Miss Potter (2006)

The film is based on the life of Beatrix Potter, the writer and illustrator of the most successful children books of all time. It begins with her, after a long search, finding a publisher at last, and shows the years of her life during which she became a well-known author with occasional flasbacks to her childhood.

I'm a fan of Renée Zellweger so I had been meaning to watch this movie for a long time. Ever since it came out, actually, and I'm glad that I eventually got around to doing so, as I loved it to bits and bites. I think it goes without saying that Reneé Zellweger was absolutely brilliant. Also, it was a pleasant surprise that Ewan McGregor had a role in it, he's one of my favourite actors, too. So I think we can say that the cast was very fortunately chosen.

The story was sweet, even with the sadder moments, and had the cutest love story. I don't usually find love stories cute but I can't describe this one otherwise. Another thing that must be mentioned is the scenery. Parts of the story take place in the countryside and the scenery is simply breathtakingly beautiful. The visual effects with her drawings were pretty cool, too. They were simple and cute.

This movie is absolutely worth a watch. It is one of those stories that put a smile on your face that stays there for quite a while.

(On a side note, I don't like the poster at all. It is way too cold and makes it seem like the movie is about a witch or something. I get that the clouds and the shimmer refer to her imagination but still, I would have chosen green as a ruling colour.)

Movies of the Summer

I was thinking and I could recall a few films that I watched during the summer. So I'll just list them here with a few words long opinion.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

This film was, well, curious. 

The actual story that is narrated by Benjamin is embedded into a frame story that takes place in 2004, in New Orleans during the time when Hurricane Katrina is coming towards the city. A dying mother asks her daughter to read her from a diary. This diary is that of Benjamin Button's and this is how his story is told. I don't really want to write anything else or go into details why his story is curious because I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

Other than being interesting the movie was quite long. It's more than two and a half hours. I wasn't bored of it, though. As I mentioned, it is narrated by the title character. I like movies that are narrated, it makes them a bit more real, I guess. This narrator is also a really wise man, so it's like there are a strings of truths said there but in the simplest way possible. He's not trying to be smart or anything, it is just the way he sees the world.

One thing that I don't really understand is the frame story. Why did it have to take place during the hurricane? I can only think of it serving to reflect the inner conflicts of the daughter and the mother during they read/listen to the story, but even then I don't think it was necessary. In my opinion it didn't really add to the story. As for me, it would have had the same effect even if it had taken place on a bright and sunny day. I might miss something, though.

Nevertheless, I very much liked this film. If you have three hours and don't have problems with essentially sad stories, then this is your movie.

Men in Black 3 (2012)

I liked the first two movies a lot so needless to say I was excited to see the third one.

In the story, fourteen years passed by since we last saw the special agents, just like in real life. Or was it fourteen? Anyway, quite a long time. J and K are partners again, which is kind of confusing, since, if I remember well, the second movie ended with K retiring. 

This confusing detail aside, the film was totally exciting. It starts with an alien prisoner, arrested by Agent K a long time ago, escaping from the special jail built for such criminals on the moon.  He travels back in time to change the future (that is, the present) and that's when Agent J has to travel back too, to save the world. Because, yeah, it's not less than the whole planet in danger, again.

As I already said, the movie is totally exciting, full of twists and turns and unexpected events. Just like the first two were. I at least was not smart enough to see the last twist coming. I thought I knew what would happen, but was I wrong.

All in all, I can only recommend it. It's the opposite of boring in many ways. And the character of Griffin is my new favourite movie character. ;)

Two Snow White Movies

Or maybe I should have written "Two Evil Queen Movies", since both have the Queen's figure in the centre. It's interesting how two films that are inspired by the same tale can be so different. But let's see them a little bit closer one by one.

Mirror Mirror (2012)

I was really looking forward to this one. On the basis of the trailers (which totally had almost all the scenes with Julia Roberts) it looked surprisingly promising. The actual movie didn't disappoint either. 

The whole story is told from the Queen's point of view, which already is an interesting twist and at the same time assures that it won't become a cheesy love story. I think it is mainly the Queen's character and humour that makes this movie absolutely hilarious. You can't help but laugh at her scenes even when she is being especially mean or evil. The dwarfs aren't dull either, though and pretty much all the characters have one or two funny lines. The character of Snow White, I don't know, I think she is pretty strong in the original fairy tale too (I cannot be hundred percent sure, I've seen so much modernized versions recently) but here they take it one step further and she becomes a young woman who doesn't really need her prince to save her, she can do it herself, and well too. 

The plot is kind of lacking but I think the humour and wittiness of the dialogues make up for it.

Another thing that must be mentioned is the costumes. They were spectacular, extreme even. And I think they added to the story too by underlining the contrast between the Queen's and the gentry's extreme colourful and huge clothing and the simple, gray and dirty outfits of the average poor people. (But maybe it's just overanalysing stuff.) The whole movie was visually pretty, colourful and fairy tale-like.

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

I had my doubts about this one. Actually, I didn't even plan to watch it. I just changed my mind partly because of Charlize Theron but mainly because I had some extra time on my hands.

I think it goes without saying that this movie is nowhere a comedy. It is dark and well, boring. I'm not saying it doesn't have a plot, though that wouldn't be extremely far from the truth but even that small amount of events that happen are dragged out so long that I couldn't help but skip parts more and more frequently. 

I'm not going to detail how talentless Kristen Stuart is, but I'm going to say (what many have said already) that with another actress playing Snow White this film would have been, or well, could have been better. Maybe not significantly, but better.

To say something positive too, I have to admit that the visual effects were pretty damn good.

Coco Chanel (2008)

Well, the previous movie made me curious of the story of Coco Chanel so I watched another one about it. Compared to Coco Avant Chanel this one seemed way more credible. I think that that one is a rather liberal interpretation of her life and career, while this one tried to be accurate. Though I cannot be sure since I don't really know much about the real story. Anyway, all in all this movie was really good. It had a frame and was basically a string of flashbacks. First I thought it made the movie kind of lame but eventually I realised that it gave it a nice structure, focusing on parallels between her present (after the Second World War) and past. One of the things put in the centre was her ability to always start anew after each and every blow in her life. She says something in the movie along the line: it's failure that gives you strength not successes; she had her share in both. There were a few things, though that I didn't like at all. It's an English-language movie, they speak Enlgish from the beginning. Seeing that most of the main actors were French (judging from their names and accents) French could have been used sometimes. Especially in the scenes from her childhood when she speaks to her parents. Of course then the integrity would have gone, since later she was in France as well, why speak English? I don't know how it could have been done better but I found it a bit annoying, the use of English with a heavy French accent all along. Bottom line: it has its flaws but is definitely worth a watch. After watching this one, I wouldn't recommend Coco Avant Chanel. Only if you're an Audrey Toutau fan.

Coco avant Chanel (Coco before Chanel)

As the title indicates the film focuses on Coco Chanel's life previous to the foundation of the Chanel brand. I didn't really think into it before I started watching the film so I was a bit disappointed. It really doesn't show much of how she and her brand became what they are today, which I expected to see. Rather it focuses on her personal life (mainly in her twenties) and on how she got in touch with the upper classes, which eventually helped her career. Anyway, after taking a closer look at the title it completely makes sense as this was the aim of the film after all. Another thing that has to be mentioned in connection to the movie (in my opinion) is the resemblance between the actors and the people they portray. After finishing the film I looked for some pictures and on the basis of what I saw it's clear that the creators made an effort to find actors who somewhat resemble to the characters they portray. In my view it is a plus, I've seen movies where it was obviously not a factor. I think it goes without saying that Audrey Tautou was great as Coco Chanel, I always liked her acting, natural yet powerful; the other actors did a great job, too. Although it wasn't exactly what I expected, I really liked the film.

The Help

During the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s Skeeter, the freshly graduated daughter of one of the wealthy white families in Jackson, Louisiana decides to write a book from the point of view of the black maids. The film is about how she comes to this decision, how she finds the maids willing to help her and, of course, about the maids themselves and the stories they tell her. This movie was a lot heavier than I thought it would be. Part of the truth is that the day I watched it wasn't my happiest and sun-shiniest one but I think it has a strong effect on the viewer anyway. It didn't show open violence against the Black, instead it depicted their quiet suffering, and I think this is one of its strengths. It showed how racism was part of everyday life in those days and how from the "separate but equal" phrase "equal" was forgotten but "separate" was put into practice in every aspect of life. Emma Stone is one of my new favourite actresses so I would recommend the movie merely because she has a part in it but, really, all the actors and actresses did a great job and the story was interesting as well. The whole movie was amazing as it was.

One Day (2011)

Instead of telling the story of one day (which the title would let you assume) the movie actually tells the story of 20 years from the two main characters' lives. Starting from the night of their college graduation they spend 15th of July each year together. This is where the title comes from and this is how we get to see episodes of their rather dull lives. The movie wasn't horrible but was quite boring, like life itself usually is. Also, I was a bit surprised to hear British accents in it. I'm not the fan of British English as it is but it was also kind of annoying that some of the actors were obviously faking it. The film sets in England and France by the way and is visually quite pretty. Of course not the parts in the '80s and early '90s. The world in those years was everything but pleasing for the eyes.

Bride Wars

I watched this one a while ago but forgot to write about it. No wonder, the whole movie was forgettable as it was. Now I just remembered because of the previous post and Anne Hathaway who links the two films. In Bride Wars the only thing I kind of liked was the title. I don't know why but I like this reference to Star Wars, of course the two have nothing to do with each other and avid Star Wars fans, I imagine, would be thoroughly offended by it (if they would ever watch a movie like this) but still, I kind of like the title. The movie itself was incredibly uneventful and I have no idea why Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway gave their names to it.

The Devil Wears Prada

It's old. I know. I've been meaning to watch it since forever and today I finally got around to doing it. To be honest, I didn't really know what it was about. But this is how I like watching movies, knowing just the genre and a few names from the cast is just enough. Trailers and synopses are usually so full of spoilers that I rather stay in the dark. Semi-dark, at least. But back to Devil Wears Prada: I expected something more. I know it sounds ridiculous seeing that I didn't know exactly what to expect but I remember it being kind of a big deal back then when it came out. I'm not saying I didn't like it, it wasn't bad, it was far from being bad. Predictable, however, it  was. All in all I recommend it because it is a feel-good movie and who doesn't like those? - it makes you feel like you could do anything in the world - and because of the cast. I like pretty much everybody in it and seriously, is there a movie with Stanley Tucci that sucks?

Crazy, Stupid, Love

The story centres around a fourty-something man in the middle of his marriage falling apart, a thirty-something womanizer he meets at a bar promising him to help to "rediscover his manhood", a twenty-something lawyer-to-be in front of the bar exam and an important decision in her life, a seventeen years old girl in love with the father of the kids she babysits, a fourteen years old boy trying to win the love of his soul-mate, the fourty-something years old man's wife and the man with she cheated on him. All these characters add up to a funny, sometimes absolutely hilarious movie that hits some serious notes as well.

Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn

I know I'm late to the party, as usual. Or rather I would say that I finally decided that I don't want to judge anything on the basis of others' opinion and see it for myself after all. I'm not going to lie, I did have some prejudice against it when I sat down to watch the first movie. And what should I say? I wasn't amazed by it. At all. Poor writing, lacking plot and OK-at-best acting. Nevertheless, it made me curious where the rest of the movies could go. It seemed to me that they had said everything they could. And, since it was still better than I'd expected it to be (high expectations, I didn't have those), I watched the next episode as well. New Moon was a pleasant surprise. There was a plot! The actors had improved a bit since the first movie and the cinematography was really pretty. In the first film there were a few scenes that had a kind of home-video feel to them and I didn't like that. I don't think it was intentional, they just had that effect and made them look a bit amateur-like. Eclipse. By the time I reached it, I got hooked. I didn't plan to watch it immediately after the previous one but I had to. Same goes for Breaking Dawn (part 1). Here there were a few boring scenes that were dragged out way too long for my taste but I think I can say that I quite liked it as well and I'm really excited to watch the next film... in November. All in all about the series I would say that there are some absolutely lame points in the story (for example and mainly the explanation for why vampires don't show themselves in direct sunlight) but there are some interesting ones as well (although I think some or most of those were adopted from other works but oh well). Oh, and I want the vampire family's house. So beautiful.

Wild Target

I've been meaning to write about this movie and the book in the next post for quite a while now but never got around to doing it. Until now. If I were to describe Wild Target really briefly (which was originally the purpose of this blog) I'd say: witty writing, funny story, great acting and awesome music. One of the best comedies I've seen recently. I must admit that one of the reasons why I watched it was the fact that Rupert Grint was in it. A few days before I watched it Harry Potter was on TV and it reminded me a movie with him I wanted to check out. I didn't really remember the story, the title or anything really, only that I had found the trailer funny. (To be honest I also wanted to see him in a film other than HP as among the three main actors there I consider him the only one with any kind of acting talent.)  So that was the "behind story" why I chose it.  I searched for the title and the film itself and was glad to find other familiar and liked actors and actresses playing in it. I liked it so much that I had to burn it out on CD and make my mother watch it. Luckily, she shared my opinion.

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

When I first saw this movie back then a few years ago I wasn't impressed at all. I think I can say I didn't like it. Then a few months ago I re-watched it, or better to say, skimmed it through. That time I liked it better, I managed to get over the fact that it didn't follow the book that closely, that there were some scenes almost entirely changed and I could see how, instead of just telling the story, it focused on Elizabeth's feelings and basically told it (indirectly) from her point of view. Everything, the weather especially, the landscape, the colours reflected how she experienced those events and I liked that a lot. Last night it was on TV and I re-watched a part of it again. This time I realised I really like this version. Although the BBC version is the one that follows the book closely in its plot, the 2005 one seems to be more accurate in many ways. The actors here are significantly younger then in the BBC version (they seem to be, at least), which is great in my opinion, as in the original book the characters are in their late teens/early twenties as well. The Bennets' household seems to be depicted more accurately as well, it is more likely that it was a bit chaotic and messy with the girls wearing wrinkled clothes and having their hair uncombed then everything being in order like in the BBC series. All in all I grew to like this film a lot. Moral of the story: sometimes it's worth to give another chance.