Movie Review—It Comes at Night

It Comes at Night

by Peter J. O’Connell     

It Comes at Night. Released: June 2017. Runtime: 91 mins. MPAA Rating: R for violence, disturbing images, and language.

It Comes at Night, written and directed by Trey Edward Shults, focuses on a family that might be considered an American ideal—in some respects. Three generations—beloved grandfather, father with a professional background, loving mom, bright son—live together in a natural setting, and they’re interracial to boot. But there’s a problem, you see.

There’s this highly contagious pandemic that’s depopulating the world like a medieval plague. And no one knows exactly how the disease is spread. But if you do catch it, it kills you—horribly. And Grandpa (David Pendleton) has caught it. So early on in the movie, as an act of mercy, Grandpa has to be “put down,” shot by his teenage grandson, Travis (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.), and his body burned by Travis’ father, Paul (Joel Edgerton).

To deal with the menace to this American family, Paul, formerly a teacher, has become a gun-wielding paranoid patriarch, who has located his family in a house in the woods and boarded over the windows and doors, except for two, the front room’s outer door and the door leading to that room. These doors are always to be kept locked. Paul, his wife, Sarah (Carmen Ejogo), and Travis must wear gloves and gas masks whenever they go outside.

It is as if the family is living in a situation that is a kind of combination of the besieged “outpost of civilization” familiar from many classic movies and a troubled spaceship from science-fiction—think of that “two-door access” and those gas masks. This combined situation reflects the mysterious nature of the source spreading the disease. Some creepy scenes somewhat bring to mind such possibilities as zombies or other monstrous creatures, perhaps space aliens—Paul hasn’t built a “big, beautiful wall,” so presumably illegal aliens aren’t to blame—or human deplorables of various kinds. (Some rednecks do put in a brief, bloody appearance.)

A challenge for Paul’s family fortress arrives in the persons of another family seeking shelter—Will (Christopher Abbott), Kim (Riley Keough), and their young son, Andrew (Griffin Robert Faulkner). Paul is very suspicious of the three, but eventually he yields to Sarah’s position that the more people they have with them, the easier it will be to defend themselves should anyone else come across their location.

The two families get along well for a time. In fact, there are almost some romantic sparks between Travis, who has been suffering from the strain of the family’s situation, and Kim. But the era of good feelings doesn’t last long. One night things start to go very, very bad—and it’s not because of monsters, aliens, or rednecks. The “it” that “comes” is already inside the family fortress, inside the hearts and minds of the family members.

 It Comes at Night is a tightly directed film that comes close to getting maximum impact from its rather minimal plot and setting. Shults’ cinematography (by Drew Daniels) and  lighting techniques—mostly only the “actual” lighting, such as gunsight lights and flashlights--are quite effective in creating an almost constant sense of dislocation and mood of menace. And the subtly ominous score by Brian McComber contributes to the unsettling effect quite well. The acting by all concerned seems exactly right—the coiled intensity of Edgerton, the mix of gentleness and strength in Ejogo, and the work of the talented young actors Harrison and Keough. Particularly striking is a kitchen conversation between the latter two.

Shults’ film is one of a recent clutch of creative “horror” movies that remind one of the reply that Edgar Allan Poe made to a critic who had commented that Poe was purveying horror akin to that of German folk tales. Poe said: “The horror of which I write is not of Germany but of the soul.”     

                                                                                       

8 Signs of Lyme Disease (And How to Prevent It)

“Many authorities feel (Lyme Disease) is a massively underreported issue, and one that’s increasing every year.” – Marina Makous, M.D.

What Is Lyme Disease?

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection transmitted through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks (on the East Coast) and deer ticks (on the West Coast). The symptoms of Lyme disease are often wide-ranging and may occur anywhere from 3 to 30 days after the bite.

Lyme disease can be particularly difficult to diagnose, as the bacterium responsible for the condition produces symptoms that mimic common illnesses. Symptoms of Lyme disease may be similar to those of a cold or flu.

LymeDisease.org states “Patients with Lyme disease are frequently misdiagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, and various psychiatric illnesses, including depression.” As a result of the frequent misdiagnoses and apparent replication of symptoms, Lyme disease is informally labeled “The Great Imitator.”

The bacterium that causes the condition can affect the brain and nervous system, heart, and the muscles and joints. click here to continue reading.

Movie Review—The Lost City of Z

The Lost City of Z
Theatrical release poster

by Peter J. O’Connell

The Lost City of Z. Released (USA): April 2017. Runtime: 141 mins. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, disturbing images, brief strong language, and some nudity.     

Percy Fawcett had a classic British name and was one of those classic British explorers who became obsessed with reaching a certain goal. Burton and Speke sought the source of the Nile, for example, and Scott sought to be the first to make it to the South Pole. In Fawcett’s case the dream was to find the ruins of what he called the “Lost City of Z.” Now a film with that title, written and directed by James Gray, based on the book by David Grann, tells Fawcett’s story.

We first meet Percy (Charlie Hunnam), dashing and handsome, as an officer in the British army in Ireland in 1905. He rides in an elk hunt—as dramatically filmed as the famous fox hunt in Tom Jones (1963)—and brings down the elk but is snubbed by higher-ups at the after-hunt party given for Archduke Franz-Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary.

A year later, to improve his family’s social standing, Percy accepts an offer from the Royal Geographical Society to survey the border between Bolivia and Brazil, territory which is part of Amazonia, the vast and wild jungle region drained by the Amazon River. Percy completes this mission but along the way hears from a native scout tales of an ancient city in the jungle built by an advanced civilization. Percy initially dismisses these tales but becomes convinced of the existence of the city when he discovers some statues and pottery of an advanced nature. Finding the ruins of “Z” becomes his dream.

Percy is praised for his surveying achievements when he returns to England, where his wife, Nina (Sienna Miller), has given birth to their second son. Nina also has discovered in a college library a conquistador text that tells of a city deep in the Amazon jungle. Nina has become restless in the traditional role of homemaker and wants to accompany Percy on future expeditions. He sternly puts her “in her place.” No is his firm and final answer.

When Percy asks the Royal Geographical Society to back an expedition specifically to find the Lost City, he is raucously mocked— in some rather overdone scenes—by the group, which holds racist notions that the “savages” of Amazonia could not have created an advanced civilization. But after Percy persuades renowned biologist James Murray (Angus Macfadyen) to back him, the RGS also does.

The expedition turns disastrous. Natives attack the explorers, and Murray proves utterly unequal to the rigors of the trek. Murray is sent back, and Percy’s team forges on but is unable to find the Lost City. Returning to England, Percy has to answer accusations from Murray of abandoning him in the jungle. Percy resigns from the RGS rather than apologize to Murray. But Percy also has to deal with accusations from Nina and his older son, Jack (Tom Holland), that he is abandoning them in pursuit of Z.

At this point Percy’s family troubles fade as World War I breaks out, and he goes into the trenches of the Western Front. There in the midst of a horrific battle, he is blinded for a time by a poison gas attack. Jack now reconciles with his father.

In fact, after the war Jack determines to join his father in another expedition to find Z. Percy and the RGS also reconcile. The RGS agrees to co-fund the expedition with an American group led by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. The RGS does not want to be upstaged by the Americans, who have become very interested in exploration in Latin America since the “discovery” of Machu Picchu by Connecticut’s Hiram Bingham.

The Fawcett expedition sets off in 1925, and we see them run into numerous problems, both geographical and human—hostility by natives. But do they or do they not find the Lost City of Z? Each viewer will have to decide for himself or herself!

Gray’s film is intriguing but not as intense an experience as it should be, given the nature of the story that it tells. Likewise, the performances are adequate but do not succeed in making the characters come across as charismatic as they should be for a story with an epic premise. Also, the cinematography for some reason has a gritty tone, appropriate enough one supposes for the scenes in cloudy Ireland or polluted Britain, but annoying for the Amazon scenes, which should be more vivid. As a film, The Lost City of Z seems rather a lost opportunity or, perhaps, an opportunity to catch some zzzzzzs. 

       

Easy Confetti Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

By Sarah Walker Caron

Growing up, I devoured books. Titles like “Charlotte’s Web,” by E.B. White, “Ramona Quimby, Age 8,” by Beverly Cleary, The Baby-Sitter’s Club series by Ann M. Martin and The Sweet Valley Twins series by Francine Pascal sparked my imagination. Later, I spent hours reading thrillers from R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike.

But it was “Anne of Green Gables,” by L.M. Montgomery that entwined itself into my psyche.

There was something about that story — the orphan girl with fanciful ideas and a creative soul adopted by a brother and sister who had to learn to navigate family. In my minds eye, I could practically picture her schoolhouse, the lanes she walked down and the friends she made. It was literature written in a way I hadn’t experienced before.

Although I read all year, it was summertime when I got to dive into reading. I was always with a book — on the beach, in bed, on our porch. Trips to the library to discover new books were always exciting … and so was whenever we happened into a bookstore. Summertime, with its seemingly endless days, was when I stretched my literary wings and dived into books like “Anne.”

As we approach the end of the school year, I’ve seen things here and there about summer slide, a phrase that refers to the knowledge kids “lose” over the summer when they aren’t in school. The idea is that kids need to keep learning all year round. In theory, I agree. Learning is an always thing — something that happens throughout life, all year.

For me, that means lots of reading. There will be trips to the library this summer and untold amounts spent on books. Beyond my children’s literary endeavors, there will be hikes and jaunts to listen to live music and camps that encourage their interests.

Learning isn’t limited to the classroom. It happens everywhere, all around us. Heck, I learn new things all the time. In fact, the Netflix series “Anne with an E” taught me a very important lesson recently — while I always saw the fanciful imaginings of a creative redheaded girl in “Anne of Green Gables,” which it’s based on, there are other ways to see the story. Anne in “Anne with an E” struggles with the demons of her early life — and as I look back, I see that those parts were ones I glazed over in my readings of the book. They were there, though not as dark as the show portrays them, just nuanced. Click here to continue reading.

Movie Review—Alien: Covenant

Theatrical release poster

by Peter J. O'Connell         

Alien. Released: May 2017. Runtime: 122 mins. MPAA Rating: R for sci-fi violence, bloody images, language, and some sexuality/nudity. 

Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) became a classic sci-fi film when Scott: took the horror-story trope of the “monster in the mansion” and put it into outer space, “where no one can hear you scream”; utilized the emerging technology of computer-generated imagery to create a very yucky monster (who attacks from both “inside you” and “outside you”); and bowed in the direction of political correctness by having a woman warrior memorably battle the nasty critter.

The popular Alien spawned a franchise of four sequels over the next 20 years and then a prequel in 2012, Prometheus.  Along the way, Scott also helmed another sci-fi classic, Blade Runner (1982), which presented a dystopian vision of L.A. in a kind of futuristic film-noir style, with a plot centered on a detective's search for rogue “replicants” (androids). 

Now Scott follows Prometheus with another prequel to Alien, Alien: Covenant. This film actually begins with a scene set before the main action of Prometheus. In the scene a rich old man (Guy Pearce) speaks with a newly activated “synthetic” (android) (Michael Fassbender), who has chosen the name “David” for himself after looking at a replica of Michelangelo's statue of the same name. The rich old man tells David that one day they will search for mankind's creator together. This search becomes the genesis for the events of Prometheus. 

After the scene between the rich old man and David, we find ourselves years after the events of Prometheus (which was the name of a spaceship) aboard the spaceship Covenant, which is carrying colonists in stasis pods and embryos on a multi-year journey to a remote planet, Origae-6. The ship is monitored by Walter (Michael Fassbender in a dual role), a newer model synthetic physically resembling the earlier David model. 

An energy burst damages the ship and wakes the crew from their stasis pods, but the ship's captain (James Franco) dies when his pod malfunctions. As they repair the ship, the crew receives a radio transmission from a nearby, but previously unknown, planet. The new captain (Billy Crudup) decides that this planet seems better suited for colonization than Origae-6. The first captain's widow, Daniels Branson (Katherine Waterston), objects but us overruled, and a team is sent to the planet's surface. 

Guess what? The team's time on the planet turns out not to be a walk in the park. The planet is beautiful in a gloomy way, but, of course, loaded with nasties of diverse kinds, who start knocking off the members of the team in horrendous ways. Eventually, the team encounters David, the android from the Prometheus expedition, who survived after that mission met a bad fate. David leads the Covenant team through the ruins of a city full of Engineer corpses. The Engineers are a humanoid race who apparently created the human race but eventually decided to destroy humanity, a plan disrupted by the disaster that overtook them. 

The place of humans in the universe and the relation of androids to them is debated by David and Walter. David believes that humans should not be allowed to colonize the galaxy. Walter disagrees, and the two fight. During the course of the fight, Daniels escapes the clutches of David, heroically battles nasties, and enables the Covenant to resume its trip to Origae-6. Daniels reenters stasis and feels good that the friendly android Walter is helping her go to sleep but then . . . . 

Alien: Covenant produces all the requisite scares and stomach-turning scenes that audiences seek from this franchise, delivered with striking production design, state-of-the-tech effects, and strong performances, particularly by Fassbender and Waterston. Also, Scott peppers the film with verbal and visuals allusions to Greek mythology, Milton, Piranesi, Blake, Shelley's poetry, Mary Shelley's prose, Dore, and other cultural treasures of Western Civilization. To what end? Who knows? Wait for the next installment of the franchise (and also for the Blade Runner sequel out later this year). And remember: “In space no one can hear you throw up.”     

Outward signs of aging in your pet and how to take action

(BPT) - It seems like just yesterday you brought her home and made her a part of the family. If you own a cat or dog, you have fond memories of your furry family member from day one.
Fast forward to today. Just like with people, age sometimes creeps up slowly on pets. Every pet is unique, so changes happen at different times. What's more, age-related changes can be easy to miss because they appear so gradually over time.

Being aware and proactive is the best thing pet parents can do to help their pets stay healthy as they age. The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) recommends that pets have a senior screening at about age 7. This allows the veterinarian to address any current concerns or potential health risks, including nutritional considerations.

Aging in pets can potentially impact the relationship you have with them, so being aware of the signs and what to do can help keep your older pet in the game. To help you understand what to look for, Hill’s Pet Nutrition has developed the "Tell TAILS" signs of aging in cats and dogs.

T = Thinking
Your pet gets confused by ordinary things, like how to find their bed.
A = Activity
Your pet is less active. Naps are now more appealing than playing or exploring.
I = Interactions
Your pet doesn't socialize with you as much as before.
L = Loss of control
Your pet is well-trained, but has started to have accidents.
S = Sleep-wake cycle

Sleeping patterns have changed, with more awake time during the night.

You’re the one who spends the most time with your pet, so it's important to note any of these changes and communicate them to your veterinarian. Consistent vet visits and changing your pet’s food are just two things that can help older pets to continue to remain healthy in their later years.

“As pets grow older, aging occurs inside every cell in their body and Hill’s studies these changes down to the gene level,” says Kathy Gross, Director of Clinical Nutrition at Hill’s Science Diet. “Our research shows that gene expression and activity are different in pets aged 7 and older compared to their younger counterparts. Through this research we’ve identified natural ingredients and nutrients that change gene activity and used that knowledge to create pet foods for pets of this age."

When selecting food, consider key nutrients important for pets aged 7 and older. A high-quality food like Hill’s Science Diet Youthful Vitality, developed from over a decade of extensive research, includes:
* High-quality protein with balanced levels of essential amino acids to support muscles.
* L-carnitine to help the body convert nutrients into energy to move, run and play.
* Right balance of phosphorus and sodium, not too much and not too little, helps maintain a healthy bladder, kidneys and heart.
* Antioxidant vitamins E and C along with beta-carotene and selenium to protect cells and support healthy immune function.
In addition to making nutritional adjustments, consider these smart tips for helping your pet get the most out of life and unlock their ageless spirit:
1. Providing regular exercise and opportunities to interact with family members helps keep older pets in shape and their minds actively engaged.
2. Just as with people, maintain a healthy body weight and body proportion (more muscle, strong bones, less body fat) by avoiding overfeeding, doing regular weigh-ins and avoiding unhealthy snacks.
4. Regular veterinary checkups (once per year for middle-aged pets and twice per year for senior pets over the age of 7) are recommended so any concerns or potential health risks can be addressed.
For more information about pet health for cats and dogs, visit www.HillsPet.com. For more information about pet aging and the cutting-edge food science in Science Diet Youthful Vitality, visit www.ScienceDiet.com/YouthfulVitality.

Movie Review—Beauty and the Beast

Theatrical release poster

by Peter J. O'Connell

Beauty and the Beast. Released: March 2017. Runtime: 129 mins. MPAA Rating: PG for some action violence, peril, and frightening images.

The story of “Beauty” and the “Beast” has been delighting readers and audiences for centuries—as classic fairy tale, as classic French film of the 1940s, as beloved animated musical feature and stage show from the 1990s, and in many other formulations and genres. Now we have Beauty and the Beast as a live-action adaptation of the animated feature.

Helmed by Bill Condon, the film is a full-bodied musical in the tradition of the classics of the 1945-1965 period (and includes a very specific homage to The Sound of Music), but with the addition of the kind of movie magic that contemporary technology can provide.

The story, of course, involves a coldhearted prince (Dan Stevens) who refuses a beggar woman shelter because she has offered him only a rose as payment. The woman is actually a beautiful enchantress who transforms the prince into a monstrous beast and his servants into household objects. She also isolates the prince's castle and erases memories of it and him from everyone. She casts a spell on the rose and warns the prince that unless he learns to love and earn love in return before the last petal falls, he and his servants will lose their humanity forever.

Meanwhile, in a nearby village, a beautiful young woman, Belle (Emma Watson), lives with her clockmaker father, Maurice (Kevin Kline). Belle is independent minded. She loves to read and teach others to read. She also invents an innovative way to do laundry! Gaston (Luke Evans), a former soldier full of braggadocio, is taken with Belle, but she spurns his advances. 

A series of events leads to Maurice's being imprisoned by the Beast, who then agrees to accept Belle as a substitute for him. Belle is befriended by the household objects (brought to life by computer-generated imagery), and gradually a friendship develops between her and the Beast, aided by their joint interest in books. 

As the friendship of Belle and the Beast moves toward romance, various complications in the village, provoked by Gaston, put Maurice in danger and lead to a villagers' march, a la Frankenstein, against the Beast. Violence ensues. Will there be a “happy ever after”? You know the answer to that question!

As for the question, how good is this version of the tale?, the answer is very good indeed. The wonderful music by Howard Ashmun, Alan Merken, and Tim Rice includes classics from the animated feature and new material. As a singer, Emma Watson is no Judy Garland, but she does male a winsome Belle. Dan Stevens is an adequate Beast. Luke Evans is a strapping Howard Keel-type, and Kevin Kline's performance is perfectly nuanced. The household objects are voiced by such talents as Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, and others. 

Perhaps the film runs a bit long, but it's time well spent in a world of enchantment to which the Disney Company has invited us. Be their guest!

“Footnote” to the film: Ryan Gosling was originally slated for the role of the Beast but turned it down to co-star in La La Land. Emma Watson was originally slated to co-star in La la Land but turned that down to play Belle. Emma Stone got the role in La La Land—and an Oscar. 

Movie Review—Wonder Woman

Theatrical release poster

by Peter J. O'Connell   

Wonder Woman. Released: June 2017. Runtime: 141 mins. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of violence and action and some suggestive content.

Wonder Woman is the best superhero film since the Superman of 1978. The eponymous heroine has been stripped of her red, white, and blue American trappings and, you might say, fights for “truth, justice, and the Amazonian way,” rather than as Superman and earlier WWs did, for “truth, justice, and the American way.” But is there really that much difference between the “ways”? 

In this film, smartly directed by Patty Jenkins as the “origin story” of WW, we find our heroine, Princess Diana (a/k/a Diana Prince), growing up in the beautiful, remote island of Themyscira, a peaceful place where Amazons spend most of their time doing physical training and martial arts. Diana (played as an adult by Gal Godot) is the daughter of the Queen of the Amazons (Connie Nielsen) and has special powers given to her by Zeus in addition to her martial artistry. 

This tranquil way of life is shattered in 1918 when Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crashes his plane into the ocean off the island. Steve’s an American agent for British intelligence functioning as a spy in the German forces as World War I rages. But Steve has been found out and is being pursued by German troops. Diana rescues Steve, but a battle ensues between the Germans and the Amazons, which the Amazons win.  

The film’s feminism manifests itself in a number of reversals of convention. For example, a woman, Diana, has greater strength and martial skills than men, and a man, Steve, provides the “cheesecake” scene when he takes a bath and banters with Diana while he is nude.

In more serious talk, Steve tells Diana about the war and his fear that Ludendorff (Danny Huston), a German general, and a scientist, “Dr. Poison” (Elena Anaya), have developed a terrible new gas and are planning a massive attack with it. Diana is very upset to learn about the war and feels that Ares, the god of war, is the cause of it and must be stopped.

Steve and Diana make their way to crowded, polluted London. This second part of the film is somewhat comical as Diana, “a fish out of water,” has to learn how to dress and function in Edwardian English society and try to counter the sexism of “Colonel Blimp” types.

Those types deny Steve and Diana permission to go to the continent and destroy the gas manufactured by Ludendorff and “Poison.” But aided by a British politician (David Thewlis), the pair put together a team of mercenaries and head for the front.

The third part of the movie depicts a horrific battle in “No Man's Land” in which Diana fights in a visually striking way. Unlike most superhero movies, the film also takes time to show the actual suffering inflicted upon both soldiers and civilians by war. This suffering moves Diana greatly.

In the last part of the film, Diana and Steve attempt to destroy the supply of poison gas, and there is a plot twist that puts Diana in a spectacular series of struggles against a powerful foe. Despite the spectacle of this concluding section, it actually is less interesting-- even with the twist--because more familiar from other superhero movies, than the earlier sections.

Those earlier sections with their reversals of convention and mix of action, light romance, and humor are delightful. But by not neglecting to show the real pain of war, some of those sections are also quite moving. What is invariably delightful or moving is the performance of Gal Godot, which is magnetic—in more ways than one—even charismatic, even luminous. The full spectrum of emotions plays across her lovely, expressive face like the wind over the waters off Themyscira. Her performance is not just, perhaps, the best performance ever given in a superhero movie, but, perhaps, one of the best performances of the year in any kind of movie, and the year isn't even half over yet.   

  

Movie Review—The Promise

The Promise

by Peter J. O'Connell   

The Promise. Released: April 2017. Runtime: 132 mins. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic material, including war atrocities, violence, and disturbing images and for some sexuality.

“Who remembers the Armenians?” Adolf Hitler is said to have made this remark when someone questioned whether the Fuehrer's desire to annihilate the Jews might cause future generations to condemn the Nazis. Well, some people, though not nearly enough, have remembered the genocidal attempt by the rulers of the Ottoman Empire to destroy the Armenian people that occurred during the World War I era, 25 years before Hitler's remark. Terry George, co-writer and director of The Promise, is one of those who remember.

The Promise begins in 1914 in a village in eastern Turkey, where Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks have lived together peacefully for generations as part of the Ottoman Empire. Mikael (Oscar Isaac), a brilliant young Armenian, wishes to go to medical school in Constantinople. He has become engaged to Maral (Angela Sarafyan), whose family has given him a dowry, which he will use to finance his education.

In Constantinople Mikael attracts attention for his brilliance and makes friends with both Turks and Armenians. He also becomes attracted to Ana (Charlotte LeBon), an Armenian woman raised in Paris, who is in an on-again/off-again relationship with Chris Myers (Christian Bale), an American journalist. In time Ana also feels attracted to Mikael. Soon the mutual attraction between the two becomes a romance.

In the meantime the Ottoman Empire allies with Germany in World War I and begins rounding up Armenians and encouraging mob violence against them. As a result of these events, Mikael is sent to a prison labor camp, from which he makes a dramatic escape and returns to his native village. But he finds that the Turks there also have turned against the Armenians. 

To save Maral, Mikael marries her, and the two take refuge in a mountain cabin, where she becomes pregnant. Various adventures and atrocities follow, and Mikael ends up with Ana and Chris at Musa Dagh, a mountain where Armenians have to fight off the Turkish army while hoping to be saved by the French navy. 

The Promise aspires to the epic status of a classic such as Dr. Zhivago (1965). The theme of a good, but conflicted, man trying to do right by both his wife and his true love in a time of turmoil is similar. (Both heroes are also doctors!) Oscar Isaac is the kind of all-purpose ethnic that Omar Sharif, star of Dr. Zhivago, was. Even the posters of the two movies are similar. 

But The Promise, despite its good intentions and the many good things in it, falls short of epic status. Sometimes its cinematography and production design bring scenes, whether of the glories of Constantinople or the bleakness of arid areas, to wondrous life; other times the feeling is of a kind of historical pageant with players in costume emoting in front of obvious sets. Despite the past achievements of the talented cast, they don't seem quite right here. Isaac sometimes overacts. The lovely LeBon never seems to reach the level of intensity that her character should attain. Bale's problem is the opposite of hers; he seems almost “too big” stylistically for his secondary role.

But even though The Promise doesn't fulfill its promise of being an epic, it is a worthy work that provides a place for one to start “remembering” one of the great tragedies of history, the Armenian Genocide. 

“Footnote” to the film: In the early 1960s, it was rumored that Paul Newman, after Exodus, might star in a film about the Armenian Genocide based on Franz Werfel's novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh. But nothing became of the rumor.