Movie Review—Bad Times at the El Royale

Theatrical release poster

by Peter J. O'Connell

Bad Times at the El Royale. Released: Oct. 2018. Runtime:141 mins. MPAA Rating: R for strong violence, language, some drug content and brief nudity. 

You have to watch your step when you're at the El Royale motor hotel, setting of writer/director Drew Goddard's Bad Times at the El Royale.  You see, the El Royale straddles the state line between California and Nevada. What is legal in one state may be criminal in the other, or vice versa—with the emphasis on vice. You also have to watch your back when you're at the El Royale, for the state of things there is somewhere between that of Hitchcock's Bates Motel and the Eagles' Hotel California. Checking in is one thing; being able to check out whole is another.

In any case, the “bad times” that we witness at the El Royale bookend the 1960s. The movie begins dynamically in 1959 when a man in a trench coat and fedora pulls up to the swanky joint on a rainy night and soon after takes up the floorboards in his room and conceals a duffel bag beneath them. Then another man arrives and, unaware of what the first man has been doing, kills him. Yes, we have been plunged into the world of film noir, or neo-noir if you prefer. 

Next, we find ourselves in the no longer so swanky El Royale of 1969. (We can tell it's 1969 by the news reports about President Nixon that appear on the TV.) A flashy salesman, Laramie Seymour Sullivan (Jon Hamm), waits in the lobby while no staff members manifest themselves. An elderly priest, Daniel Flynn (Jeff Bridges), with a somewhat spacey attitude, and Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo), an intense African-American singer, arrive, simultaneously but separately. At this point the El Royale's apparent sole employee, Miles Miller (Lewis Pullman), appears. Like the narrator of a Poe story, Miles is “very, very nervous.” The last of the day's guests to arrive is Emily Summerspring (Dakota Johnson), who comes across as part glamourpuss, part hippie, and all sarcastic. 

With all the guests now in their rooms, strange things start happening. Laramie is in communication with a government agency in Washington that instructs him to tear out auditing equipment that has been installed in the El Royale. He is also told to ignore any possible crimes in progress and to disable the guests' vehicles. The reference to crimes is to what may—or may not—be occurring with Emily and a young woman, Rose (Cailee Spaeny), in their room. 

Father Flynn appears to be searching for something and seeks to get into Darlene's room. For her part, Darlene is down in the dumps over an encounter with a nasty music producer, Buddy Sunday (Xavier Dolan), seen in flashback. Miles continues to be nervous, particularly as unusual, shall we say, aspects of the El Royale's architecture become known to the guests in ways accompanied by bloodshed. Miles also has been tasked, he reveals, by the “management” with custody of a particularly incriminating film reel of a recently deceased public figure. And then there are the TV reports of a massacre by a cult in California. 

Things evolve in twisty, creepy, violent ways, particularly when a charismatic fellow, Billy Lee (Chris Hemsworth), and his buddies arrive on the scene. Among other things, fire breaks out, and we learn that one character has killed 123 people.

Goddard's direction shows the influence of, among others, Quentin Tarantino and David Lynch, and his cast's performances reach varying levels of success. Hamm is good as a “hammy” (sorry!), unctuous salesman type. Lewis Pullman, however, overdoes the “nervousness” of Miles. Jeff Bridges' performance perhaps mistakes being laid back for being spacey. Dakota Johnson and Cailee Spaeny are adequate as Emily and the wild Rose, but Chris Hemsworth's narcissistic aura takes away some of the charisma that we are supposed to feel emanating from Billy Lee. Cynthia Erivo as Darlene is, however, a real revelation. She is totally convincing as a woman who might have achieved the diva status of a Diana Ross, if she had not been so emotionally vulnerable. She commands the screen, particularly in a scene where she has to sing in a full-bodied way, though alone in her room. 

Bad Times at the El Royale is not going to provide you with the best experience that you have ever had at the movies, but it is a relatively interesting site for a 141-minute stopover. Check it out.  

    

  

Three workouts everyone over 60 needs

(BPT) - You want to live the healthiest life possible and you realize that to do so, you can’t rely on the same old exercise routine. You need to change it up and adjust your plans as you grow older. It may seem daunting, but the good news is that staying fit can be easier than you think.
“Many older adults know their fitness routines have to change as they age because of injuries, chronic aches and pains, or even shifts in the exercises they enjoy,” says Julie Logue, SilverSneakers(R) training manager for Tivity Health. “That’s why finding the right health plan during Medicare’s open enrollment period is so important. It’s especially valuable to find a health plan that includes SilverSneakers, which is the nation’s leading fitness program designed exclusively for older adults. It's much easier to be consistent with exercise when you find a program you love.”
If you are an older adult who likes yoga, strength training or aerobic exercise — or if you are considering such a regimen — Logue suggests a few ways to switch up your routine, so you can continue living a healthy, active lifestyle.

Finding peace with your yoga routine
Yoga is popular with fitness enthusiasts of all ages, and for older adults, practicing yoga can improve balance, flexibility, mental focus, core strength and breathing efficiency. It can also be a wonderful stress reliever.

If you are new to the practice of yoga, or if you feel unsure or unstable during any class, consider using a wall or chair to aid you in your balance for certain poses. Make sure to protect your joints by moving gently into stretches and poses, never forcing your body into any posture. You can regulate your blood pressure with even, continuous breathing. Additionally, be aware that inversions, those poses that place your head below your heart, can cause changes in blood pressure. Finally, while yoga can certainly be practiced alone, taking a class through SilverSneakers is a great way to bond with others during your workout and get expert guidance from a trained instructor.

Stepping up your strength
Building muscle mass is a key benefit of strength training, but for older adults there are additional benefits. Strength training, sometimes called resistance training, supports bone health and aids in the prevention of osteoporosis, improves your balance and supports a healthy weight. Regular strength training also can make everyday activities easier.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that adults of age 65 and older, who are generally fit with no limiting health conditions, should do resistance training exercise on two or more days a week, focusing on all major muscle groups. When beginning an exercise program, the best practice is to start with lighter weights, performing one to two sets of each exercise with 10 to 15 repetitions in each set.

To continue to benefit from strength training safely, increase your resistance slowly, always using proper technique to avoid strains and other injuries. You can manage your blood pressure by exhaling during the most challenging part of each exercise. Choosing to work out with a partner or coach can help keep you motivated and make you more aware of your form and alignment, keeping you safer during your workout. Finally, take a break. Allowing a day between strength training workouts helps your muscles recover so you come back to your next routine even stronger. Download the new SilverSneakers GO(TM) app and discover programs to fit your personal activity level.

Keeping the cardio
Whether it’s dance or another calorie-burning cardio exercise like cycling or walking, getting your body moving is a fun and healthy way to improve your lifestyle. Cardio exercise has also been shown to improve your coordination, agility and reaction time, as well as help you manage your blood pressure and improve cognitive function. Plus, it’s just flat-out fun, especially if you enroll in a class as a SilverSneakers member.

To keep your cardio routine interesting and effective, pay attention to the impact that some types of exercise can have on your joints. Walking, cycling and water exercise are all efficient ways to get a great workout while being gentle on your joints. And, with social isolation affecting as many as 43 percent of older adults, asking a friend to join you is a great way to stay motivated, connect with others and enjoy life.

Don’t delay in improving your healthy lifestyle today
Improvements to your regular exercise routine will support you in your goal of living a healthy life, but you can take the next step with the support of a program that includes classes, digital tools and workouts designed with seniors in mind. Medicare open enrollment takes place from Oct. 15 to Dec. 7, so as you review your plan options, look for a health plan that offers SilverSneakers. Members have access to more than 15,000 fitness locations and community organizations across the country, so don't delay. No matter where you live, a better, healthier you is waiting to be discovered.
To learn more about SilverSneakers, visit www.silversneakers.com.

Movie Review—First Man

First Man
Theatrical release poster

by Peter J. O'Connell         

First Man. Released: Oct. 2018. Runtime:141 mins. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some thematic content involving peril, and brief strong language. 

Youngster to his mother: “Mom, what's wrong?” His mother: “Nothing, honey. Your dad's going to the Moon.” This bit of dialogue mixing the everyday with the extraordinary encapsulates the essence of First Man. The film, directed by Damien Chazelle, deals with the life of astronaut Neil Armstrong and the epochal space mission that led him to become the first man to walk on the moon. 

      

Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) is a quiet, modest man. His quietude is not that of the “strong, silent” hero of Western movies, with an aura of possible alienation and potential violence. Armstrong is, we might say, a humble hero, focused on family life and concerned to do his duty within the large organizations of which he is a part, the military and the space agency (NASA). 

We first encounter Neil as a test pilot in the 1950s, in a flight that turns into a debacle. Neil strives thereafter, through a high level of competence, to put that debacle behind him. Harder—in fact, impossible—to put behind him is the death of his beloved young daughter. Her memory is always with him, but his marriage to his wife, Janet (Claire Foy), remains strong, and the couple has two sons whom they love very much. 

After Neil is chosen in 1962 to train to be an astronaut, Janet does, however, start to become concerned, as her husband spends more and more time in his training and study. The film shows very well the scope and scale of the space agency, with its many staffers, and the dangers and difficulties involved in the astronauts' training. When three of Neil's comrades are burned to death in an accident, Neil's continuing burden of sorrow from his daughter's death is added to. 

The accident, of course, greatly increases Janet's concerns. These concerns reach a peak when Neil is chosen for the Moon mission. In a sense, Janet becomes concerned that Neil is not outwardly “concerned enough” himself. She confronts him in a memorable scene: “What are the chances you're not coming back? Those kids, they don't have a father anymore! So you're gonna sit the boys down, and prepare them for the fact that you might never come home!”

By 1969 the time for the Moon flight has arrived. The film's color palette fades considerably as the space craft surveys the bleak, barren lunar surface, which is actually compelling enough in black, white, and gray to have a kind of beauty of its own in the immensity and quietude of space. Yes, we do know “how it all turns out,” but the film sustains suspense as to the fate of the mission nonetheless. And then there is that world-historical moment as Neil steps off the Eagle onto Luna: “That's one small step for [a} man, one giant step for mankind.” The space hero then returns to Earth and his family. Some personal items that Neil left behind on the Moon have never been disclosed, but the film hints cautiously, and movingly, at what they might have been. 

First Man is a film that consistently holds one's interest, though it doesn't quite manage to lift off into the realm of the fascinating and the gripping. Perhaps Gosling's “underplaying” to express the nature of a humble hero is a bit too “under”? Claire Foy, however, brings a fresh feeling to the role of “worried, waiting wife” that in other hands might have just been a cliché. Director Chazelle's choices of ways to tell the story are generally fine, though the very concluding scene is rather odd, and the omission of a scene showing the implanting of the American flag on the Moon has proved controversial. 

“Footnotes” to the film: (1) The American flag is seen once, briefly, in the distance during the lunar sequence of the film, but the implanting of the flag is not shown. Generally, it has always been assumed that Armstrong intended his “one small step for [a] man” as an acceptance of his own role in the mission and “one giant step for mankind” as an acknowledgment of the mission's universalistic importance and the implanting of the American flag as an expression of American pride and patriotism in winning the space race, which was an aspect of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Reaching the Moon before the Soviets was President Kennedy's goal when he launched planning of the Moon mission in 1961. The work of thousands of Americans at NASA and elsewhere was necessary to achieve the victory of 1969. Is the omission of the implanting of the flag an example of what some on the political right mean when they say that “Hollywood hates America”? Or is it simply a desire to emphasize universalistic humanism? Ryan Gosling says that the mission “transcends countries and borders . . . . I think this was widely regarded in the end as a human achievement . . . that's how we chose to view it . . . . I don't think that Neil viewed himself as an American hero.” Actually, the real reason for the omission is probably simply the importance of the foreign market to the bottom line of films today. A production can't be seen as too specifically American or, for example, too anti-Chinese or too anti-Muslim—that might negatively impact sales abroad. (2) An issue connected with the film that has not been much commented upon but is worth raising is the casting of Gosling and Foy as the Armstrongs. Both are very talented and appealing performers, but neither is American. Were there no American actors who could play the roles of this American hero and his spouse? It would be absurd, even vicious, to claim, as some today do, that only an actor of a certain group should play a member of that group, but when a relatively recent particular achievement of a certain group (in this case, Americans) is of great importance and there are many performers in that group capable of playing the relevant roles, why not cast from that group?      

Meriden couple celebrates 75th wedding anniversary

MERIDEN – City residents William and Mary Godburn celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary on Monday.

The couple, both 93, had a large celebration for their 50th anniversary that included over 200 people, but the family decided to keep it relatively low-key for this milestone. The couple celebrated with their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren at Sans-Souci Restaurant on Sunday.

William Godburn, the former and first-ever city fire marshal, was born and raised in South Meriden, but the couple’s 75-year-old story began in 1943 on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi.

After serving in the Air Force in World War II, the military sent William Godburn to Southern Mississippi for education. His future wife was also pursuing a degree at the university.

”We met on campus when I wasn’t in class and just hit it off,” he said. “We would sit around the pool and just talk. We were married six months later.” Click here to continue reading.

Party in the Stacks 2018! The Legends of Charles Island

On Saturday, October 20th, 7:00pm-10:00pm, the Friends of the Milford Library will be hosting our third annual The Party in the Stacks!  This will be a fun, after-hours, adults-only,  event at the library! Our theme this year is “The Legends of Charles Island”, a celebration of pirates, shipwrecks, mermaids and other seafaring literature.  The party features DJ, dancing, silent auction, special themed game, and, for those that like to dress up - costumes are encouraged (but not required)! For costume inspiration, think pirates, mermaids, sea captains and other literary sea-inspired creations!

Silent Auction

The party includes a silent auction which is an important part of this special event and offers a eclectic array of items, including an African Safari, a sailboat, original artwork, museum passes, theater tickets, professional portraits, and more! Additional items are still being added, so come back often. Pre-bidding will take place from October 8th through October 19th at 3 pm.  Bidding will transfer to the party and continue for party attendees. View auction items here! 

$50.00 - Single Adult Ticket (purchase at the library)

5 things to know to help your pet live a healthier life

(BPT) - Pets are part of the family, so it's important to practice preventative care to support their well-being and help them live long, healthy lives. Just like people, pets can be affected by chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and allergies. That's why it's always good to stay informed and be proactive to help avoid or at least delay the onset of chronic conditions in pets. Here's 5 things to know about caring for your pet:

More pets have allergies: Cats and dogs are more prone to certain conditions now than they have been in the past. For example, over the past 10 years there's been a 30 percent increase in environmental allergy cases in dogs and an 11 percent increase in cats, according to the 2018 Banfield Pet Health Report.

Pets can have chronic conditions: Pets are also more prone to being overweight, and the number of obesity cases is rising. One in three pets is overweight and the numbers are growing. While you can make sure your pet exercises and eats a nutritionally balanced diet, there are many health conditions you have no control over. Just like us humans, pets can develop chronic diseases such as arthritis, heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes and thyroid disease.

Pets need annual checkups too: Investing in preventative care is one of the most important things you can do to ensure your pet is healthy. Annual checkups allow your vet to screen for issues and provide insight on any concerns.

Pets' chronic conditions are manageable: If your pet has a chronic condition that needs treatment, don't panic. You may have to make some lifestyle adjustments to your pet's diet or daily exercise routine, but these changes are usually manageable and well worth it for your pet's health.

Pet prescriptions may be available at your local pharmacy: If you need prescription medications to treat your pet's chronic conditions, look for alternatives that could save you money. Many of the same prescriptions we use to treat our chronic conditions are also used to treat pets, just at a different dosage. That means you can take advantage of the deep discounts offered with the Inside Rx Pets card which can be used in more than 40,000 pharmacies and offer savings on commonly prescribed medications such as insulin and antibiotics. More information is available at InsideRx.com/pets.

Taking preventative measures for your pets' health will help save costs in the long run, just like it does with people. What's more, it will help ensure that your favorite furry family members are by your side for many years to come.

Movie Review—A Star Is Born

Theatrical release poster

by Peter J. O'Connell

A Star Is Born. Released: Oct. 2018. Runtime: 135 mins. MPAA Rating: R for language throughout, some sexuality/nudity and substance abuse.

A Star Is Born is a romantic drama with music whose core story has become classic, with three iterations (1937, Janet Gaynor and Frederic March; 1954, Judy Garland and James Mason; 1976, Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson) in the 70 years preceding the current version. This fourth version is directed, co-written, and co-produced by Bradley Cooper, who also co-stars.

The “human astronomy” of A Star Is Born tracks the intersecting trajectories of a relationship and two careers. The relationship is that of Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) and Ally (Lady Gaga). When the movie begins, Jackson's career as a singer is near its zenith; that of Ally, also a singer, hasn't gotten off the ground. Ally's relationship with Jackson will change all that. 

In the tradition of movie romances, Jackson and Ally “meet cute.” After performing at a sold-out concert, Jackson, who has a drinking and drug problem that he hides from the public, stops off to imbibe at what, by chance, turns out to be a “drag queen” bar. There he witnesses Ally singing the classic French song “La Vie En Rose.” 

Ally works as a waitress at a catering hall and moonlights as a singer whenever she can, but she is about to abandon her hopes for success in show business because, as she tells Jackson, “almost every single person that I've come in contact with in the music industry has told me that my nose is too big and that I won't make it.”

Jackson is impressed with Ally's singing and persuades her to spend the rest of the night barhopping with him. And he tells her: “Your nose is beautiful . . . . Oh, I'm going to be thinking about your nose for a very long time.” In the course of the evening, Ally also punches out a guy in a “cop bar.” 

Taken with Ally's mix of feistiness and vulnerability, Jackson offers to fly her to his next concert. After some initial hesitation, Ally quits her job and goes to the concert. She doesn't just watch Jackson perform, she accepts his offer to join him on stage in a duet of a song that she has written. Videos of their performance go viral, and Ally's career starts to soar as she joins Jackson in his tours of the country. Their relationship deepens from “friendship with benefits” to true love.

Jackson finds it hard to overcome his drug and drink demons, though, and relies a lot on his manager/older brother, Bobby (the ever-estimable Sam Elliott). Bobby tells Ally that she has brought Jackson to the peak of his performing power, but she needs to be “careful around him.” 

It seems that the late father of Jackson and Bobby was an abusive alcoholic, whose bad influence Jackson finds hard to shake off. By contrast, Ally has a warm relationship with her own father, Lorenzo (Andrew Dice Clay). At the beginning of the movie, Ally lived with her father and his friends, who all work together as part of a driving service. Lorenzo and company function as a kind of Greek chorus in the film, commenting on developments. 

Developments start to become dark. Though the trajectory of the Jackson/Ally relationship peaks when the two wed, with a guitar string as the wedding ring, the marriage starts becoming troubled as Jackson has difficulty dealing with the steady rise of Ally's career, while his starts to decline under the pull of his demons. Jackson's fall (literal as well as metaphorical) is heartwrenching to watch, and the story's reputation for being a tearjerker is well earned in this version's third act. 

At one point, Bobby says: “Music is essentially 12 notes between any octave—12 notes and the octave repeat. It's the same story told over and over, forever. All any artist can offer the world is how they see those 12 notes. That's it.” Although the current A Star Is Born may, in its essence, have been a thrice-told tale when its makers started working on it, “how they saw it” brings the world of 2018 to that tale in a convincing way. 

The performances of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper are so convincing as to be compelling. Each star holds power in reserve along the spectrum from lightheartedness to heartbreak until just the right moment to express just the right emotion to just the right degree in just the right way. Bravo to both! 

And Bradley Cooper deserves a special hat tip for wearing so many “hats” in this production. It's astonishing that Cooper was able to direct the movie so well while also performing his own role so well—with a script (and some songs) that he helped write. 

Lady Gaga and Cooper do all the singing in the film themselves. The songs are almost all original to this version of A Star Is Born and are quite good. And the music is seamlessly integrated into the story.    

“Footnote” to the film: The dialogue about Ally's nose was not in previous versions of A Star Is Born, but both Barbra Streisand and Lady Gaga herself when they started their careers in show business were told that their noses were “too big.” 

Knight Persons

No Irish Need Apply.

The faded sign hangs beside the bar at the Knights of St. Patrick hall in New Haven, a reminder of the world in which its founding members lived—a New Haven that often excluded them from employment and housing and, once they’d worked their way into the system, membership in the city’s social clubs. So they founded their own.

The Irish club—and other immigrant clubs like it—became a “home away from home” for new Americans, says member Bernadette LaFrance, herself the daughter of immigrants. “Having a network of people who were already established or becoming established in professions” was important to those who had just arrived, LaFrance says. “When you had a connection or you knew someone… it was helpful and [gave] them a chance to get established and become [part of] the melting pot that is New Haven.”

The principle still applies. “I have very early memories of being both here and at the Gaelic Club in East Haven,” LaFrance says. When more settled Americans “would have family gatherings and get together with family, we’d go to the clubs.”

The Knights of St. Patrick’s unassuming hall on upper State Street was busy on a recent Wednesday evening, with at least two different organizations holding meetings and a small clutch of members communing at the bar, dubbed Gooley’s Tavern in honor of Daniel R. Gooley, a past president. On the wall near the front door, a photo montage of 42 well-dressed 19th-century men bearing serious expressions commemorates the club’s founding on St. Patrick’s Day, 1878.

The timing, of course, is no accident. The organization takes its name from the venerated patron saint of Ireland, whose March feast day is still celebrated with the rollicking Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Ensconced in a nearby corner of the hall is a life-sized statue of the saint, holding aloft his walking stick adorned with a gilded shape suggesting a shamrock. He stands on a black snake, representing his legendary banishment of snakes from the Emerald Isle. The artifact was rescued from the old St. Patrick’s Church on the corner of Wallace Street and Grand Avenue, which was torn down in 1966. Click here to continue reading.

Movie Review—Lizzie

by Peter J. O’Connell         

Lizzie. Released: Sept. 2018. Runtime:106 mins. MPAA Rating: R for violence and grisly images, nudity, a scene of sexuality, and some language. 

Lizzie Borden took an ax

And gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done,

She gave her father forty-one. 

This ditty, popular among schoolchildren for many years, is but one of the numerous treatments of the notorious murders of Andrew and Abby Borden that took place in Fall River, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1892. The murders, for which Andrew’s daughter (Abby’s stepdaughter) Lizzie was tried, have been featured in books (fiction and non), poems, plays, movies (on big and small screen), ballets, and operas. The grisly crime casts a continuing fascination, as we can see now in Lizzie-–presenting a somewhat speculative version of events—written by Bryce Kass, directed by Craig William Macneill, co-produced by and starring Chloe Sevigny.

The film keeps us mostly within the wealthy Borden family’s house, whose small rooms and narrow corridors convey a sense of constriction. Andrew Borden (Jamey Sheridan) is a domineering and miserly figure. His wife (Fiona Shaw) is his passive enabler. His older daughter, Lizzie (Chloe Sevigny), a thirtyish spinster, has to argue with her father for permission to leave the property. One time she leaves without permission to attend an opera alone and undergoes a seizure of some kind. Just about her only comfort is caring for some doves in a toolshed attached to the house, where hatchets and such are kept. Her only comfort, that is, until Bridget Sullivan (Kristen Stewart) arrives. 

Bridget is an Irish immigrant hired as a maid. Andrew and Abby don’t call her by her rightful name but as “Maggie,” the name that they give to any Irish maidservant. Bridget is not only denied her name, she is also denied her dignity. Andrew requires her to submit to rape regularly, a practice of which Abby is aware. Additional sleaziness is added to the faux gentility of the household by the maneuvers of John Morse, Andrew’s brother (Denis O’Hare), who is trying to assure himself the control of Andrew’s fortune if his brother should die. 

After a time Lizzie and Bridget begin to take solace in each other. The director and actresses delicately develop what becomes a passionate relationship. As romance grows between the two women, rage against Andrew and Abby also grows. Eventually--particularly after Andrew beheads Lizzie’s doves and has them served as family dinner--that rage erupts, and the two lovers kill the two tyrants. 

Lizzie and Bridget have taken various steps--some startling—to avoid being charged with the crime, but Lizzie does end up on trial. The attitude of the times, more than the facts, determines the verdict--with some irony involved. 

The smouldering mood of Lizzie is enhanced by the cinematography of Noah Greenberg, with its muted palette and mixture of angles. The same is true of the ominously minimalist score by Jeff Rosen. Yet their work, Macneill’s capable direction, and the excellent performances of the cast, particularly, of course, Sevigny and Stewart, never quite bring that smouldering to the intensely dramatic blaze that the material would seem to call for. Nor does the vaguely suggested notion that the deeds of Lizzie and Bridget constitute an allegory of feminism’s confrontation with patriarchy and capitalism really find convincing expression. 

Lizzieis well worth seeing, but it is a bit bloodless, dramatically speaking, rendition of a very bloody event. 

“Footnotes” to the film: (1) There’s a small subgenre of plays and films about pairs of murderous young women. An actual case in France spawned: Jean Genet’s playThe Maids(1947); a 1975 British film of the same name starring Glenda Jackson and Susannah York; and Claude Chabrol’s 1995 film, La Ceremonie.  In 1994 Lord of the Ringsdirector Peter Jackson brought forth Heavenly Creatures, based on an actual case from the 1950s in New Zealand. And Thoroughbreds, set in Connecticut, appeared on movie screens earlier this year. (2) Jon Heller Levi’s poem “Fall River Historical Museum” depicts Andrew Borden’s murder thus: “When the parlor door creaks open/to trouble his sleep, /his feather brows twitch and rise,/ but not precisely in surprise./A perfect gentleman to the last,/ ‘Finished with your mother, have you?’ he asks.” (3) Bryan Dietrich’s poem “Lizzie Borden” deals with a man who receives a visit from a resurrected Lizzie, who watches horror movies on TV with him. He starts to get nervous and switches to warmhearted movies. But: “Halfway through the second show, she kills you anyway, changes/ channels. Oh, look, she says, House of Wax.”