One Day

So I have decided to read One Day by David Nicholls, so far it is a very very good book. Well written, quirky and quite funny. Switching from the perspective of Dex and Em so we get what both men and women are thinking when they are entering a relationship. This book is unusual as it is set over twenty years with these two characters meeting up of the 15th July of every year. I am unsure whether this set up works yet or not, we'll see?! So far though, I am enjoying it very much!

Charlie St Cloud

The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud is a really easy going book! It has a good story and loveable characters, I can imagine the film to be the same! I really liked the twist in the book and it was very addictive. I wouldn't say it was the best book I've ever read but if ever you are looking a light-hearted sweet story then this is for you! I am in two minds about my next read, whether I go classic and read a Jane Austen novel or to read the highly praised One Day. Watch this space...

Three Different Eras. Three Different Women. Each Connected by the Lies They Tell.

Meryl Streep for a long time has been my favourite actress and here is why. Whatever role she goes into, she gives it such ambition and such passion that it becomes reality. Her performance in The Hours is one I will never forget. She is a woman in 2001 who is in love with her best friend, dying of AIDS and who just wants to give up. Julianne Moore is in 1951 reading Mrs. Dalloway and realising how the life she is living is not hers to live. Nicole Kidman is Virginia Woolf, struggling with her sexuality as well as life itself, having tried to commit suicide twice whilst writing Mrs Dalloway she is a tormented woman who believes that death is the path for her. The film is told through one day in each of their lives and how this one day changes the lives they lead forever.
I found Julianne Moore's performance irritating and pathetic, Kidman won an Oscar for her performance and although fantastic it is nothing in comparison to Streep's.
Woolf questions her life in this film, how did she end up in Richmond? Why is she living this life? Do at some point we all sit back and think how did this happen? Is this the life you had planned? Woolf believes that her life had been stolen from her, that this life she is living is not hers at all,  but what she was given. Are we given a life or do we make our own choices? Does one bad choice lead to a life we no longer wish to live? Isn't it funny to think that one day you will look over your life and wonder if there was anything you would have changed? Regret is a terrible thing yet if you do not regret, are you being honest with yourself? Nobody can be happy with every part of their life, there is always that desire or desperation to achieve more. Or is there such a thing as a perfect existence?
This film is brilliant, telling the story of a woman's whole life in a single day. Just one day. And in that day her whole life.
I do believe that Woolf loved her husband, he was only after her best interests but after two sucide attempts , he didn't trust that she knew what was best for her. But Woolf is like a the wind, she can never be captured, she is and always should be free. As 'how can you find peace by avoiding life?'
When Virginia Woolf killed herself she wrote to her husband saying that she does not believe that anyone could have been happier than they have been together. She also wrote: 'Dear Leonard. To look life in the face, always, to look life in the face and to know it for what it is. At last to know it, to love it for what it is, and then, to put it away. Leonard, always the years between us, always the years. Always the love. Always the hours.'

Nothing More Powerful Than A Man Who Has Everything To Lose

Our lives are defined by moments, especially the ones we never see coming.

The Next Three Days is a film about Lara Brennan (Elizabeth Banks) who is taken into jail after murdering her boss. However her husband, John (Russel Crowe) believes she is innocent and after three years in prison, and with their son failing to recognise her on visits, John decides its time to escape.
So with the help of escape artist Liam Neeson, John spends months working out an escape route for him and his wife and their son.
This film is very tense and literally does have you on the edge of your seat at times, you feel for John, his wife in prison, his son growing up without a mother, financial difficulties, everybody believing that Lara did kill her boss. So yes there is nothing more powerful than a man who has everything to lose if his escape plan goes wrong.

Crowe normally is quite one dimensional in films, he is the same character in Gladiator as he was in Robin Hood but this film was different, he was determined, he was scared and ready at the same time. A brilliant film, one which I would go and see again in an instant!

Cloud Nine

I have now begun reading The Life and Death of Charlie St. Cloud which many of you may know has recently been made into a film starring Zac Efron. I have not yet seen the film and though I would read the book as it was talked about a lot during the summer. So far I am rapidly making my way through it, it is a lovely story which I feel will have that happy ending we all love. I like the character Charlie, you feel guilty for accidentally killing his younger brother Sam in a car crash and so hasn't gone on to live his life but instead works at the graveyard where Sam is buried. Charlie also experiences hallucinations with Sam's body, he plays catch with him every day at twilight, yet he cannot experience these hallucinations anywhere else apart from the graveyard. Usually these types of stories would put me off reading them but this one is written in such a way which does not seem un-real. I like this book so far but we'll see what happens when Charlie falls for sailor Tess...

A Broken Beauty

To begin with, I wasn't keen on watching this film, it seemed silly, a dancer taking on the role as the Swan Queen who is mentally unstable and believes that she turns into the swan itself. Yet on watching Black Swan, you can see the thought process, how a great ballerina is desperate to be perfect, so throws herself so much into the role she messes with her head and turns into the dreaded black swan. I couldn't imagine anyone more perfectly cast than Natalie Portman for Nina. She gives her all to this role, from the weak and innocent White Swan to the dangerously sexy Black Swan. I have always though that Portman is one of the most talented actresses of our generation, her performance in Closer was inspirational and I didn't think it was possible to top such a role, but she has.
Black Swan mixes the innocence of ballet with the darkness of the psychology behind a performance. Portman's character, Nina, self harms unknowingly in her sleep, scratching her back until it bleeds as well as imagining her fingers bleeding (this scene was particularly gruesome especially when she pulled back the skin of the middle finger, back to the knuckle!) There were other, in my opinion, un-necessary scenes such as the lesbian love scene between Portman and her understudy Lily (Mila Kunis) as well as the hospital scene between Portman and Beth (Wionna Ryder.) However these un-necessary can be seen as necessary as how can you put a limit on art, or someones perception of art. This film plays on the theme of perfection and how success is measured in different ways to different people. The desire to become perfect ruins an innocent dancer yet allows her to give the best performance of Swan Lake ever seen. Sometimes the craving for perfection breaks those who want it most, and those you let go usually achieve what is percieved as, perfection.
I think this film, is one in a million, a story or betrayal and a mother's desperation for her daughter to achieve all that she didn't. It is sad and emotional yet dark and disturbing at the same time. A major twist at the end of the film is phenomenal and puts this film firmly in the running for the Academy Awards, I hope Portman wins the Oscar, for this she undoubtedly deserves it.

When God Couldn't Save the King, the Queen Turned to Someone Who Could

 The Kings Speech is a fantastic piece of British film-making. A true story of George VI who after many attempts failed to overcome his stutter. Helena Bonham Carter, his Queen, turned to Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) not a doctor but an Australian whose methods are rather unusual. Not only does Logue become the Kings saviour but also his friend. HBC is fantastic in this film although I think Rush and Colin Firth deserve Oscars it is doubtful with such strong competition.
Colin Firth has give a mind-blowing performance and has portrayed our Queen's father with dignity and grace, it must have been incredibly hard to prepare for a role like this and he has not let us down. Rush as well is superb, he is funny and quick, his treatment to the Royals appears to be no different to treating his children, which I really like about this character. I think like the film The Queen, everyone should see this film, it is a piece of our history, a fight against fear and a struggle to hold together a country and that didn't believe in him.

One of my favourite quotes of this film comes from Firth; 'If I am King, where is my power? Can I declare war? Form a government? Levy a tax? No! And yet I am the seat of all authority because they think that when I speak, I speak for them.' The truth of how his voice will unite a nation, yet he cannot find his voice until someone with no qualifications gives him the courage to speak.

HBC is one of my favorite actresses, from Bellatrix (Harry Potter) to Queen Elizabeth, she is versatile and brings such grace to this role. Her lines are delivered perfectly with comic value and statue. I think she, teamed with Rush and Firth make this film exactly what it is, a masterpiece.

Your Love Is My Drug

Anne Hathaway for me was a promising actress, with films Rachel Getting Married and Brokeback Mountain but now I feel she has done too much too soon. With silly films like Get Smart and Princess Diaries its all too much and now she just comes across as annoying on screen. Love and Other Drugs follows the relationship between two people who each refuse to be tied down. Jake Gyllenhall is very funny and sweet in this film and gives a loving performance yet Hathaway who plays a character of  twenty six years old with Parkinson's. Gyllenhall, a salesman, finds it hard to say good-bye to her so instead they both enter into a relationship. This film holds more sex than Sex and the City. What is it with rom-coms at the moment, Friends with Benefits, No Strings Attached and then this film, they all hold so much sex, which can take away from the depth of the character, yet here I think it was done carefully and do you understand the emotional strain on both characters. One very poignant element of the film was when Jamie (Gyllenhall) goes on the hunt for a cure for Maggie (Hathaway) and after countless meetings with doctors all over America, Maggie comes to the conclusion that he can only really love her if she is cured. That is extremely sad as nothing in this life will ever be perfect and sometimes the imperfection in things can make them see so much more desirable.

I really enjoyed this film, it was very funny and very moving at the same time, Hathaway wasn't her best in this film but Gyllenhall really stepped up to the plate and gave a brilliant performance, his deliverance of comedic lines was right on target. I would definitely watch this again, however both of them got nominated for Golden Globes for their performances, I wouldn't go that far...

'Sometimes the things you want the most don't happen and what you least expect happens. I don't know - you meet thousands of people and none of them really touch you. And then you meet that one person and your life is changed.'

Acceptable In The 80s

80s films are one of a kind and I have discovered a love for them!! First I was introduced to Flashdance which I found brilliant and didn't think it could get any better; welcome Footloose!!!
Kevin Bacon plays Ren; a troubled teenager who fights for a school dance to be allowed in a town where music is banned. Its a little cheesy but isn't that what we want - it's the 80s. It is a brilliant film, with a great soundtrack and some great dance scenes! Definitely one for a girls night in!! Think Grease but ten times better.

Dead Sex Appeal

When you hear the names Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie you immediately think about how attractive they both are. Depp is a man who never seems to age whereas Jolie is your sex-bomb and they are very respectful actors. I admire both of their works so you would think, that putting the two sirens together would create a mind blowing blockbuster. However, The Tourist, was dead. There was not an ounce of chemistry between the two of them, nothing! Jolie seemed cold and distant whereas Depp seemed needy. This is no Mr and Mrs Smith. The film is a little dead too. With no action, no thrill, no suspense. Jolie, known for her ass-kicking stunt sequences didn't so much as pick up a gun in this film. Depp who played a maths teacher mending a broken heart seemed more daring than her, he was running across roof tops in his pyjamas - yet it was not a heart pounding scene. Although the wardrobe of the film was superb, with neat pencil skirts and caramel duffel coats which made Jolie look like a Lady, especially when she stepped out in floor length dresses, she really did look magnificent. The setting is perfect; Venice, the city of Love - there was no love between these two, no action, nothing. I will give the film this though, it has an unexpected twist at the end, so clearly the writers have imagination, their creative juices didn't get going till the last page though!

Greed is Good

The name Gekko. Is recognized is by many. Gordon Gekko was the character made famous by Michael Doughlas in the 1980s. Oliver Stone's Wall Street is one of the best film I have seen. Charlie Sheen plays Budd Foxx who gets pushed into a world of fast money, fast cars and fast girls. The price. LIES and trading insider information about Bluestarr Airlines so that Gekko can buy the company at a low price and then tear it to shreads making himself a cool $60 million. Quite a nice profit you may think. However Gekko has more friends than meets the eye and Buddy gets himself stuck when it comes to Darian (Daryl Hannah's character.) Hannah refused to ever watch the film saying it was one of her worst experiences of her life. Being the only female you can see that when working on an all male film can be quite of a challenge. However her performance was rather pathetic in this film - to this day I still think Splash! was her one and only triumph!
A very good drama about insider trading in Wall Street and the greed of one man against the honesty of another. I don't like Sheen as an actor anyway so Foxx for me was a slimey runt of a man however Doughlas stripped down the fame of acting to its real glory - the pure development of a character. I though Gekko was smart, savvy and sophisticated and that Doughlas did really deserve that Acadamy Award. He really gave Gekko his all, a fantastic masterpiece!!