Michael Clayton

From the makers of Ocean's 11 comes Michael Clayton. George Clooney completely fits into his role of a "fixer". And as he says, "Truth can be adjusted". I couldn't agree more with that.

Tony Gilroy(story writer and director), Soderbergh (producer) have done a great job yet again. The movie is gripping. Bits of the movie bring back memories of Erin Brockovich and although the latter focussed on the human side of the story, this one focussed more on the thrilling expose.

It's quite an irony that although Michael Clayton (played by George Clooney) is an answer to all problems faced by Keener,Bach & Ledeen (the law firm he works for); his personal life is a complete mess - with a divorce, a bar venture that did not take off, compulsive card playing (gambling). All this goes to show that just because one can fix others problems with such ease, it does not mean ones life is clean.

George Clooney looks his sophisticated best in his "oh so Clooney" black and white attire. After Syriana (which I deliberately avoided), I loved this one.

Manorama - six feet under

A great job for a debutante director. Why we went to watch it - well two reasons, one is because it has been shot in Rajasthan which we fell in love with ever since our trip there in 2004; and the second because it had a reasonably good star cast.
Abhay Deol- the key protagonist, I have always thought, is a good actor. He almost acts effortlessly and seems to enjoy what he is doing. With costars like Gul Panag, Vinay Pathak, Sarika, Raima Sen; am sure 'making the movie' was a breeze and fun too.
The title is the name of the book authored by Satyaveer Randhawa (Abhay Deol) - a debutante writer who just about manages to sell 20 copies of it.
The thriller is centred around Satyaveer and his book. The fun element in the movie primarily is when Vinay Pathak - an inspector in rural Lakhot (RJ), has some interesting conversations with his "jijey" (brother inlaw, Satyaveer).
A dialog comes to mind : "jab miyan bura mile, tho aurat rothi rehti hai, aur jab acha miyan miley tho usko rulatee rehti hai....isiliye jijey maine shaadi nahin ki" Wondering if there is an element of truth in this statement :)))
It's a thriller, a murder mystery which moves at it's own pace without much chaos as might find in a typical hindi murder movie. There is no theme music which is nail biting. The movie keeps one engrossed with no boring moment.
Watch it if you can.

Blood diamond

Did you ever wonder how many people were killed, mutilated, left homeless to get you those precious diamonds - the girls best friends?! Frankly nor did I. But now that I do, I am unlikely to pick one in a long time.

The movie closes in on the diamond trade which is used to generate monies to fund the civil wars in South Africa. Young children too are involved in this trade, the last count was 2,00,000.
Inspite of following the Kimberly process of certification of diamonds, which identify the conflict diamonds from the others, there continues to be a steady flow of these into the markets.

Leo Caprio, a whiteman who is brought up here in this wild continent is drawn to this diamond trade for the monies and thrills involved. Jennifer Connelly plays the role of a journalist, who later in the movie is shown as Leo's love interest. The movie centres around this one character who manages to make a small difference in this big bad world - and that for you my friends is Leo!

The most moving dialogues in the film are the one where one of the homeless old black men exclaims to Caprio after a raid by one of the gangs, bodies strewn around, devastation struck - "look what they are doing for diamonds. Thank God we don't have oil". And the other moving moment was when Caprio in an inebriated state tells journalist/ interest Jennifer Connelly - "God must be mad at us for being so ruthless towards each other. Infact I would think God has left this continent long ago".

Definitely worth watching. An excellent movie which captures the filth behind the solitaires!

Casino Royale

After Sean Connery, George Lazenby , Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan; Daniel Craig comes across as yet another avatar of Bond. With every era the series seems to be belong to a different genre. While Sean Connery had what it takes to portray 007, I did not think much of the others until Pierce came along. He had none of the crass, roughened approach that is so characteristic of the earlier Bonds. He was the suave gentleman or Remington Steele who made every woman's heart skip a beat. Daniel Craig is definitely a toughened soul, but adds very little to the "lady's man" label that 007 usually portrays.

I read a little while ago that the director Martin Campbell had a plan of showing Madame M as a lesbian (keeping with the times?!), but Mr. Craig was dead against it, could be because of the bond that James shared with Madame M. Also given that this is the first book by Ian Flemming, it may not have gone down too well with the audience.

Casino Royale is based in MonteNegro and has millions of dollars exchanging hands. Bond's first mission is to ensure that the banker does not win the million dollar prize money and use it to fund terrorism. The movie has Bond falling in love and seen treating women as "meaningful pursuits" rather than "disposable pleasures".

The movie is the usual Bond fare, with predictable Madame M, no Q (did Ian Fleming not have this character in his first book, I wonder!).

It took me a while to get used to new Mr.Bond, James Bond :)