Up In The Air, A Prophet and The Road

It just goes to show what a good script does for a movie. Based on the novel by Walter Kim, Jason Reitman's screenplay and direction of Up In The Air would have made a good film no matter who the actors were. As it happens, George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick are excellent and deserve their Oscar nominations. But it is the dialogue that shines through in this witty and bittersweet story of a man who thinks that collecting air miles is what life is about.

There have been many reviews which have highly praised A Prophet. It won the best film prize at Cannes and might take the Oscar for best foreign language film. I thought it was good, but not that good. Someone said there was more drama in an episode of Prison Break, not that I have ever watched the TV series. I'm not a great fan of prison dramas, they have to be in the class of The Shawshank Redemption to get me really interested. A Prophet worked best as a thriller. The background of race and the Corsican mafia left me confused.

How would anyone dare to film Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road? It as bleak a story as you could find. The book is almost poetic, the adventures of the man and the boy told with intelligence and exceptional skill. The movie just about does it justice, thanks to a sympathetic adaptation by Joe Penhall. Although it seems slow at times, the 100 minutes fly by. I could not remember the ending from the book, so this was a surprise in a good way. Vigo Mortensen was great in the lead, but I had no idea who else was in the film. So seeing fine cameos from Charlize Theron and especially Robert Duvall made for a unforgettable experience.