Station in the Metro

I haven’t read the book, but my wife tells me that the first two acts of this film (the ones I call “maddeningly intriguing”) are the closest to the source. It all comes together in the end, but the re-emergence of Finn’s benefactor took the film on a seemingly unnecessary action-adventure bent.

That said, most of the film is still maddeningly intriguing, and in a good way. I love the way an enormously long shot in the middle of the film (even though it’s actually composed of four shots in a nearly seamless blend) draws you into Finn’s blind panic. Good show!

4 stars.

James Stewart being upstanding, Jean Arthur being lovely and encouraging, and Claude Rains being shocked– SHOCKED!– that there’s corruption in the U.S. Senate. A wonderfully clean-cut fairy tale of right and wrong in the Federal Government. We could use more movies like this one. What the hell happened to Frank Capra, anyway?

Oh.

Well… crap.

4 stars.

So, for the first time tonight, during the umpteenth time of watching Groundhog Day (which is an excellent, excellent movie, by the by), my wife pointed out that it features two songs from other time warp/travel movies, namely Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, which forms the basis for John Barry’s score for Somewhere in Time (one of my wife’s favorite films, which while interesting, I find incredibly creepy) and Almost Like Being in Love, which is Gene Kelly’s big song from Brigadoon.

I wonder if there’s any more time movie references in there. Anyone catch another?

Oh, and Groundhog Day? Highly recommended. 5 stars.