Recent Movie Viewings

Ok, so about those movies I mentioned. The first was another Oscar movie – Across the Universe. Now, I’m definitely not a Beatles fan. At all. But the obnoxiousness of this movie didn’t come from the fact that the songs were Beatles music. It came from the fact that people randomly broke into song for no apparent reason. It got pretty annoying. The storyline is pretty unoriginal, the acting is ok, but I think the mass appeal of this movie came from rabid Beatles fans looking for all the hidden references. Not being a Beatles fan I probably missed most of them. But the minute I heard the guy’s name was Jude I knew I was going to hear “Hey, Jude” at some point. I was not disappointed. And the girl’s name was Lucy. It goes on and on. I suppose that was the point of this movie – an homage to all things John, Paul, Ringo, and George. But really, it got old.

The second film was The Secret. It’s a remake of a Japanese film and I don’t think it was ever released in the US. I found it under it’s original name Si J’etais toi – meaning “if I were you.” (Ah, the conditional tense. How I miss you, French grammar...) It’s an interesting plot concept – a mother and daughter get into a car accident and while in the ER somehow the mother’s soul gets transported into the daughter’s body. The mother’s body dies. It takes a bit for the daughter (well, the mother in the daughter’s body) to convince the dad/husband that she isn’t crazy. But it causes a lot of problems in their relationship. Obviously. The husband decides that it’s best for them to keep this a secret and the mother should continue to live their daughter’s life in case the daughter’s soul returns at some point. They then discover they really didn’t know their daughter at all. It’s kind of a supernaturally themed film, but not to the point where you must completely suspend reality.

I also watched La Vie En Rose. Once again, a pretty long movie at 2 hours and 15 minutes. But I didn’t mind since this was one I wanted to watch. Having taken French throughout high school and college I knew who Edith Piaf was. I wasn’t aware of the level of crappiness her life included. I knew of her boozing, drug addicted, abrasive personality thing. No idea about the other stuff. Marion Cotillard did an outstanding job portraying a young Edith at 20 as well as a quickly fading Edith near her death. And the voice. That voice is one of a kind. One of the few Oscar films I’ve liked lately.

One more to go – Into the Wild arrived today – and then I’ll do an overall recap of my Oscar film viewing experience.

Today we went to the theater and saw House Bunny. There are many similarities to both Legally Blonde and Sydney White. So while not entirely an original concept, it's still a cute and enjoyable comedy. Although I'm still not sure how one of the "loser sorority" girls is hugely pregnant for almost the whole movie since they supposedly don't know how to talk to guys... but whatever. Suspension of belief is needed I guess. Both Adam and I were amazed by the number of older audience members, but I guess Friday's are "senior day" at the theater...