Watchmen Season 1 Finale: "So I Suppose the FBI's Gonna Arrest the President"

That was certainly the most relevant line in the Season 1 finale of Watchmen on HBO tonight - "So I suppose the FBI's gonna arrest the President?"  If somehow you don't know why, I suppose you might've been living on one of Jupiter's moons for the last number of years or so, too.

As it was, that line was spoken by Adrian Veidt, back on Earth, just before someone hit him over the head to shut him up, on grounds that he talked too much.  A dumb conclusion to what otherwise was the best night Veidt had on this series.  Also, although there was a cool picture in the newspaper of President Robert Redford, I'd have preferred to see the real Redford in the flesh, or maybe the digital pixels, or whatever they are, on this season finale.  Did they even offer him that part?

And yeah, the ending was good, but I'd much rather have heard John Lennon singing "I Am the Walrus," talking about originals.  But the egg scene was done very well done.  Starting with the literal eggs broken on the floor as an exemplification of the words of another Lenin - V. I. - who alas got no credit for those words in this alternate reality, maybe because Lenin, if he even existed, in this reality never said anything like if if you want to make an omelet, you have to break some eggs.  (Or maybe continuity was too lazy to check that out?)

But the ambiguity of the very very ending, with no indication of whether Angela actually walked on water or not, was the right way to go.  Because ... of course she walked on the water.  We didn't have to see it to know that's what happened.  Not only because why else would she have found that egg intact on the floor, after her husband had told her years earlier about eggs, and, we want to see a second season with Angela in super power form.

Which I'll likely watch.

See also Watchmen 1.1: Promising Alternate History ... [Watchmen 1.2: don't look for my review, I didn't feel like reviewing it] ... Watchmen 1.3: The Falling Car ... Watchmen 1.4: What We Learned ... Watchmen 1.5: Some Enchanted Evening ... Watchmen 1.6-7: Deaths and Liberations ... Watchmen 1.8: The Fault

more alternate reality - "flat-out fantastic" - Scifi and Scary

The Old Man and the Gun: Don't Retire

So, right in the middle of a fabulous little squall on Cape Cod last night, which knocked over chairs and an umbrella stand on our deck, my wife and I watched The Old Man and the Gun on HBO.  The squall was more exciting, but The Old Man starring Robert Redford had it beat hands down in sheer charm and style, and was much more enjoyable in its understated beauty.

The signature of Forrest Tucker, the real life bank robber and escape artist portrayed in this movie, was his smile -- at least in this movie.  And who else on this planet to better play a charming, smiling bank robber than Redford?  He announced after completion of the movie in August of last year that he was retiring from acting.  Here's a strong hope that he shouldn't.

Sissy Spacek, who isn't retiring, was a great recipient of Tucker/Redford's charm.   In fact, the two make one of the best couples I've seen in a while in a movie.  And, refreshingly, she's not like Bonnie with Clyde.  Instead, she provides a sensible, caring restraint on Tucker, who, however, can't resist his larcenous influences for too long.

Good supporting acting from Casey Affleck, Danny Glover, and Tom Waits, along with a comfortable early 1980s ambience, make all of this a pleasure to see.   Tucker wasn't quite Robin Hood - he generally kept his ill-gotten gains to himself - but I've always had a soft spot for a thief with a heart, and Redford with his winning smile brings him home to us just perfectly.

 

The Discovery: Worth Finding

The Discovery (2017, Netflix)  is a strange, edgy, powerfully soft-spoken movie about a scientific attempt to find, map, and understand the afterlife.  As such, it bears some resemblance to Kiefer Sutherland's 1990 Flatliners (coincidentally remade in 2017, but I haven't yet seen it).  The Discovery sports Robert Redford in a quite central role, with Jason Segel, Rooney Mara (House of Cards), Jesse Plemons (Friday Night Lights), and Riley Keough (first season of The Girlfriend Experience) in leading and strong supporting roles.

As for the plot, it's somewhat murky - as I guess befits afterlife stories - and manages to combine the ambience of grade-B 1950s science fiction/horror, replete with a hokey laboratory, more than reminiscent of the Frankenstein-monster set-up, and the more modern retelling of early events and dialogue in the movie, near the end, in a way which makes the beginning make more sense, though it wasn't all that opaque in the first place.

Redford is the scientist who thinks/claims he has discovered evidence of an afterlife. His son (played by Segel) resists this because it's somehow tied up with the death of his mother.   He in turns falls for Mara's character, who has a complex story of her own.  I won't tell you more, lest I give too much away.  In other words, I'd like to see this movie have an afterlife.

All in all, I'd say the best part about it is the at-once jarring, compelling, and subtly controlled way in which the movie was shot, including a long speechless scene with Rooney on camera, thinking about something, sitting next to Segel on the beach, about to tell him a crucial piece of this story.  That kind of pacing is realistic and hard-to-find in science fiction. Kudos to film maker Charlie McDowell.

 

It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...