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Reviews
An Officer and a Murderer (2012)
Acting!
Gary Cole's understated portrayal of a psychopathic alter-ego taking control of the daily ego is relentless, disturbing, and masterful. This (along with the fact that it's based on actual events) makes this movie worth viewing. Cole does not go all dramatic and tear up the scenery. In fact his *persona* (his personality mask) remains the same throughout his changes -- meticulous, thorough, rigid, controlling, polite. It's his soul that darkens and falls into this demonic abyss. Cole somehow communicates this transformation and makes us believe him (to our horror).
It should be noted that the the police characters are all fictional, and they even seem fictional in the way they are portrayed. But for those of us who wondered how a "Base Commander" on a Canadian Armed Forces base could possible lead such a double life and be one person, Cole makes us see -- not comprehend but accept.
The Five-Year Engagement (2012)
Mostly Dreary
I found the movie mostly dreary. This may because it really was dreary or because all the relationship problems were all too familiar and rather painful to watch. I like a comedy to be a comedy, and the abrupt laughs were often inserted between long stretches of relational dysfunction that only left me uncomfortable. Often the humour is in the mind of the beholder: an example of this is when Jason Siegel's character leaves a loaded crossbow in the living room of their apartment and a toddler sets it off seriously wounding Emily Blunt's character in the thigh with a bolt. Most of the audience roared with laughter. I found the episode off-putting and not funny at all. The whole movie was like that and it became more of a soap opera for me than anything resembling a comedy. I even got choked up at the end!