Inglourious Basterds

Tarantino's new film is breathtakingly good. Ultimately, it's a movie about movies as wish-fulfillment and fantasy, but along the way, what looked like an action-adventure story turns out to be mostly suspense.

Basterds is not an easy movie, overly bloody with violence in some sections, seemingly overly talky in others. But Tarantino's clever pacing often defies expectations in a film that is not exactly what it seems. The movie shifts gears, drops occasional pieces of throwaway humor, and offers surprises: supposedly the story of a group of Jewish American soldiers wreaking vengenance in occupied France, it is more a long shaggy dog story setting up a climax defying viewer expectations and genre conventions.

The central conceit of the story is telling. In a movie theater in occupied Paris, characters watch a German war movie. So we find ourselves watching a war movie about people watching a war movie, based on an actual -- within the reality of the film -- historic event. Characters discuss the event, how they felt about it and how they feel about the film version.

Along the way, there are numerous nods to other films, including Chaplin's The Kid, The Time Machine, Battleship Potemkin, and The Last Metro. There is a truly quirky cameo by Mike Myers, some very nice work by many actors in supporting roles large and small and a oddly-mannered but strong performance by Brad Pitt as the apparently bloodthirsty Apache hillbilly who leads the Jewish soldiers. But the best work is by young French actress Mélanie Laurent, who plays a Jewish girl hiding in plain sight, and a great performance by Christoph Waltz as a truly diabolical Nazi detective.

There are no great philosophical revelations: Nazism was evil, and in war, even good people have to do terrible things. But Tarantino tells us a fascinating story, with suspense and heart, about how we feel about the stories we tell ourselves.

District 9: another country heard from

This is a unique film: a South African science fiction mockumentary, resembling a gritty B-movie, but with excellent special effects, using Hitchcockian tropes to grab the viewer and confound expectations. And that's just the form.

The content is a reflection not only on South Africa's heritage of apartheid, but on current problems dealing with immigration issues. The story revolves around an employee of a multi-national corporation, contracted by the South African government to relocate a settlement of cryptic, unattactive aliens from a camp near Johannesburg, and take them somewhere out of sight and mind.

As the protagonist of the film takes a hero's journey, beginning as an unwitting bureaucratic tool, so the story and the film grow right before the viewer. Part action-adventure and part humanistic plea for tolerance, District 9 confronts a lot of issues in the new world order.

Like much quality science fiction, the movie holds up a distorted magic mirror. It's uncomfortable to see ourselves there, but hard to turn away, and ultimately worthwhile. Highly recommended.

Jane Eyre

I'm attempting to rectify some longstanding gaps in my literary education. This year's reading list includes Crime and Punishment, Tale of Two Cities, and Three Men in a Boat. And I've just finished Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

As a modern librarian, I "read" Jane Eyre in multimedia fashion. Most of it I either read in the free Kindle app on my iPod or listened to via a recording from Librivox, which produces free downloadable audiobooks of public domain literature. When I actually had time to sit in my living room, I read a hardcover copy from the library. Although I found the Victorian prose slow going at first, I warmed to the story and the character of Jane, particularly as voiced in Elizabeth Klett's wonderful reading for Librivox. Klett's Librivox works have a lot of fans.

I was ready for the prototypical gothic romance, the brooding Rochester, the star-crossed love. I wasn't expecting the proto-feminism, accompanied by deft attacks on religious hypocrisy and rigid ideas of predestination. Jane is a fascinating character with a terrific story, told by a skilled and insightful writer.

Having finished the book, I had to check out the screen treatments, and there are quite a few -- IMDB lists 21 different versions, including feature films and mini-series. So far, I've watched the 1944 Joan Fontaine & Orson Welles version, which was interesting, but at 97 minutes glossed over or elided some significant aspects of the plot and was not altogether satisfactory. Better was the 1983 BBC mini-series with Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton, which included sufficient detail and was well played by the leads.

I'm looking forward to seeing some other adaptations, and reading more by Charlotte Bronte. I'll probably re-read Jasper Fforde's wonderful Eyre Affair, the first Thursday Next novel, now that I'll understand more of the allusions.

1776 by David McCullough

This is a military history of the first full year of the American Revolution, the year the nation was born. Most Americans remember July 4, 1776 for the Declaration of Independence, and they may know that Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas. But 1776 was an eventful year. Quoting a wide variety of firsthand accounts and letters, McCullough brings a long, costly and difficult year of military campaigns to life. From the words of sources on both sides of the struggle, the Americans and British are humanized.

As much as anything, this is the story of George Washington's on-the-job training as commander of the Continental Army. In covering the three major campaigns of 1776, in Boston, New York and New Jersey, McCullough tells stories of courage, luck, blunders and betrayals. But in the details of battles and the struggles of soldiers, a nation emerged and a national character began to form. Unlikely heroic leaders emerged, like Nathaniel Green and Henry Knox. Their stories are ours; McCullough melds them into a fascinating and important story.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a film with ambitions, though either the ambitions or their execution are a shade too modest for excellence. Still, this is an enjoyable science fiction teen romance, which almost aspires to be an art film. It's a beautiful film to watch.

The story is a sequel to a novel well known in Japan, and recently released as a manga, The Girl Who Runs Through Time. The original, by author Yasutaka Tsutsui, has been frequently adapted as feature films and TV series. The anime, from director Mamoru Hosoda and art director Nizo Yamamoto, plays out like Run Lola Run meets Whisper of the Heart. Studio Ghibli veteran Yamamoto also did backgrounds for Whisper of the Heart and it shows. Once again, Tokyo streets and parks are infused with so much reality they seem like an additional character in the movie.

Author Tsutsui also wrote the original for the film Paprika, so he shows a pattern of playing with perception, reality and time. There's a lot to like in Girl Who Leapt as the story and character develop. But the resolution could have been more tightly woven -- it feels like the film has one ending too many or one too few, throwing away some of its potential.

Classic quickies: 49th Parallel

Combining elements of Hitchcockian suspense, propaganda for the war effort, Canadian travelogue and paean to the virtues of the Canadian people, diversity and democracy, the 1941 49th Parallel is both fun and compelling to watch.

This is one of the earlier collaborations of director Michael Powell and screenwriter Emeric Pressburger -- who won an Oscar for this film. It's framed as an effective piece of propaganda aimed squarely at encouraging U.S support for the Allies. As the survivors of a destroyed Nazi submarine work their way from Hudson Bay toward neutral America, they encounter an extensive catalog of Canadian types. The contrast between the simple, generous, honest, diverse and proud North Americans and the arrogant, elitist Nazis is drawn ever more clearly, even as the noose tightens on the fleeing Germans.

Well written, directed and acted by a strong cast including Laurence Olivier, Trevor Howard and Raymond Massey, this release of 49th Parallel is fresh evidence that Criterion DVDs are reviving important films.

Time travelling

I've been spending a lot of time in the early 19th century lately. Without premeditated intent, I've found a pattern in recent reading and viewing:

• Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian (book & audiobook)
• Sense and Sensibility (PBS Masterpiece TV)
  
• The Jane Austen Book Club (DVD)
  
• Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik
  

Patrick O'Brian's rich legacy of Aubrey/Maturin novels was most famously developed into the film Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World. The story of two friends -- the bluff, hearty, Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey, and the Irish-Catalonian naval surgeon, natural historian and spy Stephen Maturin -- follows them through the Napoleonic wars, the War of 1812, and other adventures.

It's been said that O'Brian writes about what the men were doing while Jane Austen's heroines anguished over matrimonial prospects. Indeed the second and third Aubrey/Maturin books humorously and successfully satirize Austen. But O'Brian shines in the painstaking historical detail, the period language, and above all in action sequences. I'm currently in the eighth book of the series, but the sixth, Desolation Island, was the beginning of a three book story arc and contained stirring battles that almost redefine the term "page turner."

O'Brian's work is also well served in audiobooks with the work of excellent narrators, John Lee and Patrick Tull. Each brings different strengths, but both make it a joy to listen. Lee's work on Desolation Island makes it difficult to stop listening, with fine voice characterizations and narrative power.

Sense and Sensibility, a two part-adaptation on PBS' Masterpiece, is one of the finest screen translations of Jane Austen. Written by Andrew Davies, who famously adapted Pride and Prejudice as a mini-series, this new production holds its own with Emma Thompson's wonderful 1995 feature film. Wonderfully produced, cast, acted and filmed with strong direction, this is a must see for Austen fans.

The Jane Austen Book Club, the film of Karen Joy Fowler's novel, is fun and entertaining chick-flick stuff. But with a large ensemble cast, the screenplay does not have room for deep characterizations, and the movie feels light-weight. The cast turns in good performances as a group reads Austen's novels and applies them to personal problems, but the whole seems contrived.

Empire of Ivory, on the other hand, was a pleasant surprise. I read the first books in Naomi Novik's fantasy series awhile back and enjoyed them, but thought they were fairly predictable. The premise is goofily engaging -- what if the British and French employed fighting dragons during the Napoleonic wars? But the result was engaging but slight.

During the four books of the series, however, Novik has continued to develop larger themes. And now she kicks it up a notch in both seriousness and imagination. She continues to use human exploitation of dragons as an analog for the 19th century slave trade. Here she mixes in the discovery of a hidden, advanced pan-African empire that threatens European dominance. In the earlier books, dragons sometimes seemed curiously tacked on to world history as we know it. Novik has gotten bolder, giving her secondary world a stronger narrative life.

The Forbidden Kingdom

So sue me, I like Jackie Chan movies. Thus it happens that I really enjoyed The Forbidden Kingdom. It's more of a guilty pleasure than great cinema, but I thought it was a fun time. A bit predictable, but still fun.

The story of the Monkey King and the Journey to the West is a classic of Chinese literature. This American-Chinese production seems to fuse many elements from the classic story with plot devices from The Wizard of Oz, -- an American teenager mysteriously journeys to a magical place and has to journey with strange companions to defeat an evil ruler, before he can be sent home. And it works pretty well, as long as you don't think too hard and enjoy the ride.

Jet Li gives every appearance of gleefully portraying the Monkey King, but things kick up a notch when Jet Li and Jackie Chan are fighting together. Jackie seems to be reprising his Drunken Master character. This sure seemed like classic Saturday matinee fare, updated with 21st century FX and martial arts wire work. I was waiting for the double feature -- would it be Tarzan or Roy Rogers?

All things considered, the Monkey King has fared worse. The graphic novel American Born Chinese may have done the legend better justice, but as screen adaptations go, this is a durn sight better than Dragonball Z!

Equinox Flower

This was Yasujiro Ozu's first color film in 1958. Throughout his work, Ozu controlled his elements so tightly and formally that adding color must have been a big step for him. The color serves to punctuate and tie together many scenes, though compared with the later Floating Weeds, the color sometimes seems overstated. But it enhances the visual imagery, as do several instances of reflected images which seem to comment on the characters. Ozu fans will relish this film, a poignant blend of family drama and societal change.

The story is similar to Early Summer in dealing with a daughter who wishes to make her own marriage decisions. But in Ozu, story doesn't count for much -- it's all about characters and relationships. The characters here are harder-edged, sometimes rude and manipulative, and in at least one case, blatantly hypocritical.

Much of the drama is watching the traditional father make a fool of himself as he publicly praises romantic love and privately condemns his own daughter for practicing what he has preached. He is utterly insensitive to his long-suffering wife. When the wife says, without apparent irony, that she was really happy when the family was all together in a bomb shelter during an air raid, her husband should have some clue as to what his family has endured since. Workaholic affluence has brought about greater distance between the father and his wife and two daughters. Can he ever see it, or will he left the family fall apart in his pride?

Relationships in other families mirror these dysfunctions in different ways. Ironically, the father who is driving his own family apart is seen as a source of wisdom and advice by other troubled parents. The end result is characteristically engaging and thought provoking in the quiet way that is uniquely Ozu.

The Taste of Tea

This film may be easier to experience than describe. Beautiful, cosmic, and goofy, this Japanese family comedy is overlong at 143 minutes, but never fails to entertain. Writer-director Katsuhiro Ishii's 2004 feature won several awards and was featured at Cannes.

The episodic story features overlapping vignettes following the lives of six members of the Haruno family in their strange world. The daughter is plagued by a giant-size version of herself, and the lovesick teenage boy has trains coming out of his head. Mom is trying to restart her career in anime, hypnotherapist Dad practices on his family, and the sound mixer uncle is drifting, unable to resolve emotional issues. Grandpa is just strange, listening to tuning forks, striking poses for Mom and hiding in his room.

Then there are lots of quirkier minor characters, including cosplayers, yakuza, a horndog manga artist aspiring-musician brother-in-law, and a free-spirited dancer. There are lots of little throwaway scenes, both charming and hysterically funny, and nature panoramas beautifully photographed. Legendary anime director Hideaki Anno has a cameo as -- an anime director.

This is reminiscent of an Ozu film as a quiet family story, with not much action but just the progress of life. While the gentle humor sometimes recalls Ozu, there are outrageous gags as well, a lot of surrealism and general strangeness, adding up to lots of fun!

Here's the music video that brother-in-law made with Grandpa:

The Golden Compass

The headline in tonight's paper reads "Atheistic Agenda?" I hope this sensationalized criticism sells lots of tickets. Then Hollywood will make the sequels and we'll find out about that atheism thing, since the theological problems in the novels are much more convoluted as Pullman's original trilogy progresses.

But you sure can't tell it from this film.

I enjoyed the movie, for lots of reasons. The production design is very good, ditto the special effects. The performers are well-cast and the performances uniformly good. The young lead, Dakota Blue Richards, can speak volumes with her eyes, and Sam Elliott was born to play Lee Scoresby.

The movie gets a couple of down-checks for over-simplification, particularly moral over-simplification, and an all-too-abrupt ending. But this is a largely satisfying fantasy. It's unclear how much the over-simplification and skating over plot points weakens the film. It bothered me, but I've read the book. People new to the story seem likely to find it more confusing.

Does this film assail religion? Not particularly. This is a fantasy after all, and patently not set in our world. It attacks authoritarianism, and indicates that there's a struggle to preserve free will. Anyone who feels threatened by that might wish to avoid the film.

Classic quickies: The Wrong Man

Forget for a minutes that this could be the title of about half of Hitchcock's movies. For a fifty year old film, The Wrong Man (1957) still packs a lot of power and resonance. The performances are nearly flawless: Henry Fonda wonderfully understated as a musician wrongly accused of being a robber, and Vera Miles compelling as the wife driven to madness by stress.

The viewer is grabbed by the treatment of suspects before the Miranda decision's obvious impact on criminal investigations. Does this have modern echoes under the USA PATRIOT act? In any event, Hitchcock tells a true story, using fictionalized narrative in an almost documentary way. The result is offbeat, but worthwhile viewing.

Next, please

• Mystery
• Fantasy & science fiction
• Humor
• Literary allusions

Roll 'em all into a smooth ball, and what you have are Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next stories (and the spin-off Nursery Crime series). The stories are set in an alternate world where England is still fighting in the Crimea in 1985 and was occupied by Germany in WW II, time travel is not unknown, and where people have genetically engineered dodo birds as pets.

Thursday begins her career in The Eyre Affair, fighting a nefarious villain who kidnaps Jane Eyre right out of her book, forcing an abrupt ending in every existing copy. In order to set things aright, Thursday has to enter the novel and get personally involved with the plot and characters. This device proves so successful that in subsequent books she moves into the fictional world full-time, as an agent of JurisFiction, the policing agency of the fictional world. As a trainee in fiction, she is apprenticed to Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. Havisham proves not only feisty, but pursues a longstanding rivalry with the Red Queen and is addicted to high speed motorcars and wont to getting into races with Mr. Toad.

You get the idea: books within books, etc. As the Fforde Ffan Club FfAQ says "there are a lot of jokes that play upon jokes that have played upon puns that travel from book to book". Suffice it to say that there is one laugh-aloud moment after another. The books are well-suited to anyone who enjoys mystery, SF and humor based on literature. Indeed, there are so many literary allusions, one never knows how much one is missing! You don't have to have read Jane Eyre, etc. to enjoy these books, but it helps.

These stories make you want to read others to find out what you're missing. Librarians, among others, should love these! Does anyone have a copy of Shadow the Sheepdog?

As of this writing, the novels involved are:

Thursday Next

• 1: The Eyre Affair
• 2: Lost In A Good Book
• 3: The Well Of Lost Plots
• 4: Something Rotten
• 5: First Among Sequels

Nursery Crime

• 1: The Big Over Easy
• 2: The Fourth Bear

Beowulf: Stardust goes viking with Pulp Fiction

Hwæt. We Gardena in gear-dagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

As students have had to learn for centuries, these are the opening lines of the poem Beowulf, practically an English national epic as one of the earliest Anglo-Saxon poems, written over 1,200 years ago. The recent best-selling poetic translation by Seamus Heaney notwithstanding, as an undergrad years ago I found the poem difficult and dull. Yet the story is undeniably memorable. Not only is it the first significant piece of English literature, but a tale for the ages, enduring because of its inherent power and images.

Also powerful and memorable is the new film version by Robert Zemeckis. In recreating the old story in a movie that works Zemeckis has beautifully fused two creative elements: motion capture animation bringing the fantastic to life, and an edgy script from Neil Gaiman (Stardust) and Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction).

The motion capture goes the next step beyond that used by Zemeckis in his 2004 Polar Express or Peter Jackson in 2001's Lord of the Rings. While characters clearly appear animated, individual actors are recognizable and facial expressions are captured with subtlety. The animation feels less intrusive than Polar Express and allows for both strong performances and smoothly integrated special effects. All the lead actors turn in creditable work: Anthony Perkins and John Malkovich are expansive as leaders of the Spear Danes, Robin Wright Penn is nicely understated as the Queen and Ray Winstone's Beowulf is appropriately withdrawn as the heroic braggart with secret shame. Grendel and the dragon are suitably monstrous studies in SFX and Angelina Jolie is memorably animated.

It is in the character of Jolie as Grendel's mother that the script has its genius. By changing the nature of the mother and the encounter between her and Beowulf, Gaiman and Avary manage to tie together the disparate plot elements and story conflicts, making the whole story more cohesive than the original as well as more cinematic. If their Beowulf is less than a heroic caricature, he is a more human character -- and his story the more riveting.

Black Book / Zwartboek

My expectations about this movie went up and down. When I first saw a trailer in the theater, it looked intriguing. Then when I saw it in Netflix and put the DVD in my queue, I was reminded that it was a Paul Verhoeven film and my expectations dropped -- a lot. I've seen a few Verhoeven films: liked a few a bit and disliked more. But even the ones I liked, I liked more than I respected. Movies like Basic Instinct, Total Recall and Starship Troopers are strictly guilty pleasure films. Robocop was pretty bad, I've never been able to bring myself to watch Showgirls, and Hollow Man was solid crud. Maybe his Dutch movies are better than what he's done in Hollywood.

So I lowered my hopes -- and was pleasantly surprised. This is the most respectable Verhoeven I've seen, even if not totally respectable. But it's an exciting and action-packed World War II story about Jewish refugees and the Dutch underground. Even with a bit of sexual pandering, a couple of cop-out stereotypes and a whole string of unlikely plot coincidences that would strain credulity if we had time to stop and think, the movie keeps drawing the viewer in. Well researched sets & costumes combined with excellent cinematography believably recreate occupied Holland.

A lot of the story's success depends on strong performances by the leads. Carice Van Houten is consistently riveting as the Jewish singer living through terrible trials and forced by circumstances to aid the Nazis. She essentially carries the film and won awards for her portrayal. In another strong performance, German actor Sebastian Koch -- who also starred in the Oscar-winning Lives of Others -- portrays a somewhat sympathetic Nazi officer.

The seriousness of the subject, high production values, the suspenseful and fast-moving narrative, and the strong humane characterizations make this movie worth watching.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

I expect that librarians should be recommending books and that doctors should be keeping us well, but it doesn't always happen just that way. After I told my doctor about a recent trip to Transylvania, he said "wait a minute, I've got a book for you to read." And ducking into his office he returned to the exam room with Kostova's The Historian. He had just finished it and told me to keep it as long as I needed to (and it's a long book).

This wasn't the first time somebody had recommended the book, but this one felt like fate. Who am I to go against my doctor's recommendation? I didn't know that much about the book beyond the blurb, but I soon realized it was a vampire story -- a Dracula story, to be precise -- with a lot of history thrown in. By the time I got to the undead librarians, I was hooked.

This is a good book, and a lot of its charm comes from its settings. Much of it takes place in libraries, but the locaitons vary tremendously, from the U.S. to Britain to Western Europe to Eastern Europe and Turkey. The combination of travelogue and history woven into a suspenseful vampire story makes a fascinating read. Though one chapter reads like an extended history lecture, interest in the narrative rarely flags. Flashbacks within flashbacks can occasionally be a bit confusing in remembering who the point-of-view narrator is, but confusion is rare and the device adds a lot of interest and variety. I talked up the book around the house and it became one of the rare titles that Marsha & I both read and enjoyed.

I read much of this in print, but also listened to a lot of the unabridged recorded version on my iPod. The recording alternates between two readers, who change with female and male narration in the text. Both readers do an outstanding job with a large number of characters and accents appropriate to many nationalities.

Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys historical ficiton, horror, speculative fiction, travel stories or undead librarians!

Anime worth watching: Black Lagoon

Let's start by saying that Black Lagoon is not worth watching for people offended by ultraviolence in pop culture: if Sin City & Kill Bill aren't your cup of tea, avoid Black Lagoon.

For those who enjoy such films, this anime is "Hallelujah, amen, peanut butter."

Nicely designed and cleanly drawn with lovely seascapes and tropical colors, this story of modern pirates in the South China Sea combines fast action with a riveting soundtrack in a manner unlike anything since Cowboy Bebop. Indeed this wouldn't be far afield from Quentin Tarantino's Bebop.

The story begins with a simple Japanese salaryman transporting data. He winds up in the company of a disreputable crew of mercenaries aboard a WW II PT boat. Included are the commander Vietnam vet Dutch -- who not coincidentally resonates of Jet Black, weapons specialist hot babe Remy -- full of issues and attitude, and mechanic/computer tech Benny. Naturally it's not long before the erstwhile salaryman, now dubbed Rock, graduates from cargo to hostage to crew member.

All of this flows along as a fairly well-produced, if violent, action-adventure until the fourth episode, when the modern-day narrative becomes interspersed with an extended flashback showing the final voyage of a Nazi submarine. The added complexity and the doomed sub crew add an unexpected poignancy that kicks Black Lagoon to another level. Combined with hints of a slowly evolving back story, there's plenty of reason to look forward to future disks in the series.

This is definitely for mature audiences, however, due to extensive violence and profanity.

Music and Lyrics

This Hugh Grant / Drew Barrymore romantic comedy vehicle is as irresistible as a pop song with a great hook. The opening credits are a 1980s music video for an apparently younger Hugh Grant's career with a Brit pop band. Flash forward to the present time, when Hugh is subsisting on oldies gigs at theme parks and hopes to land a TV spot on "Battle of the 80s Has-Beens."

When a hapless plant attendant enters his life to over-water his houseplants, he does not suspect a pending songwriting partnership nor romance. Though the movie is almost completely predictable, it is also completely likable. Grant & Barrymore are both earnest and funny and they make these characters not only likeable, but believable, there's a cast of colorful supporting types and the music is consistently entertaining.

Recommended for all but the cynically discriminating.

Small world: Babel and Blood Diamond

Two of the best films I've seen in the past month each deal with international themes, each in its own way. Blood Diamond is a fictionalized story of historical events in Sierra Leone, where the diamond trade contributed to the furtherance of a bloody and brutal civil war. Babel, which got short shrift at the academy awards, is a confluence of three international stories of culture clash and miscommunication. Both can be difficult to watch, but are finally rewarding.

Of the two, Blood Diamond has the stronger narrative, with a simpler plot and a compelling story of three characters seeking -- respectively -- family, wealth and justice. Their quest is set against the background of the bloody and tragic civil war involving drugged child soldiers, amputations, death squads, and fights to acquire and market diamonds for personal gain or to finance more conflict. Performances by Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou are strong and affecting, obviously deserving of the Oscars they received, while Jennifer Connelly adds a solid supporting performance.

Babel is much more of a multi-layered film with three stories overlapping. In the three stories, an American tourist in Morocco is shot by two shepherd boys goofing around with a rifle, while in the second tale a deaf Japanese teenager copes with life crises and coming of age and in the third story a Mexican nanny takes two American children in her charge to a wedding in Mexico. To say things do not go well in any of these stories is a big understatement -- you can almost physically squirm under the sense of impending doom. Culture clashes and language differences create enough misunderstandings that things keep moving from bad to worse, but you still keep hoping.

If the characters questing in Blood Diamond and the lost souls of Babel ever realize their hopes or find something beyond what they hoped for, are questions that can carry viewers through these sometimes bleak, but well-made films with compelling stories. Both films share insights into the connections among seemingly disparate and distant cultures aroudn the world.

The Departed

Glad as I was to see Martin Scorcese win his long-overdue academy award, I wish he had received it for a more enjoyable film than The Departed. I would have been happier to see him win for Gangs of New York, The Aviator, or Raging Bull, to name a few. I was frankly disappointed to see this win for best picture.

While undoubtedly well-written with taut suspense, finely acted by a wonderful ensemble cast, and masterfully directed, The Departed just leaves a bad taste.

Part of this is surely intentional, given the subject and the overall treatment. This is not intended to be an uplifting or happy film. But some choices left me wondering. Did the screenwriter not know many adjectives other than f---ing? Why was the supposedly strong, admirable and intelligent female psychologist -- the only notable female character in the film -- so unmotivatedly foolish in romantic choices? A good movie, but it could have been better.