So, the other night I decided to act on a whim and signed up for Netflix....Mostly because you can watch movies instantly on your computer/tv, all the while wating for another (not available to watchi nstantly) is being sent to your house. Oh, and the first month is free. Gives me enough time to find a job, ah, which is also done, hopefully, because I recieved a God-sent e-mail from a friend of my grandmother (This is why I love my grandma....She has 20 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren, is 80 years old, but can still remember to tell all her friends that her recently graduated grand-daughter has a PR degree and is looking for a job.) telling me about a part-time PR job opportunity. The greatest part is that they found me, and it sounds like I basically just have to talk to the husband of my grandma's friend and the job is mine. **Fingers crossed**
Anyway, I've watched a few movies in the last couple of days and, as I am currently taking a break from reading, I am in a movie reviewing mood.
First, I found and watched an independent film called How To Be. Robert Pattinson plays a 20-something year-old struggling and depressed musician named Art. This character is constantly depressed and, after his girlfriend breaks up with him, forcing him to move back home to parents that are indifferent to his presence, finally decides to try and fix it. He finds a book entitled It's Not Your Fault and is so moved by it, he manages to talk the author into coming to England from Canada to have actual therapy sessions. It's definitely what I'd call a "dramedy." It has an overtone of what the character is feeling all the time, stressing the dull, depressing life with mostly-muted colors and similar weather. However, the situations he gets himself into are hysterical, and the witty British one-liners, while very British slang-y are easy enough to pick up and get a laugh out of. The ending is a "happy" one and leaves the viewer with a sense of inspiration and happiness, making it the ultimate British independent dramedy....in an offbeat sort of a way. I'd say on an A-F scale, I'd give it an A-, and out of 5 Stars, I guess that would be 4 and a quarter? Sure, we'll go with that.
The next film I watched was Remember Me. Ah yes, another Rob Pattinson flick. Well, I have wanted to see this film for a long time and it seemed like the perfect time to do so, as I was in a Pattinson mood. I am also a huge fan of Emilie de Ravin, as her character, Claire, was one of my favorites from Lost. Anyway, this is definitely a romantic movie. While it had it's upbeat scenes, it is definitely a drama more than anything. It follows a guy, Tyler, and a girl Ally, through their lives during the summer of 2001. Ally is a 21-year old who lives each day to the fullest after witnessing her mother's murder 10 years earlier. Tyler is also a 21-year old, struggling to find meaning in his life after the death, well suicide, of his brother a few years prior to this particular summer. After a twist of fate brought these two to meet each other, they began dating and, in spite of his usual reputuation with girls, Tyler falls for Ally, while also dealing with his seemingly-indifferent dad, played by Pierce Brosnan, and doing his best to support his little sister and to help her through her struggles. I loved every moment of this film. It's comedic moments, aided by Tyler's roommate, Aidan, the touching moments, like when you see Tyler realize he's falling for Ally, and vice versa, the loyalty and relationship between Tyler and his little sister. It's all fabulous. I'm not usually a fan of Peirce Brosnan, other than the Bond movies, but he put on a great performance as the dis-engaged father who is a big-shot business man and a not-so-good father. There is a particular scene in the movie, a row between Tyler and his father, that left me with my mouth gaping wide open. Who knew that Pierce Brosnan could be so emotional in a movie?! Then again, not being a fan, I suppose I haven't seen enough of his movies to really debate that. But it was so convincing and the witty and angry comments Pattinson and Brosnan thew at each other, while scripted, were easily believed because of the flawlessness of the acting. The ending was a surprise that really had me gaping, although I should have expected something of the sort, I got so lost in the story I completely forgot the other details that pointed to the ending I should have known would happen. Nonetheless, the romance and family-oriented details of the movie made me cry like a baby, and will also make it so I never forget this movie and has inspired me to do a better job of living life to the fullest. A and I guess thats 4 and three-quarters stars.
Another movie I watched was the wonderfully different fairy-tale movie, Penelope. Christina Ricci plays this girl who was born into an unfortunate curse placed on her blue-blooded family about 5 generations before she was born. This curse meant that the first baby girl born to the family name and blood would have a face of a pig. Penelope is the unfortunate victim of her great grandfather's indiscretions. However, her mom always seemed to suffer much more than she did, declaring to the public, who longed for a glimpse of the cursed girl, that she was dead and putting her in hiding for her whole life. Poor Penelope never left the house, and the only way the curse could be lifted was if she loved "one of her kind." Well, all the blue-blooded men her age would go running at her sight and so her mother's hope of the curse ever lifting sent her into a frenzy. All the while, we meet a determined journalist/reporter and a frightened blue-blood who have managed to find another blue-blood to try and snap a picture of Penelope for them. This man they found, Max, played by the adorable James McAvoy, is a gambler and needs the money they offer him. He ends up falling for Penelope. Then, when she asks him to marry her, because she has fallen for him, he says no, and she runs away from home. I don't want to give away the story, and I probably went into way too much detail, but this was one of the cutest and most uplifting fairy-tale stories I've seen. It's a great family film, and has a great moral to it in the end. The acting was phenomenal, and so believable, even though it is technically the story of an off-beat fairy tale. Reese Witherspoon produced it and I don't think anyone else could have done a better job than she. I give this one an A also, so 4 and three quarters stars.
Finally, I watched Easy Virtue, starring Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, and Ben Barnes. It is set in an English countryside, sometime between WWI and II, I think, and follows a family. Colin Firth is the father, Ben Barnes the son, who, while travelling through Europe, met and married an American woman race-car driver, Jessica Biel's character. The rest of the family includes a tyrant mother, the instant antagonist of the story, and James' sisters, also monsters. The three women aside from Biel's character have a very Cinderella stepmother and stepsisters inspiration about them. They make Biel out to be a floozy, as she does not have the best reputation around the world. She is older than Barnes' character, and finds his father, Firth's alter-ego, a very interesting and similar soul to her. I'd say this is a musical dramedy. No one actually bursts out into complete songs and dance numbers, but the actors, at least Biel and Barnes, recorded songs for the soundtrack of the film, and they are played throughout the movie. This surprised me, when I heard about the independent film a few months ago, and I heard that Ben Barnes was singing for the movie, I assumed it'd be a new, but normal-ish musical...Boy was I wrong. It's a great film that deals with the issues of post-war villages of that time, and the people that were changed by the war, how it affected their families, and the difference in cultures. It also dealt with the naivity and innonence of brash youth, as represented by Barnes character, and the diminishing of these qualities by others, as represented by Biel's character. This also had somewhat of a surprise ending, although much more expected and welcomed than the ending of Remember Me. This is a most interesting film with a unique way of mashing a regular dramedy and musical together, without being overly musical or overly dramatic or comedic. Perfect mixture. I give this one an A- and 4 and a quarter stars.
