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DVD extras include audio commentary by director David Sington, editor David Fairhead and archive producer Chris Riley, over an hour of additional astronaut interviews and Apollo flight footage, and an interview with Ron Howard.
Movie: ***
Extras: ***
MARGOT AT THE WEDDING (2007). It's long been a pet peeve to hear when someone dismisses a movie simply because they found the central character to be unlikable; unless the complainant was planning on inviting said character over for tea, it shouldn't matter if the person's unlikable so long as he or she is interesting. But Margot at the Wedding solves the problem: Here's a character both unlikable and uninteresting, meaning there's no room for debate. Writer-director Noah Baumbach's first film since The Squid and the Whale, this is the sort of talkfest that used to serve as bread and butter for European auteurs like Ingmar Bergman and Eric Rohmer back in the 1970s. Yet those masters used dialogue – always witty, often lacerating – as road maps into their characters' psyches, as a way for audiences to understand what made them tick. Here, Baumbach merely uses words as weapons, as a means for his people to tear each other down without ever letting us see beyond the surface cruelty and understand why these folks have a need to draw first (and second, and third) blood. As Margot, a miserable woman who hopes to talk her estranged sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh) out of marrying a layabout clod (Jack Black), Kidman delivers a fearless performance that asks for little mercy. But because she's not supported by Baumbach, her Margot remains a one-note cipher, a bullying beauty whose poor treatment of everyone around her is never delineated beyond some vague chitchat pertaining to daddy issues. For all its supposed dramatic heft, Margot at the Wedding ultimately proves to be as weighty as cake frosting.
DVD extras include interviews with Baumbach and Leigh, and theatrical trailers.
Movie: **
Extras: *1/2
NO RESERVATIONS (2007). As far as 2007 culinary treats go, patrons can't do better than Ratatouille. But whereas that Pixar gem is the filmic equivalent of an entrée, think of this pleasant time-filler as a particularly palatable side dish. Movie-star wattage counts for a lot in No Reservations, and Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart burn brightly, both individually and in their shared scenes. She's Kate, a workaholic chef whose life gets upturned when her sister's fatal car crash leaves her in charge of her niece Zoe (Abigail Breslin). He's Nick, a sous chef who takes a position under Kate at a posh restaurant and quickly finds himself drawn to this tempestuous woman who considers herself the finest chef in all of New York and physically confronts customers who dare complain about her dishes. A frothy confection on the surface, No Reservations, based on the 2001 German film Mostly Martha, spends a great deal of time on the painful loss experienced by Zoe as she comes to grips with the death of her mother. Mostly, though, the movie functions as a charming romantic comedy, one bolstered by the crisp camerawork by Stuart Dryburgh (The Piano) and especially the richly textured music by Philip Glass (The Hours), whose score is so grandiose and award-worthy that it occasionally threatens to overwhelm the small picture it's serving.
The only DVD extra is an episode of the Food Network series Unwrapped which focuses on the film.
Movie: ***
Extras: *1/2
2 DAYS IN PARIS (2007). Not to be confused with the Paris Hilton porn flick One Night in Paris (yes, let's not make that mistake), 2 Days in Paris – one of last year's best films – is a romantic comedy in which both the romance and the comedy are of the sour-pucker variety. The romance is diluted by the sort of emotional outbursts, petty tirades and jealous rages that often define real-life relationships: As we watch 30-something lovers Marion (Julie Delpy) and Jack (Adam Goldberg) spend a couple of testy days in the title city, we wonder if they'll make it through the picture together, let alone remain a couple for the rest of their lives. As for the humor, it's smart and tart, not only springing from the lovers' innate insecurities but also from the xenophobic attitudes that seem to run rampant in every city in the world. Delpy, who's been appearing in movies since she was a child (she's 38 now), exhibits great multitasking capabilities by serving as star, director, scripter, co-producer, editor, score composer and co-writer of the end credit tune. A vanity project? Hardly; more like the work of an accomplished filmmaker who knew exactly what type of movie she wanted to make. Besides, her generosity toward her co-stars is apparent throughout the film: Goldberg is allowed to match her quip for quip, while her real-life parents, Albert Delpy and Marie Pillet, steal scenes as her character's folks. A bit less starry-eyed than Richard Linklater's European twofer, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset (both starring Delpy opposite Ethan Hawke), 2 Days in Paris nevertheless displays a generosity of spirit, even if it's tempered with a pinch of melancholy. A problematic relationship is indeed sad, the film seems to say, but luckily, there will always be enough love to go around in this crazy world of ours.
