Frost/Nixon, Revolutionary Road, Rachel Getting Married

I had another movie blitz weekend. I started off with Frost/Nixon starring Frank Langella as Nixon and Michael Sheen as Frost. I was just a baby when this happened in the early 70s so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to follow all the intricacies of the plot, but it wasn't a movie like that at all. It focused more on Frost and how he had to hustle to pull off his famous interview with former disgraced president Richard Nixon. Frank Langella did a phenomenal job bringing an unexpected depth to Nixon, which is what made this such a fabulous movie.


Revolutionary Road, starring one of my favorite actresses, Kate Winslet, and Leonardo DiCaprio, was a deep and uncomfortable look at couple in the 50s who are frustrated with their ordinary lives and struggle to make more of themselves before it's too late. I think it speaks to all of us, though hopefully we are dealing with these issues better than Kate and Leo. It's not a happy movie but its grittiness and realism makes this incredible.

Rachel Getting Married is an indy movie about a girl who leaves rehab to attend her sister's wedding. It's definitely an indy movie because it focuses way too much on the sister's goofy wedding. I think there was just the right amount of family interaction, though, which is the point of this movie. It stars Anne Hathaway as the addict and there's a fabulous scene with her and her screen mom, Debra Winger, that gets to the heart of the family issues and the addiction. I would have gladly sacrificed wedding screen time for a longer scene between those two phenomenal actresses. It's clear to see why Hathaway got an Oscar nomination for this performance.

Bride Wars

It was another cold day here in Michigan so my mom suggested Bride Wars with Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The premise of the story is that two best friends get engaged at the same time and accidentally book the same wedding date. Of course, neither would cave on giving up their day and they start doing mean things to each other. It was funny to see how creative they could get! It's not the best movie, but it was fun to watch and, unlike most movies, this one has a happy ending. Maybe put this one on your rental list.

Outlander Book Series

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting book reviews lately. I've been reading my way through the Outlander series again, but this time on my Kindle and thought I'd do just one post for the whole series. It's about 5,0o0 pages of small print so it took me awhile to get through it all. It's historical fiction with adventure, romance, and a smidge of sci-fi. This series follows the lives of Jamie and Claire in the 18th century and takes us from Scotland to France to Jamaica to the New World. I would recommend these books to anyone who doesn't mind investing the time to read really big books.

Movie Reviews

I caught a couple more movies this weekend. Gran Torino, starring Clint Eastwood, is a powerful story that's ultimately about redemption and sacrifice. Clint Eastwood plays a crusty old Korean War vet who hates everyone because the world has changed and he refuses to change with it. He unwittingly befriends the Hmong teenage girl next door then sets out to reform her brother. It's an incredible story that gets my split vote (with Doubt) for movie of the year. Go see this movie.

I also saw Slumdog Millionaire which won the Golden Globe last night for best picture. It's a harsh look at the gritty life of a child growing up in the slums of Mumbai. It's a beautifully told story and, of all the Oscar-contention movies I've seen, <slight spoiler alert> it's the only one with a happy ending. No one makes movies with a happy ending anymore and I didn't know how much I missed that until experiencing the end of this movie. Go see this one too.

Movie Reviews

Happy new year everyone! I had a nice long break from work and managed to see several movies. I'm doing them all in one post with only brief reviews for each.

I'll start with the one I think is the "must-see" movie of the bunch that I saw. Doubt, starring Merryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams, is an incredibly powerful movie based on a Pulitzer winning play. Merryl Streep plays nun who is the principal at a Catholic school who is convinced that the head priest (played by Hoffman) has done something inappropriate even though she has no evidence or proof. Like any good piece of theater, it lays the situation at the viewers' feet and we are left with many questions to ponder about what we possibly would have done in that situation. You must put this on your list of movies to see.

Valkyrie was a better movie than I thought it would be. I thought that knowing the outcome of the assassination attempt on Hitler would render the movie somewhat pointless. But I was on the edge of my seat engrossed in the complexities of how these people were not only going to assassinate him, but take over the SS and make peace with the Allies. If you don't get to the theater to see this, you should put this on your rental list.

The Reader was also a very good movie that you should put on your watch list. Kate Winslet stars as a 30 year old German train conductor who seduces a 15 year old boy whom she asks to read aloud to her the books he's studying in school until one day when she abruptly moves away without saying goodbye. Years later when he is in law school he attends a trial of Nazi war criminals and sees that she's one of the defendants. He comes to a realization that she's hiding a deep secret and will go to any lengths to keep it hidden, even if that means she'll get a harsher sentence in the trial. It was a very interesting study about the character and her desperation regarding this secret.

I also went to see Synecdoche, New York starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. It's a weird indy movie, which I was in the mood to watch. Only see this if you're jonesing for a weird indy movie.

And last, I rented The 25th Hour starring Edward Norton. This is another really good movie that I missed back in 2002 and finally caught up with. He's a convicted criminal who is going to jail and this is the 24 hours leading up to his imprisonment. I'm glad I finally saw this one. It's been sitting around for almost two months (since I got my Kindle). This is very well acted with Rosario Dawson, Anna Paquin, Barry Pepper and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Am I a Philip Seymour Hoffman fan girl? Hmm....