2008 Movie #1: "Penelope"

When I first saw trailers for "Penelope" running this winter, I had a strange sense of deja vu. Didn't this film come out several years ago? I know I've heard of a film with Christina Ricci wearing a pig's snout. Well, it turns out I wasn't crazy. "Penelope" first was shown at a film festival in 2006. It's just been sitting in a can since then.

I must say, though, for being that musty, it's not awful. It's fractured fairy tale story feels poorly planned at times, and the second half of the film jumps from plot point to plot point so fast that it seemed that the projectionist had some place to be, but it is definitely not a completely unenjoyble sit. Am I damning it with faint praise? Maybe. But the scenes that Ricci, as the title character, shares with a suitor played by James McAvoy have a playful, laid-back charm to them that almost can't help but bring a smile to your face. If only the film could have maintained that charm in the second half. Still, a decent film to start off the year. Here's hoping most of them are better, however.

An introduction

If March seems like a strange time to start this blog for the 2008 movie season, well, there's a reason. I have been spending a lot of time catching up on 2007 movies (for those of you who have read my MySpace blog, I'm getting ready to do my annual list there pretty soon). I have not, however, been venturing to the theater to see 2008 movies. I mean you've seen the crop of 2008 movies so far, right? The only film that's come to the Quad-Cities that's gotten really good reviews is U2-3D, and I've never really been much of a concert film guy. That means venturing out to the theater on Leap Day was the beginning of my 2008 movie list. Other than that film, which I'll discuss in its own post, I can think of only a select few movies so far from this year that I have a real interest in watching. "Be Kind Rewind" because I am a big fan of Michel Gondry's last two movies. "Definitely, Maybe" because they actually seemed to cast the female leads well and the reviews weren't awful. "Charlie Bartlett" because it doesn't look awful and Robert Downey Jr. is good in just about everything. Maybe "Cloverfield" if I've taken motion sickness pills first or "The Other Boleyn Girl" to see if Scarlett Johansson has finally made another decent movie (I don't count "The Prestige" since her character and performance had so little effect on the film). None of these, however, scream "See me in the theaters," at least they don't to me. All of the others are foreign films, minor releases or documentaries that haven't come here yet.

So after that lengthy intro, let's kick off 2008 ...