One Day

I read this book right before I went to see the movie.

I felt quite moved by the beginning few years of the book. When Emma was in her 20's. I am also in my twenties and feel as though I am not living my full potential and I think she did not start doing what she loved until she was at least 30. A little side note to how I related to this book.

Anyway back to the movie. I loved the book, found that it was refreshing and a great way to span nearly forty years. The movie I also thought did a great job at hitting the important points of the book. There a few discrepancies that I noticed. In the book Ian is not funny at all, actually quite annoying as he tries to make every moment a stand-up moment. In the movie he made me a laugh more than once.

I also found that the chemistry between the Emma and Dexter was quite palpable in the movie where as in the book they were great friends and really needed each other a lot of the time, but I found that I only would have seen the chemistry in their thoughts. Which is maybe why they needed to show it more in the movie because we do not have the luxury of reading their thoughts.

I thought that Anne Hathaway did a great job, her accent (as she would probably attest to) was a bit shaky at times I almost thought that she was Irish.

I give it an 8/10

The Help

I was visiting some family in Minnesota this weekend and my aunt really wanted to see this movie. I also have been desiring to watch this, but was not sure if I wanted to see it without reading the book first. I caved and went to the movie. The theater was huge by the way and quite packed. But we were able to sit in the middle toward the back which is where I like to sit.

I found this movie amazing. The acting was spot on. I fell in love with Viola Davis in Doubt and here she delivered as well. Amazing emotional portrayal. Octavia Spencer did gave an amazing performance. Emma Stone is for sure growing on me with this one.

I found myself baffled by how, throughout history, humans have treated their own kind. This is simply because of differences and fear. It is crazy what fear can lead people to do.

I loved this movie and the fact that Emma's character, Skeeter, was quite alone at the top, which is what normally happens when you are either doing the right thing. When you are standing up for something you believe in, often you can be standing alone.

There were funny parts and parts that made me cry, parts that made me proud and times that I was ashamed. The movie created quite a dense feeling, most did not leave the theater until well after the movie was finished.

Every good performance ends with an applause as did this one, even though that is one of my pet peeves. Clapping in a theater after a movie, it can ruin the moment.

I give it an 8.5/10

The Company Men

So I got this movie from Netflix. I saw the trailer and thought that it looked very intriguing. I also found it very relevant to the state of our country.

Ultimately it displayed the love of material possessions that our country seems to have a problem with. It also showed the desire for us give off the impression that we are successful. That we have it all together and we are the happiest we could ever be.

People lost their 6 figure jobs and were still trying to go to the club and play golf, make payments on their Porsche and their huge home. They live beyond their means even with their 6 figure salary and then they lose that, they will be going down really quickly.

It was awesome to see the character development in Ben Affleck's character. I hated him and then I loved him. He did a great job. I really liked this movie and would recommend it.

I give it a 7/10

Crazy, Stupid, Love

I went to see Crazy, Stupid, Love today and have been desiring to see it for some time now. For one I was drawn by the title, that it is a string of adjectives describing the last word. I also was drawn to the idea of finding someone and them indirectly changing you, making you want to be a better person. The humor in the previews was an enticing factor as well. Oh and lets not forget also did not hurt that Ryan Gosling was in it.

I found that this movie was quite raw in emotion. I enjoyed the easy banter and laughter between the characters, which shows the comfort level between them. Watching the effortless dialogue makes you also comfortable. It is good when watching a movie that you begin to feel what the characters are feeling. I found that throughout this movie I was laughing, cringing, hiding my face because of what the characters were going through. I find that to be a good movie.

I have not been the biggest fan of Emma Stone, but this movie made me a believer. I found that she was quite quirky and thought that some of that cannot be taught. Some of her facial expressions or reactions were very natural and not always completely beautiful, which made them believable.

Ryan Gosling was beautiful in this movie and I loved his confidence. I do not think that any woman, or man to be honest, watching this movie did not fall victim to his beauty, charm, one-liners, and wardrobe style.

Julianne Moore and Steve Carell had amazing chemistry and showed to us that marriage, if left idle, can become something that no-one ever desired for it to be.

I loved this movie and I want to own it when it comes out on DVD, I do not say that very often.

I give it a 8/10

Temple Grandin

I first heard about this movie when I went to my friends house and she was watching the Emmys. She had just watched Claire Danes accept her award for Beast Leading Actress in a miniseries or made for TV movie (or something like that). My friend makes a comment about it and we watch the acceptance speech and it moved me to tears. I had seen this movie at rental stores before. After I watched the trailer it was very quickly added to my must see movie list.

I just watched it over the weekend and have had many conversations about it since. It was fantastic and is a must see. The movie is about an autistic child in the 60's and 70's when autism was very misunderstood. Temple Grandin did not speak until she was four and then her mother continued to put her in different social situations. I have a feeling that was pivotal in Temple's success. This is a true story about a girl who had many things stacked against her, not only was she different in how she reasoned and interacted, but also she was woman. She has a special way with connecting to animals and uses that to do some amazing things in the world of slaughter houses. She also opens up a window into the life of an autistic person. She is able to communicate about it.

The film maker also did a great job on bringing in the viewer into the mind of an autistic person. It is not perfect by any means. But the noise amplifications and photographic memory snip-its really add to the overall viewing experience.

I give this a 9.5/10

Super 8

I really liked this movie. It was not my first choice when we went to the theater that night, but I am quite glad that I went to see it. It centered around a group of 13 or 14 year old boys and 1 15 year old girl. They were the primary cast and most of them were not well known before this movie, with exception to Elle Fanning I knew of her before I watched this film.

The movie was not out right scary, but I jumped a fair amount of times. I am quite a jumpy person in general. It was maybe a bit more suspenseful, but I was very surprised by the amount of humor that they packed into this movie.

I have worked with kids for the past few years and one thing that amazes me is how funny they are. This movie was spot on for good early teenage humor, it was not raunchy with the young actors desiring to be older and more mature, but it was quite spot on with the young boy sarcasm and humor. The comic relief from edge of your seat, hiding your face suspense, was very well balanced.

It was also nice to see some great camera work with angles and night exposure. The movie was original among a sea of remakes, sequels, and comic book heroes. The cast did not sell the movie, the movie sold the movie and that is what I like to see.

I give this movie an 8.5 out of 10.

for sure recommend seeing this one.

Movies I want to see

These are movies that I have watched trailers for or just simply desire to see.

-The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

-Between Notes

-Transformers 3

-Harry Potter 7 part2

-Cedar Rapids

-Captain America

-Sarah's Key-read book first-

-Cowboys and Aliens-not sure how I feel about this one-

-Crazy, Stupid, Love

-The Help-read book first-

-One Day- Read book First

-Terri

-Bad Teacher-wait for DVD

-Green Lantern-wait for DVD

-The Art of Getting By

Summer in Genoa

This movie was very interesting. First I might add that in America at least I find that we are desiring for a movie to have a very diverse plot. When it does not we are quite disappointed. We can gloss over movies that are quite rich, but because not much actually happened we are left wanting more, and not in a good way.

I found that to be the case with Summer in Genoa. I was with a friend and we decided to pick up a movie as we often do. We actually are known at the movie store, which is kind of sad. But anyways we could not decide what movie to watch. We had already watched everything that was new. We were trying to choose between 2 movies My Year Without Sex or Summer in Genoa. We chose Summer in Genoa as you can tell.

The acting was well done in the movie and it was well directed and shot, from what I could tell. The only issue that I had with it was that not much happened, and if I would have known this from the beginning I might have enjoyed it more. But the whole time I watching it I was wondering when something big was going to happen.

And nothing ever seemed to. At the end of the movie I had a huh feeling. Where I couldn't decide how I felt. It was odd. Colin Firth was in it and that was the draw for me. Merissa's younger sister in the OC show was in it and that is all I can remember.

I give it a 6 out of 10.

Hanna

So I went to see the movie Hanna last night. It was quite interesting and I am not quite sure still how I feel about it. I found it to be a very well done movie, very artistic. The director made sure that some of the actions were sequenced with the music and there was a lot of play on shadows and light.

I know that it was an interesting take on the idea of genetically mutating humans to have the correct specifications that you desire. In this case it was an absence of fear. I have the feeling that when we begin to genetically change our babies we are in turn playing God, or saying that certain characteristics or personality traits are less favorable than others, and who are we to judge that.

I am not sure exactly what the movie Hanna had in mind for the viewers.

I give it a 7.5/8 out of 10

Here are simply some of my thoughts.

Something Borrowed

So I went to see the movie Something Borrowed on Tuesday cheap night. It is the last one that I will experience since I go home on Monday. I did find that John Krasinski was hilarious. I was out loud laughing throughout a good portion of the movie. There are only a few movies that I can think of where I have been laughing so much, one is The Hangover and the other is The Proposal.

One aspect of romantic comedies or chick flicks that most women like is the predictability of them. We like to watch something that ends where the girl and guy end up together. This movie ended as I thought it would, but there were many other bumps in the road that I was not expecting/was quite surprised by.

One aspect that I found to be quite true and well represented was the fact that (and this is found in the trailer) women want a man to step up, and men want a woman that they know likes them, ie. is a bit forward. Because then men do not have to be too vulnerable and get hurt.

Ginnifer Goodwin's character lived for years allowing her best friend to become engaged to the man that she loved. As women we are so terrible to ourselves. (or at least most of us are). We do not think that "that guy would ever like someone like us." We never think we are good enough. It is quite sad, because confidence is attractive.

I really like Ginnfer Goodwin as an actress. She is gorgeous, but has a very relate-able aura about her. From Mona Lisa Smile to He's Just Not That Into You, In the Land of Women, Romona and Beezus, and now Something Borrowed. She plays relate-able characters.

I give it a 7.5 out of 10

Country Strong

Wow- went to see Country Strong last night and it was very sad. Gwyneth plays this country music star that has a problem with addiction and has been to rehab a few times. She gets out of rehab a bit too early and is thrust back into the spot light for a comeback tour by her husband. I do not think that her husband meant harm to her, he just only knew her as a singer, on stage, and I think he thought that would nurse her back to health. She could not let her past go, she could not forgive herself. Her first two concerts were gong shows. She broke down in the first one and the second one she didn’t even show up. She could not face the world or herself without alcohol.

Her third concert she played amazingly, like she had never had an addiction before, but then she went back into her changing room and locked the door and I knew then, that was the calm before the storm. She wanted people to remember her as she was before. Then she could leave this world with a somewhat of a clear conscience. She killed herself in that room, alone. Her husband was devastated. He just wanted his wife back as she was before her addiction, but she wasn’t that woman anymore. She was very different, and she did not need to be up on that stage. She needed to be loved by the people around her.

It was devastating to me that fame can do this to people. All they want is to be famous, known, but really all that happens is they forget who they are. One of the mottos from this movie was that Love and Fame do not mix, you can’t have both. I do think that is true to an extent, if you are striving after Fame, Love has no place in your life, because Love should be the utmost. It should be what you are searching for and finding all over, Gwyneth said in the movie, that love is the most important, do not be afraid to fall in love, and actually fall in love with as many things as you can. I do agree with that in a completely non-destructive way. Love is all around us, it can be seen everywhere, and if you allow yourself to see it, to open yourself up enough to let it in, you will be changed. People are not the only things that can give and receive love. It is everywhere. I liked at the end that Chiles decided to go for love and not fame, She saw what can happen with fame. It can go sour and it can also make your love go sour. It can taint everything that you have. Love is simple.

Two of my favorite songs from the movie….

Garrett Hedlund-Timing Is Everything

Love this kid by the way. He was fantastic!

Garret Hedlund/Leighton Meester-Give Into Me

I give it a 7 out of 10

The Romantics

I watched The Romantics a few nights ago. I found it fantastic. It was quite interesting that someone is so afraid of greatness that he would be willing to marry someone else to not have to face it. He could have Katie Holmes' character, who is a passionate, emotional, challenging woman. She would push him and challenge him to be great. Or he could have a woman who is content, stable, emotionless, and allows him to be stagnant, played by Anna Paquin. He is completely scared of what he could be that he would rather be with a someone that is easy to handle and that will not push him to be all that he could be. Anna does not see his potential like Katie does. She will not allow him to be anything else than that.

One quote is from Katie she says "Greatness makes me sick" as if he were talking to her.

He is referring to a time when he was younger as a life guard. He would sit in that chair, dying to get out and get into the water. When his shift ended he would make a break for it and dive in, but when he did the strangest thing happened I would start to panic. I'm afraid of the ocean (greatness-my addition)

You have to go and watch the movie just for the dialogue that occurs between Katie and Josh.

Our society is riddled with this type of fear. Fear that we will not become what we desire or what we should become so we run from it. We change our plans so that we do not have to confront it. I did this just this year. Having my own classroom scares me to death. It is such a huge responsibility. So to make sure this wouldn't happen I told myself that I wanted a year off, a year to relax. I had plans of living at home for the next year and substitute teaching. I realized that this was me sabotaging myself without even realizing it. I convinced myself that it was just because I was tired and needed a break, which is true, but even more so it was because I was afraid of failure. I was afraid that I would not live up to the expectations others had of me, but also the expectations I had of me.

We are afraid of failure, in turn afraid of being great, so we settle. We ruin it for ourselves so we don't actually have to face it.

I give it an 8.5/9 out of 10

Soul Surfer

I went to see Soul Surfer last night. It was pretty good. I really enjoy Anna Sophia Robb as an actress. I remember the first movie I saw her in, it is one of my all-time favorites, Charlie and the Chocolate factory. She had to play an obnoxious 12 year old that loves to chew gum and she did an outstanding job. I was quite surprised that she could have accomplished such a role at such a young age, all of the young actors and actresses did a great job in that movie.

Then I saw her in Bridge to Terabithia and she played an eccentric 13 year old that does make apologies for who she is. She is unique and is new in town. She befriends a neighbor boy and they great this imaginary world together. I remember reading this when I was 12 or 13 and I fell in love with the characters. She was fantastic in this and she was fantastic in Soul Surfer.

I remember reading an article about this Bethany Hamilton and her courage and bravery after losing her arm. It really is an amazing story. Not everyone was the greatest in this movie. Carrie Underwood was a little cheesy at times and I felt as though her portrayal of a Christian was forced at times. I did like that they strung the Christianity throughout the whole story and at times it felt genuine other times it did not.

I cried through about the last half of the movie. It was really hard for me to not get emotional when she gets bit by the shark and everyone is in panic mode. Also when the mother gets called and she is rushing to the hospital and then gets passed by the ambulance. I found it very hard to not cry.

Overall I give it about a 6.5/7 out of 10

Blue Valentine

I am always weary of watching unknown movies with my mother, movies that could be risque. I once watched the movie Closer with my mom and best friend, that was a very awkward couple of hours.

I was not sure if this movie was going to be make me awkward watching it with my mother, but I did it anyway. We received it from Netflix and watched it one Saturday morning.

I liked that is movie did not blurt everything out for you. You had to pay attention and participate in the watching. I actually did not catch something and had to rewind it.

I also liked how honest this movie was. I chatted with people about this movie before I watched it and they were worried about it being too sad. I would not call the movie sad maybe just draining or simple real life. I cannot exactly think of the right word. It was a marriage that has fallen apart. The two people that were suppose to care for and nurture this promise were not able to continue to put in the effort. He was willing to marry her when the time called for it and life got in the way.

It was a story that many people can relate to. When life gets too hard and people that have looked to you are let down and you yourself are not the person that you want to be.

I give it an 8.5/10