MILLIONS

"I was going to give it to the poor but it was hard," the youngest boy says. In MILLIONS we find out how difficult giving away money to those who need can be.

Danny Boyle's attempt at making a family film is very entertaining and for about an hour felt as though it would be more than just a good time at the movies. MILLIONS is a visual trip in which a young boy finds a huge bag of money and works with his brother to dispose of it. The older brother says that they can't give it to their father because of the taxes and the youngest boy who is infatuated with Saints just wants to do something good with it.

The visual treat of MILLIONS are the fun special effects employed to tell the story. Early in the film the boys' new home seems to be built from the ground up around them. And the youngest boy is periodically visited by Saints with halos floating around their heads. Boyle's setting for this tale is a new neighborhood that reminded me a little of EDWARD SIZZORHANDS. In MILLIONS Boyle's characters reside in like looking houses in which their perfect purple garbage cans make a nice row on collection day.

MILLIONS is very family friendly, however, I wonder whether young people will get into it. There is one scene of language that may have to be edited in order to make a PG rating which given the film's family focus might not be a bad idea.

BAD EDUCATION (Mala educación, La)

Pedro Almodóvar's BAD EDUCATION is a good example of bloodless neo-noir. It is a kind of film that threatens and temps but stays away from familiar trappings that would cheapen it.

One day filmmaker Enrique Goded is visited by an old friend claiming to be an actor. This friend presents Enrique with a manuscript requesting that he read it telling him that it is based on their lives together as children. Enrique reads the short story and is drawn in to it deciding to adapt it for the screen. But Enrique has other questions about the story's origin that his old friend may not be able to answer.

BAD EDUCATION is a workout with flashbacks and many characters that age in various stages making it difficult at times to keep track of them all. The mystery is interesting but the payoff is a little flat. And there is even a movie within a movie that adds another layer of faces to the mix. The flashbacks take us to a time when the boys were young and in Catholic school. As is often the case in the movies (and, of course, in real life this exists), a priest has weaknesses for young boys and gives into them.

Almodóvar goes for small scenes instead of big ones and the pressure is applied through sexual weaponry rather than with the presence of a gun.

TROUSER ACCIDENTS

This smart 5 minute short is a laugh riot. Focusing on the difficulty busy people today have with pants, TROUSER ACCIDENTS cautions us to be careful putting them on one leg at a time. Broken fingernails and toenails and frequent tripping are displayed and in this context watching someone fall down is big funny.

SIBLINGS

When Joe describes the relationship he has with his siblings to his grandfather's attorney at his grandfather's funeral, we laugh uncomfortably. Thus, the tone is set for an uncomfortably humorous time. You see, Joe has no blood relation to his brother and sister and not even to the people referred to as Mom and Dad in the household. And now that Joe's Grandfather is dead, the children are at the mercy of their cruel step-parents. Maybe the solution to their problem is to put their step-parents in the grave as well. But murder is not so easy.

SIBLINGS is no doubt darkly funny and one scene involving the youngest sister is touching but I objected to the use of the "f" word around the young children acting in the film. More and more movies these days insist for the sake of realism, I suppose, to put young actors in adult situations. BAD EDUCATION has a scene in a movie theater that will raise questions. And in a blatant attempt to wring out uncomfortable laughs SIBLINGS regularly uses very descriptive and ugly language in the presence of two extremely young actors.

Maybe I'm just a prude but I wouldn't let my daughter act in such a film no matter how much I believed in the content. Still, SIBLINGS is big funny and I laughed along with difficulty. The film reminded in tone of THE HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE and the work of John Irving. While not as affecting dramatically as, say, IGBY GOES DOWN (a film in which two boys do away with their mother), SIBLINGS is very entertaining dark comedy.

This was my last day watching films but I've shot a couple of video interviews this week and plan on doing some phone interviews later in the week. Watch for them.

For more information about the Festival visit the festival website: http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2004/default.asp

Jonathan W. Hickman