Reel Insight Episode 25 - Natalie Portman

My biggest girl-crush must be Natalie Portman, so it was easy to find a lot of her performances I enjoyed, even if I don't like all the movies she's in.  We also discuss some TV pet peeves, some good movies I saw, and a bad one Rachel saw through.

New Movies I saw with Natalie this week:

Heat - Overall, this movie was much more boring than I expected.  However, I will give that a huge caveat, I really dislike Al Pacino in everything that isn't The Godfathers or Scent of a Woman.  I find him extremely distracting from the main storyline. Also, Val Kilmer, while probably still popular when this was made, is also distractingly bad.  However, the story is particularly awesome, so watching it a few more times would probably help me get over those facts.  DeNiro seemed great, and the overall story was intriguing.  2 of 5 lambs

My Blueberry Nights - This has been in my queue forever, so I was super excited when I found out Natalie was in it because it jumped to the top.  Made by Wong Kar-Wai it fits his style really well I think (I've only seen one other of his films) but its stars are totally outside of his wheelhouse.  Norah Jones stars as an observant woman who moves around a lot.  She befriends bar tender Jude Law, but then moves on with her life, meeting David Straithern and Rachel Weisz, and moves on again and meets Portman, ending up back with Law.  It's very much a character study of the random people who make up our lives and recur in it if you're actually paying attention.  Jones isn't a terrific actress, but she doesn't a good job keeping up with the terrific acting around her.  4 of 5 lambs

Leon: The Professional - Many people have told me how great this movie is, and now I'm one of them.  This was terrific.  Jean Reno plays a "cleaner" (aka hit man) who lives next door to a drug dealer's family.  Natalie Portman is the daughter of the drug dealer and is out getting groceries when her entire family is gunned down by Gary Oldman's cop henchmen.  When she returns home, Reno basically saves her, and eventually agrees to train her to be a cleaner too.  Their relationship is really innocent, but Mathilde (Portman) is not, or likes to pretend she's not, which makes for laughs.  It's got a great action sequence at the end, and Portman is amazing carrying the film from the point of view of a 12-year-old. 

Goya's Ghosts - TERRIBLE movie.  The story wasn't bad, and Javier Bardem is pretty good.  Portman's acting isn't terrible, but her costumes, sets, and the direction is dreadful.  Portman ends up over the top playing a young woman locked up by the Inquisition who gets knocked up by a visiting monk (Bardem) and then plays her daughter 17 years later who has become a prostitute.  The only thing they bother to do to make it clear this is her daughter is to give her different teeth.  But Portman as the mom is so heinous looking that you don't need to be reminded one's the daughter and the other is the mom.  Stupid.

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

I really wanted to see Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium when it came out in theaters, but alas, I missed it. I love Natalie Portman, and I'm definitely a kid at heart. I finally caught it on DVD this weekend, and liked it as much as I thought I would. It's a story about believing in yourself and magic. Dustin Hoffman is Mr. Magorium and owns a magical toy store. He's 243 years old and has owned the magical toy store for over 100 years. Of course, no one believes him when he says these things, but they're still true. He brings in an accountant, Jason Bateman, to determine the value of the store as he's leaving it to Portman, his store manager, in his will. They reason that an accountant must be a cross between a "counter" and a "mutant" so they call him "Mutant" throughout. He's a logical kind of guy and couldn't be more out of place in the Emporium. When the accountant is explaining that a guy can't be the king of a planet that doesn't exist, Mr. Magorium says, "You can't blame people for having aspirations." This sort of conflict goes on between The Mutant and Portman and Hoffman until he meets the little boy, Eric, who haunts the store because he has no friends. Eric and the Mutant become friends, unlocking the part of each other that couldn't imagine a magical story and the ability to make friends. Hoffman is terrific - with glimpses of his Tootsie personality behind the magical insanity and the occasional Rain Main moment when he's wondering about The Mutant's logical questions. But overall, he stays in control with the acting, and has moments of great humor and tenderness. When Portman wants to ensure he's sticking around and that she can't run the store because she's not magical, he reminds her, "Your life is an occasion, rise to it." The movie is full of lots of fun special effects, uncomplicated stories, and the belief in magic in ordinary situations. I loved it. 4.5 of 5 stars, and great for the entire family!