Michelle Monaghan

  • Better Living Through Chemistry (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, October 2022) I’m going to file Better Living Through Chemistry in the seemingly infinite list of movies I should have seen earlier. A neo-noir parody set in an unthreatening small town, the film focuses on a pharmacist who turns to the dark/fun side of life when he’s seduced by a trophy wife and uses his knowledge of pharmacology to create chemical cocktails of quasi-superheroic power. A great cast starts with Sam Rockwell in the lead role and a curiously blonde Olivia Wilde as the vamp, but eventually extends to Ray Liotta as a rich man targeted for pharmaceutical murder, Michelle Monaghan as an emasculating wife and Jane Fonda (of all people) as the film’s narrator. Quite a bit of the film is steadily amusing—Rockwell is in his element here, and the early part of the film works as a descent into perdition for his character. The film noir parody becomes more and more insistent as the film advances, with a finale that delights in not providing conventional narrative closure (although there is definitely is some closure). Where Better Living Through Chemistry falters is in comparing it to the film it could have been—maybe it’s a case of a middling idea that lands a few great sequences and a terrific cast, but the film doesn’t meet the possibilities of its premise: You can imagine a renegade pharmacist turning far worse than the mild hedonist described here, especially with an entire small town ripe for corruption. The ending can also be argued to wuss out at the last moment—handing over an ironic and ill-deserved victory even if that’s the point. There’s also something incredibly familiar in small-scale filmmakers taking shots at suburban ennui—like that’s the first time anyone has ever thought about it. Still, it’s watchable enough… as long as you keep your expectations in check. Approach it as a little-seen indie film and you’ll see for yourself.

  • Sleepless (2017)

    Sleepless (2017)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, November 2017) While we cinephiles are all here talking about the death of original middle-budget movies (i.e.: non-sequels, non-comic book, non-franchise, non-superhero stuff), there are movies like Sleepless to remind us that even those movies can be underwhelming. It’s not that Sleepless is bad—it’s that it shows things that countless other crime thrillers have done better. Crooked cops, undercover heroes, internal affairs, large drug deals, threatened family members … and so on. Even set against the glitz of Las Vegas and with the combined appeal of Jamie Foxx, Michelle Monaghan and Gabriel Union, Sleepless can’t really rouse itself out of complacency. It does get slightly better toward the end by resorting to semi-insane action movie tricks such as a car chase in a casino and a rather impressive car flip executed with ramping frame rates and a moving camera (no, seriously, it’s quite good and you even see it again later during the credits if you’ve missed it) but the vast majority of the film is as bland as it comes. Average dialogue, expected plot developments and middle-of-the-road direction don’t really help, even though Monaghan and Union are expected delights in their roles, and Foxx doesn’t do too badly either. Ultimately, Sleepless is the kind of crime thriller that works well enough as an evening’s distraction, but soon fades away as nothing more than an average genre title.

  • Playing It Cool (2014)

    Playing It Cool (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, March 2016) The small independent Los Angeles-based romantic comedy subgenre is interesting: By virtue of sticking close to Hollywood and going over intensely familiar ground, it can often become a showcase for new directors, established actors trying something different, stylistic experimentation and small-scale enjoyment. So it is with Playing It Cool, a somewhat average romantic comedy set in Los Angeles, starring no less than Chris Evans as his usually likable self, albeit in a far more comic and down-to-earth capacity than many of his starring roles so far. (Other smaller roles are filled by other people you’d recognize.) The film goes for a fair amount of insider meta-jokes by making its protagonist a screenwriter in search of inspiration as he’s trying to write a comedy. But the tone remains light throughout, and director Justin Reardon occasionally indulges in a number of small stylistically interesting touches (such as a “doorway” sequence zipping from one scene to another). Michelle Monaghan is just as likable as the romantic interest, and even though Playing It Cool tries to pretend that’s cooler than its own genre, it’s actually quite mannered in how it reverts to form and delivers exactly what’s expected. While the film does stink a bit too much of the male gaze in the way it approaches its female characters, Playing It Cool does the job as a gently amusing romantic comedy. It’s not meant to be more than a likable goof, and it succeeds modestly at that goal.

  • Source Code (2011)

    Source Code (2011)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In theaters, April 2011) I wasn’t as fond of Duncan Jones’ Moon as a lot of people were, but I was really interested in seeing his follow-up effort, and Source Code does not disappoint.  The theme of the deceived protagonist is still there, the setting is just as constrained and the scientific premises is just as wobbly (not to mention a nonsensical title), but Jones here has a bigger budget, a bigger concept, bigger stars and a faster pace.  Ben Ripley’s disaster-movie premise script is ingenious, but it’s paired with other well-paced revelations and the interweaving of both plotlines is effectively achieved.  Jake Gyllenhaal is hitting his stride as a heroic protagonist, with good supporting work from Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and a halting Jeffrey Wright.  Still, the real star here is writer/director Jones, who delivers a fast, clever and entertaining film with some depth and artful gloss.  The ending manages to be elegiac and optimistic at once, and provides a surprising amount of thematic depth for what could have easily been a straight-up genre exercise.  We don’t get quite enough SF movies like Source Code, but given the boost it will give to Jones’ career, chances are that we will get a few more.