Home Media Magazine - June 8-14, 2008 - (Page 21)

www.homemediamagazine.com REVIEWS I NEVER FOREVER Prebook 6/10; Street 7/15 Arts Alliance America, Drama, B.O. $0.01 million, $27.95 DVD, ‘R’ for sexuality and some language. Stars Vera Farmiga, Jung-woo Ha, David McInnis. C ultural divides become almost uncrossable when a Korean-American man (McInnis), the scion of a deeply religious, traditional and insular family, and his blond-haired, blue-eyed wife (Farmiga of The Departed) cannot conceive a child. Both he and his extended family long for a son to carry on the family name. As their chances of becoming pregnant get smaller and smaller, he becomes despondent and suicidal. While sitting in the waiting room of her fertility clinic, Sophie watches as a young Korean man (Jung-woo), who looks remarkably like her husband, tries unsuccessfully to become a sperm donor for the clinic. She follows him to his boarding house and strikes a bargain with him. She will pay him to have sex with her. She even offers a significant bonus if she becomes pregnant. For a time, the sex is perfunctory. She wants only to make her husband, who longs for a child of his own, happy. And she sees her infidelity as the only way to give him what he longs for. But, slowly, the pair begins to look forward to their encounters. When she finally becomes pregnant she tries to break off the affair. But neither she nor her lover can let go. Never Forever is a moody, atmospheric dra- ma that recalls disturbing and sensual films such as Unfaithful and Damage. Farmiga infuses Sophie with a delicate vulnerability coupled with a terrible need to please others. Jung-woo makes his character’s journey from disdainful to adoring both believable and inevitable. The film includes scenes of lovemaking that are frank and more than a little graphic. Consumers interested in a complicated and adult love story will be interested in Never Forever. But those who prefer their dramas a bit less sexy should be steered elsewhere. – Anne Sherber I LITTLE CHENIER: A CAJUN STORY Prebook 6/10; Street 7/8 Vivendi, Drama, B.O. $0.09 million, $24.99 DVD, ‘R’ for brief violence. Stars Johnathon Schaech, Fred Koehler, Tamara Braun, Jeremy Davidson, Clifton Collins Jr., Chris Mulkey. L eisurely paced, exquisitely designed and photographed to the fullest, most evocative effect, this film really captures life on the Louisiana bayou with a sensitivity, depth and sense of authenticity rarely seen to this degree onscreen. Of course, this should be of little surprise when it is learned that the director, actress Bethany Ashton Wolf, and her brother, Jace Johnson, co-wrote the screenplay and set the story in their hometown, Little Chenier, where it was shot. Technically a drama, the film really takes its time before moving into the plot, a storytelling decision which can too often lead to a narrative fail- ure but here works perfectly, gradually introducing the characters, the setting and the variety of flavors in the complicated relationships that develop in tiny out-of-the-way towns over time. The focus is on Beaux DuPuis (Schaech in a complex, subtle, powerfully brooding performance) who owns, operates and lives in his family’s riverside bait shop with his mentally handicapped 21-yearold brother, Pemon (Koehler), who requires constant attention. The amazing Koehler, having grown up onscreen beginning with roles in Mr. Mom and TV’s “Kate and Allie,” may be barely recognizable to audiences familiar with him from his many other roles over the years. Beaux is still stinging from the recent departure of his longtime girlfriend MarieLouise (Braun, best known from her stints on “General Hospital” and “Days of Our Lives”) who has eloped with the surly Carl (Davidson), son of the town’s kindly sheriff (Mulkey), creating a predictably uneasy dynamic. When an unexpected tragedy suddenly shifts the balance of power in the town, long simmering passions and tensions overflow, leading to a greater, more potent explosion of emotion. The rich, sultry, steamy film is the type of Southern Gothic drama that would have made Tennessee Williams proud. – David Greenberg I SUMMER OF ’04 Street 6/10 Koch Lorber, Drama, $26.98 DVD, NR. In German with English subtitles. Stars Martina Gedeck, Peter Davor, Lucas Kotaranin, Svea Lohde, Robert Seeliger. Y ou know you’ve stepped into a European film when a 12year-old can realistically compete with a 40-year-old woman for the affections of a man, and the triangle is treated with just the right amount of wary danger and romantic sensitivity. And though, toward the end, it appears the film falls into the usually American, Puritan trap of punishing the tween for wanting to explore her sensuality too soon, a quick twist at the end renders the film appropriately European (German, to be specific) again. A family — man, woman and 15year-old son — vacation in a country home, and they’ve brought along the boy’s young girlfriend, Livia. One day the boy comes home alone, having left Livia sailing with another man, the thirtysomething Bill. The mother, Miriam, expresses a natural concern at this unusual friendship, but finds herself drawn to Bill as well. Director Stefan Krohmer captures the mood of a holiday perfectly. He takes the time to linger on the rustling trees, a car traveling down a dusty road, a languid meal out of doors, the danger and exhilaration of sailing, and the beauty of the natural soundscape. Summer of ’04 is undeniably gorgeous, helped along by its passel of naturally attractive actors, all so comfortable in their skin and in these low-key roles, from the willowy Svea Lohde as the preternaturally mature Livia, and Martina Gedeck (The Lives of Others) as the vibrant fortysomething Miriam, to the kindly, handsome Peter Davor as Miriam’s husband and Robert Seeliger as the man who enraptures both Livia and Miriam. This is one of those pictures that leads you lazily to the edge of your seat several times, waiting for something inevitably awful to happen. And happen, it does. The ending isn’t terribly satisfying, with the aforementioned twist unnecessarily martyring one of the characters. But the journey, the gorgeousness, and the mostly likeable characters draw you into this unusual love triangle, even if you wish it had ended differently. – Laura Tiffany June 8–14, 2008 Home Media Magazine 21 http://www.homemediamagazine.com

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Home Media Magazine - June 8-14, 2008

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