Saturday, October 16, 2010
Welcome to the Rileys week, Day 6
For our last day of our Welcome to the Rileys week I bring you a review of the film from famed movie critic Roger Ebert.
Welcome to the Rileys was one of the buzz champs of Sundance 2010. The discovery once again is Kristen Stewart, who after this year’s festival can be considered completely rehabilitated after the “Twilight” films. The lead is James Gandolfini, as an Indianapolis plumbing contractor who goes to New Orleans on a business trip and meets (quite innocently) a runaway lap dancer who may be 16. At home, his wife (Melissa Leo) hasn’t been able to leave the house after their own daughter’s death, and Gandolfini decides on the spot to sell his business, stay in New Orleans, and rescue this angry and damaged girl.
That sounds like unlikely melodrama? So it is. But Gandolfini, Stewart and Leo inhabit it with persuasive performances, and director Jake Scott uses French Quarter locations that add another level of atmosphere. Gandolfini does something here he often does, as in John Turturro’s “Romance & Cigarettes” (2005): He demonstrates that although he may not be conventionally handsome, when he smiles his face bathes you in the urge to like him. Kristen Stewart here is tougher even than her punk rocker in “The Runaways.” Who knew she had these notes? I’m discovering an important new actress.
Nice words for Stew there from Mr. Ebert. I just hope that enough people have a chance to see it (me included, although I don’t need to be convinced of Stew’s acting abilities at this point).