Sometimes a change of place can be as effective as a return to the past in sorting things out. Such is the case in A GOOD YEAR (November 10), an adaptation of the Peter Mayle bestseller about a London stockbroker who loses his job and inherits a vineyard in Provence. Starring Russell Crowe, Mitchell Mullen, and Albert Finney, it’s directed by Ridley Scott (Kingdom of Heaven), who apparently suggested the story idea to Mayle a few years back while sharing a bottle with the writer at Scott’s château.
Sometimes surrendering your entire life to an omniscient narrator can do the trick. In STRANGER THAN FICTION (November 10), Will Ferrell takes a route to seriousness similar to that espoused by Adam Sandler in Punchdrunk Love and Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He’s an IRS auditor who discovers that he’s become the protagonist in an ongoing novel by a writer played by Emma Thompson. Marc Forster continues the mystical direction seen in his underrated Stay in this cosmic comedy also starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, and Queen Latifah.
In FUR (November 10), the life of late real-life photographer Diane Arbus is also manipulated. Nicole Kidman has the role of the tormented, suicidal genius in this fanciful portrait based loosely on the book by Patricia Bosworth; Robert Downey Jr. plays what looks like a plot device from A Beautiful Mind as an imaginary character called “Lionel.” Steven Shainberg (Secretary) directs.
Of course, if we’re going to talk about reinventing characters, we can’t forget James Bond. How could we with all the pseudo-controversy splashed for months across the media about Daniel Craig? The filmmakers say that CASINO ROYALE (November 17) will start the Bond legend from scratch (it was the first Bond story Ian Fleming wrote); we presume that means none of the tomfoolery (David Niven, Peter Sellers, and Woody Allen as Bond) of the maverick 1967 Casino Royale. Eva Green plays Bond girl Vesper Lynd; Martin Campbell (GoldenEye) directs.
Turning to mockumentary — which isn’t much of a leap from Woody as 007 — we have Christopher Guest, whose FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION (November 17) is a satirical movie within a movie about the behind-the-scenes absurdity of an independent film production. It sounds like a celluloid version of Waiting for Guffman, without the innocence but with pretty much the same cast: Eugene Levy, Harry Shearer, Parker Posey, Scott Adsit, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge, and Guest himself — who, we’re sorry to report, claims this will be his last foray in the genre.
If you’re looking for mockumentaries in the vintage spirit of Guest’s first effort, Spinal Tap, try TENACIOUS D IN THE PICK OF DESTINY (November 17). Or maybe it’s more like The Blues Brothers, as the delusional heavy-metal duo of the title, played by Jack Black and Kyle Gass, go off in search of a magic guitar pick. Liam Lynch (Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic) directs. If you’re looking for a regular documentary in the mode of March of the Penguins, the closest you’ll get this fall is HAPPY FEET (November 17). The penguins here are animated, they sing and dance, and they’re voiced by Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, and Nicole Kidman. George Miller (Babe: Pig in the City) directs.
