Month: October 2021

Single forty-something Ed Helms interviews Patti Harrison as a potential surrogate for his unborn child. I almost gave up early on in this film. There’s an awkwardness to the beginning, particularly Harrison’s character whose delivery is very stilted and gawky in somewhat off-putting ways. Helms’s character is played a bit too much as if future Andy Bernard was cast. The intimate moments don’t really feel earned. But there is a sweetness to the story and there’s chemistry between the leads. Despite them making a deal of their age difference, they move like a couple together, even in a platonic way.

Told through the testimony of witnesses at a murder trial, this film is about woman disfigured as a child whose bitterness turns her to a life as a blackmailer. After reconstruction surgery, she turns away from crime and finds love. I’m not a big fan of Joan Crawford, but she looks her softest here over all and does a fine job portraying both sides of the woman’s character. The story is somewhat meh as it seems to suggest that looks guide a person’s character. I hadn’t realized it was a remake of a Swedish film, which explains why it was otherwise inexplicably set in Sweden. Some of the scenery was very beautiful, particularly when showing gondolas flying over mountain rivers.