Escape into a world of ... movies and books!

The Reader

Date watched: 6 February 2009

I’ve been wanting to watch this movie, because it intrigued me in ways more than one, for the fact that it portrayed Nazi officers as human too, the fact that it contained the story of a much older woman who had an affair with a very young boy, the fact that it co-starred the handsome Ralph Fiennes.

Yet, it wasn’t Ralph Fiennes who intrigued me in this movie, but Kate Winslet. I know, she’s the star of the movie afterall. But I’ve never found her attractive, nor a great actress, with her previous movies all rather forgettable, for me.

Anyway, in this movie, she portrayed perfectly a German woman who was definitely not attractive. A woman who had many secrets to keep. A woman who was vulnerable and scared and yet passive.

The movie sparked off a whole string of SMS exchanges between Hendri and I later. Some here:

Me: Why do you think Michael withheld the information from the court?

Hendri: Cos then he’ll have to admit that he had an affair with a Nazi supporter, and it may jeopardize his law career, I think.

Me: I don’t think it was purely selfish reasons. I think he also wanted her to come to peace with herself and her own actions. At the end, he asked her what she’d learnt. He wanted her to accept and forgive herself. But she didn’t.

Hendri: Hmm, yes, that too. The ending was pretty sad.

Me: It’s a sad ending but she didn’t want to burden him. That’s what I feel.

Hendri: I think she didn’t wanna say that she was illiterate also, cos if she did, she would have to admit to consenting to things she didn’t fully understand. She might also have lied that she could read, to get the job as SS. Haha, just read the wiki article, it said she asked to transfer to SS cos she knew she wouldn’t be able to do the office job after her promotion.

Me: Oh yeah, no wonder she was so shocked when she got the promotion!

Me: The lady… The child who survived (the Nazi concentration camp). She accepted the tin. It was a gesture of forgiveness? I felt that that was so so so touching…

The movie intrigued me enough to make me go read the Wiki articles on the movie, and the book (apparently vastly different), the next day.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars!

Rachel Getting Married

Date watched: 4 February 2009

One of the worst movies I’ve watched of late (Although The Wedding Game still takes the cake), Rachel Getting Married is a dark, yet aimless, plotless movie, starring Anne Hathaway. What a huge let down it was, after Bride Wars the previous day.

Anne Hathaway, to be fair, did give a pretty good performance as a drug addict who was in rehabilitation, who had problems fitting in to her family, a girl who is plagued by guilt for killing her brother while driving intoxicated, a girl who craved attention and acceptance.

However, the movie was shot as a low budget film and seemed to have been made using a handheld camcorder. The shakiness through out the whole film, as if the camera man had shot the scene while walking unsteadily from one room to another, seemed like another Blair Witch Project-esque movie.

While aimless and lacking a storyline, the movie did give me something to take away after I left the cinema. And that was of family ties. I guess no matter how much you dislike your family sometimes (face it, who doesn’t get angry or frustrated with their families from time to time), or how much you quarrel and want to kill one another at times, in the end, you know you still love your family, and no one can replace them.

That’s for me, anyway.

I’m glad my family has had better times in recent years, than during my angsty, rebellious years as a secondary school and junior colleage student.

Movie rating: 2.5 stars out of 5.

Bride Wars

Date watched: 3 February 2009

I watched this with friends, Lu Yee and Hendri, and it really surprised me. A fun and funny movie, this show really takes a dig at girls who take weddings a tad too seriously. I am not the type of girl who wants a big, lavish wedding (when my time comes), nor am I the type who wants to try to outdo every other girl in the area of details of the wedding ceremony and dinner, etc.

Still, I enjoyed the movie.

I enjoyed it because I could identify with the feeling of being so frustrated with your friends sometimes, yet missing them when they are not around. I could identify with how important it was to have girl friends that you could depend on. And I clearly remembered thinking that I would want to have my girlfriends with me every step of the way, during my wedding.

Entertaining, although a bit mindless (I’m not a chick flick / chick lit kinda girl), Bride Wars could not have been cast better than the two actresses who starred, Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway. (Their reel time significant others should’ve been shot, though, for the bad acting and the way they blended into the wallpaper, etc)

There was a discussion I remembered, that girls would tend to like Anne Hathaway’s looks more, while guys would prefer Kate Hudson’s. How true is this? Hmmm.

BTW, Hendri didn’t understand a lot of the movie, because he doesn’t understand why girls think this way. Haha.

My rating for the movie - 3 stars out of 5.

Doubt

Date watched: 2 February 2009

Recommended by my colleague, Alex, who is a movie buff, I went in to the cinema with very high expectations already. Yet another movie that I watched alone.

With Meryl Streep leading the cast, I had no less than stellar expectations, I suppose. But the rest of the cast, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis, just completely blew me away too. Hell, even the kid, Joseph Foster as Donald Miller, impressed me.

I think Viola Davis (as Mrs Miller), with her less-than-15-minutes-in-total screen time, probably surprised me most of all. I got so agitated when I watched her trying to convince the school principal (Meryl Streep) that she knew what was best for her kid, and that sometimes, there were things you could not control, if one wanted it. What things they were, you’ll have to find them out yourself.

Touching on the many social issues that plague the Catholic church, this movie was disturbing, powerful, and very very engaging. Not a moment of boredom, despite the heavy dialogue, the emotional scenes, the anger, and many silent scenes.

Sometimes, just watching the expression on the actors’ faces was enough to depict a whole range of emotions that cannot be spoken or conveyed in words.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

The Wedding Game

Date watched: 1 February 2009

A local Singaporean production by a Thai director, this movie stars popular celebrity couple Fann Wong and Christopher Lee. It’s quite a blah story, about a pair of celebrities who cannot stand each other, but have to stage a romance for the sake of dispelling rumours and increasing their popularity.

What pissed me off about this movie was that the actors didn’t even seem to be trying to act at all. And all that product placement (seriously, who the hell stacks cans and cans of New Moon abalone in their kitchen like that?) was just too obvious for my comfort. And that blatant commercial shot that was slotted into the movie like that? The director has obviously never heard of subtlety.

Even with an “international” cast, this movie was doomed right from the beginning, with the overdone slapstick jokes and lame over-acting that was more suited for a Stephen Chow movie.

My 2 out of 5 stars rating is probably letting them off too easily.

Sundays at Tiffany’s by James Patterson

Date read: 26 January 2009

I rarely read romance novels, but this book attracted me because of it’s strange storyline, involving an “imaginary friend” and his ward. Apparently, being an imaginary friend is a career, to some. I guess this part of the book requires some acceptance of magic and fantasy.

The imaginary friend leaves the girl when she is 9, and promises her that she will forget him the very next day. But she never does. More than 20 years later, they meet in NY again, and they fall in love. It’s a very sweet story, but not my cup of tea.

The book is easy to read - in fact, I finished it in one evening. Though not the most sophisticated writer, James Patterson has a way of telling his story that keeps readers engaged. I’ve never read any other novel by him, but I’d say this would really be appealing to women who seek escape from a romanceless life.

Nevertheless, too far-fetched, and not recommended for people who tend to be too logical.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Date read: 25-26 January 2009

This book is about a girl who was conceived by her parents (with the help of a geneticist), purely for the sake of her leukemia-ridden sister, who needed her cells, blood, and bone marrow (and later kidney) to survive.

It sparked off many thoughts in my mind -

• How can the parents do this, and claim that they love both children equally?
• Would you do this for your sick child too?
• How would the child feel, knowing that she’s nothing more than a body to grow cells in?
• Conscience. Does it exist when desperation sets in?

There are several twists in the book, interesting ones. And the court scenes were touching and interesting to read.

Jodi Picoult is one of my favourite authors, and she always writes about stories that have a theme that is widely debated around the world. In this case, stem cells, cloning, designer babies, etc.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Ip Man

Date watched: 12 January 2009

One of the best Kungfu movies I’ve watched in a long long time. I caught this movie alone, I think.

The story was good, the action was great. What’s not to like?

While the movie was like many other kungfu action movies I’ve watched in the past, this carries a story of national pride, importance of family, and also much humour. I guess it’s hard to find a good kungfu movie these days, because most just focus too much on the action bit, turning it into one that has no story, but just fights.

I’d rate this movie 4 out of 5 stars.

Watch, Read, and Log

Have been toying with the idea of writing a bit about the movies I watch, and the books I read, since I’ve been doing so much of both, recently (maybe more movies than books) Haha.

Perhaps someone will find this useful. :)

If any one wants to catch a movie together, I’ll most likely be up for it. Just drop me a message! ;) Let me know of any interesting books too!