Toni-Collette Movie Reviews

I thought this movie was very well put together. Unlike the other reviewers I was told about this movie first, and was not expecting a funny movie, but a sad one;which is why I enjoyed it. I think that this movie didn't do very well (even though it should have) because in the commercials it was portrayed as a humorous film, which it was the exact opposite. So people who saw this movie excpected a funny movie, but didn't get one. But I think that this movie was very good, and I loved the actors that were picked.

I have to say to those who didn't see this film - it's not a comedy at all, it's about being lonely and being sad, and about how when you live in a lonely sadness all your life, what happens when you have to change it in a moment? I thought it was lovely, the acting was perfect for the rolls, and the soundtrack added a lot to the movie.

i liked this despite my mothers views. it's a cute romance and tragedy.

Thirty years is a long time to wait to make a sequel, especially when no one is clamoring for one. Director/Writer/Producer John Singleton decided it was about time. The result is a solid, but undistinguished crime drama. The elements of this story have been told so many times that they are becoming hackneyed. A tough, no-nonsense cop fights evil and corruption to bring justice to the streets while often disregarding the law. A spoiled rich kid is trying to get away with murder by hiring a drug dealer to snuff an eyewitness with the help of a couple of dirty cops. This is not vanguard material.

Singleton's direction is good in the action sequences (of which there are plenty) and adequate in the dramatic scenes. In this film, he doesn't bring much innovation to the screen, with very straightforward shots and mundane locations. In an overly reverent gesture to the original film, he brings back Richard Roundtree (the original Shaft) as the current Shaft's (Samuel L. Jackson) uncle and mentor. There is also a cameo appearance by Gordon Parks, the director of the original, and of course, Isaac Hayes theme song is back.

The film is elevated from mediocrity by the acting. Samuel L. Jackson is an outstanding actor and slips on the character of this tough, streetwise cop like a tailored glove. When he's bad, he's very very bad and when he is good, he's almost saintly. Christian Bale also gives a fine performance as the despicable rich kid who thinks his wealth puts him above the law. Jeffrey Wright is explosive as the egomaniac drug lord. The supporting actors are also excellent.

This is an entertaining film despite its lack of originality. I rated it a 7/10. Action junkies add a point or two. This film is extremely violent with a high body count.

Samuel L Jackson is fabulous in this as John Shaft a tough, cynical NYPD detective who resigns in anger and takes justice into his own hands.
Some have criticised the plot for being obvious but I find that there are some unexpected twists that keep the story interesting. The dialogue is solid and the screenplay is very well written. The hard-ass banter between cops and bad guys is deliverd almost universally in a very natural style and really captures the feel of NYC.
Jeffrey Wright is just amazing as Peoples Hernandez and next to Jackson delivers some of the best lines in the movie. His performance alone makes this film worth checking out. Christian Bales is the other bad-guy. He plays the son of a Donald Tump-like real estate developer who commits a racist murder and then uses his money and influence to avoid being brought to justice.
Bales is very good in this role and his scenes with Jeffrey Wright are some of the best in the film.
Buster Rhymes plays Shaft's friend and driver and is also very good.
The action sequences are well done but what makes this film is the dialogue and the trading of insults, etc. between a variety of characters that are New York stereotypes. And while they may be stereotypes they still deliver some really memorable lines.
I've watched this numerous times and know much of it by heart but that doesn't prevent me from continuing to enjoy it.

a great remake with Jackson being the man Shaft. good action with some unexpected turnabouts. Christian Bale is menacing as the racist who kills Mehki Phifer then has to answer to Shaft and Jeffrey Wright is a spectacular badguy as well. a good ride

Typically bizarre and challenging Greenaway film about a man whose wife suddenly dies and can't get past the grief stage. His son moves in with him and they "reestablish" their relationship in a most unorthodox way. Literally. So the son concocts a way to help his father snap out of it. They turn the father's estate into a brothel of sorts with a strange array of women they "collect". This creates a rather Fellini-esque atmosphere and causes some friction among the ladies as well as a couple of their deaths. One woman challenges the rules and turns the tables on the men leading to the father's ultimate death wish and the son's turn to grieve. Greenaway allows the film to run from outlandish black comedy to sadly depressing---a gamut that kind've negates everything we've seen and experienced thus far. There's ample male nudity, bizarre costumes, a truly odd turn from Amanda Plummer as one of the women, striking color and rampant symbolism throughout which makes it a feast for the eyes. If you're a Greenaway fan it's an unusual ride. But I wouldn't recommend it for first time viewers who may find it heavy going.

When I consider the state of sex in American films today, "American Pie 2" comes to mind. The sex here is treated in the usual leering, juvenille manner. All of the people are young, and it's the women who are expected to disrobe, and hint at lesbian encounters. The scene where the two coeds demand that the two men kiss each other before doing each other treats anything from this norm as aberrant behavior. As long as the subject is treated in this cookie-cutter manner, our country will show sex, and not actually explore it as the strong human emotion it is.

The strong point of "8 1/2 Women" is that is challenges our thoughts of what sexuality can be in ways that are ignored in this country. The movie hits the ground running as we encounter the two main characters, a middle-aged man and his twenty-something son shortly after the older man's wife dies. We not only see full-frontal male nudity, a rarity in this country. But what is also somewhat shocking is not that they are interested in man-on-man encounters, but encounters between father and son. Sons wanting to sleep with their mothers have been explored before, but dad and son is something to think about.

After this eye-opening scenario, the movie continues to challenge. Faced with seemingly unlimited wealth, the two decide to build a sexual playground to try and appease what must be a major league middle-age crisis by the father. They encounter and recruit a handful of women to come live with them and play out their fantasies.

This is also where the film has it's strong points. The closest I can remember to this film is "Sirens", the Australian film that featured an artist surrounded by nubile females, among them Elle McPherson. But even that film was probably too hot for America to touch, and even this film filled it with very good looking women of the same cut. "8 1/2 Women" brings in all kinds of women from beautiful to hideous, dominent to submissive. Once again, it shows that while Playboy magazine shows an attractive cut of women, it is not the only source for sex in the world.

I'm not saying I agree with all the choices, and they are diverse enough where most people also would not go for all of them. But that's the good point of the movie. By busting through cinematic stereotypes of how we think about sex, it shows that it is a subject that can be pursued by anyone, not just the "beautiful people" class.

I've recently found myself being pulled into a swirling vortex of obsession with the works of Peter Greenaway. The man creates such a distinct atmosphere with the staging of his films, the cinematography, and the sets embodying a lavishness and beauty that clashes against dark, audacious, perverse, and indeed evil themes to cause a fascinating cacophony. Much of his output could be classified as surreal simply because of this instantly palpable dissonance.
"8 1/2 Women" is no different. Yes, it doesn't have the viciousness of "The Cook, The Thief...", or the delicious puzzlement of "Drowning By Numbers", but what it does have is the unmistakable Greenaway atmosphere and an air of utmost dream-like elegance, once again grinding against frank sexual obsession and perversion and an uncontrollable spiral of loss and grief.
I'll leave the plot details that are to be found in other reviews, but will say that I found this film a joy to watch. From the very beginning (particularly the experimental and kinetic sequence that opens the film), I was enthralled. With Greenaway, sometimes you don't want to look, but you can't turn away (to spoil the surprise a bit, the infamous incest incident is not shown...only very strongly implied). As the film wears on, it does take on a more fragmented, slice-o-life type of approach, but the episodal manner in which the progress of the bordello is documented actually conveys the chaos well. In such an arrangement, the only way to really give an idea of the vibes surrounding the downfall of the house is to give examples, then tell us how it finally came to self-destruct... which is done. Those who complain about lack of closure can only be speaking about the question of what becomes of the son after the house empties itself, but how much do you want handed to you? The movie is 2 hours long! A case of "The meal was terrible.. and the portions too small!"
Speaking of which, I'll end the review saying that those who hated it.... give it another chance? You know by now that half of the magic of Greenaway's idiosyncratic films is visual. Nobody has denied the beauty of "8 1/2 Women". So let yourself sink into that odd beauty, and maybe you'll be able to appreciate the distinct and conscious style that the characters execute.

This adaptation by Steve Wright of the Kate Grenville novel directed by Jerzy Domaradzki is a misfire. Using ideas from Janet Frame's story of An Angel at my Table (which was memorably filmed by Jane Campion) and also the Australian urban legend of Bea Miles, this tale of a girl imprisoned for 40 years in an asylum and released as a new actress has great gothic potential, but the best the director can do is use European tints in the lighting and add a melodramatic score. And don't even get me started on the politically correct dreamtime ending! One ponders why Grenville herself did not do the screenplay. As it is, the division of screen time between Ruth Cracknell as the modern Lilian and Toni Collette as the young Lilian, mixes the tone, and things aren't helped by the actors not matching up well. Of the two, Collette is the more successful with her mute retarded vulnerability, allowing Domaradzki to shoot her naked, and the scene of her being chased by a black dog on the beach is probably the closest to the Grenville we want. Playing 3 roles - the father in both time frames and Lilian's brother- Barry Otto gives the best performance, controlling his usual mannered style and using it for character, and as the brother is given a soft sounding tuba as metaphor for his ineffectualness. (His father unfortunately gets lines like "You tight steamy little vixen"). However, Cracknell is doing a great lady of the stage condescending to make a movie, and gets an unintentional laugh when she says she opposes "posturing, posing and affectation". It's easy to see why Cracknell wanted the role since she gets to recite Shakespeare, a literary conceit used for madness which comes across as false, and Domaradzki has her recitals attract crowds in his fantasy world where otherwise this kind of person would easily be ignored. Although regarded highly in her country for her stagework, Cracknell is an actress without the slightest suggestion of lyricism, and Lilian presented as a Cassandra feeds into Cracknell's haughty manner. At one point she boasts that in her life she has taken risks, and it is delivered as "truth" rather than the self-deception it actually is. (Janet Frame's story of survival after her time in an asylum is more effective because her character writes ie does something with her life). To say that Domaradzki is to be admired for Cracknell providing some redemptive subtlety is akin to the story of the Dutch boy sticking his finger in the leaking dike. The revelations that come from the flashbacks of Colette's Lilian aren't too hard to predict. One is probably more surprised by a director who can waste an actress like Anne Louise Lambert as Lilian's mother. However there is a modern payoff for a montage of strapping flashbacks, and a clever line in response to news of a death by heart attack.

As a former psychotherapist, it's appealing to view a film that doesn't try to "diagnose," but rather simply tells the story of a heroine who sought to surface through harsh parental abuse and family secrets over the course of 60 years.
If those reading this review intimately knew the tenuousness of life on the street or beach, in an institution of any kind, you would feel a tug of familiarity in this film. Although I'd not rate it as a great film, it's going to touch many if not most of us where it counts. Although I don't know the true story of this woman, I know that the struggle to both survive through the tangled psychological jungle of the human heart and spirit is well exemplified here. Although the quality of sound (what there is of it) and picture is very poor (the worst I've ever experienced on DVD), it's a salute to the story and the filmmaker that many times I felt moved by the journey this woman took ... to haltingly restore herself from horrendous abuse, some of which is only hinted at over the first 20 odd years of her life.
Reminescent of Shine, Slingblade, Joe Gould's Secret, The Fisher King, Breaking the Waves and other films about marginalized imbalanced people, this film retains a core of truth and courage beyond what any of us should have to bear as children and young adults.
Too bad the DVD quality positively stinks, for it does dislodge the viewer from focussing on fine performances in a fine film. Although the heroine's style seems somewhat stilted at times, I'm content to recommend this flick as wholly plausible given its context. I think it's good enough to own and watch again...