About a month ago, during my introduction class to my new graduate studies program we had a discussion about love. The class being taught by a doctor of philosophy created a very real and open debate about what love is? What true love is? If love is passion or comfort? What soul mates are? Question, after question about the what is so constantly considered the essence of life. But each question brought no solid answer, no scientific proof, no declared formula. There was a consensus that love was painful and that romantic love is not the only type that exists.
During this discussion, I was struck with an idea about how love is represented in our media. More importantly how first love, passionate love, romantic love is represented. This idea came to mind because the night before I had seen Dear John. I have seen three of the five thus far released Nicholas Sparks movies, the ever popular Notebook, the heartbreaking musically driven Walk to Remember and the heart wrenching Dear John. In that moment I had a thought about how when watching those movies, any of them about love from the perspective of the male character was a different experience than watching/ reading things like Twilight or The Broken Hearts Club of Buenos Aires. The novels are about love, the movies are about love. They are about a romantic relationship but is there something to be said about the fact that seems that from a woman's perspective the love interest, the male is an ideal. He is a body of perfection, yes there is something underlying about him. Maybe something dark, or troubling but in general there is a awing sense of perfection. While when looking at the love in Nicholas Sparks work you see that the love interest isn't so much ideal but rather a bundle of crazy imperfection that makes her inescapable. It's a very different feel of characters when you really study it, but to delve further into this in all these tales of love it's never just about the couple. There is family and friends involved, relationships outside of the main relationship that somehow affect the characters by making them stronger, weaker, more complete.
I explain all this because that was the night that I decided I needed to read a Nicholas Sparks novel. Because here I was comparing it to other movies based on books, but I had read those books. A movie is a visual representation of what the book was, but it is by no means a replica of the voice of the author. The experience of reading the original story is never the same as watching how a team of people envisioned the story. Don't get me wrong, I love it when movies are made out of my favorite books. Love it. Because it's a different variation of a story I already love, but I love both stories as different parts of the same cake. That night the decision was made and then I spent a few weeks trying to decide which book I wanted to read, I decided that I would read The Last Song before it came out on the big screen next week. It's a movie that I was hoping to see anyway, so added bonus figuring out if I liked the story.
Before starting the novel I already knew that Nicholas Sparks might be well considered the Thomas Kinkade of love story novels. What does this mean? Thomas Kinkade has been described to me as a painter who figured out a way to do light paintings really well and just keeps doing that over and over again. It doesn't make his paintings any more or less wonderful to look at, it's just a techinque really. Nicholas Sparks has found a way to craft a story, I knew there was going to be a passionate love and I knew there was going to be a gut wrenching saddness. It's just the story he writes, at least that I have experience with, and he does it well so I knew what to expect.
An addict of the written word isn't even enough of a description for my distinct problem with starting a book and not being able to put it down. I started The Last Song last night at 1 AM and I finished it this morning at 10 AM. I cried from the hours of about 6AM to 9 AM for the end of the story. Around chapter 4, I knew things were going to sad in the end though I couldn't decide what the saddness was going to be I did make a deal with the book. I could take it if it was one character, I wouldn't be able to take it if it was a different character. I really don't want to give to much away, but it turns out that it was just as hard with the character I had decided I would be ok with. It wasn't a story that hooked me because I needed to know what was going to happen, I always sort of knew how it was going to end. It was a story that keep me engaged because the characters were like friends with a really good story to tell. I realized that love stories are not about the complex writing or the outstanding narrative. They are about the passion, the emotion, the feeling that drives a reader to be engaged and involved. Last Song does not disappoint, it was everything I expected but that's what also made it so comfortable and great. I can't wait to see the movie, even though now I cry even at the trailer that I've watched twice today. I know I'm going to be hiding in the back of theatre just sobbing at the end but hey sometimes we need a good cry, right?
Last Song Trailer!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
I would know you anywhere!
At this point, I've actually seen Alice in Wonderland twice. Once in 3-D at the midnight showing and once in regular old 2-D about five days later. I was going to post about it right after seeing the movie, but I knew I was going to see it a second time and really wanted to finish forming an opinion about the film itself. So after seeing it twice I decided a few things: 1) Disney 3-D is pretty cool, though I am still against the hype. 2) I really liked the movie. 3) Johnny Depp really makes his young co-stars shine on screen.
I knew I was going to have to see it in 3-D, because that's what everyone was talking about because it's the first big movie to come out in 3-D since Avatar made so much money. I've seen a few 3-D films from the old cowboy movies of the 1940s to megablockbuster Avatar, but seriously Disney does it the best. I still don't think it should be an every movie thing, or even advertised as this revolution of a film experience because its not really. Any movie with a great script, a big enough screen and some captivating performances can draw you in ten times better than a tree branch being in your face. With Alice, even when I was watching the 3-D film I wanted to watch it on a regular screen. I knew that the colors, the vivid characters conversations, the playfulness of the movie would not be lost just because I couldn't see certain things pop out. But I did think that the 3-D was better done than even Avatar that was techinically filmed in partial 3-D technology. The interesting thing about Alice is that Tim Burton filmed old school way adn reformatted for the new verison, personally I think I might like that way better but its too early to tell yet.
The movie itself had a story that brought to life I think what many of the people I know are going through today. A real mirror of society almost, funny enough that's what the original Alice did back in 1865 England too. But watching it and listening to the issues that were brought to life on screen, screamed of the half foot in and half foot out moment of many. Alice, a nineteen year old who is pressured into societal constraints breaks free only to not know what real path to take in Wonderland. Actually she spends a lot of the movie convinced she is the wrong Alice, even though the creatures of Wonderland know better they let her be about it. Its a journey to self- discovery, falling down the rabbit hole was a push to movement to finding answers. Recently I did some research on how the art of the depression from photographs, music and film were trying to get society basically just moving again. I was struck by how in Alice everything was about making her move, making her discover, make her understand. Interestingly enough the movie ended with business proposals, ideas of expanding and exploring the real world. Though some of the dialogue was hard to understand in sections, it was delightful. My favorite moment being between Hatter and Alice about her muchness. It was a great thought, having that gumption that part of you that believes in who you are and what you want and getting it. Even if the story is a classic age-old tale that has been told several times and in many movies and countless books, it's something that just never gets old. Also how many times do you get to see it come alive with a floating cat and mad hatter, or an obnoxious queen with an over-sized head? Tim Burton apparently agrees with my take of the film according to Tim Burton in an interview with D23:
What do you like about this version of the story?
What I like about this is that it's more of a personal journey. These are the things that are actually the most important in life. That moment where you make that important choice. Maybe it happens to everybody. Maybe it doesn't. Maybe it does a couple of different times in your life, where you learn something, you grow. You know, it's like you've got two sides of yourself in conflict. Emotionally conflicted. And then, when you make that personal growth, it's quite an amazing thing. Quite a strong thing. It's reconciling within yourself who you are, becoming the person you're going to be, a human being. It sounds light, but it's important.
My last point is that Johnny Depp at this point is such a wonderful actor. Such a powerful presence on screen that you would think that he would overpower everyone else especially some of the young actors he shares the silver screen with but he doesn't. As I really believed in Alice, as Alice I thought about this about how this girl that I had never before was just charming at this character. She really fit into the wonderland, confused and lost when she had to be and brave and independent when the time came. I am definitely going to keep an eye out for Mia Wasikowska. The evidence, of the young Freddie Highmore (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland) suggests that Mia might be up and coming.
Truthfully, I think everyone should enjoy Alice in her Underland and have fun with it. Maybe even read the books when you get the chance, I know I'm going to take a crack at them soon.
I knew I was going to have to see it in 3-D, because that's what everyone was talking about because it's the first big movie to come out in 3-D since Avatar made so much money. I've seen a few 3-D films from the old cowboy movies of the 1940s to megablockbuster Avatar, but seriously Disney does it the best. I still don't think it should be an every movie thing, or even advertised as this revolution of a film experience because its not really. Any movie with a great script, a big enough screen and some captivating performances can draw you in ten times better than a tree branch being in your face. With Alice, even when I was watching the 3-D film I wanted to watch it on a regular screen. I knew that the colors, the vivid characters conversations, the playfulness of the movie would not be lost just because I couldn't see certain things pop out. But I did think that the 3-D was better done than even Avatar that was techinically filmed in partial 3-D technology. The interesting thing about Alice is that Tim Burton filmed old school way adn reformatted for the new verison, personally I think I might like that way better but its too early to tell yet.
The movie itself had a story that brought to life I think what many of the people I know are going through today. A real mirror of society almost, funny enough that's what the original Alice did back in 1865 England too. But watching it and listening to the issues that were brought to life on screen, screamed of the half foot in and half foot out moment of many. Alice, a nineteen year old who is pressured into societal constraints breaks free only to not know what real path to take in Wonderland. Actually she spends a lot of the movie convinced she is the wrong Alice, even though the creatures of Wonderland know better they let her be about it. Its a journey to self- discovery, falling down the rabbit hole was a push to movement to finding answers. Recently I did some research on how the art of the depression from photographs, music and film were trying to get society basically just moving again. I was struck by how in Alice everything was about making her move, making her discover, make her understand. Interestingly enough the movie ended with business proposals, ideas of expanding and exploring the real world. Though some of the dialogue was hard to understand in sections, it was delightful. My favorite moment being between Hatter and Alice about her muchness. It was a great thought, having that gumption that part of you that believes in who you are and what you want and getting it. Even if the story is a classic age-old tale that has been told several times and in many movies and countless books, it's something that just never gets old. Also how many times do you get to see it come alive with a floating cat and mad hatter, or an obnoxious queen with an over-sized head? Tim Burton apparently agrees with my take of the film according to Tim Burton in an interview with D23:
What do you like about this version of the story?
What I like about this is that it's more of a personal journey. These are the things that are actually the most important in life. That moment where you make that important choice. Maybe it happens to everybody. Maybe it doesn't. Maybe it does a couple of different times in your life, where you learn something, you grow. You know, it's like you've got two sides of yourself in conflict. Emotionally conflicted. And then, when you make that personal growth, it's quite an amazing thing. Quite a strong thing. It's reconciling within yourself who you are, becoming the person you're going to be, a human being. It sounds light, but it's important.
My last point is that Johnny Depp at this point is such a wonderful actor. Such a powerful presence on screen that you would think that he would overpower everyone else especially some of the young actors he shares the silver screen with but he doesn't. As I really believed in Alice, as Alice I thought about this about how this girl that I had never before was just charming at this character. She really fit into the wonderland, confused and lost when she had to be and brave and independent when the time came. I am definitely going to keep an eye out for Mia Wasikowska. The evidence, of the young Freddie Highmore (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland) suggests that Mia might be up and coming.
Truthfully, I think everyone should enjoy Alice in her Underland and have fun with it. Maybe even read the books when you get the chance, I know I'm going to take a crack at them soon.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Cue the singing child
This past week, after playing trivia at our local Friday's a few of my friends bribed me into seeing the Crazies. I say bribe because, I'm not a scary movie person. It's not that they scare me, quite the contrary they bore me. The thing about scary movies is that they have all become so incredibly formulaic that it's hard not to already know what's happen when you're the type of movie watcher that I am. Though one could argue that all movies have to some extent become formulaic, as I guessed almost the entire plot of Shutter Island within the first ten minutes too. ((That was a sad disappointment, though the acting of that film is still worth the watch)). But the point is that scary movies formula is just not my cup of tea, I don't care for the high pierced music that signals my heart to beat faster or for the unnerving moment when a little girl starts singing a nursery rhyme. I'm not a huge fan of quick editing cuts telling me to feel nervous, or dim lighting to warn me that someone is going to die. But that's just me, I know plenty of people that don't like the dramas that I so thrive on.
But back to the movie at hand, The Crazies a bribe to go to a movie I clearly wouldn't have ever seen without someone making me. Starting with my favorite part of the movie going experience, I automatically noticed that even all the trailers were for up and coming horror films. The only one that really caught my eye was one that started in a diner, with a young man sitting at a booth which I automatically recognized as Kellan Lutz. I surprised even myself for knowing who the shadowy figure was on the screen but I definitely paid more attention to the trailer itself just because I'm a fan-girl of his. Nightmare on Elm Street is a movie I might invest in and I'm not sure if it's because I support Kellan Lutz or because the trailer actually intrigued me. On a factoid note about the movie itself, Nightmare on Elm Street is a remake of the very first film that Johnny Depp was in, ever. It was the movie that launch a career that has given us such wonderful films as Chocolat, Pirates, Benny and Joon and this weekend's Alice in Wonderland. So if that's saying anything about the potential of the film itself, I might as well possibly check it out!
I don't remember what else was promoted before the Crazies started but once the movie started I was set to dissect it. Before entering the theater this is what I knew about the movie: the title, the poster had a pitchfork and was dark, the trailer had screaming and I was pretty sure it was set in some rural town. That was it, I couldn't tell you who was in it or what I thought it was about or anything else. The movie started and I laughed as cue the vast wheat fields that start every horror film known to man. I'm convinced that the reason I might be afraid of large open spaces of Middle America is because that's what horror films have taught me to fear. The film started with a military styled radar screen that made me think for about five minutes that maybe the movie itself was about aliens. That idea didn't last as in the opening sequence no one died by the hands of some unknown mystery killer. Someone did indeed die, but by the hands of the town's sheriff. That little sequence of events was enough to tell me that this movie was not about a crazy killer, it wasn't some subversive message about rebellious teenagers meeting their demises. No this movie was in literary terms going to be a story of man vs. man, basically. I mean really we could debate that it was a man vs. machine but that would side track me even more than usual.
I don't want to give away too much of the plot itself, even though I fear I might already done so. But in short even though I could guess where the plot was going, the movie revealed itself half way through anyway. So then I caught myself wandering what the point of the film itself was, the journey? The fight? I'm still unclear what the real purpose was, as anyone who sees it might agree with. But at the end I didn't hate it, and I was distrubed by it and I wouldn't not maybe see it again. I enjoyed the film for what it was, I enjoyed the different twist of it not being just a lunatic killer with some vegeance. I liked the fact that it was possibly trying to make a social statement of some sort. I still correctly bet that someone wouldn't die with one of my friends who was convinced that the character would. I still hated the part where classic empty street with one young woman on a bike came out singing. I still got a good laugh out of the jumping and shrieking of the audience that was so involved in the film that they reacted when the music and the lights told them too. But all and in all, I might start giving some scary/ horror films a chance again.
But back to the movie at hand, The Crazies a bribe to go to a movie I clearly wouldn't have ever seen without someone making me. Starting with my favorite part of the movie going experience, I automatically noticed that even all the trailers were for up and coming horror films. The only one that really caught my eye was one that started in a diner, with a young man sitting at a booth which I automatically recognized as Kellan Lutz. I surprised even myself for knowing who the shadowy figure was on the screen but I definitely paid more attention to the trailer itself just because I'm a fan-girl of his. Nightmare on Elm Street is a movie I might invest in and I'm not sure if it's because I support Kellan Lutz or because the trailer actually intrigued me. On a factoid note about the movie itself, Nightmare on Elm Street is a remake of the very first film that Johnny Depp was in, ever. It was the movie that launch a career that has given us such wonderful films as Chocolat, Pirates, Benny and Joon and this weekend's Alice in Wonderland. So if that's saying anything about the potential of the film itself, I might as well possibly check it out!
I don't remember what else was promoted before the Crazies started but once the movie started I was set to dissect it. Before entering the theater this is what I knew about the movie: the title, the poster had a pitchfork and was dark, the trailer had screaming and I was pretty sure it was set in some rural town. That was it, I couldn't tell you who was in it or what I thought it was about or anything else. The movie started and I laughed as cue the vast wheat fields that start every horror film known to man. I'm convinced that the reason I might be afraid of large open spaces of Middle America is because that's what horror films have taught me to fear. The film started with a military styled radar screen that made me think for about five minutes that maybe the movie itself was about aliens. That idea didn't last as in the opening sequence no one died by the hands of some unknown mystery killer. Someone did indeed die, but by the hands of the town's sheriff. That little sequence of events was enough to tell me that this movie was not about a crazy killer, it wasn't some subversive message about rebellious teenagers meeting their demises. No this movie was in literary terms going to be a story of man vs. man, basically. I mean really we could debate that it was a man vs. machine but that would side track me even more than usual.
I don't want to give away too much of the plot itself, even though I fear I might already done so. But in short even though I could guess where the plot was going, the movie revealed itself half way through anyway. So then I caught myself wandering what the point of the film itself was, the journey? The fight? I'm still unclear what the real purpose was, as anyone who sees it might agree with. But at the end I didn't hate it, and I was distrubed by it and I wouldn't not maybe see it again. I enjoyed the film for what it was, I enjoyed the different twist of it not being just a lunatic killer with some vegeance. I liked the fact that it was possibly trying to make a social statement of some sort. I still correctly bet that someone wouldn't die with one of my friends who was convinced that the character would. I still hated the part where classic empty street with one young woman on a bike came out singing. I still got a good laugh out of the jumping and shrieking of the audience that was so involved in the film that they reacted when the music and the lights told them too. But all and in all, I might start giving some scary/ horror films a chance again.
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