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Touches You

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Add this one to your movie collection, it´s well worth watching. Hard to believe that the story is actually "loosely" based on true events. Much of the success of this movie is down to the brilliant acting from the main characters. This one touches all the emotions. Will we be watching it again, absolutely.

Another almost there movie. It is let down by the fact that it is meant to be a comedy, but it is just not funny enough. Everything else is bang on except perhaps some of the characterisations, the only one I really warmed to was the blind rabbi and his dog (which produces most of the laughs!) I'm not from this world and it seems to really enjoy this film, it has to strike a chord. Well there was no resonance for me, I had to be made to laugh just using what was on the screen.Regarding the laugh count I think the makers realised this was low too as demonstrated by the: 'what's that drink? It's a bloody Mary. Alright I was only asking' gag. Smacks of desperation I'm afraid.Even so the nice warm ending was worth waiting for.

'Sixty-Six' is yet,another comedy from the United Kingdom that goes down easy without any unpleasant side effects (in short,a slight, albeit winning good time). The plot concerns Bernie Rubens,a young Jewish boy of English background who is about to make his Bar Mitzvah,only to find out that it's concurrent with England competing against Germany for the World Cup of 1966. Set against all of Bernie's teen angst is some nicely told tales of his eccentric father (Eddie Marsden,seen recently as the bitter automobile instructor in Mike Leigh's 'Happy Go Lucky'), who runs a small green grocer with his Uncle,his loving Mother (Helena Bonham Carter,always welcome on screen),his older Brother,Alvy, and a host of others. The film has a snappy,well written screenplay (loosly based on the director's own life & experiences when he had his Bar Mitzvah,and even contains some actual home movie footage of the festivities). Stephen Rea also has some slight,but nice screen time as a doctor. This is a film that has been getting some sketchy distribution in the United States,but is worth seeking out (it was originally released in 2006). Rated PG-13 by the MPAA,this film contains a bit of raunchy language,a flash of nudity & some adult situations. Okay for older teens.

If you picture Helena Bonham Carter as a Jewish mother from the 1960's, beehive and all, that should be enough to make run to see Sixty Six.Sixty six is the year. Bernie Reubens is the kid. The 13 year old kid to be exact. Bernie's the awkward, picked-on kid, the one living in the shadow of his popular older brother. The kid whose only luck is bad.Lo and behold in his religious (Hebrew) classes, he learns that his impending Bar Mitzvah is the event that will change all that. For one day Bernie Reubens would be the center of the universe.The quirky boy makes his Bar Mitzvah his obsession. In the backyard garage, he has a table set up, more like a shrine devoted to things Bar Mitzvah. Catering menus, a place setting, pictures, seating charts, everything to make this day his perfect one.There's one glitch.The World Cup falls on the same day. And, England could qualify for the finals. No one would come to Bernie's Bar Mitzvah if this happened.Bernie makes it his singleminded mission to prevent England from competing in the finals. How he tries to do this is plain hysterical. Let's just say that there's some hocus pocus involved and tons of laughs.There's another glitch. Bernie's dad's career takes a bad financial turn. Don't get me started about the father character. Played by actor Eddie Marsan, the odd elder Reubens is a cartoon-like character with amazing comedic timing. In a Mr. Magoo kind of way.If I said what happens to Bernie is comedy of errors, I would be understating it. From bad to worse, and bad again, Bernie's day isn't looking like his dream Bar Mitzvah. But some bittersweet things happen between he and his dad. Enough to tug your heart. And, tug again.Almost never have I been to a movie that made me laugh during the introduction and then tear up at the end. Even the credits are worth watching since the actors' names are superimposed over film footage of an actual '60's Bar Mitzvah, which happens, I'm assuming, to be that of the director's older brother. His was Bernie's dream day.I only collect the odd movie DVD from the movies that I adore. As soon as this becomes available, it's mine. I'll have a Sixty Six party. Prerequisite, you must be born before that year.Supposedly, Sixty Six is based on the director, Paul Weilland's life. I know some Brits who remember the World Cup of 1966 with special affection. And, I personally remember a variety of awkward boys confronting their manhood at many a Bar Mitzvah. (where I smoked my fist cigarette in the synagogue bathroom.) Then there's the dad stuff...more tugs. Go see it!