Norman (now playing at the Cedar Lee Theatre and the Capitol Theatre)

Review by Pamela Zoslov

A recent celebrity quote I liked is from Richard Gere, the actor whose outspoken political views — protesting China's occupation of Tibet on the Oscars red carpet, angering China and jeopardizing the overseas movie market — have sidelined him from the majors and led him to take roles in independent films. “I'm not interested in playing the wizened Jedi in your tentpole,” the 67-year-old actor told the Hollwood Reporter. “I was successful enough in the last three decades that I can afford to do these [smaller films] now.”

The former leading man, now 67, appears in two small indies opening this month: THE DINNER, in which he plays a congressman involved in a scandal, and NORMAN, in the titular role of a political fixer, or what my Yiddish-speaking mother would call a “macher,” a guy who knows everyone, trades favors and exploits connections.

The Dinner

Review by Bob Ignizio

Based on the Dutch novel of the same name by Herman Koch, director/writer Oren Moverman's THE DINNER serves up a hearty portion of boredom and unpleasantness.

The plot revolves around two couples – politician Stan Lohman (Richard Gere) and his wife Kate (Rebecca Hall), and history teacher (and brother of Stan) Paul Lohman (Steve Coogan) and his wife Claire (Laura Linney). They have all come together for a meal at a fancy restaurant in order to discuss how to best deal with a shocking crime committed by their sons – Paul and Claire's son Michael (Charlie Plummer) and Stan's son Rick (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick), by his ex-wife Barbara (Chloe Sevigny). Stan also has a black adopted son, Beau (Miles J. Harvey), who wasn't involved in the crime but plays a part in what happens after.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Review by Pamela Zoslov

More than three years have passed since the release of THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, a sunny trifle and surprise hit that spent many months pleasing older audiences at independent theaters like Cleveland's Cedar Lee. The movie, based on a novel by British author Deborah Moggach called These Foolish Things, told of a group of British seniors who, displaced by the overburdened National Health System, took up residence in a once grand, now rather ramshackle retirement hotel in Jaipur, India. Under the tutelage of the eager hotelier Sonny Kapoor (SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE star Dev Patel), the spry residents entangle romantically, find new careers, and experience rejuvenation within the teeming, colorful, disheveled culture of Jaipur, India.

Now comes a sequel, THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, which finds the same elders a few years on, dealing with romantic and career problems. The sequel is the work of the same writer-director team of Ol Parker and John Madden.

Arbitrage

Review by Pamela Zoslov

The complexities of high finance generally do not make for compelling cinema. That may be why we haven't seen, for instance, The Ivan Boesky Story or The Trials of Bernie Madoff. The subject may just be too complicated for the relatively simple film medium. I wondered, then, about the title of Nicholas Jarecki's ARBITRAGE which suggests a drama about risk arbitrage, the 1980s insider-trading scheme, symbolized by the swashbuckling Boesky, in which traders would buy stock in a company likely to be acquired in a merger and simultaneously sell stock in its potential acquirer.

The title, it turns out, is misleading. There is arbitrage in ARBITRAGE , but it's the less sexy kind involving commodities futures. And, it is but a small detail in a glossy morality play about a rich man who thinks he can buy and sell people.