I will mark The Painted Veil as the best movie I may have *never* seen. A friend and I talked about how much we each love (500 Days) of Summer, and she said I needed to see The Painted Veil, her second favorite movie. She and I have very similar tastes in pop culture, so I told her I would give it a chance. I remember seeing the preview back in 2006 and thinking it was just another typical romantic period piece that I would probably find boring. I was more than pleasantly surprised. This movie was incredible, and I’m so grateful my friend and I had the conversation we had, and she encouraged me to see it.
Continue reading The Painted Veil (2006)
Category Archives: Romance
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Silver Linings Playbook was a great movie I would have seen if I had done more research ahead of time. I have known for months now that Jennifer Lawrence is a candidate, if not the favorite, for this year’s Best Actress Academy Award and that Bradley Cooper could snag one of the five nominations in the Best Actor category. The movie might land a spot in the Best Picture category, though it would have little chance of winning. So the Oscar buzz was one reason that got me to the theater. The other was that the movie centered on mental illnesses and broken relationships. Those movies often, but not always, engross me. I saw drama and comedy as words associated with this movie. Perhaps naively, I did not see a romantic comedy. While there was a bit of drama and some attempts at comedy (which I found to be weak), this slowly but surely turned into a romance. By the movie’s conclusion, I was very, very okay with that. Though flawed at times, it came together nicely and felt reasonably original to me. If ten movies are nominated for Best Picture this year, Silver Linings Playbook will and should be one of them.
Continue reading Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Take This Waltz (2012)
I’m officially calling Michelle Williams the best actress of my generation. Some people will agree with this statement, but many more will probably disagree. I think most people would say she is a very good actress but will be more hesitant to say excellent. To call her the best is a bold statement. But that’s what she is. To those who would quickly dismiss this statement, I encourage them to explore her complete filmography. She has some gems out there that are relatively unknown. Williams is very deserving of the three Academy Award nominations she has received (Best Actress in a Leading Role – Blue Valentine 2010, My Week with Marilyn 2011, Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Brokeback Mountain 2004). It is merely a matter of time before she wins her first of many Oscars.
The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
As I started watching The Adjustment Bureau, I was surprised to see it was based on a short story by Philip K. Dick. I then spent the first ten minutes of the movie trying to think of all of the novels and short stories written by Dick that were made into movies. The list is massive and includes hits like (Minority Report, Blade Runner, A Scanner Darkly), misses like (Imposter, Next, Screamers), highly overrated movies (Total Recall), and highly underrated movies (Paycheck). I wouldn’t put The Adjustment Bureau in any of these categories. It was a moderate hit ($62 million domestically, $128 million worldwide) based on a $50 million budget. It earned a 72% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was more a hit than a miss, but it certainly was no Minority Report or Blade Runner. Another interesting fact about Dick was that for every movie/short story, he wrote that was made into a movie, he wrote 15-20 times as many that were not made into movies. Philip K. Dick was, in his day, to the science fiction genre what Stephen King is to the horror genre today.
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Not being the hugest fan of Woody Allen, I had convinced myself I would never see Midnight in Paris when 1) I heard that Owen Wilson was the star and 2) I saw the trailer for the first time. Woody Allen has never done much for me. I can appreciate how much he has contributed to Hover over the years. He really doesn’t take much of a break. More importantly, I like that he writes most of the screenplays for his movies if not all. And while there have been a couple of his films that I did like (most notably Annie Hall and Match Point), for the most part, I have found them to be rather stale. I know he has his die-hard fans who will see anything that he sees. I will most likely only see a Woody Allen movie if it earns a Best Picture Academy Award nomination. Hence, my review.
Continue reading Midnight in Paris (2011)