Category: Drama

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Drama Movie Reviews

Up In The Air – What’s The Point?

Being someone who had spent quite a good number of years traveling overseas for work, I can relate to the feeling of frequently going through the airport security, the ‘good’ life of living on travel expenses clocking in mileages and points, living on a suitcase for most part of the year, not having a home called home, the at times loneliness, and etc.  I too have a similar observation using suitcase as a metaphor, similar to George Clooney’s main character’s thought on a backpack.  Except, mine is realer than his.  Back then, my belongings at ‘home’ were constantly on a move, from one friend’s storeroom to another.  It was a hassle, painfully tedious to relocate my belongings.  At some point, I had to hire a mid size lorry to move my stuffs.  At that time, I had this concept of how good it would be to have only one suitcase to house all that I need.  In a way, I did.  Inside my suitcase, there was a pair of mini-speakers, my CD player, and a few of my favorite CDs (now I would just need a phone that comes with thousands of tracks!), a few good books to read again and again (“If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler” and “Romeo and Juliet” anyone?), my swimming gears, basic clothing and necessities, a camera, a diary, and that was all I need.

I often think that it is hard to make a film out of corporate life.  Because it is not as entertaining compares to the career of a cop or a doctor or a lawyer.  In that sense, I think “Up In the Air” has done a pretty good job on portraying a glimpse of what corporate life is like (“I type with a purpose” is perhaps one of the best lines).  The few frames of image on the process flowchart was enough to give some of us a really good laugh.  Some of the technicalities of downsizing companies, in my opinion, add more depth to the drama.  I wish there are more gems like these moments.  But like I said, corporate life is really not that entertaining to watch.  Neither is loneliness.

Running in parallel of the main storyline is the story of romance and family.  The film could have been more intense in terms of the exploration of how living alone affects family and love life.  Then again, “Up In The Air” is light enough to entertain, yet giving some pointers for self-reflection.  I enjoy watching the acting of the three main characters.  And George Clooney?  Well, I have always been a fan.

To borrow a line from the movie to close this entry: What’s the point?  Looking back, what’s the point with the frequent traveling, living up in the air?

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Drama Movie Reviews

Bright Star – For The Love Of Poems …

If you love art-house type of movies, especially on the topic of poetry, you may find the highly acclaimed “Bright Star” a movie worth checking out.  A story based on the life of the poet John Keats and his romantic relationship with Fanny Brawne, set in the year 1818.  The drama can be intense, and the words from Keats’s poems and letters are interjected naturally into the some parts of the scripts.  It may take some time to understand how the roles relate to one another (you know how it is like to start reading a novel only found yourself hopelessly lost on the first chapter?), but patience pays off for this 2 hours long movie.  It shows that the historical background is well researched.  And the scripts are intelligently written with subtle cues that may please those who pay attention to the words.  I have to admit that it is hard to digest, or even to appreciate the words of the poems at first listen.  Those who come from English Literature background may be in a better position than me.  Occasionally, I read Shakespeare’s works.  But still, poems require time to appreciate.  Certainly not in a duration of merely 2 hours.

And because “Bright Star” is based on a true story, there is always one camp of audience who wishes the story to be resolved a different way and another camp who critics on the accuracy of the research effort.  Also, the pace of “Bright Star” can be slow and the overall mood can be depressing, at times painful even to watch.  To that extend, it may not be a film for everybody.  As for me, after watching “Bright Star”, I did some research on the life and work of John Keats.  His poems seem beautiful.  You too should check them out.

Below is “Bright Star”, the poem, as found in Wikipedia.

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art —
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors —
No — yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever — or else swoon to death.

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Drama Movie Reviews

An Education – A Beautifully Made British Production, Witty And Humorous

The main reason of I picking the film “An Education” was to relive the memory of the university that I studied in.  Of course, having an aggregated score as high as “Avatar” is a pleasant bonus.  A screenplay written by Nick Hornby is also a pleasant surprise.  It is a story based on the true memoir of a British journalist Lynn Barber who has studied English Language and Literature at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford.

Set in the 1960s, 16 years old Jenny – played by the talented Carey Mulligan – has set her goal to study in Oxford, supported by her school and her family.  Along comes David, a charming and much older man, who is more than willing to show Jenny a different kind of education – one that is as real as life itself.  As Jenny confronts the contrast of the vividness of real life and the boredom of school and university – which I am certain all of us do at some points in our lives – and asks what the point of studying is and what the point of the education system is, Jenny is ready to throw her goal of Oxford away and to walk into the life of David.

Nick Hornby is known for his wit and humor.  I have always enjoy reading the dialogues of his novels.  Under his script, the character Jenny has come alive as someone who is intelligent, innocent, and yet have the bravery of facing the reality.  “An Education” is filled with music – a common trademark of Nick Nornby’s works.  The cinematography of the 1960s UK and Paris is beautiful.  I enjoy every bit of the film.

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Drama Foreign Movie Reviews

Bodyguards And Assassins – One Shouldn’t Be Missed This Year, To Me

On the same day we were supposed to meet with our friend on his birthday to watch this film, I was reading “Superfreakonomics” in the morning.  In this new chapter, it says we often complain about how the old days are better, but more often so it is not the case.  After the film, I thought: What if web conferencing was a reality in 1905?  For the 1 hour meeting Sun Yat-sen has with the revolutionists in Hong kong, so many people are willing to put their lives on the front line to make it happens.  Apparently, I was not the only one who thinks that way after the show.

“Bodyguards and Assassins” has a few good surprises to me.  Cynthia and I were supposed to give it a miss as we were more interested in procuring the tickets for “Avatar”.  Not surprisingly, “Avatar” is full house all the way till Christmas and beyond.  Instead, TK picked “Bodyguards and Assassins”.  The storyline is epic, the costumes in the backdrop of 1905 Hong Kong are convincingly authentic, the acting quality of the huge team of Chinese stars is rock solid, and the film talks to me at the emotional level.  So thank you TK for booking this for us!

I have spent a good number of years studying Chinese history when I was in Hong Kong.  And I was holding my breath on what a Hong Kong and China production going to do with Sun Yat-sen, father of the modern China, also co-founder of Kuomintang (KMT) – a political party that eventually established itself in Taiwan after a fallout with the Communist Party of China.  Given the history and tension between China and Taiwan with a story set in a British ex-colony Hong Kong, how far would “Bodyguards and Assassins” push the political boundary?

It turns out to be one story that recounts the few days of logistic preparation prior to the meeting of Dr. Sun and the revolutionists in Hong Kong.  It is a revolution in the making against the Qing Dynasty.  The story ends on the day the meeting has ended.  And I am glad that the story manages not to displease the authorities of either straits.  It is good to be reminded – as a Chinese – how far we have endured in the last century, how much we have progressed in the last century.  A collapse of a Dynasty, the invasion of the Japanese, the colonization by the Western countries, and look where China is today.

Back to the film, as nowhere it is mentioned that the story is based on true characters, I have no basis to verify if these are historical events.  Having said that, the characters are very much alive.  Each individual is portrayed as a genuinely good person, with a future.  And that is why “Bodyguards and Assassins” is so hard to watch.  No one wants to see good people get hurt.  I think Cynthia was tearing all the way.

I get it.  Revolution is painful, very painful.

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Drama Foreign Movie Reviews

Don’t Look Back (Ne Te Retourne Pas) – An Ending Worths The Wait

Poster version 1

An European film staring Sophie Marceau and Monica Bullucci?  No way I am going to miss it.  At the opening of the movie, TK and Cynthia simultaneously from my right and left asked if “Don’t Look Back” is a horror show.  Uh-oh.  One tiny detail I have not researched, prior to the booking of the tickets.  As the film got weirder and weirder, I really thought I have picked a horror show acutely aware of every small movements of the two next to me.  As though I was prepared for them to suddenly scream or jump out of their seats.  And then ban me [again] for making decision on which film to watch.

And the second version of the poster

Fortunately, “Don’t Look Back” is not a horror movie, though I could imagine that it could be quite a horrible experience for someone like the main character to have misplaced memories, knowing faces but not recognizing them.  Sophie Marceau and Monica Bullucci both played the same character Jeanne.  At some point, I thought I was watching Niki Sanders from the television series Heroes.  Or watching a ghost movie.  I wouldn’t go too much into the story here.  It is one woman’s psychological suffering and it is one woman’s desire to discover the 8 years of missing childhood memory.  It is an art house type of movie.  And the pace can be slow.  Because the surrounding environments and the faces of the same character change all the time, it could be rather strange and confusing to watch.  Characters at times switch from adult to child form and vice versa, rooms get distorted and elongated to signify the change in perspective from the eyes of an adult to a child, scenes have subtle meanings that perhaps make sense to some towards the end.  I think there are quite a few ways to interpret this movie, at least amongst the three of us.  It is a movie that certainly has re-watch value.

I thought both Sophie Marceau and Monica Bullucci have acted well in “Dont’ Look Back”.  Sophie’s psychological suffering and Monica’s invulnerability.  Pairing them up in the same movie is a nice treat for especially fans of both European actresses.

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Drama Movie Reviews

The Informant! – Still Can’t Pinpoint What Is Missing

A new move by Matt Damon

“So, do you like this movie?” asked I as the credits rolled.  Cynthia nodded, “It is entertaining.  Don’t you like this move [that I pick]?”

“…”

Matt Damon’s acting is convincing, no doubt.  I did a little research on this movie that is based on a non-fiction written by journalist Kurt Eichenwald, which in turn based on true events that happened around the lysine price-fixing conspiracy.  Matt Damon plays the whistle-blower Mark Whitacre.  Fortune 500 company Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and FBI were also involved in this conspiracy.  It is white collar crime, and the director Steven Soderbergh has certainly injected a similar level of dark comedy in “The Informant!” – much like my favorite “Traffic” and the “Ocean” trilogy.

According to my little research after I returned home, bipolar disorder – a mood disorder portrayed by Matt Damon’s character – does not seem to mean that the patient turns into an uncontrollable liar, a syndrome seems to imply by the film.  The book appears to focus on the center character Mark Whitacre ‘s meltdown and bizarre behavior resulting from the pressures of working undercover for the FBI.  And subsequently suffered from depression and have attempted suicide.  That would have made a lot of sense.  A deeper linkage to the film “The Firm” as mentioned in the book would also be nice.  The end of the book examines the unfairly long nine years sentence Mark Whitacre received – disagreed by the author of the book as well as several FBI agents.  That too would have been a better resolution than rounding up the film with yet another lie.

That, of course, is just my opinion.  Something doesn’t gel, and I still can’t pinpoint what it is.  Matt Damon, though.  I have to say he is one great actor.

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Drama Movie Reviews Romance

Love Happens, A Misleading Title?

A mismatch of expectation?

Do bloggers know no bounds in what they write?  Do I know no bounds in what I write?  I am not sure if fellow bloggers have faced a similar situation.  At times, in a friendly catching up occasion, my friend would suddenly turn to me and ask, “You wouldn’t put that into your blog, would you?”  The dilemma of wanting some friends of mine to know – or not – that I have a website.

Of course I know the boundary.  And so, Mr. TK, if you are reading this, our little episode is safe with me.  Though we will likely to laugh over this for years to come.  And until I do the same thing you did, then we would laugh at each other for years to come.

Our band’s drummer wanted to watch that Michael Jackson film.  So I mobilized the Movie Review Squad in the morning.  TK suggested “The Hurt Locker”, a war film (which I promise to loop in another friend, Ng,  to watch).  Cynthia suggested “Love Happens”.  If it was up to me, I would love to pick “My Girlfriend Is An Agent”.  I love watching girls kicking asses.  In retrospect, I thought “Love Happens” is “NewYork, I Love You”.  Since all of us seemed happy about “Love Happens”, “Love Happens” it was.  (Still quite amazed that TK could decipher my morning SMS: Love happens today or tomorrow?)

I think the movie title “Love Happens” is misleading.  If it was to be branded not as a romance movie, it would have attracted lesser criticism just on the title itself.  I walked into the theater thinking it was another show, so obviously, I have little expectation on the outcome.  If we take away the notion of romance, and look at Jennifer Aniston’s role as helping Dr. Burke Ryan (played by the talented Aaron Eckart) – together with everyone in the workshop of how-to-get-over-the-loss-of-your-loved-ones hosted by Ryan – to come to terms with the loss of his wife, it is quite a decent movie to watch.  Some scenes are emotional.  Some are somewhat inspiriting (like taking the ‘stairs’ to see things in a different perspective).  The little word games Eckart and Aniston played onscreen makes the film interesting (to be honest, I know none of the three English words they use).  Cynthia and I have been a big fan of Aaron Eckart since the days of “Thank You For Smoking”.  And acting-wise, I think he delivers.

It is unrealistic – in my opinion – to expect a man to fall madly in love with another woman before he has even come to terms with the loss of his beloved partner three years ago on an accident that he blames himself upon.  In as such, the lack of the elements of romance or the presence of a glimpse of what is to come is only appropriate.  Unfortunately, the movie title and the excerpts suggest that “Love Happens” is a romance story.  Personally, I would prefer the filmmakers to use the title of “Brand New Day”, a variation of what the working title was.

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Drama Foreign Movie Reviews

Tokyo Sonata – On Starting Over

Every Family Has Its Secrets ...

Whether or not you would like “Tokyo Sonata” depends on (a) how much you like the picture house type of movie, (b) how curious are you on the modern Japanese culture, and (c) how much you can relate to the story.  Ironically, I could not persuade my Japanese friend whom we met for a dinner to watch this Japanese show.  Uh-oh.  On paper, “Tokyo Sonata” has won 8 awards including Cannes Film Festival.  What about on screen?

Behind closed doors, each family member is keeping a secret from one another.  A younger son who doesn’t seem to fit in with his school and wishes to learn playing the piano instead, an older son who is tired of distributing pamphlets in the wee hours for a living and wishes to find meaning in life by doing something totally different, a father who is retrenched from his post as the director of administration and is finding it hard to come to terms with the reality, and a mother who is struggling with this dysfunctional family and is dreaming of a life of the otherwise.

It is a depressing movie to watch.  I have not lived in Japan yet but I can imagine the long recession must have affected Japan, from what I have read.  I feel for these characters.  Each day is a struggle.  Just how hard it is to live a lie every day – in the name of the tradition – and yet, each character exhibits his share of integrity in his own way.

“Tokyo Sonata” is a slow paced movie attending to the very detail of tradition and human interaction.  I could almost imagine watching the entire movie as a sonata, with a very slow and lengthy middle section.  But the last part of the movie is phenomenal.  The story development of each character takes a dramatic turn and converges to a theme of – what I would perceive as – starting over.

Great acting, it is.  And the ending bits well worth the 2 hours of waiting, to me.

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Drama Foreign Movie Reviews

Inglourious Basterds – Can A Film End The War?

Inglourious Bastards

The script of “Inglourious Basterds” took Quentin Tarantino more than a decade to complete.  It shows.  Of his films I have watched, I am much intrigued by the quality of the story development of “Inglourious Besterds”.  It watched like reading a masterpiece story.  Divided into 5 chapters, the Nazi hunts the Jews, the American ‘commandos’ infiltrate the Nazi occupied Parisian territory, and the Jews’ uprising against the Nazi – a spaghetti like storyline told in a humorous, dramatic, and at times gruesome manner.  So, will the Jew or the American or even the German end the World War II?  The ending could be more than what you would expect.

Quentin Tarantino’s signature is all over “Inglourious Basterds”.  The music, the treatment to the scene down to the frame by frame level, and the orchestration of a team of talented European actors and actresses whom some of them are in their own rights a director and a producer.  Some metaphors are cleverly repeated cross the chapters.  Such as the interrogation and negotiation.  Some metaphors are linked to well known stories of the past.  I can understand how some may cringed at the scene of the gruesome execution.  However, I think “Inglourious Basterds” is a lot milder compares to some of Quentin Tarantino’s previous works.  In fact, it is so refined that some scenes are just beautiful to watch, however tragic they may be.

I read that Quentin Tarantino took some time to find the ending to this ‘best writing he has ever done’.  I am unsure if it is the perfect ending to the script, or I in fact like the ending.  Perhaps, I just didn’t want the film to end.  Quentin Tarantino is so talented.  He is a legend no less.

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Drama Foreign Movie Reviews Romance

Coco Before Chanel – Those Deep Black Eyes That Say More Than Words

Audrey Tautou's New Film Coco

I knew I shouldn’t trust The Straits Times’s review, especially one written by Ong Sor Fern.  She is still writing reviews for our local paper, after all these years.  Amazing (in a not so good way).  I haven’t read her review prior to watching the movie.  Cynthia did and has decided to give “Coco Before Chanel (Coco Avant Chanel)” a skip.  One of my long time reader whom I have met once to help him choosing a Nikon camera contacted me if we wished to go for a Audrey Tautou movie outing.  I warned him of The Straits Times’s review.  He said he does not trust what some of the reviews say.  Neither does my buddy Mr. TK.

So, three men headed to Plaza Singapura and watched “Coco Before Chanel”.  It was a man’s day out.  We shared dessert, popcorn, and drinks, soaked in a shopping mall that was so full smoking hot girls in sexy outfits.  Some I would marginally classify as lingerie.  But I am not complaining.

Neither do I complain about Audrey Tautou’s new film “Coco Before Chanel”.  I was holding my breath throughout the movie, to watch patiently on how the story unfolds for such a French iconic figure.  I have deep admiration to the key person behind the Chanel empire.  The pioneer and epitome of French fashion for women.  I have lived in Paris and to those who have experienced what living in this city of romance is like, you would agree with me that French fashion is very much living and breathing amongst the French.

“Coco Before Chanel” tells a story of the young Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, her struggle and determination for money and fame, her love affairs, and from the development of her fashion philosophy to what appears as the initial launch of her fashion line-up – the initial years of Gabrielle Chanel so as to speak.  I appreciate the artistic freedom poured into this particular segment of Chanel’s life that is perhaps less documented compares to her later years.

Audrey Tautou is a great actress and Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel is a demanding role for her.  In the film, she needs to stand out as a woman ahead of her time, think differently from how the men and women of her time perceived fashion to be.  With her character’s background as an orphan, there is a certain emphasis on the theme of getting abandoned – as a child, as a sibling, and as a lover – that gives her an unique sense of solitude but yet, not too much on being vulnerable.  To be Chanel, she needs to put on a convincing act as a tailor, to handle clothes and accessories.  There is a wide spectrum of emotion for her to act.  That hunger for success, that determination, that pragmatism towards a love relationship, the constant distaste of female fashion of her time, the mood swing, and the joy and pain of love.  Audrey Tautou handles them well.  Those deep black eyes, that say it all.

I find the love relationship between Chanel and the more matured French playboy and millionaire Étienne Balsan (acted by Benoît Poelvoorde) playful, with witty and lively dialogues.  I find the love relationship between Chanel and the charming England businessman Arthur Capel (acted by Alessandro Nivola) intense, and heart wrenching.  I especially enjoy watching the pieces of fashion created by Chanel as the story develops.  Certainly not some works of fashion we can relate today.  Nevertheless, it is the philosophy behind the fashion that we should be focusing onto.

To me, “Coco Before Chanel” is one of the most memorable works by Audrey Tautou.  It is still an art movie and you have got to have the patience to appreciate the art within.  One couple near us appeared in constant torture by the slowness of the movie resorted to twisting and turning on their seats, talking to each other, and playing with their wireless phones.  I felt sorry for them.  One scene towards the end, Audrey Tautou was looking at her models attentively, and those eyes of seriousness then changed into longing with a tint of emptiness.  And the emptiness expanded answered by the flashbacks in her head.  As soon as she returned to reality looking at what she has achieved, there was a sign of peace and contentment.  Did she dedicate her success to someone she loved (I think so)?  At last, she looked into the audience (us) and smiled.  The image turned timeless.  All the above scenes are communicated without words.  Just expression from her eyes, the music and the change in scenes, in one fluid motion.  To some, that may be boring.  But to me, that is hauntingly beautiful.

Personally, I have this wish that as Audrey Tauto grows older, she will revisit the life of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel again and act out the later stage of Chanel’s life.  That would be something really to look forward to.

PS-1. As a little gossip to those who have watched the film.  In case if you have not read, Audrey Tauto has started dating Benoît Poelvoorde whom she met from the set.

PS-2. I have been to the French coastal city Deauville as mentioned in the film.  Although I was alone at that time, I enjoyed visiting Deauville immensely.  It was beautiful.  Still is, I reckon.