I am drawn to two of Anna Quindlen’s novels – One True Thing and Black and Blue – both were made into movies and are, in my biased opinion, two of her best pieces of work. Ms. Quindlen is not a white-washer, she writes from a woman’s perspective and writes about real life. 99% of the time life is good, but sometimes that other 1% isn’t pretty.
Showing the process from the patient, caregiver, and the family unit perspectives, this movie is about terminal illness and it is the best movie I have seen on the subject. This one will make you cry – I guarantee.
Quotes
Kate Gulden: It's so much easier to be happy. It's so much easier to choose to love the things that you have, instead of always yearning for what you're missing, or what it is that you're imagining you're missing. It is so much more peaceful.
Plot Summary
This movie is told from the perspective of Ellen Guiden (Rene Zellweger) who is a creative successful writer and career woman in New York for a prestigious magazine. It is a high pressured job and you get the idea Ellen is very good at what she does and loves the “juice” from it. She has a boyfriend and together you see them as the “stereotypical 1990s New Yorkers, career driven rather than couple driven.”
When Ellen reluctantly makes the trip back home for another of her mother’s “theme” parties – this time a surprise party for Ellen’s father, you meet the rest of the Guiden family. Ellen’s mother, Kate Guiden (Meryl Streep) is a vivacious and creative stay-at-home mom, who is outgoing and in love with life. Ellen’s father, George Guiden (William Hurt) is a college professor and a writer with writer’s block and is as much an introvert, complex, and intellectual as his wife is outgoing, loving, and creative.
Ellen loves her father – idealizing him so much that she followed him into his writing profession – and actually we see that she is more successful at it then he is though he is always giving her advice about it. Ellen’s relationship with her mother is more strained, you get the idea from the start that she is embarrassed by her domestic goddess mother’s “larger than life creative personality” and the fact that she choose to be a stay at home mom rather then enter the work force – the daughter sees it ‘as a wasted life.” Ellen’s brother Brian Guiden (Tom Evert Scott) is introduced briefly – the “on the run to meet his friends type” of character – present, but not present and the actor does a wonderful job in the limited screen time he is given, but his character does not play as major a role in this film as the other Guidens.
Life goes along smoothly for this upper middle class family and unlike the characters, the viewers realizes early on that this family runs like a well-oiled machine because “mom” is at the helm of this family – though none of them realize her true contributions to the family and her true worth….until the underappreciated Kate gets diagnosed with a terminal illness. Life for the Guiden family is about to change.
Ellen’s father George pressures his daughter to take a leave of absence from her job. The truth is Ellen does not really want to as she knows it could jeopardize her career and the relationship she has with her boyfriend, but her father finally manages to guilt her into it. Grumbling all the way, Ellen moves back home to “help her father” with her mother and learns what the term help really means. During her mother’s illness, Ellen takes care of her mom as her slightly self-absorbed father continues his old role, going about his business as usual, without helping as he has promised he would, and his daughter realizes through a series of events (some in flashback) that he is not the God she thought him to be, but still a good man none the less.
It is interesting thing for a child – when they grow up and truly look at their parents through adult eyes and see them for the people they REALLY are – not the people they have always thought them to be. This experience teaches Ellen a great deal about herself and about both of her parents. Through a series of events she learns who has the strength, creativity, and wisdom in the Guiden family.
Life Lessons
Terminal illness is a thief. It robs you of someone you love before you are ever ready to let them go. What it does to your heart is a crime – splintering it into a million pieces only to leave you, knees on the floor, trying to figure out how to make everything in your world right again.
Terminal illness is also a teacher. It teaches you about death, sacrifice, love, hope, grief, honor, dignity, but mostly it teaches you about the value of living your life with joy each and every single day you can.
When my son went off to college, I “secretly” tucked a note in his things. This is not an original note – authored by me, but a piece of wisdom I am passing down the path.
“Happiness is the way – a choice you can make every single day. So, treasure every moment that you have and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with…and remember that time waits for no one.
So stop waiting…until
Until your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids are in college
Until you go back to school
Until you lose 10 pounds
Until you gain 10 pounds
Until you get married
Until you have kids
Until you retire
Until summer, spring, winter, or fall
Until…Until…Until
There is no better time than right now to be happy.
Happiness is a journey, not a destination.
So work like you don’t need money,
Love like you’ve never been hurt,
And, dance like no one’s watching.”
One True Thing Movie Cast
· Meryl Streep as Kate Guiden
· Renee Zellweger as Ellen Guiden
· William Hurt as George Guiden
· Tom Everett Scott as Brian Guiden
· Lauren Graham as Jules
· Nicky Katt as Jordan Belzer
· And others
Monday, June 14, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Brothers (2009)
War makes good men have to do bad things and expects them to forget all that and come home the same person.
This is one of those movies I probably would not have seen except my son recommended it and brought it over to the house on a Friday night to watch with his dad and me. Wow! This is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea because some of it is REALLY hard to watch. There is violence and I do not recommend it for kids under the age of 12. Having said that, it is one of the best movies about the relationship between brothers I have seen in a long time.
It’s a movie about love, loyalty, and living with the choices you make.
Quotes
(Sam talking to his wife Grace about picking his younger brother Tommy up from prison)
Sam Cahill: I have to go. He's my brother.
Grace Cahill: He doesn't deserve you.
(Sam screaming at his wife Grace)
Sam Cahill: You know what I did to get back to you? You know what I did?
Tommy Cahill: Stop! Wait! He's my brother!
Plot Summary
This is a story about two brothers – older brother Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) – a good “salt-of-the earth” steadfast family man and soldier – the good big brother and younger brother Tommy Cahill (Jake Gyllenhaal) – the family black sheep who never seems to be able to do anything right; especially where his father is concerned – he is the bad younger brother.
Sam, who is about to leave for another tour of duty in the Middle East, picks up his brother Tommy at prison/jail after the latter has served his sentence for armed robbery and brings him back into the family fold. Sam’s wife Grace (Natalie Portman), who has never been fond of Tommy, does not understand why Sam “is always there” for his “never do good” younger brother. Sam states simply, “He’s my brother.” Tommy asks Sam the same question on their ride home after they leave the prison/jail. Sam repeats, “You’re my brother.”
Grace and Sam host a family dinner with their two young daughters – Isabelle (Bailee Madison) and Maggie (Taylor Grace Geare), Tommy, and Sam’s parents - Hank Cahill (Sam Shepard) and Elise Cahill (Mare Winningham) in attendance. It is obvious that Hank Cahill, a soldier himself and Vietnam Vet, favors his son Sam over Tommy; setting the older brother up as an example to his younger brother of what a “man” should be. Viewers also get the idea that Hank has been doing this most of Tommy’s life and that maybe this is one of the reasons for Tommy’s bad behavior. It is also revealed (briefly) that when the boys were growing up and Hank came home from Vietnam, he became an alcoholic, but eventually dealt with it and lives an alcohol-free life now.
Sam is deployed to the Middle East where he is involved in a crash and is presumed dead. The truth is he and Private Joe Willis (Patrick Flueger), a hometown friend, survive the ordeal, only to be taken prisoner. Thinking his brother is dead, Tommy steps up to the plate to help his sister-in-law and his nieces. Wanting to make amends for his past behavior, he gathers up some of his old friends and remodels Grace’s kitchen for her. Grace slowly comes to see Tommy as her husband Sam did and her attitude towards him softens. Back in the Middle East Sam and Joe are abused and tortured by terrorists and even though Sam encourages Joe to stay strong, Joe cracks.
I think I will stop there because I don’t want to reveal too much. I will share Sam makes it back home to his family.
Life Lessons
As children, one of Betty’s rules was that we – as siblings – were to take care of each other. We could fight all we wanted (and we did) among ourselves, but if someone from the outside stepped in and stepped on your sibling; you were to step up to the plate and stand by them…right or wrong – your loyalty was with them.
As an adult child of my mother, if you want to get on her fighting side, just say something about your sibling and our mother will immediately take on the cause of the child being attacked. It is another one of Betty's rules -- she is allowed to call us stinkweeds (and we can be), but none of us are allowed to call each other that in front of her.
I have a friend who was walking down the hallway of her home and stopped short because she overheard a conversation taking place in her home that she would have been better off never hearing. She was hurt and sad because it took place at a stressful time in her life when she needed her support system to be firmly in place. She went to her mother, who told her, “you must forgive them, family forgives family their trespasses.” This revelation came from one of the greatest grudge holders in the universe – my friend’s father used to say “Your mother can remember someone who did her wrong back in 1942 and quote you the time it happened down to the second,” but my friend realized her mother was right, even if she didn’t always practice it herself, family forgives family their trespasses.
It is hard to be the kind of person who can do that, be forgiving when someone has hurt you; especially someone you never thought would do that to you. Then you have to remember – only “the big guy” is perfect. People are human, they make mistakes and if the shoe was on the other foot you’d want them to forgive you and give you another chance without holding your imperfections over your head for all eternity.
Remember they are your sister or brother and family forgives family their trespasses….even when, occasionally, they are stinkweeds. There are those other times – they stand right beside you with their hand on your shoulder and you know you are not alone and the world knows…really knows, that they have the "Cartwrights" to deal with. "Cartwrights?" Watch Bonanza on cable and you'll understand what the reference means.
About family by blood or choice…
“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.” Dinah Craik
Brothers Movie Cast
• Tobey Maguire as Capt. Sam Cahill
• Jake Gyllenhaal as Tommy Cahill
• Natalie Portman as Grace Cahill
• Mare Winningham as Elsie Cahill
• Sam Shepard as Hank Cahill
• Clifton Collins, Jr. as Maj. Cavazos
• Bailee Madison as Isabelle Cahill
• Taylor Geare as Maggie Cahill
• Patrick Flueger as Pvt. Joe Willis
• Carey Mulligan as Cassie Willis
• Jenny Wade as Tina
• Omid Abtahi as Yusuf
• Ethan Suplee as Sweeney
• Ray Prewitt as Owen
This is one of those movies I probably would not have seen except my son recommended it and brought it over to the house on a Friday night to watch with his dad and me. Wow! This is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea because some of it is REALLY hard to watch. There is violence and I do not recommend it for kids under the age of 12. Having said that, it is one of the best movies about the relationship between brothers I have seen in a long time.
It’s a movie about love, loyalty, and living with the choices you make.
Quotes
(Sam talking to his wife Grace about picking his younger brother Tommy up from prison)
Sam Cahill: I have to go. He's my brother.
Grace Cahill: He doesn't deserve you.
(Sam screaming at his wife Grace)
Sam Cahill: You know what I did to get back to you? You know what I did?
Tommy Cahill: Stop! Wait! He's my brother!
Plot Summary
This is a story about two brothers – older brother Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) – a good “salt-of-the earth” steadfast family man and soldier – the good big brother and younger brother Tommy Cahill (Jake Gyllenhaal) – the family black sheep who never seems to be able to do anything right; especially where his father is concerned – he is the bad younger brother.
Sam, who is about to leave for another tour of duty in the Middle East, picks up his brother Tommy at prison/jail after the latter has served his sentence for armed robbery and brings him back into the family fold. Sam’s wife Grace (Natalie Portman), who has never been fond of Tommy, does not understand why Sam “is always there” for his “never do good” younger brother. Sam states simply, “He’s my brother.” Tommy asks Sam the same question on their ride home after they leave the prison/jail. Sam repeats, “You’re my brother.”
Grace and Sam host a family dinner with their two young daughters – Isabelle (Bailee Madison) and Maggie (Taylor Grace Geare), Tommy, and Sam’s parents - Hank Cahill (Sam Shepard) and Elise Cahill (Mare Winningham) in attendance. It is obvious that Hank Cahill, a soldier himself and Vietnam Vet, favors his son Sam over Tommy; setting the older brother up as an example to his younger brother of what a “man” should be. Viewers also get the idea that Hank has been doing this most of Tommy’s life and that maybe this is one of the reasons for Tommy’s bad behavior. It is also revealed (briefly) that when the boys were growing up and Hank came home from Vietnam, he became an alcoholic, but eventually dealt with it and lives an alcohol-free life now.
Sam is deployed to the Middle East where he is involved in a crash and is presumed dead. The truth is he and Private Joe Willis (Patrick Flueger), a hometown friend, survive the ordeal, only to be taken prisoner. Thinking his brother is dead, Tommy steps up to the plate to help his sister-in-law and his nieces. Wanting to make amends for his past behavior, he gathers up some of his old friends and remodels Grace’s kitchen for her. Grace slowly comes to see Tommy as her husband Sam did and her attitude towards him softens. Back in the Middle East Sam and Joe are abused and tortured by terrorists and even though Sam encourages Joe to stay strong, Joe cracks.
I think I will stop there because I don’t want to reveal too much. I will share Sam makes it back home to his family.
Life Lessons
As children, one of Betty’s rules was that we – as siblings – were to take care of each other. We could fight all we wanted (and we did) among ourselves, but if someone from the outside stepped in and stepped on your sibling; you were to step up to the plate and stand by them…right or wrong – your loyalty was with them.
As an adult child of my mother, if you want to get on her fighting side, just say something about your sibling and our mother will immediately take on the cause of the child being attacked. It is another one of Betty's rules -- she is allowed to call us stinkweeds (and we can be), but none of us are allowed to call each other that in front of her.
I have a friend who was walking down the hallway of her home and stopped short because she overheard a conversation taking place in her home that she would have been better off never hearing. She was hurt and sad because it took place at a stressful time in her life when she needed her support system to be firmly in place. She went to her mother, who told her, “you must forgive them, family forgives family their trespasses.” This revelation came from one of the greatest grudge holders in the universe – my friend’s father used to say “Your mother can remember someone who did her wrong back in 1942 and quote you the time it happened down to the second,” but my friend realized her mother was right, even if she didn’t always practice it herself, family forgives family their trespasses.
It is hard to be the kind of person who can do that, be forgiving when someone has hurt you; especially someone you never thought would do that to you. Then you have to remember – only “the big guy” is perfect. People are human, they make mistakes and if the shoe was on the other foot you’d want them to forgive you and give you another chance without holding your imperfections over your head for all eternity.
Remember they are your sister or brother and family forgives family their trespasses….even when, occasionally, they are stinkweeds. There are those other times – they stand right beside you with their hand on your shoulder and you know you are not alone and the world knows…really knows, that they have the "Cartwrights" to deal with. "Cartwrights?" Watch Bonanza on cable and you'll understand what the reference means.
About family by blood or choice…
“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.” Dinah Craik
Brothers Movie Cast
• Tobey Maguire as Capt. Sam Cahill
• Jake Gyllenhaal as Tommy Cahill
• Natalie Portman as Grace Cahill
• Mare Winningham as Elsie Cahill
• Sam Shepard as Hank Cahill
• Clifton Collins, Jr. as Maj. Cavazos
• Bailee Madison as Isabelle Cahill
• Taylor Geare as Maggie Cahill
• Patrick Flueger as Pvt. Joe Willis
• Carey Mulligan as Cassie Willis
• Jenny Wade as Tina
• Omid Abtahi as Yusuf
• Ethan Suplee as Sweeney
• Ray Prewitt as Owen
Friday, May 7, 2010
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood is about relationships…those between mothers and daughters, girlfriends – the kind you keep your entire life, and those souls, by blood, love, or choice, you call family.
It’s about imperfection, diva-ism, holding your judgment about someone until you know the whole story about them, crazy-making, letting go of old tapes from your childhood that no longer work for you in adulthood, forgiveness, and it is about love – the unconditional kind.
Mainly though…it’s about the relationship between mothers and daughters.
Quotes
Younger Vivi: (Throws dinner on the floor in anger) You can starve for all I care! (And then leaves)
Little Sidda Walker: I'll make dinner, Daddy. Okay?
Younger Shep Walker: Thank you. I'll get the skillet. Don't touch it; it's hot.
Sidda: (about Vivi) I am sick of fighting! And, I am sick to death of this whole center of the universe, holier than thou, nothing is ever enough. Oh, how I've suffered, nobody understands me. Somebody fix me a drink and hand me a Nebutol, worn out Scarlett O'Hara... thang!
Caro: (one of Vivi’s childhood friends) Well, she's got her pegged, all right.
Sidda: Daddy, did you get loved enough?
Shepard James 'Shep' Walker: What's enough? My question is, did you?
Vivi: (to her friend) Teensy! I demand that you move this piece of shit outta my way, this very instant!
Teensy: (takes off her sunglasses and glares directly at Vivi) Who do you think you're talking to?
Vivi: I know she's there. (meaning Sidda) Now, what is going on? Is betrayal absolutely everywhere?
Teensy: (sarcastically) Yes. Your lifelong friends are programming your daughter to destroy you!
Vivi: Well, somebody better tell me what's going on!
Teensy: Vivi, calm down! You're just gonna have to trust us. If you go there now, you're gonna ruin EVERYBODY'S life!
Vivi: What IS it with me "ruinin' everybody's life"? EVERYBODY, Teensy? Strangers are saying it now!
Teensy: What strangers?
Vivi: Connor. He yelled at me! She's walked out on their entire life, whatever that means.
Teensy: Go! Go home right now!
Vivi: Don't you talk to me like that. I'll knock you in the middle of next week!
Teensy: Then I will kick your sorry ass on Thursday. Now get in the goddamn car and go home!
(Vivi huffs at Teensy, then climbs into her car, slams the door, and leaves)
Necie Rose Kelleher: I wish you could've known your momma back then, you would've loved her.
Sidda: Necie, me not loving momma was never the problem.
Caro: Her not loving you was never the problem either.
Plot Summary
Sidda (Siddalee) Walker (Sandra Bullock) has created a successful life for herself far away from her southern family. She has a play; a wonderful fiancé named Connor McGill (Angus Mcfadyen), and maintains a tension-filled relationship with her mother. Connor wants to marry her, but memories of her parents' unhappy marriage makes Sidda gun-shy about going through with the actual wedding.
Then there is an interview for a national magazine, where the interviewer distorts the information Sidda shared about challenging childhood – her mother Vivi Walker (Ellen Burstyn) reads it and war breaks out between mother and daughter – each trying to prove the other is the “crazy-making one.” Sidda’s father Shep Walker (James Garner) just does the best he can to alternately soothe and stay out of the war between these two women he loves.
Vivi’s three childhood friends, the Ya-Yas, intervene, trying to create peace between mother and daughter. Using Vivi's scrapbook, Sidda learns the truth – “about the ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies” that has shaped her mother into the complex woman she is today. Vivi learns some valuable lessons as well.
It is that To Kill a Mockingbird – Atticus Finch quote all over again –
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
Life Lessons
Ladies….
You start off in diapers, but time passes very quickly and before you know it you will be celebrating your fiftieth birthday. One day, a short time later, you’re going to catch your reflection in a mirror and do a double-take because you’ll realize, your mother, your grandmother, or your Aunt Jo’s face is looking back at you.
Gentlemen…
The same goes for you.
It’s startling, freaky, and kind of cool all at the same time.
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood Movie Cast
Sandra Bullock as Siddalee ‘Sidda’ Walker
Ellen Burstyn as Vivianne Joan ‘Vivi’ Abbott Walker
Fionnula Flanagan as ’Teensy’ Melissa Whiteman
James Garner as Shepard James ‘Shep’ Walker
Cherry Jones as Grandma ‘Buggy’ Abbott
Ashley Judd as Younger Vivi Abbott Walker
Shirley Knight as Necie Rose Kelleher
Angus Mcfadyen as Connor McGill
Maggie Smith as Caro Eliza Bennett
David Rasche as Taylor Abbott
And Others
It’s about imperfection, diva-ism, holding your judgment about someone until you know the whole story about them, crazy-making, letting go of old tapes from your childhood that no longer work for you in adulthood, forgiveness, and it is about love – the unconditional kind.
Mainly though…it’s about the relationship between mothers and daughters.
Quotes
Younger Vivi: (Throws dinner on the floor in anger) You can starve for all I care! (And then leaves)
Little Sidda Walker: I'll make dinner, Daddy. Okay?
Younger Shep Walker: Thank you. I'll get the skillet. Don't touch it; it's hot.
Sidda: (about Vivi) I am sick of fighting! And, I am sick to death of this whole center of the universe, holier than thou, nothing is ever enough. Oh, how I've suffered, nobody understands me. Somebody fix me a drink and hand me a Nebutol, worn out Scarlett O'Hara... thang!
Caro: (one of Vivi’s childhood friends) Well, she's got her pegged, all right.
Sidda: Daddy, did you get loved enough?
Shepard James 'Shep' Walker: What's enough? My question is, did you?
Vivi: (to her friend) Teensy! I demand that you move this piece of shit outta my way, this very instant!
Teensy: (takes off her sunglasses and glares directly at Vivi) Who do you think you're talking to?
Vivi: I know she's there. (meaning Sidda) Now, what is going on? Is betrayal absolutely everywhere?
Teensy: (sarcastically) Yes. Your lifelong friends are programming your daughter to destroy you!
Vivi: Well, somebody better tell me what's going on!
Teensy: Vivi, calm down! You're just gonna have to trust us. If you go there now, you're gonna ruin EVERYBODY'S life!
Vivi: What IS it with me "ruinin' everybody's life"? EVERYBODY, Teensy? Strangers are saying it now!
Teensy: What strangers?
Vivi: Connor. He yelled at me! She's walked out on their entire life, whatever that means.
Teensy: Go! Go home right now!
Vivi: Don't you talk to me like that. I'll knock you in the middle of next week!
Teensy: Then I will kick your sorry ass on Thursday. Now get in the goddamn car and go home!
(Vivi huffs at Teensy, then climbs into her car, slams the door, and leaves)
Necie Rose Kelleher: I wish you could've known your momma back then, you would've loved her.
Sidda: Necie, me not loving momma was never the problem.
Caro: Her not loving you was never the problem either.
Plot Summary
Sidda (Siddalee) Walker (Sandra Bullock) has created a successful life for herself far away from her southern family. She has a play; a wonderful fiancé named Connor McGill (Angus Mcfadyen), and maintains a tension-filled relationship with her mother. Connor wants to marry her, but memories of her parents' unhappy marriage makes Sidda gun-shy about going through with the actual wedding.
Then there is an interview for a national magazine, where the interviewer distorts the information Sidda shared about challenging childhood – her mother Vivi Walker (Ellen Burstyn) reads it and war breaks out between mother and daughter – each trying to prove the other is the “crazy-making one.” Sidda’s father Shep Walker (James Garner) just does the best he can to alternately soothe and stay out of the war between these two women he loves.
Vivi’s three childhood friends, the Ya-Yas, intervene, trying to create peace between mother and daughter. Using Vivi's scrapbook, Sidda learns the truth – “about the ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies” that has shaped her mother into the complex woman she is today. Vivi learns some valuable lessons as well.
It is that To Kill a Mockingbird – Atticus Finch quote all over again –
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
Life Lessons
Ladies….
You start off in diapers, but time passes very quickly and before you know it you will be celebrating your fiftieth birthday. One day, a short time later, you’re going to catch your reflection in a mirror and do a double-take because you’ll realize, your mother, your grandmother, or your Aunt Jo’s face is looking back at you.
Gentlemen…
The same goes for you.
It’s startling, freaky, and kind of cool all at the same time.
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood Movie Cast
Sandra Bullock as Siddalee ‘Sidda’ Walker
Ellen Burstyn as Vivianne Joan ‘Vivi’ Abbott Walker
Fionnula Flanagan as ’Teensy’ Melissa Whiteman
James Garner as Shepard James ‘Shep’ Walker
Cherry Jones as Grandma ‘Buggy’ Abbott
Ashley Judd as Younger Vivi Abbott Walker
Shirley Knight as Necie Rose Kelleher
Angus Mcfadyen as Connor McGill
Maggie Smith as Caro Eliza Bennett
David Rasche as Taylor Abbott
And Others
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Dead Again
Great movies pairings ooze chemistry when they work together on the big screen. Actors like Gable and Lombard, Tracy and Hepburn, O’Hara and Wayne, and one couple, like Gable and Lombard, who were actually married in real life Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson – each of these couples had that elusive “it.” Drama or comedy and plot aside, they made their audiences wonder what’s going to happen to these two; we’re going to stick around to find out.
Directed by Branagh, Dead Again is a murder mystery/love story with a unique series of plot twists. It was released in 1991 when Branagh and Thompson were still partners, personally and professionally. Andy Garcia fans will find their favorite fellow playing a rumpled, charming, and sometimes dapper, 1940s reporter named Gray Baker who moves the story along and keeps a protective eye on Margaret Strauss. Comedian Robin Williams has a small part in this piece and proves he should be taken seriously in any role he decides to take on. Derek Jacobi, another favorite, is amazing in every movie, mini-series, or tv show he’s in and his versatility is essential to this particular piece.
One more thing….. there is a “smoking” scene between Gray Baker and Mike Church in a nursing home….wait for it because it is towards the end of the movie. I’ve been around a long time and have never seen someone smoke a cigarette that way….see what you think. Eewww!
Quotes
Cozy Carlisle (to Mike Church): You take what you’ve learned from this life and use it in the next. That’s karma.
Plot Summary
This movie is going to be hard to describe because I do not want to give any of the plot away – none of it. I hope you will trust me that this is a unique movie that goes from black and white to color and back again many times. It is part psychological thriller, part love story, part murder mystery – one you have never seen before and when it is over you will say – what an imagination, how did the writer, actors, and directors do that?
Here are some points to ponder along with your popcorn:
· Major and minor characters play dual roles so watch closely or you will miss them.
· Do you like the use of black and white and color in this movie?
· Robin Williams is a good actor.
· Scissors are used as a plot device and when you watch this movie for the second or third time – count the number of times you actually see them on the screen.
· Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, and Dereck Jacobi have been in many movies together and it’s wonderful to watch these “old friends” interact with each other.
· Claddagh rings have an interesting history – a minor point, unless you always wanted to know what the crown, hands, and heart on this Irish ring are all about…and which direction you are suppose to wear the ring
· Look up the words, past lives, karma, and reincarnation and ask yourself “What do you believe?”
Life Lessons
Some times you just have to take a chance – risk makes life interesting and shakes the cobwebs off. I remember my husband and son had to TALK ME INTO watching the movie Speed – I thought a movie about a runaway bus, how good can that be. It WAS good; as a matter of fact I thought it was an excellent action adventure movie and one I would have passed on if they hadn’t persuaded me to give it a chance.
At our house we call those types of film fare sleepers, movies that are good, but for whatever reasons do not appear on our radar screens right away. Dead Again is like that – I spotted it on the preview “reel” for another movie we were watching and I wrote it down in my journal so I could remember to rent it the next time I went to our local movie rental store. I wound up liking it so much, we own a copy of it.
So what is the lesson here…..every once in a while, step out of your box and try something new…take a risk…whether it is a movie, a grilled Portobello mushroom sandwich, dance lesssons, or something larger like going back and getting your degree.
Here is the deal….
As you grow older, you'll find the only things you regret are the things you didn't do, but wanted to. So be bold!
Dead Again Movie Cast
· Kenneth Branagh as Roman Strauss/Mike Church
· Andy Garcia as Gray Baker
· Derek Jacobi as Franklyn Madson
· Wayne Knight as Pete Dugan
· Hanna Schygulla as Inga
· Campbell Scott as Doug/Actor
· Emma Thompson as Grace/ Margaret Strauss
· Jo Anderson as Sister Madeline/ Starlet
· Robin Williams as Dr. Cozy Carlisle
· Gregor Hesse as Frankie
· And others
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Mean Girls
High School cliques stereotypically included various groups labeled ROTC, preps, jocks, nerds, intellectuals, hotties, rich kids, poor kids, special needs, girls who eat their feelings, girls who don't eat anything, desperate wannabes, burnouts, trend setters, eccentrics, artists, toughies, cheerleaders, farm kids, shop or band geeks.
Most of us gravitated towards a group of gals or guys who were similar to us in label and personality. Within each of these individual groups was a pecking order – a place where you fit into your pack – be it leader, follower, counselor, oddball etc.. If you had your spot that made high school a good place to be – you had “like-minded” people to run with……except when your pack turned on you.
Let’s face it… there is nothing meaner on the face of the earth than a pack of females (young or old) when they get it in their head to ostracize someone. The main weapons of choice – the cold shoulder, disdain, and the biggest soul bruiser of all……gossip.
For those of you, who had a hard time in high school, let me share something….do yourself a big favor and go to your 30 year class reunion and observe. As you look about the room, you will realize that life is a great equalizer and those people, the ones that hurt you….have no power anymore. You have lost the need for their or anyone’s approval…except the person who looks back at you in the mirror every morning. I hope you have learned to love and respect that good and gracious person.
This movie is not a guy flick and would appeal more to woman – ages 10 -30s, but I am in my 50s and I enjoyed it because the message is timeless. It is a “high school comedy,” but if you like the humor and writing of Tina Fey of 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live fame, you are going to want to see this – Fey acts in this one too. If you like this movie, you might consider reading the non-fiction book it is loosely based on, Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman.
Quotes
Chip Heron: Hey, how was school?
Cady: Fine.
Betsy Heron: Were people nice?
Cady: No.
Chip Heron: Did you make any friends?
Cady: Yes.
Cady: I think I'm joining the Mathletes.
Regina, Gretchen, Karen: No! No, no!
Regina: You cannot do that. That is social suicide. Damn! You are so lucky you have us to guide you.
Cady: (voiceover) The weird thing about hanging out with Regina was that I could hate her, and at the same time, I still wanted her to like me.
Regina: (to Cody) Okay... you have really good eyebrows.
Cady: Thanks.
Regina: (pushing Gretchen) Move.
Gretchen: Ooh.
Cady: (voiceover) Same with Gretchen: the meaner Regina was to her, the more Gretchen tried to win Regina back. She knew it was better to be in the Plastics, hating life, than to not be in at all. Because being with the Plastics was like being famous... people looked at you all the time and everybody just knew stuff about you.
Plot Summary
Previously home-schooled in Africa by her zoologist parents (Ana Gasteyer and Neil Flynn), new kid Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) attends her first day of public high school in Illinois. She is befriended by Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and Damien (Daniel Franzese), two “walk to their own beat” classmates, who accept Cady into their fold and share high school survival secrets. Cady is warned about a group of three popular girls called the Plastics led by Regina George (Rachel McAdams), a former friend of Janis.
Janis wants revenge against Regina because she started a rumor about her in junior high so she comes up with a plan for Cady to “infiltrate” the Plastics. The battle plan against Regina, who is a stinker and the stereotypical snotty girl, is to alienate her from her boyfriend, turn her two best friends Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) and Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried) against her, and to “ugly her up” through various methods such as a bogus diet plan. Wanting to fit in a pack and to please Janis and Damien, Cady agrees and the adventure begins.
Life Lessons
Irony - The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning.
“Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Teddy Roosevelt’s daughter acquired a reputation as a wit, noted for her barbs and repartee. She often said that she cared nothing for social convention or what other people thought of her. She liked being outrageous and spoke her mind. One of her best friends gave her an embroidered pillow which Alice proudly showed off. It said: "If you haven’t got anything good to say about anyone come and sit by me."
Excerpt from a Jo Freeman review of: Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker
Remember now, you didn’t hear this from me….
Gossip is fun.
Who cares about the person being targeted? Their life struggles, losses, health issues, or background history, all of which have contributed to making them the person they are today. Empathy, what does that mean? Oh yeah, sensing the feelings of others by imaging ourselves in others’ lives or others’ situations. What a waste of time when we all know walking a mile in someone else’s shoes doesn’t get a person anything, but a case of aching feet and a pair of worn out shoes.
Gossip is fun.
Learning the truth before you speak? Why, when everyone knows the truth is no where near as interesting as the embellishments added as this tantalizing tidbit gets passed from person to person, each person adding their own personal take on the matter. Besides a person’s busy and how fair is it to expect a body to waste their precious time listening to “both” sides of the story before they form an opinion. Nope, the secret is not to spend precious time thinking for yourself, but to let other people’s opinions of someone be yours so you’ll never have to worry about fitting in. While a person is at it, they should always make sure to form an instant opinion about someone they’ve never spent any quality time with based on the gossip they have heard and then share that opinion with others, especially their children so they can learn to gossip and not think for themselves too.
Gossip is fun.
When you hear gossip, do not take the time to reflect why the “gossiper” is sharing information about the “gossipee.” Revenge? Jealousy? Anger? Boredom? Attention? Mean-spiritedness? Just because they’re talking about that person behind their back doesn’t mean it’s a pattern with them and they would do it to you? Or does it?
Gossip is fun.
Don’t forget to snicker, make snide remarks, talk behind your hand, or roll your eyes when the victim walks by. All of these are effective tools to make you feel superior and put the person in their place, showing everyone around you just the type of person you are capable of being. For goodness sake before you share your juicy bit of news, never take a moment to reflect on how you would feel if what you are about to say about someone was said about you.
Gossip is fun, loads and loads of fun… until we or someone we love are the targets of gossip, then it’s not so fun anymore, it just hurts.
“We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said to be.”
George Bernard Shaw
Mean Girls Movie Cast
Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron
Rachel McAdams as Regina George
Lacey Chabert as Gretchen Weiners
Amanda Seyfried as Karen Smith
Tina Fey as Ms. Sharon Norbury
Tim Meadows as Principal Ron Duvall
Jonathan Bennett as Aaron Samuels
Lizzy Caplan as Janis Ian.
Daniel Franzese as Damien
Amy Poehler as Mrs. George
Ana Gasteyer as Betsy Heron
Neil Flynn as Chip Heron
Most of us gravitated towards a group of gals or guys who were similar to us in label and personality. Within each of these individual groups was a pecking order – a place where you fit into your pack – be it leader, follower, counselor, oddball etc.. If you had your spot that made high school a good place to be – you had “like-minded” people to run with……except when your pack turned on you.
Let’s face it… there is nothing meaner on the face of the earth than a pack of females (young or old) when they get it in their head to ostracize someone. The main weapons of choice – the cold shoulder, disdain, and the biggest soul bruiser of all……gossip.
For those of you, who had a hard time in high school, let me share something….do yourself a big favor and go to your 30 year class reunion and observe. As you look about the room, you will realize that life is a great equalizer and those people, the ones that hurt you….have no power anymore. You have lost the need for their or anyone’s approval…except the person who looks back at you in the mirror every morning. I hope you have learned to love and respect that good and gracious person.
This movie is not a guy flick and would appeal more to woman – ages 10 -30s, but I am in my 50s and I enjoyed it because the message is timeless. It is a “high school comedy,” but if you like the humor and writing of Tina Fey of 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live fame, you are going to want to see this – Fey acts in this one too. If you like this movie, you might consider reading the non-fiction book it is loosely based on, Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman.
Quotes
Chip Heron: Hey, how was school?
Cady: Fine.
Betsy Heron: Were people nice?
Cady: No.
Chip Heron: Did you make any friends?
Cady: Yes.
Cady: I think I'm joining the Mathletes.
Regina, Gretchen, Karen: No! No, no!
Regina: You cannot do that. That is social suicide. Damn! You are so lucky you have us to guide you.
Cady: (voiceover) The weird thing about hanging out with Regina was that I could hate her, and at the same time, I still wanted her to like me.
Regina: (to Cody) Okay... you have really good eyebrows.
Cady: Thanks.
Regina: (pushing Gretchen) Move.
Gretchen: Ooh.
Cady: (voiceover) Same with Gretchen: the meaner Regina was to her, the more Gretchen tried to win Regina back. She knew it was better to be in the Plastics, hating life, than to not be in at all. Because being with the Plastics was like being famous... people looked at you all the time and everybody just knew stuff about you.
Plot Summary
Previously home-schooled in Africa by her zoologist parents (Ana Gasteyer and Neil Flynn), new kid Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) attends her first day of public high school in Illinois. She is befriended by Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and Damien (Daniel Franzese), two “walk to their own beat” classmates, who accept Cady into their fold and share high school survival secrets. Cady is warned about a group of three popular girls called the Plastics led by Regina George (Rachel McAdams), a former friend of Janis.
Janis wants revenge against Regina because she started a rumor about her in junior high so she comes up with a plan for Cady to “infiltrate” the Plastics. The battle plan against Regina, who is a stinker and the stereotypical snotty girl, is to alienate her from her boyfriend, turn her two best friends Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) and Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried) against her, and to “ugly her up” through various methods such as a bogus diet plan. Wanting to fit in a pack and to please Janis and Damien, Cady agrees and the adventure begins.
Life Lessons
Irony - The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning.
“Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Teddy Roosevelt’s daughter acquired a reputation as a wit, noted for her barbs and repartee. She often said that she cared nothing for social convention or what other people thought of her. She liked being outrageous and spoke her mind. One of her best friends gave her an embroidered pillow which Alice proudly showed off. It said: "If you haven’t got anything good to say about anyone come and sit by me."
Excerpt from a Jo Freeman review of: Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker
Remember now, you didn’t hear this from me….
Gossip is fun.
Who cares about the person being targeted? Their life struggles, losses, health issues, or background history, all of which have contributed to making them the person they are today. Empathy, what does that mean? Oh yeah, sensing the feelings of others by imaging ourselves in others’ lives or others’ situations. What a waste of time when we all know walking a mile in someone else’s shoes doesn’t get a person anything, but a case of aching feet and a pair of worn out shoes.
Gossip is fun.
Learning the truth before you speak? Why, when everyone knows the truth is no where near as interesting as the embellishments added as this tantalizing tidbit gets passed from person to person, each person adding their own personal take on the matter. Besides a person’s busy and how fair is it to expect a body to waste their precious time listening to “both” sides of the story before they form an opinion. Nope, the secret is not to spend precious time thinking for yourself, but to let other people’s opinions of someone be yours so you’ll never have to worry about fitting in. While a person is at it, they should always make sure to form an instant opinion about someone they’ve never spent any quality time with based on the gossip they have heard and then share that opinion with others, especially their children so they can learn to gossip and not think for themselves too.
Gossip is fun.
When you hear gossip, do not take the time to reflect why the “gossiper” is sharing information about the “gossipee.” Revenge? Jealousy? Anger? Boredom? Attention? Mean-spiritedness? Just because they’re talking about that person behind their back doesn’t mean it’s a pattern with them and they would do it to you? Or does it?
Gossip is fun.
Don’t forget to snicker, make snide remarks, talk behind your hand, or roll your eyes when the victim walks by. All of these are effective tools to make you feel superior and put the person in their place, showing everyone around you just the type of person you are capable of being. For goodness sake before you share your juicy bit of news, never take a moment to reflect on how you would feel if what you are about to say about someone was said about you.
Gossip is fun, loads and loads of fun… until we or someone we love are the targets of gossip, then it’s not so fun anymore, it just hurts.
“We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said to be.”
George Bernard Shaw
Mean Girls Movie Cast
Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron
Rachel McAdams as Regina George
Lacey Chabert as Gretchen Weiners
Amanda Seyfried as Karen Smith
Tina Fey as Ms. Sharon Norbury
Tim Meadows as Principal Ron Duvall
Jonathan Bennett as Aaron Samuels
Lizzy Caplan as Janis Ian.
Daniel Franzese as Damien
Amy Poehler as Mrs. George
Ana Gasteyer as Betsy Heron
Neil Flynn as Chip Heron
Monday, April 12, 2010
It Happened One Night (1934)
Do you like movies that are smart, funny, have good dialogue, and no rump shots -- people keep their “threads” on? Well.....there is a topless scene in this one that caused men’s undershirt sales to drop drastically. How about a film from the 1930s which was the template for all the romantic comedies that came after it?
It Happened One Night was released in 1934 right in the middle of the Depression and people saved their egg money and flocked to it because it gave them a short respite from what was going on in their world. Films like this one and My Man Godfrey poked fun at the rich and almost every Frank Capra film ever made tells the tale of the “common man” who always fought the good fight and persevered over adversity.
Did I mention this one won five Oscars and has Clark Cable shirtless in it? Yep, the Gone With the Wind guy – though the role of Rhett Butler did not come to him until 1939. I don’t care that he was old enough to be my Grandpa when I first saw this film on Turner Classic Movies – Clark Gable is, was, and always will be the “cat’s meow.”
Please don’t let the age of this movie keep you away from it. Let this one give you the inspiration to watch more of these “old flicks” to discover where the ideas for the “new flicks” originally came from and for the joy of watching good actors do their work.
Quotes
Alexander Andrews: Oh, er, do you mind if I ask you a question, frankly? Do you love my daughter?
It Happened One Night was released in 1934 right in the middle of the Depression and people saved their egg money and flocked to it because it gave them a short respite from what was going on in their world. Films like this one and My Man Godfrey poked fun at the rich and almost every Frank Capra film ever made tells the tale of the “common man” who always fought the good fight and persevered over adversity.
Did I mention this one won five Oscars and has Clark Cable shirtless in it? Yep, the Gone With the Wind guy – though the role of Rhett Butler did not come to him until 1939. I don’t care that he was old enough to be my Grandpa when I first saw this film on Turner Classic Movies – Clark Gable is, was, and always will be the “cat’s meow.”
Please don’t let the age of this movie keep you away from it. Let this one give you the inspiration to watch more of these “old flicks” to discover where the ideas for the “new flicks” originally came from and for the joy of watching good actors do their work.
Quotes
Alexander Andrews: Oh, er, do you mind if I ask you a question, frankly? Do you love my daughter?
Peter Warne: Any guy that'd fall in love with your daughter ought to have his head examined.
Alexander Andrews: Now that's an evasion!
Peter Warne: She picked herself a perfect running mate - King Westley - the pill of the century! What she needs is a guy that'd take a sock at her once a day, whether it's coming to her or not. If you had half the brains you're supposed to have, you'd done it yourself, long ago.
Alexander Andrews: Do you love her?
Peter Warne: A normal human being couldn't live under the same roof with her without going nutty! She's my idea of nothing!
Alexander Andrews: I asked you a simple question! Do you love her?
Peter Warne: YES! But don't hold that against me, I'm a little screwy myself!
Plot Summary
Tired of always being told what to do, society princess Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) rebels and marries a “gold digger” named “King” Westley (Jameson Thomas) against the wishes of her wealthy father Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly). Mr. Andrews manages to bring his daughter back home before the honeymoon, but she runs away again – making the headlines of all the major newspapers throughout the country. Frantic to find his daughter before she actually “does the deed” with King and ruins her chances for love and happiness with someone who wants her for her, not her father’s money, Mr. Andrews offers a reward for her safe return.
On the lam and making her way back to King she boards a bus where she meets Peter Warne, a newspaper reporter who is always one step away from being fired and re-hired by his kind, but hot-headed editor. Peter recognizes her and offers her a deal. He wants the exclusive rights to her story and if she agrees he will help her find her way back to Westley. If she does not agree he tells Ellie he will call her father and collect the reward money. She takes the deal and the adventure (and misadventures) begins.
Life Lessons
I have a senior friend named Bob who grew up on a farm in Illinois during the Depression. He said, “Sue we were all poor, but none of us knew it because everyone one else was in the same boat.”
My dad’s family fared pretty well during that time period because my great grandpa and my grandpa had been businessmen in the small community of Melrose, Iowa. In the ‘30s you couldn’t throw a rock in that town and not hit one of my relatives. You might remember them, let’s see there was Red Bob (my dad’s cousin), Black Bob (my dad’s brother), Babe (my dad), and then that guy Chicken poop (dad’s other cousin). There were lots of Parks places in that little Irish town over the years – the livery stable, post office, a general store, wool business, a small farm with chickens and eggs, and large gardens – all family owned and while the Depression was not easy and they were not rich, they didn’t go without.
My mother’s family did not fare as well. My grandfather chose to leave his prosperous family (they were in the construction business and the family story is they helped build their stretch of Route 66) in Illinois in the 1910s – 20s. He followed the adage “go west young man,” and completely left his life in Illinois behind, and gypsy that he was, after a stint as a dynamiter out west, hired out as a farm hand at various farms throughout the Midwest. He was educated, a math whiz, an amazing storyteller, and he married my grandmother right out of the catholic orphanage she was raised in. Mom tells the story of a period when she was little where her family lived off onions, their garden, and beans if they were lucky. Mom said, unflattering homemade flour sack undies aside, it wasn’t all bad, neighbors helped each other and people made it through.
Make no mistake though, the Depression left its mark on that generation of folks and they learned early on about what “making do” was all about. Did your parents or grandparents save bits of soap in a jar, string around an old farmer’s match box, Montgomery Ward catalogs for those long and sometimes cold journey to the small house on the hill - one or two-holers that were homes for wasp nests and spiders during the summer? Mine were like that too, they hated to throw anything out – everything was utilized and to throw away a piece of cooked corn on the cob when it could be reheated and used for tomorrow’s lunch was a crime against humanity.
The Depression was like that – it showed what people were made of. Some people lost everything and it broke them, but most people, like my parents, your grandparents, or your great great grandparents just put one foot in front of the other and kept going, having faith that their economic troubles were temporary and better times were just around the corner.
Dr. Seuss is timeless and I love his philosophy about troubles, maybe you’ll like it too – here it is:
Plot Summary
Tired of always being told what to do, society princess Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) rebels and marries a “gold digger” named “King” Westley (Jameson Thomas) against the wishes of her wealthy father Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly). Mr. Andrews manages to bring his daughter back home before the honeymoon, but she runs away again – making the headlines of all the major newspapers throughout the country. Frantic to find his daughter before she actually “does the deed” with King and ruins her chances for love and happiness with someone who wants her for her, not her father’s money, Mr. Andrews offers a reward for her safe return.
On the lam and making her way back to King she boards a bus where she meets Peter Warne, a newspaper reporter who is always one step away from being fired and re-hired by his kind, but hot-headed editor. Peter recognizes her and offers her a deal. He wants the exclusive rights to her story and if she agrees he will help her find her way back to Westley. If she does not agree he tells Ellie he will call her father and collect the reward money. She takes the deal and the adventure (and misadventures) begins.
Life Lessons
I have a senior friend named Bob who grew up on a farm in Illinois during the Depression. He said, “Sue we were all poor, but none of us knew it because everyone one else was in the same boat.”
My dad’s family fared pretty well during that time period because my great grandpa and my grandpa had been businessmen in the small community of Melrose, Iowa. In the ‘30s you couldn’t throw a rock in that town and not hit one of my relatives. You might remember them, let’s see there was Red Bob (my dad’s cousin), Black Bob (my dad’s brother), Babe (my dad), and then that guy Chicken poop (dad’s other cousin). There were lots of Parks places in that little Irish town over the years – the livery stable, post office, a general store, wool business, a small farm with chickens and eggs, and large gardens – all family owned and while the Depression was not easy and they were not rich, they didn’t go without.
My mother’s family did not fare as well. My grandfather chose to leave his prosperous family (they were in the construction business and the family story is they helped build their stretch of Route 66) in Illinois in the 1910s – 20s. He followed the adage “go west young man,” and completely left his life in Illinois behind, and gypsy that he was, after a stint as a dynamiter out west, hired out as a farm hand at various farms throughout the Midwest. He was educated, a math whiz, an amazing storyteller, and he married my grandmother right out of the catholic orphanage she was raised in. Mom tells the story of a period when she was little where her family lived off onions, their garden, and beans if they were lucky. Mom said, unflattering homemade flour sack undies aside, it wasn’t all bad, neighbors helped each other and people made it through.
Make no mistake though, the Depression left its mark on that generation of folks and they learned early on about what “making do” was all about. Did your parents or grandparents save bits of soap in a jar, string around an old farmer’s match box, Montgomery Ward catalogs for those long and sometimes cold journey to the small house on the hill - one or two-holers that were homes for wasp nests and spiders during the summer? Mine were like that too, they hated to throw anything out – everything was utilized and to throw away a piece of cooked corn on the cob when it could be reheated and used for tomorrow’s lunch was a crime against humanity.
The Depression was like that – it showed what people were made of. Some people lost everything and it broke them, but most people, like my parents, your grandparents, or your great great grandparents just put one foot in front of the other and kept going, having faith that their economic troubles were temporary and better times were just around the corner.
Dr. Seuss is timeless and I love his philosophy about troubles, maybe you’ll like it too – here it is:
“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind.
Some come from ahead and some come from behind.
But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see.
Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”
~Dr. Seuss
It Happened One Night Movie Cast
· Clark Gable as Peter Warne
· Claudette Colbert as Ellie Andrews
· Walter Connolly as Alexander Andrews
· Roscoe Karns as Oscar Shapeley
· Jameson Thomas as “King” Westley
· Charles Wilson as Joe Gordon
· Alan Hale (Sr.) as the light-fingered motorist
· And Others
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Sherlock Holmes (2009 Version)
I was first introduced to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at Frank L. Smart Junior High School as an extra credit assignment by my then English teacher and grew to become a fan of his Sherlock Holmes novels. Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are closer to Conan Doyle’s original vision for his detective duo unlike the Holmes and Watson of the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s, who were diluted or “cleaned up” versions of the men.
Gone is the cliché “Elementary My Dear Watson” (which was never in any of Doyle’s original novels) and in its place is an adventure movie with unique camera angles, slow mo sequences, non-stop action, verbal sparring, humor, suspense, Gladstone the English Bulldog, and Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in one of the best pairing in a buddy film since Newman and Redford’s chemistry in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Quotes
Sherlock Holmes (to Dr. Watson): Never theorize before you have data. Invariably, you end up twisting facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
(Mrs. Hudson, the housekeeper, starts to clear a spot for the tea)
Sherlock Holmes: Don't touch. Everything is in its proper place... as per usual, Nanny.
(On her way out, Mrs. Hudson notices Gladstone the English Bulldog, laying on the floor – out cold) Mrs. Hudson: Oh, he's killed the dog. Again.
Dr. John Watson: What have you done to Gladstone now?
Sherlock Holmes: I was simply testing a new anesthetic. He doesn't mind.
Plot Summary
It’s the late 1800s in London England, Victoria is queen, William E. Gladstone has stepped down as Prime Minister, the tower bridge is being built, and Sir Arthur Conan’s Doyle’s characters Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downy, Jr.) and Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) are on the trail of a murderer, who dabbles in the occult, named Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong).
On this adventure, they appear “in the nick of time” to save a girl (staked out on a ritualistic altar) from Lord Blackwood clutches, arriving on the scene three steps ahead of the police and Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan). Arrested and sentenced to death Lord Blackwood is hanged and pronounced dead by Dr. Watson. Mission accomplished. Or is it?
A short time later Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), a thief and Holmes former flame, visits Holmes at 221B Baker Street and asks him to help her find a missing man named Reordan. Through a series of events, Holmes learns that Reordan is connected to Lord Blackwood. But who is the guy in the carriage Irene appears to be working for?
Did I mention Watson is contemplating matrimony?
Days after Lord Blackwood’s death, a groundskeeper claims to have seen his Lordship walking towards the gate of the cemetery. Holmes, Watson, and the police go to the graveyard, find the tomb destroyed, and discover…sorry that’s all you get.
I know it is a short plot summary this time, but I don’t want to spoil the movie for you. Lots of twists and turns in this one so pay close attention – it might be one of those movies you have to – no cross that out – you want to watch twice so you make sure you catch everything.
Life Lessons
I chose to watch this movie for two reasons – as I mentioned earlier, I used to read the Sherlock Holmes series (Hound of the Baskervilles is my favorite) and because of Robert Downey, Jr.'s acting. I think he is a gifted actor and after watching him in this role I can’t imagine anyone else playing the eccentric Sherlock Holmes as well as he did.
Are there any major life lessons in this movie? Sure there are - friendship is important, loyalty to those who are loyal to you is always good, and your friends are family you aren’t related to.
Sherlock Holmes Movie Cast
· Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes
· Jude Law as Dr. John Watson
· Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler
· Mark Strong as Lord Blackwood
· Eddie Marsan as Inspector Lestrade
· Robert Maillet as Dredger
· Geraldine James as Mrs. Hudson
· Kelly Reilly as Mary Morstan
· William Houston as Constable Clark
· Gladstone the English Bulldog
· And others
Gone is the cliché “Elementary My Dear Watson” (which was never in any of Doyle’s original novels) and in its place is an adventure movie with unique camera angles, slow mo sequences, non-stop action, verbal sparring, humor, suspense, Gladstone the English Bulldog, and Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in one of the best pairing in a buddy film since Newman and Redford’s chemistry in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Quotes
Sherlock Holmes (to Dr. Watson): Never theorize before you have data. Invariably, you end up twisting facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
(Mrs. Hudson, the housekeeper, starts to clear a spot for the tea)
Sherlock Holmes: Don't touch. Everything is in its proper place... as per usual, Nanny.
(On her way out, Mrs. Hudson notices Gladstone the English Bulldog, laying on the floor – out cold) Mrs. Hudson: Oh, he's killed the dog. Again.
Dr. John Watson: What have you done to Gladstone now?
Sherlock Holmes: I was simply testing a new anesthetic. He doesn't mind.
Plot Summary
It’s the late 1800s in London England, Victoria is queen, William E. Gladstone has stepped down as Prime Minister, the tower bridge is being built, and Sir Arthur Conan’s Doyle’s characters Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downy, Jr.) and Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) are on the trail of a murderer, who dabbles in the occult, named Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong).
On this adventure, they appear “in the nick of time” to save a girl (staked out on a ritualistic altar) from Lord Blackwood clutches, arriving on the scene three steps ahead of the police and Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan). Arrested and sentenced to death Lord Blackwood is hanged and pronounced dead by Dr. Watson. Mission accomplished. Or is it?
A short time later Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), a thief and Holmes former flame, visits Holmes at 221B Baker Street and asks him to help her find a missing man named Reordan. Through a series of events, Holmes learns that Reordan is connected to Lord Blackwood. But who is the guy in the carriage Irene appears to be working for?
Did I mention Watson is contemplating matrimony?
Days after Lord Blackwood’s death, a groundskeeper claims to have seen his Lordship walking towards the gate of the cemetery. Holmes, Watson, and the police go to the graveyard, find the tomb destroyed, and discover…sorry that’s all you get.
I know it is a short plot summary this time, but I don’t want to spoil the movie for you. Lots of twists and turns in this one so pay close attention – it might be one of those movies you have to – no cross that out – you want to watch twice so you make sure you catch everything.
Life Lessons
I chose to watch this movie for two reasons – as I mentioned earlier, I used to read the Sherlock Holmes series (Hound of the Baskervilles is my favorite) and because of Robert Downey, Jr.'s acting. I think he is a gifted actor and after watching him in this role I can’t imagine anyone else playing the eccentric Sherlock Holmes as well as he did.
Are there any major life lessons in this movie? Sure there are - friendship is important, loyalty to those who are loyal to you is always good, and your friends are family you aren’t related to.
Sherlock Holmes Movie Cast
· Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes
· Jude Law as Dr. John Watson
· Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler
· Mark Strong as Lord Blackwood
· Eddie Marsan as Inspector Lestrade
· Robert Maillet as Dredger
· Geraldine James as Mrs. Hudson
· Kelly Reilly as Mary Morstan
· William Houston as Constable Clark
· Gladstone the English Bulldog
· And others
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
(The) Shawshank Redemption
I shouldn’t like this movie. Almost the entire movie takes place in a prison, there are two scenes I find hard to watch, and the bad guys in this movie aren’t the ones you expect them to be….. BUT I do love this movie and I think you will too because Stephen King has created a collection of characters that are so interesting you want to follow them on their journey and find out what happens to each one of them along the way. There is the message too…there’s always hope.
I give you permission, as if you needed it, to close your eyes or go get popcorn during those two parts I mentioned, but you will want to keep them open for the rest. I promise; it is that good of a movie.
Special Note: This movie is based on a novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King. There are some differences between the novella and the movie so you might want to read Stephen King’s piece too.
Quotes
(Cross-stitch on the wall of Warden Norton’s office which covers the prison safe): “His judgment cometh and right soon..”
Andy Dufresne: That's the beauty of music. They can't take that from you... Haven't you ever felt that way about music?
Red: I played a mean harmonica as a younger man. Lost interest in it though. Didn't make much sense in here.
Andy Dufresne: Here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so you don't forget.
Red: Forget?
Andy Dufresne: Forget that... there are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside... that they can't get to, that they can't touch. That's yours.
Red: What're you talking about?
Andy Dufresne: Hope.
Andy Dufresne: Get busy living, or get busy dying.
(Repeated by Red later in the movie)
Red: Andy Dufresne, who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side.
Plot Summary
It’s the late 1940s and banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), is accused and convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, based on circumstantial evidence. Calmly maintaining his innocence, he is sentenced to life in a Maine prison called Shawshank State Penitentiary which is run by a bible quoting warden named Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton).
Andy keeps to himself at first, but eventually makes friends with the prison’s “scrounger” (think the James Garner character in the movie The Great Escape) named Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding (Morgan Freeman). Red is serving a life sentence for a crime he committed as a very young man. Their friendship begins when Andy asks Red for a rock hammer, in order to maintain his rock collection hobby (Andy eventually makes a chess set). Later he asks Red for a full-size poster of Rita Hayworth which he puts on his cell wall and replaces over the years with various other “bombshells” like Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch.
While tarring the prison roof, Andy overhears the Captain of the Guards Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown) complain about having to pay taxes on an inheritance. Andy takes an incredible risk by walking over and explaining to Hadley how to legally reduce his tax liability on his soon-to-be windfall. Hadley accepts Andy's advice and rewards him and his fellow “work gang” (and soon-to-be friends) with a beer break up on the prison roof once the tarring job is done. Andy goes from doing laundry and other “menial labor chores” to giving out financial advice and doing the taxes of the guards – eventually he comes to the attention of the warden and does similar legal and non-legal work for him. About this time he also asks and is granted permission to start a prison library, where Red and some of his other friends work. He also helps more than one prisoner get their GED.
Life has taken an upward turn until Andy comes into the radar of the Sisters, led by inmate Bogs (Mark Rolston). Remember those scenes I told you about – this might be the time you want to go for popcorn, but they are not graphic – they are like the old movies of the 1930s and 1940s – you KNOW what is going to happen, but they pan away before it does (still I find them disturbing). Andy fights the good fight, but winds up in the prison infirmary. Hadley (captain of the guards) brutally beats Bogs, leaving the deviant paralyzed and the remaining Sisters finally leave Andy alone.
The bible quoting and self-righteous Warden Norton eventually creates a scheme to use prison labor for public works, undercutting the cost of skilled labor and discreetly receiving personal kickbacks for it. Norton has Andy launder the money under a false identity, in exchange for allowing Andy to keep his private cell and to continue maintaining the library.
In the 1960s, a habitual and likable petty thief named Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows) (the role was originally written with Brad Pitt in mind) winds up in Shawshank and becomes a member of Andy and Red's circle of friends. Andy takes a liking to the kid and tries to help Tommy get his GED. In turn Tommy, after hearing the details of Andy's crime, reveals that one of his old prison cellmates had claimed to have committed a murder just like the one Andy was charged with. Andy goes to Warden Norton with the information and you are going to have to watch the movie to find out what happens next.
Life Lessons
Life is a wonderful journey, but you and I are going to encounter some bumps along the way. Bumps are tests, catalysts of growth and change, and character builders to show us what we are made of – no one is immune to them and we can’t control them, but we can control how we react to them.
It comes down to this, you have two choices when something bad happens - you can take the “woe is me” route, lay down, and let them throw dirt on you or you can take the productive route create a plan and take action to find a way to turn this negative event into a positive.
Remember the organization MADD – it was created by a woman who lost her child to a drunk driver. She could have laid down and no one would have blamed her, but she CHOSE HOPE, she MADE A PLAN, she TOOK ACTION, and she MADE A DIFFERENCE in the lives of other parents and children while making her child’s death count for something.
(The) Shawshank Redemption Movie Cast
• Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne
• Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding
• Bob Gunton as Warden Norton
• William Sadler as Heywood
• Clancy Brown as Captain Hadley
• Gil Bellows as Tommy
• Mark Rolston as Bogs Diamond
• James Whitemore as Brooks Hatlen
I give you permission, as if you needed it, to close your eyes or go get popcorn during those two parts I mentioned, but you will want to keep them open for the rest. I promise; it is that good of a movie.
Special Note: This movie is based on a novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King. There are some differences between the novella and the movie so you might want to read Stephen King’s piece too.
Quotes
(Cross-stitch on the wall of Warden Norton’s office which covers the prison safe): “His judgment cometh and right soon..”
Andy Dufresne: That's the beauty of music. They can't take that from you... Haven't you ever felt that way about music?
Red: I played a mean harmonica as a younger man. Lost interest in it though. Didn't make much sense in here.
Andy Dufresne: Here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so you don't forget.
Red: Forget?
Andy Dufresne: Forget that... there are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside... that they can't get to, that they can't touch. That's yours.
Red: What're you talking about?
Andy Dufresne: Hope.
Andy Dufresne: Get busy living, or get busy dying.
(Repeated by Red later in the movie)
Red: Andy Dufresne, who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side.
Plot Summary
It’s the late 1940s and banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), is accused and convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, based on circumstantial evidence. Calmly maintaining his innocence, he is sentenced to life in a Maine prison called Shawshank State Penitentiary which is run by a bible quoting warden named Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton).
Andy keeps to himself at first, but eventually makes friends with the prison’s “scrounger” (think the James Garner character in the movie The Great Escape) named Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding (Morgan Freeman). Red is serving a life sentence for a crime he committed as a very young man. Their friendship begins when Andy asks Red for a rock hammer, in order to maintain his rock collection hobby (Andy eventually makes a chess set). Later he asks Red for a full-size poster of Rita Hayworth which he puts on his cell wall and replaces over the years with various other “bombshells” like Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch.
While tarring the prison roof, Andy overhears the Captain of the Guards Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown) complain about having to pay taxes on an inheritance. Andy takes an incredible risk by walking over and explaining to Hadley how to legally reduce his tax liability on his soon-to-be windfall. Hadley accepts Andy's advice and rewards him and his fellow “work gang” (and soon-to-be friends) with a beer break up on the prison roof once the tarring job is done. Andy goes from doing laundry and other “menial labor chores” to giving out financial advice and doing the taxes of the guards – eventually he comes to the attention of the warden and does similar legal and non-legal work for him. About this time he also asks and is granted permission to start a prison library, where Red and some of his other friends work. He also helps more than one prisoner get their GED.
Life has taken an upward turn until Andy comes into the radar of the Sisters, led by inmate Bogs (Mark Rolston). Remember those scenes I told you about – this might be the time you want to go for popcorn, but they are not graphic – they are like the old movies of the 1930s and 1940s – you KNOW what is going to happen, but they pan away before it does (still I find them disturbing). Andy fights the good fight, but winds up in the prison infirmary. Hadley (captain of the guards) brutally beats Bogs, leaving the deviant paralyzed and the remaining Sisters finally leave Andy alone.
The bible quoting and self-righteous Warden Norton eventually creates a scheme to use prison labor for public works, undercutting the cost of skilled labor and discreetly receiving personal kickbacks for it. Norton has Andy launder the money under a false identity, in exchange for allowing Andy to keep his private cell and to continue maintaining the library.
In the 1960s, a habitual and likable petty thief named Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows) (the role was originally written with Brad Pitt in mind) winds up in Shawshank and becomes a member of Andy and Red's circle of friends. Andy takes a liking to the kid and tries to help Tommy get his GED. In turn Tommy, after hearing the details of Andy's crime, reveals that one of his old prison cellmates had claimed to have committed a murder just like the one Andy was charged with. Andy goes to Warden Norton with the information and you are going to have to watch the movie to find out what happens next.
Life Lessons
Life is a wonderful journey, but you and I are going to encounter some bumps along the way. Bumps are tests, catalysts of growth and change, and character builders to show us what we are made of – no one is immune to them and we can’t control them, but we can control how we react to them.
It comes down to this, you have two choices when something bad happens - you can take the “woe is me” route, lay down, and let them throw dirt on you or you can take the productive route create a plan and take action to find a way to turn this negative event into a positive.
Remember the organization MADD – it was created by a woman who lost her child to a drunk driver. She could have laid down and no one would have blamed her, but she CHOSE HOPE, she MADE A PLAN, she TOOK ACTION, and she MADE A DIFFERENCE in the lives of other parents and children while making her child’s death count for something.
(The) Shawshank Redemption Movie Cast
• Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne
• Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding
• Bob Gunton as Warden Norton
• William Sadler as Heywood
• Clancy Brown as Captain Hadley
• Gil Bellows as Tommy
• Mark Rolston as Bogs Diamond
• James Whitemore as Brooks Hatlen
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Gaslight
I did not see this 1944 mystery masterpiece until 2009 and as the opening credits rolled, I thought, this has to be a Hitchcock film. It isn’t, but it has that feel to it – actually it is adapted from a Paul Hamilton play.
This psychological thriller is about emotional abuse, mind games, and what happens when you give your power away. Sit down with your daughters or your best friend and watch this one – then talk about it. Watch this one with your sons too – because even though this particular piece is about a woman, it can happen to them too.
This movie is scary, but not in the monster movie sort of way, but make no mistake this movie has a monster in it.
Quotes
Paula Alquist Anton (realizing she can’t find a brooch her husband gave her): Oh Gregory, I can't find it...I missed it when we were in the Tower...I know it was here. I can't understand it. I couldn't have lost it. It must be here...I must have pulled it out with something, I suppose. Oh, I’m terribly sorry, Gregory, please forgive me...But your present to me, your mother's brooch. And I wanted to wear it - always. I-I-I don't remember opening my bag...Suddenly, I'm beginning not to trust my memory at all.”
Nancy Oliver: Gonna work on your tunes again tonight, sir? You're always working, aren't you?
Gregory Anton: Yes. What are you doing with your evening out?
Nancy Oliver: Oh, I'm going to a music hall... (starts to sing 'Up in a balloon')
Gregory Anton: I've never been to an English music hall.
Nancy Oliver: Oh, you don't know what you've missed, sir...
Gregory Anton: And whom are you going to the music hall with?
Nancy Oliver: A gentleman friend, sir.
Gregory Anton: Oh, now you know, Nancy, don't you, that gentlemen friends are sometimes inclined to take liberties with young ladies.
Nancy Oliver: Oh no, sir, not with me. I can take care of myself - when I want to.
Gregory Anton: You know, Nancy, it strikes me that you're not at all the kind of girl that your mistress should have for a housemaid.
Nancy Oliver: [flirtatiously] No, sir? She's not the only one in the house - is she?
Gregory Anton: I knew from the first moment I saw you that you were dangerous to me.
Brian Cameron: I knew from the first moment I saw you that you were dangerous to her.
Plot Summary
The film opens up in London, England at the turn of the century and pans to the Number 9 apartment on Thornton Square. We see that internationally famous opera singer Alice Alquist (whom we never see in person) has been murdered in what appears to be a robbery gone wrong – a robbery interrupted by her niece Paula Alquist (Ingrid Berman), who has been living with her aunt. The robber/murderer gets away. Trying to put the awful night behind her and get on with her life, Paula decides to go to Italy to train (in opera) with her aunt’s former teacher.
Years go by and Paula meets, falls in love, and marries a suave and debonair song writer/composer named Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), who persuades her to go back to England and live in the vacant London townhouse that she had lived in with her aunt. She resists, but he “talks her into” the move and they head to England. Around this time Paula discovers a letter addressed to her aunt by a man named Sergius Bauer, dated only two days before the murder, tucked away in a music book. Gregory's reacts with unexpected anger when she talks to him about, but he quickly composes himself and shares that his anger was for her sake – because she had to relive the experience.
Upon her husband insistence (he says it is for her own good), Aunt Alice's things are packed away in the attic and the door sealed. Odd and unexplainable things start to happen to Paula which make her question herself and even doubt her own sanity. At the Tower of London, she looses a brooch Gregory had given her, which she had stored safely in her handbag, pictures disappear from the walls of the house and are found in odd places, Paula hears footsteps above her in the attic which has been sealed off, and the gaslights dim and brighten for no apparent reasons.
There is a small house staff, but you can see Gregory undermining Paula’s authority with them in settle ways. The head housekeeper/cook, while very kind to Paula, is deaf and goes to bed shortly after supper. Nancy (Angela Lansbury), the young housekeeper, who treats her mistress as if she is the one running the house, is either out for the evening or in her room -- neither of the ladies see or hear the things Paula does. Going between being the compassionate husband to being a stern “father-figure,” Gregory insinuates that Paula is responsible or more appropriately irresponsible. She tries to tell him that she is not, but comes to realize he does not believe her and then little by little starts she starts to believe he might be right.
Gregory does everything in his power to isolate his wife from other people, allowing her neither to go out nor have visitors. Somehow Paula still has a chance encounter with a stranger at the Tower of London, named Inspector Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotton), who has been an admirer of Paula’s Aunt Alice Alquist since his childhood. This is where I stop, but I promise you, you will be satisfied with the end of this movie and the journey it took you to get there.
Life Lessons
“Gaslighting is a form of intimidation or psychological abuse in which false information is presented to the victim, making them doubt their own memory and perception.” I have used this term in the “late night coffee and 'cheese on your hash browns' girl gab sessions” at the local 24 hour diners my friends and I used to go to after we had spent the night dancing -- it came up in conversations with my girlfriends when someone was “trying to pull something over on one of them” or "trying to make them believe something about themselves that simply was not true."
Even if you are not a fan of “old movies” watch this one and then etch its message of manipulation in your memory and make a firm promise to yourself that you will NEVER EVER give your power away to someone else – even someone you love.
In case you’re still not sure what that means, read this:
5 Behaviors of Manipulative People by Brett Blumenthal
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/5-behaviors-of-manipulative-people-549848/
Gaslight Movie Cast List
Charles Boyer as Gregory Anton
Ingrid Bergman as Paula Alquist Anton
Joseph Cotten as Brian Cameron
Dame May Whitty as Miss Bessie Thwaites
Angela Lansbury as Nancy Oliver
Barbara Everest as Elizabeth Tompkins
Emil Rameau as Maestro Guardi
Edmund Breon as General Huddleston
Halliwell Hobbes as Mr. Mufflin
Tom Stevenson as PC Williams
Heather Thatcher as Lady Mildred Dalroy
Lawrence Grossmith as Lord Freddie Dalroy
This psychological thriller is about emotional abuse, mind games, and what happens when you give your power away. Sit down with your daughters or your best friend and watch this one – then talk about it. Watch this one with your sons too – because even though this particular piece is about a woman, it can happen to them too.
This movie is scary, but not in the monster movie sort of way, but make no mistake this movie has a monster in it.
Quotes
Paula Alquist Anton (realizing she can’t find a brooch her husband gave her): Oh Gregory, I can't find it...I missed it when we were in the Tower...I know it was here. I can't understand it. I couldn't have lost it. It must be here...I must have pulled it out with something, I suppose. Oh, I’m terribly sorry, Gregory, please forgive me...But your present to me, your mother's brooch. And I wanted to wear it - always. I-I-I don't remember opening my bag...Suddenly, I'm beginning not to trust my memory at all.”
Nancy Oliver: Gonna work on your tunes again tonight, sir? You're always working, aren't you?
Gregory Anton: Yes. What are you doing with your evening out?
Nancy Oliver: Oh, I'm going to a music hall... (starts to sing 'Up in a balloon')
Gregory Anton: I've never been to an English music hall.
Nancy Oliver: Oh, you don't know what you've missed, sir...
Gregory Anton: And whom are you going to the music hall with?
Nancy Oliver: A gentleman friend, sir.
Gregory Anton: Oh, now you know, Nancy, don't you, that gentlemen friends are sometimes inclined to take liberties with young ladies.
Nancy Oliver: Oh no, sir, not with me. I can take care of myself - when I want to.
Gregory Anton: You know, Nancy, it strikes me that you're not at all the kind of girl that your mistress should have for a housemaid.
Nancy Oliver: [flirtatiously] No, sir? She's not the only one in the house - is she?
Gregory Anton: I knew from the first moment I saw you that you were dangerous to me.
Brian Cameron: I knew from the first moment I saw you that you were dangerous to her.
Plot Summary
The film opens up in London, England at the turn of the century and pans to the Number 9 apartment on Thornton Square. We see that internationally famous opera singer Alice Alquist (whom we never see in person) has been murdered in what appears to be a robbery gone wrong – a robbery interrupted by her niece Paula Alquist (Ingrid Berman), who has been living with her aunt. The robber/murderer gets away. Trying to put the awful night behind her and get on with her life, Paula decides to go to Italy to train (in opera) with her aunt’s former teacher.
Years go by and Paula meets, falls in love, and marries a suave and debonair song writer/composer named Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), who persuades her to go back to England and live in the vacant London townhouse that she had lived in with her aunt. She resists, but he “talks her into” the move and they head to England. Around this time Paula discovers a letter addressed to her aunt by a man named Sergius Bauer, dated only two days before the murder, tucked away in a music book. Gregory's reacts with unexpected anger when she talks to him about, but he quickly composes himself and shares that his anger was for her sake – because she had to relive the experience.
Upon her husband insistence (he says it is for her own good), Aunt Alice's things are packed away in the attic and the door sealed. Odd and unexplainable things start to happen to Paula which make her question herself and even doubt her own sanity. At the Tower of London, she looses a brooch Gregory had given her, which she had stored safely in her handbag, pictures disappear from the walls of the house and are found in odd places, Paula hears footsteps above her in the attic which has been sealed off, and the gaslights dim and brighten for no apparent reasons.
There is a small house staff, but you can see Gregory undermining Paula’s authority with them in settle ways. The head housekeeper/cook, while very kind to Paula, is deaf and goes to bed shortly after supper. Nancy (Angela Lansbury), the young housekeeper, who treats her mistress as if she is the one running the house, is either out for the evening or in her room -- neither of the ladies see or hear the things Paula does. Going between being the compassionate husband to being a stern “father-figure,” Gregory insinuates that Paula is responsible or more appropriately irresponsible. She tries to tell him that she is not, but comes to realize he does not believe her and then little by little starts she starts to believe he might be right.
Gregory does everything in his power to isolate his wife from other people, allowing her neither to go out nor have visitors. Somehow Paula still has a chance encounter with a stranger at the Tower of London, named Inspector Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotton), who has been an admirer of Paula’s Aunt Alice Alquist since his childhood. This is where I stop, but I promise you, you will be satisfied with the end of this movie and the journey it took you to get there.
Life Lessons
“Gaslighting is a form of intimidation or psychological abuse in which false information is presented to the victim, making them doubt their own memory and perception.” I have used this term in the “late night coffee and 'cheese on your hash browns' girl gab sessions” at the local 24 hour diners my friends and I used to go to after we had spent the night dancing -- it came up in conversations with my girlfriends when someone was “trying to pull something over on one of them” or "trying to make them believe something about themselves that simply was not true."
Even if you are not a fan of “old movies” watch this one and then etch its message of manipulation in your memory and make a firm promise to yourself that you will NEVER EVER give your power away to someone else – even someone you love.
In case you’re still not sure what that means, read this:
5 Behaviors of Manipulative People by Brett Blumenthal
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/5-behaviors-of-manipulative-people-549848/
Gaslight Movie Cast List
Charles Boyer as Gregory Anton
Ingrid Bergman as Paula Alquist Anton
Joseph Cotten as Brian Cameron
Dame May Whitty as Miss Bessie Thwaites
Angela Lansbury as Nancy Oliver
Barbara Everest as Elizabeth Tompkins
Emil Rameau as Maestro Guardi
Edmund Breon as General Huddleston
Halliwell Hobbes as Mr. Mufflin
Tom Stevenson as PC Williams
Heather Thatcher as Lady Mildred Dalroy
Lawrence Grossmith as Lord Freddie Dalroy
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
A Bronx Tale
I saw this movie for the first time with my son. Wise soul that my boy has always been, he was the one that recommended we watch it together and I’m so glad he did. After it was over, my then teenage son and I talked about the movie and its message. Quoting a line from the movie, “The saddest thing in life is wasted talent, and the choices that you make will shape your life forever.”
Moms and dads of pre-teens, teens, and young people heading for college make a bowl of popcorn, watch this one with your kids (there is profanity and violence, but please, please, please watch it anyway), and then sit down with them at the kitchen table and talk about it.
Quotes
“Lorenzo: The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.””
Calogero: It was great to be Catholic and go to confession. You could start over every week.”
“(‘C” as the narrator at the funeral) Calogero ‘C’ Anello: Sonny and my father always said that when I get older I would understand. Well, I finally did. I learned something from these two men. I learned to give love and get love unconditionally. You just have to accept people for what they are, and I learned the greatest gift of all. The saddest thing in life is wasted talent, and the choices that you make will shape your life forever.”
Plot Summary
This movies takes place the Bronx section of New York in the 1960s. Lorenzo Anello’s (Robert De Niro) elementary school age son, Calogero (Francis Capra) witnesses a murder in the street in front of his parent’s apartment stoop by the local mob lord Sonny (Chazz Palminteri). (Sonny is defending a friend of his who is being attacked by a man with a baseball bat.) The New York City police department is called to the scene and someone says the Anello boy witnessed the whole thing. The police officers come to the Anello’s apartment and want Calogero to ID the perpetrator in a line-up outside of the neighborhood bar next door. Sonny is in the line-up, but the boy refuses to point him out to the police so Sonny and the rest of his boys go free.
From that day forward, Sonny takes a liking to the boy, calling him "C." Sonny's men offer Lorenzo a job to make more money, but Lorenzo, a bus driver by profession, prefers honest work, and turns down the offer. Sonny, however, befriends Calogero, introduces him to his posse, and takes the boy under his wing – almost like a surrogate father.
Without his parents permission C slips over to the bar from time to time and earns tips amounting to “more than his dad makes in a week” doing odd jobs at the mob bar. Lorenzo finds out what his son had been doing behind his back and gives C a lecture on “honest work vs. easy money” and won’t let him keep the “dirty” money. Still fuming Lorenzo walks over the bar to speak to Sonny, returns the money, and warns him to keep away from Calogero.
Eight years later, Calogero (Lillo Brancato) has grown into a young man of about 17 and has secretly continued visiting Sonny regularly without his dad’s permission. Calogero is still connected to his childhood friends who are now part of a gang of racist Italian boys at the local high school. The catch is, he isn’t racist, but he does not share that fact with the others. In fact, Calogero meets an African-American girl, Jane, (Taral Hicks) and it is “love at first sight. " Jane and C make arrangements for a date, despite the tension between the Italians and Blacks, particularly at the neighborhood borders.
C, new to dating, asks advice from both Lorenzo and Sonny about the new girl he is interested in. His dad’s “head” advice is funny, but smart. Wanting to help C make a good impression, Sonny loans him his car and gives him some wonderful “door” advice as it pertains to women. Around the same time, Calogero's friends beat up a group of black cyclists passing through their neighborhood, and Calogero is powerless to stop them but does his best to defend one young man, who turns out to be Jane's brother, Willie. Willie, however, mistakes C for one of the Italian gang members and accuses him of beating him when Calogero and Jane meet for their date. In the ensuing argument, Calogero loses his temper at what he considers Willie's lack of gratitude and calls him a "horrible racial slur" which he instantly regrets. Heartbroken, Jane leaves Calogero and gets into the car with her brother.
At home, Calogero is confronted by Lorenzo, who saw him driving Sonny's car from the apartment window. An argument ensues, and Calogero storms out. Suddenly, he is confronted by a furious Sonny and his possee, who found a bomb in Sonny's car and suspect C of planning to assassinate him. C swears his innocence and is allowed to leave, but his feelings are really hurt that Sonny would accuse him of such a thing.
Sonny tries many times throughout this movie to persuade Calogero to keep away from the Italian HS gang, to think for himself and focus more on his schoolwork and look ahead to college. In the most amazing sequences of scenes which left me on the edge of my seat, we see the Italian HS gang in a car headed for a “revenge visit” to the black neighborhood where Jane lives. Calogero is “peer pressured” into going with them. I’m going to stop here, but I remember seeing the above series of scenes and the one in the funeral parlor and I thought about fate and how each of us come to a fork in the road where we can turn left or right and the decision we make can change our lives forever.
Life Lessons
If you grew up in a city, large or small, during the years prior to the 1970s you didn’t just have one set of parents you were accountable to – you had a dozen because everyone in the neighborhood watched out for all the kids on the block. You did not dare tell one of these “surrogate parents,” “you’re not the boss of me” because not only would they swat your bottom for sassing, when you got home you learned they had called your parents and you got your bottom swatted again for good measure.
It was called the old neighborhood system and when the multitude of moms entered the work force in the 1970s, it went the way of pop in a bottle, drive-in movies, popcorn on Sunday night while you watched The Wonderful World of Disney and Bonanza, card clubs, and cowboy tv shows. It’s too bad – it was a good system. We, as children, could run the neighborhood from dawn to dusk without parents worrying. Even with the occasional plastic spoon to the behind for running through someone's flower garden, it was comforting because we knew there were people in the universe, besides our parents, who would fix us a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to tide us over ‘til lunch and loved us enough to make us responsible for our actions.
A Bronx Tale Movie Cast List
· Chazz Palminteri as Sonny
· Lillo Brancato as Calogero Anello as a Teenager
· Francis Capra as Calogero Anello as a Young Boy
· Taral Hicks as Jane
· Katherine Narducci as Rosina Anello
· Clem Caserta as Jimmy Whispers
· Alfred Sauchelli as Bobby Bars
· Frank Pietrangolare as Danny K O
· Joe Pesci as Carmine
· Robert D’Andrea as Tony Toupee
· Eddie Montanaro as Eddie Mush
· Fred Fischer as JoJo the Whale
· Dave Salerno as Frankie Coffee Cake
· And Others
Moms and dads of pre-teens, teens, and young people heading for college make a bowl of popcorn, watch this one with your kids (there is profanity and violence, but please, please, please watch it anyway), and then sit down with them at the kitchen table and talk about it.
Quotes
“Lorenzo: The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.””
Calogero: It was great to be Catholic and go to confession. You could start over every week.”
“(‘C” as the narrator at the funeral) Calogero ‘C’ Anello: Sonny and my father always said that when I get older I would understand. Well, I finally did. I learned something from these two men. I learned to give love and get love unconditionally. You just have to accept people for what they are, and I learned the greatest gift of all. The saddest thing in life is wasted talent, and the choices that you make will shape your life forever.”
Plot Summary
This movies takes place the Bronx section of New York in the 1960s. Lorenzo Anello’s (Robert De Niro) elementary school age son, Calogero (Francis Capra) witnesses a murder in the street in front of his parent’s apartment stoop by the local mob lord Sonny (Chazz Palminteri). (Sonny is defending a friend of his who is being attacked by a man with a baseball bat.) The New York City police department is called to the scene and someone says the Anello boy witnessed the whole thing. The police officers come to the Anello’s apartment and want Calogero to ID the perpetrator in a line-up outside of the neighborhood bar next door. Sonny is in the line-up, but the boy refuses to point him out to the police so Sonny and the rest of his boys go free.
From that day forward, Sonny takes a liking to the boy, calling him "C." Sonny's men offer Lorenzo a job to make more money, but Lorenzo, a bus driver by profession, prefers honest work, and turns down the offer. Sonny, however, befriends Calogero, introduces him to his posse, and takes the boy under his wing – almost like a surrogate father.
Without his parents permission C slips over to the bar from time to time and earns tips amounting to “more than his dad makes in a week” doing odd jobs at the mob bar. Lorenzo finds out what his son had been doing behind his back and gives C a lecture on “honest work vs. easy money” and won’t let him keep the “dirty” money. Still fuming Lorenzo walks over the bar to speak to Sonny, returns the money, and warns him to keep away from Calogero.
Eight years later, Calogero (Lillo Brancato) has grown into a young man of about 17 and has secretly continued visiting Sonny regularly without his dad’s permission. Calogero is still connected to his childhood friends who are now part of a gang of racist Italian boys at the local high school. The catch is, he isn’t racist, but he does not share that fact with the others. In fact, Calogero meets an African-American girl, Jane, (Taral Hicks) and it is “love at first sight. " Jane and C make arrangements for a date, despite the tension between the Italians and Blacks, particularly at the neighborhood borders.
C, new to dating, asks advice from both Lorenzo and Sonny about the new girl he is interested in. His dad’s “head” advice is funny, but smart. Wanting to help C make a good impression, Sonny loans him his car and gives him some wonderful “door” advice as it pertains to women. Around the same time, Calogero's friends beat up a group of black cyclists passing through their neighborhood, and Calogero is powerless to stop them but does his best to defend one young man, who turns out to be Jane's brother, Willie. Willie, however, mistakes C for one of the Italian gang members and accuses him of beating him when Calogero and Jane meet for their date. In the ensuing argument, Calogero loses his temper at what he considers Willie's lack of gratitude and calls him a "horrible racial slur" which he instantly regrets. Heartbroken, Jane leaves Calogero and gets into the car with her brother.
At home, Calogero is confronted by Lorenzo, who saw him driving Sonny's car from the apartment window. An argument ensues, and Calogero storms out. Suddenly, he is confronted by a furious Sonny and his possee, who found a bomb in Sonny's car and suspect C of planning to assassinate him. C swears his innocence and is allowed to leave, but his feelings are really hurt that Sonny would accuse him of such a thing.
Sonny tries many times throughout this movie to persuade Calogero to keep away from the Italian HS gang, to think for himself and focus more on his schoolwork and look ahead to college. In the most amazing sequences of scenes which left me on the edge of my seat, we see the Italian HS gang in a car headed for a “revenge visit” to the black neighborhood where Jane lives. Calogero is “peer pressured” into going with them. I’m going to stop here, but I remember seeing the above series of scenes and the one in the funeral parlor and I thought about fate and how each of us come to a fork in the road where we can turn left or right and the decision we make can change our lives forever.
Life Lessons
If you grew up in a city, large or small, during the years prior to the 1970s you didn’t just have one set of parents you were accountable to – you had a dozen because everyone in the neighborhood watched out for all the kids on the block. You did not dare tell one of these “surrogate parents,” “you’re not the boss of me” because not only would they swat your bottom for sassing, when you got home you learned they had called your parents and you got your bottom swatted again for good measure.
It was called the old neighborhood system and when the multitude of moms entered the work force in the 1970s, it went the way of pop in a bottle, drive-in movies, popcorn on Sunday night while you watched The Wonderful World of Disney and Bonanza, card clubs, and cowboy tv shows. It’s too bad – it was a good system. We, as children, could run the neighborhood from dawn to dusk without parents worrying. Even with the occasional plastic spoon to the behind for running through someone's flower garden, it was comforting because we knew there were people in the universe, besides our parents, who would fix us a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to tide us over ‘til lunch and loved us enough to make us responsible for our actions.
A Bronx Tale Movie Cast List
· Chazz Palminteri as Sonny
· Lillo Brancato as Calogero Anello as a Teenager
· Francis Capra as Calogero Anello as a Young Boy
· Taral Hicks as Jane
· Katherine Narducci as Rosina Anello
· Clem Caserta as Jimmy Whispers
· Alfred Sauchelli as Bobby Bars
· Frank Pietrangolare as Danny K O
· Joe Pesci as Carmine
· Robert D’Andrea as Tony Toupee
· Eddie Montanaro as Eddie Mush
· Fred Fischer as JoJo the Whale
· Dave Salerno as Frankie Coffee Cake
· And Others
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Benny and Joon
“Art” movies are gems. Quirky, sometimes odd, but always unique and entertaining; they are like eating a decadent double chocolate dessert for those of us who love movies. I happened on this movie jewel late one night as I was channel surfing. I stayed because I am a fan of actors in it - Mary Stuart Masterson, Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, Aidan Quinn, and Johnny Depp. Here it is 2010 and this movie was released in 1993, but I did not get the opportunity to see it when if first came out. That’s they way it happens with this type of movie – they sometimes get side-stepped for the flashier blockbuster fare.
Have you noticed there are some actors that are so gifted in their interpretation of a role that they just leave you wondering “how did they do that?” Johnny Depp as Sam does that in his “Buster Keatonish” type performance and his on-screen chemistry in this unexpected romantic comedy with the Mary Stuart Masterson character of Joon is wonderful to watch. Actually, to me this piece has more of a stage play feel to it than a movie, but a movie it is and one you should consider running out to rent at your local video store.
Quotes
Sam: You don't like raisins?
Joon: Not really.
Sam: Why?
Joon: They used to be fat and juicy and now they're twisted. They had their lives stolen. Well, they taste sweet, but really they're just humiliated grapes. I can't say I am a big supporter of the raisin council.
Sam: Did you see those, those raisins on TV? The ones that sing and dance and stuff?
Joon: They scare me.
Sam: Yeah me too
Joon: It's sick. The commercial people they make them sing and dance so people will eat them.
Sam: It's a shame about raisins.
Joon: Cannibals.
Sam: Yeah. Do you like avocados?
Joon: They're a fruit you know.
Sam: Ruthie, do you got any avocados?
Joon: Why do you hate me so much?
Benny: I don't hate you.
Joon: You need me to be sick.
Sam: How sick is she?
Benny: She's plenty sick. Now listen to me, I've been doin' some thinkin'...
Sam: Because, you know, it seems to me that, I mean, except for being a little mentally ill, she's pretty normal.
Joon: Having a Boo Radley moment, are we?
Plot Summary
You get the feeling in the opening scenes of Benny & Joon that you are about to embark on a journey and it is going to be an interesting one. While the opening song and credits are running you see Joon “Juniper” (Mary Stuart Masterson) in her studio creating a painting, Sam (Johnny Depp) on a train peeking over a book entitled “The Look of Buster Keaton, and the traditional and “harried” multi-tasker Benny (Aidan Quinn) at his automobile repair shop working on one of his clients cars. The phone rings; it’s Benny’s sister Joon calling him “again” concerning an emergency at home - they are running low on peanut butter.
Benny comes home that night from work with a sack of groceries to find Joon, who has functional mental health issues, and her latest adult caregiver/housekeeper having a fight. The housekeeper tells the overprotective Benny, Joon “has fits, sudden outbursts and she is unmanageable” so she quits. When Benny asks his sister what happened she answers “she (meaning the housekeeper) was given to fits of semi-precious metaphors” and “she moves things.”
It’s poker night at his friend Eric’s (Oliver Platt) home, but Benny tells him he can’t come because he doesn’t want to leave Joon home alone. Eric talks him into coming and tells him to bring Joon, who reluctantly climbs into her brother’s El Camino wearing a motorcycle helmet. As they approach the house, she looks out the window of the car and sees Sam (Johnny Depp) sitting in a tree and they exchange glances for a moment. In the middle of the poker game Benny’s friend Mike (Joe Grifasi) offers a solution to Benny's housekeeper problem by offering the services of his cousin Sam - who came into town on a train and has taken up residence at this house. Mike shares “he’s 26 years old and he can’t even read, he spends his days polishing my forks…and keeps me up at night watching old movies.”
In the next scene Benny is at his sister’s psychiatrist, Dr. Garvey ( C.C.H. Pounder) who asks Benny how he and his sister are getting along to which Benny answers “fine.” The doctor wants him to consider putting his sister in a group home where she can be with her peers, but the devoted Benny says “she already has a home.” It is an old conversation between these two people who want the best for Joon. Against the doctor’s recommendation and despite the fact Benny is putting his life on-hold; he decides to find another housekeeper. Enter Sam who Joon “wins” (sort of) in a poker game. And the fun begins….
Life Lessons
There are millions of cookie cutter human beings walking around this world, but thank goodness for the unique people. The ones who run with scissors, color outside the lines, courageously rip those “do not remove” tags off of pillows, and walk down escalators when they could ride. They are the eccentric souls - the walk to their own beat boys and girls – the different drummers, who make life interesting and view the world through a unique pair of eyeglasses.
Years ago they used to be called “characters” and every small town had their own individual version with descriptive nicknames to match their various personas. Johnny Pop Bottle and Trash Can Annie were gentle souls who practiced no prejudice or noticed any class distinction – they usually smiled, waved, and said hello to every one they met as they rode their bicycle through town with their collection of treasures in their bike basket or pulled their two-wheeled shopping cart filled with their latest finds around the town square until they found their favorite bench to rest their weary bones and feed the pigeons.
I don’t know if it was a different time or the Iowa community I spent my early youth in, but back then people didn’t hassle them. They were card carrying members of the small community they lived in, no better and no worse than the "pillars" of said community, and people spoke to them when they passed and let them be the harmless souls they were. The people in town knew there was not a mean bone in their body and they would give you the last thing in their cart or basket and go without, if they thought you needed it. In fact, everyone sort of looked out for them and when a stranger would come to town and comment to one of the coffee clubbing farmers at the diner, he or she would answer “you should have known Johnny before Vietnam or Annie was a local beauty before she lost her husband and kids in that fire.”
Everyone has a back story – all of which has contributed to making them the person they are today. Compassion is defined as deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it. It sometimes goes by another name too, it is called being kind. Something that is hard to be when you go around angry inside and hold other people responsible for your woes or your happiness – instead of looking in the mirror and saying “this life is what I choose to make it.” Johnny and Annie know exactly what that means, do you and I?
Benny and Joon Movie Cast
Have you noticed there are some actors that are so gifted in their interpretation of a role that they just leave you wondering “how did they do that?” Johnny Depp as Sam does that in his “Buster Keatonish” type performance and his on-screen chemistry in this unexpected romantic comedy with the Mary Stuart Masterson character of Joon is wonderful to watch. Actually, to me this piece has more of a stage play feel to it than a movie, but a movie it is and one you should consider running out to rent at your local video store.
Quotes
Sam: You don't like raisins?
Joon: Not really.
Sam: Why?
Joon: They used to be fat and juicy and now they're twisted. They had their lives stolen. Well, they taste sweet, but really they're just humiliated grapes. I can't say I am a big supporter of the raisin council.
Sam: Did you see those, those raisins on TV? The ones that sing and dance and stuff?
Joon: They scare me.
Sam: Yeah me too
Joon: It's sick. The commercial people they make them sing and dance so people will eat them.
Sam: It's a shame about raisins.
Joon: Cannibals.
Sam: Yeah. Do you like avocados?
Joon: They're a fruit you know.
Sam: Ruthie, do you got any avocados?
Joon: Why do you hate me so much?
Benny: I don't hate you.
Joon: You need me to be sick.
Sam: How sick is she?
Benny: She's plenty sick. Now listen to me, I've been doin' some thinkin'...
Sam: Because, you know, it seems to me that, I mean, except for being a little mentally ill, she's pretty normal.
Joon: Having a Boo Radley moment, are we?
Plot Summary
You get the feeling in the opening scenes of Benny & Joon that you are about to embark on a journey and it is going to be an interesting one. While the opening song and credits are running you see Joon “Juniper” (Mary Stuart Masterson) in her studio creating a painting, Sam (Johnny Depp) on a train peeking over a book entitled “The Look of Buster Keaton, and the traditional and “harried” multi-tasker Benny (Aidan Quinn) at his automobile repair shop working on one of his clients cars. The phone rings; it’s Benny’s sister Joon calling him “again” concerning an emergency at home - they are running low on peanut butter.
Benny comes home that night from work with a sack of groceries to find Joon, who has functional mental health issues, and her latest adult caregiver/housekeeper having a fight. The housekeeper tells the overprotective Benny, Joon “has fits, sudden outbursts and she is unmanageable” so she quits. When Benny asks his sister what happened she answers “she (meaning the housekeeper) was given to fits of semi-precious metaphors” and “she moves things.”
It’s poker night at his friend Eric’s (Oliver Platt) home, but Benny tells him he can’t come because he doesn’t want to leave Joon home alone. Eric talks him into coming and tells him to bring Joon, who reluctantly climbs into her brother’s El Camino wearing a motorcycle helmet. As they approach the house, she looks out the window of the car and sees Sam (Johnny Depp) sitting in a tree and they exchange glances for a moment. In the middle of the poker game Benny’s friend Mike (Joe Grifasi) offers a solution to Benny's housekeeper problem by offering the services of his cousin Sam - who came into town on a train and has taken up residence at this house. Mike shares “he’s 26 years old and he can’t even read, he spends his days polishing my forks…and keeps me up at night watching old movies.”
In the next scene Benny is at his sister’s psychiatrist, Dr. Garvey ( C.C.H. Pounder) who asks Benny how he and his sister are getting along to which Benny answers “fine.” The doctor wants him to consider putting his sister in a group home where she can be with her peers, but the devoted Benny says “she already has a home.” It is an old conversation between these two people who want the best for Joon. Against the doctor’s recommendation and despite the fact Benny is putting his life on-hold; he decides to find another housekeeper. Enter Sam who Joon “wins” (sort of) in a poker game. And the fun begins….
Life Lessons
There are millions of cookie cutter human beings walking around this world, but thank goodness for the unique people. The ones who run with scissors, color outside the lines, courageously rip those “do not remove” tags off of pillows, and walk down escalators when they could ride. They are the eccentric souls - the walk to their own beat boys and girls – the different drummers, who make life interesting and view the world through a unique pair of eyeglasses.
Years ago they used to be called “characters” and every small town had their own individual version with descriptive nicknames to match their various personas. Johnny Pop Bottle and Trash Can Annie were gentle souls who practiced no prejudice or noticed any class distinction – they usually smiled, waved, and said hello to every one they met as they rode their bicycle through town with their collection of treasures in their bike basket or pulled their two-wheeled shopping cart filled with their latest finds around the town square until they found their favorite bench to rest their weary bones and feed the pigeons.
I don’t know if it was a different time or the Iowa community I spent my early youth in, but back then people didn’t hassle them. They were card carrying members of the small community they lived in, no better and no worse than the "pillars" of said community, and people spoke to them when they passed and let them be the harmless souls they were. The people in town knew there was not a mean bone in their body and they would give you the last thing in their cart or basket and go without, if they thought you needed it. In fact, everyone sort of looked out for them and when a stranger would come to town and comment to one of the coffee clubbing farmers at the diner, he or she would answer “you should have known Johnny before Vietnam or Annie was a local beauty before she lost her husband and kids in that fire.”
Everyone has a back story – all of which has contributed to making them the person they are today. Compassion is defined as deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it. It sometimes goes by another name too, it is called being kind. Something that is hard to be when you go around angry inside and hold other people responsible for your woes or your happiness – instead of looking in the mirror and saying “this life is what I choose to make it.” Johnny and Annie know exactly what that means, do you and I?
Benny and Joon Movie Cast
Johnny Depp - Sam
Mary Stuart Masterson - Juniper 'Joon' Pearl
Aidan Quinn - Benjamin 'Benny' Pearl
William H. Macy - Randy Burch
Julianne Moore - Ruthie
Oliver Platt - Eric
C. C. H. Pounder - Dr. Garvey
Dan Hedaya - Thomas
Joe Grifasi – Mike
and others.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Notting Hill
Do you like romantic comedies? I do because there is a really good chance when you sit down to one you will be entertained and walk away from the picture feeling a little more light hearted then when you entered the movie theater or slipped the DVD into your player. Let me introduce you to one of my favorites – Notting Hill.
Quotes
(At a dinner party with William’s friends as they decide whose life is the most pathetic – thus earning the last brownie.)
Anna Scott: Wait, what about me?
Max: Sorry, you think “you” deserve the brownie?
Anna Scott: Well a shot at it at least huh?
William: Well, you'll have to fight me for it, this is a very good brownie.
Anna Scott: I've been on a diet every day since I was nineteen, which basically means I've been hungry for a decade. I've had a series of not nice boyfriends, one of whom hit me. Ah, and every time I get my heart broken, the newspapers splash it about as though it's entertainment. And it's taken two rather painful operations to get me looking like this.
Honey: Really?
Anna Scott: Really. And, one day not long from now, my looks will go, they will discover I can't act and I will become some sad middle-aged woman who looks a bit like someone who was famous for a while.
Max: (long pause) Nah, nice try gorgeous, but you don't fool anyone. William: Pathetic effort to hog the brownie.
Plot Summary
William Thacker (Hugh Grant) owns a travel bookstore in London. His life has fallen into a routine of going to work, evenings with friends, dealing with his eccentric roommate Spike (Rhys Ifans), and telephone calls from his mother. It’s a pretty normal existence until a world famous American actress named Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) wonders into his shop.
Against all odds, a friendship starts to develop between these two, which begins to blossom into a romance, but life steps in through a series of funny and sad moments. Will Anna be able to let go of her past hurts? Will William be able to handle dating a woman whose life is splashed across the front pages of newspapers every time she steps outside to buy a cup of coffee? Are they both willing to take a chance on love just one more time?
One more thing… Spike, William’s roommate, is a hoot!
Life Lessons
Princess Diana and I had one major thing in common; we got married the same year. As I went about my life, I peripherally followed hers on the evening news. I remember when her son William was born and seeing her holding him when they came out of the hospital, she seemed so happy then, didn’t she?
Later, there were times I thought she had a “hunted” look about her and I could not imagine what it must have been like to live under the microscope like she did, where every mistake you made was made in front of millions of people. She was not a saint, but I think people loved her because she wasn’t perfect – we felt she was like us, living life and doing the best she could out there in the trenches.
I remember I was having my breakfast when I learned from a news show that she had passed away in an accident in France – something to do with her driver, an underpass, and the paparazzi who literally and figuratively hounded her to death. I remember thinking at the time – they finally got her – those gals and guys with the cameras who wait like vultures to photograph a celebrity taking their child to their first day of kindergarten or for an ice cream. Come on now – when they are at a “working function” all right – they are fair game, but when they are “off the clock” and in their private life - isn’t that stalking?
I remember George Clooney held a press conference and one of the things he said was (and I am paraphrasing) “Princess Diana is dead and who do we see about that?” Say what you want about Princess Diana’s driver, we all know the paparazzi played their part in her death. They also had a partner in this crime – us or to clarify anyone who buys the grocery store tabloids that these paparazzi pictures appear in. You see it is as simple as this – if there were not a market for these pictures, the paparazzi would not be able to earn a living doing it and they would stop doing it…. so you know what you have to do….take that $5.00 you would spend on the “rag sheet” and give it to your local food pantry.
Notting Hill Movie Cast
Quotes
(At a dinner party with William’s friends as they decide whose life is the most pathetic – thus earning the last brownie.)
Anna Scott: Wait, what about me?
Max: Sorry, you think “you” deserve the brownie?
Anna Scott: Well a shot at it at least huh?
William: Well, you'll have to fight me for it, this is a very good brownie.
Anna Scott: I've been on a diet every day since I was nineteen, which basically means I've been hungry for a decade. I've had a series of not nice boyfriends, one of whom hit me. Ah, and every time I get my heart broken, the newspapers splash it about as though it's entertainment. And it's taken two rather painful operations to get me looking like this.
Honey: Really?
Anna Scott: Really. And, one day not long from now, my looks will go, they will discover I can't act and I will become some sad middle-aged woman who looks a bit like someone who was famous for a while.
Max: (long pause) Nah, nice try gorgeous, but you don't fool anyone. William: Pathetic effort to hog the brownie.
Plot Summary
William Thacker (Hugh Grant) owns a travel bookstore in London. His life has fallen into a routine of going to work, evenings with friends, dealing with his eccentric roommate Spike (Rhys Ifans), and telephone calls from his mother. It’s a pretty normal existence until a world famous American actress named Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) wonders into his shop.
Against all odds, a friendship starts to develop between these two, which begins to blossom into a romance, but life steps in through a series of funny and sad moments. Will Anna be able to let go of her past hurts? Will William be able to handle dating a woman whose life is splashed across the front pages of newspapers every time she steps outside to buy a cup of coffee? Are they both willing to take a chance on love just one more time?
One more thing… Spike, William’s roommate, is a hoot!
Life Lessons
Princess Diana and I had one major thing in common; we got married the same year. As I went about my life, I peripherally followed hers on the evening news. I remember when her son William was born and seeing her holding him when they came out of the hospital, she seemed so happy then, didn’t she?
Later, there were times I thought she had a “hunted” look about her and I could not imagine what it must have been like to live under the microscope like she did, where every mistake you made was made in front of millions of people. She was not a saint, but I think people loved her because she wasn’t perfect – we felt she was like us, living life and doing the best she could out there in the trenches.
I remember I was having my breakfast when I learned from a news show that she had passed away in an accident in France – something to do with her driver, an underpass, and the paparazzi who literally and figuratively hounded her to death. I remember thinking at the time – they finally got her – those gals and guys with the cameras who wait like vultures to photograph a celebrity taking their child to their first day of kindergarten or for an ice cream. Come on now – when they are at a “working function” all right – they are fair game, but when they are “off the clock” and in their private life - isn’t that stalking?
I remember George Clooney held a press conference and one of the things he said was (and I am paraphrasing) “Princess Diana is dead and who do we see about that?” Say what you want about Princess Diana’s driver, we all know the paparazzi played their part in her death. They also had a partner in this crime – us or to clarify anyone who buys the grocery store tabloids that these paparazzi pictures appear in. You see it is as simple as this – if there were not a market for these pictures, the paparazzi would not be able to earn a living doing it and they would stop doing it…. so you know what you have to do….take that $5.00 you would spend on the “rag sheet” and give it to your local food pantry.
Notting Hill Movie Cast
· Julia Roberts as Anna Scott:
· Hugh Grant as William Thacker
· Emma Chambers as Honey Thacker
· Hugh Bonneville as Bernie
· Rhys Ifans as Spike
· Tim McInnerny as Max
· Gina McKee as Bella
· James Dreyfus as Martin
· Richard McCabe as Tony
· Dylan Moran as Rufus
· Alec Baldwin as Anna’s actor boyfriend Jeff
Sunday, February 21, 2010
(The) Ox-Bow Incident
Lynching!
Say it out-loud once and tell me it does not conjure up a visual image that creates a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. It is an ugly word, an act committed by individuals caught up in the frenzy of a mob, who for their own individual reasons, justify taking the “law” into their own hands.
Lynching and the “lynch laws” is not something they used to teach kids in the public or Catholic school system so I had little knowledge about it until I researched and wrote a piece about Ida Wells-Barnett for a children’s history magazine. Born many years apart, she educated me and it is a lesson that has stayed in my mind long after I wrote the final paragraph for that piece.
(The) Ox-Bow Incident is also a novel written by Walter Van Tilberg Clark, but I can’t tell you how well the movie follows it as I have never read it, but maybe someone else can share if it stays true to the book.
Quotes
Major Tetley: This is only slightly any of your business, my friend. Remember that. Gil Carter: Hangin' is any man's business that's around.
Gil Carter (reading Donald Martin’s letter to his wife to the lynch-mob): "My dear Wife, Mr. Davies will tell you what's happening here tonight. He's a good man and has done everything he can for me. I suppose there are some other good men here, too, only they don't seem to realize what they're doing. They're the ones I feel sorry for. 'Cause it'll be over for me in a little while, but they'll have to go on remembering for the rest of their lives. A man just naturally can't take the law into his own hands and hang people without hurtin' everybody in the world, 'cause then he's just not breaking one law but all laws. Law is a lot more than words you put in a book, or judges or lawyers or sheriffs you hire to carry it out. It's everything people ever have found out about justice and what's right and wrong. It's the very conscience of humanity. There can't be any such thing as civilization unless people have a conscience, because if people touch God anywhere, where is it except through their conscience? And what is anybody's conscience except a little piece of the conscience of all men that ever lived? I guess that's all I've got to say except kiss the babies for me and God bless you. Your husband, Donald."
Plot Summary
It’s 1885 and an entire Nevada “cow” town and the surrounding ranch-folk are on edge because there are some cattle rustlers operating in the area. Strangers Gil Carter (Henry Fonda) and Art Croft (Henry Morgan) ride into this community to have a “cool drink” at the local saloon and to see an old flame of Gil’s. Gil finds out from the bartender that his lady-love did not wait for him and a little later in the movie that she has married.
Gil and Art are talking to the bartender when two local cowboys come in. The bartender pours the local boys a drink and mentions to them that the Sheriff is still in the area (working on a case). Art asks if it is “about that rustling people were talking about last fall” the two local cowboys, wary of strangers, move down on the other end of the bar. The bartender explains why it’s a “touchy subject” in town and they (meaning the local folks) only like to talk about the rustling with people “they sleep with.” Gil says to the bartender, “Wouldn’t people know if there were any strangers around?” The bartender replies, “There hasn’t been any except you two.” Gil answers, “That ain’t funny.”
Tempers flair and a fight breaks out between Gil and one of the local cowboys who hints that Gil and Art might be the rustlers. Several punches later, the local cowboy goes down and the bartender knocks Gil out with a bottle. Gil wakes up just as a man runs into saloon and shares some urgent news. He says one of the local ranchers has been shot and killed and “they” think the rustlers did it. He, the rider, was sent into town to get the Sheriff.
What follows next is a series of suppositions based on no concrete fact checking as frustrations and anger mounts over someone killing “one of their own.” Unable to locate the Sheriff, the town folk and the acting deputy (along with Gil and Art) form a posse to “find the men who did this.” What they find are three men, strangers to the area, driving cattle. Are these the cattle rustlers or are these innocent men? Lines are drawn, people choose sides, and before this movie is over we see what each person in the “lynching” scenes are really made of.
Life Lessons
“The darkest corners of hell are reserved for those souls, who when they know what is right and speaking up in someone elses defense would make a difference, remain silent.”
(The) Ox-Bow Incident is about mob violence and bullies. It gives movie goers an inside look about how a group of people, carry bullying to the extreme. It is also about people with courage who stand up for what is right and refuse to participate in the madness around them.
It’s not lynching, but let’s take a look at a prevalent problem in school systems and a boil on the backside of school children from every walk of life - bullies.
Why don’t school administrations and PTA groups work together to create anti-bullying programs sponsored by a combination of guidance counselors and/or teachers and/or parents with youth leader experience and/or one community police officer, but ran by the students themselves – think a peer board of review which gives students, who are bullied, a safe place to go to tell their story.
The bully gets called in before the peer group for evaluation with the panel of adult sponsors in attendance for back-up support. Questions are asked – all sides are heard, and young people are made accountable for their actions. In extreme cases when there are repeat offenses -- the bully has to report for counseling with a school psychologist and just to make sure Mr. or Miss Bully are not emulating or “acting out” on patterns of behavior they learned (or are subject to) at home – mom and/or dad (or their Guardian(s)) are going to have to report to the school psychologist sessions too.
It is a win-win situation. The child being bullied and the bully themselves get the help they need. If your school system already does something like this or has a productive anti-bullying program in place, bravo!
If it doesn't - why not?
The Ox-Bow Incident Movie Cast
Henry Fonda as Gil Carter
Dana Andrews as Donald Martin
Mary Beth Hughes as Rose Mapen / Rose Swanson
Anthony Quinn as Juan Martínez / Francisco Morez
William Eythe as Gerald Tetley
Harry Morgan as Art Croft (credited as Henry Morgan)
Jane Darwell as Jenny Grier
Matt Briggs as Judge Daniel Tyler
Harry Davenport as Arthur Davies
Frank Conroy as Major Tetley
Marc Lawrence as Jeff Farnley
Paul Hurst as Monty Smith
Victor Kilian as Darby
Chris-Pin Martin as Poncho
Willard Robertson as Sheriff
Say it out-loud once and tell me it does not conjure up a visual image that creates a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. It is an ugly word, an act committed by individuals caught up in the frenzy of a mob, who for their own individual reasons, justify taking the “law” into their own hands.
Lynching and the “lynch laws” is not something they used to teach kids in the public or Catholic school system so I had little knowledge about it until I researched and wrote a piece about Ida Wells-Barnett for a children’s history magazine. Born many years apart, she educated me and it is a lesson that has stayed in my mind long after I wrote the final paragraph for that piece.
(The) Ox-Bow Incident is also a novel written by Walter Van Tilberg Clark, but I can’t tell you how well the movie follows it as I have never read it, but maybe someone else can share if it stays true to the book.
Quotes
Major Tetley: This is only slightly any of your business, my friend. Remember that. Gil Carter: Hangin' is any man's business that's around.
Gil Carter (reading Donald Martin’s letter to his wife to the lynch-mob): "My dear Wife, Mr. Davies will tell you what's happening here tonight. He's a good man and has done everything he can for me. I suppose there are some other good men here, too, only they don't seem to realize what they're doing. They're the ones I feel sorry for. 'Cause it'll be over for me in a little while, but they'll have to go on remembering for the rest of their lives. A man just naturally can't take the law into his own hands and hang people without hurtin' everybody in the world, 'cause then he's just not breaking one law but all laws. Law is a lot more than words you put in a book, or judges or lawyers or sheriffs you hire to carry it out. It's everything people ever have found out about justice and what's right and wrong. It's the very conscience of humanity. There can't be any such thing as civilization unless people have a conscience, because if people touch God anywhere, where is it except through their conscience? And what is anybody's conscience except a little piece of the conscience of all men that ever lived? I guess that's all I've got to say except kiss the babies for me and God bless you. Your husband, Donald."
Plot Summary
It’s 1885 and an entire Nevada “cow” town and the surrounding ranch-folk are on edge because there are some cattle rustlers operating in the area. Strangers Gil Carter (Henry Fonda) and Art Croft (Henry Morgan) ride into this community to have a “cool drink” at the local saloon and to see an old flame of Gil’s. Gil finds out from the bartender that his lady-love did not wait for him and a little later in the movie that she has married.
Gil and Art are talking to the bartender when two local cowboys come in. The bartender pours the local boys a drink and mentions to them that the Sheriff is still in the area (working on a case). Art asks if it is “about that rustling people were talking about last fall” the two local cowboys, wary of strangers, move down on the other end of the bar. The bartender explains why it’s a “touchy subject” in town and they (meaning the local folks) only like to talk about the rustling with people “they sleep with.” Gil says to the bartender, “Wouldn’t people know if there were any strangers around?” The bartender replies, “There hasn’t been any except you two.” Gil answers, “That ain’t funny.”
Tempers flair and a fight breaks out between Gil and one of the local cowboys who hints that Gil and Art might be the rustlers. Several punches later, the local cowboy goes down and the bartender knocks Gil out with a bottle. Gil wakes up just as a man runs into saloon and shares some urgent news. He says one of the local ranchers has been shot and killed and “they” think the rustlers did it. He, the rider, was sent into town to get the Sheriff.
What follows next is a series of suppositions based on no concrete fact checking as frustrations and anger mounts over someone killing “one of their own.” Unable to locate the Sheriff, the town folk and the acting deputy (along with Gil and Art) form a posse to “find the men who did this.” What they find are three men, strangers to the area, driving cattle. Are these the cattle rustlers or are these innocent men? Lines are drawn, people choose sides, and before this movie is over we see what each person in the “lynching” scenes are really made of.
Life Lessons
“The darkest corners of hell are reserved for those souls, who when they know what is right and speaking up in someone elses defense would make a difference, remain silent.”
(The) Ox-Bow Incident is about mob violence and bullies. It gives movie goers an inside look about how a group of people, carry bullying to the extreme. It is also about people with courage who stand up for what is right and refuse to participate in the madness around them.
It’s not lynching, but let’s take a look at a prevalent problem in school systems and a boil on the backside of school children from every walk of life - bullies.
Why don’t school administrations and PTA groups work together to create anti-bullying programs sponsored by a combination of guidance counselors and/or teachers and/or parents with youth leader experience and/or one community police officer, but ran by the students themselves – think a peer board of review which gives students, who are bullied, a safe place to go to tell their story.
The bully gets called in before the peer group for evaluation with the panel of adult sponsors in attendance for back-up support. Questions are asked – all sides are heard, and young people are made accountable for their actions. In extreme cases when there are repeat offenses -- the bully has to report for counseling with a school psychologist and just to make sure Mr. or Miss Bully are not emulating or “acting out” on patterns of behavior they learned (or are subject to) at home – mom and/or dad (or their Guardian(s)) are going to have to report to the school psychologist sessions too.
It is a win-win situation. The child being bullied and the bully themselves get the help they need. If your school system already does something like this or has a productive anti-bullying program in place, bravo!
If it doesn't - why not?
The Ox-Bow Incident Movie Cast
Henry Fonda as Gil Carter
Dana Andrews as Donald Martin
Mary Beth Hughes as Rose Mapen / Rose Swanson
Anthony Quinn as Juan Martínez / Francisco Morez
William Eythe as Gerald Tetley
Harry Morgan as Art Croft (credited as Henry Morgan)
Jane Darwell as Jenny Grier
Matt Briggs as Judge Daniel Tyler
Harry Davenport as Arthur Davies
Frank Conroy as Major Tetley
Marc Lawrence as Jeff Farnley
Paul Hurst as Monty Smith
Victor Kilian as Darby
Chris-Pin Martin as Poncho
Willard Robertson as Sheriff
Saturday, February 13, 2010
An Unfinished Life
Accidents happen….bodies have an amazing power to heal on the outside, but the scars on the inside, when life runs a semi-truck right over your heart, are harder to recover from. Guilt, grudges, fault finding, and those awful “what ifs” pick away at the interior scars making them fester, slowing down the healing process. I know you’ve seen souls like this – walking around with pain so deep it breaks your heart.
An Unfinished Life is a movie about the walking wounded, people who walk around with unseen scars, hidden pain, and hopes for redemption. Watching this movie is comfort food for the soul and sends the message, even in the darkest times of our lives that “there is always hope.”
Quotes
“Einar Gilkyson: Think it might rain today.
Mitch Bradley: Naw, it’s gonna stay warm.
Einar Gilkyson: I didn’t say anything about the temperature. I said
it might rain.
Mitch Bradley: Would you bury me next to Griffin?
Einar Gilkyson: Don’t you think you oughtta die first?
Mitch Bradley: It’s gonna happen, you know.
Einar Gilkyson: Where the hell else do you think I’d bury you? It’s
where my family lies. You think the dead really care about our
lives?
Mitch Bradley: Yeah, I think they do. I think they forgive us our
sins. I even think it’s easy for them.
Einar Gilkyson: Griff said you had a dream about flying.
Mitch Bradley: Yeah. I got so high, Einar. I could see where the blue
turns to black. From up there, you can see all there is. And it
looked like there was a reason for everything.”
Plot Summary
In the opening scene of An Unfinished Life you see a crusty and slightly eccentric Einar Gilkyson (Robert Redford) doing morning chores and tending to his ranch hand Mitch Bradley (Morgan Freeman), who was attacked by a bear a year earlier. You learn later that Einar was drunk at the time of the bear attack, failing to save his best friend from serious injury...the bear escaped. Some time has passed since the accident and Mitch's wounds give him constant pain. Hanging onto sobriety by a thin thread, Einar cares for his friend, giving him morphine injections, friendship, and food as he tries to nurse Mitch back to health.
The movie shifts to Einar’s estranged daughter-in-law Jean Gilkyson (Jennifer Lopez), her head is hanging and her face is battered. She is being lectured to by her abusive boyfriend Gary Winston (Diaman Lewis) about how “she just makes him have to hit her,” while her daughter Griff Gilkyson (Becca Gardener) looks on. After this violent encounter, Jean escapes with her daughter in a beat up old car which breaks down on a no-name stretch of highway. At the end of her rope spiritually and financially, she decides to go to the ranch of her estranged father-in-law Einar in Wyoming, knowing he blames her for the death of her husband, his son Griffin, in a car accident. (Einar’s son, Griffen had moved away and married Jean years ago, causing a rift in the family that came to a head when Griffin died in the car accident.)
The bear returns to Gilkyson ranch looking for food -- Einar sees the tracks, but the bear has moved on turning his attention towards town for a fresh source of food. Sheriff Crane Curtis (Josh Lucas) captures the bear and the animal is put on display in a cage at the local town zoo. About this same time Einar's daughter-in-law arrives on at the ranch with a granddaughter, he didn’t know he had, in tow.
After a lukewarm reception from her father-in-law, Jean and Griff move into the basement with Einar in the main house and help him take care of Mitch in the bunkhouse. Tension mounts between Einar and Jean because both are still grieving for Griffin. Mitch encourages him to make peace with his past and the family he has who is still alive by sharing, “a granddaughter, that’s a nice thing for a man to have.” Mitch’s wisdom begins to sink in and the ice around Einar’s heart begins to melt for his son’s daughter.
Jean starts working at a local coffee shop where she befriends the owner Nina (Camryn Manheim), who (along with Mitch) helps her come to understand Einar’s crusty ways and fills in the blanks of what has happened in her father-in-law’s life since Griffin’s funeral. Jean also starts a “friends with benefits” relationship with Sheriff Curtis which promises to blossom into something more, but Jean has been in a series of abusive relationships since her husband’s death and Griff can’t bring herself to trust the Sheriff when he comes to visit.
Jean grows stronger and things start looking up for her and Griff as life falls into a safe and comfortable routine, even with Einar’s bouts of crustiness, until Gary comes to Wyoming. Then all hell breaks loose….Want more? I hope you do because this is a movie you don’t want to miss.
Life Lesson
“They call’em accidents because it’s nobody’s fault.” Mitch Bradley to Einar Gilkyson
An Unfinished Life is a movie about the walking wounded, people who walk around with unseen scars, hidden pain, and hopes for redemption. Watching this movie is comfort food for the soul and sends the message, even in the darkest times of our lives that “there is always hope.”
Quotes
“Einar Gilkyson: Think it might rain today.
Mitch Bradley: Naw, it’s gonna stay warm.
Einar Gilkyson: I didn’t say anything about the temperature. I said
it might rain.
Mitch Bradley: Would you bury me next to Griffin?
Einar Gilkyson: Don’t you think you oughtta die first?
Mitch Bradley: It’s gonna happen, you know.
Einar Gilkyson: Where the hell else do you think I’d bury you? It’s
where my family lies. You think the dead really care about our
lives?
Mitch Bradley: Yeah, I think they do. I think they forgive us our
sins. I even think it’s easy for them.
Einar Gilkyson: Griff said you had a dream about flying.
Mitch Bradley: Yeah. I got so high, Einar. I could see where the blue
turns to black. From up there, you can see all there is. And it
looked like there was a reason for everything.”
Plot Summary
In the opening scene of An Unfinished Life you see a crusty and slightly eccentric Einar Gilkyson (Robert Redford) doing morning chores and tending to his ranch hand Mitch Bradley (Morgan Freeman), who was attacked by a bear a year earlier. You learn later that Einar was drunk at the time of the bear attack, failing to save his best friend from serious injury...the bear escaped. Some time has passed since the accident and Mitch's wounds give him constant pain. Hanging onto sobriety by a thin thread, Einar cares for his friend, giving him morphine injections, friendship, and food as he tries to nurse Mitch back to health.
The movie shifts to Einar’s estranged daughter-in-law Jean Gilkyson (Jennifer Lopez), her head is hanging and her face is battered. She is being lectured to by her abusive boyfriend Gary Winston (Diaman Lewis) about how “she just makes him have to hit her,” while her daughter Griff Gilkyson (Becca Gardener) looks on. After this violent encounter, Jean escapes with her daughter in a beat up old car which breaks down on a no-name stretch of highway. At the end of her rope spiritually and financially, she decides to go to the ranch of her estranged father-in-law Einar in Wyoming, knowing he blames her for the death of her husband, his son Griffin, in a car accident. (Einar’s son, Griffen had moved away and married Jean years ago, causing a rift in the family that came to a head when Griffin died in the car accident.)
The bear returns to Gilkyson ranch looking for food -- Einar sees the tracks, but the bear has moved on turning his attention towards town for a fresh source of food. Sheriff Crane Curtis (Josh Lucas) captures the bear and the animal is put on display in a cage at the local town zoo. About this same time Einar's daughter-in-law arrives on at the ranch with a granddaughter, he didn’t know he had, in tow.
After a lukewarm reception from her father-in-law, Jean and Griff move into the basement with Einar in the main house and help him take care of Mitch in the bunkhouse. Tension mounts between Einar and Jean because both are still grieving for Griffin. Mitch encourages him to make peace with his past and the family he has who is still alive by sharing, “a granddaughter, that’s a nice thing for a man to have.” Mitch’s wisdom begins to sink in and the ice around Einar’s heart begins to melt for his son’s daughter.
Jean starts working at a local coffee shop where she befriends the owner Nina (Camryn Manheim), who (along with Mitch) helps her come to understand Einar’s crusty ways and fills in the blanks of what has happened in her father-in-law’s life since Griffin’s funeral. Jean also starts a “friends with benefits” relationship with Sheriff Curtis which promises to blossom into something more, but Jean has been in a series of abusive relationships since her husband’s death and Griff can’t bring herself to trust the Sheriff when he comes to visit.
Jean grows stronger and things start looking up for her and Griff as life falls into a safe and comfortable routine, even with Einar’s bouts of crustiness, until Gary comes to Wyoming. Then all hell breaks loose….Want more? I hope you do because this is a movie you don’t want to miss.
Life Lesson
“They call’em accidents because it’s nobody’s fault.” Mitch Bradley to Einar Gilkyson
Without a doubt, each main character in this movie struggles with forgiveness.
- After years of friendship and working together, Mitch knows what makes Einar tick. We realize from the very beginning of the film that Mitch has forgiven Einar for being too drunk to help him when the bear mauled him. We also know that because of that attack, Einar quit trying to drown his grief in booze and will spend the rest of his life making amends to his friend because he wants to, not because he feels he has to. These two men love each other like brothers and there is no bitterness or recriminations between them. That is how family, biological and family by choice, is supposed to behave – loving each other when mistakes are made.
- The most spiritual character in this movie, Mitch and the bear have a relationship too. Upon seeing the bear in the cage and later meeting up, face to face with the bear on the ranch after Einar keeps his promise to free the bear. Mitch shares, “You can’t just leave him there (at the zoo) Einar. We walked into his business, hell he was just do’in what bears do, we can’t punish him for that.”
- Jean forgives herself for her poor choices in men since her husband died and reclaims some of her old strength when she confronts the two guys in Nina’s dinner. Standing up for herself she tells the two cowboys, “They're good enchiladas... served by good people. I'm a good person. I'm also one who's taken more than her fair share of shit from men. I couldn't take a pinch of crap from two little cheesedicks like you.”
- Jean’s friend Nina shares a personal story and about how life can change in a blink of an eye. She tells Jean, “we aren’t suppose to outlive our children. You have to understand that about Einar.”
- Things come to a head in the kitchen when Jean tells Einar about the night Griffin died and “how she lives with that everyday” then she tells him that she tried to go on living, but he (Einar) has been acting like, he died when Griffin died. This confrontation starts Einar on the path of figuring out what is really important in life as he comes to realize how much he cares about this family who has re-entered his life…and that accidents are, just that, accidents. In a scene at Nina’s restaurant, he tells Jean, She’s (Griff) a good girl. Good kids don’t get that way by accident.”
Forgiveness is a hard thing and many of us wrestle with it. Here is something to consider while you are trying to figure it out….
Forgiveness is not about being anyone’s doormat or a guarantee that you’ll be able to forget the transgression, it’s about making peace with your past, letting go of the anger and hurt, and moving on with your life.
An Unfinished Life Movie Cast
Jennifer Lopez as Jean Gilkyson
Morgan Freeman as Mitch Bradley
Josh Lucas as Sheriff Crane Curtis
Damian Lewis as Gary Winston
Camryn Manheim as Nina
Becca Gardner as Griff Gilkyson
Lynda Boyd as Kitty
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