Open Roads 2013: Terrorism 'n Time Travel Susanna Nicchiarelli's DISCOVERY @ DAWN

Having just come from a film -- Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy -- that dealt with terrorism from decades past, here we have another that tackles a terrorist event (fictionalized) a mere dozen years later (1981) in which, in a terrifically filmed early scene -- fast, shocking, irreversible -- a murder takes place. And then the movie melds into a tale of, well, a kind of counter-terrorism via time-travel fantasy using a telephone. No. Yes! This should not work, not on much of any level, and yet it (sort of) does.

Buoyed by some very fine performances, from one of Italy's most appealing and emotionally savvy actresses, Margherita Buy (shown below, who seems always to appear, sometimes often, at Open Roads), and from the film's director and co-writer Susannah Nicchiarelli, (shown above), as sisters Caterina (Ms Buy) and Barbara, whose dad disappears soon after that murder, THE DISCOVERY AT DAWN is an odd duck indeed. Dealing with a fragmented family twenty years later, in which the mother is now dead and the older sister seems somehow out of place in her job and in her love relationship, while her younger sibling (Ms Nicchiarelli) remains an "outsider" even more at sixes and sevens with the world.

A visit to close down and sell the family's old beach house, which has not been used by family members for years now, sets in motion the events that make up the movie and take us back and forth in time to past and present, while offering a set of rather interesting and diverse characters along the way.

Among these are other professors at the university where Caterina teaches, one of whom (above) is a bit more than Cat's friend; her husband of many years (a lovely performance from Sergio Rubini, below); the band that Barbara manages and among whose members one fellow seem to stand out; and a woman from the past who does not want that past brought up again.

And then there's that telephone (below) in the old beach house, unplugged but oddly still working that manages to connect Caterina with....  Well, you'll see -- if you manage to get to this film during its Open Roads run. It seems to me that there are characters and plot aplenty here, so I wonder why Ms Nicchiarelli felt the need to go for this fantasy/time travel theme, as well? Unless, of course, we are to take this as somehow imaginary, or as a psychological unfolding of something that Caterina actually knew, even then, on some repressed level, as a child.

In any case, the film is interesting enough, and certainly quite well acted, filmed with some style and written with a keen handling of characterization. I have to recommend it, if only to see what some others of you feel about it and how well (or not) you think it works. (If you bought this kind of linking-past-and-present in the Gregory Hoblit/Toby Emmerich male weepie Frequency, from 2000, then you may very well buy it here -- from a female perspective and with less sudsy emotion on display.)

The Discovery at Dawn plays Opens Roads (at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center) on Saturday, June 8, at 1:30pm and again Monday, June 10, at 4pm. Click here to see the entire series' program and showtimes.

SOLITARY MAN: Douglas and cast are creepily good in Koppelman/Levien's look at fame, money and the male libido

Juicy. That's the word for the new Michael Douglas movie, SOLITARY MAN, in which Douglas is as good as he's been in a decade (since Wonder Boys, in fact -- a movie that, with its academic setting and very smart writing, this new one may bring to mind). The performances are juicy, and so are the situations and dialog.  You'll realize early on that writers/directors Brian Koppelman (below, right) and David Levien (below, left) know exactly what they're doing and how best to do it.  Consequently, we viewers can simply relax and enjoy the nasty fun.

This is a movie about a very sleazy guy, Ben Kalmen (played by Mr. Douglas), whom, despite his being the type who is led around by his prick, you can't help but like (us men, at least; women may not have the patience or feel much identification -- although they may relish his several comeuppances).  Ben is surrounded by smart, attractive females of all ages -- ex-wife, daughter, current woman, her daughter -- and yet he consistently involves himself with the most inappropriate choices.  His business ventures, too, have gone deeply south.  From the kind of success who has a college library named after him, he's now in debt and seemingly without resour-
ces.  Can the poor schmuck straighten up and mend his ways?

Not likely.  And this is how all the fun is produced.  Douglas (above left, with Danny DeVito) is a perfect choice for the role: Ben Kalmen may be a louse, but the actor exudes infinite charm, energy and delight in the very things that drive the rest of us crazy.  I cannot think of another actor who could nail this character with quite the pizazz and joy that Douglas brings to him.  Even while we're whispering , "No... no!" to what the guy's doing, we're exulting in all the fun that he -- and the filmmakers -- are producing.

This is quite an accomplishment on the writer-directors' part.  Koppelman and Levien know how dialog sounds in the mouth of all their characters.  They don't need to overlay any showy Mamet-
esque stylings for additional effect, so they just let their characters speak, well and truly.  Here's one sample: Ben and his ex-wife (played wonderfully by the still-sexy-and-beautiful Susan Sarandon, shown above) are having a chat in her (it used to be "their") living room, and Ben remarks how everything looks the same -- and so good, too.  "I don't change things when they're still working," she tells him.  "That's your move."

The entire cast could not be bettered.  From Jenna Fischer as Ben's daughter to Mary-Louise Parker (right) as his current woman, Imogen Poots as her hot daughter, Jesse Eisenberg (below, left) as the student Ben takes a shine to, Olivia Thirlby (below, right) as the student's girl and Danny De Vito as Ben's old college chum who's still loyal -- they're all spot-on.  And the ending (I mean the film's final moment)?  Spectacularly right.

Solitary Man, from Anchor Bay Films, opens Friday, May 21, in a limited release nationwide. Click here and then click on "SHOWTIMES" in the right hand column (once Anchor Bay gets its act together and posts them) for showtimes near you.