Reel-View Ratings: The Bigger The Beard, The Better The Movie
KUMIKO THE TREASURE HUNTER
Unhappy Tokyo office lady Kumiko (Pacific Rim‘s Rinko Kikuchi) watches Fargo (the 1996 film), believes it to be a true story and resolves to find that briefcase of money buried somewhere in the Minnesota snow. Believe it or not, this implausible movie is based on an urban legend based on a true story. All these half-truths add up to a dreamy movie that revels in contrasts between Kumiko and the too-sane people who try to make sense of her insanity. Sometimes, Kumiko’s quirks — like her handstitched treasure maps — are too much for the audience to take seriously, but you still may find yourself wishing that what we see in movies could replace our real lives, too. Opens April 10 at Kahala
LIVING IS EASY WITH EYES CLOSED
This is a movie about a man who wants to meet John Lennon, but whether he ever does is an aside, a pleasant footnote to be considered once the lights turn back on. It’s the journey that matters most in this Spanish flick from David Trueba, which follows an unlikely trio — teacher Antonio, who loves The Beatles; and two teenagers, runaway Juanjo and pregnant Belen — on a road trip in 1966 to Almeria, Spain, where Lennon is filming a movie. It works in subtlety, at a pointedly un-hurried pace, painting a picture of life under dictator Francisco Franco and the quiet hopes of its characters, with the darker echoes of the 1960s lurking just out of frame.
Plays at 2 and 6 p.m. April 6; and at noon, 4 and 8 p.m. April 10 at the Movie Museum
THE REWRITE
Sometimes formulaic isn’t a bad thing. A well-worn plot can be as comforting as a warm blanket on a cold night. Or, as it is in The Rewrite, that cozy blanket might just be a piece of thinning cloth fraying at the seams. Hugh Grant stars as the unpleasant Keith Michaels, a one-Oscar-wonder screenwriter who ends up teaching at a small university because no one else will hire him. He’s rude to everyone, but, of course, after some soul-searching and meeting a beautiful woman (Marisa Tomei), he learns to change his ways and becomes a better person. You’d think a movie about writing screenplays would’ve written a better one for itself. Plays at noon, 4 and 8 p.m. April 6; 2 and 6 p.m. April 10; and 2:15 p.m. April 11 at the Movie Museum
