steiner-sam

It's a small Irish community drama set in County Leitrim in about 2000. Joe (Barry Ward) and Kate (Anna Bederke) live on a small farm in a remote part of Ireland. Joe is a novelist with roots in the community; Kate is an artist. They had lived in London, where Kate helped run an art gallery, but they moved to this farm about five years ago.

The film follows daily life over a year, primarily from Joe's perspective. We meet a variety of older local residents, including Jamesie (Philip Dolan) and Mary Murphy (Ruth McCabe), Jamesie's brother, Johnny (Sean McGinley), who left the community for London 20 years earlier but now is at loose ends; prickly and erratic neighbor Patrick Ryan (Lalor Roddy), and community outcast Bill Evans (Brendan Conroy).

"That They May Face the Rising Sun" (related to the geography of burials) meanders through the year as Kate decides whether to return to London to prevent the art gallery from being sold to strangers. The story unwinds slowly, with no destination, but has some resolutions by the end. The cinematography is excellent, as is expected in lush Ireland. My untrained ear had trouble with some of the accents, but the context was always clear. Joe and Kate may be too saintly, but it helps to give the movie a warm sense of a small community that takes care of one another. You care about the characters by the end.

It's an Agatha Christie mystery set in 1937 in London, England, Trieste, Italy, and mainly in Jerusalem and Qumran, Palestine. It follows Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) as he sorts out a death in the large American Boynton family headed by the domineering Emily Boynton (Piper Laurie), step-mother to Lennox (Nicholas Guest), and his wife, Nadine (Carrie Fisher), Carol (Valerie Richards), and Raymond (John Terlesky), and her own daughter Ginevra (Amber Bezer). Other suspects include the family's lawyer, Jefferson Cope (David Soul), imperious British MP Lady Westholme (Lauren Bacall), newly-minted Doctor Sarah King (Jenny Seagrove), and archaeologist Miss Quinton (Hayley Mills).

"Appointment with Death" follows the entire group as they travel together on a cruise to the Holy Lands, during which Poirot overhears and observes much and enlists the help of the local British officer, Colonel Carbury (John Gielgud). As often happens, Poirot unveils the murderer's name at the final climactic meeting with all present.

This is almost a paint-by-the-numbers film. As in most Christie mysteries, it's all plot with little character development. Piper Laurie is excellent, Lauren Bacall is fun, and Jenny Seagrove is fine. Unfortunately, Peter Ustinov mails it in, and everyone else is forgettable. The movie is not at all memorable.

It's a partial biopic of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa (Jack Nicholson) done through flashbacks from the day he disappeared in July 1975 near Detroit, Michigan. A fictional sidekick, Bobby Ciaro (Danny DeVito), has served as his security guy for years. We meet other union leaders like Frank Fitzsimmons (J. T. Walsh), Peter Connelly (John C. Reilly), and Red Bennett (John P. Ryan). We also meet Robert F. Kennedy (Kevin Anderson), who led the government's attacks on Hoffa. Carl D'Allesandro (Armand Assante) is a fictional character representing the Mafia.

"Hoffa" follows the general outlines of Hoffa's union life; his private life is invisible. Frankly, it's hard to see Danny DeVito as a tough guy, but he tries hard. The script is occasionally incoherent, leaving you guessing about timelines and the nature of the crimes the government accuses Hoffa of. The latter is simplified, reducing the apparent depth of his corruption. The last scenes depicting his disappearance are conjecture, though they hint at the most plausible explanations. Jack Nicholson is excellent when the script allows. Danny DeVito is miscast. J. T. Walsh is a decent Frank Fitzsimmons. The editing style is too much in your face with its scene transitions.