Reel life: Family on the decline needs 'Help'
Reel Life mini-review: "A Little Help"
Michael J. Weithorn's domestic dramedy “A Little Help” showcases a family at the Def-Con 4 stage of dysfunctionality in 2002, a year after the 9/11 strike on the World Trade Center in New York.
Laura (“The Office” star Jenna Fischer) works as an unhappy, beer-guzzling Long Island dental hygienist married to an emotionally withdrawn workaholic husband (Winnetka's Chris O'Donnell) who dies of an anxiety attack, leaving her at the mercy of her micromanaging mother (Lesley Ann Warren), her harpy sister (Brooke Smith), her egocentric, former sports writer daddy (Ron Liebman) and an ethics-challenged litigator (Kim Coates).
Laura's deeply angry, overweight 12-year-old son Dennis (Daniel Yelsky) transfers from a public school to an elite academy where, seeking respect, he tells faculty and students that his dad was a fireman killed while saving three people during the 9/11 attack.
“A Little Help” is an innocuous, modest drama boosted by Fischer's charm and subtle comic reactions. Her scenes with Laura's pot-smoking brother-in-law (Rob Benedict) — who loves her so much that he married her sister just to be near her — rank as the most memorable in Weithorn's increasingly contrived movie where 9/11 is used as a plot device without much resonance.
“A Little Help” opens at the AMC South Barrington 30. Rated R for language, drug use. 107 minutes. ★ ★ ½
Reel Life mini-review: "Sarah's Key"
French director Gilles Paquet-Brenner's World War II drama #8220;Sarah's Key,#8221; based on Tatiana de Rosnay's best-seller, tells two parallel stories stemming from a bleak period in French history when Paris cops rounded up their own Jewish citizens to help the Nazi cause.
1. In 1942 Paris, a young Jewish girl named Sarah (Melusine Mayance) locks her little brother into a secret closet in her family's apartment when the police come to take them away to the death camps.
2. Many years later, American journalist Julia Jarmond (the quite bilingual Kristin Scott Thomas) discovers that her French husband is remodeling Sarah's apartment, and that her in-laws snagged the apartment right after Sarah's capture.
So, part of #8220;Sarah's Key#8221; shows Julia connecting the dots to discover the truth, and another part shows us the terrible fate of Sarah's family, crammed into the Velodrome Cycling stadium with about 13,000 other Jews. No food. No water. No restrooms. For days.
While watching this film, I kept thinking of a better made movie with some similar themes, #8220;Sophie's Choice,#8221; which won the Oscar for young star Meryl Streep.
Both films pack a shocker scene involving children, but the one in #8220;Sarah's Key#8221; lacks the raw reality and unflinching horror that the one in #8220;Sophie's Choice#8221; fiercely exploits.
British actress Thomas is extremely watchable as the American journalist, but her presence doesn't quite carry the sloggy, more contemporary scenes.
As for Sarah's segments, it's really easy to be alarmed by the insensitivity of the French police in rounding up Jews for the Nazis #8212; although a token kindhearted cop lets us know they were apparently just following orders.
#8220;Sarah's Key#8221; opens at the Renaissance Place in Highland Park, River East in Chicago and the Evanston Century 18. Rated PG-13 for unspecified #8220;thematic#8221; reasons. 103 minutes. #9733; #9733; frac12;
Local kids' premiere!
#8220;Broken Bonds,#8221; a film short created by several Northwest suburban students, will have its world premiere at 6:30 p.m. Monday in Building J's theater at William Rainey Harper College in Palatine.
#8220;This is a fabulous group of kids who really had a great time and really got into the class,#8221; said Harper's Erin Brooks, a media relations specialist doing double duty as an honorary Reel Life correspondent.
Harper sponsored a film camp for four weeks earlier this summer as part of the college's InZone enrichment program.
#8220;The kids learned all parts of filmmaking, and did the whole movie themselves, with minimal instructor input, from writing the script and performing to scouting on-campus sites and directing,#8221; Brooks reported.
Students, ages 10 through 14, came from Inverness, Elk Grove Village, Lake in the Hills, Palatine, Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Bartlett, Arlington Heights and Roselle.
#8220;Broken Bonds#8221; tells the story of a young jealous girl who wants to kill her rival for Davey the Burrito Guy, but accidentally kills her little sister instead.
Hoffman Estates resident Delaney Collis, 9, plays Penini Ballini, one of the girlfriends of the Burrito Guy.
#8220;I've always wanted to be an actress, and acting in the end scene was the best part,#8221; Collis told Brooks. #8220;It was fun playing a character in a love triangle who messed with and got back at this guy who was dating a lot of other girls.#8221;
Palatine resident Suhaas Venkatesh, 13, said his favorite part was playing Sammy, a character with Multiple Personality Disorder.
#8220;I got to take on multiple accents and styles of acting for the role. I was British, a germophobe and a jerk,#8221; he said. #8220;With acting, I'm silly and in the moment, doing whatever I feel.#8221;
Palatine resident Noah Snyder, 13, worked as assistant cameraman and director of photography, plus played a police officer.
Palatine resident Victoria Dimelis, 11, wrote most of the script, using ideas generated by the class. She also plays the lead character.
#8220;Broken Bonds#8221; was shot on HD equipment and professionally edited. The Monday premiere will include a blooper reel.
Go to harpercollege.edu/youth or call (847) 925-6000 for details.
Elgin gets its shorts on
Attention short filmmakers!
Uh, let's make that #8220;filmmakers of shorts.#8221;
Deadline for entering your work for the Elgin Short Film Festival (coming up Sept. 17) is Aug. 17. Go to +"_blank">hemmens.org/annualfilmfestival.html for details, entry fees and rules.
Nine nation animation
#8220;The Nine Nation Animation#8221; program features animated film shorts from around the world, starting today at the Music Box Theatre, 2722 N. Southport Ave., Chicago. As a bonus, the Music Box will throw in Looney Tunes titles #8220;One Froggy Evening,#8221; #8220;Rabbit Hood#8221; and #8220;What's Opera, Doc?#8221; Go to musicboxtheatre.com for details.
#8216;Meet Monica Velour'
It's hard for a young man to forget his first crush, especially when she's a 1980s porn queen played by Kim Cattrall. The Midwest Independent Film Festival presents #8220;Meet Monica Velour#8221; at 7 p.m. Monday at the Century Centre in Chicago.
Chicago's Goodman Theater fixture Brian Dennehy costars. Go to midwestfilm.com for details.
#8226; Daily Herald film critic Dann Gire's column runs Fridays in Time out!