15:17 to Paris

Clint Eastwood's latest film is not one that will live forever in the halls of excellence, but it's a good movie that lets you know what it's going to do -- and then does it. The film provides the childhood of three men, their teen years, and then their struggle to find themselves as adults. When they decide to tour Europe and share adventures, it is the everyday decision that leads to their destiny when confronted by a terrorist who is going to kill and detonate a bomb on the 15:17 train to Paris.

The three men do a good job of portraying themselves, both in the delivery of their lines and in the action required at their moment that forever changed their lives. It's a very relaxing movie to watch because it doesn't purport to do any more than tell the story, which is a refreshing change from all the symbolic message movies that want you to "get" a message far larger than the screen delivers.

This is a good film for older teenagers to watch because it shows the challenges of growing up and away from what doesn't work in one's life during the quest to find what does work. The boys get into minor trouble as young boys, and struggle to find themselves as teens. When they graduate from high school, they each take a different path, but it's easy to see how their present and past are connected. As a matter of fact, if these young men had not taken the journey they did in their personal growth, they would not have seized the moment and changed the lives of the passengers on the 15:17 to Paris.

I enjoyed this film for the story, for the simplicity of the telling, and for the strength of the message of what we do when we are called upon to "do something" but find ourselves wanting to do nothing because we may put ourselves into danger. I recommend this film to anyone who needs to remember that doing something when it's called for is a greater challenge than simply sitting back and waiting to see what happens.

Phantom Thread

I don’t know what I expected from Phantom Thread, but the film left me feeling cheated on the way out of the theatre. Daniel Day Lewis is … incredible, but I’m not sure at what or why. The movie is the story of a dress designer whose life is consumed with his art; he meets a server in a diner, moves her into his life, and then the film continues. She poisons him with mushrooms once to get his attention, then nurses him back to health. When he fails to need her the way she needs him, she poisons him again – and he laughs and feels revitalized by her actions.

I left the theatre wondering why someone made this film. I thought it was going to be about someone sewing hidden messages into clothing, messages that were, perhaps, vital to the security of a nation, but that’s not what the film was about. The audience is privy to only two messages, neither of which is of any importance, so even the title of the film is iffy.

It was dollar day at the movies, so I saved some money on the ticket; had I paid full price, I would have wanted my ticket refunded.