Precious : Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

The movie Precious is based on the novel Push by Sapphire and I think that Geoffrey Fletcher the scriptwriter did great justice to the novel. It is 1987, and 16 year old obese, illiterate Claireece Precious Jones, played by Gabourey Sidibe lives in a Harlem ghetto with her abusive mother, Mary played by Monique. Precious has been impregnated twice by her father, the physical abuse started when she was only 3. She also faces physical and mental abuses from her unemployed mother. However when the principle of her school discovers of her second pregnancy, she suspends Precious and arranges for her to attend an alternate school. Precious finds a way out of her traumatic daily life by by looking forward to attend Miss Blu Rain’s classes; gradually Miss Rain becomes her mentor. However her patience reaches the last straw when Mary deliberately drops the 3 day old Abdul, Precious’s second child by her father, the first one, a girl named Mongoloid who suffers from Down ’s syndrome. Precious finally fights back, gets her son and flees her home for good. Though life hands her out another devastating news, she is resolved to improve her life for herself and for her children and thus severs all ties with her mother; she plans to complete a GED test. Monique is the best thing in the movie. She tears up the screen and then in a climactic scene with Miss Weiss and Precious, tears our heart. She was worth the Oscar for the best supporting actress category at the 82nd Oscars. There is only one word for her – dynamite. The deglamourised Marih Carey as the social worker Miss Weiss was a revelation. Sidibe as Precious has won much appraisal no doubt but I found her too passive and too unwilling at times. Somehow her expressions and her movements were restrained. Precious is an emotional powerhouse, a triumph of bruising humour and bracing hope that deserves its place among the year’s best films.

21 Grams

21 grams is directed by Alejandro Gonzalez. The movie interweaves several plot lines, around the consequence of a tragic road accident. Sean Penn plays a critically ill mathematician, Naomi Watts a grief stricken mother and wife and Benicio del Toro a born again Christian ex convict. The movie is presented in a non linear arrangement where the lives of the characters are shown before and after the accident. Each of them has a past, present and a future story which is shown in non linear fragments, which all finally converge at the end of the story. The title 21 grams refers to the small loss of body weight, representing the departure of the soul, immediately following death, which is what Penn’s Paul Rivers soliloquises at the end. Jack Jordan played by del Toro is an ex convict who is caught in a hit and run accident involving Cristina peck’s husband and two girls which result in their death. Paul is critically ill who urgently needs a heart transplant and he is given the heart of Cristina’s husband. It is a complex narrative style and the plot is largely incomprehensible for the first 45 minutes. This unfamiliar and complicated way of telling a story is difficult to grasp immediately and requires a lot of attention on the part of the audience; thus this format is both the film’s blessing and curse. It is not exactly a Saturday night popcorn flick and requires the audience’s active participation. There is strong and raw emotional burden but that makes the movie even better. There is a strong performance by all three of the main cast and no one lets down. Penn and del Tore excellently portrayed the troubled souls but Watts as Cristina Peck brings home the damaged goods: a one time party girl to a wife and a mother whose life is damaged beyond repair enhances her status as a leading lady and she deserved both the nominations for the best supporting actress at the Oscars and at the BAFTA for the best actress category.

Boys Don't Cry

This is no new movie but I saw it a few months back, again thanks to this friend of mine, who gave me the movie. Boys Don’t Cry is based on the life of 21 year old Brandon Teena, who hailed from Lincoln, Nebraska. Well what was so special about Brandon you may ask, Brandon Teena was born Teena Brandon, a girl who ardently wanted to get a sex change operation. During her days as a pre-operative transsexual she pretended to be a ‘he’ by cropping her hair so short that her scalp almost showed which made it even more difficult to realize that this ‘he’ was no real ‘he’. However life at her hometown becomes troublesome when she starts going out with girls, impersonating a guy and gets found out and the townspeople do not take it too kindly. So Teena leaves Lincoln and moves to Falls City where she is immediately smitten by a karaoke singer Lana Tisdel played by Chloe Sevigny. The two start going out and Lana is intrigued by Brandon too as ‘he’ is no man that Lana has ever dated, with so much feelings and tenderness that Lana has never witnessed in any man before. But this little ‘love story’ do not have a happy ending as you will find out once you see the movie; its tough to hold back your tears when you see Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena, helpless and crying when she is at the police station, being interrogated. Hilary Swank was paid a mere 3,000$ which didn’t even cover her insurance. The film drew critical acclaim; it can be described as a sad song about a free spirit who tried to fly a little too close to the flame. Swank was a fresh face and was able to completely fit into the shoes of Brandon. She took her job seriously and paid attention to every minute detail, like the facial expressions and body language. Chloe Sevigny’s role was no easy job either; her acting was heartbreaking and faultless and this role as Lana Tisdel put her on the Hollywood map. Both women won nominations for the best actress in a leading role and best actress in a supporting role respectively for the Oscars and the golden globes alike; Swank went on to win both of them. It was a breakthrough role for both Swank and Sevigny and both delivered a mesmerizing and dexterous performance. The movie was a debut movie for director Kimberly Peirce and even though it was a small budget film, she delivered at her first go at the industry. The last frame of the movie shows that Lana is driving away from Falls City, with tears in her eyes, while in the background we hear Brandon reading out a letter that ‘he’ wrote to Lana. As the car disappears over the horizon, we hear Nina Persson singing The Bluest Eyes In Texas; the song makes it even more enchanting and we realize that we miss that like Lana we miss Brandon and hum along with Persson “The bluest eyes in Texas are haunting me tonight, Like the stars that fill the midnight sky, her memory fills my mind, Where did I go wrong? Did I wait too long? Or can I make it right? ”

Monster

I feel like a dork for not having watched Monster before watching North Country, I mean what the hell was I thinking!! Charlize Theron as Aileen Wurnos really freaked me out. Thank god I knew what the real Charlize Theron looked, otherwise I would have had a difficult time believing that it wasn’t the real Aileen Wurnos who was playing the lead. The movie is a biography of Aileen Wurnos, the first woman serial killer who was sentenced to death through lethal injection. Abandoned before birth by her father and then later by her mother, Aileen Wurnos became sexually active at the tender age of 13. She did not finish high school and later survived by prostituting. However after being viciously raped by one client, she poured all her hatred and aversion towards men by killing most of her later clients and then robbing them. Neglected by people most of her life and ignored because of her looks, she took a liking towards a young Selby Wall played by Cristina Ricci whom she meets at a gay bar, when Selby lets her sleep in her room and proclaims her to be beautiful. She becomes very protective of the young girl and both of them start living off Aileen’s prostitution earnings at a motel. Charlize Theron showed the world that she is here to stay and later becomes one of the highest paid actresses. She won the best actress Oscar and also the Golden Globe in 2003 for her portrayal of the unattractive, mentally ill Wurnos. For the role she put on 30 pounds and wore prosthetic teeth; her make up was a ‘complete transformation’. What Theron achieved wasn’t just a performance, it was an embodiment. Christina Ricci also received favourable reviews in her portrayal as Selby Wall. In her acceptance speech at the Oscars Theron hailed Ricci as the ‘unsung hero of the movie’. Theron’s uncanny resemblance with Wurnos did nauseate me at times, but that shouldnot stop you people from catching this Patty Jenkins creation.

Rachel Getting Married

I always knew that Anne Hathaway had great potential and with this movie I’m convinced that Hollywood is in safe hands at the hands of this breed of newcomers; and Anne Hathaway belongs to this new breed. If you think she was good in The Princess Diaries, in The Devil Wears Prada and even in the side role as Jake Gyllenhall’s wife in Brokeback Mountain, well she sure has achieved greatness in Rachel Getting Married. She has grown up, no more romantic flicks for this young prodigy, she’s all set to ride the waves, or well whatever that means. The story was what hit me, other than Hathaway’s acting that is. And at the end you just can’t help feeling sorry for her character. Kymberley or simply Kym is a recovering drug addict, portrayed by Hathaway who gets permission to go out of rehab for a few days to be a part of her elder sister, Rachel’s wedding played by Romemary Dewitt. This concept was very touching to me, because normally when people come out of rehab, their family donot want anything to do with them. So Kym comes back home and her father and sister is happy to see her. But that is when things start going downhill. I’m very sorry to say it, but I hated Rachel like anything, well basically I hated everyone in Kym’s family. They were so preoccupied with Rachel’s wedding that people forgot that here is a girl who is just out of rehab for a few days and who needs all the attention and care that she did not get for the last few years. Did they care about her feelings, what she thought, what she wanted to say, how hard it was for her to be with her family, how badly she wanted to feel accepted, how much she wanted to say that was sorry, but nobody would let her, no one was ready to listen to what she had to say. As we progress through the movie, we witness the tragedy that had encompassed Kym’s family when she was 16 which resulted in her parents’ divorce and her confinement to the rehab. Her mother pushes both her daughters away and her father tries hard to make Kym comfortable, make her feel accepted, but still falls short of her expectations. She wants someone to be there with her, for her but everyone misapprehends her. As a result she resolves to lying at times which acts as her defense mechanism at times; but in this hue and cry the real Kym gets lost. Need I say more about Hathaway’s performance? I think you’d better make up your own mind. She received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal as Kymberley . She is the reason why you should watch the movie in the first place. At 26, she has achieved that greatness which actors even at 45 find intricate to achieve. The movie is a triumph of ambience and Hathaway especially worked at a very high level. It goes deep into joy and pain of being human. The film’s greatest asset is the sense of cringing realism. Hathaway might have portrayed like a brat, screaming for attention, but we can’t help but feel for what she has been through. Her nervous laughter, edginess and quick temper with her need for attention and vulnerability is what keeps us hooked to the fag end.

Vicky, Cristina Barcelona

yup, another movie with penelope cruz in it, but as i said i have become a fan of her and this movie makes it even more worth it. as in my last review i had stated that cruz is the muse for almadovar; and now after yet another scarlett johansson starred woody allen movie, we can safely conclude that what cruz is to almadovar, johannson is to allen. i am a bit disappointed with Vicky, Cristina Barcelona; not the usual woody allen brilliance is achieved in this particuler work. the main plot is so common - two best friends who tell each other everything are incidentally on a vacation in Barcelona. the sub- plots are different and i would even say intriguing but still it just wasn't enough. i saw no great acting skills from anyone else other than cruz that is. where was javier bardem, winner of the best supporting actor oscar in 2008?where was scarlett johannson? and the most amazing thing was that out of all the main characters, cruz had the least amount of screen space, but she delivered her role to perfection. she was just impeccable as the genius artist who is always in love with her husband and hence is fiercely protective of him but as we all know all geniuses have their crazy stain within them which brings out her jealousy when she she her husband with other women even though they are divorced.her derangement comes out at certain times in the film and it is during these times that she swiftly moves back and forth from english to spanish ; when she blazes onscreen in the movie,she lets forth a dizzying combination of english and spanish and even if we don't understand what she is saying literally without the subtitles, emotionally we can understand everything that she says and that beneath her beauty lies a fierce spirit of not giving up.i just feel sad that there was not any more scope for cruz to show what more she could do with her facial expressions or to show that she is the one, people, she has arrived! i would say rebecca hall did a much better job than johansson or maybe thats just the way i feel. i would just ask you to watch the movie for penelope cruz's sake, she is the one! over all Vicky, Cristina Barcelona is a witty and ambiguous movie that's simultaneously intoxicating and suffused with sadness and doubt.

Volver

It is no wonder that Pedro Almadovar announced that Penelope Cruz was his muse; there could be no one else who would inspire Almadovar more than what Cruz does. I previously had not seen too much of Penelope, but after watching Volver, I became her fan. No one could have done it better. Though the subtitles kept me busy and there were times when I missed the facial expression on Cruz’s face, but she did one heck of a job. The mother-daughter relationship is beautifully portrayed here; between Raimunda and her mother and also between Raimunda and her daughter Paula. Tragedy encompasses the whole family which has brutal consequences, but inspite of all that they face, the women do not reject life, but accepts all the challenges that life throws towards them. To me it was Penelope Cruz all through the movie and it is no wonder that she bagged the nomination for the best actress at the 2008 Oscars. She was just…..I’m at a loss for adjectives. This magical tragicomic melodrama may be Almodovar's most restrained work to date, but it still features his trademarks: a strong attention to color and detail, a celebration of the trials and tribulations of women. The lovely Penelope Cruz has shone more brightly than ever as she does here. I realize that it is a hard movie to lay your hands on, but if you do, please do not let it go, because you would be a total idiot if you did not watch this great piece of art.