Movie Review: The Lone Ranger

"The Lone Ranger"

Starring: Armie Hammer, Johnny Depp

Directed By: Gore Verbinski

Studio: Walt Disney Pictures

    "The Lone Ranger" opened July 3 to universally lukewarm reviews.  There have been many criticisms,  not the least of which is that a lot of the material is a rehash, including the aging Tonto (Johnny Depp) telling the story much like Dustin Hoffman did in "Little Big Man" years ago.  I don't really get all of the negativity.  We went to the movie expecting an off-beat, summer blockbuster.  We thought we would see an action packed and entertaining movie, and we did.  We didn't go expecting "Citizen Kane" or a documentary on genocide of native Americans.  We went to be entertained and that we were.

     I watched all of The Lone Ranger TV shows as a kid.  I had a mask, a white hat and could holler "Hi Ho, Silver" with the best of them.  I'm a a fan.  So, I was excited that this story was being reprised as a major motion picture.  When I learned that Johnny Depp was cast as Tonto, my excited anticipation went up a notch..   I don't know much about Armie Hammer, but he certainly looked like he would be a good Lone Ranger.  Knowing that Depp would dominate the movie  made me wonder how this story would work from Tonto's point of view.  Well, I think it worked great.

     The writers were able to tell the familiar story of the survival of Texas Ranger John Reid and how he was transformed from a legalistic, non-violent academic into a gun-toting vigilante.  The writers were able to weld on a plausible back-story for Tonto as well.  The plot becomes a bit convoluted as these two back stories are woven into a new story of greed and deceit perpetrated by the new Trans-continental railroad.  I think the whole thing worked, although other reviewers thought the plot a bit unwieldy.  A lot of the criticisms I have read was that the movie was "choppy" or uneven.  I think that the writers' ambition to tell multiple stories is responsible for that.

     Johnny Depp does indeed dominate the movie, and his interpretation of Tonto is certainly different from Jay Silverheels' in the 1950s.  There is reference genocide of Native Americans but that is not the main thrust of the movie.  Depp does not just take Jack Sparrow to the 1800s.  He definitely creates a unique, conflicted and, yes, humorous Tonto.
   
    The final twenty minutes of the movie, though are the highlight.  The final action sequence, featuring runaway trains, exploding bridges, the Lone Ranger riding Silver along the top of a train and a fitting outcome for all of the "good guys" as well as the "bad guys" brings the movie to a very thrilling conclusion and made me want to know when the sequel would be released.

     Reality was suspended for 2+ hours, I was entertained and thoroughly enjoyed the movie.  Isn't that what summer movies are supposed to do?  

Book Review: Help Thanks Wow The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott

Help Thanks Wow

The Three Essential Prayers

Author: Anne Lamott

Publisher: The Penguin Group

Date of Publication:  November 13, 2012

Pages: 112 (Hardcover Edition)

      

     Anne Lamott has crafted another gem in her own quirky, humorous and genuine style.  Anyone who has read her previous essays on faith and religion (Traveling Mercies, Plan B and Grace) will recognize this sincere effort to share her personal journey and struggles with faith and notions of God, salvation and the hereafter.  She uses many of her own life experiences to illustrate the points she makes about what she calls the three essential prayers: Help, Thanks and Wow.  

   The author also uses insightful stories of how others have tried to resolve the same issues.  In the section on
"Help" she recounts :

     "I don't pray for God to do this or that or for God's sake to knock it off, or for specific outcomes.  Well, okay, maybe a little.  When my great hero Arthur Ashe had had AIDS for quite a while, he said: 'God's will alone matters.  When I played tennis, I never prayed for victory in a match.  I will not pray now to be cured of heart disease or AIDS.'  So I pray, Help. Hold my friends in your light."

   She also extols the virtue of intercessory prayer, saying "If one person is praying for you, watch out!  Things are going to start to happen!"  In the end, though,it is the author's self-deprecating and never ending sense of humor which enlightens and uplifts the reader such as when she calls grace "spiritual WD-40."  This is an unusual book about prayer, but one worthy of reading and much reflection.  It reminds the reader that no one has the answers and that we all must come to our own reasoned and self-sustaining "religion" which works for each of us.

     

Book Review: The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler

The Beginner's Goodbye

Author: Anne Tyler

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

Date of Publication: January 29, 2013

Pages: 210 (Trade Paperback Edition)

     This book has the most remarkable opening line in recent memory: "The strangest thing about my wife's return from the dead was how other people reacted."  So begins one one of the most poignant and moving stories about death, grieving and marriage which I have ever read.

     The story is told in the first person by a young widower named Aaron.  This man, like most Anne Tyler characters (and like most of us), is flawed.  In this case, Aaron has a physical disability from a childhood illness and confidence issues from growing up with a protective, dominating mother and older sister.  This book is character driven, as are all of this author's wonderful works.  This book is full of imperfect, very human characters.  Characters to which the reader can readily identify, recognize and, well, like!  The magic of The Beginner's Goodbye is that the author takes these wonderfully funky characters and weaves a tale of loss and grief which is all at once sad and uplifting.

     Aaron's musings inevitably evolve into an introspective of his marriage's high points and failings.  Regrets are mulled and areas where things could have been handled differently or with more feeling and concern are examined.  At one point Aaron reflects:

     "I used to toy with the notion that when we die we find out what our lives have amounted to, finally.  I'd never imagined that we could find that out when somebody else dies."

This theme has appeared in many of Anne Tyler's stories.  That is, that we are who we are through our relationships with others.  In The Beginner's Goodbye she distills this notion down to how the lives of us married folk in large part are defined by our choice of spouse and the nurturing (or lack of nurturing) of that relationship over time.

    All of us are human and will at some time or another suffer a tremendous loss: a parent, a spouse or a child.  Everyone can relate to Aaron and his struggles.   This story sticks with you and serves as a not-so-gentle reminder that we need to appreciate our loved ones and make the best of every minute of every day.  Things can change in a heartbeat.

Book Review: Inferno by Dan Brown

Inferno

Author: Dan Brown

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Date of Publication: May 14, 2013

Pages: 558 (NOOK Edition)

   About two pages into Dan Brown's Inferno I had an incredible feeling of deja vu.  I felt like I had read this before.  This author wrote a blockbuster, The Da Vinci Code, in 2003.  He created a unique character in Robert Langdon, an art historian and "symbologist" who deciphered a code painted into "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci.  A sudden act of violence triggered a hectic race against an international conspiracy.  Landon was aided by a female counterpart, a brilliant and beautiful cryptologist, who became more than a colleague.  The Da Vinci Code dashed through Paris, London and New York before it concluded back at The Louvre in Paris.  Substitute Dante for da Vinci, The Divine Comedy for "The Last Supper", a brilliant and beautiful physician for the cryptologist and Florence, Venice and Istanbul for the three cities and you have this novel.  The conspiracy is different here and the stakes are higher, but it's the same formula.

   The author certainly does his research, however.  The descriptions of the locales are superb and I am ready to sign up for an "Inferno tour" of Florence.  The lavish explanations and expositions regarding the artworks encountered are well done also.  My quibble with these, however, is that they tend to interrupt the action.  It's like getting an art appreciation lecture in the middle of watching "Die Hard".  I would also recommend that if they make a movie of this that they replace Tom Hanks with Usain Bolt as Robert Langdon since the character spends most of the story running helter-skelter from police, museum guards, the World Health Organization as well as his own claustrophobia and paranoia.  

     This was an interesting and informative read but, in my opinion, a repetitive one.

Book Review: The Black Box by Michael Connelly

The Black Box

Author: Michael Connelly

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Publication Date: November 26, 2012

Pages: 316 (Nook Edition)

     I need to preface this review with a statement of fact.  I am an unabashed Michael Connelly fan.  I have read all of the books (many twice) and have enjoyed them all. Connelly has taken the place of the late Ed McBain/Evan Hunter on my reading preference list: each new novel is a must-read.   

     The Black Box does not disappoint.  This is the 18th novel featuring Detective Harry Bosch.  Bosch is near retirment and works in the LAPD unsolved crime unit.  He is drawn to a twenty year old murder of an investigative photo-journalist, a crime he initially helped investigate.  The murder occurred during the Rodney King riots in 1992 and was never solved.

     Bosch uses instinct and dogged determinism to scrape together new evidence.  He uses a freak coincidence (shell casings from a seemingly unrelated case match those found at the scene of the 1992 murder) and "follows the gun" on a circuitous journey to unmask the unlikely perpetrators.  Connelly's novels have many strengths, not the least of which is his knowledge of and masterful depiction of Los Angeles.  This novel, though, highlights this writer's ability to craft a plot which is at once complicated, unpredictable and plausible.  His character development is also a real asset and in The Black Box he even creates a vivid and likable victim twenty years dead without using corny flashbacks or other jaded literary devices.  Bosch's personal life injects itself into the story and long-time readers will enjoy watching Bosch attempt to single parent a teen-aged girl.  There's also the usual but amusing clash with authority which seems to always find the independent thinking Harry Bosch. 

     This is a great book.  It is entertaining and challenging from page one and unpredictable until the very end.  If you've never read a Harry Bosch novel before, this is as good a place to start as any, but do yourself a favor.  Go back and start with The Black Echo (Harry Bosch #1) and read them all!

Book Review: Live By Night by Dennis Lehane

Live By Night

Author: Dennis Lehane

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Date of Publication: October 2, 2012

Pages: 416 (Hardcover Edition)

     This Edgar winning novel is superb.  It transcends the mystery genre and succeeds on many levels.  First and foremost, it is a great story, expertly told.  The main character, Joe Coughlin is the youngest son of a prominent police captain.  The first part of the book is set in Boston during the 1920s as young Joe slips into a life of petty crime which escalates as he enters young adulthood.  After a two year prison stay, Joe moves on and the story shifts to Tampa, Florida.  Joe forms an alliance with Cubans, Spaniards and African-Americans to forge a crime network based on the importation of rum during Prohibition.   The final segment of the book is set in Cuba in the 1930s as American organized crime invades that island country.  Joe Coughlin is a complex character.  His many shortcomings seem to arise, in part, from his difficult relationship with his father.  There are numerous contradictions between Joe's principles and philosophy and his criminal actions.  The story weaves these conflicts and inconsistencies into a mosaic of ethical and moral conundrums.  The secondary characters are all well developed and are equally intriguing.  They include Joe's love interests, his partners in crime and his enemies.  There are many historically real characters as well. 

     The settings for this story are unique and interesting.  The descriptions of the 1920s port of Tampa and the segregated living areas are well done, as are the sketches of urban Havana and rural Cuba.  The multiple settings add another layer of interest to an already compelling story.  The women in Joe Coughlin's life also make the story sparkle.  His entanglement with a "mob moll" early on and his long term relationship with a mixed race Cuban revolutionary spice up the story immeasurably. 

      The real element that makes this novel compulsively readable, however, is the constant moral deliberations and ethical compromises which Joe and, to some extent, the secondary characters continue to confront. On many occasions he defines himself as an "outlaw" as opposed to a criminal, preferring to think of himself as "living by night, by my own rules."  

     This novel has it all: compelling and sympathetic characters, lush descriptions of unique locales, femmes fatales, action, crime, revenge and vindication.  This was one of those books I hated to finish, it was that good.  Read it and savor every page.

Book Review: The Lost Ones by Ace Atkins

The Lost Ones

Author: Ace Atkins

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Date of Publication: December 4, 2012

Pages: 368 (Trade Paperback Edition)

     Ace Atkins is a former Pulitzer Prize nominated reporter for The Tampa Tribune who has now written eleven novels.  The Lost Ones is the second to feature Mississippi sheriff Quinn Colson, following The Ranger, published in 2011.  Both of the Quinn Colson novels have been nominated for The Mystery Writers of America's prestigious Edgar Award for best mystery novel of the year in successive years.

     Quinn Colson is a complex character.  He is a former Army Ranger and veteran of deployments in Iraq.  He returned to his hometown and became the sheriff.  In The Ranger, Colson discovers a group of extremists living in Tibbehah County, Mississippi who are running a lucrative methamphetamine production facility.  In The Lost Ones he finds an even more insidious group.  They are emissaries from a Mexican drug cartel posing as the operators of a travelling county fair.  They have infiltrated rural areas in the South and Southwest in order to procure guns and munitions for their compatriots back home.  They are also behind an appalling operation to smuggle in babies for sale.

    The Quinn Colson character is much more developed in this novel.  Through flashbacks we learn of his run-ins with the law prior to his enlistment in the Army and also the complex relationship with his younger sister Caddy.  In this book Caddy has returned home as the single Mom of a mixed race child.  She has also come home sober but with a new found religious zeal which is a bit over the top.  

     I found this book very entertaining and well written.  I think the characters are even better developed here than in the first book.  Mr. Atkins continues to describe rural Mississippi in interesting and evocative detail.  The secondary characters in this story, including an attractive female ATF agent, a corrupt former sheriff of Tibbehah and several other returned veterans of the Global War on Terror are all very compelling.  The Lost Ones is certainly a worthy nominee for the Edgar Award and I wouldn't be surprised if it is indeed the winner!  I am looking forward to The Broken Places, the third Quinn Colson novel, to be published at the end of May, 2013.