It is a much overworked theme in movie-land just as in Pop music. Who can forget "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" or the sappy Barefoot in the Park (which gets a 92% thumbs up on Rotten Tomatoes though I wouldn't waste a rotten tomato on that one)?
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, - I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life - and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Yup. Even when we do triumph in love, isn't this a blessed aspiration we might take heart in?
It aint easy, but nothing good is (so I'm told). I'm prone to believe that. As someone else says often in her signature line, "It's the relationship (stupid)!" The process, however, often does stink.
“Starting Out in the Evening,” nominated for many prestigious awards and winner of two for Best Actor, is an adaptation of the novel by Brian Morton. The film tells the story of the kind of life many of us perhaps lead ourselves which, although dedicated to our own brand of truth, may have become compromised for whatever reason. A journey we find ourselves making perhaps in half-steps. Although we may remain committed to our final destination how much less likely are we to make it if we wont set out boldly? There are other stories within this story that are commendable full feature caliber in their own right, but this film is primarily about an aging, all but forgotten novelist, Leonard Schiller, played superbly by Frank Langella, and three others who populate his world. Despite the fact that his four previous works have gone out of print, Leonard has been hard at work alone in his West Side writing room for the passed ten years on his fifth.
The story is set in New York City, probably the American culture capital of academia and intellectualism where Leonard toils away in his Upper West Side flat. His life is still highly entwined with his forty year old non-literary daughter Ariel (Lili Taylor) who wants a child but finds herself unable to resolve the love of her life's unwillingness to commit to parenthood. Casey (Adrian Lester), it seems, wants to play life safe while still enjoying all the benefits of the love between a man and woman (except, of course, for that one little thing).
Leonard's comfortable routine is upset by the entrance of the young grad student Heather Wolfe, played by Lauren Ambrose, who is enthralled by Leonard's work approaching the reclusive author with a proposition; let me do my Masters thesis on your work and be rediscovered. While flattered he is also unnerved and initially attempts to discourage the promising grad student. Not being easily dismissed, there evolves not only an academic relationship but a May-December courtship.
The truth that so many find themselves pursuing in life, as in this film, is love: The love for Leonard from Heather, the love of Leonard for his lost wife, the love between Ariel and Casey. While love is a much overdone subject of both film and literature, not so here. The film takes a very sophisticated approach to the complexities of love and commitment rather than stooping to the all too common tendency to sentimentalize a subject that has been the cause of so much human suffering and disappointment over the course of history. Finally confronted by our own limitations and the needs, perhaps, of those we love, wisdom, we hope, comes through the awful grace of G-d and we may be able to set off again, starting out in the evening, maybe, but better late than never.
An English-Canadian film, Away from Her won 7 out of 8 Genie Awards for which it was nominated and received two Academy Award nominations for Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay in 2007. It also appears on many critics top ten films list for 2007 including Roger Ebert, David Ansen of Newsweek and A.O. Scott of The New York Times. The film stars Gordon Pinsent and Julie Christie as Grant and Fiona, a couple whose forty four year exceptionally loving marriage, during which time Grant can't remember being "away from her" for more than a day, is tested when Fiona, suffering from Alzheimer's, loses all memory of her husband and develops a romance with another resident instead. The cast also includes Michael Murphy as the other man and Olympia Dukakis as his equally distressed wife.
This film explores the persistence of love even when challenged by a personally debilitating disorder which robs people not only of their memory and ability to recognize their significant other, but also of identity; their own and important others. While Fiona may have grown blissfully unaware of Grant, he is stuck with the sharpest recollection of every detail of their love so clearly that we are brought back into his vivid remembrances of their youth and shared romance together.
“A little bit of grace” is what Fiona calls for not just in dealing with the ravages of her illness for her husband but also for herself. It is grace, indeed, what Fiona projects in every scene, even as she feels the essence of her self begin to slip and fade away. When Fiona’s lapses of memory initially manifest, it is she, partly out of consideration for her husband, who initiates the series of decisions that take her from their home on the lake to an assisted-living facility.
How does one respond when the one you love is so cruelly and unmercifully ravaged by something no-one has any control over? “I seem to be disappearing bit by bit,” says Fiona, and as she does, she begins to lose Grant as well. As Fiona grows close to her fellow patient, Aubrey, Grant wonders whether her obvious preference for another is somehow related to his own infidelity twenty years earlier, whether this is a conscious or sub-cinscious retribution or perhaps some delayed karmic response. As the story progresses she doesn't really seem to even know who he is. She recognizes him from one day to the next but treats him with wary civility, as if he were a determined but pathetic suitor rather than her husband of more than 40 years.
Over all, Away From Her may be accurate in its understanding of Alzheimer’s but it is merciful in its judgments; justice tempered by steadfast love. For a love story this is one as painful as it is deep and abiding, tender and true.
Let's just suppose (now, follow me on this one) that the following proposition is true: You are batshit frickin' crazy. I mean, just suppose. Given the definitions of sane and insane, how would you know, especially if everyone else is batshit frickin' crazy? I mean, how would you know? In fact (has this ever occurred to you?) the whole world would seem crazy rather than you thinking you might be first. Actually, after fifteen years as a Licensed Professional Counselor, it is my humble opinion that we all are. So, whaddayagonado? This could be as good as it gets.
!997 Academy Award winner for Best Actor and Best Actress plus three time Golden Globe Award for the same plus Best Motion Picture, As Good As It Gets stars Jack Nicholson in the role of Melvin Udall, the nearly unlovable OCD misanthrope successful pulp romance author, and Helen Hunt as Carol the waitress and, practically unbeknownst to him, woman of his dreams. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Greg Kinnear deliver excellent performances as well. All around this is a well written, well directed and well acted offering. Extremely enjoyable and uplifting.
Oh, and the dog... You gotta love the dog!
Melvin, totally absorbed in his own snide little world, suddenly has his apple-cart upset when Carol doesn't show for work in order to perform her regular duties for him over breakfast (everyday, same time, same table, same waitress). At first he is miffed. How could she do this to him!? He is so upset he throws a tantrum (nothing I've ever done) and gets himself banned from the restaurant. This really throws disorder into his neatly ordered world and Melvin has to think on his feet to maintain as much of his routine as possible. The restaurant seems out of his equation, but not Carol. Perhaps he can manipulate her into getting him back in the door and then waiting on him as usual.
Unannounced, he arrives at Carol's apartment where Carol suddenly has to take her ailing son to the hospital for treatment of an acute asthma attack. Melvin, selfish as ever, then arranges to have a specialist come over to care for Carol's son fully at Melvin's expense. Carol is stunned when she learns of this magnanimous gesture. When she tries to express her gratitude, while stipulating that he shouldn't think she's going to jump into bed with him because of this, she is stunned even further when Melvin explains his only interest is in hoping she will resume waiting on him again as usual, re-establishing his routine. Regardless, Carol senses Melvin's desperate sincerity and agrees to try to help him. At this point they're both out of their element, outta the gates, they're off and running blind, though no longer moving in the wrong direction.
What develops is new for both of them as they begin to see each other as people, no longer snappy waitress and unruly customer, they are each very different people with very different, and, yet, very similar needs."If you stare at someone long enough, you discover their humanity." Simon the neighbor says this to a model early in the film, though this theme runs throughout the movie. Perhaps one of the secrets to this film's success is that we can see ourselves within each of the two main characters. In our extremes we glimpse Melvin, in our harshest condemnation of ourselves as being selfish, unloving and unlovable, and in Carol, there we are; long suffering, constantly disappointed in life and unrealistically hopeful in succeeding despite insurmountable odds. A very troubled courtship between these two ensues with each one surprising the other with their depth and quirkiness, breaking things off now and again. I won't go into the details (that would only ruin the film for those of you who haven't seen it) but, as crazy as they both may be, it is love they were after all along (Melvin in his flowery attempts at writing romance, and Carol with her puke-soaked hot dates), even if they never really realized it before, and it is love they find. Maybe. Or, maybe, it's just... as good as it gets.
Ya know what? I forgot to lock the door. I'm.. I'm just gona start over from the beginning.
Pretty well paned by indignant secure-the-boarder critics, one really needs to look passed Homeland Security politics to understand the film better as a story of the love (and longing) of a mother and child separated. It just so happens, in this scenario, to be unavoidable thanks to current immigration policies which turns its blind eyes to the use (and abuse) of undocumented workers from all over the world (not just Mexico) in order to put food on our tables at the lowest price possible or stuff fruit into cans for our Sunday picnics. Screw the politics for a minute, this is primarily a human story of separation and the defiance of a child for the love of his mother. Then again, if you don't get the inhumanity of our policies toward the undocumented worker woven throughout this film, you weren't paying attention.
Carlitos, Adrian Alonso, is a plucky little nine year old Mexican boy devoted to his young mother Rosario, Kate del Castillo. Having to leave him in the care of his grandmother, Benita, she has traveled to LA in order to find work so that their little family might survive. Before she goes she reminds him that they will always be together under the same moon, that he can always look up at the moon at night and know that she is looking at it also thinking of him.
When his grandmother suddenly dies leaving young Carlitos alone, he takes matters into his own hands heading north across the border to find his mother. As he journeys from his village to find his mother in L.A., Carlitos faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles with a steely determination and unfettered optimism that earn him the grudging respect and affection of a reluctant and unlikely protector, Enrique (Eugenio Derbeza), a middle-aged migrant worker who is more the immature child than Carlitos. The pair find their way from Tucson to East L.A., but the only clue Carlitos has to his mother's whereabouts is her description of the street corner from which she has called him each Sunday for the passed four years. Unaware that Rosario is just hours away from returning to Mexico to be with her son, Carlitos and Enrique desperately search the vast, unfamiliar city for a place he has seen only in his imagination.
Under The Same Moon takes on a highly charged and controversial issue without mounting a soap box. Instead it recounts a tale which has become all too common place in this land of promise; families torn apart to benefit employers at the expense of workers and their families. Besides all that, it does what some people think films are all about; it reminds us of our humanity in the hollow pit of longing that love creates when that very special person to our own sense of self has been lost to us for whatever reason.
Paris, je t'aime (Paris, I love you) is a 2006 film starring an ensemble cast of actors of various nationalities including American, British and French. The two-hour film with 21 directors consists of eighteen short films, each set in a different section of the city (there are 20 officially). Two additional shorts were cut from the film (Quel dommage). What we have here is a sort of cinematic geography lesson of the city of Love. If you're like me you'll also hope that your soul will travel this route at night on its way to the Heavenly City of Love for one last fond farewell.
I admit to throwing this one in as I am a die-hard romantique and particularly fond of Par'is. Excusez moi. But after all the harsher aspects explored tonight I sought to get away to the stuff of dreams: Paris in love.
Some of these shorts, you could expect, would be tedious redos of schmaltzy romance stories, you know, guy meets girl, girl looks swell, aint it grand they both dance well (together)? But there are several surprises worth sipping like fine Cognac. Bob Hoskins is one to look for (though forget Elijah Woods' little bitty - far too human). Also check out Natalie Portman (with hair) and Gena Rowlands with the surprising Ben Gazzara and the magnificent Gérard Depardieu (who directed this piece). There is much diversity in nationality and culture with many strange, and sometimes touching, permutations of amour. The final short is a sweetly sad story full of great expectations and longing from an American tourist who finds, well, love stinks after-all. Hanging from the walls of the Louvre, it is why Mona Lisa still smirks at us all (just ask Steve Buscemi).
Of all the shorts, the most touching one for me is of the grieving mother and the cowboy. This one alone is worth the price of admission (which aint cheap).
Then again, as Quentin Tarantino might say, "A mime is a terrible thing to waste, n'est pas?" Gotta love 'em; creepy little stealth frogies.
Allo, Au-revoir, mon amies! Bonne cha'nce et alle avec Dieu...
For Reviews and Recommendations of Previous Installments:
Given that the greater part of our site's purpose here on the Street of Prophets is to provide a place where people who might describe themselves as religious progressives can come together to explore not only faith but the larger questions that revolve around it and our hopes of impacting the world in a positive, progressive way, I am providing these weekly film reviews. I thought that submitting reviews of off-the-beaten-track films that often nudge this kind of thought and discussion might be a plus. I'll be offering this each week on Fridays and would happily entertain recommendations for future reviews. Feel free to post comments about the films reviewed here today as well as your own recommendations of films you feel may fall along these lines.
This is the last week I'll be posting Friday Film Reviews (I know, I did it on Thursday again) as my internet connection has been shut down at midnight as part of my scheme to make a break for it. If you don't hear from me in response to your comments it's because (see above). I do intend to check back in, lurking about perhaps, to read your comments once the rubber slides off the asphalt down the road aways. I hope you'll keep sharing your impressions with each other till then. Should I fail to turn up on teh Street for awhile check out new entries here. and look for these signs in your neighborhood. In the meantime, before I surface again (maaaaybe), remember, if you just can't make any sense of the world, go to the movies. Bring along a friend and hold hands.
:: Wrapping up the mouse, he shrugs, thinking out-loud to himself, 'Love stinks...quel dommage.' ::
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