Check out our editors' picks for the movies and shows we're excited about this month, like Mortal Kombat, "Them," and Stowaway.
Title: Madison (2008)
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| Credited cast: | |||
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Siri Bell | ... | Girl in Snowball Fight |
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Sarah Day | ... | Sue |
| James DeVita | ... | Michael | |
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Sophia DeVita | ... | Maddy |
| Jessica Erickson | ... | The Waitress | |
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Richard Halverson | ... | Professor |
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Brenna Jones | ... | Hotel Clerk |
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Brian Mani | ... | Ben |
| Gerard Neugent | ... | Ash | |
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Karen Slack | ... | Bartender |
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Jonathan Smoots | ... | Larry |
Michael is an acclaimed war correspondent who has just returned from Iraq after four difficult years. Emotionally scarred from this experience, Michael travels to Madison in search of the youthful idealism he had as a young college student at the University of Wisconsin. During his visit Michael looks up his best friend from college, Ben, who maintains a positive outlook on life in spite of the recent death of his wife. Ben's perspective is largely due to his precocious eight-year-old daughter, Maddy, who forges a unique bond with Michael, eventually leading to the journalist's cathartic emotional solace. Written by Madison Producers
We (my wife, daughter, son-in-law and I) saw this at it's premiere at the Wisconsin Film Festival Saturday night. We all politically agree with the film and thought it was great that the film was shot in Madison. And we were all very disappointed in the product.
The cinematography was competent and the acting ranged from OK to good. But the pacing and plot... oh, my. To say this is the slooooooowest movie we saw at the festival underrates how it moves at a snail's pace, portraying the obvious and the simplistic over and over and over again and then coming to a resolution (if it does... the filmmakers apparently think so) that is so clichéd and obvious as to make you doubt the sincerity in which it was made.
Some of us actually found ourselves nodding off during the film it is just that stultifying. Just how many pained looks (lasting what seemed like minutes each, over and over again) on the face of our protagonist (who was not a soldier placed in a situation where he was expected to kill/maim someone... he was instead a journalist writing about the war) can one endure without becoming completely frustrated? I know it was made with good intentions, but this script and it's portrayal is truly amateurish. I would not recommend it to anyone unless they just want to see some beautiful shots of the Madison area. There were not nearly enough of those to make this film worthwhile for my family.