DVDs from the Library- "Match"

 

DVD’s from the Library-

“Match”

  In the library there is a bin full of DVDs. One may take up to five and keep them for a week. Don’t forget to return them on time or you will pay a hefty over-due penalty, or worse, they will develop a terminal mold and eat your furniture, flooring and, eventually, your brain. Join me now as I take a look at one…

Written and Directed by Stephen Belber

Staring Patrick Stewart, Carla Gugino and Matthew Lillard.

(2014)

 Sure, they still make movies. Netflix makes them and other companies make them to fill the slots in their streaming services. I heard that they just remade "West Side Story" and it is failing at the box office. No surprise there, I didn’t even know anyone went to a real movie theater any more. Besides, remaking a classic has never been easy or made sense to me. There is just such a steep climb to match the genius of the original. The original play "West Side Story" was a remake of Shakespeare's story “Romeo and Juliet”, but the genus of the Broadway  production and music set it apart from a mere copy.

Lately, for me it is rare to watch a movie and really enjoy it. I have been disappointed in so many movies on the streaming TV that I hardly bother any more. So, now that those of you laughing out of the corner of your mouth might understand why I still look for an occasional DVD from the library shelves. Sure I get disappointed by plenty of them too but sometimes I get surprised. This movie-”Match”- was just such a surprise. It was not action packed, in fact it was mostly a melodrama played out between three people. Patrick Stewart plays an aging dancer/teacher and Carla Gugino and Matthew Lillard play a married couple ostensibly interviewing Stewart for her doctoral dissertation. They came from out of town to meet up with Stewart and he is flattered to be the subject of their interview. Stewart comes off blustery and camp and gay and, at first, it is annoying but he is convincingly witty and flamboyant and self-assured. The married couple are serious about their mission and swing along with him but eventually it becomes clear that they have a different agenda. The “plot”, as they say “thickens”. I cannot get deeper into that tangled web as it would ruin the movie for you but let me just say that up until the last moment of this film I was captured! It twists and turns several times taking the viewer on a different tack at each change.

 So what made this film so appealing to me? Everything. The New York landscape as a backdrop, but that might be because I am a sucker for films placed in that city of cities. The photography was superb. Then there was the writing-the best I have encountered in the last hundred films I have waded through. Intelligent, believable dialog that is excessively rare in any thing I have seen in years. It is delivered smartly by all three of the main characters. That brings me to the acting itself. There is not a single misstep anywhere in any of their deliveries or physical performances and it is not an easy dialog either. It is fast paced and if the actors had not punched it up properly the film would not have worked nearly as well. So, the writer/director did a superb job. The setting was engaging. The actors more than earned their keep. In short it was a well made story/film. So if you want an engaging evening’s entertainment see if you can find “Match”. You will be glad you did.

I give this film four cheap beers, my highest award!