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THE TAIWAN OYSTER (NR) Don't
expect Hangover 2Wjlnks in UGA
alums Mark and Mitchell Jarretfs fea
ture debut Two ex-pats, Simon (Billy
Harvey) and Darin (Jeff Paimiotti),
road-trip across eastern Taiwan to bury
deceased fellow countryman Jed (Will
Mounger). Nikita (Leonora Moore), a
sympathetic clerk, helps the duo steal
Jed’s body and accompanies them on
the quest to find the perfect burial site.
The trailer suggests at impressive
looking, independent road movie. The
SXSW hit is being feted at its Athens
premiere with a catered reception and a
filmmaker Q&A,
THAT’S MY BOY (R) A father (Adam
Sandler), who fathered a son (Andy
Samberg) in high school, moves in '
with his grown kid on the eve of his
son's wedding. Unfortunately, pops
gets into a feud with the blushing
bride (Leighton Meester). Hot Tub
Time Machine directing duo, Sean
Anders and John Morris, are behind
the camera. The rewrite of‘Happy
Endings” creator David Caspe's script
by Ken Marino and David Wain, both
*SS3te” atoms, bodes well.
LOCAL VI0E06RAPHERS
HELLA-StO SHOW (NR) As part of
Athfest Filmiest 2012, the Society of
Greater Things presents showcase
for local filmmakers. Featured shorts
include Matt BeatyS “215 Lumpkin
Street’ Evan Seitz's ‘ABCinema," Erirta
Francesconi/Adam Muiterts *A Small
Turn,” Sarah Gutierrez^ ‘Break the
Silence,’ Chris White's ’Dobraojca,*
Adam Kieinls ’Dugu Wolo," Brian
Garrett's ’Friday Night,’ ?’s Tofu,‘
Raines Plambeck's ‘Gracie Has a Glass
Eye’ and many more. Enjoy a meet and
greet with the filmmakers before and
after the Thursday screening.
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE
EXPECTING (PG-13) Expecting a
cinematic extinction level event on par
with Garry Marshall's star-whoring
Valentines DayINew Year's Eve, What
to Expect When Yorfm Expecting pleas- i
antfy met my vastly lowered expecta
tions. What to Expect would have
been a decent NffimiBridesmaids
knockoff had it slimmed down to one r'
main plot—an expectant couple played
by Elizabeth Banks and Mr. Melissa
McCarthy (Ben Falcone) compete with
his race car legend lather (Dennis
Quaid) and his pregnant trophy wife
(Brooklyn Decker)—and shed the extra
plot poundage involving Jennifer Lopez
adoptinc an Ethiopian baby, Anna
Kendrick and dhace Crawfords uh-oh
moment and Cameron DiazS star
pregnancy (with Matthew Morrison).
The almost interstitial scenes with the
daddy club of Chris Rock, Rob Heubel,
Thomas Lennon and Amir Talai amuse,
as does Rebel Wilson as Banks’s
mostly clueless employee. Like clock
work, every time it started to get funny,
the scene would shift to JLo’s woes
' Drew Wheeler
NO MORE NAGGING PAINS!
HYSTERIA (R) It may come as a surprise to
learn, that the medical establishment hasn't
always understood women. Bizarre but true.
Today, of course, women in most Western
countries are completely able to make deci
sions about their own bodies (and reproduc
tive organs) without having to worry about
politics and....
Well, OK, maybe not. Things have largely
progressed in some ways, though, as Hysteria
reminds us. Set in Victorian-era London in
(Maggie Gyllenhaal), complicates matters with
her socially progressive views, and Granville,
despite his reservations, starts to take a
romantic interest in her.
For a movie called Hysteria, about the ebb
and flow mysteries of the female orgasm and
the invention of the vibrator, it's all rather
meekly put together. Director Tanya Wexler
never seems to figure out what kind of story
she wants to tell—is this a romantic comedy,
a sex farce, a satire?—and the tonal shifts
Hugh Dancy and Maggie Gyllenhaal
the early 1880s, the ailment of hysteria is
afflicting half of the women in the city, as Dr.
Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce) repeatedly
points out. He should know: Dr. Dalrymple's
entire practice is devoted to "curing" women
of their anxiety and strange ailments by mas
saging it out of them by inducing orgasm.
Enter Dr. Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy), a
perpetually out of work doctor who Dalrymple
hires to help out with the patients. Mortimer
becomes so popular with the female patients
that his hand cramps up and he's forced
to start using a weird yet miraculous new
hand-held, vibrating device that his friend
Lord Edmund St. John-Smythe invented as a
fan. Women love it even more. Meanwhile,
Granville falls in love with Dalrymple's demure
daughter Emily (Felicity Jones). Emily's
fiercely independent older sister, Charlotte
from Mel Brooks-like broad humor (the scenes
of patients getting "treated") to the strained
repartee between Dancy and Gyllenhaal are
off-key. It's all amiable enough, and when
the film keeps fleet-footed and whimsical, it
works. But when Gyllenhaal, usually a nimble
actress, bursts into every scene bent on chew
ing scenery in as few bites as possible, forced
to spout leaden dialogue, it screeches to a
halt. It appears that Wexler and her screen
writers are striving to make a romantic comedy
in the tradition of Howard Hawks. There's no
wit here, however, and Gyllenhaal and Dancy
(who each have charisma on their own), lack
chemistry. There are a few good laughs in
Hysteria, but it's in desperate need of A little
more finesse.
Derek Hill
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