Posts Tagged ‘Peter Sarsgaard’

Short Take: Pretty solid all around, though Cruise' playful attitude towards the material makes the film

Director: James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line)

Screenwriter: Patrick O’Neill (Début Film)

Cast: Tom Cruise (Tropic Thunder, Mission Impossible III), Cameron Diaz (Shrek Forever After, My Sister’s Keeper), Peter Sarsgaard (Orphan, An Education) Paul Dano (Taking Woodstock, There Will Be Blood)

Length: 1 hour 50 minutes

Synopsis: June Havens (Diaz) meets Roy Miller (Cruise), seemingly by accident, when they bump into each other at the airport.  June and Roy end up on the same flight and start a casual flirtation.  Things take a turn for the dangerous when Roy kills everyone else on the near-empty flight explaining that he’s a CIA agent on the lam because he stole a valuable new invention called the Zephyr.  June’s involvement with Roy puts her in danger and he insists that she must trust him in order to survive.  However, everything from Roy’s unpredictable behavior to the appearance of FBI Agent Fitzgerald (Sarsgaard) leads June to question Roy’s sincerity.  As June and Roy encounter ever more dangerous scenarios, she must decide whether Roy is endangering her life or protecting it. Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: It's message is clear as crystal, but what's impressive is how it sends it

Director: Lone Scherfig (English debut)

Screenwriter: Nick Hornby (About a Boy, High Fidelity), based on memoirs by Lynn Barber

Cast: Carey Mulligan (Brothers), Peter Sarsgaard (Jarhead), Alfred Molina (The Hoax), Rosamund Pike (Surrogates)

Length: 1h 35m

Synopsis: A 16 year old girl in 1960s England falls for an older man who promises to take her away from her boring life and show her the cultures of the world that she only dreamt of seeing. They enjoy many glamorous times together, but at the cost of the girl’s chances at getting into Oxford University. Eventually, the girl must choose which life to pursue, and her decision is a reflection of how smart she truly is.

Analysis: The basic story of a girl being wooed by an older man who is able to show her exciting places and things is hardly new. Many films and even sitcoms have by now seemingly exhausted this simple tale, and so I withhold no trepidation in spoiling the ending of An Education because you the reader are already intuitively aware of it. However, like with many films, it is the journey and not the destination which matters most. This being said, it is indeed the journey within An Education which separates it from much of its company. Read the rest of this entry »