Movies -- A Recap -- Part XLI -- Foreign Stories

If you like Mexico, try Book of Love.  Let me be clear, this is not a particularly good movie.  The plot is that a completely unsuccessful British writer is a surprise hit in Mexico; he goes on a book tour only to discover that his book has been completely rewritten in translation by a lovely Mexican woman with her own struggles and frustrations.  The expected story follows.  Despite not being a good film, there are a lot of beautiful shots of Mexico (though, interestingly, it was originally scheduled to be filmed in the Canary Islands but was forced to relocate during COVID).  It leaves behind the beaches and drug trafficking, and instead is a love letter to Mexican culture, geography, and people, which is perhaps not surprising considering it has a Mexican director.

I could say the same thing about Made in Italy as about Book of Love.  The story here is that a father-son pair who do not get along particularly well are force to examine their relationship when they inherit a house in Italy.  The father and son are played by real-life father-son pair Liam and Micheal Neeson.  The villa they had inherited has stunning views of the sweeping Italian countryside, which is enough to make anyone want to pack up and buy a place there. 

Brooklyn is only half-set in another country -- this time, Ireland -- but the central geographic tension in the story is about longing for home, whether it be there or in Brooklyn. Eilis (played by ) left her small town in Ireland in search of a better life in Brooklyn.  She misses home desperately, but when she goes back to visit her old-fashioned town in County Wexford, finds herself missing her new home and new life in the more modern New York.  The cinematography is stunning; pay special attention to the use of color depending on location and mood.  Who better to play Eilis than Saoirse Ronan, who was born in New York to Irish parents, but taken back to Ireland at age three to grow up?

While we're on the subject of the relationship between the Emerald Isle and America, you might check out The Problem With People.  Brooklyn is the better of the two films, but if you want something more comedic, you can watch two estranged cousins (played by Paul Reiser and Colm Meaney) try to mend fences, their dying patriarch's final wish.  Things seem to be going well, until they aren't. Lovely scenery and good music, of course!

Anatomy of a Fall is set in the French Alps.  When a man is found dead outside his home by his visually-impaired son, the investigation begins.  Was he pushed from the balcony by his frustrated wife?  Did he fall accidentally?  Was it a suicidal leap?  The only person who may know the truth is the son, but what can he really be relied on to "know," impressionable as he is due to his age and disability?  I love an unreliable narrator, and this movie has them in spades. 

I'm including Transsiberian here despite the fact that the main characters are American.  My exception is because the film takes place on and near a train from Beijing to Moscow, which is a most Eur-Asian method of travel.  Under the influence of some mysterious fellow travelers (including Kate Mara, whom I adore), the Americans get tied up in criminal behavior they never intended.  It's a classic mystery, carried on the shoulders of Emily Mortimer, one of the Americans (who, in actuality, is English).