HBO’s ‘Girl’ mimics ‘Casablanca’
Can a movie about love make a political point about foreign policy? It’s easy to forget that “Casablanca,” that most romantic of American films, was also a typical Warner Bros. movie of its time, containing not-so-subtle propaganda themes about getting a disengaged America into the struggle against Nazi evil, and embarking on a “beautiful friendship” with a decadent French ally.
Written by Richard Curtis, the HBO-BBC production “The Girl in the Cafe” (8 p.m. tonight, HBO) commingles romantic comedy and blatant politics in a most curious and contrived manner.
Workaholic bureaucrat Lawrence (Bill Nighy) toils all hours for the British government. His special area of expertise is the Millennium Goals, a promise by the world’s richest countries to reduce poverty, disease and preventable deaths in the African and other poor countries.
By chance, he shares a cafe table with Gina (Kelly Macdonald), another bashful soul.
His efforts to woo, or just talk to, Gina are painful to watch.
And that’s what makes the film’s more powerful (if more farfetched) second half all the more surprising. On a whim, perhaps the first of his life, Lawrence invites Gina to accompany him to Iceland, where he will be participating in the G8 summit of the world’s economic partners.
There, the seemingly mousy Gina expresses herself in ways that shock and surprise Lawrence, his colleagues and, quite frankly, the audience as well.
What do you get when you combine “Cagney & Lacey” and “The Nanny”? Well, it could be the “Mystery” presentation “The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Series IV” (8 p.m. Sunday, KSPS). It’s a buddy cop favorite from Britain, where the class divide remains a chasm.
Nathaniel Parker is Lynley, a detective with an aristocratic background, accent and attitude. Havers (Sharon Small) is pure working class but blessed with spunk and intuition.
As the fourth season begins, Havers has been demoted for past transgressions, giving her all the more reason to sputter and roll her eyes as the sleuthing tandem embarks on investigating a murder in an idyllic country campground that seems anything but random.
If scientists get their way, our family reunions could become very crowded affairs. “Explorer” (8 p.m. Sunday, National Geographic) presents “Search for Adam,” a look at the efforts of geneticists to find the clues that lead to a single source of shared DNA, the genetic “Adam” whose DNA survives in all of us.
Tonight’s highlights
A brash teen from the 22nd century is stranded in our present day, along with a caveman stowaway, in the cartoon comedy “Phil of the Future” (6:30 p.m., Disney).
Scheduled on “48 Hours Mystery” (8 p.m., CBS): a son searches for clues about his father’s killer 60 years after his death.
Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in the 1999 apocalyptic blow-‘em-up “End of Days” (8 p.m., NBC).
Mel Gibson is among the voices behind the 1995 animated musical “Pocahontas” (8 p.m., ABC).
Janeane Garofalo stars as a lovelorn matchmaker in the 2005 cable comedy “Nadine in Date Land” (8 p.m., Oxygen).
Scheduled on “48 Hours Mystery” (10 p.m., CBS): a 5-month-old baby disappears.
Sunday’s highlights
Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (7 p.m., CBS): Marines battle insurgents in Ramadi; dogs trained to “smell” diseases; Lance Armstrong.
Scheduled on “Dateline” (7 p.m., NBC): an interview with Bobby Brown and a plug for the Bravo series “Being Bobby Brown”; a profile of a free-diver Tanya Streeter.
An ailing girl’s wish on a two-hour installment of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (8 p.m., ABC).
Dating a secret psychopath can have nasty side effects, including massive doses of publicity. Find out how on “Amber Frey: The True Hollywood Story” (8 p.m., E!).
A simple fender-bender has serious repercussions in the 2002 drama “Changing Lanes” (9 p.m., CBS), starring Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson.
Lester Holt hosts “Coming Home” (9 p.m., MSNBC), a look at the challenges to U.S. servicemen and reservists returning home from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Xzibit hosts the car makeover showcase “Pimp My Ride” (6 p.m., MTV).
A chess master’s cagey moves raise suspicions on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” (9 p.m., NBC).
A mass grave of made men on “Crossing Jordan” (10 p.m., NBC).
A somber dinner party on “Desperate Housewives” (10 p.m., ABC).