Scott Bakula
Date of birth
9th October, 1954
Occupation
Actor
Sex
Male
Height
1.83
Elsa & Fred Review
By Rich Cline
Good
While this geriatric romance is too simplistic and sentimental to be anything remarkable, its lively central performances add some badly needed subtext and make the film worth a look. Meanwhile, the supporting cast add some spark to their scenes, elevating the warm, silly drama with quirky humour and some more resonant themes. It's also remarkably honest about how it feels to grow older.
Set in New Orleans, the story starts as 80-year-old Fred (Christopher Plummer) is moved by his hyperactive daughter Lydia (Marcia Gay Harden) into a small apartment building. Fred's wife has recently died, but they didn't get along very well, so he's enjoying being on his own. Although Lydia's husband (Chris Noth) has yet another crazy business scheme he wants Fred to invest in. And his new next door neighbour is Elsa (Shirley MacLaine), a larger-than-life 74-year-old who claims to have once known Picasso. Her son Raymond (Scott Bakula) looks in on her from time to time, while she secretly supports her younger son Alec (Reg Rogers) in his artistic career. She also immediately starts trying to coax Fred out of his shell.
Obviously, the main idea is that you're never too old to fall in love, so director-cowriter Michael Radford (Il Postino) tries to balance a comedy about ageing with a sweet love story about an engagingly mismatched couple. The blend of genres is somewhat uneven, as the script never quite decides whether it's about making the most of the time you have left, being open to unexpected romance or accepting your family members for who they are. All of these big themes are in here, most with a fairly heavy-handed touch. But at least this means that the film is about more than just a bunch of goofy characters interacting in rather silly ways.
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Elsa & Fred Trailer
Fred Barcroft is an old man struggling to find much good in his life following the death of his wife. While he feels terribly lonely, he hates being around people, and while he despises the tiny apartment his daughter Lydia has moved him into, he can't bear to enjoy the world outside. Soon he meets Elsa Hayes from a nearby apartment; a free spirit of similar age determined to enjoy the last years of her life in the most spectacular ways possible, be it running from an expensive restaurant without paying or going dancing like she did when she was young. She teaches Fred that death is not something to be feared, rather a motivation to live the life you have. While Lydia disapproves of her father's newfound romance, he starts to open up, cheer up and realise that his life is far from over.
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Behind The Candelabra Review
By Rich Cline
Extraordinary
This biopic about the pianist-showman Liberace may look almost painfully camp, and sometimes it is, but it's also a remarkably honest depiction of an intimate relationship. In the hands of Steven Soderbergh, the flaming excess is never made the butt of the joke; instead we get a strong dose of gritty humour, dark emotion and even a revealing look into the smoke and mirrors of show business. And the astute performances from both Douglas and Damon continually catch us off guard with their resonance.
It was 1977 when the 57-year-old entertainer (Douglas) met 17-year-old Scott Thorson (Damon). There was an instant spark as Liberace, known to his friends as Lee, offered Scott a job as a companion: on the stage, in his bed and running his household. But their relationship wasn't easy. Lee coaxed Scott into joining him under the knife of a plastic surgeon (Lowe) who reshaped Scott's face to look like a younger Liberace. Afterwards, Scott became addicted to a variety of drugs, which strained their romance to the breaking point. And it didn't help that Lee had an eye for ever-younger boys, all while insisting to the world that he was straight. "People see what they want to see," he said.
While the production design overflows with Liberace's "palatial kitsch" design sensibility, Soderbergh keeps the story and characters grounded, finding humour in unexpected places (Lowe's over-lifted face is hilarious). And despite the outrageous costumes and hair, the actors never camp up their performances, which cleverly holds the story in a delicate balance between sharp comedy and involving drama. In this sense, LaGravenese's script is particularly clever, peppering the dialog with telling details that gives us a remarkably well-rounded picture of the interaction between these men. And it continually resists becoming another stereotypical gay romance, celebrity biopic or drugs odyssey.
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Behind the Candelabra Trailer
Liberace was an American pianist and entertainer well-known for his flamboyant lifestyle and the sense of grandiose he carried about with him. His personal life was embroiled in scandal with rumours of homosexuality which he vehemently denied. While everyone saw him as a figure of extravagance and individuality, behind closed doors was a turbulent relationship with a young chauffeur 39 years his junior. Scott Thorson became an important figure in Liberace's life; not only as a driver, but also like a son, a brother and a best friend. They embarked on a 5 year affair that saw Liberace persuade Scott into facial surgery to resemble himself, something which led to a desperate struggle with drugs on Scott's part and many a fiery argument between them. Just what was life for Liberace like behind the glitz and glamour of his luxurious existence?
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Scott Bakula and Chelsea Field - Scott Bakula and Chelsea Field Los Angeles, California - TV GUIDE Magazine's Hot List Party held at the SLS Hotel Tuesday 10th November 2009
The Informant! Trailer
Watch the trailer for The Informant!
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Life As A House Review
Good
The good news for George, a middle-aged, washed up architect, is that an enormous life change has motivated him to connect with his horrible teenage son and build a house by the ocean. The bad news is that the change is terminal cancer. The good news for moviegoers is that Irwin Winkler's Life as a House is filled with sharp, solid acting, a decent, sometimes harsh, script, and a few surprises. The bad news is that anything worth seeing here lives within an uneven sap of a film, unable to break free from the traditional Hollywood devices.
But much of Life as a House is completely watchable. Mark Andrus's script (he's written As Good As It Gets and the underrated, rarely seen Late For Dinner) appears cookie-cutter: he gives us the lazy, lonely, eccentric nobody (Kevin Kline); his estranged family, including beautiful ex-wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) and alienated teen (Hayden Christensen); and his predictably uptight neighbors, pissed off that his ramshackle of a house has stood in their beautiful oceanside neighborhood for twenty years.
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American Beauty Review
Excellent
Every time I see a new Kevin Spacey movie, I expect the world from him, and every time he delivers the galaxy.
Arguably the greatest actor currently working in motion pictures, he is capable of putting across leagues of depth with the subtlest, most insignificant glance. He can play menacing or meek, ardent or indifferent, nervous or non-nonchalant with equal dexterity.
Look at "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," "The Negotiator," "L.A. Confidential," "The Usual Suspects" or any of his recent roles and just try to imagine another actor in the part. It simply can't be done. Spacey doesn't act, he embodies his characters viscerally from the inside out.
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