robertb-4

Formulaic but enjoyable comedy in which Queen Latifah is cast against type as an introverted department store sales clerk who quits her job, takes her retirement money out of the bank and goes on a lavish spree at a posh European spa after being informed that she has only three weeks to live, with hilarious and touching consequences.

I saw the original 1950 version starring Alec Guiness on TV many years ago and knowing the ending (which, admittedly, is pretty easy to guess) didn't diminish my enjoyment of the remake at all. Check out the original if you can find it--it's not on DVD, but the VHS version is still in print. Some mom-and-pop video stores may have it for rent.

"Seven Days In May" is a brilliant piece of filmmaking with a story that is dated and ultimately doesn't hold up under analysis. In addition to the gaps in logic already noted by others, if the nuclear disarmament treaty with the USSR is so deeply unpopular, how the hell did President Lyman manage to get it ratified by the Senate in the first place? Did something happen to change the mood of the country? The movie never tells us.

On the other hand, "Seven Days In May" is a political thriller that is also a film noir par excellence. Note that all of the "action" scenes take place at night. Particularly noteworthy is the scene that takes place outside and in the garage of Senator Prentice's apartment building; the lighting, the camera angles, the sound effects and Jerry Goldsmith's score all add to the sinister atmosphere.

Overall, a great movie stylistically, but enjoying "Seven Days In May" requires a major suspension of disbelief if you know anything at all about American politics.

What I want to know is, what's up with Arno Chevrier's hippie-length hair in this movie? It's extremely long for 1967, yet not a single character comments on it. And Tom Jones, by the time this movie was filmed, was way too old to play the 1967 version of himself. By coincidence, I saw an actual Tom Jones performance from 1967 on an Ed Sullivan rerun the night before I saw AGNES BROWNE, and it almost didn't look like the same guy.

Now that I've got that off my chest, how was AGNES BROWNE? A little raunchier than I expected, in a chick-flick sort of way, also very sentimental and predictable-not that that's necessarily a bad thing. AGNES BROWNE is the cinematic equivalent of comfort food; it's not a challenging or particularly unusual film, but if you buy into it, it'll leave you with a nice warm feeling inside. And Dublin has never looked more beautiful on film.

One other thing-if you've seen SEXY BEAST, watch for Ray Winstone (`Gal') as Mr. Billy, the loan shark who terrorizes Agnes and her family. His performance is electrifying.