Friday, May 25, 2012

MOVIE MOVIE WEEKEND

Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,

Maxwell, I know you said you didn't need a separate salutation anymore, but I don't think I'm ready to stop. I like singling you out for a little extra lovin'. But it's mom or grandma type love.

Now, dear ones, I have two new-to-DVD movies for you to consider watching this weekend.

I give the first a very high recommendation. It's Albert Nobbs, starring Glenn Close as the titular character -- a woman pretending to be a man so she can work as a butler in the best hotel in 19-century Dublin.

Close's performance is first rate. While I still believe Meryl Streep deserved the Best Actress Academy Award for The Iron Lady, Close's performance is mighty close to being as good as Streep's, who played Margaret Thatcher.

I warn you, however: Get out the Puffs or Kleenex for the end of Albert Nobbs. This film is very well made and quite moving.

I'm not sure what I think about Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, on the other hand. Nine-year-old Oskar, a precocious and eccentric boy, finds a key among his father's things. His dad (Tom Hanks) was killed in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Oskar searches for the lock to which the key belongs. It's a bit of a picaresque tale with odd Oskar traveling around New York City and meeting all sorts of people on the road to truth and acceptance.

I won't tell you if Oskar finds the lock and the owner of the key, but I will tell you that his mother (Sandra Bullock) is keeping an eye on him throughout his wanderings. Oskar may be a bit strange, but his mother loves him unconditionally, as a mother should.

I'm not really recommending this movie. I think you might want to read more about it, perhaps on IMDB, and make your own decision. Oskar's hypersensitivity made my hypersensitivity rear its head. If you think you can watch without feeling bugged by this little bugger, then you may like the movie.

But Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is also quite sad.

Of course, these somber movies might put you in an appropriate mood for Memorial Day on Monday. I'll be back then with a brief message but not a What? Monday. Regular posts will resume on Tuesday. As far as I know.

Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug


32 comments:

  1. JANIE! I miss you. So little time...on vacation in Kauai...just saw you'd posted something new and HAD to come say hello. Hope all is well for you. xo

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    1. I'm honored to hear from you when you're on vacation. Next time, take me along. Please! All is well although it's hot in Florida. Way too hot for May.

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  2. Lately, I've been avoiding tear jerkers. I am extremely interested in Albert Nobbs but I just don't see how it can end in the happy, Disney ending that I grew up accustomed to. Sadly, a story like that would hardly end well in today's society, let alone 19th century Ireland. It makes me sad just to think about it...but I do hope that it will tug at the humanity side of everyone who sees it.

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  3. I've missed reading your blog! I hope to catch up some more...and those movie suggestions are great!

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  4. Thanks for the recommendation. I have read about both movies and wasn't sure I wanted to watch either. Now you changed my mind.

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  5. As long as your remember what Monday is all about, watch as many movies as you can get into. Last year I got a bunch of Thank Yous for my service. It bothered me. So I posted this on my FB page.

    Monday is Memorial Day. It’s the day we honor those who gave their life serving and protecting our country in peace and war. It is not a day to thank veterans for their service. We have Armed Forces Day and Veterans Day for those accolades. So please don’t send me any ‘thank you’s.’ I am not dead yet…and I will not die as a serving veteran (unless we are attacked on our shores.) Instead, say a prayer for the soles of those who have given the last full measure of devotion. Thank their families for raising such brave young men and women. Fly your flag at half-mast. And above all, do not wish anyone “Happy Memorial Day.” There is nothing ‘Happy’ about it…unless you are a sick-fuck member of the Westborough Baptist Church. Just remember them. I will be posting a list of the 74 that have been shunned from being on The Wall by people who were not even alive in ’69. Lest We Forget…

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  6. Funny! I just listed both these movies today on my blog along with some others I have watched this past month. I totally agree with you on Albert Nobbs. It broke my heart!

    EL&IC--wasn't what I expected, I guess. But once I got past the strangeness of the boy the movie grew on me as it went along. It's an odd little movie, but I found it satisfying in the end. :)

    Enjoy the long weekend!

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  7. I notice none of these films include car chases or exploding helicopters.

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  8. I wanted to see extremely close, but thought I might read the book instead. All good recommendations.

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  9. Blogger isn't allowing me to reply to each comment, so I'll have to reply to everything in this one little box.

    Maggie, Albert Nobbs doesn't have a Disney happy ending, but it has some fun moments. And after the sad part at the end, there's a hint that something good is going to happen.

    Stephanola, It's so good to see you out and about.

    Inger, Happy to help.

    Coffey, I'm glad you know about the nuts at Westboro Baptist, which is not recognized as a Baptist church by real Baptists.

    Rita, When EL&IC grew on you, was it a mold or a fungus?

    Sorry, Tony. I'm not really into car chases and explosions, although EL&IC has explosions that were all too real.

    Juli, I didn't even know it was a book. I always think it's best to read the book, and then if you want, try the movie.

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  10. I try not to watch sad movies. I cry at Homeward Bound for Pete's sake.

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    1. Movies like Homeward Bound actually make me weepier than a movie such as Albert Nobbs. Anything involving a dog has me sobbing.

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  11. I just put both movies on my Netflix list.

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    1. Let me know what you think after you see them.

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  12. I've been meaning to watch Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close for a while now, I made up my mind, I will watch it in the next few days.

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  13. Dear Janie, I so appreciate your movie reviews/critiques. I seldom go to the movies, but I do get them from the library and so I keep a list of those movies you recommend.

    I did see the Tom Hanks movie and found it moving. As you indicated, it is a movie that fits Memorial Day. But all throughout the movie I worried about the son's wandering around New York.

    Peace.

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    1. The son's wandering bothered me, too, especially since he's such an odd child. That's why the scene when his mother says she's been watching over him the entire time seemed extremely important to me. It was soothing. It helped bring the movie to a more comfortable conclusion -- a knowledge that they could go on without the father because the boy became more independent, but he was independent under his mother's watchful eye. I see a movie in a theater about once/year. I rely on Netflix. I use the plan that allows me to have one movie at a time. If I watch the movie immediately and mail it right back, it costs approximately $1 for each movie.

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    2. Dear Janie, thanks for telling me about the $1 fee per movie with Netflix. I'll check that out on line. Peace.

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    3. Dee, I don't want to mislead you. The fee isn't necessarily $1 per movie. I am on a plan that costs about $8 per month. If I watch a movie as soon as I receive it and return it immediately, I can watch approximately 8 movies in a month. That's where I come up with the $1/movie fee.

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  14. I didn't quite know what to think about Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close...it was good but i think i expected it to be a lot better.

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    1. I was disappointed in it, too. I think it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It didn't meet best picture standards, but neither did Tree of Life. I think I expect more when Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock are in a movie, but they just had supporting roles. I also think I expect a movie concerning 9/11 to be more . . . I don't know what. More moving? More conservative? More tender?

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  15. I'd expect nothing less from Albert Nobbs, being that it was directed by Rodrigo Garcia, one of my favorite filmmakers, who, through Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her, Ten Tiny Love Stories, Nine Lives (which features Dakota Fanning's best performance in the final segment, and Amanda Seyfried's most haunting performance), and Mother and Child, has shown that he's the only Hollywood filmmaker who truly knows women. I'm thinking of renting this from Amazon, and will probably do so soon.

    I want to see Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, but want to read the book first. Not as comparison, but I just want to see how it was done in print before I see how it was done on film.

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    1. I'll have to put those in my Netflix queue, Rory, but does any man really know women? I certainly don't know men.

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  16. I haven't see any of these. I was curious about the Tam Hanks/Sandra Bullock movie but still debating it.

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    1. I don't know if you would like it. I don't know if I liked it. It definitely had some great moments. Perhaps it's the sort of movie I would like better the second time around.

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  17. I dont like sad movies. I prefer chick flicks. It puts me in a better mood.
    www.thoughtsofpaps.com

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  18. Weird kids give me the heebie-jeebies so thanks for the heads up.

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    1. At one point the boy says he was tested for Asperberger's and the tests were inconclusive. It's obvious to me that something is wrong.

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  19. Garcia does. It's why so many great actresses clamber to work with him. It helps that his father is the novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which gave him some of those sensibilities, but he filled in the rest and grew quickly into his own talent.

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    1. Oh! Interesting that his father is Marquez. It sounds as if Garcia is today's George Cukor.

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