Tag: Lily Rabe

The Whispers: Whatever It Takes (recap and review)

Wes Anderson with Minx in The Whispers
In the last episode of The Whispers; The Archer, Drill showed just how powerful he could be, Sean touched the boulder and remembered everything, Frommer proved that he may be just as big a threat as Drill and Lena learned that she too could “play” with the entity through her daughter. In Whatever It Takes, this week’s episode of The Whispers, everything has been cranked up in terms of suspense and the entire episode is “edge of the seat” viewing.

Sean does remember everything and relates it to a presidential board of inquiry. Wes Anderson tell the president that the entity has to be classified as alien and Bennigan tells the assembled group that it will do “whatever it takes” to destroy mankind. Anderson explains to the president what they have learned about the the entity called Drill: It talks to children, travels through electricity and can be seen through heat imagery and that it is trying to get to the rock. Wes also tells the group that they will contain the object with a magnetic field.

The president decides he needs to see the rock.

Bennigan warns that the DoD have no idea what they are dealing with. The president’s daughter Cassandra has been contacted by Drill and she asks to play a game on her mother’s phone while they are returning home. When the first lady and Cassandra reach the end of their journey, the girl leaves her “doll” in the presidential vehicle.

Frommer threatens Captain Bennigan again, this time spelling out that if he does not cooperate in tests that he will be put in prison for the rest of his life for treason. The president and Anderson go the the facility storing the rock and he decides that the thing should be protected. Wes and the president share a patriotic moment.

Sean comes home and Henry is overjoyed. They have a touching moment where the boy tries to tell and show his dad everything. The president and Wes talk a bit more as Cassandra’s father finds the doll in the official car. Lena and Minx are playing with Drill and when Anderson comes home the game stops. Claire and her husband share an awkward moment and Sean ends up sleeping on the couch. Later, Wes calls to see how his former lover and her husband are doing. He warns Claire to be careful and as Sean uses his wife’s tablet his ankle protrudes from under the covers and he is wearing a tracking device.

Cassandra gets her doll back and the first lady asks about her cell phone. When the grownups leave the bedroom, the girl goes into her closet with the doll as the lights flicker. The next morning an excited Henry runs downstairs looking for his father. Sean is making pancakes and their short encounter ends on a sour note when the boy asks Bennigan to promise he will “come back.” When the captain does, Henry replies, “I don’t believe you,” and leaves the room.

Sean has to tell Claire about Frommer’s “offer;” prison or guinea pig. Wes warns Lena to be careful of what she says around Minx in case Drill is still there. He tells his wife that he cannot tell her too much about the rock or what they are doing for the same reason.

Bennigan and Dr. Tully talk as she begins her study. He compares mankind to ants and explains that the entity will kill the earth’s denizens unless she helps. Claire goes to Wes’ house to say how unhappy she is with the choices given to Sean. She tells her former lover that the rock should be destroyed and Anderson questions her motives. He agrees to let her see Sean.

The scientist and Sean discuss the rock and he tells her what he has seen in the blue light. His revelations are disturbing and as he talks to the woman, Claire has her partner Jessup bring her a FBI flack jacket. She modifies the jacket to put several items in the lining. Wes stops by to see Minx on his way out of the house and she is watching the Justus doll on TV and Anderson recognizes it. As he talks to his daughter, she tells him she likes the television show because the presenter knows how to talk to kids…apparently like Drill.

Lena asks Minx if Drill is there as she wants to talk to him. Her daughter replies that he is not. He is, she says, with a new important friend. Lena asks why the friend is so important. She later rings Wes to tell him about this new development and Anderson suddenly understands the relevance of the doll being left in the presidential vehicle.

He searches Cassandra’s room and finds the first lady’s cell phone in the closet, the Blackberry had a tracking application downloaded onto it that showed Drill where the rock was. Sean gets the scientist to understand how dangerous the rock is just as Wes realizes that the thing is a type of cell phone for Drill. Claire is at the facility to see Sean and takes the items that she secreted in the vest, in for her husband.

Frommer learns from Jessup about the vest and he realizes where Claire is going. When she gets in, the doctor joins Sean and Claire to destroy the rock. Tully orders the soldiers out of the rock containment room and instructs the other two on how to set up the magnets. The trio begin to rapidly set things up as Drill travels closer to the building and the object via electrical lines.

The three rush to finish as Drill arrives at the facility. Frommer alerts the soldiers who come back in. Tully refuses to stop and is shot. Wes comes in just as the electricity shuts down and Drill has reached the rock. The object begins to glow and Anderson tells the soldiers to stand down. He also orders the area evacuated.

Sean tells the DoD agent that Drill is in the rock and that Claire needs to leave the area. He explains that he forgives her for the affair and that she needs to leave. A hysterical Claire is dragged out and Sean activates the magnets. The rock implodes and then explodes shattering the glass where Wes and Claire are.

The two rush down and find that Sean has survived the blast. Anderson gives the couple his car keys and tells them to run, he says he can fix things but it will take time. Meanwhile Jessup is outside the Bennigan residence and Frommer orders him to take Henry. Minx comes in and wakes her mother. The child tells Lena that Drill knows she wants something from him and that he wants something from her. Minx sighs and then says, somewhat disturbingly, “Maybe you can make a deal.”

This week’s episode of The Whispers has been the best yet. The suspense of the action and the plot line meant some pretty white knuckle moments were called for while waiting to see how things were going to turn out at that blue rock. There were a couple of “lump in the throat” bits; Henry welcoming his beloved father home and Sean “forgiving” Claire as he prepared to possibly die saving the world.

Of course Drill has survived and as Bennigan warned everyone, the thing is a lot more resilient than they know. Frommer has managed to plumb new depths as resident baddie, versus Drill who is the non-resident baddie, and Jessup is being forced into a very bad place.

Lily Rabe continues to impress as the torn and guilty FBI agent who now has her husband back. Milo Ventimiglia was brilliant in this episode as was Barry Sloane. Perhaps a moment of silence is in order for poor Gwynyth Walsh as Dr. Tully; shot for believing in Captain Bennigan’s visions.

The Whispers continues to not only be one of the best shows on television but is also proof that ABC may just nip the other networks at the post with a winning lineup of shows. The series is currently running neck and neck with at least one other winning program on offer. Miss this brilliant show and miss some very exciting television. The Whispers airs Mondays on ABC.

The Whispers: The Archer (recap and review)

Claire questioning Drill's kids...
By the end of last week’s episode of The Whispers: What Lies Beneath, the big blue rock has been dug up at Mali and Wes was taking it away, now in The Archer, Lawrence touches the blue glowing part of the huge object and it shocks him, knocking to the floor. when Wes stands back up, his eyes are full of excitement, something has changed in the DOD agent.

Later, he refuses to share information with Claire and she decides to get information about Drill from another avenue; the children. She does not share her idea with her former lover. Frommer proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is a petty and dangerous man. He learns of Claire’s plans and tells Wes, forcing him to interfere with her experiment. Frommer approaches Captain Bennigan and when he feels disrupted by the pilot warns him that the last person who showed him so “little respect” spent the rest of his days in “Gitmo.” The DOD head has slid into the lead as a character that viewers will love to hate with little effort.

Claire asks the parent of “Drill’s kids” to let them convene at the FBI building, where Agent Bennigan’s boss insisted the event take place, and all agree except for Wes’ wife Lena, who refuses to let Minx attend. Later in the show, Lena hears Minx talking to Drill and hears her daughter tell the entity that Claire does not like him so she does not like her. Lena is disturbed by this news.

As the kids turn up for their talk with Claire, she arrives to find that someone has put cameras, heat seeking equipment an recording devices in the room. Her boss asks who approved this and it is revealed to be Wes, who took action after Frommer’s talk. The children are uneasy, as are their parents and it takes all of Claire’s persuasive power to convince them to continue.

During their meeting, Wes, Claire and the other adults learn that Drill is not alone, that he misses his family and he is looking for food. When the alien entity learns what they are doing he visits the children and Bennigan, when he enters the room, via the electricity, his image is captured on the infrared displays.

The room where the kids and Claire encounter Drill, locks and is plunged into darkness. The image envelopes a little girl first and then Henry. Bennigan’s partner Jessup Rollins and some soldiers break into the room and after the lights come back on, the girl says to Claire that Drill has a message for her. “Drill says you will not win,” the child says in that eerily grown up and creepy delivery normally reserved for Lawrence’s daughter.

Lena ask Minx if Drill will play with her and after an experiment, Lena tells her daughter that she is a good sport even if she is an adult, and after a short guessing game, Drill says Mrs. Lawrence can play with him and Minx. The little girl is overjoyed and Lena is clearly terrified.

During tests on the blue boulder, where it is learned that the core consists of materials that cannot be identified, it begins to emit a frequency. At the exact same time, Sean Bennigan starts banging on the glass observation panel in his door. Wes goes to meet with Sean and brings Claire. The DOD agent takes the Bennigan’s to the rock.

On the way, Sean and Wes talk; discussing Minx and her connection with Drill which prompts the pilot to say that they share something. Once they reach the blue rock and Sean touches it, he falls to the floor after being enveloped with the blue glow from the object. He raises to his knees and reaching out to his wife says, “Claire.” He also looks at Wes and says he remembers…everything. Now the pilot knows just how much the two men have “shared.”

This episode of The Whispers has cranked the tension and the suspense up very well. The children, for the first time in the series, showed a collective, and individual, fear of their invisible friend. Drill become more threatening overall because of this. On the opposite side of this alien entity, it also gave Sean back his memory. It is obvious, however, that this was not done to help Bennigan, but to aid the rift between Wes and Sean. Something that will no doubt help Drill to divide and conquer in order to get back to his family.

The children in The Whispers are stepping up their game, as actors, and matching the adults in terms of performances. Lily Rabe, Derek Webster, Milo Ventimiglia, Barry Sloane, and Kristen Connelly are all convincing in their respective roles as are Kylie Rogers, Kyle Harrison Breitkopf and Abby Ryder Fortson. David Andrews as Frommer is still knocking it out of the park in terms of being the new “big bad” from within.

The Whispers is “must see” TV and airs Mondays on ABC. Don’t miss this science fiction and thriller masterpiece.

The Whispers: What Lies Beneath (recap/review)

The Whispers Still from What Lies Beneath

Last week’s episode of The Whispers; Meltdown ended with a nuclear disaster being swallowed up by a big blue light and Sean Bennigan reuniting with his little family. In What Lies Beneath Sean, Claire and Henry all test negative for radiation poisoning and the former pilot cannot remember anything about his past.

At the end of the episode intro of this week’s What Lies Beneath, a curly-haired boy is working on something with wires and electrical components; all of which are attached to a couple of sticks of C-4. Looking up at the camera the boy smiles and says, “Don’t worry Drill, it will be done soon.”

Under questioning from Wes, Sean does recall pain and having big rock on his back and knowing that if he does not move it he will die. He also relates later, to Claire, what many of the tattoos on his body mean; some are “disasters” where many people died and others; like the tree house, are more intimate in nature. Claire comes in to question her husband and as they talk she brings out pictures from their married life together. Sean still remembers nothing and does not know who she is.

Claire points out a small tattoo on Sean’s midriff, “As 33” and asks about its significance. Sean replies that he does not know that one. Later, it is revealed that this is the element for arsenic. Fearing that this means another disastrous event orchestrated by Drill, the FBI start searching for missing stockpiles of the chemical element and find nothing.

Before Claire talks to her husband the organization are desperate to learn what all this is about. The “containment” of the nuclear meltdown and who is behind it has them worried. Wes says that the only person who knows is Sean and that they must get him to talk. Lawrence gets the rock story out of Sean but he cannot get to the truth and Bennigan points out that it is clear the two men were not friends before and that “this isn’t over.”

Earlier, Wes insists that Lena and Minx have to leave since Drill picked their daughter because of him and his job. His wife refuses and for the first time since the series began it looks like the two may be mending their broken marriage. Claire’s partner shows up to collect the files from her on the case, she can no longer be an active part of the investigation and he turns out to be a bit less of a jerk than he first appeared. In the last episode he actually helped buy Claire some time, although as he says, that information is not in his report.

Lena learns that Minx is still working with Drill, Claire tells Wes that the entity is not a “who” but a “what.” Mrs. Lawrence freaks out when Minx goes missing at another child’s birthday party. Wes gets an idea from his secretary, Renee, that the solution is beneath the structure in the desert and Claire makes a connection about the As 33, it is not a reference to a chemical element, it is about a boy on Henry’s baseball team.

Wes goes to the site of the crash and forces them to dig up what is underneath, the site representative tells the DOD rep that whatever they find belongs to his country. Later, when the thing is discovered, the rep backtracks in a panic telling Lawrence that he can have it, “What ever it is, it’s yours. Just take it.” Oddly, when the digger blade strikes the blue glowing rock, Sean grabs his mid-section in pain and murmurs, “They’ve found it.”

By the end of the episode, Claire has tracked down “As 33,” and it is the boy seen earlier making the bomb. The child is Ethan, who is Renee’s son and he is is talking to Claire when his mother Renee comes in. Like the other children that Drill uses the boy explains that the entity does not like grownups. Back at the crash site, the blue rock causes power surges in the lights around the area and it seems that the whole thing is about energy as surmised earlier in the episode. Wes stands staring, transfixed, at the glowing object.

The Whispers is maintaining its stride and moving on at an excellent pace. Milo Ventimiglia, Barry Sloane and Lily Rabe are into their characters firmly and are carrying the plot forward with depth. Hats off to Kristen Connolly as Lena, she may not have a lot of screen time thus far but her portrayal of a mother torn between being potentially embarrassed by her child becoming “one of those kids” and her fear that Drill is still pulling the strings is a testament to her acting abilities.

Kudos to the writers of the series who continue to deliver a script that is taut, convincing and full of clever “spot on” dialogue for the characters. David Andrews, as Secretary Frommer is rapidly becoming the character you want to hate on general principles alone. Frommer has replaced Derek Webster’s Agent Rollins as resident douche admirably, despite his claims of legitimacy, he does not come across as a man to be trusted. The Whispers airs Monday’s on ABC and can be watched on Hulu as well.

All Good Things (2010): A Stranger in Disguise

images

Despite the name change, All Good Things is a fictionalised account of property tycoon Robert Durst who killed his next-door neighbour while he was living incognito as a mute woman. Proving that truth is indeed stranger than fiction, Durst’s wife disappeared mysteriously over 31 years ago and the only other person who might have known what really happened to her wound up dead after receiving a 9mm gunshot to the head.

Execution style.

Directed by Andrew Jarecki who has a fascination with Durst’s case and history, All Good Things is a slow movie. Its languid pacing is overshadowed by a sense of discord from the start of the film. The movie changes Durst’s name to the ironic moniker of Marks, this overly obvious ironic name change is just a few of the films problems. Such as relying on cliché’s and stereotypes to tell the story.

The Plot:

David Marks (Ryan Gosling) meets Katie (Kirsten Dunst) one of his father’s tenants when she complains of a leaky kitchen sink. He stops by, at his father’s insistence, to see if he can fix it. They are immediately attracted to one another and strike up a relationship. It’s a case of opposites attracting with Marks’ family is in the higher stratosphere of the monied gentry and Katie’s in solid middle class. After some growing pains, they marry and David turns his back on the family business. Their wedded bliss is short-lived, however, and after some interference from ‘poppa’ Marks (Frank Langella) they move back into the family fold. Their troubles begin almost immediately.

The Cast:

Ryan Gosling …
Kirsten Dunst …
Frank Langella …
Sanford Marks
Lily Rabe …
Deborah Lehrman
Philip Baker Hall …
Malvern Bump

*Cast courtesy of IMDb.*

The Device:

Money can buy you anything and what you see is definitely not what you get.

Gosling and Dunst.
Gosling and Dunst.

The Twist:

There is no real twist here at all. Ryan Gosling as David Marks makes it apparent from his first appearance on-screen that there is something wrong with this character, hence, it comes as no surprise when we find out what he’s really like.

The Story:

As mentioned in the opening paragraph, Marks is based on the real-life story of Robert Durst. Durst’s first wife disappeared and has not been seen since. The only person who may have known anything about the disappearance (Susan Berman aka Deborah Lehrman in the film) was dispatched with a bullet as soon as a Prosecuting Attorney got in touch with her. Durst took to living as a woman (who was mute) and he murdered an elderly neighbour claiming self-defence,

The Characters:

David Marks looks and acts slightly off kilter from frame one. He’s obviously got some hidden issues that would probably be better off left alone. I’ve never been a huge fan of Gosling’s, but, he is a more than capable actor. In this film he delivers but the movies pacing and perhaps the “filler” plot let him and Dunst down a bit. All the actors gave good solid performances and delivered characters who were believable and flawed. Unfortunately, as in any film that is based on true events, a lot of things for the film had to be “filled in” and therefore felt contrived.

The Verdict:

Although the script does a pretty good job of filling in the blanks, as it were, the pacing of the action lets everything down. I’m not saying that it needed to race towards the finish line, but it needed a shot of adrenaline administered here and there to pick up the flow. It is oddly compelling to watch. I could not stop viewing it even when I got frustrated at some of the events and their dipped in molasses recounting.

I’d have to give this film a 3.5 out of 5 stars for Dunst’s performance and that of Frank Langella. With an honourable mention to Lily Rabe as Deborah Lerhman and the delightful Philip Baker Hall. It is not a film that I’d care to watch twice and once I’d checked out the “true” story the film was based on; I felt that ,quite possibly, the real events probably overshadowed this celluloid re-telling.

Don’t break a leg rushing to see this one.

*And a quick word of thanks to Kevin over at Claratsi for giving me the “bump” I needed to finally watch this film. You can check out his blog by clicking on the link above!*

The delightful Philip Baker Hall.
The delightful Philip Baker Hall.
Related articles
Verified by MonsterInsights