Robert Tanitch reviews the latest DVDs
THE LAST FIVE YEARS (Ikon) is based on Jason Robert Brown’s small-scale, entirely sung-through musical, a two-hander, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2002 and has had a cult following ever since. It explores the relationship between an aspiring author and an aspiring actress who are having difficulty trying to balance love and career. Their two stories, criss-cross and go in different directions. The failed actress’s story is told backwards. The successful author’s story is told forwards. It is helpful to know this before you see the film; but this still does not necessarily mean you will always know exactly where you are in the time frame. Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan are personable actors and the chemistry is good.
ELSA AND FRED (Signature) is a bedtime story for two elderly but still adept actors. Everybody needs somebody in old age. Shirley MacLaine, 81, plays a 74-year-old. Christopher Plummer, 85, plays an 80-year-old. They are neighbours. She lives in a dream world. In other words she is a compulsive liar. He behaves as if he were already dead. Can she bring him to life before she dies? Of course, she can! They even end up imitating Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastrioanni in the Trevi Fountains in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. It is hard to think of any ending which could be more excruciatingly embarrassing.
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