My Week with Marylin (2011)

Another film that is based on a book. It seems that awful lot of period films are based on a book. There isn't that much of plot in this movie, the title pretty much tells it all. Our main character is the youngest (if I remember well) son and also the black sheep of a wealthy British family. His dream is to become a famous director (if I remember well, to be honest it was quite a long time ago that I saw this, as part of the challenge I failed miserably...). He manages to get a job as the second director-assistant or something like that in Marylin Monroe's next movie (one of the last ones) that she happens to shoot in England. She grows to like him, and, I think needless to say, he totally falls in love with her. They spend a week together and pretty much this is what the movie is about. It  focuses on Marylin's growing addiction and her constant need for attention.

Now I must say that first I was kind of disappointed in Michelle Williams' acting but then I thought about it and realised that in each and every movie I'd seen with or about Marylin Monroe she behaved like that. So I think Michelle Williams did a great job with the role after all. I found the character a little bit annoying but it's not her fault. As I saw this quite a while ago, I don't really remember what kind of feelings it evoked but I think it wasn't a bad movie. There were some parts I skipped but then again, there are a really few movies which I can watch without any skipping so that doesn't mean that I didn't like it. I remember liking the music a lot.

(Excuse the style, I didn't really know what to write about this but didn't want to leave out either. Here's this kind of half-assed post as a result.)

Mozart's Sister (Nannerl la soeur de Mozart) (2010)

As the title suggests, the movie centres around the character of Mozart's sister. It shows approximately a year from the life of the Mozart family as they are travelling through Europe with their two musically talented children who give concerts mainly for the members of the aristocracy. The whole film takes place in France and shows the events from Nannerl's point of view. We see how she develops friendships with some members of the royal family and also how she is suffering from her father's (and society's) preference of her brother over her. She is also a talented musician but as a woman, she is not allowed to play the same instruments as her brother, or to take the same lessons (or lessons at all).

I wasn't familiar with her story. In  fact, I didn't even know that Mozart had a talented older sister. I think this is exactly the  message of the movie: had she lived in another time, or been born a boy, there is quite a chance that her character would be known world-wide today.

Since I knew nothing about her figure I expected a completely different movie. A much lighter one. I wouldn't say that this film is a particularly heavy one, but it is not a light comedy either. It is quite slow-paced, I actually found myself skipping some parts, I confess, and well, I think if I say that it's very French I said everything. It wasn't bad though. I'm not really familiar with famous composers' lives (shame or not) so it was interesting and informative for me. On the other hand, though, I must say that I was not amazed by some of the actors' work. If you look at the cast and crew list, the name Féret appears quite a few times. In some cases, especially one, it was obvious that the person was casted not exactly for their talent but because of their name.

Atonement (2007)

The story takes place in the 1930s and during the first years of the Second World War. The wealthy Tallis family live their somewhat dull lives on their countryside estate. One day the 13 years old younger daughter, with rather vivid imagination, witnesses a string of events that she thinks she understands and makes accusations, which has serious consequences and changes the whole family's life forever. 

It is difficult to write about this film as I haven't decided fully what my opinion about it is. Its way of telling the story is interesting. At the beginning we see the events through the eyes of Birony, the younger daughter and the way she interprets them. Then suddenly there is a jump back in time (a small one) and we see what actually happened. In the first part of the film these jumps are pretty frequent. I liked this and, if you think of it, there aren't many more options to tell such a story. 

The use of music was interesting as well. I don't remember if there were scenes with actual music in them (it doesn't mean that there weren't, of course), only that strange rapid clicking sound that made those scenes even heavier than those with complete silence. The role of music in movies is usually quite different, it serves to make the events lighter, and well, easier to cope with, so to say, for the viewer. The effect here was pretty much the opposite, I guess it was intentional. 

I think this lack of music might have had something to do with it, but I found some scenes a bit boring and too life-like. If that makes sense. All in all, it wasn't a bad movie, I think it is worth a watch, but don't expect anything happy, bright and sunshiny.

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.

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.

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.