Deepak Chopra on Jacksons Addiction

Jackson inner circle shocked

Final Days: The Mystery of Michael Jackson's Death
By Mike Fleeman
Originally posted Friday June 26, 2009 08:40 AM EDT

It should have been the opportunity of a lifetime for a Michael Jackson fan: a behind-the-scenes invitation to a rehearsal for the superstar's upcoming concert tour in the United Kingdom.

But when the fan got to the stage, she was horrified. "He is a skeleton," she wrote Monday in an email to other Jackson fans. Worse, she said, was seeing her idol surrounded by people she deemed too frightened to say anything. "I have to say: He may die."

Three days later, Jackson, 50, collapsed in his rented Holmby Hills mansion – with his personal physician on the premises. His heart stopped; he wasn't breathing. An ambulance raced him to a hospital just minutes away from his house, but despite another hour of frantic resuscitation efforts, the world had lost one of the most successful artists in music history. The Los Angeles County Coroner will conduct an autopsy, with some results expected as early as Friday, although the findings of other possible tests could take longer.

Some in the entertainment world are utterly shocked at the sudden demise of seasoned entertainer who was, by all accounts, focused on one thing alone: getting ready for a series of 10 comeback shows at London's 02 Arena set to launch next month. Jackson rehearsed at the Staples Center on June 24 in Los Angeles, the day before with "great energy," Grammy executive producer Ken Ehrlich tells PEOPLE. "He wasn't giving it full out. But vocally he had started to really project. I thought he was in great form," who was at the rehearsal.

Jackson had even signed on The Incredible Hulk's Lou Ferrigno as his personal trainer, although the two hadn't worked out together in two weeks.

Yet while many in the entertainment world expressed sadness and shock, a different, more unsettling reaction came from several people close to Jackson and his family, who describe Jackson as unavoidably thin and fragile.

Filmmaker Bryan Michael Stoller, who visited Jackson in April, was shocked by his weight loss. "I hugged him and it was like hugging bones," he tells PEOPLE. "After seeing him, I never thought he would complete the tour."

Says Dr. Firpo Carr, a friend and confidante of Jackson's, "I sensed something was wrong and, quite honestly, I wasn't terribly surprised when I got the news. I would get word from people in his camp that things weren't quite right."

A source close to the singer who didn't want to be identified adds: "Michael hasn't been feeling well. All last week he'd stopped coming out of his house to see his fans. He was doing that every day."

As part of his preparations for the high-stakes UK concert tour, Jackson had been training – hard. He has put in 10-hour rehearsals, a witness says, for the sort of stage spectacle fans had come to expect. Promoters insisted the 50-year-old entertainer was physically ready for the rigors of a full tour. But there was concern among some in his inner circle that Jackson might push too hard: "They didn't want him to overtax himself," family friend Kevin McLin tells PEOPLE. "You look back in history, he never completed all the dates of his shows because he gave so much in each performance – he would go non-stop for two hours."

And on Thursday, even before UCLA doctors declared Jackson dead, family attorney Brian Oxman, who huddled with the grieving family at the hospital, raised the specter of possible abuse of drugs prescribed for the singer's long history of physical ailments. "If you think that the case of Anna Nicole Smith was an abuse, it is nothing in comparison to what we have seen in Michael Jackson's life," Oxman told CNN.

According to the fan at Jackson's rehearsal who tried to raise the alarm among those who adored him, the combination of risk factors seemed dangerously close to claiming its victim.

"We all love Michael really much. We all want to see his shows. We all think about how we will be [in the] first row," the fan wrote earlier in the week. "How will you do all of these things if during the third concert he faints on stage, and if his heart stops during his way to the hospital? How will you feel when you will talk with other fans and will say: We knew he was too skinny to perform?"

• Reporting by CHAMP CLARK, JESSICA HERNDON and LORENZO BENET

The Proposal

Movie Review: The Proposal

The Entertainment Critic Movie Review
http://jamesmyerstheentertainmentcritic.blogspot.com/
In Theatres Now Review
Opened June 19, 2009
By James Myers

Rating: 5 of 10

Director: Anne Fletcher
Writers (WGA): Pete Chiarelli

Cast:

Sandra Bullock ... Margaret Tate

Ryan Reynolds ... Andrew Paxton

Mary Steenburgen ... Grace Paxton

Craig T. Nelson ... Joe Paxton

Betty White ... Grandma Annie

Denis O'Hare ... Mr. Gilbertson

Malin Akerman ... Gertrude

Oscar Nuñez ... Ramone

Aasif Mandvi ... Bob Spaulding

Michael Nouri ... Chairman Bergen

Michael Mosley ... Chuck

Dale Place ... Jim McKittrick
Alicia Hunt ... Coffee Barista
Alexis Garcia ... Immigration Clerk (as Alexis R. Garcia)

Kortney Adams ... Colden Books Receptionist








Sandra Bullock is back in a romantic comedy, The Proposal. It has been a while since her last one, 2005's "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous”, and judging from the box office this weekend, a record opening for Ms Bullock ($34.1 million dollars) the movie intrigued enough people to make it the number one movie for the weekend. I love Sandra Bullock’s films, but to be completely honest, this film was somewhat disappointing.

The film’s premise is not new. A ball breaking female publicist boss has a problem: she is a foreign national (Canadian?) and has failed to file the proper paperwork, leading to her deportation and job loss. In the midst of discussing this with her boss, she lassoes her male assistant (Ryan Reynolds) and announces that they are getting married. It is an age old premise for a film, and basically ends the same way; that is after several misadventures with his family from his home town in Alaska, she falls for him. She of course confesses that this was just a business deal right in the middle of the wedding, but before saying “I do”. He of course falls in love with her too and of course chases her to get her back. In the interim they are both being pursued by an overly zealous immigration officer, who at the end of the film questions them separately about their love affair with some mildly funny results. Here is my problem with the film: it has been done before (reminds me of a Cary Grant type of film, which by the way was much more original and definitely funnier). Did you see “Green Card” with Gérard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell, which in my opinion was funnier and much more poignant.

Sandra said it herself when asked about romantic comedies, the scripts she was getting "were terrible, they were bad and they weren't funny," she says. "I love my comedy too much to bastardize it with a bad romantic comedy." Here’s hoping that she sticks with this formula in the future.



Movie Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFDpK9BULCk

Bill Maher on pushing health care reform

OBAMA’S HEALTH CARE PLAN AND THE AMA


“What makes a great president?” Marty asked him one day. “Well, I think that probably everybody who has been elected president was a great person in some aspect or another.” Barack began. “But what makes a great president, as opposed to a great person, is the juxtaposition of the president’s personal characteristics and strengths with the needs of the American people and the country. And when you are a president who happens to come into the office at that juxtaposition, there’s an environment for you to be a great president.” ‘Some presidents were great individuals with extraordinary talents, but their timing was wrong. The great ones were needed by their nation at that point in history.’ Renegade by Richard Wolfee, pp23-24.


Lost in the shuffle of the events taking place in Iran, last week the President gave a speech to the American Medical Association, and a group of doctors about his national healthcare plan. According to Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, he heard something he has not heard before…booing. It was not his healthcare plan with a government sponsored health care insurer that was booed but an issue near and dear to all doctors hearts, award limits on jury awards for medical malpractice cases. Somehow doctors have it in their heads that they are not subject to same rules as every other American citizen or specialized, educated, licensed professional (lawyers, accountants and many others) and somehow they fear the awards of juries. The idea behind most damage awards that comes from juries is the concept of compensatory damages, damages to put the injured party back in the position that they would have been in if the negligence act had not occurred; to attempt as closely as we can to force the wrongdoer to comply with the standard of care or to compensate the victim of his carelessness if he/she fails to do so.

If automobile accidents were being considered, then it is easy to accept that the careless party that caused injury should compensate the injured party for his loss. (Thus the mandatory insurance rules for drivers in most if not all of the states in the country). In our system juries makes decisions whether the accused wrongdoer was in fact careless and that this carelessness caused the injury and then and only then what damages are sufficient to compensate the injured. The concept works the same with medical malpractice. Only if the injured party can first convince the jury that the doctor did not comply with the standard of care, and that failure to comply proximately contributed to the plaintiff’s injury, does the question of damages even begin to be addressed. Then in my opinion, it is the jury’s unique responsibility to assess the damages that are appropriate. There were no caps on jury awards of any time contemplated by the writers of the Constitution, and caps on jury awards of any type far less on medical malpractice verdicts, in my way of thinking contradicts the natural process of awarding damages that juries make in any care. My feeling is that this is why the President told this audience up front, as he did during his campaign, that he wouldn’t consider malpractice caps. He is a Constitutional law scholar and that perhaps capping jury awards is unconstitutional as an unacceptable limit on the right to trial by jury.




Mr. Obama has made suggestions of what he does favor mediation and/or alternative to malpractice suits, where hospitals and doctors admit when they have made mistakes, correct them and compensate the injured party for their loss. Most plaintiffs seek an attorney only after they have exhausted every other avenue and usually do so out of desperation. Studies have shown that the mediation approach may work because most doctors do not admit fault, and this is the reason most people file suit.

I think Mr. Obama has to run a fine line in the pursuit of his health care plan and it will require a coalition of forces, including doctors to get it to pass, but I admire his courage and straight forwardness in discussing issues of interest to the AMA.

“Each time an uninsured American sets foot in an emergency room with no way to reimburse the hospital for care, the cost is handed over to every American family as a bill of about $1,000. It is reflected in higher taxes, higher premiums, higher tax bill costs. It is a hidden tax that will be cut as we insure all American. So, when you hear the naysayer’s claim that I’m trying to bring about government health care plan, they are not telling the truth.

“What I am trying to do with a public option or help to do is affordable healthcare within the reach of millions of Americans.”

I think this is a wise option also. Not just a single payer option, but a government sponsored health care program that those who do not have insurance can choose; millions of people that do not or cannot afford health insurance may finally have an option.

The long and the short of this blog is this: I am glad and proud to have President Obama as my president; Wolfee is right. He is the right man, for our times in that right place; a man who understands the value of trial by jury and necessity of a national health care option.

Star Trek-New Movie Review From James Myers, The Entertainment Critic

Movie Review:  Star Trek

 

The Entertainment Critic Movie Review

http://jamesmyerstheentertainmentcritic.blogspot.com/

In Theatres Now Review

Opened May 8, 2009

By James Myers

 

Rating: 8 of 10

 

Director: J.J. Abrams

Writers (WGA): Roberto Orci (written by) &

Alex Kurtzman (written by)

 

Cast:

 

Chris Pine         ...        James T. Kirk

 

Zachary Quinto ...        Spock

 

Leonard Nimoy            ...        Spock Prime

 

Eric Bana         ...        Nero

 

Bruce Greenwood        ...        Capt. Christopher Pike

 

Karl Urban       ...        Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy

 

Zoe Saldana     ...        Nyota Uhura

 

Simon Pegg      ...        Scotty

 

John Cho          ...        Hikaru Sulu

            Anton Yelchin   ...        Pavel Chekov

 

Ben Cross        ...        Sarek

 

Winona Ryder  ...        Amanda Grayson

 

Chris Hemsworth          ...        George Kirk

 

Jennifer Morrison          ...        Winona Kirk

 

Rachel Nichols ...        Gaila

 

 

 

            There is always a risk when you make a movie that is in effect a sequel to a legendary book, television series, and series of films that brings with it a unique subset of fans.  It’s even riskier when you take on a cult following of a series that refuses to go away and has achieved near biblical proportions.  The Hollywood solution to this problem goes back to Godfather II, where you show a prequel that fills in some holes, has younger stars and adds a 21^st Century edginess to the legend.  After a reported $72.5 million dollar weekend for the legend, Star Trek has used this formula to perfection.  http://uk.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUKTRE5491IW20090511.  The film is expected gross in the $130 million plus neighborhood and that is a real good neighborhood to be in.  I loved this picture!  The young actors, the fresh plot, &  the special effects make this a true summer movie send off.

 

In the year 2387, a star near Romulus is on the verge of going supernova and threatens to destroy the planet and endanger the rest of the galaxy. The Vulcans, led by Ambassador Spock, build a ship to carry a supply of "red matter", which, once ignited, can create a singularity, drawing the supernova into a black hole. However, they are too late to save Romulus, and the supernova nearly wipes out the entire species. Captain Nero of the Romulan mining ship Narada, having watched his family and home world die, attempts to exact revenge on Spock, but both ships are caught in the event horizon of the black hole, traveling to the past and, through their actions, creating an "alternate, parallel" timeline from The Original Series.

 

The Narada arrives about 150 years before the incident, and lays siege to a nearby Federation starship, the USS Kelvin, firing its weapons and severely damaging the starship. Nero demands that her captain, Richard Robau, surrender, and learns that neither Spock nor the ship he was aboard has arrived yet. Nero kills Robau and orders the destruction of the ship. As the Kelvin is evacuated, acting Captain George Kirk is forced to stay behind to provide cover for the fleeing shuttlecraft, and dies shortly after his son, James Tiberius Kirk, is born. The Narada crew calculates that due to the event horizon, Spock will appear in about 20 years, and silently wait for him. When Ambassador Spock arrives, Nero captures his ship and the remaining supply of red matter, and banishes Spock to the planet Delta Vega near Vulcan, telling him to prepare to watch his home world die.

 

Without his father, Kirk becomes an intelligent but reckless and cynical young man. After getting into a bar fight with Starfleet cadets in Iowa, he is approached by Captain Christopher Pike. Pike sees a lot of potential in Kirk, and is dismayed that he is wasting his intelligence on his self-destructive behavior. He then challenges Kirk to outdo his father, who was captain for only 12 minutes but saved 800 lives. Kirk takes Pike up on the challenge, enlists in Starfleet and befriends Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy and Uhura. However, when Kirk alters the Kobayashi Maru test, he angers Commander Spock, who is still struggling with his human side's emotions. During the official hearing, after which Kirk is suspended, Starfleet receives a distress signal from Vulcan, and the fleet docked above Earth, is prepared to launch with the cadets helping to man the ships. Acting as his attending physician, Dr. McCoy manages to bring Kirk on board the USS Enterprise, while Uhura convinces Spock to transfer her assignment to the Enterprise as well, after being assigned to the USS Farragut.

 

The fleet warps to Vulcan, with the Enterprise trailing the other ships. Kirk connects information about the distress call from Vulcan with a Klingon signal Uhura had translated the day before regarding an attack on several Birds of Prey, and quickly warns Captain Pike that they are heading into a trap and will encounter the same ship that destroyed the Kelvin twenty five years earlier. Pike follows Kirk's advice in time, as the rest of the fleet has already been wiped out by the Narada.

 

The Enterprise maneuvers through the debris, sustaining only minor damage to the hull. The Narada is also drilling into the core of Vulcan, and the drilling machine is blocking all external communications and transporters. Nero hails the Enterprise, and encounters Spock, who this Spock hasn't met before, to which Nero replies that they will. He orders Captain Pike to surrender himself and Pike does, leaving Spock in command and Kirk as first officer, baffling both men in the process. However, Pike uses the maneuver to arrange for Kirk, Hikaru Sulu, and Chief Engineer Olsen to perform an orbital skydive onto the drilling platform and destroy it. Though Olsen, carrying the explosive charges, is vaporized in the attempt, Kirk and Sulu are able to stop the drill, but not before it drills to the planet's core. Nero launches a sample of the red matter into the core of Vulcan, causing the planet to start imploding into the black hole. Spock is able to rescue most of the Elders, including his father Sarek, but his mother Amanda Grayson is lost in the beam out as nearly six billion of other Vulcans perish on the surface.

 

After Vulcan's destruction, Spock estimates only ten thousand Vulcans are left and that they are now an "endangered species." Uhura, who is involved in a romantic relationship with Spock, attempts to help him cope with the loss. The Narada leaves on a course set for Earth, using Pike's Starfleet command codes, which he was forced to divulge through infection with a mind-controlling parasite, to bypass Earth's security forces.

 

Kirk attempts to convince Spock to travel to Earth to stop Nero from doing the same he did to Vulcan, but Spock instead banishes him to the frozen planet Delta Vega and orders the ship to rendezvous with the rest of the fleet. On Delta Vega, Kirk encounters the elderly Ambassador Spock from 2387, who relays the future events through a mind meld and insists that Kirk must become captain of the Enterprise. The two travel to a nearby Starfleet outpost where they meet the talented Montgomery Scott. Spock helps Scott refine his equations for "transwarp transportation" to allow Kirk and Scott to beam aboard the Enterprise while she is still at warp. After they are beamed aboard, Scotty is trapped in the Enterprise's water tanks. Only when Chekov detects the emergency valve being opened does Spock know that something has been beamed aboard. Questioned as to how they beamed aboard the Enterprise while it was traveling at warp, Kirk and Scotty refuse to answer. Kirk manages to anger Commander Spock, forcing him to give up command due to being emotionally compromised, and Kirk takes the Captain's chair. Spock, Scott, and math-whiz Pavel Chekov devise a plan to bring the Enterprise to Titan and take advantage of Saturn's magnetosphere to disguise their presence from the Narada, allowing them to beam Kirk and Spock aboard unnoticed.

 

While Kirk comes face to face with Nero, Spock retakes the future Ambassador Spock's ship, and uses it to destroy the drill and lure the Narada away from Earth. With the Narada safely far from Earth, Spock pilots the ship on a collision course with the Narada. Kirk, Pike, and Spock are beamed safely away before the ships collide, creating a black hole in which the Narada is caught. Kirk offers to help rescue Nero, but the Romulan refuses. As the Enterprise finishes off the Narada, she is able to free herself from the black hole's gravity well due to Scott's plan to ignite the ship's warp drive reactor cores in the black hole both to seal it off and to gain speed from the resulting explosion.

 

Kirk is promoted to captain of the Enterprise, relieving the newly promoted Admiral Pike, who is shown in a wheelchair. While searching for his father, Spock encounters his older self in the Starfleet hangar; Spock Prime is departing to help found a new colony for the remaining Vulcans in order to rebuild their society. Spock informs his older self of his intention to leave Starfleet to help in the rebuilding, Ambassador Spock tells his younger self that he and Kirk need each other and that he should remain in Starfleet. Taking his twin's advice, Spock does so, becoming first officer under Kirk's command.

 

As the Enterprise warps away, Leonard Nimoy recites a version of the "Where no man has gone before" monologue.

 

I think the thing that makes this film is the new, young talent.  Chris Pine as James T. Kirk, as a cocky, but smart tough misfit that matures before our eyes during the film is about as interesting a characterization as you can get.  He choose not to mimic William Shatner, but he does remind me a little bit of Harrison Ford’s early Indiana Jones character.  Pine holds our interest; Zachary Quinto as Spock is revolutionary.  A young Spock that grieves his mother, looses his temper, and has a hot girlfriend?  Just try to take your eyes off of him when he is on the screen.  His presence is stunning in this film.  Karl Urban as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy is a bitching cynic; Zoe Saldana as Nyota Uhura is perfect in her role and Eric Bana as Captain Nero is an obsessed, scary villain.  One thing about these ‘comic book-television series’ films is that if the bad guy is weak or uninteresting, the film fails.  Bana is a strong villain that makes you believe he’d wait 25 years to get even.  The characters make this film worth the price of admission. Welcome to the film summer of 2009.  Star Trek may be just the beginning. 

 

Website:  http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/movie/index.html

Movie Trailer: http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/movie/index.html

 

The Soloist

Movie Review: The Soloist

The Entertainment Critic Movie Review
http://jamesmyerstheentertainmentcritic.blogspot.com/
In Theatres Now Review
Opened April 24, 2009
By James Myers

Rating: 8 of 10

Director: Joe Wright
Writers (WGA): Susannah Grant (screenplay)
Steve Lopez (book)

Cast:

Jamie Foxx ... Nathaniel Ayers

Robert Downey Jr. ... Steve Lopez

Meggan Anderson ... Paper Airplane Student

Halbert Bernal ... EMT

Matt Besser ... Commuter #4

Troy Blendell ... New young editor

Jayce Bradley ... Brawling Frat Guy
Pete Brown ... Composer
Michael Bunin ... Adam Crane

Joshua Cabrera ... Teenage Musician

Ralph Cole Jr. ... Enraged Homeless Man

Ingrid Coree ... Nurse

Paul Cruz ... EMT

Marcos De Silvas ... Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

Aurelius DiBarsanti ... Paramedic
Paul Edney ... Driver
Nelsan Ellis ... David

S. Zev Esquenazi ... Sgt. Hendrickson

Angela Featherstone ... Commuter #1
Lauren E. Gates ... Ballerina

Marissa Ghavami ... Ballerina
Artel Great ... Leon (as Artel Kayàru)

Paul Greenberg ... Commuter #2

Lejla Hadzimuratovic ... Disney Hall Patron

Justin Rodgers Hall ... Sgt. Harris

Lisa Gay Hamilton ... Jennifer (as Lisagay Hamilton)

Richard Hansen ... L.A.P.D

Rachael Harris ... Leslie

Joe Hernandez-Kolski ... EMT #1

Tom Hollander ... Graham Claydon
Pete Ilarius ... Disney Hall Patron

Catherine Keener

Edward Kiniry-Ostro ... Craig
Francesca Kortesmaki ... Twin violinist
Therese Kortesmaki ... Twin violinist
Kitty Kreidler ... Skid Row Homeless woman
Heather La Bella ... ER Doctor

Hallie Lambert ... Ballerina

Kirsten Lea ... Awards Presenter

Susane Lee ... Marisa

Lemon ... Jeremy

Wayne Lopez ... Officer Hank
Wally Lozano ... Sign Spinner

Michael Maddigan ... Brawling Frat Guy
Ricky Marciano ... Cop

Justin Martin ... Nathaniel - Age 13-16

Annie McKnight ... Linda

George Meyers ... Cop

Rob Nagle ... Neil

Kai Nuuhiwa ... Brawling Frat Guy

Alejandro Patino ... Construction foreman
Palma Lawrence Reed ... ER Nurse

Stephen Root ... Curt
Franklin Ruehl ... Homeless man
Esa-Pekka Salonen ... Conductor
Jules Sanchez ... Skid Row Porta Potty Dweller

Sharon Savene ... LAPD Officer
Holly Sherman ... Juilliard student

Robyn Jean Springer ... Disney Hall patron

Janaya Sultze ... Ballerina

Jeff Sutherland ... Cowboy on Plane with Wife
Valentyna Svyatchenko ... Julliard Student

Patrick Tatten ... Paul

David Jean Thomas ... Jim Trotter
Karmyn Tyler ... Juilliard Party Guest
Ilia Volok ... Mr. Barnoff

Maggie Wagner ... Mrs. Villaraigosa

Charlie Weirauch ... Atheist

Troy Williams ... Cop - Hospital Scene


I wanted to see an adult film this weekend. Not an x-rated adult sex film, but a thoughtful adult oriented film, for you know---- grown ups. So I skipped the premiere of the X-man film and I decided to take in The Soloist with Robert Downey, Jr and Jaime Foxx. (I know, I know, I usually go see the obvious blockbuster and report on that; usually that is more interesting). I have been taking classes towards my MBA, and I missed the premiere during finals the last two weeks. (Financial Accounting final, a real nightmare that we’ll talk about another time; god, I hate math or concepts that have to do with anything mathematical). One other thing. As a reviewer, even as a blogger, I don’t usually read other reviews before I see a film. I want my mind to be “tabla rosé”, or totally blank; not in the sense that it usually is, but in the sense that I don’t want to form a pre-opinion about the film before I see it. I broke that rule before seeing this film as well. Some of the other reviews were well….. half way, half hearted and slightly disappointing. I am happy to report to you that I liked this film, despite the efforts to poison my mind against it; I wanted a grown up film, written, directed and played out for grown ups. What I mean by this is that the film did not have the predictable happy ending; Nathaniel Ayers, (the Foxx character) did not end up playing his cello at Carnegie Hall in New York, triumphing over his mental impairments; Steve Lopez (the Downey character) helping the handicapped man, and writing the Pulitzer Prize winning book. If you are expecting the typical Hollywood ending, go see the film and be amazed.

No, this film is not the classic Hollywood cures mental illness stick; this film probes the modern relationship between reporter and prodigy with more of a realistic, gritty, (for lack of a better word) messy result.

Steve Lopez is a divorced reporter who writes feature, human interest stories for the Los Angeles Times. The movie turns on a scene in the Times offices where it is disclosed that the newspaper is not being read as much by young people as the online version and hard news stories are not carrying the circulation at this time. The newspaper sells papers not on the day late news story that you get online or on your cable, but on the human interest stories that Lopez writes. Lopez was in a bicycle accident and afterwards meets Nathaniel Ayers, a street person who plays a 2 stringed violin. Lopez becomes interested in his story when he verifies that Nathaniel was indeed a child prodigy from Cleveland who attended Julliard for a time, and has an usual attachment to all music Beethoven. Homeless and on the streets of LA, Nathaniel seems to be at peace with playing his beautiful classical music with his 2 stringed violin to the open air, the traffic under his part of the freeway bridge, and the pigeons. Shopping cart in hand, Nathaniel roams the city streets, cleaning and playing.

Lopez, the great writer that he is smells a story and pursues it. His columns about Nathaniel leads one his readers to send a cello that she can no longer use. Ayres accepts the cello with some difficulty because there are strings attached; he must report to a homeless shelter to keep the cello and play for the residents. This takes as Ayres does report to the shelter, plays for the other residents and eventually, reluctantly accepts an apartment there. Nathaniel and Steve form a friendship in this process. Steve very strongly feels that if he can push Nathaniel in the right direction, get him medical/psychiatric help and medication, perhaps Nathaniel can resume a promising career as a professional cello player. Not that Steve is without need for some help himself; his life patterns follow a non-commitment trial where he was not able to commit to his ex-wife and child. (Ironically, in the film, Catherine Keener plays Lopez's ex-wife and also his editor at the Los Angeles Times). Steve nonetheless continues to push Nathaniel, taking him to a philharmonic rehearsal as the Walt Disney Center in Los Angeles, arranging for cello lessons from an expert, and coaxing Nathaniel into an aborted concert attempt. Lopez even manages to locate Nathaniel’s sister in an attempt to have someone manage his affairs. The pain and frustration in this film of trying to improve Nathaniel’s situation is well represented in the film.

But the big ticket item, psychiatric and medical treatment, perhaps a cure for the schizophrenic delusions and voices Nathaniel hears in his head eludes Lopez. As the counselor at the centers tries to explain to Lopez, maybe Nathaniel is not ready for help; maybe he does not want to be helped; maybe help has failed him before. Maybe Nathaniel is content with his situation. Maybe Lopez will just have to wait until Nathaniel indicates he wants to analyzed and medicated of his own free will.
Despite clearing the way for the mayor to help that area of center with a multi-million dollar commitment and winning both an award for his writing about Nathaniel and a book deal, Lopez is determined to get Nathaniel treatment and medicated. When he presents Nathaniel with commitment papers, it backfires and Nathaniel throws him out of the apartment, threatening his life.

This is where the true lesson of the story becomes apparent; Lopez has learned as much from the plight of Nathaniel about what it means to commit to another person as a true friend as Nathaniel has benefitted from his generosity. Following through on his friendship, he does bring the sister to LA to reunite with Nathaniel, this time with no strings attached. That is the real message of this film; friendship can overshadow all ills. True friendship is more important than manipulating our friends, it means listening to them and sometimes allowing them to exercise their freedom of choice, even if it seems to you not to be the best thing for them at the time.

This is a very good picture. It is poignant and touching, urban and gritty, and at times scary and eye opening into the plight of the more than 90,000 homeless people in Los Angeles. Robert Downey Jr gives a steely-eyed performance of the excellent writer who has his own issues in life outside of his work (the raccoon storyline of this piece is a reoccurring theme for human fatality we all suffer from). Jamie Foxx totally sells the homeless musician-prodigy suffering from delusions. I think the best performance in the picture was given by Catherine Keener. Her scenes are perfect, and she has the ex-wife, still in love with her man, but unable to live with him down to a science. If the film has a weakness it is in the direction. Nonetheless, I got what I paid for. This is an adult film about grown up people, with grown up themes. The plot did not settle for the flashy Hollywood ending. Some of the scenes taken in the LA ghetto are frightening and the plight of the homeless comes through screen in an earthshaking way. Disturbing and edgy, the film does a very, very good job of bringing home the plight of the poor and the difficulty in treatment when medical science either has failed them before or the patient does not trust them. The plight of the homeless is portrayed emphatically, without being patronizing or overly moralistic.

This film moved me. I enjoyed the picture. I was pleasantly surprised that the ending was not sappy. This is a grown ups film. Because of it’s portrayal of the homeless and it’s true to life exposition, this film deserves to be supported. It is a compelling, interesting film; a breath of fresh air and a disturbing revelation.


Movie Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HmzpEOEX6o

Another tough week for the GOP

The Comics take on the GOP this week!