Various and Sundry - Reviews

I have been meaning to do a review post for quite awhile now and just haven't been able to spare a minute to post. My life is uber-crazy right now. But in a good way (if crazy can be good...) However, last night we watched a movie that I absolutely just loved!! So, I had to make time today to post about it.

You must watch "Dan in Real Life." It was awesome. I cried. (Of course, I cried through the last 1/2 hour of "Two Weeks Notice" while on a plane flying to Virginia. And that's not a sad movie! You have to understand that I am a very emotional person and it gets exponentially worse when I'm tired and/or stressed - both of which I was yesterday/still am. I also have to admit that I still cry every time I watch the end of "Meet the Parents". Yes, I'm aware I need serious help. Back to the movie in question, which is "Dan in Real Life", which is really, really good!) Who knew that Steve Carrell could act not just wig out? (Although I do have to clarify that I enjoy his wigging - I enjoy "The Office" and I'll be addressing another movie he's in in the next paragraph...) The movie has definite funny moments, but it's mostly just a real, honest look at the pain and heartache of losing someone you love and trying desperately to find love all while being the best person possible for you kids. (OK, looking at it that way, it's no wonder I cried - those are all subjects very close to my heart!) The bottom line: I loved this movie.

This is just going to be a Steve Carrell post, because the next movie I want to talk about is "Evan Almighty." I also really enjoyed this movie. It is very much more geared toward children - and my brother was totally weirded out by it. But I really enjoyed it. It's about Evan Baxter (a character introduced in "Bruce Almighty") who just ran for congress. He moves his family to the DC area where God (Morgan Freeman) appears to him and tells him to build an ark. I went into this movie wanting to like it because Lauren Graham is in it (Yeah! Gilmore Girls!!) but even without that positive bias, I would have still enjoyed it. I really liked the faith promoting message. Something like this could very easily become a cynical, sarcastic poke at religion and faith, but it didn't go there. While it may be hard to believe, I thought it was very respectful and encouraging of faith. I was also impressed, after watching the bonus features, with how green the movie was. Now, I have to clarify that I'm not buying into the whole "we've destroyed the planet and we're all going to burn up in five years" mentality. In fact, here (thanks to BFF for the link) is a great article about all of that. But I do believe that we have an obligation to take care of what God has blessed us with and use our resources wisely. I also believe that anything we can do to become less reliant on foreign oil, the better off we'll be. The directors of "Evan Almighty" seemed to have similar feelings. Besides buying bikes for everyone that worked on this movie, and planting trees, they donated everything they could salvage from the homes on the set and the ark (which was a full-size, huge ark) and donated it to Habitat for Humanity. Cool. The bottom line: as long as you know this is suspend reality kids fare, you'll enjoy this movie.

Now, to a movie I wasn't so impressed with: "Becoming Jane." I really wanted to like this movie. And I have to say that I really liked Anne Hathaway as Jane Austen - excellent choice. But I just couldn't like the movie. I couldn't even get through it a second time - it just wasn't that important. I didn't think that Jane falling for LeFroy was believable. I couldn't see any redeeming qualities in him for her to be attracted to. And I was put off by the covert sexual references. The Jane Austen I know is based on her books, and plot and tone of this movie was so incongruous to her books. It just wasn't believable. Which is sad, because I really did want to like it. And Anne Hathaway was great - even with the non-Jane material she was given to work with, I thought she made a great Jane Austen.

On the Jane Austen topic, I have two books I'd like to share as well. From a previous post, you may have guessed that I was reading "Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen. It was fabulous. And I must say that Emma Thompson's movie version was surprising true to the book. There were only a couple of things that, for trimming the story to 2 hours sake, were not absolutely correct. Good stuff! Also, my mom gave me a book for Christmas called "The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen" by Syrie James. The author takes the voice of Jane Austen and write her memoirs about love lost. Compared to actual Jane Austen, this book was definite fluff. "Sense and Sensibility" is a full five course meal featuring all your favorite foods while "The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen" is cotton candy. But cotton candy is still delicious. I really enjoyed it and if you're looking for fluff, this is a good read. "The Lost Memoirs" is much truer to the Jane Austen we know from her books than the movie "Becoming Jane." I could believe "Lost"'s version of Jane. I couldn't believe "Becoming"'s version.

On a final note, I have to spend a little time talking about another of my absolute favorite authors: Robin McKinley. She specializes in juvenile fiction/fantasy. I just finished rereading "Spindle's End", a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty faerie tale. Such good stuff! Every couple of years, I have to reread all of her stuff. I've discovered, though, that I can't start her other books until I get through more of my to-do list. I just can't put her books down! I also just purchased her newest book "Dragonhaven" and I've had to literally hide it! Maybe after my trip to Rochester, NY (more about that in another post...) I can pull it out! Ah, something to look forward to...