My Review: Blue Valentine (8/10)

"Girls spend their whole life looking for Prince Charming and then marry the guy who's got a good job and is gunna stick around."

Blue Valentine might not be an easy movie to sit through or an uplifting one for that matter, but it is a great story that presents an interesting study about love and marriage. I wonder how many girls were disappointed after thinking this was going to be another chick flick. This isn't a movie you should go see with your date because it may leave you a little depressed. This isn't your typical anti-romantic film either because it doesn't only study the disintegration of love; it also pays a lot of attention on how the relationship and love was built in the first place. It is a very emotional film with some great performances from the two lead roles. The chemistry between Gosling and Williams is just incredible. It is also very well directed by Derek Cianfrance who went through a great deal of preparation and planning before making this film. He also wrote the script and allowed for the actors to improvise giving the film a very authentic and realistic vibe. Blue Valentine depicts relationships in such a way that it reminds the audience that films aren't made only for voyeuristic and entertaining purposes; they can sometimes be a mirror of the way we interact and relate with one another. Blue Valentine is such a film and I'm sure it will leave some people uncomfortable, but I'm still recommending this because it is one of the best films dealing with falling in and out of love. 

The film introduces us to a present day working class couple, Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams), who have a small daughter named Frankie (Faith Wladyka). Dean is very youthful and playful while Cindy seems a little frustrated with him at the time being. She's a nurse who once dreamed of becoming a doctor, while he works as a painter and has no other ambition in life than to spend time with his family. They are a very young couple and marriage seems to have taken a toll on them. Dean is beginning to lose some hair and he has lost some of his youthful charm, while Cindy is really displeased with the way things are going. The film isn't told in linear form as we see flashbacks of how Dean and Cindy met and eventually fell in love. So we have these two contrasting scenes overlapping each other during the entire movie, one showing how the marriage begins to slowly dissolve while the other focuses on courtship and how the two fell in love with each other. By doing so, Cianfrance slowly draws the viewer in by involving them in the story and also gives us important background information about each character.

The reason why I decided to finally watch this film is because I recently saw The Place Beyond the Pines, Cianfrance's latest film, which I really loved. Blue Valentine may be a little too depressing, but it still managed to draw my attention and get me emotionally involved with the characters. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are great together and the chemistry was amazing. Those flashback scenes were so good that it hurt to see how the relationship had dissolved in the present day. Cianfrance created some relatable characters. Love shouldn't be this depressing and I know it isn't like this all the time, but couples nowadays fall in and out of love so easily that this is a film that rings true to life and in a way it is an interesting study as to why these relationships fail sometimes. There are some signs during the flashbacks that kind of serve as warnings as to why the relationship might fail, but love can be blind at times. This is one of those films that leave a lasting effect on the viewer and is open to many interpretations. It is not a film you go see and then easily can forget about and that is why I'm recommending Blue Valentine. It sticks with you. 

My Review: Oz the Great and Powerful (6/10)

¨I don’t want to be a good man. I want to be a great one.¨

It´s no easy task to make a prequel of the successful and timeless 1939 family classic, The Wizard of Oz, but Sam Raimi (director of the Spider Man trilogy and The Evil Dead) was up to the task. Raimi does pay a wonderful homage to some of the iconic images of the classical movie thanks to some great and colorful visual effects, but the story doesn’t work as well. It is kind of the same problem I had with Tim Burton´s Alice in Wonderland where the story doesn’t match to the wondrous visuals. I still had a fun time with this film as the nostalgia ended up playing a key role here. The screenplay was co-written by Mitchell Kapner (The Whole 9 Yards) and David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole), adapted from L. Frank Baum´s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Despite not having a great story, it does become suspenseful towards the end and hooked my attention. The opening sequences however were slow and lacked a decent pacing. The visuals end up being a distraction over the impoverished story, but kids will enjoy this film nonetheless. Parents will also be entertained and filled with nostalgia like I was; but it will be inevitable to compare this movie to the classical one, and it does fall short story wise. You still have to take your hat off to Sam Raimi who took the risk and came up with a decent film, but somehow in a cinematic world where we are used to seeing visual spectacles like Hogwarts, Middle Earth, and Narnia you can´t carry a film on the visuals alone. You need compelling characters, and unfortunately here the most memorable characters are unlikely ones (a porcelain doll and a winged monkey).

The film focuses its attention on Oz, short for Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a circus magician from Kansas who ends up being blown away by a tornado to the wonderful land of Oz. Once he arrives at Oz, he meets a beautiful witch named Theodora (Mila Kunis) who explains how they have been waiting for him because a prophecy claims that a wizard would arrive at Oz and defeat the evil witch who poisoned her own father, the king of Emerald City. The long awaited wizard could become King if he is able to defeat the witch and protect the land. Oz, who isn’t a very moral fellow, is interested in becoming great so he accepts as long as he can keep all the gold. He ignores telling her that he isn’t actually a real wizard. What Theodora and Oz don’t know is that her sister, Evanora (Rachel Weisz), has lied to everyone in Emerald City about the evil witch Glinda (Michelle Williams). Evanora is actually the evil witch who is trying to get rid of Glinda and take over Oz. During his mission Oz runs into some unlikely allies like Finley (Zach Braff) a winged monkey and a porcelain doll named China Girl (Joey King) before discovering the truth about Glinda and Evanora. This is the story of Oz and how he came to this land and made a name for himself.

  

There isn’t much greatness about Oz, but the story still works as pure entertainment for the family. There seems to be an underlying silly tone to the whole movie and James Franco knows it and plays along with his role. He doesn’t seem to be taking himself too seriously and neither should we. This isn’t a classical film, but it does remind us of the magical 1939 film and that alone makes this worth the while. Disney has us used to these clichés about believing in ourselves and achieving our dreams, and Oz is full of them. The film continually reminds us that it could have been much better, but the magic still seems to be present. The best characters are the ones voiced by Zach Braff and Joey King. They have the funniest scenes and make the movie much more enjoyable. Michelle Williams is also a pleasure to watch as the sweet and innocent Glinda. There isn’t really much more I can say about this film, if you are a fan of the original film then you might want to see this for pure nostalgic reasons but don’t expect it to be as good as that classic movie. It has its moments and overall it is an enjoyable and entertaining movie.

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My Review: Take this Waltz (3/10)

¨Life has a gap in it, it just does. You don’t go crazy trying to fill it.¨

Thanks to Take this Waltz, I`ve found my worse film of 2012 so far. This is a movie that looked extremely good in the trailers, but didn’t work at all for me as a film. The movie had some beautiful shots, the scenery was incredible, there were some strong performances as well, but the story just didn’t work for me and it never felt believable for one moment. Just because this film manages to break all the romantic genre conventions doesn’t mean that it`s going to be good. I never felt the chemistry between any of the characters, and everything just seemed forced. This is Sarah Polley`s second feature film after her successful 2006 movie, Away From Her, which won several awards and also received two Oscar nominations (one for Polley as a screenwriter and another for Julie Christie`s leading performance). Polley also wrote the depressive screenplay for Take this Waltz where a married woman struggles to remain faithful to her husband after meeting a very attractive young man who just happens to live in the road across from them. Michelle William`s character really had several issues and I just found her behavior extremely rare. Her relationship with her husband was more of a playful friendship than anything else. I don`t know what her neighbor found interesting in her as she behaved awkwardly all the time. I found this movie hard to follow as I couldn’t connect, sympathize, or relate with any of the characters. The entire movie just dragged for an entire two hours and if it wasn’t for some beautiful photography I would`ve hated this movie even more.

Margot (Michelle Williams) is a writer who is on a trip working on her assignment when she meets an artist named Daniel (Luke Kirby). Both of them happen to share seats in the airplane flight back home to Toronto and sparks seem to fly between them. Coincidentally when they arrive and share a taxi together they realize that they live across the street from each other. Margot tells Luke that she`s married and they say their goodbyes. Margot enters her home and we are introduced to her husband, Lou (Seth Rogen), who is a loving and friendly husband. He is a cook and is working on a cookbook with different chicken recipes. Lou and Margot`s relationship is strange however, Margot is distance at times and acts like a teenager. Both of them are very playful, but she seems to have some sort of psychological disorder. Margot begins feeling like something is missing in her life and begins spending more time with Daniel as she feels physically attracted to him. She begins to feel conflicted and guilty because she realizes this and doesn’t want to cheat on her husband. This pretty much summarizes a plot where almost nothing else happens outside of Margot`s world and the tension she faces between choosing to stay with Lou or giving in to her feelings towards Daniel.

I was really looking forward to this film because the trailer seemed really interesting and the critics have been praising this film, but I was really disappointed with the way things turned out. I did not like the story at all, and felt Michelle Williams`s character was annoying. It was painful to watch her at times. I did not feel the chemistry between her and Luke Kirby at all, everything felt forced. I must say Seth Rogen is probably the best in this film and it was interesting to see him in a dramatic role. Sarah Silverman also has a supportive role in this film, and her character is way more interesting than Michelle`s. Too bad Polley didn’t decide to make the story revolve around her instead. The only positive thing I can say about Take this Waltz is that it has some beautiful shots, the photography was great, and the soundtrack was actually really good, but the rest of the movie failed tremendously. This is the worst film I`ve seen this year and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

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My Review: My Week with Marilyn (6/10)

¨It's agony because he's a great actor who wants to be a film star, and you're a film star who wants to be a great actress. This film won't help either of you.¨

My Week with Marilyn is a biographical drama about Monroe`s trip to England to star in The Prince and the Showgirl, a film directed by Sir Laurence Olivier. The story is told through Colin Clark`s eyes, the young man who got his first job as the third assistant director of the film. He tells the story of his relationship with Marilyn during that week of production and how that moment changed his life. The film is actually based on his autobiographical book, and the screenplay was adapted by Adrian Hodges who worked in the past with director, Simon Curtis, in the adaptation of Charles Dickens`s novel, David Copperfield for a made for television movie. Curtis had some great actors to work with in this film, but I just felt the movie moved to slow. It is only a 99 minute long film, but it felt like two and a half hours because it lacks intensity and a decent plot. Fans of Marilyn Monroe will definitely love this film because Michelle Williams plays her brilliantly, but it just wasn’t my style of movie. People interested in art history or autobiographies may also enjoy this film which dates back to the mid 50`s when Marilyn was a film star and Sir Laurence Olivier was considered amongst the best actors of the world. The tumultuous relationship between Olivier and Monroe as he tries his best to keep his cool while directing her is also dealt with in this film. Monroe may have been a star, but she was always forgetting her lines and getting to work late making it impossible for Olivier to direct her. Not everything we see in film is as it seems and this movie proves it. A lot of headaches are involved sometimes in the production of big star films.

Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne) is only 23, but he dreams of working in movies. His father is an important art historian, while his brother is always ahead of him. He feels like the failure in the family, so he decides to pack and travel to London for an important job interview involving the production of a film directed by Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and staring Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams). Clark is hired as the third assistant director so he basically is the errand boy. Olivier`s wife, Vivien Leigh (Julia Ormond), likes Clark and asks him to keep an eye on her husband as he works with Monroe. The request is quite ridiculous because Olivier and Monroe don’t get along from the get go. The production of the film, The Prince and the Showgirl begins with several difficulties due to Marilyn`s behavior. Monroe hasn`t come alone to England, she is accompanied by her then third husband, Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott), and her acting coach, Paula (Zoe Wanamaker). Olivier feels he can`t direct her with Paula always around trying to tell her how to read her lines. Both come from different schools of acting, and there are several jokes about this throughout the film. Dame Sybil Thomdike (Judi Dench) also has a role in the film and she is always treating Marilyn nicely. However, Marilyn finds it really hard to adapt and finds in Colin the friend she needs to make her stay more comfortable. Colin who then was dating a girl from the wardrobe department named Lucy (Emma Watson), begins to fall for Marilyn despite everyone`s warnings. This is the story of what happened during that week of production.

The cast in this film is probably the best thing about it. Let me begin by saying that Michelle Williams is just brilliant in this role that gave her her second consecutive Oscar nomination for lead actress. Williams has come a long way from her early teen Dawson`s Creek years. She has matured into one of Hollywood`s best. In this film you forget you are seeing someone playing Marilyn and actually believe it is her. Another great performance came from Kenneth Branagh as Olivier. He is just brilliant in this film and a great actor who has several similarities to the character he played. Just like Olivier, Branagh is passionate about Shakespeare and adapted several of his plays to the big screen. I could think of no better actor to play this role. Eddie Redmayne is the lead character of the film and he is good, but is completely outshined by Williams and Branagh. The rest of the characters don’t get nearly enough screen time and it is just a mystery as to why they were included in the film. Emma Watson has barely any screen time and her character is easily forgotten. The same can be said about the rest of the cast. The story is interesting but not entertaining enough for a feature film. I give this film a fresh rating however thanks in most part to the performances from Branagh and Williams. If you are a fan of any of these characters or actors than you might enjoy this film more than I did. Personally I never really was a big fan of Marilyn Monroe or her work.

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