HAPPY ENDINGS (Dramatic Narrative Feature)

Directed by Don Roos

Starring: Tom Arnold, Bobby Cannavale, Lisa Kudrow, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Steve Coogan

Run Time: 128 Minutes

What could have been a real disaster turns out to be something sweet and emotionally disarming. "Happy Endings" contains strong performances set within an America that will be strange to some viewers and eerily familiar to others. This is a multiple story-line piece focusing on loneliness and the use of sex to compensate for real companionship. Everyone has a secret story here, some of them are credible and play out in an interesting manner while others are just ill conceived and serve to undermine the others.

The best of the many lines belongs to Lisa Kudrow's character Mamie. When she was a teen, Mamie had an affair with her step-brother resulting in a pregnancy. The secret that is developed as an entertaining mystery is just what became of the child. Less interesting and frankly not credible is Mamie's present day affair with Javier (played by surprise, surprise "Six Feet Under's" Bobby Cannavale). I could not buy the story of Javier's immigration from Mexico and the suggestion that his job as a masseuse is really just a cover for sex work. Still, Kudrow is on her game here as Mamie and in one critical scene she conveys tension in her face that provides the film's best moment.

SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS (Documentary Feature)

Directed by Hank Rogerson

Run Time: 92 Minutes

I was troubled while watching Hank Rogerson's excellent documentary "Shakespeare Behind Bars." Can a man who has done something inconceivably terrible ever find redemption? The search for inner forgiveness is a ribbon that runs throughout the film whether it comes from the inmates themselves or from the Bard in his last play "The Tempest."

"Shakespeare Behind Bars" follows a group of inmates in a Kentucky medium security prison who each year put on a production of one of Shakespeare's plays. The warden of the prison believes in education as a form of rehabilitation and the Shakespeare program is one of the warden's educational initiatives. Run by volunteer director and Shakespeare expert Curt Tofteland, the program takes a small group of men "from the yard" and puts them together where they study acting and learn to perform Shakespeare. We learn some of the inmate's stories as the months of rehearsal progress. The film cleverly teases us by not revealing the crimes of the men all at once or in some nice neat package. Rather we learn about the men and their reason for being in prison as they dig within themselves to find a place from which to create the character they will play.

As you learn that at one point in their lives each of the men did something monstrous, you can't help but feel bad for them and you come to care for them. You want them to succeed even though at the same time, you might come away hoping that they never find their way out of prison. The message is clear, however, Shakespeare can help these hard men find a path that may lead to redemption.

ELLIE PARKER (Dramatic Narrative Feature/Comedy)

Directed by Scott Coffey

Starring: Naomi Watts, Rebecca Rigg, Mark Pellegrino, and Chevy Chase

Run Time: 94 Minutes

Now here is a refreshing thing: an actress clearly on her way to the top makes a real independent film shot inexpensively on digital video, and the film ain't bad. The star is Naomi Watts and the film looks like an independent production because it really is. While some viewers might complain about the sometimes shaky camerawork and even the fuzzy quality of a night sequence, I was impressed that such imperfections made it through editing. In independent film, you often have to work with what you get and you do the best with it. Larger productions sometimes gloss up little stories causing the charm value to melt away. But by retaining the rough edges, "Ellie Parker" is certainly a charming little comedy.

Watts plays the title character who is a struggling actress in LA. She maddeningly rushes around town each day from audition to audition while her personal life is eroding away. Her boyfriend is unfaithful to her and she can't seem to land a good role. She is lost but still searching. Her best friend Sam (Rebecca Rigg) also wants to be an actress and the two are able to commiserate. Will Ellie find a film role? But more importantly, will she find herself?

Many laugh out loud moments abound and genuine charm and honest sentiment make "Parker" an independent winner.

THE JACKET (Dramatic Narrative Feature)

Directed by John Maybury

Starring: Adrien Brody, Keira Knightly, and Kris Kristofferson

Run Time: 102 Minutes

"The Jacket" might be this year's "The Butterfly Effect." And that is not a complement. Implausibility upon implausibility mounts up as Adrien Brody tries mightily with much emoting to help us believe and make sense out of a truly bad time travel story-line.

Brody plays Jack, a Gulf War vet whose injury steals from him his memory. After a brief scene where he is injured, Jack is then shown 12 months later walking down some unidentified country road with his duffle bag on his back. The snow is piled up high and it is clearly cold, but Jack is walking along in the middle of nowhere. The scene sort of reminded me of Rambo's introduction in "First Blood." But unlike "First Blood" no attempt is ever made to explain how or why Jack is on that road. It's like leaving the gun on mantle at the beginning of the play and never going back to it later.

"The Jacket" is a surprisingly loud and unpleasant experience.

Well that is all I could see on my first screening day at Sundance. Joe spent the day at Slamdance interviewing filmmakers on video and then half the night attempting to edit a few clips to post tomorrow. Look for his report and my second series on capsule reviews tomorrow evening.

For information about Sundance visit the festival website: http://www.sundanceonlinefilmfestival.org/

For information about Slamdance visit the website: http://www.slamdance.com/

Jonathan W. Hickman