Taking Steps

During this damned pandemic, I've been doing a bit of reading. I found out how to get library books on my tablet, and one of the things I read is John Buchan's classic thriller, The 39 Steps. It was so good that I had to rewatch Hitchcock's movie, The 39 Steps (1935). Just as well, since I remembered very little from seeing it the first time.

It stars Robert Donat as a Canadian living in London. He is at a Music Hall, watching Mr. Memory, when someone fires a pistol. As they crowd clears out, a strange woman, Lucie Mannheim, asks him to take her to his flat. When he does, she is very cagey, keeping out of sight of the windows. She won't tell him what it's all about, except for mentioning the "39 steps" and meeting someone in Scotland. Oh, and watch out for a man with a missing little finger.

In the early morning, she stumbles into his room and dies with a knife in her back. Afraid that he will be accused of the murder, and knowing his flat is being watched, he sneaks out and heads for Scotland on the Flying Scotsman. Hitchcock films this train like an Art Deco travel poster. 

He has a scary adventure on the Forth Bridge, getting out and hiding while the train is searched, then kissing Madeleine Carroll to hide his face from the cops. He tramps around Scotland. He finds Godfrey Tearle, who he thought Mannheim was going to for help. But it turns out that he is missing his little finger.

So it's off he goes again, through the hills of Scotland. This is the part from the book that I wanted to see, and Hitchcock delivers some fine location work. In a case of mistaken identity, Donat winds up giving a speech at a political rally, introducing someone he's never heard of. It's going well - this Canandian can spin a yarn - until Madeleine Carroll in the audience recognizes him. She turns him over to the police and they wind up handcuffed together. Because of course Hitchcock wanted to handcuff his lead to a cool blonde.

I should point out that this woman does not appear in the book. The Lucie Mannheim role was a man. The lead was South African, not Canadian - just as rugged, but not as racist? And in the book, the 39 steps mean something. Here they are a pure McGuffin. Maybe it's better that way.

So, great twisty plot, some nice scenery, and very nice cinematography. Also, trains. What is your favorite Hitchcock train scene? 

Whistle, My Daughter

The Whistlers (2020) is a silly movie. I've seen it listed as a thriller-comedy, but it doesn't seem funny so much as weird. But at least it has some Canary Island whistle language.

In fact, it starts with Canary whistle language. Our protagonist, Vlad Ivanov, gets of the ferry to the Canary Island of La Gomera and is met by his handler, Catrinel Marlon, who takes him to meet local who will teach him whistle language. You see, in the hilly terrain of the Canaries, people learned to talk by whistling from hill to hill. And now Marlon's boss, wants Ivanov to learn this language to use in heists and other criminal endeavors back in Romania. 

Back in Romania, Ivanov's apartment is under total surveillance, because he is a police detective as well as a crook. So Marlon has to play an expensive hooker that he can only afford rarely on his salary to meet with him. He reports to his superiors that he is learning whistle language, and that he is trying to infiltrate the gang. It's quite confusing. 

In fact, I barely figured out that the plan involved springing Sabin Tambrea, Zsolt, from prison and getting 30 million Euros from a mattress factory. There are a lot of scenes that sort of go nowhere - maybe there was some clever clue in them, maybe not - I couldn't tell. For that matter, what a terrible idea using whistle language for crime is. It is loud, unusual enough to attract attention and generally not useful. 

But that's what we've got here - a semi-absurdist neo-noir, centered around the Canary Islands and Romania. The director, Corneliu Porumboiu, is a member of the Romanian New Wave, so it is also an art film, following the conventions thereof. We enjoyed it, but I can't say it has really stuck to us.

But I've always loved the idea of the Canarian whistle language, so it has that going for it.

The Fine Colombian

 Ms. Spenser suggested we watch Colombiana (2011), based on a recommendation from her trainer, I think. Action/revenge flick starring Zoe Saldana? Of course! As it turned out, she skipped most of it, while I loved it.

It starts in Colombia, with a mother and father getting ready for a big gun battle, while their daughter Catelya, a school girl with pig tails in a blue skirt and white blouse sits quietly at the table. Her father tells her to take a SIM card, and use it as her passport. She waits at the table as her parents are gunned down, then as Jordi Molla interrogates her about the card. She stabs him and takes off. 

This movie was produced by Luc Besson, so you'd best believe there is a parkour chase through the favela (or whatever the name for a hilly shanty town is in Colombia). The girl runs, slips, slides and sneaks while a whole gang of traceurs follow her over the rooftops. But she makes it to the American embassy, hands over the card, and gets a trip to America out of the deal.

In America, she gives her minders the slip and runs to her uncle in Chicago, Cliff Curtis. She asks him to train her to be a killer, and he does. She grows up to be Zoe Saldana, a contract killer. But she also does her own killing on the side, leaving a drawing of a catelya orchid on each victim, trying to draw out the man who had her father killed, Molla's boss. 

And so she does.

In the process we get some fun capers and fights, both hand-to-hand and weapons. Saldana is often wearing a skintight body suit, which looks great. However, it does limit how much they use stunt doubles (try to match that body!). As a result, some of the action has to be done by editing. Still, she looks pretty bad-ass, even if she can't pull off all the moves. 

So, very predictable, somewhat stylish action movie with a fave lead actor. Directed by Olivier Megaton, who should really have more action movie credits with that name. Mainly known for Transporter III and the later Taken movies. It turns out that Ms. Spenser picked this out for me, not because she thought she would like it. Thanks, babe!

Spaced Out Colors

Speaking of cthulhoids, when I heard that they were making a new movie out of Colo(u)r Out of Space (2020), I got pretty excited. When I heard Nicholas Cage was starring, I was still intrigued. When I realizes that it was out and available, I queued it right up.

It is set in the weird, spooky woods west of Arkham. A young black man in a Miskatonic U. sweatshirt (Elliot Knight) comes across a young woman (Madeleine Arthur) performing a magic ritual by a lake, to cleanse the cancer from her mother's body. He is a hydrologist studying the water table, she is the daughter of a local family.

We follow her to her house, a secluded mansion. Her family includes Nicholas Cage, a somewhat feckless man whose abusive father raised him in this house. His wife, Joely Richardson, is a somewhat frazzled stockbroker whose money allowed them to buy and live in the house, while she works online. As well as the young wiccan, they have two sons. The oldest, Brendan Meyer, tries to be a responsible son, although he also sneaks away to smoke dope in the alpaca barn. The youngest, Julian Hilliard, is a sensitive grade schooler. 

One night, a meteor crashes to earth in their garden, glowing a weird magenta color. The next day, along with Knight, they all poke at it, except Cage, who thinks it smells overpoweringly bad, although no one else notices. When the TV gets there, it has disappeared into the earth - but not its malign influence.

I guess this gives you a pretty good idea of the setup. I left out Tommy Chong as the crazy old dude who lives in a shack in the woods surrounded by junk talismans. I only vaguely mentioned the alpacas and left out the dog (does not survive). I liked that there is no real romance between Knight and Arthur. I especially like that Knight is a black man, which would outrage violently racist H.P. Lovecraft. His character is even named Ward (but not Charles Dexter). 

Anyway, it's pretty obvious early on that the Real Monster is "family". Actually, the kids seem all right, but the parents are the worst. 

Anyway, I would write more but (snicker) I'm out of space.

Undersea Kingdom

Underwater (2020) is a good old-fashioned undersea monster movie, like all the other ones we've watched. That's both its strength and weakness.

It starts in the usual underwater lab/drilling station/whatever deep in the Marianas trench. Kristen Stewart in a rad crewcut is brushing her teeth when something shakes the station - and we're instantly in full action movie mode. These guys don't mess around setting up the atmosphere. They go for it. 

The station is badly wrecked. She finds a few survivors, Mamoudou Athie and goofball TJ Miller and they head for the escape pods. They find them all gone, and only the captain, Vincent Cassel, waiting for them. His plan is to suit up, walk across the ocean floor to the drill, and use the escape pods there to get out. They also find a few more survivors. 

I'll skip most of the movie, just let you know that the reason for the destruction of the station is some kind of undersea monster, perhaps more than one kind. One kind are big, humanoid types. The other is a REALLY big, tentacled cthulhoid. Which is fun.

The other thing I'll mention is that the whole underwater physics thing is hopelessly muddled. Like, the atmosphere in the station seems to be at the same pressure as the surrounding water, but the water pressure will kill you instantly. But only in the water. Also, most of the underwater scenes are clearly on dry land with CGI underwater effects. Still, the futuristic pressure suits were kind of cool.

Also, the cast was pretty cool, especially K. Stew. After seeing her in Charlie's Angels, we're getting the feeling that she's up for some action. 

I should say that Ms. Spenser was less charmed - the combination of tired tropes annoyed her, while I felt like it was honoring tradition. And who doesn't love a cthulhoid? Maybe if she saw it as a consciously retro throwback, instead of a failed attempt at a modern, creative underwater monster movie, she'd appreciate it more. Oh well.

A Bad Book

Remember a couple of movies ago, I said I owed Ms. Spenser a horror movie TBA? I paid that debt with The Babadook (2014). I had been adamant about not watching this - parent/child violence is usually too far for me to go. But, hey, I got to see Charlie's Angels (2019).

It stars Essie Davis (Miss Fisher from one of our favorite detective series) as a single mom in Australia. The movie starts with a horrible car crash in slow motion, which turns out to be a dream - or a memory. She is pretty frazzled at the start of the movie. Her young son, Noah Wiseman, is frightened of monsters under the bed, and also builds fairly violent weapons to fight them - a backpack cricket ball catapult, for example. It turns out that car crash killed her husband when he was driving her to the hospital to deliver Wiseman.

They seem to be doing pretty OK anyway. Her mother-in-law lives next door and can help out, and her sister has a girl about Wiseman's age. Then one night, Wiseman asks Davis to read a book that just appeared on the shelf - "Mr. Babadook". Mr. Babadook is a creepy monster who gets kids if you let him in. Wiseman spends the rest of the night screaming in horror.

As time goes on, he continues to freak out. He can't sleep, and makes sure that she can't either. She destroys the book, but it shows up again. It gets bad enough that she takes him to the hospital, but they find nothing wrong - maybe he can see a psychiatrist in a few weeks. That won't be soon enough to save Davis' sanity.

She starts cracking up, seeing things, having violent visions. If she lets her guard down, the Babadook will possess her, and she will start killing.

One the whole, this wasn't as scarring as I was afraid it would be. Not as bad as Hereditary, for instance. OK - SPOILER - the dog dies. But it was kind of annoying. Also, it was a very well-made movie, lovely to look at, full of fine acting, and very true to life. I wish it had been less true.

Level Up

Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) is a stupid sequel to a stupid virtual reality comedy, that was a reboot of a Robin Williams vehicle. So why do we find it hilarious. 

If you remember, the last movie took a group of teens into a video game, taught them lessons, made them bond, and sent them back to reality. A year later, they are getting back together for a Christmas reunion. Except nerdy Alex Wolf who was going to go to New York and make something of himself doesn't want to fact the group. He's still a shlub, and doesn't want the rest of the gang to know - especially Morgan Turner, who became his girlfriend by the end of the first movie, but broke it off because he felt inadequate. He goes home to his mom's place and finds his grandfather, Danny Devito, is staying with them. 

Then, in the middle of the night, he finds the old Jumanji game and goes in.

The rest of the gang come looking for him, and meet Devito, and Danny Glover, Devito's old friend, now enemy. When they go looking for Wolf, boom, they all wind up inside Jumanji, except the popular girl, Madison Iseman.

Now, Devito is in the Rock's body, Glover is Kevin Hart, the big football player (Ser'Darius Blain) is now Jack Black, and Turner is sexy dance fighter Karen Gillan. The best part of this is seeing Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart doing Danny Devito and Danny Glover. Just hearing Johnson say "Ehh?" or "Jew-mehn-ji" would set Ms. Spenser off in hysterics. Hart in Glover's character kept asking if they were dead, and asking why he has become a "small, muscular boy scour."

I'll skip a lot of adventures and goofiness to say that they finally find Wolf, and he's in Awkwafina's body. (They recognize him when he gets caught thieving and says "Oy vey".) Also, there is a new feature lets people switch the character they are playing, which is a big relief for some. And finally, Iseman gets into the game with Nick Jonas, as a horse.

So not really a lot else to say - we laughed a lot. We also recognized that it doesn't make much sense. For one thing, everybody is going to want to play as Johnson, nobody would choose Jack Black. Also, Devito and Glover kind of took over the movie, but they still tried to give everyone a character arc. They didn't really succeed, especially Blain and Iseman. 

But that doesn't matter. I'd say this succeeds as a body swap comedy, and the character switch feature means we get to see Dwayne Johnson AND Awkwafina doing Danny Devito.

Angels' Share

The deal was: I could watch Charlie's Angels (2019) in exchange for a horror movie TBA. Ms. Spenser did not bother to join me in this watch.

I'll keep it short: sexy Kristen Stewart is seducing a gangster, then holds him down while a team of women invade the penthouse, lead by Ella Balinska. They do some banter. Later, Naomi Scott, a scientist working for a high-tech energy company has found out that the McGuffin is really - ah who cares. She goes to the Angels for help, because that's who K. Stew and Balinska are. 

Now, I never watched the TV Angels, but I did watch both of the 2000 version and its sequel. I assume this one builds mainly on those movies. They open the world up, so that there are maybe hundreds of Angels, and dozens of Bosleys. The 2003 sequel replaced Bill Murray's Bosley with Bernie Mac, this movie includes Patrick Stewart, Djimon Housou and director Elizabeth Banks as Bosleyses. We also meet the Angels' "saint" - their armorer, dietician, massage therapist, and eye candy, Luis Gerardo Mendez.

So, Stewart is the sarcastic lesbianish one, Balinska is the intense, hard punching one, and Scott is the new girl. They fight crime. Also, someone in the Townsend Agency is working for the other side. 

This isn't really terrible, but it isn't great. The McGuffin is so unserious that they add "blockchain" to the bafflegab describing it. The pace is very uneven, and the big training montage comes at the end. There are plenty of jokes and good moments, and the action is pretty fun. My theory is that it was a little too self-conscious and maybe too meta. Of course, I might not be the target audience. But the leads are fun - Stewart strong and sexy, Balinska more so, and Scott just cute. I'd probably watch a sequel.

Free as in Speech

We queued up Free Fire (2017) partly because of director Ben Wheatley, partly because it looked like a fun little shoot-en-up. It was pretty far down on the list, but Netflix reached down, past the Long and Short Waits, past the 3-4 movies I expected to get, and sent it anyway.

It takes place in 1970s Boston, although I don't think that is specified - I got it from reading IMDB.com. It starts with two knuckleheads in a (probably stolen) RV. One was recently beat up by some guy, and asks for some aspirin - his buddy only has smack. "Talk about taking a sledgehammer to a mosquito."

They are going to meet Michael Smiley, an old-colonel type who is getting some guns for the IRA, along with Cillian Murphy and Brie Larson. They all head out to the abandoned factory that will be the setting for most of the movie.

The guns are being sold by South African Sharltoe Copley and his ex-Black Panther buddy Babou Ceesay. Showing up late is Armie Hammer, in a sharp suit and full beard. He is going to be Copley's muscle. The guns come out, Murphy loads one (ammunition is kept separately), Hammer pulls his pistol, just as a precaution. It looks like the deal will go smoothly.

Copley has some of his guys bring in a van with the guns, and that's when the junkie knucklehead notices that one of Copley's drivers is the guy who beat him up. They argue a little, fight a little and are pulled apart a little. Then the knucklehead grabs a gun and starts shooting and all hell breaks loose.

Smiley and his guys are shooting at Copley and his guys. They are shooting back. People are shooting at the knucklehead, just because he's an asshole. There's a lot of cover in the warehouse, especially if you keep low to the ground. People keep getting shot but not dying so much. It all gets confusing. One of the knuckleheads says he forgets which side he's on. Someone shots someone on their own side in the excitement. Some snipers start shooting people, and nobody knows whose side they are on.

And that's the movie. The shooting starts about 20-30 minutes in and doesn't stop until it's over. It's exciting and silly, really a sort of comedy. Except very very violent. Junkie Joe gets a particularly nasty death, with his head crushed under a van going about 1 mph. Oh, sorry, SPOILER. 

So, big, noisy action plus black comedy. Some good actors, not doing that much. The action isn't particularly ground-breaking, but it is relentless. It also isn't too long, so it's got that going for it, too.

Red Dog Dingo

I queued up Red Dog (2012) on a recommendation from a friend of Ms. Spenser. I didn't realize that I was setting up a small ANZAC film festival, after the last movie we saw. There were dogs in that one too.

This starts with a trucker pulling into a motel in a small west Australian town of Dampier. Finding nobody in the office, he heads over to the bar, where he finds a few men trying to shoot a sick dog - but they can't do it. The proprietor pulls him a beer and starts to tell him the story of Red Dog, the most famous dog in Australia, maybe the world. 

He tells about moving to Dampier with his wife and finding Red Dog in the middle of the road. They picked him up, but his farts were so smelly, they had to move him to the back of the pickup. In Dampier, he became nobody and anybody's dog. It's a company town full of lonely and isolated men, and Red Dog made them all feel a little better. 

The movie starts slowly, with different people taking over the story as the locals arrive at the bar. Some tell little stories, some longer. We get to know some of these men (almost all are men). Finally, they get to the story of Jack (Josh Lucas), the man that Red Dog decided was his owner. It's a fun story, and a romantic one, because Jack also meets, woos and wins Rachel Taylor.

This is a sweet, sentimental movie - maybe not all that deep. It's mostly about the manly men of Australia, with lots of mateship and union pride, but not a lot of women, and only one visible but non-speaking part for an aboriginal Australian. But that's a different movie, not the one they wanted to make. This one is about a town full of men and the dog they loved - and the one man the dog loved. We loved it.

Be-Wilderpeople

I queued up Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) because it is a well-reviewed Taika Waititi movie. I was intending to do a series of movies about orphans, that just happened.

It starts with rotund child Julian Dennison (Firefist from Deadpool 2) being taken to a new foster home, deep in the New Zealand countryside. Child welfare agent Rachel Hall drops him off, with much bureaucratic bullshit about "no child left behind" - but lets them know that Dennison is a rotten kid who probably should be left behind. His foster "aunt" is warm, silly Rima Te Wiata, married to sour, silent Sam Neill. Dennison runs away the first night, but doesn't get far. After awhile, Te Wiata's cooking and hot water bottle in bed bring him around. She also takes him boar hunting and gets him his own dog.

This doesn't last long. She drops dead, and after a terrible funeral, Neill lets Dennison know that he is heading for the bush, and child services will come and take him. Instead, he takes off for the bush. Neill comes after him, but breaks his ankle. So they set up bush camp and stay for a while. But civilization, and that child services lady are on their trail. It's hard to tell if they think Neill is a pervert who has kidnapped the boy, or if Dennison is a criminal on the run with Neill (who has a rough past that includes methylated spirits and a jail term for manslaughter). 

So that's the main part of the movie: chubby, disturbed but decent Dennison and prickly bush-wise Neill on the run. I won't spoil any of it except to say: a dog does die in this movie. It is handled with dignity, but no way to avoid it.

It isn't too realistic, but not too silly. Hall's "no child left behind"/"zero tolerance" ranting get a little surreal, until finally a policeman tells her that that's more of an American thing. And she can't borrow his taser because someone else checked it out, and hasn't returned it yet. The NZ scenery is beautiful and you get a little bit of a feel for living out in it - but not much. For instance, Dennison goes from a citified gangsta-wannabe to keeping up on long treks pretty seamlessly. 

But he stays a kid. He does stupid things, even when they turn out OK. He even almost-sorta gets the girl in the end - Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne, a dream girl whose long hair swings in slow motion.

I have to admit I had a preconceived notion about this movie. I assumed that their trek would end with them finding some Maori, high in the mountains, who would teach them the old ways. But those aren't the wilderpeople. This is not The Valley (Obscured by Clouds) with a kid. If you want to know who the wilderpeople are, see the movie. 

By the way, turns out this was based on a book by Barry Crump. Ms. Spenser was turned on to this author by an Aussie friend many many years ago. Should have guessed - how many big New Zealand authors are there, after Ngaio Marsh?

Los Tigres del Norte

I found out about Tigers Are Not Afraid (2019) when the director, Issa Lopez, appeared on Josh Olson and Joe Dante's podcast, "The Movies that Made Me". They have a policy of not asking the director to talk about her films, but what little they mentioned sounded interesting, so I queued it up.

It takes place in a small (medium?) town in Mexico. The gangs are shooting up the town, and "disappearing" people - mostly women and children - for reasons unknown. Young Estrella (Paola Laura) is in class, listening to the teacher talk about the elements of fairy tales when a gun fight breaks out outside. As they all lay on the floor to avoid the bullets, the teacher hands her three pieces of chalk and tells her, "Three wishes". She walks home from school past a corpse, and a trail of blood follows her.

We also meet a gang of street kids, orphans no older than 10 or 12. The leader is called El Shine (Juan Ramon Lopez), possibly for the burn scar on his face. He steals a gun and cell phone of one of the gangsters. He takes them back to his crew, including Morro, a mute child who carries a stuffed tiger. He tells Morro a story about the tiger, who escapes from a drug lords menagerie and eats dogs, cats, ...and children! Because tigers are not afraid. El Shine likes to graffiti this tiger around town.

When Estrella realizes that her mother has been disappeared, she tries to join Shine's crew, because she's hungry. El Shine will only let her join if she kills the gang leader, who probably killed her mother. Deathly afraid, she enters his house and sneaks up behind his chair, then wishes she didn't have to kill him. The wishing chalk provides - he is already dead.

Still, the children have to run - the gang will be after them. In fact, the dead man's boss calls his cellphone to tell Shine as much. And all along, that drop of blood follows Estrella.

Now, this is a horror film. There are ghosts and wishes. But of course, the lives of the children who really live like this are much more horrible. But Lopez makes them into great characters, full of strength and courage, without making them smart or precious. And she gives them a very satisfying ending.

So what did Issa Lopez say about the movie? That it is based on the hippos that Pablo Escobar kept, who escaped and are now breeding in the wild. But they couldn't get a hippo within their budget. For a while it was going to be a zebra, but in the end, they found a very nice tiger at a reasonable rate. That worked out well. 

Little Big Women

Little Women (2019) is a bit like Emma. for me. It's a recent movie, a sumptuous period piece, made by and about women, from a beloved novel that I haven't read. 

The movie is the story of the March family. particularly the four daughters, and especially Jo (Saoirse Ronan). It starts with her as a young adult in New York, dropping a story off at a crusty publisher. She seems to enjoy living the bohemian life in New York, but gets word that her sister Beth (Eliza Scanlen) is ill, so she rushes back to Concord. Then we go back in time, to when the women were all girls.

The movie jumps around the timeline throughout, in a way that some found confusing. It wasn't a problem for me (hint: watch the hair). The March family is based around Father (Bob Odekirk), mostly away fighting to free the slaves, then to support the free blacks. Mother "Marmee" (Laura Dern) raises the children to be socially conscious - their aged aunt (Meryl Streep) is quite rich, so they have high social standing, but no money. Of the daughters, Jo is the imaginative tomboy, Meg (Emma Watson) is the girly one, Amy (Florence Pugh) is beautiful and accomplished, and Beth, the youngest, the shy, musical one, has scarlet fever.

They have a male friend, Laurie (Timothee Chalamet), who is frivolous and very fond of Jo. Meg goes to a ball and later marries a poor man, and Amy goes to Paris with Aunt March, to be married to someone rich, to provide for the family. This was a trip Jo wanted to take, but her aunt knew she was not marriage material. In fact, when Laurie proposes to her, on a beautiful hill in Concord (with modern buildings digitally removed, I guess), she turns him down. Later, just as she starts to regret her decision, Laurie marries Amy.

And Beth, of course, dies. 

So it's largely about Jo facing problems and carrying on through them. It sort of mixes Jo with Alcott herself, strugglng to make a living as a writer, to be taken seriously, and to make good art out of potboilers and midlist bestsellers. There's even a romantic happy ending tacked on the Jo's story when her editor demands it. 

It does a great job with all that, giving Jo and her sisters, family and friends time and space to show themselves. Laurie was particularly interesting, a free-spirit like Jo, but not so free of her as she is of him. Interesting to contrast him to Knightly (Johnny Flynn) in Emma. Very similar types.

But a lot of the joy of the film is the look, the sets, the costumes. Director Greta Gerwig reproduces Civil War era New England beautifully. I have visited Fruitlands, where Alcott's father had a short lived commune, and the March house in the movie was the spitting image. Of course, the frocks are amazing, not just the fancy ones, but also Jo's odd assortment of blouses, vests and jackets. It turns out that Ronan and Chalamet sometimes exchange pieces of wardrobe, to indicate their closeness and Jo's tomboy nature. 

I enjoyed this a lot, maybe more than Emma., which was very strongly focused on the title character. This movie was more of an ensemble, plus it has the interesting flashback timeline. But both are great, and I'm glad Ms. Spenser doesn't mind watching guy flicks like these, as long as I mix in some ghosts or hotrods.