Saving Mr. Banks
Film Review by Kam Williams

P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) was the pen name of Helen Lyndon Goff (1899-1996), the creator of the children’s classic “Mary Poppins.” When his daughters were young, Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) promised to turn their favorite book into a movie, since they were so enchanted by the British nanny with magical powers.

Little did he know that the effort to secure the film rights would drag on for a couple of decades due to the uncompromising author’s inflexibility, as she insisted that any adaptation remain faithful to the source material. The protracted courting process finally proved fruitful in 1961, when Walt wined and dined the reluctant writer at his Hollywood studio while making an elaborate sales pitch to turn the story into a musical.

He would succeed in wooing Travers with the assistance of his screenwriter (Bradley Whitford) and songwriting team (B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman), although the deferential chauffeur (Paul Giamatti) assigned to drive her around during her stay would also play a pivotal role.

That productive two-week visit is revisited by Saving Mr. Banks, a dramatization directed by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side). The picture’s title is a reference to Mary Poppins’ employer George Banks, who was among the many characters Travers was trying to protect.

Credit consummate thespians Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson for approaching their lead roles in such convincing fashion that a period piece about a contract negotiation actually proves entertaining. Hanks pours on the folksy charm impersonating the legendary Disney opposite the chameleon-like Thompson who takes her sweet time as the steely Travers to soften from skeptical to enthusiastic about the proposed project.

While Saving Mr. Banks certainly waxes sentimental and ends on an upbeat note, a Mary Poppins sequel was not to be, despite the fact that the original won five Academy Awards. For, Travers and Disney had such a big falling out prior to the picture’s release that she wasn’t even invited to the premiere.

Furthermore, she remained so enraged about her book’s mistreatment at the hands of the studio that she went to her grave refusing to entertain overtures for another adaptation, even reaffirming that preference in her will. However, the truth never seems to get in the way of a syrupy cinematic send-up with a stock, “happily ever after” ending.

To paraphrase Mary Poppins, “Just a spoonful of sugar helps revisionist history go down,” and in a most delightful way!

Excellent (3.5 stars)

Rated PG-13 for mature themes and unsettling images

Running time: 125 minutes

Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures

To see a trailer for Saving Mr. Banks, visit

Philomena
Film Review by Kam Williams

Philomena Lee (Dame Judi Dench) made a big mistake as a teenager, namely, having unprotected sex with a cute boy (D.J. McGrath) she had just met at a carnival. The naive girl was left pregnant by the one-night stand, which was no minor matter in Ireland in 1952.

Before she had a chance to disgrace her family by showing signs of bearing an illegitimate child, she was shipped off to a convent to have the baby away from public view. There, she was forced to sign a document not merely relinquishing her parental rights but promising to never even ask to see her son again.

Without her being afforded an opportunity to say goodbye, he was adopted by a wealthy family from the United States at the age of 3 and whisked away to the city Chicago. Meanwhile, Philomena remained beholden to the abbey where, like a latter-day indentured servant, she continued to serve at the beck-and-call of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart order. Although she would eventually escape the convent and pursue a career in nursing, Philomena remained forever haunted by the conspicuous emptiness left by Anthony’s absence.

Fast-forward to his 50th birthday, and she was still consumed with worry about his fate. So, she enlisted the help of Martin Hixsmith (Steve Coogan), a recently-disgraced investigative journalist conveniently in need of a shot at redemption. And, after being denied access to any of the convent’s adoption records, the unlikely pair departed for America together with just a few clues to follow.

Directed by two-time Oscar-nominee Stephen Frears (for The Queen and The Grifters), Philomena is a true tale of overwhelming regret based on “The Lost Child of Philomena Lee,” Hixsmith’s heart-wrenching account of their desperate quest. Dame Judi Dench turns in another inspired performance as a wayward woman from a humble background who belatedly summons up the strength to search for her son and to take on the sadistic Mother Superior (Barbara Jefford) who had been the bane of her existence.

As much a poignant meditation on motherhood lost as a searing indictment of the Catholic Church’s antiquated attitude about what might be in the best interests of an adopted child.

Excellent (4 stars)

Rated PG-13 for profanity, mature themes and sexual references.

Running time: 98 minutes

Distributor: The Weinstein Company

To see a trailer for Philomena, visit

Nebraska
Film Review by Kam Williams

77 year-old Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) is an addlepated alcoholic whose brain is so bent out of shape that he’s convinced he’s struck it rich after getting one of those mass-produced letters in the mail announcing that you’ve just won a million dollars in a magazine sweepstakes. Nevertheless, he soon sets out on foot by himself from Billings, Montana to collect his grand prize in Omaha, Nebraska.

Once it’s clear that the cantankerous curmudgeon can’t be talked out of that foolhardy endeavor, son David (Will Forte) opts to drive his dad there. This doesn’t sit well with Woody’s acid-tongued wife, Kate (June Squibb), who’s too well-grounded in reality to indulge the old coot’s nonsense.

However, as futile as the quest might sound, the pair’s ensuing sojourn across four states does prove rather fruitful. After all, not only does it afford father and son a chance to spend some quality time together, but they also get to catch up with lots of long-lost friends and relatives they visit along the way.

Eventually, Kate and elder son, Ross (Bob Odenkirk), join them en route, grudgingly making the long jaunt a family affair. It’s understandably hard for them to be enthusiastic about an outing inspired by a fraudulent marketing scheme.

Still, sometimes, getting there is all the fun, as is the case with Nebraska, a nostalgic road trip unfolding against the barren backdrop of the heartland’s crumbling infrastructure. The film was directed by two-time Oscar-winner Alexander Payne (for writing Sideways and The Descendants) whose decision to shoot the picture in black-and-white was nothing short of a stroke of genius.

For the lack of color only serves to further emphasize the absence of hope in a rural region left devastated by the failure of its factory, farm and small town life. It’s no wonder, then, that some of the pour souls the Grants encounter might seize on Woody’s pipe dream as a way of alleviating their own misery.

Featuring a career performance by Bruce Dern destined to be remembered during awards season, Nebraska is a lighthearted character study which, ironically, offers a stone, cold sober look at the downsizing of the Midwest’s American Dream.

Excellent (4 stars)

Rated R for profanity

Running time: 115 minutes

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

To see a trailer for Nebraska, visit

A Madea Christmas
Film Review by Kam Williams

Mabel “Madea” Simmons is the moralizing, motor-mouthed senior citizen created and first introduced on stage by the incomparable Tyler Perry. The compulsive granny is a self-righteous vigilante who can’t help but intervene on the spot whenever she sees an innocent victim being bullied by a sadistic villain.

At the point of departure in A Madea Christmas, the eighth screen adventure in the popular film series, we find her working as Mrs. Santa Claus in a downtown Atlanta department store. The seasonal job affords the politically-incorrect impersonator an opportunity to shock kids and their ears-covering parents with a profusion of her trademark off-color asides and English-mangling malapropisms.

Soon after she’s unceremoniously relieved of her duties, Madea decides to drive with her niece, Eileen (Anna Maria Horsford), to tiny Bucktussle, Alabama to spend the holidays with the latter’s daughter, Lacey (Tika Sumpter), the local schoolmarm.

What neither of them knows is that Lacey recently eloped with a likable local yokel, but failed to inform her mom about the marriage because Conner (Eric Lively) is white. She fears her mother might object to the interracial liaison. Complicating matters further is the fact that coming along for the ride is Oliver (JR Lemon), Lacey’s ex-boyfriend who’d like to rekindle a little romance.

Meanwhile, Oliver has told his parents, Buddy (Larry the Cable Guy) and Kim (Kathy Najimy) about the nuptials, and they are arriving soon from Louisiana, so something’s gotta give. But rather than come clean, Lacey enlists her new in-laws’ help in hiding the truth.

Unfolding in accordance with the age-old “One Big Lie” TV sitcom formula, A Madea Christmas is a pleasant, if predictable, modern parable peppered with plenty of humorous asides. Tika Sumpter and Eric Lively manage to generate just enough chemistry to be convincing as shy newlyweds.

But the production is at its best when Madea and equally-outrageous Buddy are trading barbs toe-to-toe. For instance, when he tries to tell “the one about the two rabbis and the black dude,” he’s cut off by Madea asking if he’s heard “the one about the stray bullet that kills the redneck for telling the story about the two rabbis and the black dude.”

Sassy sister squares-off against backwoods hillbilly for lots of harmless laughs!

Very Good (3 stars)

Rated PG-13 for profanity, crude humor and sexual references

Running time: 105 minutes

Distributor: Lionsgate Films

To see a trailer for A Madea Christmas, visit

Benedict Cumberbatch
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Interview
with Kam Williams

Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch was born in London on July 19, 1976 to a couple of accomplished actors in their own right, Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton. A chip off the old block, Benedict followed in his parents’ footsteps after studying theater at the University of Manchester and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

The versatile thespian’s impressive list of credits includes outings as Stephen Hawking in Hawking, as William Pitt in Amazing Grace, and as Vincent Van Gogh in Van Gogh: Painted with Words. He also appeared in Atonement, The Other Boleyn Girl, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the Hobbit and War Horse.

This year alone, he’s starred in The Fifth Estate, 12 Years a Slave, August: Osage County, Star Trek into Darkness and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. And on television, he reprised his title role in the PBS Masterpiece series Sherlock Holmes.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that busy Benedict was just named Artist of the Year by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In addition, he was on the cover of Time Magazine in October and was ranked #1 by Empire Magazine on its 2013 list of the 100 Sexiest Movie Stars.

Here, he talks about life, career and his latest film, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, where he does double-duty as the voice of both Smaug and the Necromancer.

Kam Williams: Hi Benedict, I’m honored to have this opportunity to speak with you.

Benedict Cumberbatch: That’s alright, Kam. I appreciate your taking the time.

KW: I loved both of your performances in this film.

BC: Thank you.

KW: I told my readers I’d be interviewing you, so I’ll be mixing their questions in with my own.  

BC: Sure.

KW: Documentary filmmaker Kevin Williams says: Congratulations on being the "It" actor of 2013. How does it feel to be one of the hottest actors out there? 

BC: It’s fantastic! I’m very wary though, wanting to build a career based on longevity. My eyes on the prize is doing this for the next forty-odd years, I guess, judging by McKellen’s [Hobbit co-star Sir Ian McKellen] standards. He’s a man in his early seventies still giving extraordinary, sensational, entertaining, inventive and energized performances. So, I’m thrilled that it’s been such a great couple of years for me, but I’ve been working professionally for over a decade now. Yes, I’m trying to enjoy this moment, but at the same time, I’m sort of focused on my long-term goal of carving out a career that’s for life, rather than being a flash in the pan. And I think the projects I’ve been picking have given me a good grounding for that.

KW: No doubt!

BC: I know Kevin’s question is very benign. Honestly, it’s very satisfying, and I’m very, very happy about how successful the last few years have been. It‘s a lovely reward for the hard work and faith put into me very early in my career. It’s great for the people who supported me early on to see the success I’m enjoying now. It feels like there’s a lot of goodwill behind the support from them. This is an odd profession, and sometimes people get jealous, but I haven’t really experienced any of that. Everyone’s been really happy for me, which is really, really great.    

KW: Kate Newell says: I feel a lot of pressure to be freakishly astute, since you’re so brilliant, especially as Sherlock Holmes. Your characters are always the smartest person in the room. Would you ever take a part that's all about brawn?

BC: Hell yeah! I absolutely would, Kate. Over the summer, I did a short film called Little Favour which I think you can still find on iTunes. In it, I play a character called Wallace who’s smart but he’s not the smartest. He gets taken over by circumstances and there’s quite a bit of brawn going on in that. And there was both brawn and brain in Khan. [The character he played in Star Trek into Darkness] But, yeah, I love the idea of playing something stupid or romantic. I’m not the smartest man in the room. I listen, and I learn, and I observe, but I’m always playing characters with intellects profoundly superior to mine. That’s great fun, even though it’s as much a fantasy for me as for the people watching me. [Chuckles] Sherlock’s extraordinarily intelligent; I’m lazy and ignorant by comparison. I like mixing it up, and I’d love to do some more brawn, so I’m all up for that, Kate.

KW: Children’s book author Irene Smalls was wondering whether you like the “motion capture” style of acting you employed in The Hobbit? Does playing Smaug and the Necromancer give you more freedom and artistic license, or less?

BC: It’s really thrilling! We started both characterizations with motion capture physical work in the theater space they call the volume, where all your motions are picked up on these sensors from the reflectors on this weird, rather embarrassing gray jumpsuit you wear. I loved it! The first time I stepped off the volume I felt like a complete knob. Everyone fussed over me, offering me coffee or juice. They treated me like a colleague who’d just arrived at the office, ignoring the fact that I was wearing a gray onesy with dots on it, had my face painted like an aborigine, and had a headset on with a camera in front of my eyes. Once I got over feeling so self-conscious, thanks to their treating me normally, I had so much fun. I felt like a kid. It’s really freeing. You have no marks to worry about, and very few technical restrictions, especially for something that’s so bound in technology. You don’t have to worry about your hair, makeup, continuity, or even other actors. There’s no one you’re affecting other than your own performance. If you get a line wrong, you go straight back and start again. So, you really can use your imagination and do whatever you want. It’s really kind of like playing, and being a kid again. It’s wonderful! And they gave me this great tool in the final session, a device which lowers your voice by a couple of octaves, which means you can color it, tone it, and pitch it with more detail. That was great fun to play with.

KW: How familiar were you with The Hobbit before signing on to do the trilogy?

BC: My dad read it to me originally when I was young. So, it was the first imaginary landscape I ever had in my head from the written word. It gave me a passion for reading, thanks to my dad’s performance of the book. My memory of his performance was a jumping off point for my portrayals. Even the cerebral characters I play seem to have physical quirks. They’re all “physically inhabited,” for lack off a better expression. For instance, Sherlock Holmes has very particular physical gestures which are drawn out in such detail. Conan Doyle [Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle] is amazing in the way he has Watson describe Sherlock’s posture, mood swings, his hand gestures, and so forth in the novels.  

KW: Who would have ever guessed that someone was going to come along and eclipse Basil Rathbone in the role?

BC: Oh, thanks, but I wouldn’t go that far. I don’t think anyone’s going to eclipse Basil or Jeremy Brett, for that matter. I get away with it because it’s a modern era version. I think the criticism might be harder, if we were set in the Victorian era. What I think is beautiful about ours is that it’s done with such love and reverence for the original stories. So, it’s new, but like an old friend at the same time.  

KW: True. I was very impressed with how richly you developed your role as Stephen Hawking, despite his being confined to a wheelchair and having very limited mobility.

BC: Thanks. That was a very physical performance, about a man besieged by neuromuscular disease in his early twenties. Even in cerebral roles that are seemingly intelligent and nothing else, I think it’s so important to wrap your characterization in a physical form as well.

KW: Kevin also says: You were outstanding playing Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate and really brought him to life for the audience. 

BC: I really appreciate the compliment, Kevin.

KW: How did you prepare to play a person who is very much alive and in the public eye?

BC: It was tricky. There’s a huge amount of footage of Julian online, but he’s usually in presentation or defending mode, talking about his cause, or the revelations which Wikileaks have brought about. There’s none of Assange relaxing or in private mode. There’s none of the personality I tried to give him behind closed doors. That made it very hard. And obviously he didn’t want me to have access to him in preparing for the role, because he felt the film was going to be damaging to his cause. I think it’s been anything but, but there you go. So, I had to imagine myself into certain aspects of his character for our version of events. That involved extrapolating based on clues in his biography, his public persona, photographs, and other accounts of him by people who encountered him during that extraordinary period from 2007 to 2010 that we charted in the film. So, it involved a lot of research but, sadly, no contact with the man himself.      

KW: Editor/Legist Patricia Turnier says: I thought you were great in The Fifth Estate. What is your assessment of Julian Assange?

BC: That would be difficult for me, because I genuinely don’t know him well. To authenticate an opinion, I really would have to meet him. I know that might sound perverse because I played him but, honestly, I don’t think it would be fair for me to judge the man. I realize that makes me a bit of a hypocrite because I was portraying him a certain way, but we were always open to the fact that this was an interpretation, not any kind of exact evidence of who the man was. So, my assessment of him is a professional one, really, of what he’s managed to achieve, and the idea that he came up with, which set the world alight and continues to inspire others like Snowden [NSA leaker Edward Snowden], about the secret goings-on that are done in our name with our tax dollars on behalf of big business or politics. He launched the revolutionary idea that citizens can start to claim back a paradigm for questioning power structures and those in authority through an anonymous, whistle-blowing website. That’s a very powerful social tool. He came up with the idea. He came up with the algorithms to protect sources. It’s begun a fascinating revolution in how we deal with data and revelations and structures. From that point of view, he has my utmost admiration, even though I’m yet to meet the guy. I understand from those who adore him, he has a great sense of humor which rarely gets an airing because he’s dealing with such serious issues. I know he’s a man of fierce determination, and now living under the strain of house arrest in the Ecuadorean embassy as a “political exile,” as he calls himself. I’d love to meet Julian, and time permitting, and his will permitting, I’m sure it will happen at some point. Even though he’s been very critical of the film, he’s been very polite about me and my work, and I feel the same way about him. I am also full of admiration for Chelsea Manning [formerly PFC Bradley Manning]. Regardless of which side of the argument you’re on, he stood up for something he felt wasn’t right. That was an extraordinarily brave thing to do, and I think he was unfairly punished for it. It’s a really big deal what he did, and he did it for the betterment of all us, including the soldiers on the ground, as well as the civilians caught up in those conflicts.

KW: Patricia also says: I enjoyed your work in 12 Years a Slave. What does Solomon Northup’s story mean to you?

BC: It means a great deal to me, because even though it’s from an earlier time, let’s face it; it’s not about a very distant past. There are still huge inequalities. There’s still nearly the same amount of slavery, if not more, in the world today, as there was at the height of the slave trade. As for Solomon, a free man with a family who was dragged away from his domestic environment and had his freedom taken away from him, that terrifying story of his barbaric treatment is a universal one which is a warning to all of us. The story serves as a metaphor for the fear of having your family taken away, and for being abused in such a horrific way. I lost it a lot of times watching that film, particularly when seeing the grace of the man when he finally makes it back home aged, changed, forever brutalized, and yet he apologizes to his family for his long absence. That was such a profoundly moving moment capturing the triumph of dignity over the disgraceful behavior of those involved in the slave trade.    

KW: Patricia would like to know what movie projects your company, SunnyMarch, has in the works.

BC: Well, Patricia, we’re very busy at the moment, but we’re working on it. We’re sort of amalgamating material and options right now. I’m very excited about all the offers and interest and support pouring in through crowd-funding, and about having a lovely gap coming up when I’ll finally be able to sit down with books and scripts and talk to my partners about how we take the company forward. That’s a long winded way of saying, we don’t know yet, but we’re working on it. You’ll know about it, when it happens. We’d like to go in a lot of different directions.  

KW: The Harriet Pakula-Teweles question: With so many classic films being redone, is there a remake you'd like to star in?

BC: That’s a good question, Harriet. Boy, something with Bogie in it! I’d love to do a noir. The Big Sleep. Or Casblanca! Why not? You can’t remake Casablanca. Maybe The Great Escape. I think Steve McQueen is so cool. But a classic film is a classic film, and perhaps the fantasy of being those characters should be left alone. You’re treading on very thin ice.

KW: The bookworm Troy Johnson question: What was the last book you read?

BC: The middle of the series of five Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St. Aubyn.

KW: What is your favorite dish to cook?

BC: A really lovely, super fruit and chicken salad.

KW: When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

BC: The same person I saw the last time I looked, only a lit bit older, and a little bit wiser, too, hopefully.

KW: The Uduak Oduok question: Who is your favorite clothes designer?

BC: I have to say Spencer Hart, because they’ve been so supportive of me. They’ve got a Rat Pack, Old World, sort of Hollywood glamour about them but with an English twist. You just can’t get smarter than a Spencer Hart suit in London. Having said that, I’ve very much enjoyed the Alexander MacQueen which I’ve worn in the past, and Dolce & Gabbana which I wore last night. They’re better known. I think if I’m going to give a shout out to anyone, I think it should be to Spencer Hart.

KW: The Ling-Ju Yen question: What is your earliest childhood memory?

BC: Falling off a swing and cracking my head at about 4 or 5 in my grands’ [grandparents’] garden in Brighton. I can recall seeing the horizon tip, and then feeling this thudding pain in the back of my head. Wait, I have even earlier memories of clouds whisking by while sitting in the pushchair on the roof of my parents’ flat. I loved it! I just loved staring at the clouds and dreaming away. 

KW: Thanks again for the time, Benedict, and best of luck with all your endeavors.

BC: Bless you, Kam. Bye now.

To see a trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, visit