Movie Reviews: Bubble, The Matador

'Bubble' does not blow

By Celeste Meiffren

Steven Soderbergh is notorious for making big budget movies with a cast full of today's hottest stars. From "Out of Sight" to "Traffic" to "Ocean's Twelve," Soderbergh has proved that he is a box office golden child.

With his new film, "Bubble," he strays from this filmmaking trajectory and ends up making one of the most interesting films of the year.

With an entire cast of unknowns, "Bubble" follows the lives of three people who work in a baby-doll factory in a working-class town somewhere in Ohio. Kyle, a mid-20s high school dropout, does nothing but work two jobs to support his unemployed mother and his small pot habit. Martha is overweight, middle aged and unhappy. She works to support her elderly father who lives with her and comprises her entire social life.

Enter Rose. Rose is a free-spirited single mother who goes from job to job trying to find one that she can stand. She quickly becomes the object of Kyle's affection, which threatens the relationship between Kyle and Martha.

The film takes a fantastic turn about 45 minutes in, but it cannot be spoiled. The surprise is what makes the film so compelling.

This film could have been longer, as it only lasts 73 minutes, but its slow progression toward the climax makes the film feel longer than it is.

"Bubble" is an authentic look at the working class in the Midwest. Soderbergh and his cast represent it with such ease, that at times it feels like the characters are real people. The bubbles in which they live their lives are not fully penetrated by the filmmakers, but they become translucent enough to glance through.

Soderbergh, in addition to doing something out of the ordinary for himself creatively, is also doing something unprecedented in the release of this film. "Bubble" was released in theaters, DVD and pay-per view all last week. So it is currently available to be seen in any of those mediums. It is sort of a pilot project to see if more people will watch the film if it is universally available at the same time.

It is nice to see Soderbergh straying from the usual. Not to downplay the artistic impact of "Ocean's Twelve" or anything, but in a world where "Big Momma's House 2" is reigning at the box office, we could all use a little more "Bubble."

Anti-Bond makes for a killer thriller

By Tessa Strasser

"The Matador" features Pierce Brosnan in a way you've never seen him before, and not just because he's drinking margaritas with extra salt instead of shaken martinis.

Brosnan plays Julian Noble, an assassin who is sent to Mexico City for his next job. On the outside, he oozes slickness, with a gold chain around his neck and shades always on. He's the ultimate ladies' man. On his birthday, after he takes out his "hit," he stumbles drunk into a bar and befriends Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear). Although he's kind of a shady stranger, Wright is willing to get sucked in by Noble's friendly gestures for the same reason we are: Noble comes off as so darn cool. Noble realizes he's lonely and has no real friends, so he lets Wright in on the secret of his profession as a "corporate facilitator," and lets him see up close and personal what a day on the job is like for a hired hit man.

However, despite appearances, Noble is falling apart at the seams. He says it best when he describes himself as "a Bangkok hooker on a Sunday morning after the navy's left town." Every time he tries to take someone out, he sees himself as a boy in the place of the target. He is shaky and crumbles to pieces right in front of our eyes. The professional contracting business is not the best place to have a midlife crisis, however, and the boss wants Noble taken out to pay for the job he screwed up. With no place to run because he has no friends at all, he shows up at Wright's door in the middle of Colorado, looking for some hope.

The best parts of "The Matador" are the dry, witty punch lines that Kinnear and Brosnan share in their scenes together. Both of them have excellent poker faces that are made for the sarcastic lines that they throw back and forth.

With Kinnear as a lead role, I was worried about the over-the-top cheesy style of comedy that might have followed him from the uninspiring movie "Stuck on You," but he works well as Brosnan's straight man. The soundtrack also brings in some laughs, playing "Heat of the Moment" and Tom Jones' "It's Not Usual" during the heart-pounding action scenes right before a big kill. Although the film tackles the mental breakdown issue, it tries not to take itself too seriously.

"The Matador" relies on how you view the character of Noble. As a viewer, you shouldn't really like a hit man, who holds a job in which death is a normal occurrence. Under his killer front, Noble doesn't hide a heart of gold that might make him redeeming. He enjoys killing and is proud that he excels at it. It's just that while being a cold-blooded killer, he still has moments where he's just as fumbling and goofy as "ordinary guy" Kinnear.

When Wright tells Noble in the bar about his son dying in a tragic bus accident, Noble responds with a dirty joke about a midget. The next day he's sobbing outside of Kinnear's door, trying to apologize for saying the wrong thing.

Brosnan alternates between slick and breaking into tears with frustration. At the end of the movie, you want him to be successful (thanks to Brosnan's artful portrayal) and kill that sucker, which is what the whole movie is building toward - sympathy for the art of a clean kill.