Mumford**

Seen on 16-12-2009 - Zee Studio

It's about a person who fakes to be a psychiatrist in the small town, Mumford, where he helps quite a few people in that capacity. Eventually when he gets the boot, he has fallen in love with a woman patient he has helped. He gets off with a small punishment while the woman he loves promises to wait for him return from correctional center

Reservation Road**

Seen on 11-11-2009

Eastern Promises**1/2

Seen on 30-10-2009
In London a midwife who has saved the just born baby walks into a formidable Russian mafia whose chief turns out to be the father of the orphaned baby and therefore makes every wily effort to wipe out the evidence as well as the baby. The midwife's efforts are supported by an undercover secret who works for the mafia chief. This is full of nail-biting suspense.

Secrets of Undercover Wife**

Seen on 26-10-2009
This is about a wife's spy work to save her husband falsely implicated in an embezzlement case by his company. It's interesting.

Dear Frankie (2004)***

Seen on 8-10-2009 - Star Movies
Cast: EmilyMortimer (Single Mother), Jack McElhone (Frankie, the boy), Gerard Butler (Hired father)
Dir. : Shona Auerbach
IMDB Summary:
"Nine-year-old Frankie and his single mum Lizzie have been on the move ever since Frankie can remember, most recently arriving in a seaside Scottish town. Wanting to protect her deaf son from the truth that they've run away from his father, Lizzie has invented a story that he is away at sea on the HMS Accra. Every few weeks, Lizzie writes Frankie a make-believe letter from his father, telling of his adventures in exotic lands. As Frankie tracks the ship's progress around the globe, he discovers that it is due to dock in his hometown. With the real HMS Accra arriving in only a fortnight, Lizzie must choose between telling Frankie the truth or finding the perfect stranger to play Frankie's father for just one day..."

Judicial Indiscretion (2007)***+

Seen on 7-10-2009 - HBO
Cast: Anne Archer (Monica Barrett)
Dir. : George Mendeluk
An exciting movie about a woman, nominated to the position of Superme Court justice by the President, falls a prey to political intrigue to discredit her by implicating in a scandalously cheap sexual involvement. The manner in which she extricates herself from all this and comes out a winner is the stuff of this thrilling drama.

Stolen Summer (2002)****

Seen on 6-10-2009 - Star Movies
Cast: Mike Weinberg (Danny), Adiel Stein (Pete)
Dir. : Pete Jones
This starts off as a simple inter-faith dialogue, about to become simplistic and risks pushing forward in a naive vein but surprises us by suddenly plumbing unforeseen depths of human involvement both at the level of innocence of children and at adult level. The script handles the theme with great dexterity. Simply put the movie is appeals to us at a visceral level.
IMDB Summary:
"Pete, an eight-year-old Catholic boy growing up in the suburbs of Chicago in the mid-1970s, attends Catholic school, where as classes let out for the summer, he's admonished by a nun to follow the path of the Lord, and not that of the Devil. Perhaps taking this message a bit too seriously, Pete decides it's his goal for the summer to help someone get into heaven; having been told that Catholicism is the only sure path to the kingdom of the Lord, Pete decides to convert a Jew to Catholicism in order to improve their standing in the afterlife. Hoping to find a likely candidate, Pete begins visiting a nearby synagogue, where he gets to know Rabbi Jacobson, who responds to Pete's barrage of questions with good humor. Pete also makes friends with the Rabbi's son, Danny, who is about the same age; when he learns that Danny is seriously ill, he decides Danny would be an excellent choice for conversion. When the priest at Pete's church informs Pete that all will be tested before they pass the Pearly Gates, he sets up a mini-decathlon and puts Danny in training as he attempts to reshape his spiritual thinking. Pete's parents aren't sure just what to make of Pete's new summer project, and as they become acquainted with Rabbi Jacobson, they share their perspectives on the unexpected trials of parenting."

The Score (2001)***

Seen on 5-10-2009 - HBO
Cast: Robert De Niro (Nick), Edward Norton (Jack), Marlon Brando (Max)
Dir. :Frank Oz
Nick is planning to bid goodbye to his life of a thief to live off his ill-begotten wealth peacefully. However, his handler, Max puts him up to one last heist and he, aided and persuaded by Jack (an insider to the place where the heist is planned), accepts the otherwise impossible job. The job is to steal an invaluable antique piece, a scepter, now lying hidden in the high security Custom House in Montreal. Jack provides the maps, layout, duplicate keys of the locker, intricate alarm systems, cctv, etc of the custom house, but, as it turns out at the end, has his own agenda of stealing it from Nick once he secures it. However, Nick is smarter and manages to get away with the original of the antique leaving Jack behind for getting caught.
This is a suspenseful and enjoyable film.

The Castle (1997)***+

Seen on 5-10-2009 - Star Movies
Cast: Michael Caton (Darryl Kerrington)
Dir. : Rob Sitch
Australians too have come with some good movies!! This particular seems to have won 2 awards and quite a few nominations.
This is one man's valiant fight against a multi-billion dollar company which tried to grab his land along with the happy home he has so assiduously built over years. The fact that a common ordinary man challenges an impossibly powerful company aligned with the local government is impressive in itself.
This reminded me of my 20-year long struggle--on a minor scale though-- to retain the family plot against the land grabbers in the neighborhood. Although my brothers have joined in the struggle at a later stage, had it not been for my bold initiative, we would have lost this piece of valuable land.

Stop-Loss (2008)***

Seen on 3-10-2009 - Sony Pix
Cast: Ryan Phillippe (Brandon King), Mellissa George
Dir. :Kimberly Pierce
IMDB Summary:
"Decorated Iraq war hero Sgt. Brandon King makes a celebrated return to his small Texas hometown following his tour of duty. He tries to resume the life he left behind. Then, against Brandon's will, the Army orders him back to duty in Iraq, which upends his world. The conflict tests everything he believes in: the bond of family, the loyalty of friendship, the limits of love and the value of honor."

Stranger than fiction (2006)***

Seen on 1-10-2009 - Sony Pix
Cast: Harold Crick, IRS agent (Will Farrell, IRS agent), Ana Pascal, Crick's girlfriend (Maggie Gallenhaal), Karen Eiffel (Emma Thomson), Penny Escher (Queen Latifah)
Dir. : Marc Foster ("Monster's Ball", "Finding Neverland" fame)
IMDB Summary:
"Everybody knows that your life is a story. But what if a story was your life? Harold Crick is your average IRS agent: monotonous, boring, and repetitive. But one day this all changes when Harold begins to hear an author inside his head narrating his life. The narrator it is extraordinarily accurate, and Harold recognizes the voice as an esteemed author he saw on TV. But when the narration reveals that he is going to die, Harold must find the author of the story, and ultimately his life, to convince her to change the ending of the story before it is too late."

My comment:
Crick is a character out of Eiffel's story and the fictional and the real intersect here. Strange experiment this! However, the problem for the author is whether to give a tragic ending to her story by killing her character just when he was beginning to find happiness in his otherwise monotonous life. Strangely enough, Crick seeks her out and pleads with her and the author saves him by giving an unexpected twist to the fatal accident in which the character was supposed to have died in the earlier version of the story; something she had not done in any of her earlier books.
The Professor of English (played by Dustin Hoffman), whose help Crick seeks when he comes to know that he will soon be put to death, tries to convince him that he has to die or else there can't be a great book. Crick also pleads with the author herself. Later at one point, interestingly enough, her character Crick even resigns to die if that makes her book a great one even though he doesn't want to die. However the author takes the unusual step--unusual for her because all her books ended in death--of saving him by giving a new twist to the story's predictable ending.
One wonders what, after all, is the point of all this. Was the filmmaker trying to underscore the artbitrariness of human destiny?

Fireflies in the Garden (2008)***

Seen on 25-9-2009 - HBO movie
Cast: Ryan Reynolds (of "Definitely, Maybe" fame) (Michael), Julia Roberts (Lisa, the mother), Willem Dafoe (Charles, the father), Emily Watson (Jane, aunt),
Dir.: Dennis Lee
The title of the movie is said to be from Robert Frost's poem.
This is about a young boy who has grown up with discord in the family, loving mother, violent and hostile father and an aunt (mother's sister) about his age. Through all these experiences emerges bonds and hatred turns into love.
The boy Michael grows to become a writer and he puts in his first book his hostilities with a violent father, his love for an unhappy mother who could not often defend him against the father and all those unpleasant episodes that haunted him through his life. When the mother unexpectedly dies in a car accident, the tragedy causes grief and underneath his lifelong grudge against his father he discovers love. He burns the ms of the book in which he put the bitterness of his life.
IMDB summary:
"The semi-autobiographical story centers on the complexities of love and commitment in a family torn apart when faced by an unexpected tragedy."

Black Balloon (2008)***+

Seen on 24-9-2009 - Sony Pix
Cast: Rhys Wakefield (Thomas Mollison), Luke Ford (Charlie Mollison), Gemma Ward (Jackie)
Dir. : Elissa Down
This Australian film has won 15 awards & 23 Nominations. We saw this without subtitles and couldn't appreciate fully the nuances of situations.
But it was clear that the film is about gradual acceptance by the normal brother of the responsibility for his autistic younger brother. There is a moral growth in the normal brother which is adds weight to the film.
This recalls the movie, What's Eating Gilbert Garpe where De Caprio played the autistic brother, while Johnny Depp did the other one. In both the acting and script is superb, but somehow we seem to have liked the Depp starrer. Surprisingly in both the films, the normal brother would have gone it alone to tend to their brothers, even if their girl-friends too hadn't accepted their life-long responsibility. But as it happens in both the films, they take the whole package.
But Black Balloon differenciates itself by presenting a boy initially balks at the situation, but gradually changes and accepts what's hard-to-accept. Where as Garpe is endowed with a temperament to accept not simply the responsibility of his brother, but of unmarried sisters and of his poor impossibly fat mother. This makes the Australian movie better.

Chasing Liberty (2004)**

Seen on 24-9-2009 - A Star Movies film
Cast: Mandy Moore (Anna Foster), Matthew Goode (Ben Calder)
Dir. : Andy Cadiff
This is a take off on the Roman Holiday, with the difference that in this film it happens to be the daughter of the American First family who is allowed to run away and have an illusion of freedom and liberty of roaming unescorted in Prague, Berlin, and Venice. When the escapee girl discovers the set up she is upset, but in the process she has fallen in love with her escort, Ben Calder, whom she mistakes to be a casual acquaintance. But Ben has also, against his professional ethics, fallen in love and quits his job.
IMDB Summary:
"Anna Foster (Mandy Moore) has never had an ordinary life. At eighteen years old, she is the most protected girl in America; she is the First Daughter. Frustrated with her overprotective father, the President of the United States of America (Mark Harmon), Anna makes a deal with him: only two agents are allowed to guard her while she attends a concert in Prague. When her father backs out of his promise, Anna flies into a temper and goes on the run with Ben Calder (Matthew Goode), a handsome photographer she runs into outside of the music club. They travel together with the intention of going to the Love Parade in Berlin. Anna hasn't told Ben who she is but more importantly, Ben hasn't told her who he is. Under the orders of Anna's father, Ben is supposed to keep an eye on the rebellious girl but falling in love with her wasn't something he expected to do. Romance blossoms between the wild, sassy Anna and the cool, distant Ben as they backpack through Europe. Problem is, when it is time to go back and Anna finds out about Ben, what will happen to the two lovers?"

Pictures of Hollis Woods (2007)****+

Seen on 23-9-2009 - HBO Movie

Cast: Jodelle Ferland (Hollis), Sissy Spacec (Josie, the artist who suffers from alzhemier), Ridge Canipe (Steven Regan), Julie Ann Emery (Izzy Regan), Alfre Woodard (Edna, the black social worker), etc
Dir. : Tony Bill

Based on Patricia Reilly Giff's novel.

We found it difficult to withhold tears in some of the scenes. Very moving and, mind you, no mush or sentimental drama.

IMDB Summary:
"Hollis Woods' search for a family is a perpetual journey, as she moves from one foster home to another until she meets the Regan family and the two rather quirky elderly women who teach her a lot about love."

This is rather too sketchy to even pretend to talk about the experience of the movie. The twelve year old orphan girl who is in charge of the social worker, Edna (Alfre Woodard) keeps moving from one foster home to another. The movie focuses on two homes where the sensitive little artist Hollis bonds first with Regans and then with the Alzhemier-stricken retired teacher, Josie (Sissy Spacec) . By the time she bonds with each family some disastrous thing happens and she is moved to another home although no one really blames her for what happens. However she decides not to move the second time because she has come to love for Josie; but in the process of evading this shift she is reunited with Regans even as finds, to her happiness, that her friend is Josie being properly taken care of by her friend Beatrice.
Not even this summary sum up the movie. It's all in its details and particulars that it lives and moves us and this is hard to sum up.

Out of Time (2003)**+

Seen on 22-9-2009 - Sony Pix
Cast: Denzel Washington (Chief of Police, Whitlock), Eva Mendes (Alex Whitlock), Sanaa Lathan (Merai)
Dir. : Carl Franklin
Chief of Police in a Florida town, Whitlock, himself gets implicated in a set up by the wife (Merai) of his colleague whom he tries to save from her husband out of sympathy. His wife, detective Alex who investigates the murder set up in which he is implicated has just planned to divorce him begins to suspect him from the cues she received. In a fast paced nail-biting drama that follows Denzel Washington has to be ahead of the ongoing investigation and acquit himself after apprehending the culprits.
It's enjoyable.
IMDB Summary:

"Denzel Washington plays Matt Lee Whitlock, a respected chief of police in a small town on the Florida Keys. He is in the middle of a divorce and also in a liaison with a married woman (Sanaa Lathan). His police force has captured some drug runners with $485,000. Matt takes the drug money out of his safe, and gives it to his mistress for her cancer treatments. Bad idea! Everything blows up in his face when his mistress and her husband die in a home fire caused by arson. Matt must solve this double homicide, before he becomes the number-one suspect. His estranged wife, a homicide detective (Eva Mendes), is collecting evidence and clues to the murders. Matt tries to stay a few steps ahead of his own police force, before he runs `out of time,' and ends up in jail. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)"

Blue Sky (1994)*****

Seen on 21-9-2009 - A Star Movies Film
Cast: Jessica Lange (Carly Marshall), Tommy Lee Jones (Hank Marshall), Vince Johnson (Powers Boothe), et al
Dir. : Tony Richardson ("Loneliness of Long Distance Runner," "Tom Jones," etc)

Jessica Lange won Oscar for Best Actress. 1 Oscar, 3 wins, 3 nominations!!!

There have been many stories about the adultery among service wives and about the flagrant use of power in the army hierarchy to cover up mess. But this one differentiates itself by using the matrix with its imaginative and mature exploration of the dangers as well as the possibilities of flighty romanticism and realizing this idea in all its human particulars in a very credibly told story.
The great achievement of this movie is in its conception of the hopeless but not irresponsible romantic character of Carly and realize its human form by working out the details from the beginning through its consistent end. In order to do this the movie creates a convincing social matrix, builds credible relationships and situations. Its brilliant achievement is in the mise en scene of its idea.
Carly, married to an army nuclear scientist, with two teenage daughters, is the spoilt daughter of a rich man hopelessy given to romantic notions about life that it's all song and dance with little thought abt her responsibilities as a housewife with two teenage daughers. She sunbathes topless and daydreams that she could have been a Briggette Bardot or a Marilyn Monroe, but she didn't mean to be a slut that she could be easily mistaken for. Her innocent socialising with men often appears to be scandoulous and sometimes with disastrous consequences that her understanding husband keeps averting. As her husband puts it, she drives the family to the edge with her outrageous behavior. Her free dancing with men could be easily mistaken for flirting she didn't intend. Where ever she goes she makes them uncomfortable
When the movie opens, the Marshalls are shifted from Hawaii to Alabama because of her scandalous behavior. The base commander in Alabama, Vince Johnson at the officers' club finds himself doing a dancing with her that, as Ebert puts it, is "just this side of vertical foreplay." Eventually Vince schemes to take advantage of her innocent forwardness by sending her husband Hank away to Nevada to supervise undersground tests. When the whole thing blows over Vince arranges a cover-up in which he betrays her confidence in him to bail out her husband from trouble after hitting him. As commander of the base camp he has her husband sent to a mental hospital where he is being given electric shocks to unhinge him. Shocked Carly now wakes up from her dreamworld and sets to work for getting her husband rescued from the hospital and also nail the wily commander.
--The very human, very loving and intelligently understanding husband is the very antidote to his wife's innocent and thoughtless romantic flights. His defence of her to her tennage daughers: "What we call love is really the exchange of energy over time. It's simple quantum mechanics." For him she is like water which may take many shapes such as ice, vapour, etc. but its basic properties are good. That is, Carly is basically good and her behavior is eccentric. Her basic innocence is evident from her words she speaks to her husband after all the troubles she has caused: "It [her fling with the commander] means nothing."
IMDB summaryi
"Hank Marshall is a tough, square-jawed, straitlaced Army engineer and nuclear science expert, assigned to help conduct weapons-testing in 1950's America. Hank has become a thorn in the side of the Army, though, for a couple of very different reasons. He is an outspoken opponent of atmospheric testing, though his superiors hold contrary views and want to squelch his concerns...and his reports. The other problem is his wife, Carly. She is voluptuous and volatile, wreaking havoc in his personal life and stirring up intrigue at each new Army base."
Netflix Summary
"Director Tony Richardson's final film stars Jessica Lange in an Oscar-winning turn as Carly, the mentally unstable, promiscuous wife of straight-arrow Army engineer Hank Marshall (Tommy Lee Jones). When the Marshalls get transferred to a dismal Alabama post, Carly -- whose unbridled behavior has cost her husband promotions -- makes a move on the base commander (Powers Boothe), who promptly dispatches Hank to Nevada to conduct nuclear tests."

Assassination of Richard Nixon ( )**

Seen on 20-9-2009 - HBO movie
Cast: Sean Penn

Another instance of a film whose good idea runs into idiotic situations.

P.S. I Love You ( )**

Cast: Hillary Swank
Dir.:

It's about a young widow being gradually helped to forget her grief by her devoted husband from grave. After watching this I felt that the dead better leave the living alone and not keep reminding them from grave the way the film shows even if it is all done with good intentions of helping out.

As Good As It Gets (1997)****

Seen on 18-9-2009 - HBO movie

Cast: Jack Nicholson (Melvin Udall, the writer), Helen Hunt (Carol Connelley the waitresss), Greg Kenner (Simon, gay artist), Cuba Gooding (Frank, Black Art Dealer)
Dir. : James L. Brooks ("Terms of Endearment" fame--with similarly original and out-of-the-ordinary, weird if you prefer, people and situations)...

We thought of seeing this the second time just to know the portrayal of a writer better and it didn't turn out to be a bad idea. We enjoyed it this time too! The success of the film, we felt, is in its character conception of the writer and the script given to him....
Are writers quirky and therefore misfits among people in general? Looks more like it. Here he is more outrageously queer than the neighborhood gay artist who used his mother nude as his model. The juxtaposition of the two doesn't seem to be unintended in this film. His cynicism about people and their hackneyed responses to things prevents him from being nice and polite to them. He is a recluse by choice probably because he doesn't put a premium on the intelligence of people: he is a misanthrope. He lives a highly organized, orderly, tidy, sanitised life by living in seclusion. He is the kind who wouldn't want to risk sounding sentimental by saying the expected or by playing the role. Also, he can't bring himself to say things to please people (Why can't he tell his girl friend that he asked her out because he liked her? Instead he tells her that he meant her to kiss the queer whom they have accompanied). The result is he is misunderstood and he has the effect of being offensive. The few who come in contact with him hate him; the scene where the regular clintele of the restaurant give a standing ovation when he is shoved out of the restaurant is a measure of the extent of people's dislike of him. The one waitress who deigns to serve him barely tolerates him. He is the hard-horse hated by even those who come prepared to love him as it happens with the waitress herself. He is paranoid and pernickety in speech, in his concern with orderliness, with hygeine, and public relations. His wisecracks and witticisms aren't funny as they are meant to be. What was said of him in exasperation by the woman he is drawn to is apt perhaps: "Why can't I have a normal boyfriend?" But the point is if he is not 'normal' he is not abnormal either. How come that he is a successful writer (author of62 romance novels) when he is universally hated in real life? The plain truth he writes about love he doesn't understand and even becomes popular. In this film he has to understand what it means to care.
In the main three things happen to an overly reclusive misanthrope of a writer: first, he is forced to take care of the dog he hates, second he is drawn to a waitress much against himself and third he is forced to take in the gay neighbor thus soiling his otherwise sanitised life in his apartment. In all these events he learns to care and probably understand what it is to love. The prolific writer of romances is forced to learn caring for people and become a better man and possibly a better writer....
But the fun is all in the script written for the otherwise successful writer who is essentially a failure at the basic level as a man ("a grumpy Scrooge")....
The sheer power of the script is best summed up with the final compliment with which he wins his girlfriend: "you make me want to be a better man..."

The Missing (2003)**+

Netflix Summary
"A father and daughter reunite for a battle even larger than the one they wage against each other in this suspenseful drama helmed by Oscar-winning director Ron Howard. When Maggie Gilkeson's (Cate Blanchett) oldest daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) is abducted by a witch doctor-turned-bandit (Eric Schweig), Maggie enlists her estranged father's (Tommy Lee Jones) help to find her. They soon discover that other girls have gone missing, and time's running out."

Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett
Director: Ron Howard

Places in the Heart (1982)***

Seen on 16-9-2009 - Sony Pix movie

Cast: Sally Field (Edna Spalding), John Malkovich (Mr. Will, Blind boarder), Danny Glover (Moze, black man)

Dir. : Robert Benton ("Kramer vs Kramer")

Netflix Summary:

"Sally Field won her second Best Actress Oscar as a young widow living in Depression-era Waxahachie, Texas, who's determined to eke out a hardscrabble existence farming cotton on her land. Danny Glover and John Malkovich (playing a blind man) are excellent as hired hands who try to help her make a go of it. Director Robert Benton also won an Oscar for his bittersweet screenplay." IMDB Summary: "Edna Spalding finds herself alone and broke on a small farm in the midst of the Great Depression when her husband the Sheriff is killed in an accident. A wandering black man, Moses, helps her to plant cotten to try and keep her farm and her kids together. She also takes on a blind border, Mr. Will, who lost his sight in the first World War. She must endure storms and harsh labor to try and make her mortage payment on time."

Quiz Show (1994)**

Seen on 14-9-2009 - Star Movies film
Cast: Ralph Fiennes (Charles Van Doren), John Turturro (Herbie Stempel),...
Dir. : Robert Redford
Set in 50s this is about fixing of the Quiz Shows on the tv to augment their trps. What's even more shocking is that the chief players of this drama are let off at the Congressional Subcommittee hearings although they have confessed to the guilt of fixing.
The thourough investigation into the game fixing of a show that is being watched by millions of people constitute the staple drama of interest in this film. A lot of considerations like Jew-WASP prejudices, things done for mass appeal and ugly stuff like that also come to light in course of investigation: to increase mass appeal of the game show, pretty boy WASP Charles Van Doren is fed answers so he beats geeky Jew Herbie Stempel. However Stempel goes in appeal and initiates the investigatio that throws the whole thing in the face of the NBC channel operators. Details below:
IMDB summary--
"An idealistic young lawyer working for a Congressional subcommittee in the late 1950s discovers that TV quiz shows are being fixed. His investigation focuses on two contestants on the show "Twenty-One": Herbert Stempel, a brash working-class Jew from Queens, and Charles Van Doren, the patrician scion of one of America's leading literary families. Based on a true story."
Another IMDB summary
"In 1958 when television quiz shows ruled the airwaves, Charles Van Doren was the wildly popular champion of a successful TV show called "Twenty-One." A national celebrity who appeared on the covers of both "Time" and "Life" magazines, Van Doren was an American folk hero. Week after week audiences tuned in to watch as Van Doren, a popular English instructor at Columbia University and the product of one of America's most renowned literary families, seemed to draw from his vast knowledge the correct answers to obscure questions. His charming presence seduced 50 million people into believing him. But the truth is, viewers were fooled and saw only what the network and program's producers wanted them to see. Then someone pulled the plug. When disgruntled contestant Herbie Stempel charged that the quiz game was a fraud, Congressional investigator Richard Goodwin uncovered the facts that exposed the deception, and sent shock waves reverberating across America."

August Rush (2007)**

Seen on 13-9-2009 - HBO movie
Cast: Freddie Highmore (the 11-yr old boy, Evan--'August Rush'), Keri Russell (Lyla, the mother), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Louis, the father), Robin Williams (Maxwell)
Dir. : Kristen Sheridan
This is about a 11-year child prodigy of music estranged from his parents at birth and being reunited miraculously through the power of music. Mom said it's like our own old Yadon Ke Baraat. I agree.

Just a Walk in the Park (2002)*

Seen on 12-9-2009 - Star Movies
Cast: George Eads (Adam Willingford), Jane Krakowski (Rachel Morgan)
Dir. : Steven Schachter ("Door to Door" fame)
This is about a dogwalker falling in love with a woman (with her own dog) who mistakes him to be the rich Preston, while he slinks into the role without being able to correct her impression. By the time he prepares to tell her the truth it is too late. Eventually they meet again after a year and are drawn to each other.

Anapolis (2006)**

Seen on 12-9-2009 - Star movies
Cast: James Franco (Jakes Huard), Tyrese Gibson (Cole), Jordana Brewster (Ali)
Dir. : Justin Lin
It's a young man's (Jakes) dream of making it to Naval Academy but being challenged to redeem himself in his opposition to a black superior officer (Cole).

28 Weeeks later (2002)**

Seen on 11-9-2009 - Star Movies
Cast:
Dir. : Danny Boyle
IMDB Summary:
"A powerful virus escapes from a British research facility. Transmitted in a drop of blood and devastating within seconds, the virus locks those infected into a permanent state of murderous rage. Within 28 days the country is overwhelmed and a handful of survivors begin their attempts to salvage a future, little realising that the deadly virus is not the only thing that threatens them."

Citizen Ruth (1996)***

Seen on 10-9-2009 - Star Movies
Cast: Laura Dern (Ruth Stoopes)
Dir. : Alexander Payne (Oscar for Best Screenplay for Sideways)
--The word "citizen" defines the bias of the film in that the criminal young woman here becomes citizen exercising freedom of her choice. As IMDB Tagline aptly put it, "Life, liberty, money, pursuit of happiness. She's got to have it..."
--This is an explicitly issue-based movie and the issue is abortion. The two warring groups here are the anti-abortionists, or baby savers as they call themselves, and the other pro-choice abortionists.
Both the groups are fanatically committed to their belief and are at loggerheads stymieing each other's moves.
Caught in the cross-fire is a poor, homeless young girl who has a criminal record and is pregnant to boot. She has nowhere to go and the police who have caught her in a crime have threatened to throw her in jail if she is doesn't opt abortion. In this situation her bail is paid by Jesus swearing anti-abortionists (here you have a memorable scenes exposing the hypocritical ways of the devout believers) and she is persuaded to keep the baby. But the opposite sect somehow manage to bring her out of their clutches and arranges an appointment with doctor for abortion. While she is awaiting. The leaders of both groups descend on their helicopters and the confronting groups tempt her with a fat reward (of a princely sum of $15000) if she toes their line. Under tremendous pressure she takes money from one group (the abortionists) and makes good her escape without getting the abortion rather than side with babysavers underlining that she makes her own choice without reference to either.
The movie is good although in summing it up its living experience is completely denatured.
It should be noted that the tone and attitude of the movie is to mock the fanatic Christians by even exposing their hypocrisy.

IMDB Summary:
"Ruth Stoops is a poor indigent drug-user (a huffer - inhaling glue and paint for a high) whose down and out existence is complicated once more by becoming pregnant (she has had and lost four children already). When a judge orders that she gets an abortion or face a felony charge, she is befriended by Gail Stoney, a pro-lifer whose husband is president of the local "Babysavers" group. Suddenly Ruth is thrust into the middle of the pro-choice/pro-life struggle, with each side wanting her to take their side as a "message" to others - and the situation escalates... "

My Life So Far (1999)***+

Seen on 9-9-2009 - Star Movies
Cast: Colin Firth (Edward Pettigrew), Robert Norman (Fraser), Irene Jacob (Heloise)
Dir. : Hugh Hudson ("Chariots of Fire" fame)
Action set in Scottish countryside between the two wars. Narrative unfolds from the point of view of a ten year old boy. It's subtle tale of the processes of growth, of the innocence discovering the double-talk and hypocrisy of the adult world.
The ten-year old Fraser begins by idolising his father Edward, but discovers his clay-feet as he goes along. He discovers too the differences between the strict and disciplined world inhabited by his father and liberal universe of the French aunt, Heloise (wife of his uncle Morris). The prohibitions of his father (Jazz, for example; only Bible and Beethoven are allowed in the house) are loosened by the arrival of his aunt. He discovers that the lateral thinking of his scientist father is constricted by the suppressions of the religion. Also, the film takes care to include scenes like the one where the boy's mother demonstrates her untapped potential of a good singer when she sings with Heloise. She tells her French relative that she had auditioned once but nothing came of it. Such details pile up to create and reinforce the impression that we dealing with the restrictive atmosphere of the household. The boy grows when he begins to dislike the triteness of his father's oft repeated "healthy mind in a healthy body." The boy's precocity and eagerness to learn from books his father has hidden away puts on edge his innocence as well as the adult silences. One of the last scenes show the boy listening to tabooed Jazz music from the disc gifted to him by Heloise while smoking--things that were impossible even to imagine earlier in that house--is a measure of his growth. Also, the dramatic confrontation between Edward and his wife over his adulterous fling leaves him losing his moral authority with the boy and perhaps paved the way for his boldness in listening to the Jazz music in the house, albeit in the privacy of his room...So what started as a loving obedient happy relationship of the boy with his father gradually changes into one where there is love, yes, but with little respect and certainly no fear of the father. The film focuses on this gradual change in the boy and everything, the whole setting, the scenes and script appears to be geared to this purpose.
As usual, the tenor of the film resides in the treatment of detail. And it is superbly done.

"Growing up on a post-World War I Scottish estate, 10-year-old Fraser Pettigrew (Robert Norman) narrates the story of his sometimes-eccentric family, which includes a strong-disciplinarian grandmother (Rosemary Harris), mother (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), moss farmer and would-be inventor father (Colin Firth) and older sister. Turmoil ensues when the boy's uncle (Malcolm MacDowell) arrives with his French maid (Irene Jacob)."--Netflix summary

S

Perfume: Story of a Murderer(2007)***+

Seen on 8-9-2009 - HBO
Cast: Ben Wishaw (Grenoulle), Dustin Hoffman (Baldini)
Dir. : Tom Tykwer

Based on a novel by Patrick Suskind

The essence of things and people is in their smell or so it seems. This extraordinary film most obviously is meant to edify what heavenly experience the olfactory senses can bring to man and for this purpose it even resorts to surrealistic methods. For one completely deficient in this experience, this film comes as something of a revelation. It is appropriate that a film about perfume and their potential for volumptuous sensory experience should be located in France 300 years ago--a medieval world given to appetites of perfumes and wines.
Delivered casually and abandoned soon afterwards by his lowly fishwife mother, Grenoulle has little chance of survival, but the miracle happens. He grows up in the charnel house of an orphanage and later, sold into slavery, at a tannery. But he is endowed with two very unique gifts: he has such an acute sense of smell that he can smell things from miles and smell these countless things at the same time separately; also, he can not only quickly name them apart but retain them in his memory. He demonstrates his skills to a prosperous perfumer when he names the different ingradients of particular beguiling perfume; he even prepares it by effortlessly and rapidly taking from shelves a dozen different things, adding them in the right proportion and produce the exact quantity smelling exactly like difficult perfume in question. When the perfumer is convinced of his incredible gift of smell he buys him out of tannery's slavery and becomes rich for himself with his help.
However Grenoulle is a voluptuary and ambitious: he wants to distill and preserve the essense of things and beauty, especially of young beautiful women. He learns the basic process of distillation from Baldini and with papers from him gains entry into Grasse in Southern France which is considered to be world centre of perfume art.
Here he becomes a serial killer of young beautiful women whose smells he preserves in bottles of distilled liquids. The people become concerned that their daughters are disappearing one after another. Finally when he is apprehended and is prepared for gallows in the city centre something unbelievable happens: all the people of the town gathered there to watch his execution kneel to him in obiesance when waves his perfume scented handkerchief before them, the bishop including. On his return to Versailes the same thing happens--the crowd of gutterpeople gathered there, attracted by his divine scents, flock to him and choke him into total disappearance!
That way this is a fascinating movie.

My Cousin Vinny (1992)***

Seen on 8-9-2009 - Star Movies

Cast: JoePesci (Vinny Gamibini), Ralph Macchio (Billy), Marisa Tomei (Mona Lisa Vito)
Dir. : Jonathan Lynn

Quirky rookie of a lawyer, Vinny, descends with his garrulous fiance on an Atlanta small town court to save his cousin along with his friend from a possible death penalty. To all appearances he does everything to fail in the case because of his colossal ignorance and lack of experience; however he pulls out a surprise in the end by making smart moves and by exposing the falsity of the witnesses. He goes on to win the case, barely escaping jail and severe sentence for himself.

IMDB summary:
"While heading for college, Bill and Stan are arrested in Alabama when circumstances point to them as having murdered a convenience store clerk. Unable to afford an attorney, they turn to Bill's cousin Vinny, a brash New Yorker who took six tries to pass his bar exam. Worse, until now he's only taken personal injury cases, none of which have gone to trial. Dragging along his even more abrasive fiancee Mona Lisa Vito, Vinny will have to straighten up fast, and keep out of jail himself, if he's going to win the case."

Line of Fire (19930*+

Seen on 07-09-09 - HBO movie
Cast: Clint Eastwood (Frank), Rene Russo (Lilly Raines)
Dir. : Wolfgang Peterson
A secret service agent who had failed to protect President Kennedy continues in the service of another President, but with an acute sense of guilt. He desperately needs redeem himself by saving him against an assissin he knows and one who has a personal issue with him. His enemy is playing games and drives him to frustration.
"Frank Horrigan is a secret service agent who keeps thinking back to November 22, 1963, when, as a hand-picked agent by President Kennedy, he became one of the few agents to have lost a President to an assassin when Kennedy died. Now, former CIA assassin Mitch Leary is stalking the current President, who is running for re-election. Mitch has spent long hours studying Horrigan, and he taunts Horrigan, telling him of his plans to kill the President. Leary plans to kill the president because Leary feels betrayed by the government -- Leary was removed from the CIA, and the CIA is now trying to have him killed. After talking to Leary, Horrigan makes sure he is assigned to presidential protection duty, working with fellow secret service agent Lilly Raines. Horrigan has no intention of failing his President this time around, and he's more than willing to take a bullet. White House Chief of Staff Harry Sargent refuses to alter the President's itinerary, while Horrigan's boss, Secret Service Director Sam Campagna, is supportive of Horrigan. As the election gets closer, Horrigan begins to doubt his own abilities, especially when Horrigan's colleague Al D'Andrea is killed by Leary. But Horrigan may be the only one who can stop Leary. " IMDB summary

Journey of August King (1997)**

Seen on 07-09-09 - Star Movies
Cast: Jason Patric (August King), Thundee Newton (Annaless--the runaway slavegirl)
Dir. : John Duigan

"The Journey of August King is a multi-dimensional drama about a North Carolina farmer in 1815. August King, a widower, is on his way home as he does every year after selling his produce and purchasing the stock and goods he will need to survive the winter. On his journey, he comes upon a run-away slave, a young woman about 19 and August King must decide to violate the law and help this slave to freedom or else leave her to be hunted down and, ultimately, returned to her slave owner." IMDB summary

The Nanny Diaries (2007)***+

Seen on 4-9-2009 - Star Movies
Cast: Scarlett Johansson[The Other Boleyn Girl, Scoop,etc] (Annie-Nanny), Laura Linney [Driving Lessons, The Truman Show, etc] (Mrs X), Paul Giamatti [ Sideways, Big Fat Liar, The Trueman Show](Mr.X), Chris Evans (Harvard Hottie)
Dir.: Shari Springer Berman
Robert Pulcini
"After graduating from Montclair State, New Jersey Girl Annie can't make up her mind about what to do with her life. After saving a little boy from being run over in the park, she is quickly employed as a nanny for a rich Upper East Side couple. Mr X is occupied with his business, Mrs X loves shopping and none of them really likes to spend time with their little boy Grayer. Annie quickly learns that she has more than her hands full with taking care of him. Her busy schedule doesn't give her much spare time. Mrs X fired her last nanny because she was dating and that gives Annie problems when Harvard Hottie who lives in the same building asks her out on a date." IMDB summary.

Resurrecting the Champ (2007)***

Seen on 4-9-2009 - Star Movies
Cast: Samuel L Jackson (Champ), Josh Hartnett (Erik Kernan)
Dir. : Rod Lurie

"Erik Kernan Jr. (Josh Hartnett) is a young sports reporter for a major Denver newspaper. He is frustrated that his editor is burying some of his reports on sporting events. Ralph Metz (Alan Alda), the editor, explains that Erik's stories are boring, too dry with no personality. Erik's father, dead for some time, had been a famous sports broadcaster. Erik apparently has profited from his father's name, but also has the burden of his style being compared to his father's. Because of his frustration with his editor, Erik is hoping to find other reporting work.

Erik has a 6 year old son who lives with Erik's wife, Joyce (Kathryn Morris). Joyce and Erik are separated. We learn that Erik has tried to make himself seem more important in his boy's eyes than he is by falsely claiming friendships with famous athletes.

Near the parking lot of a sports arena, three possibly drunk young men are deriding an old homeless man (Samuel L. Jackson), who calls himself "Champ" and claims to have been a professional boxer. They obviously don't believe him and force him to fight one of them. He resists but eventually fights back, showing that he really can fight. The three then gang up on him. Erik, leaving a fight he was covering at the arena, comes to Champ's aid. Eventually Erik learns that Champ was once a well regarded contender, Bob Satterfield, who had fought several famous fighters, such as Ezzard Charles and Jake LaMotta. People thought he died long ago.

At a job interview to be a sports writer for a weekly magazine, Erik commits to do a feature story on this fighter and what happened to him after he lost a humiliating major fight. If the magazine owner and editor liked the piece they might hire him. Erik gets Polly (Rachel Nichols), a research assistant at the paper, to dig into old records for information about Bob Satterfield's career and family, while keeping the search secret from Erik's boss. Meanwhile, Erik meets more with Champ. He takes Champ to a relatively minor fight he is assigned to cover, and becomes impressed with the man's boxing expertise that allows Champ to predict a knockout by the underdog.

Erik contacts many of the still-living people who knew Satterfield when he was still up and coming. They are surprised to learn that Satterfield is alive, saying that they had heard he died long ago. He even gets Champ and Jake LaMotta on the phone to talk about old times. However, one contact, Satterfield's son, hangs up on him as soon as he hears Erik's name. Eventually the magazine publishes Erik's article. It is extremeky well received and is picked up by the national media. People suggest it be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

But the publicity brings Erik into contact with more old timers who knew Satterfield and are pretty sure he is long dead. Eventually Erik learns that Champ is not Satterfield after all, but another lesser fighter who Satterfield defeated. Erik is faced with a moral dilemma of announcing his error or suppressing the information and bask in his "success." Erik initially makes the self-serving choice, but he does not find his success to be satisfying. Eventually he decides to tell his editors about the mistake but before he can do so he learns that he and his paper are being sued by Satterfield's son. The son is upset because he and others had long known that Champ was impersonating his father, and because Erik's story falsely said that Satterfield, Jr. and Sr. were estranged. Everyone accuses Erik of not having done due diligence in checking out Champ's authenticiy.

In the end, Satterfield, Jr. is satisfied with Erik's proposal to write another article about his error and including material about Bob Satterfield that Jr. had long wanted someone to publish. Erik discovers that his 6 year old will be proud of his father even if his father does not know the famous people he claimed to know."--IMDB summary

It sounds a little corny that Erik should go to great lengths to impress his 6-year old son that he is not a liar and that he simply trusted the impersonator instead of checking out his facts. Except for this, the film is very engaging.

Second Generation (2003)***+

Seen on 4-9-2009 - HBO movie
Cast: Parminder Nagra of Bend it Like Beckham fame (Heere), Rita Wolf (Priya), Amita Dhiri (Rina), Ompuri (Sharma), Anupam Kher (Khan), Roshan Seth (Mohan), Danny Dyer (Jack)
Dir.: Jon Sen
"BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM's Parminder Nagra gives a vivid and compelling performance as Heere, an independent young woman who flees from her repressive Indian family in this intense, dramatic, and mature British television show. London's Southall provides the setting for the show's almost Shakespearean plotting, as Heere struggles to understand her cultural identity and place in British culture."--IMDB summary
This is about the life of second generation Indians in London--a generation whose values are conditioned by their life in an alien country and not having little connection with India. They are defiant and self-assertive in a society from which they are alienated (the lyric they sing--whose words are something like "this is the way we are, this is Asian way, do you vibe with it)

She's the One (1996)***+

Seen on 2-9-2009 - Star Movies
Cast: Edward Burns (Micky Fitzpatrick), Mike McGlone (Francis Fitzpatrick), Cameron Diaz
(Heather), Jennifer Aniston (Renee), Maxine Bahns (Hope)
Dir. : Edward Burns--He is also the writer as well as hero of the movie
Of the two siblings Micky drives a taxi and is bohemian knowing and not believing in the direction that his younger brother Francis, the rich Wall St. player, has taken in life. But they are fond of each other. Micky meets an art student Hope and within 24 hrs of meeting marries her. Francis married to beautiful Renee hasn't had sex with his wife for six months and, meanwhile, he has been having an affair with Heather (a former hooker) against his brother's warnings. The younger one messes up with his women although he is the one who is always giving sage advice to his contented-with-simple-life brother Micky.
--The screenplay is good and it is a fun movie.

Factory Girl (2006)***

Seen on 2-9-2009 - Star Movies
Cast: Sienne Miller (Edie Sedgwick), Guy Pearce (Andy Warhol)
Dir.: George Hickenlooper
This controversial biopic is based on the dramatic relationship between the legendary Edie Sedgwick(1943-1971) the New York socialite and Andy Warhol, the famous American painter and filmmaker (1938-1987). Sienne Miller's performance as Edie Sidgwick is magnificent. In real life Sedgwick rose to fame because of her relationship with Warhol and later with Bob Dylan.
The film focuses on the tragic decline into obscurity of the beautiful woman who was once hailed as Andy Warhol's muse and who was to work with Bob Dylan in musical productions.
This was screened at 5 am and I sacrificed my precious early morning reading hours to see this film. Well, it was worth it.

Wicker Park (2004)**

Seen on 1-9-2009 - Zee Studio Movie
Cast: Josh Hartnet (Mathew), Rose Byrne (Alex), Diana Kruger (Lisa), Mathew Lillard (Luke)

An ad executive, Mathew thinks he has seen his long-lost love Lisa before he was to about to go to China, and he cancels his trip to pursue her. But Lisa's friend, Alex (who is Mathew's friend Luke's girlfriend) who sensed his passion for her friend Lisa impersonates her and schemes and plots to make sure he doesn't meet Lisa. A very elaborate drama follows this mistaken identity, but Alex's deceitfulness is exposed in the end and Mathew ends up finding Lisa. Before this happens he meets his fiance and tells her the truth about his childhood friend, Lisa.

"In Chicago, the former photographer and presently advertising executive Matthew (Josh Hartnett) is closing a business deal in a fancy restaurant with a Chinese representative, when he sees a woman that looks like his former passion Lisa (Diane Kruger). Two years ago, Lisa and Matthew had a love affair, and Lisa simply vanished when Matthew invited her to move with him to New York, where he had the invitation for a better job, and Matthew is still obsessed with her. Matthew decides to follow Lisa, and when he meets her, he realizes that Lisa is indeed another woman (Rose Byrne) with the same name. Instead of going on a business trip to China, Matthew stays in Chicago with his friend Luke (Matthew Lillard) and decides to investigate the mystery."--IMDB summary

Calendar Girls (2003)***

Seen on 1-9-2009 - Zee Studi0 movie
Cast: Julie Walters (Annie Clark), Helen Murren (Chris Harper), et al
Dir.: Nigel Cole
"Calendar Girls is about the women of the Rylstone Women's Institute in North Yorkshire. This Women's Group produces a calendar each year based around scenes of the Yorkshire dales. In 1999, one of the ladies husbands became ill with leukemia. He would say that if the ladies planted Sunflowers, he'd make sure he'd get better so he could see them. Unfortunately, he didn't pull through and in order to raise funds for Leukemia research the women decided to make an alternative calendar of themselves in the nude hoping to sell a few hundred copies around their villages. This calendar in fact became a worldwide sensation, out-selling even those of Britney Spears and Cindy Crawford."IMDB summary.
We enjoyed this movie. The exploration of the ramifications of a bold out-of-box thinking is good. Husbands leave their wives using this as a pretext (as it happens in the case of Annie Clark's), misunderstandings develop in the family (as it happens in case of Chris Harper), snide and even vulgar remarks are heard all around, and people ridicule, but when the idea succeeds they become icons of worship and praise. Meanwhile, however, the ones who take the plunge suffer alienation.
This way this film is original and imaginative.

There will be blood (2007)***+

Seen on 30-8-2009 - A Star Movies film
Cast: Daniel Day Lewis (Daniel Plainview), Paul Dano (Eli Sunday)
Dir.: Paul Thomas Anderson
Loosely based on Upton Sinclair's Oil (1927)

This is about an ambitious, greedy ruthless oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, at the turn of the century. He despises and hates people to boot. He comes to the West on information that the Sunday family ranch has oil. He leases land here with false promises to build schools and hospitals, becomes rich. In the process of expanding his business he needs to build a pipeline around a hill through the farm of William Bandy who is prepared to allow him to lay the pipelines only if he gets baptized in his Church of Third Revelation. Daniel goes through the humiliating and self-abasing process to which he is subjected by the fanatic priest Eli Sunday in order to get the leasing rights. But being a man of fierce temperament he is not the one to forget his wounds. He takes it out on the evangelist Eli Sunday at the end. His monstrous treatment of his only dumb-deaf son is another instance of his devilish nature. He kills a man for deceiving him into believing that he is his long lost step-brother. He forces the religious fanatic into repeating aloud that he is a false prophet and that there is no god. After forcing him to do this, he batters him to death. He has no one who loves him, nor does he care for one. His relentless misanthropic nature is at once the cause of his success and his misery.
The film is powerful in its impact on the audience and makes it difficult to dismiss it.

Equilibrium (2002)**

Seen on 28-8-2009 - A Star Movies Film
Cast: Christian Bale (John Preston), Emily Watson (Mary O'Brien)
Dir.: Kurt Wimmer

"In a futuristic world, a strict regime has eliminated war by suppressing emotions: books, art and music are strictly forbidden and feeling is a crime punishable by death. Cleric John Preston (Bale) is a top ranking government agent responsible for destroying those who resist the rules. When he misses a dose of Prozium, a mind-altering drug that hinders emotion, Preston, who has been trained to enforce the strict laws of the new regime, suddenly becomes the only person capable of overthrowing it."--IMDB summary

Like all sci-fi films this one also has a simple moral at its heart: it emphasizes what makes us human--i.e. emotions, feelings.

Antonia and Jane (1991)***

Seen on 28-8-2009 - Star Movies film
Cast: Imalda Staunton ("Freedom Writers" & "Veera Drake" (Jane), Saskia Reeves (Antonia)
Dir.: Beeban Kidron
The story line is built around the idea that contrary, reason-defying impulses and emotions coexist in human beings and that often we do things that we hate or that we are drawn to things we hate. That contradictions and contrarian principles are built into our behavior and our relationships. And as it often happens we are even aware of this and yet can't help doing what we do.
This is beautifully brought out in this short film about two women who hate each other while being loving friends at the same time; who keep having an annual reunion meeting for years in spite of frequently not wanting it.
Jane is plain and loves books and classic writers while her friend Antonia is beautiful, talented and has a nifty job at a publisher. Antonia steals Jane's boyfriend, invites Jane to her wedding with him and for this Jane hates her although she attends the wedding. The whole series of love-hate contrariness of evens is cast in comic mode.
They keep seeing the same therapist psychiatrist and the narrative comes through their confessions to her. This is cleverly done.
Since the movie was scheduled for early morning (5:55) screening, mom missed it so she could do her regular exercise.

"Plain Jane Hartman hates her life. She's goofy, boring and only has sex if she reads Iris Murdoch novels out loud to her loopy boyfriend. Her oldest friend Antonia McGill knows about everything. She orders the right food; she can complain and get results. She's beautiful and has a brilliant career. Is it any wonder that they hate each other's guts? "--IMDB summary

Kamine (2009)-minus*

Seen on 27-8-2009 - Laxman Theatre
Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Shahid Kapoor
Dir.: Vishal Bharadwaj (Of Omkar fame)
Namrata Joshi's Outlook (Aug 31,2009) misleading feature on Vishal Bharadwaj's recent flick inspired us to see this movie, only to be utterly disappointed. Of the director Ms Joshi said he kept "pushing Bollywood's boundaries"; boundaries, my foot! It's the same old unoriginal gangster story about twins told in the most pretentiously beguiling narrative. We (Naveen and I. Mom refused to see it!) came back swearing not to trust the snobbish presold reviewers.

Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)**

Seen on 27-8-2009 - Zee Studio Movie
Cast: James Caviazel (Bobby Jones)
Dir.: Rowdy Herrington

Biopic about the golf legend Bobby Jones who rose from obscurity and retired at the age of 28.

"Robert Tyre Jones, Jr., aka "Bobby Jones" rises from complete obscurity to become a golfing legend. Jones overcomes his own fierce temper, intense passion, and perfectionist tendencies to master the game and win the Grand Slam, the U.S., British, and Amateur Opens in golf, a feat unequaled even today. But it is Jones's style, personality, and character that separate him from the other professionals in his field. When Jones realizes that his unparalleled success may be destroying those he loves he's presented with an astounding proposition, one that shocks the world." Written by IMDb Editors

We found this engrossing although there isn't much to it.

The Reader (2008)****

Seen on 26-8-2009 - In Kakatiya
--Cast: Kate Winslet (Hanna Schmitz), Michael Berg (Ralph Finnes)
--Dir. : Stephen Daldry
--Kate Winslet won 2009 Oscar for Best Actress
During the post-WWII trials of War criminals, Hanna Schmitz was accused of being responsible, as one of the guards, for the death of 300 Jews. Her argument in self-defense was that she was merely doing her duty as a guard which was to keep the Jews locked within the Church, but the judges hold her guilty for not opening the gates when the Church was set on fire (who set the Church on fire was not as important as that she allowed them to burn alive by keeping the gates locked). To establish her guilt the judges produce a report allegedly written by her. This was a crucial piece of evidence. And when they ask her to give a facsimile of her writing she, after a great deal of deliberation, refuses to write and merely admits to having written that report. Based on her admission she was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Now, Michael Berg who was attending those trials as a law student was the only one who intimately knew Hanna Scmitz as a teenager and could have testified that she couldn't have written that report because she was illiterate; he knew this because he used to read to her stories and poems of writers like Chekov; she couldn't read those books herself. And, she used to show extraordinary sensitivity and emotional involvement during these readings (She used to say "first reading and sex afterward"). He could have testified that she as a person was warm and kind and took care of him even though he was a complete stranger. His testimony could have saved her from being harshly punished to life imprisonment; her sentence could have been commuted to a shorter period of incarceration. But he couldn't bring himself to testify in her defense because that would mean confessing publicly to his disgraceful affair with an elderly woman who is guilty of mass murder.
He suffers pangs of guilt (for not testifying) in the years that follow and in expiation he sends her, all through her prison years, a continual stream of his readings from writers and poets recorded on tapes. He helps her suffer her prison years less. And in the end he seems to purge himself of his guilt by confessing his shame to his young grown up daughter at the grave of Hanna Schmitz.
The film appears to be more about Michael Berg's guilt rather than that of Hanna Smitz. Viewed from this angle, the film appears to exculpate her of her complicity in holocaust. It would be interesting to know how the Jewish community had reacted to this movie. For such an exoneration of war criminals (who pleaded that they were only obeying orders in the holocaust) was held to be a sacrilege, a heresy. They must have come down heavily on such a defense of war criminals put forward by the film, just as they castigated Hannah Arendt's, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963).

Return to Paradise (1998)****+

Seen on 25-8-2009 - HBO movie
Cast:
Dir.: Joseph Ruben
"Joseph Ruben's ``Return to Paradise'' is a thriller that traps its characters in an exquisite dilemma involving life and death. Lewis, Sheriff and Tony are three Americans who meet in Malaysia and fool around in cheap huts on the beach, ``God's own bathtub,'' enjoying the rum, the girls and the hashish. Sheriff and Tony return to New York. Lewis plans to go on to Borneo for a Greenpeace project to protect the orangutan. Instead, he's arrested for possession of the leftover hash and sentenced to death....." (Ebert).
The moral dilemma set in motion in Lewis' friends to own up their share of responsibility in his guilt is one part of drama, while the other is the shocking reversal of judgment in Malayasis, making Sheriff's sacrifice pointless when Lewis is sent to gallows as a reaction against the critical report in American media about the unjustness of Malayasian legal system.
We were deeply shaken and disturbed by this movie.
"Three friends share an exciting vacation in Malaysia, full of fun, drinks, women and hash. When the vacation is over, each have dreams of continuing their lives, and they all go their separate ways. One of them (Phoenix) remains on the tropical paradise to fulfill a dream of working with apes for research. Two years later, a lawyer (Heche) comes to New York and hunts down the other two friends to give some sad news. A few days after they left the island, police raided their camp and found amazingly large quantities of hash left about. Phoenix was still residing there, so he had to take the blame. He is set to be put to death in 8 days, and the only way the charges can be decreased is if the two friends come back to paradise and take their share of the responsibilty. If they do, they both will spend three years in prison. If only one does, he will spend six years behind bars..." Written by R.P. Falvey

Scoop (2006)**

Seen on 25-8-2009 - St. Movies film
Cast: Scarlett Johansson (Sondra), Sidney Waterman (Woody Allen), Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman), Ian McShane (Joe Strombel), et al
Dir.: Woody Allen
A young American journalism student in London (Sondra) gets a hint of a scoop from the ghost of a recently expired Fleet Street reporter. The scoop is about the identity of the Tarot card serial killer. Sondra sets out to investigate with the help of a magician, Sidney Waterman and in a funny sequence of events unknowingly falls in love with the killer himself who happens to be the suave handsome aristocrat, Peter Lyman only to realise at the end that her own life is in danger....Here is a summary from IMDB
"In the funeral of the famous British journalist Joe Strombel, his colleagues and friends recall how obstinate he was while seeking for a scoop. Meanwhile the deceased Joe discloses the identity of the tarot card serial killer of London. He cheats the Reaper and appears to the American student of journalism Sondra Pransky, who is on the stage in the middle of a magic show of the magician Sidney Waterman inn London, and tells her that the murderer is the aristocrat Peter Lyman. Sondra drags Sid in her investigation, seeking for evidences that Peter is the killer. However, she falls in love with him and questions if Joe Strombel is right in his scoop." Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Cassandra's Dream (2007)***

Seen on 24-8-2009 - Zee Studio Movie
Cast: Colin Farrel (Terry), Ewan McGregor (Ian), Tim Wilkinson (Howard)
Dir. : Woody Allen

"In London, the loser brothers from a working-class family, Ian and Terry, buy a second-hand sailboat name Cassandra's Dream for their leisure. Ian poses of big shot and has big dreams, saving money to invest in two hotels in California while the unstable Terry is an alcoholic gambler addicted in pills and mechanic. When Terry loses a great amount in a card game, Ian lends his savings to pay part of the sum Terry owes to loan sharks. When their wealthy uncle Howard arrives in London coming from China, the brothers see the chance to borrow the money they need to quit the debt with the loan sharks and to invest in the hotel. However, Howard asks them to get rid of his former associate Martin Burns who is threatening him and his businesses. Ian and Terry have to decide whether they shall cross the line and help family or face the lack the money to resolve their issues." Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Actually Ian and Terry do commit the murder to get help from their uncle, Howard. But Terry is deeply affected by his misdeed and is disturbed enough to the point of surrendering to police. At this junction Ian decides, against impulse and better judgment, to do away with his unstable brother but at the last minute he couldn't do it. Finally, in a scuffle Terry pushes Ian and kills him. Subsequently he kills himself too.

Ed Wood (1994)**

Seen on 24-8-2009 - Zee Studio Movie
Cast: Johny Depp (Edward Wood), Sarah Jessica Parker (Doleres), Martin Landau (Bela Lugosi)
Dir.: Tim Burton
This is true-life story about Edward D. Wood, Jr. for whom making films was a passion although he was subsequently voted all-time worst director of some very awful horror films of 50s like Glen or Glenda (1953), Bride of the Monster (1955) and Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959).
What is striking about the man here is his indefatigable spirit, his passion for film making against many odds and his humanity in developing a touching relationship with an aging impoverished horror star, Bela Lugosi. Also, the film successfully brings out the pathos of compromises a film director is forced to make by his sponsors and by artists. The movie was fittingly made in black and white.

Reindeer Games (2000)***

Seen on 22-8-2009 - A Star Movies Film
Cast: Ben Afflick (Rudy), Charlize Theron (Ashley),
Dir. : John Frankenheimer (who made "Birdman of Alcatraz," "Manchurian Candidate," "Iceman Cometh", etc)

"Action-adventure master John Frankenheimer directs this sordid tale of deadly deception. Fresh out of prison, Rudy (Ben Affleck) poses as his cellmate Nick so he can meet Nick's alluring pen pal, Ashley (Charlize Theron). Little does he know that Ashley has less romantic reasons for befriending Nick; as Rudy soon discovers, Ashley and her brother (Gary Sinise) are plotting a heist that requires his participation, whether he agrees to it or not."--A Netflix movie.

A very riveting movie.

I Think I Love My Wife (2007)***

Seen on 22-8-2009 - A Star Movies Film
Cast: Chris Rock (Richard Cooper), Kerry Washington (Nikki), Gina Torres (Brenda)
Dir.: Chris Rock
As writer, director and actor Chris Rock did exceedingly well in this film; most of its comedy is in the frank admission of his problems with his otherwise happy married life. It's a story of Richard Cooper, married for seven years with two lovable kids, is sexually frustrated although he loves his wife; it's just that they haven't been able to have sex for one reason or other. He begins to fancy other women but thoughts of betraying his wife are from him yet. Into this scene enters a seductive old friend Nikki who puts in her moves calling him at office too often, frequently taking him away from his work thereby bringing him to the brink of losing his job, etc. He find her irresistible, but has no thoughts of quitting on his family. Finally, the pull of his bonds with family triumph over his temporary distraction.
This is a comedy about marital relationship to which every married man would relate.

Awake (2007)***

Seen on 21-8-2009 - A St.Movies film
Cast: Hayden Christensen (Clay Beresford), Jessica Alba (Sam Lockwood), Terrence Howard
(Dr. Jack), Lina Olin (Lilith Bersford)
The beautiful Sam conspires with a Cardiologist Surgeon to kill the billionnaire, Clay she just married in his heart transplant surgery in order to get rich. But Clay's mother outwits her by having her own heart transplanted in her son with the help of an eminent Surgeon. The culprits are exposed and arrested.
The narrative is quite innovative and is attuned to maintain the suspense until the end even as it helps the plot move forward quietly unraveling the conspiracy.

Netflix summary
--"While undergoing a heart transplant, Clay (Hayden Christensen) experiences "anesthetic awareness," a conditiA on that allows him to see and feel everything that's happening to him but leaves him paralyzed and unable to do anything about it. From his unique and painful vantage point, Clay learns troubling truths about his young wife (Jessica Alba) as she struggles with her own demons. Terrence Howard and Lena Olin co-star."

December Boys (2007)***

Seen on 21-8-2009 - HBO movie
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe (Maps) (Harry Potter fame), Lee Cormie (Misty), et al
Dire.: Rod Hardy

Based on a novel by the Australian writer, Michael Noonan
As a birthday gift four boys in a Catholic orphanage are given a holiday in a seaside town to spend summer vacation with an old couple. Here they have the most memorable time of their lives. Here the oldest boy called Maps gets to know a girl who initiates him into his first experience of sex but leaves him disappointed in love as she goes away without even a word of farewell. Here too the other three boys' hopes of finding an adoptive home are raised, but eventually they realize that their bonds cannot be broken. Their friendship of the December boys is strengthened after the summer experiences here.

The movie is engaging with its poignant narrative.

Big Fat Liar (2002)**

Seen on 20-8-2009 - HBO movie
Cast: Frankie Muniz (Jason), Amanda Bynes (Kaylee)
Dir.: Shawn Levy
"Junior high school students Jason and Kaylee are a couple of precocious kids who want to see (screen) credit where credit is due. After a greedy Hollywood producer turns Jason's essay into a hit film -- and leaves Jason's name on the proverbial cutting room floor -- the youngsters travel to Hollywood to twist a few arms for some payback. Tinseltown moral: Don't double-cross teens with driving permits!"--A Netflix summary.
---Is TRUTH OVERRATED? The movie is a hilarious comedy trying to prove that TRUTH IS NOT OVERRATED.
--It now occurs to me that the paradox at the heart of the film is that it seeks to demonstrate that truth cannot be overrated by using a compulsive liar of a boy who is understandably a budding inventive writer capable of helping the impoverished Hollywood producer. And doesn't a fictionist writer always try to reach truth through an imaginative lie?

A Daughter's Conviction (2006)**

Seen on 20-8-2009 - HBO Movie
A young woman's alcoholic mother is framed for the murder of her father who is a cop. The daughter doesn't believe her mother did it and she starts investigation on her own although the DA had already filed an iron-clad case against her. As she digs she discovers loopholes and pursues the leads she gets along the way. Finally she succeeds in proving her mother innocent by gathering evidence against the real culprit who turns out to be her own close friend.

Shine (1996)*****

Seen on 18-8-2009 - A Star Movies film

Cast: Geoffrey Rush (David Helfgott), Armin Mueller-Stahl (Peter)

Dir.: Scott Hicks

"A riveting profile of Australian keyboard virtuoso David Helfgott (Geoffrey Rush) and his ultimate triumph over a domineering, abusive father (Armin Mueller-Stahl); schizophrenia; and an obsession with the all but unplayable Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3. Sir John Gielgud, superb as ever, plays Helfgott's tutor. Richly deserved Oscars went to Rush (Best Actor) and to Mueller-Stahl for his supporting turn."---A Netflix summary

My comments: This kind of movie makes our day; it adds meaning to the humdrum routine of life. The Australian pianist's genius appears to have been thwarted by his circumstances; it would have flourished and reached great heights in happier circumstances. Although you'd end up blaming the father's oppressive influence, given the holocaust trauma that the father himself had suffered (he is a Polish Jew who survived Hitler), you couldn't have blamed. His desperate but savage aggression on his hapless son when he gets the chance to go to the US to study music is understandable because of his fears about family disintegration. If he pushes his son to pull off Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 against the local tutor's warnings, it is to enable his son reach the pinnacle of achievement of which is fully capable. The son himself measures against the standards set by his father all his life and seeks his approval and pride even after estrangement. This is pathetic. In a way the father as well as the Rach 3 are the undoing of David although he finds some solace from a woman admirer in the end.

But what is most amazing about David is that although on the outside he is insane, he insanely coherent and passionate when he begins to play music. These words of Roger Ebert about David are instructive: "What is terrifying for him is that the better he gets, the closer he comes to expressing feelings that his father has charged with enormous guilt. The ``Rach 3'' is a tumult of emotion, and what happens is that David cannot perform it without being destroyed by the feelings it releases." We feel absolutely handicapped by the lack of background necessary to appreciate the Western music which sends all those people into ecstasy.

This is a great biopic.

Six Days Seven Nights (1998)**

Seen on 16-8-09 - A St. Movies film

Cast: Harrison Ford (Quinn Harris), Anne Heche (Robin Monroe)
Dir. : Ivan Reitman

Into a typical the marooned are cast several interesting atypical ingredients:

1. For a start, an elderly gruff rough-around-the-edges pilot of a hired plane flies a disagreeable skeptical uppish young woman--unlikely pair to fall in love--who eventually, after a series of exciting brushes with dangerous situatious, is transformed into a lover in spite of being engaged to be married to someone else .
2. They were being attacked by a bunch of pirates and their back-to-wall efforts to save themselves.
3. A couple of instances of ingenious methods to survive: like killing a peacock for food, camouflaged as an innocuous tree, or picking up the remains of WWII Japanese fighter plane and making good their escape from the island.
4. The woman companion taking over the flying of the plane from the injured pilot and saving them from the pirates' fire.

All in all this movie turns out to be engaging. This is fun stuff.

My Beautiful Laundrette

--Viewing on 15-8-2009 interrupted by Naveen's visit (he just returned from Bangalore writers' conference where he presented the paper I fixed for him)
--Hanif Khureishi's popular play, MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE that I had heard so much about could not be viewed today.

Georgia Rule (2007)***

Seen on 14-8-2009 - Zee Stud.movie
Cast: Lindsay Lohan (Rachel), Felicity Huffman (Lilly), Jane Fonda (Georgia)
Dir.: Garry Marshall (of "Keeping with Steins" fame--in which he acted as grandpa. He is
a writer, actor as well as a producer)

"Fed up with the antics of her unruly daughter, Rachel (Lindsay Lohan), exasperated Lilly (Felicity Huffman) takes her to Idaho to live with her flinty, no-nonsense grandmother, Georgia (Jane Fonda). The two lock horns at first, but the angry Rachel starts to mellow as she gradually connects with Georgia. Also starring Dermot Mulroney and Laurie Metcalf, director Garry Marshall's redemptive tale explores themes of forgiveness and family ties."---A Netflix summary

My comment:
Bonds win over although there are radical personality differences and clashes between the three women. Rachel the daughter who was to go to Vassar is frustrated further with the ways of his alcoholic mother. Basically she is a free spirit and is very impish. The bohemian Californian girl looks totally misplaced in the conservative Mormon Idaho; the film clearly shows this contrast. Also, beneath all that waywardliness, she is refined and well educated (remember the scene where a quiz is in progress on tv, she casually traces the quoted lines from Poe's "Raven"). We liked the conception of all the three women--stubbornly individualistic yet caring. In the end, together they overcome the problem that has shadowed them--the molestation of Rachel by her stepfather! Rachel may have seduced the older men but that seems to be in a way to test their moral rootedness. Her mother's former boyfriend Simon passes the test while the stepfather doesn't (and ends losing his wife.)

Juno (2007)***

Seen on 13-8-2009 - HBO movie
Cast: Ellen Page (Juno), Jason Bateman
Dir.: Jason Reitman
"Facing an unplanned pregnancy while she's still in high school, quirky teen Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) devises a plan to locate her unborn baby's perfect adoptive parents. But the seemingly ideal couple (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) Juno chooses still has some growing up to do. Michael Cera co-stars in this offbeat coming-of-age comedy with an Oscar-winning original screenplay penned by Diablo Cody."
---A Netflix summary
What I liked best abt this movie is the sane and practical view she takes in deciding not to abort, to bring forth the child, choose suitable adoptive parents for her child so that she could move on with her life. And she does all this without guilt, without mush about motherhood.

28 Days (2000)***

Seen on 13-8-2009 - St.Movies
Cast: Sandra Bullock (Gwen), Viggio Mortensen (Eddie), Dominic West (Jasper)
Dir.: Betty Thomas
Written by: Susannah Grant (of "Erin Brocovitch" fame)
Gwen is sent to a rehab for crashing stolen car into a house in a fit of wild, crazy drunken driving. When she confesses she is a mess, her boyfriend says he likes her because she is a mess. On his visits he sneaks for her designer drugs and champaign from which she is supposed to keep away. Jasper joins her when she ruins her sister's wedding with her crazy riotous dancing and shouting. But at the rehab she gradually manages to learn restraint and control and even when she comes out of the rehab she even discards her boyfriend.
This is said to have been written by Susannah Grant who also wrote Erin Bracovitch.

A Civil Action (1998)***

Seen on 12-8-2009 - HBO movie
Cast: John Travalota, Robert Duvall
Dir.: Steven Zillian
BASED ON JONATHAN HARR'S NON-FICTION BESTSELLER WHICH WON NATIONAL BK AWD.
"In this true story, John Travolta stars as a personal-injury lawyer who sues a major corporation for big bucks when the drinking water in Woburn, Mass., is found to contain high levels of industrial solvents. Believing the contamination is responsible for the large number of leukemia deaths among the town's children, the citizens -- lead by a woman (Kathleen Quinlan) whose child has died -- hire a lawyer to take on the corporate polluters."
----A Netflix summary
Roger Ebert is interesting on this: "'Civil Action' is like John Grisham for grownups. Watching it, we realize that Grisham's lawyers are romanticized hotshots living in a cowboy universe with John Wayne values. The real world of the law, this movie argues, has less to do with justice than with strategy and doesn't necessarily arrive at truth. The law is about who wins, not about who should win."
This in a way recalls ERIN BROCOVICH, but required greater concentration on our part to follow the fast-paced script.

Beyond Borders (2003)***

Seen on 12-8-2009 - a HBO movie
Cast: Anelina Jole (Sarah), Clive Owen (Nick callahan)
Dir.: Martin Campbell

"Nick (Clive Owen), a medical student turned international disaster relief worker, and Sarah (Angelina Jolie), a philanthropist socialite, gradually fall in love after meeting time and again against the backdrops of disasters and wars throughout the world. Teri Polo plays Sarah's sister Charlotte, a globetrotting journalist."
---A Netflix summary
I want to understand why Roger Ebert found fault with this movie. He said:"'Beyond Borders'has good intentions and wants to call attention to the plight of refugees, but what a clueless vulgarization it makes of its worthy motives." To substantiate his point he says: "When the suffering of real children is used to enhance the image of movie stars who fall in love against the backdrop of their suffering, a certain decency is lacking. 'Beyond Borders' wants it both ways -- glamor up front, and human misery in the background to lend it poignancy." For better treatment he recommends MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM'S recent IN THIS WORLD. But for such pernickety faults, I thought Campbell did well in extending his canvas from Ethiopia, Knomn Phenn (Cumbodia), to Chechen,etc, maybe in order to emphasize everywhere it's the same whatever the circumstances: that is, poor common folk is caught in the crossfires of power politics in the developing countries and the good-intentioned aid workers like Nick had to take phenomenal risks and sometimes even had to deviate from neutral stance to do their work!! The politics of Aid politics was treated differently in CONSTANT GARDNER which too I had liked.

Sling Blade (1996)****

Seen on 8-8-2009 - HBO Movie
Cast: Billy Bob Thornton (Karl Childers), Lucas Black (Frank Whitley, the boy)
Dwight Yoakam (Doyle), Natalie Canerday (Linda, the boy's mother
Dir.: Billy Bob Thornton (Oscar-winning tour de force)
Committed to a psychiatric hospital, Karl Childers is released after 12 years on being found reformed and normal. He was sent here 12 years ago for killing his mother and her lover whom he found in a "wrong" position. Asked if he would kill again, he matter-of-factly answers he has no reason to. On coming out, he has no where to go and he is being regarded as a 'retard.' But he is observant, keeps to himself, acts with great restraint even when people make fun of him and his responses are intelligent and tactful
Eventually, he makes friends with a boy called Frank who take to him immediately. A great bond develops between them and he begins to live with the boy's family which consists of his mother and her lover. The lover is always abusive, drunken and violent. He ill-treats the boy as well as his mother. The boy would have killed him if he could.
Karl finally decides to kill Doyle and surrender to authorities. He liberates the boy and his mother from the clutches of this evil person.
The film recalls ONE FLEW OVER CUCKOO'S NEST.

In Bruges (2008)**

Seen on 6-8-2009 - HBO movie
Cast: Colin Farrell (Ray), Brendan Gleeson (Ken), Ralph Fiennes (Harry)
Dir./Writer: Martin McDonaugh (who is often compared to playwright, David Mamet)
Two Irish hitmen are holed up in Bruges for two weeks, Belgium to cool off heels and evade apprehension. As they begin to absorb the beauty of the best-preserved medieval Venetian town in Belgium, Ken is ordered to kill Ray by their boss. When the order is not carried out, the boss himself comes down to kill Ray and kills both. But surprisingly he also kills himself because he realises he has killed a dwarf (a midget) in the process of killing his mercenary colleagues.
The important thing about the film is the beauty of the place.

The Crossing Guard (1995)***

Seen on 6-8-2009 - St.Movies
Cast: Jack Nicholson (Freddy Gale), David Morse (John Booth),Angelic Huston (Mary)
Dir/Scr.Play: Sean Penn
Freddy Gale has sworn to kill the man, John Booth, who ran over his daughter in a case of drunken driving and is sent to jail. The film takes up action when Booth has come out of prison and Freddy is determined to kill him. The opening scenes show Freddy confronting Booth in his trailer with a gun that fails to work, while Booth himself is surprisingly ready to be shot. Booth even persuades him to kill him and says he doesn't seek forgiveness for what has happened. But Freddy leaves giving him 3 days in which he will come back to kill him. The rest of the action reveals the harrowing effects of guilt in John Booth on the one hand, and on the other the state of Freddy's mind. Freddy's problem is he is deeply affected by the death of his child, but at the same time aware that John Booth doesn't deserve to be killed for it especially when the latter has done his time and is still very remorseful about it.
In a crucial scene he phones his divorced wife in the middle of the night to tell her, while choking with suppressed grief, about a dream in which he saw school children crossing the street while the John Booth the killer himself is guiding them as the crossing guard. From the way the roles are reversed in this dream, one begins suspect that John Booth, in spite of being cast as an unwitting killer of the girl, is also conceived as Freddy's doppleganger.
In any case Freddy's feelings towards his daughter's killer are not an unmixed affair.
Freddy himself is chased by police for drunken driving. Both men--Freddy Gale and John Booth--can't enjoy their carousals and their encounters with the women they pick up. Yet both turn to women for help, although they cannot accept their help. It seems as if Freddy has no alternative but shoot John Booth, while the latter cannot but be shot. The last scenes show how Booth will not and cannot shoot Freddy when he could have easily done it, nor does he want to be shot because he keeps running away to escape being shot. Similarly, Freddy runs after Booth with a gun pointed at him but seems half-hearted in shooting him. Together they end up near the grave of Freddy's child and they seem to join hands over the grave in a gesture of reconciliation.
The film appears to be confused in its delineation of the psychology of the two protagonists who refuse to get on with life long after the tragic accident of death.
Or, it is possible that the tragedy of these two individuals lay in their confusions.
In the final analysis, I found the film too contrived in its situations.

Loving Lea (2009)******

Seen on 4-8-2009 - Star Movies
Cast: Adam Kaufman (Jake), Lauren Ambrose (Lea), Christy Pusz (Carol--Jake fiance)
Dir.: JEFF BLECKNER---WATCHOUT-DIRECTOR
Writer: PNENAH GOLDSTEIN -- WATCHOUT SCRIPT WRITER
"When his rabbi brother dies, Jake (Adam Kaufman), a 30-year-old cardiologist, is called upon to marry the widow, Leah (Lauren Ambrose), under orthodox Jewish law. While initially just going through the motions to satisfy their mothers (Mercedes Ruehl and Susie Essman), the two soon find themselves in love. Ricki Lake is the rabbi who helps Leah through her new situation, and Christy Pusz co-stars as Jake's confused girlfriend." --Netflix summary
My Comments: 1. Going by the story and its sensitive handling, this film ought to get 5-star rating. The slow gradual complex processes by which the agreed relationships make a turn about and surprisingly get changed is imaginatively handled. The script makes this turn-about entirely convincing.
2. This touching movie recalls "Ek Chadar Mailee Si" in its theme and story.
3. The script and direction and acting performances rise to searing heights to create several memorable moments in the film. (i) When Lea goes away unannounced for the first sabbah, Jake is worried and when his girlfriend suggests that she must have left to have fun, his value-neutral defense that she is not that kind of person naturally result in unintended hurt feelings in her, leading to irreparable damage in their relationship. (ii) To assuage his guilt feeling over wronging her dead brother and to set things right, Lea leaves Jake. But the way they are reunited is managed without any awkwardness. (iii) The two arcs of Jake's relationships with Lea and Carol [his lover]--growing care of one and the other declining love relationship--are convincingly and sensitively handled.

Miss Potter (2006)***

Seen on 4/8/2009 - Star Movies
Cast: Rene Zelwiger (Miss Beatrix Potter), Ewan McGregor (Norman Warne)
Dir.: Chris

"Blending lush animation sequences with live-action drama, director Chris Noonan constructs this biopic about the personal life of beloved children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter. Featuring the Academy Award-winning Renee Zellweger as the title character and co-starring Emily Watson and Ewan McGregor, the film traces Potter's private life as well as her contributions to literature such as the timeless 'Tale of Peter Rabbit.'"
My comment:1. We get to see the famed Lake District here where Miss Potter, after the premature death of her fiance buys a country home with a working farm and settles down. She even uses her hard earned money to buy up hundreds of acres of neighboring farms just in order to preserve it from being sold to land developers and later bequeaths the same to land preservation agency!
2. It's touch tale of a young spinster who breaks restrictions of upper class early twentieth century family by (i) venturing into writing for children and illustrating them herself (ii) by boldly persuading the publishers to publish a female writer and succeeding in the efforgts (iii) by deciding to marry a person she loved from the inferior social class of tradesman against the staunch opposition of her parents.
3. Renee Zellweger is superb in playing the strong-willed female writer.
4. The director Noonan often imaginatively uses two bit animations to show how Miss Potter saw her fascinating stories and to bring them alive in her imagination. Thus her characters also gain vibrant existence as her life long companions.
5. Miss potter finds a confidante and soul-mate in the suffragette sister of the man who lovingly publishes her books and later was to marry her had it not been for early unexpected death. The triangular bonding is sensitively developed in the film.