Review: Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son

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Te Doy Mis Ojos | Take My Eyes

Seeing violence

By BRETT MICHEL | March 29, 2006

3.5 Stars

Born as much from her 2000 20-minute short “Amores que matan|Loves That Kill” as from her love for the films of Ken Loach (she’s written a book on him), director and co-writer Icíar Bollaín’s acute, (almost) thoughtful look at domestic abuse details the struggles of housewife Pilar (Laia Marull) and her time-bomb husband, Antonio (Luis Tosar). After a terrified Pilar flees her home in the dead of night with her young son Juan (Nicolás Fernández Luna), seeking refuge with her sister Ana (Candela Peña), the film (winner of seven Goya Awards) is smart enough to have not only Pilar but also Antonio recognize that outside help is needed. She finds it in art (which echoes her own life), he in group therapy (which displays a Loach-like improvisational humor). Her blooming, however, only fuels his angry self-hatred. In the end, a perpetual scowl gives way to a fatally wounded look in his eyes — her eyes have become his.

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ARTICLES BY BRETT MICHEL

REVIEW: THIS MEANS WAR | February 16, 2012
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REVIEW: THE VIRAL FACTOR | January 17, 2012
Made for a modest budget of $17 million — and feeling like it (who needs convincing explosions in an action movie?), Dante Lam's latest still gets the job done from a run-and-gun standpoint.

REVIEW: EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE | January 17, 2012
Too soon? For Stephen Daldry's 9/11 drama, the right time is "never."

REVIEW: THE DIVIDE | January 10, 2012
Many a teleplay for The Twilight Zone threatened atomic Armageddon, and though Frontier(s) director Xavier Gens nukes New York in the opening shots of his latest thriller, he finds more inspiration in the horrors of human nature as seen in the old TV show's episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."

REVIEW: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL | December 20, 2011
Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) returns to the screen in dramatic fashion as new teammate Jane (Paula Patton) and the returning Benji (Simon Pegg) break him out of a Russian prison.

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