HINDSIGHT IS 20/21: ENEMY AT THE GATES

Twenty years ago, I was prevented from seeing the World War II film Enemy at the Gates in theatres by an overzealous box office employee, who took the film’s 14A rating (meaning you had to be 14 or with an adult) far too seriously, demanding to see photo IDs from a couple of 13-year-old kids. My friend and I only had junior high school IDs (showing we were underage), so we took the L and saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon instead – in hindsight, a much better film, and incidentally the first subtitled film I ever watched in theatres. I eventually saw Enemy at the Gates at home on VHS, where I found it to be a relatively solid war movie, depicting a cat-and-mouse game between a pair of snipers (played by Jude Law and Ed Harris) during the Battle of Stalingrad. I hadn’t seen it in about fifteen years, however, so I was curious to revisit it for this instalment of Hindsight is 20/21.

Throwback Thursday: P.S. I Love You

I like to think of myself as rather open-minded, at least when it comes to cinema. I’ll see anything, from the latest mindless summer blockbuster to foreign arthouse films to low-rent horror flicks, and I’ll try to approach whatever movie I’m seeing without already having my mind made up. Of course, I eagerly anticipate the next superhero sequel or Coen Brothers masterpiece as much as any other cinephile (with inevitably leads to disappointment, usually with the former), and my expectations are frequently lowered for other genres of film, but, in general, I try to avoid pre-judging things too much. This has resulted in some of my most surprisingly enjoyable cinemagoing experiences – the Dredd remake/reboot, for instance, or even Iron Man 3 last year. I never would’ve predicted that the re-imagining of an awful Sylvester Stallone comic book adaptation would be great, or that the third installment in a superhero saga would be better than the first two, but then that’s why you watch the movies.

However, my open-mindedness doesn’t stretch into infinity. With that in mind, I present P.S. I Love You, a 2007 romantic comedy starring two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank and Scottish hunk Gerard Butler, and directed by Richard LaGravenese (better known as the screenwriter of The Fisher King). My girlfriend wanted to watch it for St. Patrick’s Day, and I dutifully obliged, being the good boyfriend that I am. In general, though, I don’t mind watching romantic comedies: I find them light, enjoyable, and frequently funny, and they usually avoid cavorting in the immature toilet humour that plagues most film comedies these days. That’s not to say they’re not immune from my criticism; indeed, in the past decade alone, I’ve been unfortunate enough to witness the following cinematic travesties: No Strings Attached, Valentine’s Day, When in Rome, The Bounty Hunter, and the nadir, Date Movie (still the worst movie I’ve ever seen – The Room included). It’s an inauspicious list.

Labor Day

(Jason Reitman, 2013, USA)

[spoilers ensue]

Canadian wunderkind Jason Reitman, son of celebrated director Ivan, has made his name on a string of snarky contemporary dramedies (Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air, Young Adult), differentiating him from his father’s more broadly appealing form of comedy, but Labor Day is the younger Reitman’s first overt attempt at melodrama. Adapted from a 2009 novel by Joyce Maynard, the story is ostensibly a coming-of-age tale; narrator Henry Wheeler (voiced and briefly played by Tobey Maguire) recounts an event from his childhood, when he and his lonely mother Adele (Kate Winslet, all nerves and acting tics) were summarily taken hostage by escaped convict Frank Chambers (a goateed Josh Brolin) over the titular holiday weekend. Over the course of several days, a number of overly dramatic, supposedly life-changing things happen: Frank turns out to be not such a bad guy (although definitely still a murderer), fixing squeaky doors and changing the oil and stuff like that; Adele and Frank inevitably fall in love and have grunting, sweaty sex (that is curiously never shown); and Henry learns how to hit a baseball from the father he never had (because the father he does have [Agent Coulson] is off starting a new family with his secretary).