Funny how????

OK movie review time again, plenty of these been done already, so why not do another??? This is pretty much what this blog is now, tennis and movie critiques! (but some different posts will follow at some point).

Anyways I thought I would take a look at another Martin Scorsese classic, Goodfellas, which is based on the real life exploits of the former gangster Henry Hill who was associated with the Luchesse crime family based in New York.  The film itself starts in 1955 with Henry as a teenager who lives in East Brooklyn ad he longs to become one of the "wiseguys" and chooses to work for them at the local cabstand.  However Henry's father soon finds out he has not been at school and beats him, as he doesn't want his son to have anything to do with the mob.  However the mobsters manage to put a stop to this by threatening the local mailman by putting his "fuckin head in the oven first!" if he delivers another letter to Henry's house.  After this Henry works full time under the wing of the boss Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino) and he also meets his two associates the smooth talking but lethal Jimmy "The Gent" Conway (Robert De Niro) and the psychotic loose canon Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci).  After being pinched by the cops for selling cigarettes off the back off a truck, Henry is taken to court, but tells them nothing, and is eventually let go where Jimmy tells him "Never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut".

As the film moves into the 1960s, Henry now in his 20s (as is Tommy) are making a solid living stealing cargo from the local airports, and they also pull off the Air France robbery, which sees Henry move up the ranks.  By this time Henry also meets his soon to be wife Karen (Lorraine Bracco) a Jewish girl from the Five Towns in New York, initially they dont get on well, and Henry stood her up on their second date, but after Karen confronts him about it, Henry makes it up to her.  After this Henry charms Karen with the glamourous side of his life, as he takes her out on expensive dates for meals and drinks.  Henry also at one point defends her, by brutally beating up an abusive neighbour of Karen's, and despite her initial shock toward the incident, she admits that it turned her on, and soon after they marry.

Now into the 1970s, where things start to get more heavy as Henry and Jimmy host a party for Billy Batts (Frankie Vincent) who is a made man with the Gambino crime family.  During the party, Tommy arrives with his date, where Billy first off warmly greets Tommy but then proceeds to wind him up about his past when he was just a boy who shined shoes, this drives Tommy mad (or madder than before) and he threatens Billy then leaves.  Later on Tommy comes back and with Jimmy they both brutally beat up Billy, and later stab and kill him, and soon after bury his body out in the woods.  With Batts being a made guy, this causes a serious problem for the three of them as they killed him without consent.  And during this period Tommy's psychosis continues as he first off berates and shoots a young hood Spider (Michael Imperioli) in the foot for not getting him drink, and then later shoots Spider dead for talking back to him.  Round about this time Henry also starts an affair with a girl Janice Rossi (Gina Mastrogiacomo), but Karen soon finds out about it and rows furiously with him, which leads to Karen becoming hysterical and confronting Henry, pointing a gun at him while they lie on bed, but Henry soon slaps her and takes the gun off her and shouts at her that he's got enough to worry about without coming home to this, and leaves.  Soon after, Paulie expresses his concerns about Karen, but insists he can put things to rights, and in the meantime Henry go off with Jimmy on business down to Florida.  However on beating up a bookie, things soon go awry as the bookie's sister is revealed to be a typist for the FBI, who gives them up, and Henry, Jimmy and Paulie serve a prison sentence.

After Henry is released, he gets involved in drug dealing (behind Paulie's back who insisted Henry doesn't get involved in it) and he also comes across a very appealing  business proposal from his friend and local mobster Morrie Kessler (Chuck Law).  This turns out to be the legendary Lufthansa heist at JFK airport, where Jimmy and a small crew pull off a robbery where they steal over 6 million dollars  However as a result of the robbery, the crew all buy expensive things with their cut of the money, which infuriates Jimmy who expressly told them not to buy anything as it would attract unwanted attention.  Soon after Jimmy has the participants of the heist murdered by Tommy in order to cut any link between himself and the robbery, this includes Morrie, Henry's close friend.  Once the dust has cleared from the heist, Tommy receives the good news that he is set to be "made" and ingratiated into the crime family as a proper member.  But it soon turns out to be a setup as Tommy is taken into a room by Tuddie (Paulie's brother) and is shot dead, as a revenge for killing Billy Batts and various other things. 

By the time we hit 1980, Henry gets involved even heavier in his drug deals and is trying to set up a deal with his associates in Pittsburgh.  But by now Henry is a total dishevelled mess, addicted to cocaine and has become increasingly paranoid.  However before Henry can get the deal underway he is arrested by narcotics police and he is sent to jail, where Henry fears he may be murdered by his crime partners in case he rats them out.  After posting bail, Henry meets with Jimmy who for the first time asks him to do a hit on someone who was supposedly the rat who snitched on them, but Henry realises its a setup because if he decided to go along with the hit, he himself would be killed.  Henry afterward realises he has little choice but to become involved in the witness protection program in order to save his own life and his family.

Right from the start you just know that Goodfellas is a classic film, that certainly isn't far off the level of The Godfather.  The first scene which definitely ranks as one of the most violent opening scenes in American cinema where Tommy and Jimmy finish off Batts, really grabs you by the throat and pulls you into the film straight off.  The characters in Goodfellas are certainly very vividly drawn and Henry Hill himself is far from an angel, but he does appear to be a man who is out of his depth in this world.  He is surrounded by vicious thieves and murderers and while he is a thief himself, he isn't murder, and as Hill in real life himself said, he lived in constant fear 24 hours a day, fearing that he might be killed himself at any moment.  Hill's narration in the film is also really contrary with the events that occur in the film where he says he loved the life, and the thrill he got from it, but you also see Henry's utter shock and fear at his associates behaviour.  This is probably best displayed in the scene after Tommy and Jimmy brutally bludgeon Billy Batts and stick him the boot of their car, they then go and have dinner at Tommy's mother's house, and Henry sits silently, while Tommy and Jimmy laugh and joke, despite what they have just done.  But at the end of the film even though he is living in the witness protection program, he still has the nerve to complain about how boring and inconvenient has life has become since leaving the crime life behind.  Yet if it wasn't for the program he would have been dead long ago, since then Henry Hill himself said how grateful he was for the program and that it did save his life, although he has since had a few lapses and gotten in trouble with the law for drink and drug abuse.  

However Jimmy and Tommy are far from sympathetic as they come across as the vicious bastards they no doubt were in real life, and no doubt in real life they were much worse.  Tommy's character was for example based on Thomas DeSimone, Hill's real life criminal associate who Hill himself described as a "sick deadly fuck, who would kill your rather than steal", DeSimmone also in reality attempted to rape Karen Hill as well.

Performance wise there is precious little to fault here as the cast are all really strong and on top form.  Ray Liotta is great as Henry Hill, as he starts off as a suave well dressed gangster, but ends up a total mess, burnt out on cocaine.  Liotta perfectly grasps the (fancy word here) Hill's ambivalent emotions about the life, as one minute he loves the thrill of stealing, but the next he fears for his life.  De Niro is also really good as Jimmy Conway, he plays him with just the right amount of charm and menace.  Paul Sorvino also does really well as Paulie Cicero, its basically a part he initially found really difficult to capture, until he saw a look he gave in a mirror which scared the hell out of him!  And he adopts this menacing look throughout the film, and his best scene comes when he confronts Henry about drug dealing.  Lorraine Bracco is terrific as Karen Hill, and she is a far cry from the quiet wives off The Godfather as such as Kay and Connie.  Karen is far more fesity and has the guts to stand up to Henry and confront him about his infidelities, and she also remains strong when Henry serves his time in prison.  But the best performance in the film comes from Joe Pesci as the hot headed and aggressive crook Tommy, and its great how he can take his small demeanour and turn himself into quite a chilling but at the same time amusing bad guy.  Pesci's famous scene where he asks Henry "funny how?" is a great example of Pesci's intensity and ability to play a scene as being both funny and menacing all at once.

The film itself has only a few flaws, but the main one unfortunately however has to be that after Tommy's character is bumped off, the film takes a dip and the energy and momentum of the film drops.  In the last 30 minutes or so, its all about Henry's frantic state of mind as he tries to put his drug deal together, and picking up his brother from hospital and getting him to stir the tomato sauce for their dinner, while at the same he is paranoid about helicopters following him outside.  It all becomes a bit bogged down with inconsequential details at this point, and all Henry's running around really drags the pace of the film down.  However it does feature a great moment where Karen meets up with Jimmy who says he has some dresses for Karen to look at, which are in the back of Jimmy's warehouse in an alleyway, but Karen out of fear choses not to look and drives away in her car.  But the end of the film does feel like a bit of an anti-climax, which is a shame as the rest of it is so good.  

Technically though the film is just as good as anything Scorses has done, as there are many great scenes, the scene where Henry escorts Karen through the bowels the club they are going to in order to skip the queue at the front door is definitely one of the most memorable.  I also love the pull in zoom shot where Henry meets with Jimmy in a diner toward the end where they discuss Henry's case.  Scorsese's also put together a terrific soundtrack for the film and his choice of music is perfect in each scene with such artists as The Rolling Stones, Donovan, The Sex Pistols, George Harrison and Cream.

Soooo that's my review and analysis of Goodfellas over with, its a real classic no doubt it and if you haven't seen it well sort it out right now and get to it!

That it for now.

The Big Woznt'niacki

OK here's YET another tennis post, but this time it has a different spin (or topspin!) on it, as this time it isn't just about tennis scores and how tournaments are progressing, its all about a certain Danish player who sadly at the moment just isn't cutting it on the ladies tour, and that player is Caroline Wozniacki.

In the last couple of years Caroline really was on top of her game, reaching the final of the US Open, and while she lost to Kim Clijsters, she carried on with her consistency and winning plenty of titles such as in Beijing, Tokyo, Montreal, Indian Wells and Dubai, all of which are big Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 level tournaments.  However last year after that really good first spell of the year, Wozniacki's level suddenly dropped off, and this might have started maybe round about April in Stuttgart, where she reached another Premier WTA event final, only to lose out to unseeded German player Julia Goerges, in straight sets no less.  After that loss and despite winning a couple of smallers Premier event tournaments in Brussels and New Haven, Wozniacki's 2011 just didn't get any better, particularly in her grand slam results, with her worst result in years at the French Open, losing in the 3rd round to Danielle Hantuchova in a comprehensive straight set defeat.  Also at Wimbledon she didn't even reach the quarter finals as she lost to Dominika Cibulkova in the 4th round in a tight 3 set match, but for a player of her top ranking she really shouldn't be losing to unseeded or lower ranked players.  And these worrying signs carried on in the latter half of the year where again she failed to defend her title at the Roger Cups in Toronto, losing in her first match and again in Cincinnati.  She did however manage to reach the semi finals of the US Open, but again she was blasted off the court in straight sets by Serena Williams, a player she has never beaten.  And to top it off, despite her World No.1 ranking she even failed to get to the final of the WTA Championships in Istanbul, as she was hampered by an injury, and was ultimately put out by the rising star Petra Kvitova, who by then had won her fist major at Wimbledon.

And unfortunately Caroline's game has followed the exact same path this year, losing out to Kim Clijsters in the Australian Open quarter finals, and with that her ranking dropped off to the World Number 4.  And since then she has struggled to even play to that ranking, as she was defeated last week in her first match in Doha to Lucie Safarova, a player that isn't even in the top 20, and now again this week in Dubai, where she was the defending champion, she lost out to Julia Goerges for the third time, again in straight sets in 7-6, 7-5.

So things really haven't got any better for Caroline, in fact at this rate she will be set to drop out of the Top 10 quite soon.  And its a great pity to have such a talented player, just fall away from the game so quickly, and Agnieszka Radwanska, no doubt will soon overtake her in the rankings, who has just guaranteed the World No.5 spot having defeated Julia Goerges in the Dubai final today in a very good tight final in 7-5, 6-4.  And despite the fact that Radwanska herself is a counterpuncher as well, her game has more guile and ingenuity about it than Wozniacki's has, as Radwanska can out-think alot of her opponents on court and disguise her play to other players, whereas with Caroline its a case of what you see is what you get.   

So what is Caroline's problem?????  Well I'm certainly no expert, but for me she just isn't an aggressive enough player, she is by nature a counterpuncher, and quite often is too defensive and trades from the baseline.  Caroline's forehand is also highly susceptible and is prone to making too many errors, however her backhand at the same time is one of the best in the ladies game.  But Caroline is losing too regularly to players ranked below, which is definitely a troubling sign, and maybe the reason for that is again she is up against players that can outhit with their power and pace, and they also come in against her at the net.  Andy Murray certainly once was considered too as a counterpuncher, but he has stepped his game since then and become a more aggressive player, and he has always been a far more consistent player, who has played to his ranking.

But for Caroline, her game is fast slipping away, and she is no longer a threat to many of the players on tour, and she is day by day becoming more fallable.  For me also her game is a bit too predictable, with no variety as she is always using the forehand/backhand combination, she also isn't a very good vollier, and she isn't comfortable playing at the net, too many times players have played winners off her second serve, and she has seen too many cross court forehands whizz past her.  So if Caroline is to make more headway, she definitely will need to step up the aggression, and maybe also get in a new coach, similar to Andy Murray, find a past slam champion who can guide her to the right path, and help her make the necessary changes to her game, to get her back on top.  She also quite often relies too heavily on her father, who is her coach, as she calls him on alot to give her advice, meanwhile a lot of the other players on the tour mostly just try and work it out for themselves.

But until the worrying signs may continue for the former world no.1 and it is a great shame to see such a talented player drop off like that, and let other players overtake, as there have already been several players such as Sam Stosur, Li Na, Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka, who have all since become first time grand slam champions, and all of them were ranked below her.

Anyways here's hoping in the future Caroline can try and find a way to make that major breakthrough and get back into the game, but if its going to happen, changes will need to be made.

So that's it for now.        

Doing a Djokovic

Well the tennis posts have been taking a little break after the Australian Open, well ok I did do one on the Davis cup last week, but I thought I'd say something about the ladies new World No.1 player, Victoria Azarenka, who triumphed at the Australian Open and since gained the top ranking as a result.

The ladies game for a while now hasn't had a dominant player in the game, which in a way has made it that bit more unpredictable and interesting, however it also perhaps isn't so good from the point of view that there is no player that has been able to really step up to the plate.  But this year that might well have changed, as so far Victoria Azarenka really has stepped up her game and proved her mettle in winning 3 titles in a row, starting in Sydney then Melboune and now just there in Doha.  Victoria has always been a very aggressive player and a potential grand slam winner, and this year she has emphatically proved to be just that so far.  Since winning the slam, her confidence has grown and grown and her game has become razor sharp, with very few holes in it.

And this week in Doha really has been a tour de force from the Belarusian player, as she breezed her way through the tournament without dropping a set, and losing no more than six games in a single match.  Although at one point in her semi final match against Agnieszka Radwanska, which proved to be the toughest match of her week, Victoria did at one point turn her ankle, which caused her to have an injury timeout.  In the past Azarenka has had so many retirals, last year alone I think she had five or six, but this time her attitude as a player has really changed, as she chose too carry on with the match and fight through the pain, and she came through it in the end.  And its that attitude that will establish her as a real Number 1 player, with a real shout to dominate the game just like Djokovic did last year and most likely could do this year again.

Victoria also so far in 2012 remains unbeaten with 3 titles in the bag, and she is currently 17-0 this year, which promises to be very similar to what Djokovic did if she can keep it up.  So this could lead ladies tennis into a very exciting and interesting place, with a new dominant player, and it will remain to be seen who can step up to the plate and take her on.  There are a few players who potentially could beat her, and Caroline Wozniacki could well be one of them, and the other is Petra Kvitova, which means we could be in for an exciting new rivalry if goes that way.  But as far as things go at the moment, if Victoria carries on as she is, in comparison to the mens game, Victoria will be Djokovic and Petra will be Rafa!  And Vika has in a way better chance of victory here because so far she has been more consistent, and that's one area where Kvitova lacks in, as she is either brilliant or awful in her tournaments.  But when they meet in the future it should make for a very exciting encounter.

However there are couple of areas in which Caroline Wozniacki for example was a better example of a World No.1 player and that was in terms of consistency throughout the year and her fitness, which is something Victoria struggles with.  Already Victoria has had to pull out of the tournament in Dubai because of her ankle injury, but with Caroline, she remained largely injury free, which was one of her strongest aspects and reasons why she held onto the No.1 spot.  And this might stop Azarenaka from properly getting a foothold of the ranking, especially if she wins a title here and there and has to keep withdrawing or even retiring through the course of a match.  Victoria has increased her fitness this year, but if she still falls foul of injury then it will hamper her progress, but we will see what happens. 

As for the men's tennis, just a quick update on the Rotterdam final on the ATP tour, which saw Federer take on Del Potro, and Federer came through in a very convincing victory winning in 6-1, 6-4.  This saw Federer bag the 71st title of his career, which is some going and he has now literally won 70% of his career finals!! Not bad eh????  However in the absence of Djokovic and Rafa, Federer easily can reign as the world's best player, but with those two other guys in the mix, it will be tough for Federer to get back to his winning ways and win more majors.  But again its a new season, a new year and we shall see what happens as the year unfolds.

Anyway next up for the men will be Dubai, which will see the return of Novak and Andy to the game and they will also be joined by Tsonga, Berdych and Tipsaervic, so it promises to be a good one.  And funnily enough Dubai is next up for the ladies too as the world no.1 Victoria Azarenka will have another chance to carry on her impressive winning streak, and also will see the return of Petra Kvitova as well, so exicting times ahead on the courts.

Right that's it for now.

Speaking in tongues

OK movie review time again, for my own edification and that, this time its Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear, the classic thriller from 1962 starring Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck.  The remake is naturally a more modern, violent and explicit movie, as it would be when directed by Martin Scorsese, but anyway here is the usual bit about the plot.

The film starts with Max Cady (Robert De Niro), a convict who has just been released from prison afer serving 14 years for rape, seeks out his lawyer Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) and looks for revenge for Sam having put Cady away behind bars.  Sam was his defence lawyer at the time back in Atlana in 1977, but during the case, on seeing what Cady did to his victim, a 16 year old girl, he decided to bury a report that came back saying the girl was promiscuous.  And had Sam let this report be used, it might have seen Cady get off with a lighter sentence or be released.  Of course Cady has since caught on to this, and that's his main reason he wants revenge, for the suffering and pain he endured in prison.  So Cady starts a series of incidents to intimidate and get at Sam and his family, this starts with the Bowden's dog being mysteriously poisoned.  Cady also meets with a girl, Lori (Illeana Douglas) who is a county court clerk, who works with Sam, whom he has been seeing behind his wife's back.  Cady although appears to hit it off with Lori when they meet in a bar, he soon takes her back to his apartment where he brutally beats and rapes her.  On hearing of the attack, Sam goes to hospital and talks to Lori, asking her to testify, but she refuses as she knows how the system works, and she doesn't want to explain herself to a jury in court about how she came to be in a bar with Cady and so on. 

After having no success with the police, Sam decides to hire a private eye, Claude Kersek (Joe Don Baker) to follow Cady and maybe catch him in the act, although ultimately Cady makes Kersek at a local diner, and Kersek confronts him and tells him to leave town, but Cady refuses.  Meanwhile Cady approaches Sam's daughter Danielle (Juliette Lewis) at school and tries to charm her around in his favour, in doing so he puts his hand around her, gets her to suck his thumb erotically, and he kisses her before leaving, Dani then panics and runs off.  Soon after Sam gets Kersek to hire some guys to do a "hospital" job on Cady, involving two pieces of pipe and a bicycle chain, however during the attack, Cady turns the tables and viciously beats them.  Cady then goes one better on Sam by hiring a top lawyer Lee Heller (Gregory Peck), who Sam shortly after the botched attack approaches to make an injunction on Cady, only to find that he was pipped to the post by his enemy.  In court it is revealed that Cady recorded a conversation between himself and Sam, as Sam threatened Cady to leave town or he will be hurting like he never dreamed.  As a result of the hearing, Cady gets a restraining order filed against Sam, and Lee petitions the ABA (American Bar Association) ethics comission to have Sam disbarred.

Sam now desparate turns to Kersek for help in trying to capture and kill Cady, Kersek suggests that Sam fake his flight out to his hearing, and instead steakout in the Bowden household for Cady to come in.  However Cady is one step ahead again, and mysteriously makes his way into the house where he kills Kersek and the house maid Graciella (Zully Montero) by garroting them with piano wire (which he had taken from the Bowden's piano, also mysteriously! What is this guy??? A ninja???! ;-).  Sam and his family then decide to flee to their houseboat and travel up to Cape Fear in hope of escaping Cady.  However tenacious as ever, Cady follows them to their location by strapping himself to the chassis of the Bowdens' car. And soon enough on the houseboat, Cady confronts them for the last time, intent on exacting his full revenge on Sam and his family. 

Most remakes of course fall flat on their face, but thankfully Cape Fear isn't one of them, with Martin Scorsese at the directorial helm, it certainly wouldn't do that.  I also actually prefer it to the original version, as I think the Bowden family in the original version of Cape Fear where a bit too goody goody and clean cut.  In the remake, they are a dysfunctional family, who have tried to make some amends, but Sam has had a past history of womanising, Leigh of course is the frustrated housewife and Dani is the shellshocked, lonely teenager.  It doesn't make for a particularly happy image of the American family, but it certainly makes it more interesting to watch than a clean cut cardboard cut out family.  What doesn't change so much of course is the depiction of Max Cady, as Robert De Niro plays in an not entirely similar but not disimilar way to Robert Mitchum, although Scorsese did say he use Mitchum's character from the Night of the Hunter as more of an influence.  As Cady in the remake is more like a demented preacher at times than just an ex-con, and he regularly quotes passages from the bible to Sam in their various meetings.  And by the end of the film Cady in his last moments (PLOT SPOILERSS ABOUND!!!) as he is about drown, with his leg handcuffed (or legcuffed??) to a part of the Bowden's crushed boat, he still babbles on, speaking in tongues, saying he will be "bound for the promised land".  Its the ultimate irony, that in Cady's eyes that he thinks he is some sort of angel sent to do God's work, and at the end of it all, he thinks he will go to heaven, despite his brutal violent nature.  Although if you think about it, in a strange way Cady was trying to save Sam from himself, with Lori for example, he exposed the fact he was seeing Lori behind his wife's back.  If Cady hadn't intervened, Sam's deception no doubt would have carried on, but its almost like Cady is the moral adjudacator who prevents it from carrying on.  It leads onto that bizzare but true line from Cady to Sam at one point when he says "You could say I'm here to save you".   

Performance wise of course there is plenty to like about Cape Fear, and while Robert De Niro doesn't exactly give one of his best performances, its not the type of film that calls for that, instead he makes Cady appears as be charming, devious and incredibly evil all at once.  Nick Nolte is very good as Sam Bowden, who is tormented by Cady right from the start, and at the start you are somewhat wary of his potential womanising ways, although he doesn't actually do anything with Lori other than play squash.  Jessica Lange is also fine as Leigh Bowden, Sam's long suffering wife, who at first appears to be on good terms with her husband, until Cady comes into their lives and turns them upside down.  Joe Don Baker also gives probably my favourite performance of the film as Kersek, the private investigator, who is quite cocky and self assured in his ability to catch Cady, he also delivers most of the film's best dialogue such as "I'm sorry about that, Sam, that son of a bitch could survive a pre-emptive nuclear strike!!".  And finally there is Juliette Lewis as Dani, which was her debut performance, and she is very impressive in the film, as she plays Danielle with a certain quirkiness and innocence.  But she is of course very much alone in her life, and she in unable to deal with her parents when they continually row with one another.  She also shares with De Niro one of the film's best scenes where Dani and Cady meet in the school theatre, where they discuss books such as Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, the pitfalls of adulthood and Cady almost tries to turn Dani against her father and nearly succeeds.

Scorsese himself provides a great relentless pace and he employs the use of many quick cuts and close ups, to convey the frantic nature of the film, and the anxiety the Bowdens are going through.  Although probably does overuse the negatives when we see for example Leigh lie in bed post coitius with Sam, and we see her nasal hair in the negative image!  But overall its another great technical film from Scorsese and you would expect nothing less.

And finally a little bit about the score, which of course was orignally composed by the late great Bernard Herrmann, which was re-orchestrated by Elmer Bernstein who does a terrific job with Hermann's already great score, and there are plenty of great passages in there to choose from.

Sooooo that's it for Cape Fear, which is a very worthy remake and if you haven't seen it, its definitely worth a swatch.

Blue roses

On Saturday night there I went to see Strathclyde Theatre Group's production of Tennessee Williams classic play The Glass Menagerie.  This of course is a play I am rather familiar with myself as I appeared in a production of it myself and played one of the characters in it, Tom Wingfield, who is the narrator of the play.  So here is a bit more about the storyline of the play.

Set in the depression era of 1930s, Tom Wingfield, is a young man who aspires to be a writer, but works in a warehouse, and lives a frustrated home life with his domineering mother, Amanda Wingfield, and his older and painfully shy sister Laura, who has a slight limp and dropped out of typing school, and now spends her time playing with her glass animal colletion and old records.  Tom himself longs to escape his mundane life at home and from his tedious work at the warehouse, but he frequently rows with his mother, who insists that Tom try and find her a "gentleman caller" so she can eventually marry.  After much pestering from Amanda, Tom eventually asks one of his colleagues at the warehouse, Jim O'Connor to dinner.  On telling this to Amanda, she is delighted, but Jim soon appears to be the boy that Laura liked from high school, and Laura being a shy as she is refuses to meet him, however after nearly fainting coming to the dinner table when Jim, Tom and Amanda are seated, Laura gets to know Jim and they share the evening together.  But as things appear to be going smoothly, Jim has a revelation to share with Laura, which will result in the Wingfield's lives being turned upside down.

STG have done a fine job with their production of the classic Tennessee Williams play, with one of the stalwarts of the theatre group, Barry Ward playing Tom Wingfield.  Barry put in an excellent performance as Tom, and he delivered Tom's speeches with a nice leisurely pace, that gives the audience time to take in what he is saying.  Barry's final speech is also very nicely played as he cracks with emotion over leaving his family and particularly his sister behind.  Barry also got the idea of Tom really well, despite the fact he appears to be the central character in the play, he is in fact the least most central, as it really revolves around Amanda and Laura, as Tom drifts in and out of the play, its all from his memory of course. 

Rhona Cathcart also did a fine job as Amanda Wingfield, although admittedly some of her performance does come across as being a little bit too faux and theatrical (well it is the theatre).  Amanda is a tough character for any actress I'm sure as she is a strong proud woman, but she is also very insecure as she looks back on what her life use to be, as she was once the belle of the proverbial ball, she also carries the most emotional scars of the play, with her husband having left her when her children were young.  But Rhona did provide much of the play's humour and the scene where she comes out wearing her dress is really funny.  Mandy Edgar as Laura too was very good, and Laura is probably the key to the play, and Mandy nicely captured Laura's fragility, and she shared some nice moments with Amanda and Jim.  My only gripe with Laura in the play was when she gave Jim the unicorn with the broken horn at the end, as she walked away and said to keep it as a savouneir, its a really poignant moment, which would have worked even better if she stood still next to Jim when she said it.  But I guess since that's the way it was played in the production I was in, it makes me a bit biased towards other production's choices, but there is no right or wrong way, it boils down to how you see it I guess.  

And then there is Colin Healy as Jim, who played the part quite well, although I hate to say it, he probably is the weak link in the chain (sorry Colin!).  Colin definitely conveyed Jim's confident nature well, but I did find his accent a bit hard to understand at times, and the performance was a bit one note.  However this isn't a slight against Colin in any way, as I have seen him in other plays and he has been excellent, and his costume was great, as he really appeared as the cocky confident business-like figure, replete with gangster looking shoes! :-)

And credit definitely also deserves to go out to the director Derek Banner, who made good use of some period music, even using a violinst for the "fiddle in the wings".  I also like his use of the projector showing images of the actors, and old fashioned photos, also the father figure (was that Tennessee Williams???? Not sure).  The use of the curtains was really good too, particularly in the 3rd scene where Tom and Amanda have that massive row, and we see their shadows, which was excellent (it made me wish we did something like that when I did the show!).  Music wise, Derek also made really good use of the Foo Fighter's song "Home", which actually fitted in really nicely with the setting of the play, and it sets up Tom's memory of his home life, as he thinks back to what was once.  

Sooooo that's another critique over with, STG's next play funnily enough will be Abigail's Party, which I did with the Patter Merchants group as well.  Funny coincidence that, I think they are copying us with their choice of plays! ;-)

Right that's it for now.

Dan the man....

Well it was quite a day for me today as I was out over at Braehead arena once again to see the next Davis Cup tie, as it was the final deciding day of the tie, to see who would progress on through Africa/Europe Group I, which saw Great Britain take on Slovakia.  And it was quite an exciting weekend of tennis, not to mention a very very tightly contested tie on both sides.  So here's a quick recap on the weekend's results.

On day one, Friday, we had the two singles rubbers between the top two players of GB and Slovakia, which saw the young Dan Evans fill in for Andy Murray, who was absent from the tie due to injury, and James Ward also.  And to everone's astonishment and my own, Dan Evans really came into his own in his first rubber match, and despite being ranked as 276 in the world, Dan managed to take the match to their Slovak's No.1 player, Lucas Lacko (who looks across between Rafa and Jay from the Kevin Smith films!).  In fact Dan played so well, he managed to defeat the Slovak in straight sets, with an astounding display of confident play, winning the tie in 6-3, 7-5, 7-5.  Quite remarkable stuff for someone whom prior to this had never won a Davis cup match.  Next up though was James Ward, the British No.2, who came up against the talented Slovak No.2 Martin Klizance, which proved to be a much tougher test for Wardy, and unfortunately it was one he didn't come through, but put up a good fight before losing in 4 sets: 2-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-7.  This saw the first day with both teams tied at 1-1.

On the second day, it was the double as Flemo and Hutchins, took on the Slovak's doubles team, Filip Polasek and Mikel Martinek, in another tight match, which saw the Brits win in 4 sets in 6-3, 7-6, 0-6, 6-3.  This was a crucial rubber for Great Britain and thankfully it was the one we knew we could get, as Ross Hutchings and Colin Fleming are such great doubles players, ranked in the top 30, they really know how to take on the best players and give them a match.

Which leads into Sunday, which I was at today (well yesterday), which saw the Number 1 and Number 2 country players play each other respectively.  Starting with James Ward, who took on Lucas Lacko, which started off as very tightly contested match in the first set, which Lacko went on to win in the tiebreak, however after that, Wardy completely lost control of the match and failed to claw his way back in, which saw Lucas win the rubber in 7-6, 6-1, 6-3.  This was a worrying sign for Great Britain at this point, as I honestly thought they wouldn't have a way back in after losing this.  However help was at hand yet again, as Dan Evans, came back on court and played what easily had to be the best match of his career so far, drubbing his opponent Martin Klizan in the first two sets.  But in the 3rd set, Klizan started to fight back and play better, after venting some frustration by smashing his racquet, , this soon let him pick up his game, and he took the 3rd and 4th sets to level the match.  In the decider though, Dan got the crucial break and held onto it, as the young Slovak failed to hold onto his own serve at 5-3, he double faulted to hand the match to the young Brummie and the tie to Great Britain, winning in a thrilling 5 set match win: 6-1, 6-1, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3.   

This was definitely the highlight of the tournament, and it really did announce Dan Evans arrival as a player, and the fact that he beat two players who were ranked 150 and 200 place above him was quite remarkable.  I myself really didn't expect much of this tie, without Andy Murray, it seemed impossible that they would come through it, but thanks to Dan, they did.  And in a way it was good that Andy didn't play, as it made for a much more tightly contested and entertaining tie than if he did play, it would have been all a bit more straight forward.  Regardless of how they won, Great Britain pulled it off, and it was a terrific win, and for myself I really enjoyed being part of the crowd cheering on the GB team, and it was great to be involved in such a good atmosphere.  However the tie did leave me a bit concerned about James Ward, as he lost both his rubber matches, which showed he had a lack of belief in his game, this may also affect the Davis cup captain Leon Smith's decision to use him in future rubber matches so much.  I hope James does play because he is a really good player, but unfortunately he has been a bit inconsistent, and when he drops a set, his head tends to go down.  But things do change, and who is to say Dan will play like he did the next time, but here's hoping he does keep up the good work, one thing is for sure, he deserves nothing but credit for what he has achieved this weekend. 

So that's Great Britain through to the next stage, next up they will play Belgium, once again it will be staged at the Braehead arena, but of course the opponents don't get any easier, as GB will face Xavier Malisse and Oliver Ruchus in the singles rubbers, both very talented players.  Hopefully by then Andy will play in the tie, at least I hope he does, which leads me to a gripe about the scheduling of the tennis calendar.  For me the calendar has the Davis cup placed too closely between the grand slams, as I feel just a week after the end of one slam is not enough time for the top players to recover and prepare.  And while we don't know for sure if Andy really was injured or if he just wasn't interested in playing in Davis cup this time round, I think it is crucial the players are given more recovery time before playing in Davis cup.  Djokovic rightly said the same thing before the US Open final, that he really wasn't happy about the scheduling and he felt having to play the US Open final, and then Davis cup the following weekend, was just too much all at once, and he is right.  But I wonder if it also boils down to the sponsors, and contracts with Sports TV channels, that its to fit them, rather than the players.  But in the end it really should be about the players, as they are the ones who are going out there!!

Anywaysss that's enough for now, so a big big well done to the GB team once more, and its great to see they came through what was a very tough, exciting and highly entertaining tie.  Onwards and hopefully upwards they go.

More to follow and on non-tennisy things soon.  Bye the now.

Here come the pain!!

So here's something a bit different here with another ilm review of one of my fav flicks from the 1990s, Carlito's Way, starring Al Pacino and Sean Penn, which is a gripping crime thriller set in the 1970s.  So as usual here's a bit more about the plot:

The film begins with Carlito Brigante (Pacino) who has just been acquitted after serving five years of a 30 year sentence, and a former big drug dealer, who returns to the streets of New York and his Peurto Rican neigbourhood.  However after his time in the joint, Carlito finally has changed and no longer wants to return to his life of crime and wants to start again with a clean slate.  But going straight isn't all that easy for Carlito as he gets drawn into the life again, after narrowly surviving a botched drug deal which he is brought along on by his cousin, who is then killed, leaving Carlito to shoot his way out of the bar.  Carlito then uses the money from the drug deal to buy into taking share of a nightclub, which his lawyer friend David Kleinfield (Penn) also puts money into.  But Carlito insists he is only buying in so he can get enough money together to get out and take over one of the friend's in the joint's car businesses, to ensure he will go straight.  Along the way Carlito also re-unites with his former girlfriend Gail (Penelope Ann Miller).  But Carlito also faces a few new problems, the first one being and up and coming gangster Benny Blanco "from the Bronx" (John Leguizmo) who repeatedly tries to get Carlito to become business partners with him, which ultimately leads to a fight in the club, where Carlito tells Benny if he returns to the club he will be killed.  Benny then swears if he ever sees Carlito again he will kill him, which leads Carlito to knock him down a flight of stairs, but rather than kill him he choose to let him go.

And Carlito's biggest problem of all is his buddy David Kleinfield, who in his absence has become quite a corrupt fella, who is into jury tampering, bribing, and money laundering.  Kleinfield also stupidly gets involved in ripping off a mob boss Tony "T" Taglialucci (Frank Minucci) by stealing a million dollars from him.  Tony insists that Kleinfeld help him bust out of prison, and given very little choice in the matter, as Tony will have him killed if he doesn't.  At this point Kleinfeld becomes a nervous wreck, using cocaine regularly, and he asks Carlito to help him with Tony T's prison break,who initially is reluctant but agrees to help David out.  On the night of the breakout Kleinfeld is accompanied by Tony T's son, Frank (Adrian Pasdar) as well as Carlito, but on locating Tony in the rough waters, Kleinfeld beats Tony T to death with a golf club and cuts Frank's throat.  With Carlito's help, Kleinfeld dumps the two mobsters bodies into the river, Carlito now incensed at Kleinfeld's actions, says they are through and walks away.  Despite being confident about shaking off the mafia, Kleinfield the next day is attacked by two mobsters who stab him in the chest, however he survives.  Shortly after this happens Carlito is brought in for questioning by the DA Norwalk (James Rebhorn) who plays him a tape of Kleinfeld tipping off Carlito as supposedly dealing again, Norwalk offers Carlito a chance to testify against Kleinfeld, but he denies knowledge of the events surrounding Tony T's murder, even though the DA insists he knows that he was on the boat with Kleinfeld at the time.  Carlito soon after confronts Kleinfeld himself who by now is recovering in his hospital from his attack, and Carlito finally gets confirmation of his Jewish friend's duplicity, leaving him with an empty gun for when the mob guys come after him.  And duly enough, Tony T's surviving son Vinnie (Joseph Siravo) dressed as a cop comes in and kills Kleinfeld with a silenced gun.  At this point the mafia guys track Carlito to his nightclub and there he faces a tense game of cat and mouse as he tries to escape his enemies to start a new life away from the old one.

Carlito's way is definitely one of its director, Brian De Palma's best films and it features so many great suspenseful scenes, two of which in particular are the drug deal that goes awry near the start of the film, and the big chase scene through Grand Central station at the end.  De Palma as usual also employs many of his camera techniques, the opening scene is definitely worthy of note, the way it starts with the camera turning upside down as we see Carlito being carted away on a stretcher into an ambulence.

Performance wise, the film also features an excellent cast, Pacino particularly is great as Carlito, and plays him as a man with a dark past who really has changed and become a better person, who just wants to try wipe the slate clean and start again.  Carlito also gets some of the film's best dialogue, my favourite of course being the title of this entry, "Here comes the pain!!" during his tense shoot-out in the botched drug deal at the start of the film.  Sean Penn is also great as the slimy and devious David Kleinfeld, and he wears that 70s permed hairdo quite convincingly!  John Lequizmo is also very good as the ambitious young gangster Benny Blacno who later proves to be Carlito's nemesis.  Luis Guzman as Pachanga, Carlito's bodyguard is priceless too, as he delivers his dialogue so well, and I love it when he says "Come on, Carlito, lets dump him off the pier, like old times.  Be fun pappi be fun!".  Perhaps though the only real weak link in the cast is Penelope Ann Miller, as Carlito's girlfriend Gail, and its not so much a slight against her as an actress as she does a fine job with her role, its her scenes aren't that interesting.  But Penelope does have one really good scene with Al, where she argues with him about his boat trip with Kleinfeld and she pleads with him not to go, and lets also face it, she has a great body! ;-)

And while the film has many strengths, it has few weaknesses, although if I have to pick one or two or just the main one, then it would be Carlito's almost naive trust in those around him, particularly with Kleinfed, who despite getting him released from prison, betrays him to the DA and nearly gets him killed by the mafia.  Yet throughout we can see how blatantly devious he is, and Carlito must be putting on some serious blinders to it, either or that or just maybe he's not too bright when it comes to his own friends.  As the film progresses we see that Carlito's attitude towards Kleinfeld does change from overawed respect to cynicism, and by the time he gets to the boat ride, he has almost gone off him entirely, which at that point makes you wonder why he even did it.  Carlito also has the same loyalty to his bodyguard Pachanga, who at the end of the film (SPOILER!!) is revealed to have betrayed him as well to Benny Blanco, in promise for getting rich off the young gangster, who instead just kills Pachanga and runs off.  Just deserts there I guess.  But throughout it you do see Carlito's strong moral character and of course he makes a few decisions that put him in serious danger and one that costs him his life, it does show that he doesn't want to go back to that old life.  So even if Carlito's choices cost him so dear, its almost as if he would rather keep his soul rather than go down the bad road once again.

And briefly here's a wee bit about the film's fine score by Patrick Doyle, who provides a wonderfully dramatic score, which has several great passages, mainly the chase scenes through grand central station are very noteworthy.

Soooooo that's it for Carlito's Way, it definitely ranks as one of my favourite crime thriller movies and another fine achievement in Al Pacino's career.