1873 - In Time

Apparently I was on a Justin Timberlake kick last night.  Mostly I just wanted to watch something high-concept and entertaining, and this was a pretty decent pick.  It got some picky reviews, but I think that centers around the fact that it's so hard sci-fi, which means that it's a morality tale, and as such it's going to be a bit heavy handed in places - I'm fine with that.  As I was at a take-out place this morning it even sunk into me, the beauty of having a world where time is the currency - is it really so different from real money anyway?  You need it to survive, it dictates so many things.  It's a solid concept and they do well enough by it here.  The action isn't there just to be awesome like it is in so many films now.  It's a very solid genre piece, not going to be for everyone, but if you like hard sci-fi you could do a lot worse.  Timberlake does the part justice and Seyfield is pretty darn enjoyable herself.  It's on Netflix.

1792 - Les Miserables

 Years ago I saw Les Mis on a school trip to London, England.  I even want to say that Colm Wilkinson was playing the lead still, but I can't recall for certain.  We got last minute seats and so I we were in the sixth balcony of this huge theatre, and even through shared binoculars the actors seemed like ants on the stage.  Needless to say outside of some great music I didn't really enjoy the experience as it was less than ideal.  So that was a great place to enter into seeing the film - my expectations weren't really anything.
This is a really great story - it's epic in scope and yet small and personal.  The performances are fantastic and arguably flawless in some areas.  Tom Hooper made a solid choice to film the ballads in mostly unbroken medium shots and it's inspired and beautiful - really allowing a true performance - and none is more perfect and heart-breaking than Anne Hathaway's.  I'm not an oscar-whore, nor do I take much stock in them, but if she doesn't get some recognition for her supporting role then it's a damn shame, I say.  Jackman is pretty great but I have to say that role isn't all that exciting to me - the stand-out male role goes to Russel Crowe as the complicated and conflicted officer of the law.  What happens to him is heart-breaking in a very bizarre way.  I want to say a lot more, but I won't and will leave that for you to discover. 
If you like musicals of epic scope you'll dig this.  I did find it a touch long in some spots - and some of the sing-songy dialogue I could have done without - give me a proper song and music or just speak dialogue, I say! 
But all in all, a hell of a show well done!  See it on the big screen with the big sound if you're going to see it at all.

1742 - Chloe

I'm late to this, but finally caught it on Netflix.  It's nice to see Egoyan use so much of Toronto and even name specific locations.  I swear I've say exactly where they did both at Cafe Diplimatico and Rivoli.  Very funny.  It seems to be the big trend now to cast big American stars in Canadian films, and I suppose that sadly, that's the only way to really get a bigger audience to pay attention to our films.  Seyfield and Moore are really great here and have an eye for picking good projects.  More than I can say for Liam Neison who seems happy to be in anything offered to him that comes with a paycheck (I'm looking at you, Battleship). 
This is a nice little thriller about a woman who is convinced that her husband is cheating on her and so she solicits a call-girl that she's recently met to put him to the test.  There's a nice little change-up near the end that's fun if didn't happen to figure it out half-way through - I'd actually be curious to know how many people were genuinely surprised by the ending. 
All in all it's a really nice psychological thriller and I think Atom did a damn fine job of it.  Give it a go.