Epic

Those familiar with my writing, would know that I have the softest of spots for this genre of cinema.  It takes a lot to make a quality animation movie.  And the least obvious aspect is probably the quality of animation.  I say that because in this day and age, with the amount of technology that one has access to, anyone can come up with animation of reasonable quality.

Les Misérables

5 volumes.  48 books. 325 chapters. 1500 pages (English unabridged), 1900 pages (French Unabridged). A novel that is 150 years old.  A story that is set in a period that is between 190 to 175 years in the past.  All the elements that add to a simple word that most of us associate with near perfection – CLASSIC.

 

In Time

It is the year 2026 and the global currency is not longer dollars or euros or pounds or dinars or rupees. It is time. In seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years. So if you want to travel by bus for a journey that takes 2 hours to walk, then you need to pay 2 hours as the fare for your ticket. Interesting right? You are born with a time frame of 25 years in your bank. Beyond 25 you don’t age a day. But you start eating away into the 1 hour that is provided for you in your account. For anything more, you need to work. And work really hard. Needless to say, you are paid in time. All of this is recorded in a chip that is built into your left arm which starts counting down from the instance that you complete 25 years of age. It is as if a bolt of energy passes through you and your clock suddenly starts counting down from 1 year.


In all of this, there are the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys are of course poor and stay in Zone 12 and have to work their way upwards to the Greenwich Zone or something like that. Those are the rich guys and ergo the bad guys. Sounds familiar right? Same old story really. Just that the currency has been changed to time and the standard policeman has been replaced by a time keeper. No points for really guessing the story and how it will finish in about 15 minutes into the movie. So I am not really going to waste my time or your time in describing the rest of the story.

Directed by Andrew Niccol (Gattaca / Lord of War), In Time is probably a serious waste of precious time – as ironic as it may seem. It lacks anything innovative despite a track record that Niccol has of giving us reasonably interesting movies. He does give us some interesting chase sequences but nothing which is brilliant and makes you want to sit upright in your seat. Just the same old boring stuff.

He doesn’t have much of support from the cast either. Never been a Justin Timberlake fan. Guess he is a director’s actor only. Been a fan of Amanda Seyfried but she surprisingly fails miserably in this one. I wonder if this years Razzies had these 2 performances which are outstandingly bad very honestly. The support cast including the otherwise decent Cillian Murphy is significantly below par.

Overall quite a disaster of a movie which would explain why it didn’t do too well across the board. I for one managed to sit through it. But couldn’t find anything great. Therefore 4 on 10. One doesn’t need to push for an opportunity to watch it – seriously.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi775265305/

Letters to Juliet

Gary Winick is the director of chick flicks such as 13 going on 30 and Bride Wars. Both of which were movies that would barely manage to make the cut. He also did Charlotte’s Web which was more in the kiddie genre and 6 other movies that I haven’t seen or heard of. But with Letters to Juliet, he kind of gets his direction to the proverbial next level. He does get it soppy and a bit hard to believe in between but gets the movie to feel quite good overall.

The first thing he does is get the story right. Now how many of us would have heard about the Secretaries of Juliet? I know I did not know about them. I am not a shining example of knowing everything (although I would love to believe so) but it would be fair to assume that most people did not know about the concept and it was therefore a novel story in the first place. People from all over the world can send letters to Casa di Giulietta / Juliet’s House, Via Cappello, 23, Near Piazza delle Erbe, Verona, Italy and a team of volunteers sit down at the end of every day to answer each one of them. A practice that has been in place for over 70 years today.

Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) bumps into the concept and therefore into Isabella (Luisa Ranieri), Francesca (Marina Massironi), Donatella (Lidia Biondi), Maria (Milena Vukotic) & Angelina (Luisa De Santis) who have been volunteering as the secretaries of Juliet for quite some time now. Sophie is visiting Verona for a pre-honeymoon of sorts with her husband to be – Victor (Gael García Bernal) – a superb chef but a person who doesn’t really know how to take care of Sophie. Needless to say, Sophie starts drifting away from him. The secretaries offer her an avenue to take her mind off Victor and she bumps into a letter that was left in the wall 50 years back. She does take a chance to reply to the letter – just to check on what could happen. And before you know it, Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) who is pushing 70 currently, arrives in Verona with her grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan). Thus begins the search for Lorenzo Bartolini – Claires long lost love of 50 years.

Letters to Juliet is a lovely movie to catch up with on a lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon when you are all cuddled up in bed with your boyfriend. As mentioned earlier, it does get a bit soppy in between and the love story between Chris and Sophie is expected but comes in a bit too fast for my comfort. But Gary Winick, more than makes up in the other parts. There is a good bit of Italian humour thrown in and the performances are also quite good. Vanessa Redgrave is stunning in her role of Claire. And I have previously sung enough praises of Amanda Seyfried who continues to be one of the better actresses in recent times. Worth a dekko for sure. 6 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1896810265/

Mamma Mia!

I wonder how Mamma Mia! did when it was launched a couple of years back in India. I thought I was one of the few people who was unable to watch it then. But I am guessing it should have. I mean it is as good as a Bollywood love story – only much bolder, much more slickly made, much much much much better acting talent on display and much more ABBA thrown in for good measure.


Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is all of 20 (and I challenge someone to believe that!!!! With her face she doesn’t look a day over 15 – but in the real world she will be 25 in a month). She has been bought up on a Greek island by her single mother, Donna (Meryl Streep). She is about to get married in a few days to Sky (Dominic Cooper – who is also her boyfriend in the real world). But she is a confused soul. She feels a void in her life. She is troubled with a question – Who will walk her down the aisle? Who will give her away? The worry is not that she doesn’t have a father. The worry is she doesn’t know who her father is. Its Donna’s well kept secret all these years.

But the wily Sophie digs around and finds her mother’s old diary – coincidentally of course. She traces the diary back to 20 years ago and is now even more confused. She could have been fathered by one of 3 possible men that her mother was seeing at that time. Now Donna was not promiscuous in any manner. She just moved out of failed relationships much quicker than anyone else. So now, Sophie has zeroed down to one of 3 possibilities – Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) – an adventurous writer, Sam (Pierce Brosnan) – an architect & Harry (Colin Firth) – a extremely successful financial advisor of sorts. Obviously her mother will not hear any of it an so without a choice, Sophie – to the background of “I have a dream” – sends across invitations on her mother’s behalf to all of them – What’s to lose anyways?

The movie unfolds at a really solid pace after this. Mind you, I have only written about the first 10-15 mins till now. Mamma Mia! is a beautifully made movie, with a generous dressing of ABBA. Almost every ABBA number worth its salt and even not worth its salt finds a place either through normal dialogues or full fledged songs. And mind you – all songs are not the studio versions but covered by the actors themselves. Simply amazing I say!!! I picked up the soundtrack much before the movie (a quizzer’s habit) and was floored with the voices of Streep, Walters, Seyfried and Brosnan. Thanks to DVD – I have seen the movie as well now.

No point in waxing eloquent about the seasoned Meryl Streep, Julie Walters, Stellan Skarsgard, Pierce Brosnan or Colin Firth, all of who have very rarely or never disappointed on screen. Who stands out is Amanda Seyfried. She seems to have come a really long way from her days of portraying the bimbo Karen Smith in Mean Girls. Mental note made to watch Letters to Juliet which is her latest flick. She seems to be very comfortable on screen and most importantly not over awed by the really huge stars. Direction was pretty much spot on with very little loose ends towards the second half. Phyllida Lloyd comes on tops in her first serious attempt to date. Overall a 7 on 10. Must must watch.