Filed under: movie review | Tags: cate blanchett, Drama, f. scott fitzgerald, movie review
Life Lived Backwards
Starring: Brad Pitt / Cate Blanchett / Taraji P. Henson / Tilda Swinton
Rating: PG-13 (Mild Adult Themes)
Basis: Short Story: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Release Date: December 25, 2008
I know I’m a little behind schedule on this one since it’s been in theaters since last Christmas, but honestly until last week I just wasn’t in the mood for a incredibly long drama. Once I finally broke down and saw it I barely noticed the running time which is quite an accomplishment (one I hope that Watchmen can achieve this weekend). The film is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald (screenplay by Eric Roth) and the cast is far from unknown. Of course the other half of Brangelia is the main focus as Benjamin and the amazing Cate Blanchettt plays his love interest.
Basically to put it short but sweet the movie is about an infant whose body at birth is that of an incredibly old man. The poor child is abandoned by his terrified father after his mother dies in childbirth, and left on the doorstep of an elderly people’s home in New Orleans, Louisiana. Taken in by Queenie, a black woman who worked at the home, Benjamin is loved dearly by her and raised as her son. He goes through his life and his incredible adventures while all the time aging backwards. He meets Daisy at a young age who’s grandmother lives in the elderly home and they stay in contact throughout the years. They finally meet again in their forties when they are the same age and fall in love.
The story is narrated by Daisy’s daughter Caroline who is reading from Benjamin’s diary to her dying mother on the eve on Hurricane Katrina’s arrival in a hospital. Through the diary both Carolina and Daisy learn of all the challenges and experiences of his life that are both amazing and somewhat sad.
The Older Man
I found the movie very moving and even though I’m not known for being much of a sappy kind of girl I though it was both inspiring and a bit depressing at the same time. I was able to relate to many of the themes in the film as I would imagine most people would and loved the plot design and underlying metaphorical meaning of the story.
Daisy & Benjamin
As I stated before I didn’t mind the length of the film because I was so engulfed in the story that I didn’t notice how long I was there and I haven’t experienced that in a lengthy film since the LOTR’s trilogy. The acting by both Pitt and Blanchettt was as always excellent and I was pleasantly surprised by both Taraji P. Henson (Queenie) and Tilda Swinton who played Elizabeth Abbott, who Benjamin has a love affair with in his early twenties.
Bottom Line: WONDERFULLY MOVING DRAMA
- The Dead Girl
Starring:Toni Collette, Marcia Gay Harden, Josh Brolin, Brittany Murphy, Kerry Washington, James Franco, Rose Byrne, Giovanni Ribisi, Mary Beth Hurt
Rated: R (Language etc.)
Release Date: DVD May 15, 2007
Writer Director: Karen Moncrieff
I got to see this movie last night on Showtime and watched the whole thing even though I hadn’t planned to. It just caught my attention and pulled me in to the point where I just had to see what happened next. Here is a brief synopsis from IMDB.com © (jhailey):
In Los Angeles, a story about a dead girl, told in five chapters. A woman, miserable in her circumscribed life caring for her domineering mother, finds a body. Somehow, this discovery allows her to change. At the morgue, the sister of a girl missing for 15 years believes the body is that of her sister; this liberates her. An older woman, married to a man who pays her little attention, finds evidence in a storage unit; how will she handle it? The mother of the dead girl, who left home some years before, visits the last place her daughter lived and makes her own discoveries. Last, we flash back to the victim’s final day.
I thought that this movie was very thought provoking and extremely well written. Not the mention that the performances by the cast were right on point. Every single character had a key role to play and you could easily empathize with each woman’s individual struggle with their circumstances. Every character’s story brought you closer to figuring out what happened to this girl that in one way or another connected them.
The story starts out with Arden (Toni Collette) who finds the body. She is completely repressed and controlled by her sadistic mother. When this body is found she seems to turn a corner in her life and set herself free. Then it moves on to the sister (Rose Byrne) of a girl whose family fell apart after she disappeared 15 years earlier. She plays this character, Leah, with a great deal of passion and really portrayed depression in a way that I could connect with.
Next it moves on to Ruth (Mary Beth Ray) who plays the neglected and frustrated wife of an introverted man. She makes a shocking discovery in a storage space of her husbands. Ruth is a character that it is easy to dislike right away and who really holds to key to the entire story. What she does with it I won’t say because it will ruin the ending.
Melora (Marcia Gay Harden) plays a mother who’s daughter ran away years ago for reasons she never understood until she finds the place her daughter last lived at. There she uncovers the heartbreaking life that her daughter was leading and why she ran away in the first place. In the end her story is filled with a renewed sense of purpose in life. Lastly Krista’s (Brittany Murphy) story fills in the remaining gaps and we find out how her last day was spent.
All the characters were important to the story and gave you a different perspective on the lives that people lead. This was one of those movies that makes an impact in your mind and stays with you, unlike most of those more expensive films that you forget the moment the credits role. I think possibly the most underappreciated role in this film was that of Rosetta (Kerry Washington) who did an amazing job portraying a character that I wouldn’t have ordinarily pictured her playing.
Bottom Line: WELL WRITTEN MUST SEE DRAMA
One Cute Outfielder
Starring: Owen Wilson/ Jennifer Aniston
Rating: PG
Release Date: Christmas Day
I really was not impressed with this movie at all. The main reason I thought it was a disappointment was because their marketing of the film was all wrong. They portrayed it in the commercials as this fun-filled comedy about a family and a wild but loveable dog. This is not the case.
I made the mistake of going to see this film with someone I didn’t know very well and basically made a crying fool of myself, as did much of the audience with me from all the sniffling I heard. Yes, the movie was about an adorable dog and the whole first half of it was funny and light-hearted, but they build you up just to bring you down. As soon as Marley started having trouble walking up the front stairs of the family home in the film I knew it was going to be all down hill from there.
I had lost a dog this past summer and so this movie hit me especially hard. I do not recommend it for anyone who has recently lost a pet because it will most certainly bring up all those sad feelings all over again. And the thing that got me was how much they milked the sadness at the end. It was as if the writer and director were trying to squeeze as many tears out as they could.
Overall if I had known then what I know now I would have rented this one with a box of tissues and watched it alone on my couch.
Bottom Line: TOTAL SOBFEST
plus lots of tears
Starring: Will Smith/Rosario Dawson/Woody Harrelson
Rated: PG-13
Release Date: 12-19-08
I went into this movie knowing that I was most likely going to end up a tear-filled mess due to the fact that I arrived about 10 minutes early to see the previous audience leave. About 90% of those exiting the theater were watery eyed and sniffling. Although I was apprehensive I tried to stay optimistic about seeing it after that.
The beginning of the movie, as with the previews, didn’t give much information as to what was really going on but Smith’s performance as always was on point from the get-go. The movie draws you into the plot slowly but once you’re in there’s no turning back and you feel as if you’re on an emotional rollercoaster along with the characters. Basically Smith plays an IRS agent who decides to help seven strangers. I will not reveal any more than that because doing so would make one appreciate the film less going in.
I felt that deep down the movie was a love story. Not just the every-day romantic blah-fest starring Gerard Butler and that blonde girl. This is the kind of love story that involves all types of love. Love for family, a companion and the everyday stranger you meet on the street. I left the theater (crying of course) inspired to find ways to give more of myself to others. Very few movies these days inspire me to do much of anything so in that fact this one was an accomplishment.
The in-famous movie critics have given this movie a hulk-sized thumbs down but I have to disagree. I felt that if you get past the David-Lynch-style mind warp of a plot twist you can really enjoy a heartfelt film. And of course performances by Smith and Dawson are amazing. I would say it’s a must see.
Bottom Line: MUST SEE (bring tissues)
