''Powder Blue'' is a 2009 American
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...
with an
ensemble cast
In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17
Structure
In contrast t ...
featuring several interconnected story arcs. It was written and directed by
Timothy Linh Bui, and features
Patrick Swayze's last film role before his death in September that same year. The film saw only limited theatrical release in the United States and was ultimately released principally on DVD in May 2009. The film was subsequently released in Kazakhstan and Russia and on US cable television premium movie channels in late 2009.
Plot
Several
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
residents meet on
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...
through chance, tragedy, loss and divine intervention.
Velvet Larry is the head of a corporate crime organization. He owns a sleazy strip club where Rose-Johnny, a single mother whose young son is in a coma, dances. Qwerty Doolittle is a young mortician who falls in love with her. Velvet Larry tries to convince Jack Doheny, his former employee, not to seek vengeance on his co-workers. Doheny later reveals to Rose-Johnny that he is her father. Charlie is a suicidal ex-priest. Lexus is a
pre-op trans woman prostitute who shares an unexpected emotional bond with the priest.
Cast
*
Jessica Biel
Jessica Claire Timberlake (née Biel ; born March 3, 1982) is an American actress and model. She has received various accolades, including a Young Artist Award, and nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.
Biel b ...
as Rose-Johnny
*
Eddie Redmayne as Qwerty Doolittle
*
Forest Whitaker
Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
After making his f ...
as Charlie
*
Ray Liotta as Jack Doheny
*
Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Valerie Kudrow ( ; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter. She rose to fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the sitcom ''Friends'' (1994–2004), which has since been named one of the greatest television cha ...
as Sally
*
Patrick Swayze as Velvet Larry
*
Kris Kristofferson as Randall
* Alejandro Romero as Lexus
*
Sanaa Lathan as Diana
*
Chandler Canterbury as Billy
* Jeffrey Adam Baker as "Slim"
*
Ravi Patel as Sanjay
*
Don Swayze
Donald Carl Swayze (born August 10, 1958) is an American character actor, noted for acting in dramatic series and soap operas as well as several feature films, and theatrical work.
Early life
Swayze was born in Houston, Texas, the middle child of ...
as The Bouncer
*
L. Scott Caldwell
L. Scott Caldwell (born Laverne Scott; April 17, 1950) is an American actress perhaps best known for her roles as Deputy U.S. Marshall Erin Poole in '' The Fugitive'' (1993) and Rose on the television series '' Lost''.
Early life
Born the mi ...
as Nurse Gomez
*
Riki Lindhome as Nicole
*
Billy Wirth as David
Reception
According to ''
Variety'' magazine, "the heartstring-pulling contrivances of the film, set during Christmastime, go way over the top... Biel often overacts even more than her role requires".
The magazine calls director Bui's "trumpeting of the power of love in the city of lonely hearts ... both ear-splittingly loud and tone-deaf at the same time" with "
Jonathan Sela
Jonathan Sela (born April 29, 1978) is a French-born Israeli cinematographer. He has shot numerous commercials, music videos and feature films, including ''John Wick'', ''The Midnight Meat Train'', '' Transformers: The Last Knight'', and ''Deadpoo ...
's color palette of nightmarish reds and blues and blinding whites, simply enforc
ngthe pic's borderline hysteria".
[
]Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
gives the film a 25% rating from eight critic reviews with an average rating of 3.7 out of 10."
See also
* List of Christmas films
Many Christmas stories have been adapted to feature films and TV specials, and have been broadcast and repeated many times on television; since the popularization of home video in the 1980s, their many editions are sold and re-sold every year d ...
References
External links
*
*
*{{tcmdb title, 684165
2009 drama films
2009 films
American Christmas films
American drama films
Films set in Los Angeles
Transgender-related films
Hyperlink films
2009 LGBT-related films
Films about striptease
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
2000s Christmas films