Temple Grandin****

Seen on 30-8-2011 on HBO
This is a biopic inspired by the remarkable success story of an autistic young woman. Claire Danes plays this role to perfection.

Extraordinary Measures****

Seen on 30-8-2011
Director: Tom Vaughan
Cast: Brendan Fraser - Keri Russell - Harrison Ford
With two kids paralyzed by life-threatening Pompe the Harvard Business School graduate with a cushy job throws it up all and desperately raises funds to support the research of a promising scientist who is developing an enzyme that could save his children. He fights against many odds in setting up businesses that support this research and finally succeeds in getting the life-saving drug.
A remarkable movie that shows what miracles a man can achieve given the spirit that defies destiny and challenges the conventional wisdom.

Shutter Island (2010)**

Seen on 9-6-11 on HBO
Dir: Martin Scorsese
Cast: DiCaprio - Ben Kingsley - Mark Ruffalo
"Drama set in 1954. US Marshal Teddy Daniels is investigating disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for criminally insane on Shutter Island near Boston. The Marshall has been pushing for an assignment on Shutter Island for personal reasons but before long wonders whether he hasn't been brought there as a part of a twisted plot by the hospital doctors whose radical treatments range from unethical to illegal to downright sinister..."

Song of Sparrows (2008)**s

Seen on 7-6-2011 on UTV World Movies
--Persian Film (Iranian)
--Dir: Majid Majidi
This film has a starkness about it that is beautiful. This is about a poor ranch hand trying to scrape a living to support a large family. He loses his job on the ranch and goes to nearby Tehran city where it is a bit easier on him because he readily finds he can use his motorbike like a taxi (like autorikshas here). From the city he keeps bringing discarded odds and ends like a tin sheet or a tv antenna or door frame that he repairs and improves things at home. But soon he falls beneath a junk pile and fractures his limbs. Now the children and wife start working to support themselves. And there are tender moments of warmth and love in this struggle to make a living. They also chase dreams in these dire circumstances.
ONE GOOD THING ABOUT THIS FILM IS IT DOES NOT SENTIMENTALIZE POVERTY OR FAMILY BONDS. ACTUALLY IT GAINS DEPTH OF MEANING AS IT MOVES FORWARD. THE USE REVIEW SUMS IT FOR US: "UNDOUBTEDLY CONTEMPLATIVE AND METAPHORICAL THE FILM GUARANTEES A HIGH REPLAY VALUE."

Julie and Julia (2009)****

Seen on 6-6-2011 on HBO (against odds and errands)
About Julia Powell who decides to start a blog (which soon becomes a big hit and she wins several fans) on her cooking program where she is to cook all of Julie Child's recipes in a year's time. This story is intertwined with that of Julie Child's passion and enthusiasm for cooking.

Outstanding Aspects:
1. That one can make a film on cooking and succeed with it!
2. Meryl Streep's acting uncharacteristically superb and richly deserves the Oscar Nomination
3. Julia Powell played by Amy Adams is just as good.
4. The supportive husbands who share in their wives' enthusiasms and help them
achieve success
5. THIS FILM HAS CREATED A NEW INTEREST IN COOKING!!!
We liked this immensly.

Sundays at Tiffany's (2010)***

Seen on 5-6-2011 on Sony Pix
--Director: Mark Pizmarski
--Based on a best-selling novel by James Patterson
An allegorical drama emphasizing the need for imagination in grown up life which is all about crazy adjustments compromises and sacrifice of precious things of life hypocrisy self-deceptions. Here a figment of childhood imagination disappears when the girl attains 10 and reappears nearly 20 years later. And the fictional character Miachael possesses the girl to an extent where she abandons her soon to wed fiance and the success associated with that marriage in order to embrace Michael. But this is done convincingly.

Did You Hear About Morgans (2009)**

Seen on 4-6-2011 on Zee Studio
* Hugh Grant & Sarah Jessica Parker
Interesting comedy about a separated couple jointly lifted out of New York city life under FBI's Witness Protection Program (they accidentally chance upon an murder and are under threat by dreaded killers) and transplanted temporarily in a remote rural place in Wyoming. They continue to quarrel and get adjusted with great difficulty to the rural ways. This is hilarious. Finally they are saved when their hosts in Wyoming apprehend the killer and they are reunited in marriage.

Along the Ridge (2006)***

Seen on UTV WM-3-6-2011
I liked this off-beat Italian movie because it wrings through a tangled ragged relationships the real love that is underneath. This about a single father bringing up two growing children their errant mother having disappeared for years without explanation. When she suddenly appears the response of the children is mixed and reserved but slowly warm up to her and the father has reluctantly agreed to give her a second chance. When she disappears again the boy is devastated and discovers that he did care for her after all although was reserved and unforgiving when she last appeared.