At The Movies- An Odd Duo

Well, made it to the movies two times this Christmas week. And what a contrast of differentness and oddness.

First we saw Sweeney Todd, the Tim Burton-Johnny Depp version of the Stephen Sondheim musical. My initial reaction was that Burton has made a movie that makes all his earlier ones look like Disney Family fare. Bloody, gory, dark, no, DARK is more like it. But it is not the blood and gore of a Scorcese film. There's a dark graphic novel style to it. The red being far too red and far too liquidy. It stands out against a much more dull and drab background.

Depp and Burton are magnificent together. They have given us what for now will have to be the ultimate Depp/Burton fantasy. You will be numbed by the violence. Though my daughter (and co-movie lover) felt that it wasn't as violent and bloody as she expected, it is so over the top that you soon just sit there stunned by it. But it wasn't the violence that caught my attention. It was what I best describe as a drab sameness to it. There are wonderful moments and excellent scenes and much to recommend it, but I found myself bored by the ongoing and deepening moroseness. It is clearly a movie about evil and its impact on people. But it is not in my top tier of movies for the year, though very worth seeing. Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman and Sacha Baran Cohen give perfomances that add to Depp's outstanding work.

Then there's Charlie Wilson's War. With the trio of Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and the incredibly versatile Phillip Seymour Hoffman this movie is a guaranteed joy to watch. It also turns out to be the best movie about the war in Iraq and the war on terror that has come out this year. Because it doesn't look like it's about the current war. Based on true events of congressman Charlie Wilson, it is a painful reminder of a couple of things.

First that we often are so short-sighted that we don't do what needs to be done- and then when we do we fall short. The result of our arming the Afghan resistance helping them defeat the Soviets and bring down the Soviet Union- and then ignoring their needs- is nothing less than the rise of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. When all we have is a military solution in mind- well, everything that can't be solved by the military like food and schools, is missed.

But perhaps even more to the point is the ability of one lone, unknown congressman being able to pull it off with the help of the CIA and appropriations bills that no one knew what they were about. The ability of congress to do something- and be led from a few million to millions and millions of dollars is remarkable. And scary.

What is happening now, even as we sit here? With the assassination in Pakistan today what is happening tonight in the halls of the CIA, Defense Department, or Congress that we may never know? Who is pulling what strings to do what that commits us to something we don't know we are being committed to? What Charlie Wilson did was remarkable and helped change world history. But too many doing those kind of things could be downright dangerous.

But the movie is good. Go see it if only to see Tom Hanks as a boozing, womanizing congressman, Philip Seymour Hoffman in another Oscar-caliber performance as a foul-mouthed CIA agent and Julia Roberts as a right-wing organizer. It's worth the time.