.. try Reign Over Me. Don Cheadle, star of Showtimes house of Lies, plays an upper class dentist that meets his old dentist roommate who lost his family in 9-11 played by Adam Sadler. The Adam Sadler character has given up his practice over PTSD and is moving through New York Streets on a gas powered skateboard. So if you can picture Adam Sadler has a rain man type character caused not by Autism but from PTSD over losing his family in the airplane over 9-11 you start to get the premise of this movie. It is very well written and the other characters in this movie are big names as well but are basically in cameo form. It is a movie that is compelling in the acting of Don Cheadle and Adam Sadler.

If you need to pick up the shards of this year's oscars its hard not to check out My Week with Marilyn. What a portrayal of Marilyn Monre in the era that speaks volumes of British acting tradition and a star that didn't need acting to command the dominance of the camera. This is one that people will be talking about for years.