Donna Freitas: December 2007 Archives

“Charlie Wilson’s War” is a movie vehicle to please liberal audiences comfortable with confronting the reality of religion’s role on the global political stage. Starring Tom Hanks as Charlie Wilson, a scotch-swilling, womanizing Texas Congressman, Julia Roberts as Joanne Herring, a rich, conservative socialite, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Gust, the quick-talking, foul-mouthed CIA agent, the film is filled not only with spot-on, early 80’s kitsch, but the politically savvy, left-leaning rhetoric "The West Wing" fans came to know and love from screenwriter Aaron Sorkin.

Stupid me. I saw one trailer for "PS, I Love You" starring Hilary Swank, Lisa Kudrow, and Kathy Bates, noted the release date (December 21), and thought to myself, "Ooh, yay! A romantic comedy for the holidays." I didn't bother to read the reviews that came out on Friday morning. I just went to the first showing of the day.

Well, romantic comedy this movie is not.

If I'd done my homework, I would have known that "PS, I Love You," based on the novel by Cecelia Ahern (which I obviously have not read), is really a love story awash in grief. Young Holly (Swank) loses her Irish husband Gerry to a brain tumor within the first 10 minutes of the story--after audiences get a brief glimpse into their passionate, if not a bit strained, marriage. The thing is, I knew that Holly was a widow before I entered the theater. But I somehow thought that this story would be about her falling in love again, perhaps with Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Denny from "Grey's Anatomy"), who features prominently in the trailers but who, it turns out, only makes a cameo in the film.

I’ve been obsessively catching up on the first season of TNT’s “Saving Grace” just in time for its two-part, two-night finale. I figured it would combine one of my latest, favorite TV trends--the crime procedure starring the brilliant female heroine with the killer instincts (a la Brenda Lee Johnson from “The Closer” and Temperance Brennan from “Bones”)—with my other favorite thing: faith.

“Saving Grace” doesn’t disappoint. Thanks to a gritty ensemble cast, but especially the witty yet vulnerable Rhetta Rodriguez (Laura San Giacomo), each episode is filled with moments that captivate, make you laugh, and at times, take your breath away. But it’s Holly Hunter’s pitch-perfect acting as Grace Hanadarko makes the show.

And unlike my other favorite series, “Saving Grace” has another kind of mystery to be solved, which forms the driving arch of the season: why has Earl, Grace’s guardian angel, come into her life? What exactly stands so firmly between Grace and God?

Only the hardest of hearts will be immune to "Juno." Jason Reitman’s latest film about a high school girl named Juno MacGuff who gets pregnant the very first time she has sex with her sweet-natured, timid childhood friend, Paulie Bleeker, is sarcastically funny (though never darkly so), and at times, unexpectedly touching.

Maybe it’s the spot-on soundtrack, filled with the kind of soulful but eccentric-voiced girl-band tunes I listened to back in the day which captured me the moment the lights went dark. Maybe it’s the “Chasing Amy”-style, fast-paced, insightful yet funny yet oddly real and playful dialogue by screenwriter Diablo Cody that got to me and everyone else in the packed-to-the-brim theater where I saw the film. Or maybe it’s the unbelievable, bitter-yet-vulnerable-heart-on-her-sleeve acting by Ellen Page (Juno), who you will forget is actually acting the moment her face hits the screen, not to mention the great supporting cast which includes Michael Cera (Bleeker, aka, the de-flower-er), Allison Janney (remember CJ from "West Wing"?), Jennifer Garner, and J.K. Simmons, among others, that does the trick.

Whatever it is, I assure you that this film will capture you somehow. It will have you laughing and crying and strangely moved by the time the credits roll.

Growing up in a traditional Roman Catholic family instills a few things in you about the sacred and the profane that are hard to shake. "Never enter a church with your shoulders uncovered" is one. "Holy Water is not for drinking" would be another biggie. You just don't do that!

But don't tell that to the makers of "Spiritual Water" and the Wayne Enterprises-based "Holy Drinking Water" companies.

New Line's Cinema's December 7th film release of "The Golden Compass" could not have come any sooner. I'd begun counting the days a while ago--not because I was dying to see the movie--I already saw it twice. But because December...

Each December the New York Times Sunday Magazine does a special issue that I always look forward to: their "Annual Year In Ideas" edition. It goes from A to Z with entries about a mind-boggling range--from the interesting to the...

This weekend the New York Times launched their Style Magazine "T" online and it's pretty fantastic. Their theme for the holiday issue, interestingly enough, is "Art and Soul." The articles include a gorgeous slideshow of photographs by Thomas Struth of...