Insanity handled with inventiveness, sadness and glee in Jason James' ENTANGLEMENT

We've seen a number of "crazy love" stories down the decades but few have come to the problem with quite the oddball enthusiasm and determination to figure out the puzzle as ENTANGLEMENT, a new indie film opening in a limited theatrical run this week. As directed by Jason James, shown below, and written by Jason Filiatrault, the movie begins with a suicide attempt interrupted by the doorbell and proceeds from this alternately scary/goofy premise onward to even more frightening and funny matters.

The writer and his director have conceived their film as a kind of gleeful look at possible insanity from a mass of differing -- but mostly amusing -- angles. While this may put off folk who feel that mental illness/suicide should never be treated amusingly and/or cavalierly, TrustMovies must admit that he sometimes finds this can work rather well. (And as a former suicide-attempt, many decades ago, he feels he has a right to his opinion.)

Entanglement uses everything from bits of physics (it possesses its own version of "string theory": see poster at top and the photos toward the bottom), friendship, fantasy (complete with some charming animation), parenting and an almost-adopted sibling to tell the tale of a grown man named Ben -- played by the always interesting and goofy Thomas Middleditch, shown at top and below -- who has a load of trouble coming to terms with things like growing up and accepting responsibility.

Into his life comes a very pretty mystery woman named Hanna, who just may be that nearly-adopted sister. Hanna is played by the versatile and ever-commanding Jess Weixler, who here turns in another first-rate performance that keeps us, and Ben, on our toes. By turns charming, sexy, sweet and bizarre, Weixler has seldom seemed as alluring and/or maybe a little dangerous (except, of course, in Teeth).

Also on hand but relegated to background material -- as so often happens in films to any poor young woman who carries an unrequited torch for the hero -- is a young and pretty neighbor of Ben's named Tabby. Fortunately Tabby is played with enough wit and charm by Diana Bang, below, right, to keep her character in the foreground after all.

These three leads pretty much keep the movie on its oddball course, as we slip and slide along with Ben, finding our way toward unraveling the entanglement that is his mind and life. The movie has connections aplenty, even including that delivery man who rings the doorbell initially and finally appears again in what very well might be a more important role.

Fortunately our two Jasons do not work with a heavy hand. These connections and possibilities are suggested rather than belabored, and the movie comes to its conclusion more quickly, confidently and lightly than you may expect.

Performances are all they need be to brings this rather delicate, bordering-on-precious fable to life. Mr. Middleditch (of Silicon Valley and The Bronze) uses his innate goofiness abetted by just enough charm and appeal to make a pretty good hero of Ben, while Weixler and Bang offer interesting versions of woman as both help-meet and hindrance.

From Dark Star Pictures and running a just-right 85 minutes, Entanglement opens this Friday, February 9, in ten cities across the country, including New York (at the Cinema Village) and Los Angeles (at Laemmle's Monica Film Center). To see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here and then scroll down. And if you're not near any of these ten cities, the film will also be streaming on many of the usual outlets, as well.

Nicole Garcia's old-fashioned love-story-plus-twist, FROM THE LAND OF THE MOON, on DVD

Some of us will watch Marion Cotillard in just about anything, but don't worry: You won't have to lower  your standards much to find one of her latest endeavors, FROM THE LAND OF THE MOON, worth your time.

This old-fashioned-with-a-twist love story, set a half-century back, is well-acted, -written and -directed, even if it does ask you to accept one whopper of an imagining by it's protagonist. But then, l'amour fou can do that, don't you think?

As directed and co-written by French actor and filmmaker Nicole Garcia (shown at left), the movie is beautiful to view and rather fun to consider, both as it is moving along and post-viewing, too.

Adapted from the novel by Milena Agus, the film takes place in France, Switzerland and Spain and stars Ms Cotillard, Louis Garrel and Alex Brendemühl. Visually and talent-wise, what's not to like?

Each actor acquits her/himself well, and the cinematography (by Christophe Beaucrane) is generally entrancing and always varied, as we travel from the French farming countryside for a rest-cure in Switzerland and eventually to sunny, coastal Spain.

Ms Cotillard (above) plays a physically and emotionally problemed character named Gabrielle, forced by her mother into marriage to a man (Brendemühl, below, right) for whom she cares nothing. But when M.Garrel (at left, two photos below) comes into her life, ah -- things change!

How all this pans out, beginning near the end then flashing back to the start of things, works well, and Ms Garcia proves adept at holding us firm through some very quirky situations. (The oddest of these flirts with mental illness in a manner that displeased my spouse but which I was to view as unlikely but acceptable, given that, hey, this is a movie, after all.)

The film's great theme is actually love -- in two of its many forms: one, a short view that's immediate and insistent, the other a long one, strong and sacrificing. The result is strange, beautiful, thought-provoking and, yes, sentimental, but awfully kind and caring.

From IFC Films, in French with English subtitles and running two hours, From the Land of the Moon (the original French titles is Mal de pierres) arrives on DVD this coming Tuesday, November 21 -- for purchase or rental.

Death becomes her: The Widers' moving testament to the life and demise of Linda Bishop, GOD KNOWS WHERE I AM

Let's admit it up front: GOD KNOWS WHERE I AM -- the new documentary by Jedd and Todd Wider about a woman whose decomposing body, back in 2007, was found in a closed-up house just off a relatively busy New Hampshire highway -- is a grueling experience. But it is also a fascinating and emotionally moving one that will be worthwhile for audiences who care about mental health and the question of how much responsibility the state has in both diagnosing and protecting those of its citizens who are mentally ill.

The body in question belonged to a woman named Linda Bishop (above, left), a divorced mother who, for much of her life at least, appeared to be a happy, smart, relatively popular girl and woman. What happened when and why to change all this is something the movie can only hint at, but eventually, Linda had clearly grown mentally ill (the medical diagnosis was schizophrenia), abandoned her daughter and older sister Joan (above, right), was eventually confined to a state mental hospital then released after some time and left to her own devices.

Those devices allowed her to become so paranoid and out of touch with reality that she eventually starved to death in the cold New England winter, writing daily all the while in a journal (pages of which are shown below) that she kept and which was found along with her body. It is this that the Wider brothers -- shown above (flanking Lori Singer, who provides the film's voice for Linda Bishop's journal), with Jedd on the left and Todd on the right -- make use of in telling this woman's sad story.

The filmmakers also probe family and friends of Bishop, as well as the medical/social services establishment, to discover as much as possible about who the woman was and how she came to die as she did. Their film is a blending of long past with the more recent past, of memory, desire, hope and pain. Lots, especially, of that last one. Along Linda's journey -- which grows ever more fraught and crazy, as she goes on then off her necessary medications, over and over again -- we go from New England to Florida, even to New York City post-9/11 (which offers by far the most surprising moments in the film).

The Widers' accomplishment, aside from telling a story that is both utterly bizarre and predictably horrific yet expected, is in the manner in which they brings us close to Linda Bishop.  They begin their film with the final entry in Linda's journal, which we see and hear but without any real context. Then they fill that context in -- slowly and carefully (this is not a fast-paced movie) -- so that when, at the end, we see and hear this same journal entry once again, the effect is suddenly and quietly heartbreaking. We know this woman now, and yet we also know that, given who she was and how she "played the system" in her own crazy way, there really was little hope for her survival.

God Knows Where I Am is beautifully filmed, the events reconstructed in simple, often stunning ways that never try to hide their "re-creations" while also making them seem part and parcel of Linda' life. Ms Singer's readings are spot-on, and though, during the many interviews included here, you may look for a villain or two, I doubt that you will find one. Everyone -- including, yes, Linda herself -- seemed to do his or her best under difficult circumstances. The movie brings us closer to understanding, even experiencing, mental illness that almost any I can remember.

From Bond/360 and running a rather lengthy (for this kind of film) but never boring 103 minutes, the documentary opens tomorrow, Friday, March 31, in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema; on Friday, April 7, at Laemmle's Monica Film Center; and then in the weeks to come, across the country in another 16 cities and even in London, England. To see all currently scheduled playdates with cities and theaters, click here.

John Krasinski's sophomore directing effort -- THE HOLLARS -- opens in South Florida

The latest in the popular sub-genre of "Aren't-we-just-the-craziest-but-most-adorable-folk-ever?" has now arrived, and my answer to that question is a resounding No! After making a surprising, risky and generally well-done screenplay/ directorial debut with his adaptation of the David Foster Wallace story collection, Brief Interviews Wih Hideous Men, actor John Krasinski (shown below) has gone a good deal more mainstream with THE HOLLARS, his second effort as director.

Much of the credit for this very well-acted but too-often cringe-inducing piece of feel-good schlock must go to its screenwriter, Jim Strouse, who has an up-and-down track record so far as I'm concerned -- from the so-so Grace Is Gone to the much better People Places Things (both of which Strouse also directed) -- and here hands us a cast of characters so fucking quirky you'll want to sedate them forthwith.

Let's start with the Hollar son, Ron (played by South African actor Sharlto Copley, above, center), whose behavior goes from simply goofy to certifiable within minutes. Copley handles all this quite well. He's believable, but his character is simply not. Ditto the dad, Don, played by the ever-reliable Richard Jenkins (above, left), who offer up a will/won't, can/can't. happy/sad guy so utterly incompetent, you won't imagine he could ever have run his own business (well, it is going bankrupt. But still: How did he ever keep it afloat?).

The same can be said for the behavior of the hospital nurse, Jason (Charlie Day, above), who takes care of the Hollars ailing mom (the great Margo Martindale, below). Jason is so often so over-the-top, you'll roll your eyes and then some. So many characters here are so charmingly quirky that the movie begins to curdle early on. Ms Martindale -- by virtue of her skilled acting chops and refusal to overplay the quirks -- manages to keep the movie grounded whenever she's on screen. But that's not often enough.

Krasinski himself plays the more "normal" brother, John, who returns to the fold to aid his sick mom but turns out to have a usual rom-com problem of his own -- commitment phobia to his pregnant girlfriend (played with her usual sassy charm by Anna Kendrick, below, center, flanked by Krasinksi, left and Copley).

Also standing by, amongst a fine supporting cast, are Josh Groban (below, right), as the local minister, and that wonderful and recently BrainDead actress, Mary Elizabeth Winstead (at bottom), as Mr. Day's philandering spouse. As I say, the acting is first-rate all-around but is consistently done in by the too-muchness of the ridiculous story.

In its race toward the feel-good at all costs, the movie -- which purportedly deals with our difficult economic times and involves job loss and bankruptcy -- actually offers up one character from a rich-as-Croesus family who can and does solve financial problems with a wave of her economic wand. Think of it as the final insult.

A shoo-in for audiences who demand jerked tears, coy laughs and the warm-and-fuzzy above any real intelligence, this manufactured and manipulative movie is star-studded, beautifully-acted crap.

From Sony Pictures Classics and running a thankfully short 88 minutes, The Hollars, after debuting in the "big" cities a few weeks back, opens here in South Florida this Friday, September 16, at eleven different theaters --from Boca Raton to Delray Beach, Davie, Lake Worth, Boynton Beach, Fort Lauderdale and the greater Miami area. Click here, then scroll down, to view all the currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

Shira Piven makes good on her promising debut with new Kristen Wiig-starrer WELCOME TO ME

Anyone who saw  Fully Loaded, the 2011 movie directed by Shira Piven (below), will probably be ready for Ms Piven's next narrative step (she's made a couple of documentaries in between): the not-easily-classifiable WELCOME TO ME. Starring Kristen Wiig in what may be her most memorable -- if not popular -- role, the movie boasts a number of other first-class performers doing some excellent work in a film that takes a look at our narcissistic, self-obsessed-as-never-before society from the vantage point of one of its crazier members.

Ms Wiig essays, with about as little vanity as most actresses would allow, the role of Alice Klieg, a woman suffering from a major personality disorder and all kinds of OCD behavior who, to boot, refuses to take her assigned medications. Helped along by her psychotherapist (a nice job from Tim Robbins) and best friend (Linda Cardellini), Alice is barely managing. And then one day, she comes into a lot of money.

What Alice does with this windfall constitutes the movie's plot, introduces a raft of new characters, and sets us and Alice on a journey that explores everything from television and talk shows to friendship, self-obsession and medication, while showing us what and who we can buy -- if we have enough money.

Through it all, Ms Wiig (above) keeps us and everyone around her both off-balance and on our/their toes. The question of just how far one can go in the pursuit of "me" is raised and, if not fully answered (the movie cops out a bit toward the end), at least puts us in touch with the kind of "power" that money brings and how, in the hands of folk like Alice (not to mention dictators like, say, Idi Amin), it can be used in ways crazier and crazier.

The movie -- like the recently released The Voices -- will certainly encourage viewers who are borderline, or who have friends/relatives in this sad state, to take their meds. Beyond this, what is the film trying to accomplish? Well, it takes our current state of women's "Oprah worship" -- narcissism pretending to be other-centered -- to its logical conclusion. It also seems to want to show us how, even among borderline personalities, there's a lid for every pot. (Wes Bentley, above, plays -- quite well, too -- Alice's lid.) I have to admit that the screenplay by Eliot Laurence (The Big Gay Sketch Show), while appearing to want to have things every which way, certainly does not cater to the expected.

For instance, the TV show that Alice "purchases," while becoming more popular than anyone first imagined, does not morph into some boffo hit. And that relationship between heavy-duty misfits is not allowed to come to much, after all. Only Alice's longtime pal, Cardellini (shown at bottom, left), is used for a little too obvious sentimental fodder. Welcome to Me is certainly not a comedy, though it has plenty of odd laughs along the way, but you wouldn't call it a drama, either. Nor any kind of rom-com. And it does not quite fit as satire.

What holds the film together are the fine performances -- led by Ms Wiig, who is as good as she has ever been in this role, followed by that of James Marsden (above, right) as the grasping television producer who'll do just about anything for money -- and the near-hypnotic pull of the narrative (the bizarre incidents really do keep you glued). Piven and Laurence may have bitten off more than they can properly chew but they've nonetheless given us viewers a kind of fractured feast that is worth trying to digest.

Welcome to Me (the title doubles as the TV show Alice finances) -- from Alchemy and running 105 minutes -- opens tomorrow, Friday, May 1, in New York City at the Angelika Film Center and in the L.A. area at the Sundance Sunset Cinemas.

MENTAL reunites P.J. Hogan & Toni Collette in another tale of a family--and the outsider who saves it; plus a Q&A with Mr. Hogan

What is MENTAL? Yes, it's the Australian manner of describing someone who needs psychological help. But in this new movie of the same name by P.J. Hogan, it is also the idea that one man's (or woman's) "mental" is another's bit of normalcy. And vice-versa, of course. Mr. Hogan is another of TrustMovies' favorite filmmakers. For this fellow's output alone -- not numerous but extremely lovable and kind-hearted without being saccharine -- Hogan is special. Beginning with Muriel's Wedding and moving on through Unconditional Love, Peter Pan and now Mental, he has given us some of the loveliest tales of "outsiders" even seen.  He wrote and directed those four films, but he has also directed two others: My Best Friend's Wedding (a classic of its kind) and Confessions of a Shopaholic (not great, but more fun than you may have heard).

Among the things that Hogan (shown at right) loves, it seems, are music and song, which he manages to incorporate into his films (which are not musicals) in the sweetest, often funniest ways. He gets quite good performan-ces from his casts (and he casts with an excellent eye for very good actors). Since first working with Toni Collette, who played Muriel in the film that brought her, Hogan and Rachel Griffiths to international attention, he has worked with some of the finest actors in the business, giving them a chance to shine in roles they would normally not play. I think my favorite of his films is Unconditional Love, which is also probably his least known and seen. Seek it out, if you have not seen it, and you'll discover something highly unusual, twice as special and maybe five times as much fun as you're expecting.

Now with Mental, he's back in Australia again with a fractured family that needs a lot of help. Dad (Anthony LaPaglia, below) is the lecherous, never-at-home mayor of a small town whose wife (Rebecca Gibney, above) is suffering from psychological problems that take the shape of her desperately wanting her family to be something like the Von Trapps from The Sound of Music. So she sings -- at the most inappropriate times -- and is soon sent away on "vacation" (read "nut-house").

Mom's and Dad's kids -- five girls -- are not much better off. Each imagines herself to be the craziest child of all, though only one of them actually inhabits a rather dire mental state. Into this house-hold comes Ms Collette as Shaz (below), a very odd woman that Dad has literally picked up off the street and deposited at home to care for those kids. She does. In her own, inimitable manner.

Shaz was once married to a shark hunter named Trevor (Liev Schreiber, below), who has a shark display at the local aquarium/theme park where the eldest of the family's daughters also works. All this -- plus some nosy, not-very-nice neighbors and Mom's older and also not-very-nice sister -- bring the movie's plot/pot to the brim/boil.

Collette is as amazing as ever -- a force of nature who literally runs away with the movie. When she's on-screen, however crazy things get, she makes them work. The males, despite Schreiber's and LaPaglia's acting skills, register as much less interesting, though the women folk (Gibney, the young girls, Caroline Goodall as the mean sis, Kerry Fox as an OCD neighbor and Deborah Mailman, below, as an Aborigine pal of Shaz) are all aces.

Newcomer Lily Sullivan (below) plays, and very well, that eldest daughter, who begins a sweet, somewhat fraught relationship with a boy (a dear doofus brought to charming life by Sam Clark) who also works at the theme park. The plot is mostly Shaz teaching life lessons to the kids, mom and dad, but with these actors in place, along with Hogan's keeping the film energized and well-paced, it's an enjoyable ride, with Shaz/Collette such a consistent cyclone that resistance would be futile. There is also, along the way, an extremely moving scene between Chaz and that eldest daughter as truths are suddenly revealed.

TM would have preferred the film to have ended just one scene before it actually does. The actual ending stuck me as too feel-good and silly. However, after speaking with Mr Hogan for a few minutes during press day this past week, and discovering that Mental is based on real life and his own family (something the filmmaker decided not to push on his audience, as most do these days), I must take it back. Given what I know now, it seems the perfect ending. And if you read the short Q&A below, you'll learn why. But maybe see the film first, since the Q&A does contains some spoilers.

Meanwhile, Mental -- via Dada Films and Required Viewing and running 116 minutes -- opened yesterday, March 29, in New York City at the Village East Cinema and Clearview Chelsea and in ten other cities around the country. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

**************

What a guy is P.J. Hogan (below): Easy to talk to, funny, serious, smart and totally swept up in film and life and creation. My first question is "What do those initials stand for?"

"Paul John," he explains, "so you see, with that first name, why I could not use it." Ah, yes. That Crocodile Dundee fellow....  In the short Q&A that follows, TM appears in boldface and P.J. in standard type....

I'm excited to meet you because I've loved your films from way back. My favorite, I think, is that one with Kathy Bates and Jonathan Pryce, Unconditional Love.

Ah, really! I'm so glad to hear that. You know, we had a terrible time with that film. The studio wouldn't release it.  So it went straight to Home Video
.
Yes, I think it was shown on a cable channel here: Maybe Showtime...?

Yes and then straight to DVD.  I don't know quite what happened because I went off and did another movie. You have to move on: There are only so many battles you can wage.

That movie seems to me to encapsulate so much that I think you believe in.

It is a special movie to me, and I loved working with Kathy and Rupert (Everett). And Julie Andrews -- as herself!

Music in that one, as in several of your films, seems to mean so much to you.  The healing power of it, the joy of it....

Well, it does mean so much to me. From my first film Muriel's Wedding, music is one of the things that is so important to that film. That was the story of my sister--

Really? I didn't know that.

Yes. Just as with Mental, the events in Muriel's Wedding actually happened. (P.J. notices my surprise). Yes. Our dad was a... well, a bully, and he was not keen on us. We were all a disappointment to him.  I remember feeling most comfortable alone in my room, listening to Abba. That was my favorite band, but back then, in the 70s, they were considered very uncool. Now, of course, they are rightly considered great musicians and composers. Back then they had only one hit here in the USA: Dancing Queen.  In Australia, they has something like 14!

So Mental is also based on fact?

Yes, Mental is almost entirely based on actual events.

Even the ending?  I mean, I thought Shaz was going to stay dead.

Well, here's the thing about that. The real Shaz was totally mad. I mean, I am in the trenches regarding mental illness. My sister is schizophrenic, my brother is bipolar, and I'm the father of two autistic kids. So this is a subject that's really important to me. That's why I made it a comedy.  If you ask any caregiver to the mentally ill, they'll tell you that if you can't find a laugh in your day, you yourself will go totally mad.

My mom, when I was twelve, had a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized. And my dad, who was the mayor of our town and was running for reelection, he told all of us: "Nobody votes for a guy whose wife is crazy, so the official story is, She's gone on holiday."

So Shaz really was your caretaker?

Yes. Shaz was somebody my dad picked up on the side on the road. She was hitch-hiking. And he was completely at sea when it came to taking care of kids -- he always preferred not to be at home. Of course, he couldn't hire anybody through the official channels, so....   From Dad's point of view, he was doing a good deed for Shaz and for us kids....

And for himself. 

Yes, for himself. That goes without saying. So he was doing a good deed for her, rescuing her from hitch-hiking. And he trusted her because she had a dog.  So he was giving us a nanny. Of course, she was crazy. Yet, to this day, the original Shaz remains one of the most brilliant, inspiring and totally mad people I've ever known.

Whew. I didn't know all this was true when I watched the movie.  This does sort of change things somewhat.

Well, I was considering -- and I talked to my editor a lot about this -- putting at the beginning of the movie that notice that "this film is based on actual events."  But we decided not to.

Good. Because almost every other movie you see these days does that.

Exactly. And I think it's fine to say that, if it's Argo.

Yes but even in Argo, the whole last third was concocted!

But when it's a such a personal story like this one, what would the audience care? They either enjoy the story. Or they don't.  But because it is so personal and such a part of my life, I am more than willing to discuss it.

Do you live in Australia permanently?

Yes. That's why I am so jet-lagged just now.

Really? You look OK to me. Of course, I've never seen you before.

Yes, yes, so I could just tell you I always look like this: Smokey-eyed!

Do you choose your film projects. Or do they come to you, and then you decide?

Ah... Well, I am lucky in one way.  My first film Muriel's Wedding was a low-budget film that was hugely successful all around the world. I had all the "points" because nobody wanted to make it because nobody thought it would make any money. So, in a way, that film set me up.  And it's a great thing for anybody in this industry -- director, actor, anybody -- if you are able to say 'no.' If you have to work to pay the bills, well, then, you have to. But if you can pick and choose, how much better this is!  When I look back on things, I could say, Well, I wish I had made more movies. On the other hand, the movies I made, I really wanted to make.

(The PR person lets us know that we have time for one more question.)

OK: My Best Friend's Wedding is one of my favorite romantic comedies, even though it sort of skews to the anti-romantic comedy end.

Yes, but that's what makes people laugh.

Yes, and  that's also what distinguishes the film. 

It' s what I loved about Ron Bass' screenplay. The first time I read through a screenplay, I just enjoy it. This is as close, I believe, as I will get to the audience's response to the finished film. I remember thinking, about halfway through, I don't want Julia to get the guy. She's being just terrible!

Right!

And I thought for sure that the screenplay was have the usual happy ending. But his original screenplay did not have a happy ending. It ended like the movie now ends. But the studio was very frightened about a Julia Roberts movie not having a happy ending, so they made us shoot an alternate -- and happy ending where she gets the guy.  So we thought, well, OK: Maybe they have a point. And anyway, it's their money. So we'll do it, and do the best we can.. But that new and happy ending was summarily rejected by the preview audiences. They didn't want her to get the guy, either. But they also didn't want her to be alone. So then we got the idea to bring back Rupert Everett. And we did a reshoot. I always thought of Julia's character as Pinocchio and Rupert's character as Jiminy Cricket, her conscience.

Hmmm... Interesting.

And speaking of blogs, which I know you have and write for, it seems that the real Shaz, who is still out there --

She is still alive?

Oh, yes: still alive, and in her 60s now, I should think. And she has now taken up blogging or tweeting as they call it and has set up her own Twitter site.

Which is?

ShazIsMental.

With a dot.com? Or whatever the Twitter address is.

Exactly. The great thing about it is that her whole philosophy is there, in 140 characters or less, and she says what she thinks. In fact, she does not like the film at all.

She doesn't?

No. She dislikes it immensely. She says things like, "It's all lies -- except for that one bit where I pull out the knife and sort out those two bitches. I did do that!"

(And that's it. P.J. must now talk to the next journalist in line. But we've certainly enjoyed our visit. And his several films. If you've never seen Unconditional Love or his wonderful version of Peter Pan, rent them! And catch Mental, too: either now, or later on DVD....)