P.S. I Love You

I have been waiting for this to come out on DVD for awhile! I was so happy when Netflix sent it to me the day it was released!

I LOVED it. What a wonderful movie. It's not really in the genre of movies I usually like, but there were so many elements of it that correlated with my own life, and I am not one to cry over a movie, as a rule, but this movie just had me balling.

It was hard to watch, in a sense, because it made me think about what I would do if something were ever to happen to David. In the movie, Holly (played by Hillary Swank) loses her husband Jerry (played by Gerry Butler) to a brain tumor after 9 years together. Jerry is a free spirited fun loving kind of guy, Holly is a bit uptight and insecure about what they have not achieved in their lives, and tends to be really hard on him about the little things. Jerry writes her letters and sends her on these different adventures after his death, in order to help her heal from his loss. It seems that it helps, but also is painful for her. There are some great co-starring roles in it as well, Kathy Bates (as her mother) being my favorite.

There were so many parallels between the movie and my own life, and that is an element that can really make a simple movie something wonderful. I can identify with being married young to a guy that tends to throw his cares to the wind, and with having a mother that worries about her daughter making the same mistakes. The hardest parts, like I said, were the parts where she dealt with the way things had ended with Jerry. She has a lot of regret over how she acted towards him, and things she didn't get to do with him. It was enlightening for me. We must live today, and love those around us as often as we can, because there is no guarantee of tomorrow. It was a gentle reminder to never take what I have for granted, and not to let regrets of the past, or fears about the future cast a cloud over my days with my family.

Great movie.

Beowulf

O.K.
This was not Beowulf. It was wrongly titled.
I don't have anything against the CG animation, I do appreciate high quality CG work such as this, it has its place, and is an interesting phenomenon within itself.
However, taking an ancient piece of literature and turning it into this, well, that's just not right. I would rather it been titled something else and thought "Hmmm...this is a lot like Beowulf," than thought that they wrecked the piece. There should have been some hint that the story was drastically altered.
I DO get what they were getting at. I'm sure they meant for viewers to see it as the 'story behind the story'. I would very much have liked it had they entitled it 'Beowulf:What Might Have Been' or something like that, though it doesn't roll off the tongue very well. Just something that hinted to it not following the book.
I guess I just like to know what to expect. If it is titled 'Beowulf' I want to see a really cool movie that follows the story as it originally is. I know. I know. The book itself is really vague about how the situation comes about, and there's that huge gap in the middle. Well, OK. I guess somebody had to improvise.

Either way, I like Beowulf and Grendel better, the one with Gerry Butler. :) Less gore, real action. And, well, Gerry Butler.

The Man Who Cried

A movie that is every bit as mournful and forlorn as the music that haunts it.

I loved it. Not that anyone should be surprised. Melancholy and introspective. Words often used to describe...me.

I love historical movies. I love historical romances, but even more than that I love historical romances with a bitter sense of humanity. Sometimes life isn't fair. Sometimes things don't work out for us. That doesn't make stories less interesting or heartfelt than those with the happy endings.

The music is flawless and beautiful. Salvatore Licitra , the tremendous tenor, has a stunning voice. (the character Dante Dominio, played by John Turturro) Also, Taraf de Haidouks, the group that provided the gypsy music, was exceptional.

As for the acting, Christina Ricci did a wonderful job, and I think I was the most impressed with Cate Blanchett. Johnny Depp is always good, I mean really, that man doesn't sneeze without quality work being produced. I (along with a zillion other women my age) have been watching him since puberty. John Turturro is excellent as well.

Great movie.

Mr.Magorium's Wonder Emporium

As usual, I'm opposed to critics. The reviews for this movie are terrible. Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course, but it seems to me that the point of this movie was missed entirely by many people that viewed it. Our modern world is riddled with negativity and an unfortunate boredom caused by the over-indulgence. We, as a people, are like a spoiled child who no longer finds interest in anything unless it slaps us upside the head. We have become Harry Potter's cousin Dudley. Sad. Now, I've said that. Moving on.

I found this to be one of the best films for children (and most adults) that I have ever seen. Sure, it wasn't as action packed as 'Night at the Museum' (another wonderful movie), nor as comical as 'Over the Hedge', but it was filled with a genuine message, a message that most children should hear. It isn't a movie for entertainment. It's a concept, given in movie form.

In case you haven't seen this, and hate teasers, you may have to turn away. It's impossible to talk about this movie without spoiling it just a bit....
*SPOILERS* *LAST WARNING!*

Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman) is an ancient man. Over 240 years old! How he came to be so is not mentioned, but he once found a phenomenal pair of leather shoes in Tuscany, and bought as many as he thought would last his lifetime. His last pair is just about to wear out, and he is leaving.
He has a wonderful toy store, that seems to have a magic about it. It is living, as are the things in it. It's a fantastical place, one that could have been built by Willy Wonka. His store manager, Mahoney (Natalie Portman), is feeling quite inadequate. She is in her early twenties, and having been a piano prodigy, she doesn't feel like she's lived up to anyone's expectations. Except Mr. Magorium. He adores her, and it appears there is no one else in his life so dear. He has decided that she will have the Emporium when he has gone. After battling with the idea of his death, she finally accepts it, but does not believe herself capable of keeping a magical store that seems to be as sad as she is over the expected loss of Mr. Magorium. All of this is intensified by the unimaginative tight suited accountant, or 'mutant', Henry Weston (Jason Bateman...who I was trying to place all along, thinking he was someone else...guess I'm not incredibly familiar with him.)

The lesson here is believing in yourself. Thinking positively about yourself. Self manifestation. Mahoney is wrapped up in her failure. She feels as if she has dawdled away the years, as if she has nothing to show for her life. Mr. Magorium on the other hand, seems to walk about in a stupor of sorts. He is a simple man. All he knows is positive thought. He knows no failure, because to him, each moment of his life is manifested as joy. He lives to love life. He lives to look on all things as a good experience, something positive just waiting to shape his life. Joy is found in simple things. Laughter in a moment.

Mahoney thinks that things can't be that way for her, after all, he is Mr. Magorium! He brings things to life, the magic seems to come from his own self. She is just a person, no magician, and so, she can not be what he thinks that she is.

Mahoney doesn't want him to go. She takes him on a whirlwhind adventure full of the simple pleasures that he enjoys, trying to convince him that he should live. At the end of the day, he tells her that all along he thought that she was giving him the 'best last day.' She becomes distressed and upset. He can't leave her there. The store will cease to be. This store is simply too wonderful to imagine, and it will not exist without him! Following this, he gives a tremendous speech, which most kids won't really understand. It's deeper than them. It's a message for adults about really living, and letting go. I can't recant it all to you, and I wouldn't want to. It's worth a listen. There is a reference there to Shakespeare's Henry V that is undeniably wonderful.

Overall, when the movie was over, I found it to be perfect. My children had a blast and there was a learning moment afterwards in our conversations about it on the ride home. Believe in yourself. It was only when Mahoney found it in her to see more than what was there, to believe in herself, beyond her own idea of herself....it was only then that she was able to find the magic within herself.

I think the problem was that people got caught up in the 'seeing' they didn't look beyond it, beyond what you see on the screen is one of the greatest messages there is.
The message was familiar to me, because I believe in such things, and have had the blessing of having such ideas blossom in my head. I immediately thought of Deepak Chopra's 'The Way of the Wizard' as I was watching. This movie is such an eloquent example, almost a children's version of 'The Way of the Wizard'.

To conclude, this movie is wonderful, but perhaps not for everyone. Some people see things on the surface, and others can see the wondrous things that lurk beneath simple things. In today's society, laurels are placed on the heads of fools, and true treasures are thrown into the mire and dismissed.

Blood Diamond

I loved this movie.

I didn't really think that I would. I was optimistic about liking it, and perhaps that is part of the reason that I do, but sometimes I can't see past the brutal violence. The violence was an extremely vital part of this movie, without it, there simply wouldn't have been a movie...the diamond had to be bloodied.

Halfway through it I found myself angered. Naturally. The movie does evoke feelings of anger and ferocity. What happens is absolutely astonishing and hardly graspable for us, living in a country where the ground has not been bloodied (save 9-11) for well over a century.
The anger I am talking about is different. I felt a compassionate anger, and at the same time scratched my head over why the US has made the choices in war that it has made in my lifetime. I have never understood the purpose behind our choices as a nation and have just trusted that those in power know what they are doing and such things are their concern. How that opinion has changed and bloomed over the years! I have come to realize that I am an American, and it is just as much my business as it is theirs. When I look at what we are doing now, and what is going on around the world, I shake my head. This movie has nothing to do with what is going on now, but just the same, it awoke my senses. When this story was unfolding in Sierra Leon, it hardly made news here. How irreparably blind and ignorant we are to the desperation that is out there! We live in the bliss of our 'safety'. We watch movies like this in our comfortable homes with full refrigerators, and that is the extent of our exposure! IF only we would look outside our world and see what it is that we can truly do as a nation, as a people, as humans.

I love Leonardo DiCaprio. I call him my favorite blonde, since I'm not much for blondes, and well, he's the only one I like. I have liked him since his appearance on Growing Pains, and in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. He is a tremendous actor! I remember back in high school when he was doing the Basketball Diaries and Romeo and Juliet, when I told people that he played the little brother on Gilbert Grape, they argued with me and said "No, that was a real retarded kid."
No. It was Leo, being the excellent actor he is.
But what he is doing now is even greater, because he is not resting on his laurels. Not only has he had six blockbusters since 2000 ( The Beach, Gangs of New York, Catch Me If You Can, The Aviator, The Departed, Blood Diamond ), and has six more in production ( Revolutionary Road, Body of Lies, Freedom Within the Heart, Shutter Island, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, The Chancellor Manuscript ), but he has also released a timely documentary that no one on earth should miss. The 11th Hour. Deny it, dismiss it, go ahead, but no matter what, the truth is still there. Go see it. Kudos to Leo for using his fame and status for the greater good, standing up for what is vitally important to the earth and remaining true. Bravo.
The 11th Hour Film
11th Hour Action
Leo's YouTube Message