A MIXED BAG

Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys bring their acting creds to Netflix in the limited series, The Beast In Me. It is a semi mystery… but mostly it is a suspense thriller (there is a difference). Claire Danes schlepps most of the water in this which, in less talented hands, would be a dreary eight hours.

Ms. Danes is simply one of the best acting talents in the business and everyone associated with this thing owes her a debt of gratitude. She not only makes the show worth watching… she is, in fact, virtually the ONLY reason to watch.

Rhys, who has shown his considerable acting chops in one of TV’s great classics (The Americans) can find little to do besides look creepy but credible. The rest of the acting ensemble do their best with this material, but the bravas all go to Ms. Danes, whose multiple gifts come through even when the show is not Homeland.

Peacock’s All Her Fault features Sarah Snook, another actress with such solid credentials as Broadway’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and the HBO series, Succession.

I didn’t care for this limited series…  and then I did… and then, once again, I didn’t. Snook is sorta one-note and although that note is a reasonably powerful one, it is… after all… but one note. The police work, characterized by actor Michael Pena, was interesting and almost all by itself made the eight-episode series work.

Parts of the limited series captured me… more than once after I was sure I had become permanently estranged from just whatever it was that was… or was not… going on. Overall, there was a  sense of relief over the simple fact that I didn’t know… and would likely never meet… either screen writer Megan Gallagher or novelist Andrea Mara. One or both have about the lowest opinion of men that I have ever seen projected on any screen anywhere. Michael Pena’s idealistic cop, good as it is, cannot balance out the incompetence and malevolence of the lead actors playing the husbands in this heavy-handed version of a sexist melodrama. Ladies, if you hate your husbands and need even a little bit of a confirmation of the validity of your feelings… this show is for you.

The Roses is a new motion picture, currently in a theatre presumably near you. It stars Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch and is a remake of War of The Roses which starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner way back in the 20^th century. My crowd seemed to like this updated version better… and from a plausibility and believability perspective, I sort of agree. Sort of. Frankly, I could not get past the nagging feeling that the 1989 version was really the superior movie.

The best of the bunch was a DVD from Criterion that was the Thanksgiving screening for my grandson. His mother and I insist that at every family gathering which includes viewing entertainment at least one classic must be included… whether he wants it or not. This year it was the Preston Sturges film from 1941, Sullivan’s Travels, starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake. Good stuff, and the good news is you do not have to wait for a special occasion to watch it.

 

Barney Rosenzweig