The Light Between Oceans, Complete Unknown, Spa Night, Klown Forever

The Light Between Oceans

Complete Unknown

Spa Night

Klown Forever

Quick notes on a weak and light weekend of movies:

Youth, The Lady in the Van, In the Heart of the Sea, Janis: Little Girl Blue, Hitchcock/Truffaut, Ingrid Bergman - In Her Own Words

Youth

The Lady in the Van

In the Heart of the Sea

Janis: Little Girl Blue

Hitchcock/Truffaut

Ingrid Bergman - In Her Own Words

Quick capsules from a relatively slow (and mostly middling) December:

The Best Films of 2012: #10

Rachel Weisz delivered her most feeling performance to date in Terence Davies' "The Deep Blue Sea," an exceedingly simple yet powerfully poignant postwar story of romantic love so intense and obsessive it becomes the undoing of an intelligent and well-provided-for woman. Weisz’s Hester Collyer is the wife of a respected judge (Simon Russell Beale), but passion has escaped the marriage. He’s sober and undemonstrative; she’s headstrong and ahead of her time, and in need of an outlet for her pent-up sexuality. When that outlet arrives in the form of Freddie, a handsome young RAF pilot, and their affair is inevitably discovered, Hester leaves her uncomprehending husband, explaining without any cruelty that her love for this new man encompasses nothing less than the whole of her. As her world narrows down to him, though, Freddie begins to suffocate, turning to drink and nights out with friends to escape.

The Bourne Legacy

“Bourne” screenwriter Tony Gilroy takes over the director’s chair from Paul Greengrass for this fourth outing, the first without Matt Damon, but can’t manage to duplicate the suspense and tension of his “Michael Clayton” or the wit and ingenuity of his unfairly overlooked “Duplicity.” “Legacy” also lacks the frenetic energy and nonstop motion of the first three installments. There are long stretches of dead air between action scenes that themselves barely keep you interested. The movie ends – sort of – with an extended chase sequence that’s a bit better than the rest, but not thrilling.

The Deep Blue Sea

Rachel Weisz turns in her most feeling performance yet in Terence Davies’ “The Deep Blue Sea,” an exceedingly simple yet powerfully poignant postwar story of romantic love so intense and obsessive it becomes the undoing of an intelligent and well-provided-for woman. Weisz’s Hester Collyer is the wife of a respected judge (Simon Russell Beale), but passion has escaped the marriage; he’s sober and undemonstrative, she’s headstrong and ahead of her time, and in need of an outlet for her pent-up sexuality. When that outlet arrives in the form of Freddie, a handsome young RAF pilot (Tom Hiddleston), and their affair is inevitably discovered, Hester leaves her uncomprehending husband, explaining without any cruelty that her love for this new man encompasses nothing less than the whole of her. As her world narrows down to him, though, Freddie begins to suffocate, turning to drink and nights out with friends to escape.