Category Archives: Jennifer Ehle

2022 Films, Carey Mulligan, Drama, Jennifer Ehle

She Said-2022

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She Said-2022

Director Maria Schrader

Starring Zoe Kazan, Carey Mulligan

Scott’s Review #1,353

Reviewed April 7, 2023

Grade: B

Telling a highly relevant story that also happens to be topical, She Said (2022) is a film I champion people to see for its powerful message. The importance of its mere creation with the added urgency of a female director being tied to it is critical.

The #MeToo movement and uncovering sexual harassment in liberal-minded workplaces like Hollywood only make this project more relevant.

As dynamic as the story is the overall package could have been a bit better as I evaluate the encompassing project. Director, Maria Schrader, mostly goes the safe route choosing to carefully craft the message but hardly in a dark way.

The film at times feels almost wimpy and lacks some crucial elements that might have made it more impactful. The screenwriter is Rebecca Lenkiewicz, who deserves much credit but plays softball rather than hardball.

The film is good but not great and unsurprising it completely whiffed of any Academy Awards nominations. There are a few clear misses which leave She Said with a courageous yet unfulfilling feeling.

Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan star as New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor respectively, who together break one of the most important stories in a generation, a story that helped propel the #Metoo movement.

The revelations and eventual conviction of multi-millionaire film production mogul Harvey Weinstein shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood and altered American culture forever. This led to a needed examination of the industry.

Mulligan and Kazan are terrific, carrying strong and charismatic lead performances as female reporters with a vested interest in getting to the truth. It’s tough to say who is the lead since both characters’ personal lives and sympathetic husbands run parallel.

I’m a bigger fan of Mulligan’s and I’m still smarting from her Best Actress loss for Promising Young Woman in 2020. Hers is the more hardened of the two characters and her one gritty scene in a local bar when she angrily rebuffs the advances of a jock is great.

One other impressive facet of She Said is the appearance of Ashley Judd as herself. News junkies will recall that Judd was instrumental in coming forward and telling her story when she could have kept hidden as other victims did.

Finally, the jarring first sequence sets the tone quite well as disgraced former President Donald J. Trump is examined pre-2016 election when sexual harassment allegations were hurled at him.

The point of this is to show that powerful men have historically gotten away with sexual abuse against women.

She Said tones down too considerably when it never shows Trump, Weinstein, or the pivotal actress Rose McGowan. Only their voices and the back of Weinstein’s head are used.

This sparks a peculiar feeling and a watered-down approach. It’s unclear why real video footage or actors to play these roles couldn’t or wouldn’t be used but it elicits a weird feeling.

It’s nice to see the legendary Patricia Clarkson in any film but her role as news reporter Rebecca Corbett is limited and one-dimensional.

Finally, the climactic wrap-up when finally one of Weinstein’s abused victims agrees to go public feels anti-climactic and is better served for a Hallmark Movie of the Week moment.

Ouch!

The film is overall good with the message being the most important takeaway. She Said might serve as a warm-up act to the much meatier yet similarly themed All the President’s Men from 1976 or the recent Bombshell from 2019.

Based on the vitality of the real-life events that She Said (2022) is created from I expected something much more than I was served. It’s like trying for a grand slam home run and instead flying out to the shallow center field.

2012 Films, Chris Pratt, Drama, Édgar Ramírez, Harold Perrineau, James Gandolfini, Jason Clarke, Jennifer Ehle, Jeremy Strong, Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Kathryn Bigelow, Kyle Chandler, Mark Duplass, Political Thriller, Thriller, War

Zero Dark Thirty-2012

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Zero Dark Thirty-2012

Director Kathryn Bigelow

Starring Jessica Chastain

Scott’s Review #1,133

Reviewed April 14, 2021

Grade: A-

Director Kathryn Bigelow, not far removed from her Oscar win for The Hurt Locker (2008), returns with a similar style of film centering around war and more specifically about the emotional tolls and psychological effects from not just the battlefields but from dangerous missions.

The main character suffers from many conflicts and inevitably the viewer will as well.

Zero Dark Thirty (2012) is unique for the genre by having a female in the lead role and star Jessica Chastain is front and center and terrific.

She is calm, restrained, and in control. She is tough to rattle and a powerful and inspirational character to be admired.

Chastain exudes cool in the face of danger.

Chastain does have a brilliant emotional scene at the end of the film. Her character, Maya, boards a military transport back to the U.S., as the sole passenger. She is asked where she wants to go and begins to cry. The emotion finally gets the better of her as it would to anyone.

The film is not all Chastain’s to brag about and there is little wrong with the film.

Beautifully directed, Bigelow layers her film with enough tension and magnificence to enshroud the moral questions viewers will ask, specifically about torture.

It’s somewhat fictionalized, and in fact, Chastain’s character is made up, but Zero Dark Thirty is a gem nonetheless.

But we also know the events happened.

The film starts incredibly well and immediately grabs the viewer’s attention with a brilliant first scene. Amidst a dark screen and soundtrack of actual calls made to the 911 operator from inside the World Trade Center Towers on 9/11, the scene is about as powerful an opening as a film can have and bravely sets the stage for what follows.

These include many scenes of Arab detainees being interrogated (that is, tortured) for information about Al Qaeda. Is this justified or unnecessary abuse?

The viewer is immediately saddened and in tears and conflicted about whether the torture is justified having just heard the 911 calls.

I know I was.

From there, the viewer also is told a summary story putting the pieces of the first scene together.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden becomes one of the most wanted men on the planet. The worldwide manhunt for the terrorist leader occupies the resources and attention of two U.S. presidential administrations.

This is the crux of the film and the story told.

Ultimately, it is the work of a dedicated female operative  (Chastain) that proves instrumental in finally locating bin Laden. In May 2011, Navy SEALs launched a nighttime strike, killing bin Laden in his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

We all know this but troubling is the use of torture. I keep coming back to this point.

I think what I like most about the film besides the riveting pacing, action sequences, and psychological appeal is the controversy that surrounds it.

The fact that it ruffled feathers at the CIA and in Congress about whether the info was leaked to the filmmakers makes me think that at least some of it is based on facts, despite what other reviewers (likely with a strong political bias) might claim to the contrary.

But as a political junkie that’s just my belief.

The film’s reproduction of enhanced interrogation techniques is brutal. Some critics, in light of the interrogations being depicted as gaining reliable, useful, and accurate information, considered the scenes pro-torture propaganda.

Acting CIA director Michael Morell felt the film created the false impression that torture was key to finding bin, Laden. Others described it as an anti-torture exposure of interrogation practices.

I guess we may never know the truth. But the film compels and provokes feeling.

Bigelow is at the top of her game with Zero Dark Thirty (2012) crafting a genre film (the war one) way too often told from only a masculine “us versus them” mentality and leaving behind the fascinating nuances that can make the genre a more interesting and less one-note one.

The masterful director does just that and makes us think, ponder, and squirm uneasily.

Oscar Nominations: 1 win-Best Picture, Best Actress-Jessica Chastain, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Editing (won), Best Film Editing

2014 Films, Alan Rickman, British, Drama, Jennifer Ehle, Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Period Drama, Romantic Drama, Stanley Tucci

A Little Chaos-2014

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A Little Chaos-2014

Director Alan Rickman

Starring Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts

Scott’s Review #269

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Reviewed August 22, 2015

Grade: B-

A Little Chaos (2014) is a difficult film to review. The film does not kick into high gear, or much of gear until the final thirty minutes or so as the drama hits a crescendo and past events are suddenly explained.

At this point, it becomes a very entertaining film.

Until then, it is largely a bore and slow-paced.

Starring Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman, who also directs the film, A Little Chaos is a good film with beautiful period piece costumes to marvel over, and feels great, but misses the mark with a lack of balancing the momentum throughout the length of the film.

It is also largely fictionalized, making the viewing less enjoyable.

A period drama set at the gorgeous Versailles in France, the period in the late 1600s when King Louis XIV of France is in power and lives on the illustrious estate.

Landscaper, Andre Le Notre, hires unconventional gardener Sabine (Winslet) to create one of the gardens.

Sabine is progressive and does not live in the past. Rather, she has ideas for creating a unique pattern. Sabine is instructed to incorporate a wonderful fountain within the garden. She faces hostility from staff members for simply being a woman and they refuse to work for her.

Others admire her creativity.

As the plot unfolds, Sabine has romantic feelings for Andre, a man trapped in a loveless marriage with Francoise, and they begin a tender courtship.

Sabine is haunted by the past and frequently hears cries in her dreams. The audience does not know what her past life was, only that she is widowed.

The final act of the film brings everything together nicely. We learn about Sabine’s past and her suggested dalliance with Andre comes to fruition.

After the film, I was left thinking how exceptional it was, but then remembered the majority of it had dragged.

The themes of A Little Chaos are class systems, feminism, and societal views. At first, snubbed by some for being a commoner, Sabine slowly is accepted by the royal figures, including the King himself, whom Sabrine humorously mistakes for the gardener at one point.

Ideally, it would have been lovely if a woman had been hired to create the garden.

Sadly, events do not happen this way but is someone’s fantasy.

A Little Chaos (2014) has great potential and looks beautiful- my main complaint is for most of the film nothing happens.

Also disappointing is that the film was not filmed at the historical Versailles, nor was it even shot in France. Every exterior scene was filmed in England.

This is not a deal-breaker, but some genuineness would have been nice. Another major detraction is that Sabine De Barra is not even a real-life figure, but rather is fictionalized- sort of how the past should have been but wasn’t really.

Having been a real person would have made the film more interesting. What is the investment?

From an acting standpoint, the film succeeds. Winslet, a highly talented actress, is well cast and the chemistry between her and Matthias Schoenaerts is palpable. Both actors are believable in their roles.

Stanley Tucci, typically great in whatever he appears in, plays Phillippe, a silly, slightly effeminate Duke who does more to annoy than to amuse and is a trivial character.

Throughout my viewing of the film, I kept thinking of it as the type of film that should be liked because it looks great, but something was missing.

The royal drama, sexual dalliances, and antics were fun, but I felt like the film could have been much more than it ended up being.

2015 Films, Dakota Johnson, Drama, Eloise Mumford, Jamie Dornan, Jennifer Ehle, Luke Grimes, Marcia Gay Harden, Romantic Drama, Sam Taylor-Johnson

Fifty Shades of Grey-2015

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Fifty Shades of Grey-2015

Director Sam Taylor-Johnson

Starring Jamie Dornan, Dakota Johnson

Scott’s Review #262

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Reviewed August 5, 2015

Grade: B-

To quote a humorous phrase I once coined years ago, when I decided to give in and see Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), despite negative reviews, “I was not expecting Citizen Kane” fit perfectly with this film as I pondered my review after the conclusion.

Based on the titillating book series by author E.L. James, the film is sudsy, steamy, and poorly acted. However, something is charming and sexy about the badness of it.

It’s not a terrible film, but the negatives outweigh the positives.

Dakota Johnson, daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, and granddaughter of Hollywood royalty Tippi Hedren plays a shy literature student named Anastasia Steele.

She is pretty and grounded and meets and becomes enamored with a twenty-seven-year-old billionaire named Christian Grey after driving to Seattle to interview him for a sick friend.

The chemistry between the two is palpable and an instant romance ensues.

Christian courts Anastasia mercilessly, becoming somewhat controlling, and she is willing to be his “victim” as she adores his attention.

As the two get to know each other better, it is revealed that Christian is “dominant” and desires Anastasia to sign a contract, becoming his “submissive” and “belonging” to him. Anastasia is conflicted by this notion.

She loves Christian but wants a traditional romance with flowers and chocolates, something Christian has admitted he does not do.

I confess to having gotten caught up in the kinky romanticism of it.

The film has a smoldering, dreamlike style. The scenes in the “playroom” are hot and the film does its best to make the entire production erotic, but not going so far as to make it pure smut.

Boy meets girl, girl falls head over heels, boy conquers girl.

The film makes sure to portray Anastasia and Grey as complete opposites. He is wealthy, sophisticated, calm, cool, and collected while she is a struggling, naive girl ripe for the picking.

Perhaps this was part of her appeal to Grey.

The acting is not great, especially on the part of Johnson.

I did not find Jamie Dornan (Grey) to be so bad and he is likable enough to me. For the most part, the character of Anastasia irritates me, and I find her quite unlikeable.

Anastasia becomes enamored with Christian, allows herself to be pursued, showered with gifts, considers, then more or less accepts his offer to be his “submissive”, then gets furious and dumps him.

Huh?

Fifty Shades of Grey is told from a female point of view as evidenced by the marketing and the strategic opening on Valentine’s Day weekend.

I sense that the character of Anastasia is made to be sympathetic while Grey is drawn to be the cad and the bad character.

A brief backstory is mentioned as to what turned him into a dominant male who likes to have females submit to his desires coupled with his lack of desire for any affection, but this was not too deeply explored.

The film does not want the audience to really “get him” or delve too deep into the psychological reasons, instead of going for the kinkiness and the female side of the story.

A poorly structured film that made a ton of money and will undoubtedly spawn at least another sequel, Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) is a guilty pleasure and one I shamefully confess to having somewhat enjoyed.

Oscar Nominations: Best Original Song-“Earned It”