ThiefHott Too much of everything

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

noralee "40 Shades of Blue" updates Tennessee Williams and puts his archetypal characters into the Memphis music scene. Rip Torn is like Big Daddy, here a legendary music producer (as bolstered by taking fictional credit for the classic soul songs of Bert Berns with local color provided by musical luminaries such as Jim Dickinson and Sid Selvidge) and his mannerisms recall Sam Phillips. As his son, Darren Burrows, in a hunky and magnetic return to public consciousness since TV's "Northern Exposure," recalls Brick, though here his brooding is Oedipal. Dina Korzun is a trophy girlfriend who depends on the kindness of strangers. In a mirror image of "Laurel Canyon," which also brought a prodigal son home to a legendary music producer parent with a younger lover, co-writer/director Ira Sachs well creates believable strained family interactions. All three interact so sweetly with the lovely toddler son that it becomes clear what warmth is missing among the adults. The production design and use of Memphis locales reinforce an industry town where Torn's "Alan James" is well-known, and a lived-in house that includes photos and portraits on the living room wall. We also see that his cohort impresarios (whose music is actually passé these days in Memphis, as shown in "Hustle & Flow" and Torn refers to in a speech that nostalgically recalls how classic soul music was a partnership between black and whites) are mostly surrounded by much younger women.Korzun's trophy girlfriend "Laura" is the most problematical, but it's not clear if it's the script or her acting. Sometimes she is clearly in "Lost in Translation" mode, as a Russian who has no connection to Memphis music and nothing to say to the people surrounding Torn and vice versa, and she wistfully notes that when she writes in English her handwriting looks like a child's.Sometimes her teen age babysitter has more gumption and insight than she does. The other characters are constantly asking her how she's doing and she gives a different lie each time. Other times she can speak forthrightly and stand up for her opinions, as when she insists to a friend that the father and son do not share looks or characteristics, or acknowledging that she is living better than anyone from her home. From the opening scene of her shopping in the cosmetics section of a department store as symbols of her putting on her game face, her character seems to be Sphinx-like, but Korzun does create a sympathetic portrait of a confused, trapped bird and your heart does go out to her poignant efforts to be her own woman.The film seems to build toward a confrontation that almost happens but doesn't quite, though that might mean that the characters have made a decision about their lives, as the son chooses not to be like his father, after several scenes where he did seem to be imitating his behavior. The lack of a climax may be realistic, but it doesn't make for effective drama.

chitownclark I was one of the few to get up at 7am, and walk over a mile in the snow to see this film in its initial early-morning screening at the Sundance Film Festival at Park City in January '05. The film went on to win "Best of the Fest" against formidable competition.I loved Dina Korzun's performance: nuanced, minimalist, perfect. For all of us older guys who've thought of having a fling with a slim Russian "ice princess" it was good to become familiar with Dina's character, and realize there might be a downside to such a liaison. But with such acting potential from the two leads, I felt that the story wandered, and the movie ended achingly unresolved.

brooklynmajestic I saw 40 Shades and think this film is incredible. Ira Sachs has made a movie that is unlike the typical current American film but is all about America. Every frame is filled with people and places that make you feel like you are actually there, watching the lives of these people. This film could not have been made in Toronto or Seattle or any other place "standing in for" Memphis. All of this is important because the main female character in this drama is Russian - an outsider in this America - and we feel her estrangement in every scene. None of the film is strange to us because we know these places and these people - because we are American. It is this familiarity that allows us to feel her outsider status all the more acutely. Dina Korzun, who plays Laura is beautiful and remarkable. You sense her alienation at every moment and understand the difficulties of her situation without ever feeling that she is the helpless victim of circumstances. In one particularly amazing moment of the film, we see her face flicker with opposing emotions from second to second... Sachs allows the camera to linger, heightening our discomfort with the scene and emotions occurring.Rip Torn is phenomenal. He knows this character and he knows this place. He is so authentic you absolutely believe every moment of his performance and as much as you hate him you feel for him too. An incredible performance. Darren Burrows's character Michael is perhaps the hardest to find commonality with. It's not an easy job being the catalyst in a family drama and so at times we don't understand his actions but we do sense that they are coming from a man in limbo - pathetic flailings of a man sort of trying to do something, be something but also lacking the real conviction and drive. Of the three performances this one is the weakest but that is not to imply that it is not good. It's hard trying to match Rip Torn, most can't in any movie.In Sumary, this movie is challenging -- through its structure and pacing and especially through its story but it is a challenge we should have more often in film not one to run away from. It is also beautiful and moving. It will definitely linger in your memory...often times coming back to you as if you are remembering a moment from your own life.

Steve Ripple First, the plot summary is incorrect in a couple minor ways. Laura, the Russian girlfriend of Alan James (Rip Torn) met him in Russia on a business trip/ conference (according to a long conversation in the film between Laura and Michael (Alan's son). Second they don't live in a penthouse, but on the banks of the Mississippi, in a sprawling 70's era house (NOT luxury but great set). Michael is not a freelance writer, but a literature Professor (as he discusses in a couple instances in the film - but would probably rather be a free-lance writer).I saw this film at the Best of Fest (Sundance) Screening in Park City, UT, knowing that it was the juried Grand Prize Drama winner with high expectations. After having seen several other films, and having been attending the festival for 15 years, I was very disappointed and quite perplexed that it went away with this honor.The film plods along revealing the characters as boring, sad, and shallow ghosts. The only exception is Alan (Torn) who does a wonderful job (but he always place this sort of role - a curmudgeonly, outwardly genial, jerk). The story is fairly simple, and verges on Oedipal themes, however, there is no real impact of the relationship that develops between Michael and Laura, as it takes place in a miasma of moral uncertainty. Alan and Laura are not married; Alan openly courts another girlfriend and has other transient relationships, Laura picks up men in bars and has a fling here and there, and Michael is ambivalent about most everything.The story moves so slowly and the characters have such restrained reaction to what would seem as provocative situations, that the viewer comes away with a sort of numb bewilderment. The dialog is simply awful, and often distracting. Laura goes around saying things that you might expect a Russian Tour Guide to say (which she was year ago). It would be fine if she said and reacted in this way occasionally, from a realistically portrayed film such as this, I want more: more emotion, more anger, more. Laura is just sad - throughout the entire piece.Michael's dialog is even worse. He's a Literature Professor, but seems illiterate. He says things that at times are harder to understand than Laura with her Russian accent. And the content of what he say's are often out-of-place and silly. His character is also the most shallowly portrayed in the film. He is simply blank. It is never believable that he would have a relationship with Laura.Don't bother with this film. If you want to see something similar, but with considerable more depth, see The Ice Storm.