Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

paul2001sw-1 How does a country descend into civil war, and from there, to genocidal slaughter? Some of the most terrible stories of recent years come from Africa (poverty being one obvious driver) and this film, like the more famous 'Hotel Rwanda', is set in such terrain. I personally found the latter film unsatisfactory, as it told a story of basically good people attacked, in effect, by mindless zombies: 'White Material' is better at giving a portrait of life in a society where the pillars of order are crumbling, and thereby offers a more convincing narrative as to how the bonds of normal human decency might break. It also offers an interesting perspective by looking at events from the viewpoint of white farmers: not evil per se (although the film doesn't make them particularly sympathetic), but owning too many resources in a land that sees that claim to title as rooted in the colonial past. What doesn't work, for me, is the particular plot: while the mood of the characters, and of their world, is well created, the details of the situation remain unclear: who does what to who, and why, remains frustratingly enigmatic. Isabelle Huppert is good in the lead role; but the absence of a black African in a role of matching prominence is arguably a weakness, the murder goes on and the explanation is never quite forthcoming. Perhaps that's asking too much of a mere movie: if the explanation was obvious, the world would not have to endure so much pointless suffering.

Suradit I lived in Africa for nearly 25 years and, whenever things went south no matter whether with trivial or major consequences , a common response was "AWA," Africa Wins Again.Usually the reason some undertaking failed was attributable to human intransigence and stubborn refusal to be accommodative, but the results were similar to those experienced when a plantation or garden was left untended. Africa reclaimed the situation (or the plantation) and things quickly returned to it more "natural" state, as if any traces of human intervention had been fully erased.This story has to do with a multi-generational French family living in an unnamed African country, apparently for quite a long time, as a revolution is unfolding that is both anti-government and anti-exploitation-by-colonial-types like the family.Aside from the utter despair for all parties concerned, it's a little difficult to see what the point of the movie was. Maybe if we had seen a little of the main characters before the revolution, their slide into hopeless refugees-to-reality would have been more telling. As it is, from the start nearly everyone seems to have already found his or her own way to deny what's going on and the viewer is more likely to feel apathy for everyone rather than any sympathy.The "star" is a woman who apparently never owned a comb or hair brush or any clothes appropriate to her daily activities. Aside from a pile of greasy, stringy, uncontrollable, overly long hair, she is a pretty one-dimensional, forgettable character. In addition to being in total denial about what's going on about her, she also seems unaware that her "school boy" son has gone completely over the wall. At least he has the sense to shave his head, something I kept wishing the woman would do.If the objective was to show how Africa will always win again and reduce anyone and everything to the lowest common denominator (presumably taking the racist view that whites will be reduced to the lowest level ... that of native Africans ... if they let their guard down), then it failed remarkably. Just about everyone in the movie seemed to be rather pathetic from the start. It may be true that "Things Fall Apart," but for some things/people, that was a pretty small change.

writers_reign Perhaps more than any actress of similar stature Isabelle Huppert is always more than happy to lend her considerable clout to non-commercial projects so much so that I'm almost frightened to check her CV lest the 'experimental' titles outweigh the entertainments. In an interview included with the DVD writer director Clair Denis, who wrote the book on art house fodder, credits Huppert with instigating this film in which despite a couple of killings (one by Huppert herself) nothing happens. The setting is Africa and unbelievably several reviewers here have claimed the flat combination of lifeless grass and dirt is beautiful. A civil war is in progress (really! In Africa, you do surprise me) and Huppert is advised to leave while she can. She refuses. End of any plot. I'll always watch Huppert but if she goes on like this the day may come when she forfeits any clout she may have. When the "Home"s and "Deux" start to outnumber the "Les Soeurs Fachees" the writing may be on the wall.

gradyharp WHITE MATERIAL (the term is defined as all things owned by or being 'white' in a black culture) is a strange little film by the highly respected Claire Denis who wrote (with Marie N'Diaye and Lucie Borleteau) and directed this rather timeless, non-specifically placed study of disintegration of family and life somewhere in Africa. Perhaps not giving a time frame or more information about the politics of the place where this film takes place is meant to metaphorical, but for many viewers it will make the story more of a conundrum than is necessary. Maria Vial (the extraordinary actress Isabelle Huppert) runs a coffee plantation owned by her father-in-law Henri (Michel Subor): the plantation has seen better economic days and Maria's former husband André (Christophe Lambert) who not only offers no help to the plantation but is trying to sell it before it goes bankrupt: Andrés also has taken another woman Lucie (Adèle Ado) and has a young son by her. Maria's only child Manuel (Nicolas Duvauchelle) is a tattooed loser and probably his unstable mind is due to drug abuse. So it is Maria by herself that is in charge of the plantation. There is a political uprising with rebels, led by Boxer (Isaach De Bankolé), destroying all the white material seen to be the evil of the country. Maria sides with Boxer, protecting him from the ruling corrupt government, and as the people Maria has employed on her plantation flee because of the insurrection, Maria is repeatedly warned to return to France - an idea she finds repugnant and will do anything to save her land. She gathers a few frightened people to harvest her coffee beans, but as she is processing the beans she uncovers a severed goat head in the beans - a sign of doom. Maria must fight to save her home and in the end her choices are altered by a vile deed that shows how far she has fallen in her attempt to change her personal destiny: she has lost her business, her son has gone completely mad, and her former husband and her father-in-law fail to aid her plight. Even giving aid to Boxer, the chief of the rebels, fails to alter her plight. The film is confusing in that there is not enough history or information about place so that the message seems to be that all of Africa is always in turmoil and that the conflict between blacks and whites is a constant. Real history does not support that act and the reality of the people of that continent deserve better, Isabelle Huppert is always outstanding, but even in this situation her character is a bit monotonous. The musical by Stuart Staples is outstanding, possibly the best aspect of this film that could have been much better. In French with English subtitles. Grady Harp