One More Time (2016)

...or, how my thirty-one year-old teenage daughter cinched up her borscht belt, moved to California, joined Hadassah, and married an entertainment lawyer in Sherman Oaks, or a dentist from Oxnard.Mr. Walken once again demonstrates that he never met a camera he couldn't beguile, and if he can be a Lippman, there is no reason why Mel Gibson shouldn't have his scalp circumcised. (There are a number of good moils who would be happy to do the honors.)I've always loved Nantucket in February, when the wind off the Atlantic is as cold and hard as the Puritan god, so the shots of clam shacks closed for the winter warmed me right up; straight out of the indie Playbill, but nicely done, nonetheless.The very brief, scattered glimpses of Corinne's silent reactions to the exclusive bubble shared by Paul and Jude bespeak a lifetime of difficult experience. You don't need to wade through three hours of slush like The Aviator (2004) to know Kelli Garner is talented, and One More Time (2015) proves she has become a perceptive adult. Someone should really give her a prominent lead in something commensurate with her ability and maturity.Oliver Platt is always a pleasure.A couple of continuity issues that don't stand up to scrutiny, but nothing inexcusable. A good job. Thank you.XYZ

Oh, woe is me, should be the appropriate title for this film. Here you have people who are well off enough but apparently aren't happy with their seemingly non-challenging lives. Christopher Walken is a singer who has seen his famous days in the rear view mirror get further and further away from him. He relives every moment he can through the retelling of those past lives as if to recapture the moment is like him trying to catch a cloud. Amber Heard's character is an alcoholic singer/writer who has a huge chip on her shoulders for whatever reason. She shouldn't but she does. The sister, played by Kelli Garner, is a tight bun and Hamish Linklater is her husband. Photogenic is a better way to describe this cast who lives in the Hamptons. So why the drama? Well, because Amber seems to think she is owed something as she messes up her life. And Chris's character falls into some traps of his own choosing but it doesn't make any sense where a man who presumably is in his 70's is trotting off having an affair at the same motel for months. I was expecting something else out of the motel scene but it was just a typical infidelity story. And I was expecting something something else out of the father/daughter relationship between Heard and Walken. In fact, this turned out to be nothing more of well to do people who really don't have any problems other than they were bored with each other. They sit around singing songs like it was a concert but they despise one another secretly for no other reason than just because.And it ended weird. No feel good, no resolution , no nothing. The soundtrack was good, though.

"Just because you can't be someone new doesn't mean you can't do something new" Jude (Amber Heard) To see Christopher Walken sing as a has-been crooner is to remember he started as an entertainer who could dance pretty meanly on the stage. Here he features an original song written by his character, Paul Lombard, in his sunset years hoping for a new musical start.One More Time is indeed about one more chance, not just for Paul but also his 31-year old daughter, Jude, who has some singing/writing gifts she is weakly promoting. Typically, she has to deal with her father's fame and her own inability to stay anchored in a place that's both physical and figurative.Like dad, Jude doesn't always do what's best for her (both of them sexually vulnerable), and like him she needs another chance as the title suggests. The most satisfactory moments are when the two go after each other's weaknesses, a form of tough love that allows both actors to sharpen their craft. When he comments that they live in "the poor part of the Hamptons," you are aware that they both live in an alternate universe where "poor" is a relative term. Like their lives, not everything is as it really is.The most normal conflict of the film comes when Paul's wife, Lucille (Ann Magnuson), starts divorce proceedings because of Paul's infidelities. Out of this discomforting circumstance comes a chance for conservative daughter, Corinne (Kelli Garner), to show her more aggressive side, another case of a character getting a chance.One more time is a small film that will leave Christopher Walken fans wanting more of his sneer and world weary irony, yet as a washed up but returning pop entertainer, his character seems to fit the actor one more time.

What a terrible excuse of a movie. The story is boring, leads nowhere, and the plot is implausible. Christopher Walken is great as usual and does not disappoint, but the quality of the rest of the cast is so low that he alone can not carry the movie. As soon as he disappears from the screen, the movie gets mediocre to say the least. Probably the biggest miscast is Amber Heard. I really don't understand how she still gets roles, she is simply a terrible actress, nothing short from that. I don't know with how many elder male Hoolywood stars they want to pair her up in order to help her to get some recognition as an actress. It won't work, she doesn't know her craft, and hence, people won't want to see her movies. There is surely no shortage of beautiful and talented actresses in film business, so why not chose one of them.