Future Poltergeist

Juliette Binoche plays a brazen chocolatier in a small repressed French town in the 50's. She blows into town on a 'sly north wind' and sets up her chocolate shop during Lent. This brings her immediate difficulty from the town's mayor, played by Alfred Molina. He belongs to the 'fun is sin' school of thought and gains strong personal satisfaction through his Lenten fasting. Binoche brings a daughter with her though she openly proclaims that she's never been married. Together the two of them run the shop. They offer everyone a bit of chocolate based on their inner desires. The sweets unlock the townspeople and set them free. Eventually, Johnny Depp shows up as a kind of river gypsy and adds to the fun. Boy, this movie didn't do much for me (sorry Mom!). Binoche and Depp are both underwhelming in their performances. Depp in particular sports an accent that can't decide between Irish and non-existent. And he's supposed to be French! The s...

Tom Hanks plays a FedEx employee who operates in the field, working with lagging stations. He tells them that 'time is the enemy' but they must never turn their back on it. His girlfriend and near fiancee, Helen Hunt, patiently deals with his brief fly-bys through Memphis. He is interrupted at a Christmas dinner but promises her that he'll be back by New Year's Eve. As he leaves for the plane he gives her a ring box, asking her not to open it until he returns. Then he tells her he'll be right back. Well, it doesn't work out like that. The FedEx plane crashes into the south Pacific and Hanks becomes the only survivor, washed ashore on a deserted island. He opens up several packages that wrapped up on the island and uses them to convert the island into a live-able situation. He leaves one package because he's impressed by a set of wings painted on them. One of the other packages includes a volleyball. An accidental bloody palm print makes a kind of fa...

William Miller is a very precocious boy. His mother skipped him past first grade and lied to him about his real age. When he was 11 his older sister left the house because of a dispute over rock and roll. She left William her record collection and set his future in place. By the age of 15 (1973) he became an aspiring rock and roll journalist. He has also met a groupie, though she'd furiously deny it, named Penny Lane. Rolling Stone magazine doesn't realize how young he is and offers him a chance to write an article for them. All he has to do is go on the road with an up and coming band called Stillwater. His mother reluctantly allows him to go. William desperately tries to interview them, especially their star guitar play but has great difficulty maintaining any kind of journalistic distance. To make it worse, the guitar player is sleeping with Penny whom William has fallen for. Loyalties are questioned and torn. This is a great movie and I'd never seen it before. ...