Kim's Thoughts

This movie is from same creators as The Notebook.  Since The Notebook is still my favorite movie of all time, I was not about to miss it!   Another movie by the same creators, Message In A Bottle, is right up there on my list of movies I was particularly touched by, as well!  Had to be good, right???

So, opening weekend, I was at the theater!  And so were a lot more people!  I went to the 2:30 matinée on Saturday and the theater was PACKED!  I got there right at 2:30, the coming attractions were already starting to run, and I stood at the bottom of the stairs looking at a full auditorium – both the stadium seats and the lower level seats closer to the screen.  Luckily, the front row of stadium seats was empty, so I didn’t have to go searching for a seat in the dark.  I was really surprised at not only the # of people in the theater for a matinée, but also at the # of men!  Typically, guys only go to movies like this if they are dragged there on a date night!  So, the audience mix was something I took notice of.

So, how did it stack up against The Notebook and Message In A Bottle?  Let me just say that they didn’t lose their spots on my list of favorites, but this one will likely be added a little below them!  I liked it a lot, but I’m not sure I loved it!  And, yeah – all those guys that were there probably found something they liked about it, too!  There was a nice mix of military scenes, as well!

If you haven’t seen the trailers, here is a synopsis:  Channing Tatum is John Tyree – a Special Forces soldier on a two-week leave in his home near Charleston, SC.  Amanda Seyfried is Savannah Curtis – a college student he meets there.  They are immediately attracted to each other and spend a lot of time together.  By the end of his two-week leave, they fall in love and promise to write each other about everything they do so that they can be together even if they are a world apart!  The letters and another brief leave keep them close.  But, after 9-11 John re-enlists instead of coming home to Savannah, as promised, time and distance starts to take its toll on their relationship.  Notable supporting stories include John’s father who is a shy recluse with a passion for his extensive coin collection and Savannah’s friend, Tim, and his autistic son Alan.  These characters intertwine throughout John and Savannah’s relationship binding them all in ways that both strengthen and weaken the relationship in various ways.

The acting is not bad, but a little less than stellar, with the exception of veteran actor Richard Jenkins’ performance as John’s father.  The saving grace in the performances was that Tatum and Seyfried both do a good job of showing their emotions in their faces.  Jenkin’s performance of Mr. Tyree was touching and emotional – he pulled me into his life and made me feel his pain.  There is a scene toward the end of the movie with John and his Dad that was heart wrenching and the one scene that brought me to tears!  Tatum stepped up and gave an amazing performance.  Jenkin’s didn’t say a word, but one gesture tore me up!

I didn’t read the book, but it was obvious that the girls who sat behind me did — when the movie ended, they said “That’s the end?  They changed the whole story!”   I don’t know how the book ended, but I thought the movie ended too soon!  I was left with the need to draw my own conclusions…..is the hint of a happy ending true…..was John out of the military or just on a leave – which might imply the time and distance may continue to be an issue…..I usually like movies that don’t necessarily answer all the questions an ending may leave, but this was different somehow – I wanted to see more.

All that aside, I did enjoy this movie and found it to be heart warming and heart wrenching all wrapped up in a believable and endearing story.  It was a love story not only of two young lovers struggling to keep their love alive against the odds, but also of a son who nearly missed the chance to ensure his father knows how much he loved him and of a deep friendship that drives a young woman to an act of love based responsibility.  And on the more superficial side — Channing Tatum is an incredible addition to the scenery!!

Dear John was good and I highly recommend it – just don’t expect another The Notebook or Message in a Bottle – expect a touching story of lives that are real and multi-faceted and you won’t be disappointed.  I rate this one a B+.

I was so excited to see Harrison Ford’s name in the credits of a movie!  I haven’t seen anything from him in a while and really miss him!  I absolutely adore him!  His is ruggedly handsome and equally comfortable playing comedy, adventure, and more serious roles – he is my idea of the all round perfect guy (er um, I mean actor)!  Whatever I meant, I always get excited about any movie that has him in the credits.  For example:  He was lovable and charming in Sabrina, Working Girl, and Regarding Henry.  He was energizing in the Indiana Jones films, The Fugitive, and Clear and Present Danger.  He was commanding in Air Force One, What Lies Beneath, and Firewall.  So — Harrison Ford is what drew me to this movie!  Then I saw the previews and discovered what the story was about and that clinched the deal!

The story involves a young marketing executive for a large Pharmaceutical company who is a desperate father of three – two of which suffer from Pompe, a fatal, incurable disease.  Brendan Fraser plays John Crowley and Keri Russell plays his wife Aileen.  Together, they care for their critically ill children and deal with the reality that they will eventually lose the fight for their lives.  Crowley discovers Dr. Robert Stonehill, portrayed by Harrison Ford, who is working on research to come up with a special enzyme to help save the lives of Pompe patients.  They team up – Stonehill with his research and Crowley with his marketing skills – to start a small biotech company  so that Stonehill can get the funding to finish the enzyme that has the promise of halting the disease in children who go through the therapy.  Things get complicated when they find themselves needing to get in bed with big pharma to overcome the financial pitfalls of being a small biotech company.

The movie is very emotional on several levels.  The most obvious being the children with this debilitating disease – the look of anguish on the parent’s faces during trips to the hospital where doctors tell them they are at the end of their journey and another family with two Pompe children who are close friends with the Crowleys lose the fight for their oldest daughter.  It is also emotional because it is based on a true story – the idea that this is more than a writer’s creation is compelling.  Yes, the writers, as with most “based on a true story” movies, does embellish some (for instance, Crowley is a real person, but Stonehill is a composite of several different researchers), but it still tugs at the heart-strings to know that there are people out there being real life heroes to children who are in desperate need of life saving research!

 But the part that got to me more than any of it was one scene about a meeting at the Pharmaceutical plant.  Crowley, frustrated about his passion and desires to do good becoming little more than business and politics, calls a meeting of all the employees and brings in Pompe families to talk to them about their struggles and thank them for the great work they are doing!  I, like Crowley, don’t understand why the corporate heads were against this!  Having worked the last 22 years in a Biotech manufacturing company – much like Crowley, first in a small biotech start-up company and then through a series of mergers and buy-outs growing into one of the largest Pharmaceutical companies in the world – I know that one of the strongest motivators employees in this field have is knowing their contributions save lives every day!  We had pictures of our “customers” – the babies – all over the facility and were often treated to testimonials from parents of children we saved!  Putting a face to the results of our work was always emotional and highly motivating!  So, this scene particularly hit home for me and really got to me!

The movie over all was good — the story was incredible, the acting was top-notch (both Ford and Fraser did excellent jobs in their roles), the scenes were touching!  Where it fell a little sort was that it was really quite “slow” – there were scenes that could have been compressed or beefed up so that they didn’t seem to drag out or maybe it was too many slower scenes clumped together.  But, that aside, it was interesting and thought-provoking!  I would rate it a B.

I fell asleep and didn’t get to see all the Golden Globe winners last night.  So, I checked out the winners on-line this morning.  Some made me very happy and I wish I could have seen the acceptance speeches for them.  Then there were some that I didn’t really care one way or the other because I didn’t see the performances.  But there was one in particular that I am very happy I didn’t stay awake to see……I was in shock when I saw it this morning!

Let’s start with the ones that I thought were excellent choices:

• UP – Best Animated Feature Film
• Meryl Streep – Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for her wonderful portrayal of Julia Child in Julie and Julia
• Martin Scorsese – Cecil B De Mille Life Time Achievement Award (it is about time!!!)
• Sandra Bullock – Best Actress in a Drama for her amazing performance in The Blind Side

Now — the one I can not believe — it absolutely HAS to be a joke that is running rampant on the internet:

• Robert Downey, Jr. – Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for his ridiculous portrayal of the beloved classic character, Sherlock Holmes in the movie of the same name!!

What were they thinking?  I thought his performance was dull and boring and he made a mockery of a great classic character.  For more on my opinion of this film and Robert Downey Jr’s part in it, scan down to the next post and read my review after seeing the film yesterday!

I can’t wait to see who takes home the Oscars for last year’s films! 

Several movies I’m interested out all at once = not enough time to catch them all.  Long weekend = more chance to see movies!  So, I decided to see as many as I could this weekend.  Three of them were showing here in Sanford, so they were the ones I chose!  What did I see?  “The Lovely Bones”, “Leap Year”, and “Sherlock Holmes”.  What didn’t make the top of the list because it wasn’t playing in Sanford?  “Up In The Air”.

So – what did I think of the ones I saw this weekend?  Glad you asked…

 The Lovely Bones

I wasn’t sure about this one.  The previews caught my eye, but I was trying to figure out what I thought about it based on the previews.  Was it going to be a downer?  Was it going to be a horror film?  Was it going to be a suspense thriller?  I opted to give it a try and hoped that it would be good! 

It is the story of Suzie Salmon, who was a typical 14-year-old in the early ’70s.  It was a time before it became necessary to be concerned about strangers.  Against her better judgement, she was lured to a secluded spot by an adult neighbor who murders her.  From what I understand of the book, I am grateful that the movie spares us the details of her murder.  She finds herself in a place between reality and heaven.   She watches over her family and her murderer from the in between place.  Her family is distraught and her murderer goes undetected.  Her father goes on a never-ending quest to find out who killed his little girl.

I was impressed with the acting and characters in this movie.  The most impressive was Stanley Tucci as George Harvey – Suzie’s murderer.  I have never seen Tucci in a role that didn’t impress me, but this was a very different view of him than I have seen in past roles.  He is an outstanding character actor who brings life and reality to any role he takes on.  This is no exception.  He plays the villain part to perfection.  I also found Susan Sarandon’s portrayal of Suzie’s Grandma Lynn a fun diversion from the more serious parts of the movie – she was a tough, hard drinking, chain-smoking woman with way too much make up and her hair teased to the sky!  I really enjoyed watching her.

The part that I was less impressed with was any scenes of Suzie in her spirit world.  I found it to be a little too bazaar, fragmented, and disjointed from the rest of the movie.  It didn’t seem to fit.  It was very reminiscent of the 1998 movie “What Dreams May Come” with Robin Williams, except it didn’t come together in “The Lovely Bones” as nicely as it did in “What Dreams May Come”.

All in all, I thought the story was good and the acting and characters were well done, but the bazaar segments left me wondering what the point was.  So, I left wondering if the good parts outshined the bazaar parts or the other way around.  I’ve decided to focus on the good, but can’t completely overlook the bazaar — so, I rate this one a B.

Leap Year

This is a typical romantic comedy — Amy Adams portrays Anna, a woman who wants to be engaged to her boyfriend, Jeremy, so much that she concocts this plan to travel to Ireland to surprise him by proposing to him on leap year in keeping with an old Irish tradition.  Comedy ensues when she runs into complications with her travel plans and is dependent on a cocky Irishman named Declan.  As expected, she ends up falling for Declan and realizes it just as Jeremy finds her and proposes. 

The movie is very predictable and moderately funny, but is really quite cute.  So, I rate it a B- for being an OK romantic comedy – good, but not memorable.

Sherlock Holmes

The write-up on Yahoo Movies states “Robert Downey Jr. brings the legendary detective to life as he has never been portrayed before”.  I couldn’t agree more!  It didn’t take long before I realized they totally ruined my idea of Sherlock Holmes!  I admit that I am not a HUGE follower of Sherlock Holmes stories and movies, but have read and seen a fair amount of these classic tales of brilliant detective work.  My vision of Sherlock Holmes is a distinguished English gentleman who has an uncanny way of looking at the evidence and coming up with the solution through highly educated means.  The portrayal of this wonderful character in this movie is quite the contrary!  Robert Downey Jr. portrays him as an asinine, arrogant buffoon who just happens to have a knack for putting things that most people overlook together to piece together a mystery to come up with a solution.  The brilliant mind part is there, but the rest is a mockery of a beloved classic character.  Also — I can not imagine Sherlock Holmes as a common street fighter and an action adventure type character who performs acrobatics and martial arts type of attacks on his enemies.  It just doesn’t fit and completely ruins any resemblance to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.  Rachel McAdams and Jude Law join Robert Downey Jr. in his failed attempt to bring new life to the classic characters they portray – Law plays Dr. Watson and McAdams plays Irene Adler.  The saving grace is that Law and McAdams did far better acting jobs!  Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal of Holmes looked more like a bad combination of Charlie Chaplin and Downey playing himself — it was apparently meant to be funny, but it wasn’t!

I might have overlooked the wild switch in the character dynamics if it had been a good action/adventure format.  But I can’t say that it was.  I thought it fell flat in that department!  In one word, it was BORING!!!  I actually dozed off more than once and found myself jolted awake by a loud bang or gun shot (an expensive nap).  It was totally unbelievable and moderately interesting.  Another place I felt it fell short was the use of mental flashes to show Holmes’ thought process as he looks at evidence and thinks through how he will fight his opponent.  The scenes are much like those used in the TV series “Psych”, but are not as successful in being funny and relevant to the scene.

I got the feeling they tried to mix comedy and action/adventure and failed at both.  The only part of the movie that was interesting and kept my interest was the end when Holmes explained how all the magical/mystical deeds of adversary, Blackwood, were actually done – that was all kinda cool.  But, other than that, it was a real yawner for me!  I rate it a C+ — not terrible and not a total loss, but I really wish I hadn’t spent $7.00 to see it and take a little nap!

I’d like to see “Up In The Air” and may take a drive out-of-town to see it tomorrow — maybe it will redeem the weekend full of movies!  But, I do have work that needs to be done around the house, so it will depend on how I feel tomorrow and how much I think I can get done if I also go to a movie!