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Reviews
Miss Potter (2006)
Enchanting Love Story
I would be remiss if I did not at least make a quick post to promote this absolutely delightful, beautiful, and warm-hearted film. Based on the life of Beatrix Potter and the surround of her artistry and publication of the classic Peter Rabbit series, this is a family friendly film with not one embarrassing moment--a cosmic rarity these days. Starring Renee Zellweger as Potter and Ewan McGregor as her publisher and then suitor Norman Warne, it was perfect from beginning to end.
Its original theatrical release was very limited and I missed it there, but my daughters and I all curled up on the sofa to enjoy it on DVD Friday night and were not disappointed for one moment. The story is not all joy and happiness, yet it holds up not only the enchantment that these children's books have held for generations but the delight of a true love story. It opened a door with my daughters to discussing what courtship used to be at the turn of the last century, what that woman following Potter all the time was about, and why a touch or a kiss was much more than just a kiss.
The relationship between Potter and Warne made my younger daughter squirm and giggle because his adoration of her cannot be contained and gushes out in little nuanced ways that are beyond endearing (a special talent McGregor proved he is an expert at in "Moulin Rouge"). It's the kind of love that every mother hopes her daughter finds--with a man who thinks she is the most wonderful creature who ever walked the planet and also respects her uniqueness and talents and is willing to promote them, even if it stands against socially accepted standards of properness and such nonsense. There was just a wonderful sense of genuineness in their relationship, both the joy and the sorrow, that I've often felt my daughters miss out on in their Disneyfied movie experiences. ("Enchanted" pokes wonderful fun at just this kind of fake I-see-you-and-magically-love-you stuff.) Beatrix Potter herself is also a wonderful role model, not only in her work as an artist and author but in her later role in purchasing and conserving rural farm land in Britain. She did what she felt was right for herself and her community, no matter if the dominant men surrounding her told her she was crazy or out-of-line. She was one sassy gal, and I'm glad my daughters and I discovered that about her.
I highly recommend "Miss Potter" and hope you can enjoy it with friends and family as I did.
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Dance!!!
The plot revolves around Olive (Abigail Breslin), who is truly a "little miss sunshine" the sweetest little girl, full of innocence and inner joy even though she is living within a totally dysfunctional family. She is wise enough to know that a genuine hug can uplift the worst depression and grounded enough not to be upset when her self-absorbed family forgets all about her.
Despite the fact that she is a tad pudgy and simply cute as a button, but not a great beauty, Olive has managed to win a local child beauty contest and has the chance to participate in the Little Miss Sunshine contest in California. For various reasons, the family decides the only way to accomplish getting her there is to all load in the old van and drive for two days.
Just so we are clear on who the players are here, we have:
1. Richard, Olives' father (Greg Kinnear), the failed entrepreneurial creator of a nine-step program called Refuse to Lose, who is happy to let everyone else know why they are a loser but never turns that inspection on himself.
2. Sheryl, Olive's mom (Toni Collette), the sweet but scattered sanest of the bunch, who is so disconnected from her daughter that she does not even know what her costume for the contest looks like.
3. Dwayne, Olive's Nietzsche reading teenage brother (Paul Dano), who has taken a vow of silence.
4. Frank, Olive's genius, homosexual uncle (Steve Carell), who is recovering from a failed suicide attempt over a lost love and a ruined career.
5. Grandpa, Olive's very loving but drug-using, porn-reading, foul-mouthed, paternal grandfather (Alan Arkin), who lives with the family and is Olive's only coach for the Little Miss Sunshine contest.
So they all pile in the van to help Olive achieve her dream. It is during this Murphy's Law laden road trip from hell that the family learns some solid spiritual lessons about themselves and life.
Poor Olive is in a constant pull between her overzealous, somewhat demented father's advice about how to be a winner (and not to eat ice cream so or she'll get fat) and her grandfather's advice that a real loser is someone so afraid of losing that they never try anything (and eat all the ice cream you want).
Jumping in with both feet, confident she can be a winner in either book, Olive certainly goes out on a limb with the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. It is her dream, and no matter how much the van and the family fall apart on the two day trip, Olive keeps her optimism, selfless love, and joy in life.
Drawing everyone's three day experience together eloquently, Dwayne reaches a grand conclusion: Life is one *#^%* beauty contest after another. So do what you love and #*%* the rest. (You can fill in the colorful language, which this movie has in abundance.)
Life often does feel like one string of events where we are being judged by someone else. Is our house big enough? Are our clothes stylish and expensive enough? And, the constant whammy for most women, Am I pretty enough? Not to mention the torture-filled, nightmarish beauty pageant of middle school and high school. How many joys in life do we miss because we are fussing about what others will think?
Fortunately, Olive has not yet gotten the memo that these are the things we have to worry about and is oblivious to it all. With a natural innocence, she is just being Olive and doing what she loves to do.
The most truly beautiful people I know think less of themselves than they do of others. When we can release ourselves from the self-centeredness that is so caught up in what others think of us or what just our own needs and concerns are, then we are free to be a part of something wonderful.
In the end, a pleasing set of facial features does not a beautiful face make, or a beautiful person. I've met many women who appear to be everything lovely and elegant until they open their mouth and begin to spew forth with such arrogance or ignorance that I wonder why I was ever so impressed with them. I've also met very plain women who are so filled with eloquence and grace that loveliness just envelopes their presence.
I love the thought:
"Love {God} never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less than beautiful... Beauty, wealth, or fame is incompetent to meet the demands of the affections, and should never weigh against the better claims of intellect, goodness, and virtue...The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and more Soul..." ("Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy)
If life is one big beauty contest, how are the winners and the losers judged? I think the cast of kooks in this movie reach the conclusion that it is being yourself, doing what you love, and sharing it with those you love.
As the saying on life goes: When you get the chance to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance. And, wow, does Olive dance when she is given the opportunity even though she is scared and the adults want her to quit and with a chutzpah that most of us will never experience in our whole lives.
In this giant beauty contest, we should give it our all, like Olive does, and be who we are instead of trying to measure up to someone else's standard. Have less illusion, and express more soul.
The Fountain (2006)
Searching for Eternal Life
Death as an act of creation and new birth. Death as the road to awe. Life that is eternal and immortality that already exists. Not themes you generally find going on in a major motion picture with A-list box office stars leading the way, but this love child of writer/director Darren Aronofsky hits them all and then some. It is spiritually significant cinema at its most beautiful, most touching, and most thought-provoking.
Hugh Jackman (Tom) and Rachel Weisz (Izzi) take us through the death process asking the time-old questions about life and death. Is this human life all that there is? How hard should we fight to continue living in a mortal body? Is death to be feared or is it just another step on an eternal journey? Biblical themes of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life, and the Maya creation legends of The First Father who gave his life to create the world are interwoven throughout the three different but inexorably linked story lines. It may be a tad confusing for the inexperienced in spiritual cinema, but for those ready for the challenge it is an amazing adventure.
I've never bought into the idea that death is like a proverbial ax falling that God is waiting to pass judgment on us and consign us to heaven or hell based on our spiritual understanding at that second, or our deeds in life up to that moment. I know many religions teach this and that Jesus talks about those things in the Gospels. But most of what Jesus taught about was in figurative language, and I believe that is what he was doing there too.
And who knows how those teachings have been warped over the centuries through mistranslations and purposes of creed and doctrine? Whole books have been written about that. My leanings are more toward Jesus' teachings about eternal life. It isn't heaven or hell ... it's just more.
I've heard it said that death is not the experience of the person, just the conclusion of the onlooker. Those still standing in the human experience of life find what they knew of as that person to be gone. But the spiritual reality of the situation is that their friend or family member is just as busy going forward with their life as they were when we could see what they were up to.
There's an amazing little article called "The Passing of the Seagull," originally published in the Christian Science Monitor newspaper in 1927. It equates death with watching a seagull fly effortlessly through the sky until it passes from our line of vision. It is no longer part of our life-experience, but nothing has changed for that seagull. It is soaring on and on even though our limited sense of material vision cannot follow it.
Under the marginal heading "true life eternal," spiritual writer Mary Baker Eddy says: "Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal. Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight." ("Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," p. 246)
While I, with Weisz's Izzi, am not interested in dying tomorrow, I don't fear it in the slightest. God is not waiting to take me. Life is already one with God. I don't need to go anywhere to get closer to divine Love.
Just turning the corner on 40 next month, I would fight valiantly for more years here, but I have no interest in being injected with anything or consuming anything that will continue life in this human experience eternally. My purpose in life is to do good and learn the spiritual lessons that will continue to bless me on my eternal life journey. This continuing nature of spiritual life is what Jackman's Tom is struggling with (at an Oscar-worthy level) and what we all wrestle with in our own way from time to time.
Metaphysically, spiritually speaking, human life is nothing more than a dream that we create with our own thoughts, and someday we will believe that we pass out of this dream through death. But then we will find that the spiritual truths of the universe and our divine existence as God's children have remained untouched.
Then another adventure begins, and hopefully we have matured and progressed gained grace, as "The Fountain" says enough to move forward into more light and harmony than we find in this mortal dream.
I'm not sure if Darren Aronofsky would agree with me on all that, but I left his movie thinking that he just might. Again, this is not a movie for cinematic sissies. Leave the teenagers at home, unless they are already pretty advanced in their spiritual journey or you are ready to do some explaining during and after this movie. But if you look forward to films that will challenge you to think and explore the nature of life and your place in the universe, don't miss seeing this on the big screen in all of its glory.
Don't try to analyze this film or overthink it. It's not important what every single specific moment represents (though I can't wait to watch the DVD with Aronofsky's commentary on). Just let it flow over your consciousness and see what questions it brings up for you. That's the joy of truly spiritually significant cinema.
Because I Said So (2007)
Mama Doesn't Know Best
Hyperactively controlling Daphne (Diane Keaton) decides to fix her youngest daughter Milly (Mandy Moore) by finding her the perfect man via an on-line dating service ad that Milly knows nothing about. Enter stage right Jason (Tom Everett Scott) as the dashing, rich architect that Mom feels will surely love and provide for Milly, but is really awfully cold and totally not her style. Enter stage left Johnny (Gabriel Macht) as the charming musician who Daphne thinks has heartbreak written all over him and tries to deter at every step, but who totally adores Millyeven at her most ridiculous.
There is not much new and surprising here, and it is pretty obvious how it is all going to work out from the beginning. But there are some fun moments and some touching moments that do make the movie worthwhile.
Some of Daphne's "mother moments" will be familiar to all of us. I have that dress hanging in my closet that my mom insisted was perfect for me and bought for meand which my husband announced was a fat-lady-grandma-dress (my thoughts exactly) and I only wore once (sorry, Mom). However many small similarities we may find in passing, the whole Daphne/Milly love-hate relationship is really over the top. I would have moved to Alaska long ago if my mother rearranged my knick-knacks and furniture every time she came over. But how controlling Daphne can be is not really the point of the movie.
To me, this film was ultimately more about what it means to really love another person. Daphne calls her love for her daughters "impossible love" because it is so hard to let go and watch them head for the edge of a proverbial cliff and not to stop them. That's what she feels her meddling and messing is all aboutprotecting and nurturing them. But a love that does not respect the uniqueness of its object is missing out on something. As Daphne continues to push horribly inappropriate Jason at Milly, she seems to be ignoring her daughter's spirit. You have to wonder if she really knows her at all.
It can serve as a good lesson to mothers everywhere. Respect may be a more important gift to give our daughterseven than devoted love. Allowing them to stumble and find their own way is gut-wrenching, but as long as it is not really a life-and-death situation it may be best to let them fall and pick themselves back up again. It's as true of learning to ride a bike as of learning to navigate interpersonal relationships. Falling down is pretty much inevitable, but those who love you will be there to support you and help put you back on your feet.
We can't always be present for our children when sorrow hitsthough in this movie Daphne makes one heck of an attempt to beand it can be hard to watch them learn lessons we have already learned. By loving them honestly for their strengths and foibles we can be that port in the storm without also being one more roadblock and annoyance that needs to be overcome.
And what about those times when you can't be there at all? I'm just at the beginning of that journey with my own children. Personally, when life has knocked me down one way or another, I've consistently turned to an even bigger and more powerful parent than my mom or dad. I was raised to understand that my heritage is truly divine and that I can turn to the ultimate Father/Mother for support and comfort, even for direction, when I need it most. What's great about looking to divine Love for answers is that She always knows exactly what is best for meno ifs, ands, or buts about it.
As my own daughters strike out on their own more and more, I know that I will be putting them in the care of our mutual Parent one step at a time and teaching them this same lesson. I'll do my best to love, respect, and support them, but God will always follow through with the best care and direction for us all.
And Daphne does finally reach a greater understanding of respect and genuine, not spirit-choking, love for Milly. It's not divine, but any means, but it's better. Getting a life of her own probably helps. In the end, everyone is happy and in love, just as you knew they would be 90 minutes earlier.
The word "hilarious" was repeated often by my fellow movie-goers as we left the theater. That may be a bit of an overstatement. I definitely had some good laughs, but Daphne ends up wearing one too many cakes. It was often a bit slapstick for my taste, though the audience loved it. One of the best parts of the movie was Gabriel Machtas adorable as a Labrador puppyand will make the movie worth the ticket price for many a young lady.
Taking into account that this movie well earns its PG-13 rating for sexual situations, conversations, and innuendo, it rates high on the chick-flick meter for a good night out with the girls.
Catch and Release (2006)
Typical romantic comedy, but still cute and worth seeing
The previews pretty much tell the whole plot. Gray Wheeler (Jennifer Garner) is holding a funeral for her fiancé, instead of a wedding, after he is killed in an accident on his bachelor party weekend. Los Angeles bad boy Fritz (Timothy Olyphant) comes in for the funeral and brings with him vast knowledge of the deceased's double life and child-bearing infidelities. Fritz and Gray don't think much of each other until they begin to get past appearances and stereotypes and appreciate what their mutual friend loved about the other.
While I've never been a huge Kevin Smith fan, probably based more on choice of material than anything else, he is delightful as the bumbling, guru-quoting friend Sam who takes Gray in as a roommate and provides intelligent comic relief, as well as being allowed some depth of character that is pleasant and surprising.
Spiritual significance is pretty light in this film. It's not going to make the world a better place, nor is it putting out a message that will improve the lives of theater-goers.
If I dig deep, the idea of "don't judge a book by its cover" would probably be our best spiritual theme. There's Grady, the dead fiancé, who appeared to be devoted and caring to Gray, but who really had a whole life she knew nothing about. Gray seems to be very simple and in control, but she has been holding back part of herself too. Fritz has been living as a "love 'em and leave 'em" California freewheeler, but there is a heart and soul in hiding. Sarcastic and wedding-gift-pilfering on the outside, Sam is actually guilt-ridden and grieving inside.
Pre-judging people, and being pre-judged in return, is something that goes on constantly in the world. The moment we meet, impressions are made, conclusions are drawn, and often that is all we have to go on. Clothing, hairstyle, weight, looks, everything gets thrown into the balance to create an image that is indeliblebut probably has little to do with the actual person in front of us.
General religious teaching on this front is fairly unified under a "judge not lest ye be judged" kind of theme. But isn't it just natural to want to make some kind of assessment of the people you meet? Some conclusions have to be drawn so we can remember that individual in the future.
What if those conclusions take on a more Golden Rule-based quality, instead of the judgmental one that human nature tends to lean toward? It is an on-going challenge for me, but I really make a concerted effort to see everyone around me as a divine creation with a mutual Father-Mother God that ultimately makes us brothers and sisters in this universe. I remind myself of this spiritual fact every morning. When I walk the dog through parts of our neighborhood that are under construction, I try to focus on each worker as being loved by that Parent and expressing talents he has inherited from that Source. In the grocery store, on the freeway, and yes, even in church, I try to look for the divine in each person I come into contact with.
There are times (okay, many times) when I'm not terribly successful. I've been known to call rude drivers nasty names or pre-judge someone in the grocery store. But the days that I stay on track and keep my thoughts on the spiritual truth of the universethat we are each God's and deserving of love and respectmy day is much more harmonious. Then I can hope to share and prosper that sense of harmony, instead of breeding more negative thoughts and behaviors.
Many of the characters in this film go through a transformation and prove that they can go beyond the front that they present to the worldwhether it would be seen as a good one or a bad one. Judgments are dropped and thought is opened. That's a good thing any day and not a bad message to leave the theater with, even if it is a bit of a stretch to find it.
An opening day closer to the Valentine's holiday would have probably been better for this sweet love-lost-and-love-found movie. All in all, the plot is pretty standard and the most you may leave the theater with is a major crush on Olyphant (count me in there). But if you'd rather not watch the most violent killers on the planet spend 90 minutes of machine gun fire trying to eliminate a nark, "Catch and Release" is a simple alternative. Men who sit through it just to please the woman in their life will surely earn brownie points. It's the next romantic comedy that's sure to run over and over on every estrogen related cable channel in existence.