Reviews

This coming of middle-age buddy film, with its odd couple of old chums, is one of the most, language rich, character- driven films to come tooling down the 101 in a very long time.

From the beginning, we are set up to dislike Miles {Paul Giamatti} and Jack {Thomas Haden Church}. Who among us can dredge up warm feelings for a man like Miles, who drops by his mom's house to surprise her for birthday, steals from her and, to add insult to larceny, leaves without even saying goodbye.

Jack, looking to get layed one more time before his marriage, is a splendid companion to the morose wine connoisseur/alcoholic Miles as they romp down this road which has a few slapstick potholes but lots of lush dialog to keep our interest along the way. In the language of wine and the language of relationship - this film is filled with fresh images and an appreciation for ambiguity, juxtaposing the profligacy of Miles and Jack, each in his own way obsessive, with occasional quick scenes of workers in the fields and the subtle introduction of a child as witness.

We can easily question what someone as articulate and beautiful as Maya {Virginia Madsen} could be expected find in the man Miles who, like the pinot noir grape he describes, is thin-skinned, temperamental, early ripening, and in need of constant care. Still, we know that he is a writer - albeit a bad one, given the title of his book - and Maya has been cast, as we discover in one metaphor rich sequence, as a poet of the vineyards. Thus, she might well be susceptible to succumbing to the longings of artistic expression and forgiving of the vagaries of the human heart.

This is a clever film, ably written, cast, and performed.

"Every unhappy family is unhappy each in its own way," especially, it seems, the Sonnenschein family which produces its own unhappiness through generation after generation in exactly the same way. Hysterical selfish women lust after ineffectual and/or opportunistic men. Each generation is doomed to infidelity. and specific carelessness when it comes to breaking the family china and keeping track of the book which holds the family secret formula for success. These metaphoric devices simply do not work when so much is going on outside the household.

The plight of the Jews; from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy through the Holocaust, the years of Stalin and the revolution, is summed up in the words "Politics has made a mess of our lives," which sounds almost ironic in this film in which the characters seem for the most part unredeemable and very clever at messing up their lives. A film which is highly offensive its hostile portrayal of generation after generation of a family living through terrible times. -Rowena Silver

In this film, we see Spain lurching toward the brink of the Spanish Civil War through the huge uncomprehending eyes of the child Moncho. The metaphor for "Butterfly" has many complex applications in this film but for me the most profound of them was the moment that Moncho's saintly teacher captures a butterfly in a net, tenderly observes it and then sets it free. If only the future of Spain had been in such sensitive hands. As the film progresses through its beautifully photographed scenes of ordinary life, the reality of the evils of Fascism and the hope of the Republicans begin to chasm the serenity of the land.

The film is not about war, it is rather, about how much personal honor people will trade for an idea of security for themselves and their families. In a way, it parallels the dilemma in the scene in Eisenstein's STRIKE in which a woman with starving children is thrown a coin by one of the factory bosses. Wonderfully executed performances in a profoundly moving film. -Rowena Silver