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Invictus and Bones’ Reviews Coming Through

Posted by Sasha Stone On November - 30 - 2009

Richard Corliss, in a Fall Movie Preview, writes up Invictus admiringly:

If there’s a whiff of colonialism in casting Hollywood stars as renowned South Africans, the actors work hard to find strength and nuance in their roles. Damon, beefed up for the occasion, makes Pienaar a stalwart yet courtly figure. Freeman infuses Mandela’s speeches with the same gentleness and gravity he’s brought to his numerous God roles and the Visa Olympics commercials. But the real deity here is Eastwood, still chugging away handsomely in his 80th year. Who’d have thought that old Dirty Harry would, with Letters from Iwo Jima and Invictus, become America’s prime director of international trauma and triumph?

The TIME Mag preview has a few words on other films, some it’s clear weren’t seen before press time and are really just previews, however Corliss does declare Up in the Air the Best Picture frontrunner.   The White Ribbon is also reviewed.

Colin Firth in A Single Man is also praised, “For a gentle man who’s lost his love, solitude has become a life sentence that simply must end. Firth makes that ache subtly, splendidly visible.”

Meanwhile, there are other reviews for The Lovely Bones, both positive, from Drew at Hitfix, and David Poland at MCN.

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    4 Responses for "Invictus and Bones’ Reviews Coming Through"

    1. arjay November 30th, 2009 at 1:15 am 1

      Both Invictus and Bones will probably make the ten because even though they will divide critics, they will both have enough fans for whom the film will be their number 1. The same is true for Inglourious Basterds.
    2. Bill November 30th, 2009 at 1:44 am 2

      give me inglorious and bones in the top 10 and ill be quiet
    3. lop November 30th, 2009 at 9:37 pm 3

      there is a new video that shows susan sarandon as the grandma..

      here is the link
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3TRQa6vJw0

      since the bad reviews are really hurting it(ugh..) the movie has a shot at make up right?
      oh and the score?
      idk
    4. Ryan Adams November 30th, 2009 at 9:54 pm 4

      I’m going to stand firm for now and say it’s too soon to know where the reviews are going. Only 4 or 5 major critics weighing in and they’re evenly divided.

      Emanuel Levy (A-)

      The best thing to be said about “Lovely Bones,” which is set in a typical American suburb, Norristown, Pennsylvania in the 1970s, is that it’s a tense, intense, and truly original art film. As such, it can’t be compared to any other film about suburban life, family loss, or serial killer, for that matter. The film can’t even be compared to “Heavenly Creature,” the 1994 film that put Jackson on the map (still my favorite work of his), which also deals with young girls and a bizarre friendship that leads to violence and murder.

      The script, especially the voice-over narration, by Jackson’s vet collaborators, Fran Walsh (his companion) and Philippa Boyens, is consistently sharp, precise, and revelatory, grounding the story and characters in its specific context, even when Jackson the helmer indulges in fancy visual and sound effects…

      Like the book, the movie depicts the overcoming of loss as a long and complex process based on a two-way path. You could say that Susie not only watches passively but also encourages (and wills) the disintegration of her family, so that eventually each member can reach a sense of new balance and perhaps even grace.

      But, essentially, the movie is about love, different forms of love, of which the most significant (and perhaps excessive), is Jack’s affection for Susie, clearly his favorite daughter. Thus Susie notes, “Mr. Harvey didn’t understand how much a father could love his child,” an observation that evokes sorrow and pity for the murderer, a lonely, estranged and alienated figure.

      The most impressive element of “Lovely Bones” is not the visual design, but the fluent and informal voice-over narration, which is always candid and personal, and occasionally even humorous. As noted, the film’s point of view is remarkable, because it belongs to a narrator who, while dead, is also the story’s major character. This tricky structural device has been seldom used in Hollywood movies, and it brings to mind William Holden’s character (first seen as a floating corpse in a pool) in Billy Wilder’s creepy and macabre “Sunset Boulevard.”


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      Best Actor
      Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart++++*
      George Clooney, Up in the Air+*++***
      Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker**+*
      Colin Firth, A Single Man****
      Morgan Freeman, Invictus+***

      Best Actress
      Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side+++
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      Best Supporting Actor
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      Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones****
      Matt Damon, Invictus***
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      Jim Cameron, Avatar*+**
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      Julian Clarke, District 9**
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