Random Movie Review: 127 Hours

127 Hours (2010)
Starring: James Franco, Amber Tamblyn
















I'm assuming most of you that read this are aware of what this movie is about. I had intended to watch this movie for a long time, but couldn't bring myself to watch, knowing what he has to do to get himself out of his situation. I was assured again and again that the scene in question was not as gruesome as I feared and not to be worried. Let this be my warning: IT IS PRETTY HARD TO WATCH.

*WARNING: NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH 
Let me back up a bit. The film is the real-life story of outdoor adventure-seeker, Aron Ralston. In 2003, Aron takes off for an off-road biking/hiking/rock exploration adventure through a Utah Canyon. This type of adventure is normal for him, so he doesn't think to notify anyone where he is going. Along the way he meets two young women and shows them the thrill of a lifetime when they drop into water from a tight spot in the rocks. He takes off on his own again, promising to meet them at a party. As he runs through the canyon, he falls with a boulder and has his arm trapped against the side of the canyon by the rock. The remainder of the movie ticks away the 127 hours he is trapped, during which he films short messages to his family on his camcorder and becomes increasingly delirious from lack of water. His hallucinations are interspersed with scenes enacting memories. After filming his goodbyes, he slips into a hallucination of a young boy that he does not recognize, but feels is the son he does not yet have. With all of his remaining energy, he breaks the bones in his forearm and uses his cheap multi-tool to sever his arm. As mentioned, this scene is hard to NOT be gross, but it was certainly worse than I had heard (or maybe I'm just more squeamish than I thought.) The end of the film shows shots of the real-life Ralston with his now wife and kids, as well as enjoying skiing and other outdoor sports.

The movie itself was good, despite being in the middle of James Franco deciding he was the best thing to happen to film and/or tv. He did hold his own as basically the only actor onscreen for the majority of the movie. It was emotional and well done, but certainly not the perfect movie. I'll give it a 7/10

Random Movie Review: Sophie's Choice

Sophie's Choice (1982)
Starring: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol

















I think we've all heard of or know about what Sophie's choice in this movie was.  What I didn't know was that it wouldn't be revealed until much later in the movie than I would have thought. Having kids, I had to bring myself to watch this movie, but I thought I should since it's a 'classic'. Having just watched a war movie, then a post-war movie, I suppose I must watch a post-post-war movie, whatever that is.

Stingo, an aspiring writer moves into a New York City apartment and quickly encounters the upstairs neighbours Sophie and Nathan. The initial argument between the couple almost brings Stingo to leave. Instead, however, the couple apologizes to him and they quickly become friends. Stingo slowly learns about Sophie's struggles in Poland and how the couple met once she came to the USA, but Sophie holds back some information. After meeting Nathan's brother, Stingo realizes it isn't only Sophie that is holding back information. Nathan's claims to high education and research turn out to be paranoid schizophrenia. Stingo and Sophie escape to a hotel during a bout of rage from Nathan and Sophie reveals to Stingo that she was forced to choose between which of her children would live and which would die while in a concentration camp.

The movie has been parodied in pop culture on many different TV shows and movie scenes. The term Sophie's choice has become synonymous with choosing between two things (in most situations with satire/sarcasm. ie: 'I can't decide between the fish and the duck' 'a real Sophie's choice you've got on your hands'.) Not that making a hard choice is a new thing in literature or media or anything like that

Meryl Streep's acting was at its best in this role. One of those performances that if you didn't know who she was, you would certainly think she was actually a Polish women struggling to learn English. The inflection and pauses were great. As was quickly becoming evident at the time, Meryl Streep is one of the premiere actresses of the last four decades.This movie, combined with Kramer vs. Kramer and The Deer Hunter would prove to be a strong start to a long and illustrious career. The choosing a kid to die part unsettled me a little, but not enough to drop below a 7.75/10.

Random Movie Review: Europa Europa

Europa Europa (1990)
Starring: Marco Hofschneider, Julie Delpy, Solomon Perel

















Europa Europa follows a Jewish boy Solomon(Solly) and his family in Nazi Germany. After his sister is murdered by Nazis, he and his family move to Poland. When the war starts and the family gets split up, Solly decides to try to pass as a German to survive. He is a Russian-German translator for German soldiers and eventually joins the Hitler Youth. Throughout his journey, he runs into issues concerning hiding his Jewish heritage whenever there is a medical examination or any other situation where anyone might notice his circumcision. At the last minute during combat he runs across the lines onto the Soviet side and surrenders himself. Brought back to their camp, he's about to be shot until his estranged brother runs over to find him.

This is based on a true story, which makes it that much more astounding. I can't believe that as humans, we could ever do anything like what happened in that war(although not naive enough to think that's the only instance of such atrocity). I also can't imagine that anyone made it through, especially in such a way as this. I suppose group mentality can go a long way and I've never been in such a position and hopefully never will.

As a side note, the bottom of this poster appears to say that it gets four stars for being 1/2 of a harrowing true story. I enjoyed this movie and I always like war movies that tell a story to do with something other than the fighting part. Not that I mind war movies themselves, but there are so many of them that a change in pace is nice. I'll go 7.25/10 for this.

Random Movie Review: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007 French w/ English Subtitles)
Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze















Whoa, I've started to compile a backlog of movies to review, so I should hop on that and churn out as many as I can this week to catch up.

This lovely drama-docu-biopic is based on the book of the same name (le scaphandre et le papillon, en francais), details the life of Jean-Dominique Bauby a hot to trot editor who suffers a life-altering stroke. The stroke sends him into a condition called 'locked-in', where he is able to think normally, but loses control of all bodily functions except the ability to blink his eyelid. With the help of a speech therapist who has developed a system to communicate using a board of letters sorted from most commonly used to least, he begins to be able to express himself again. He employs a very patient note-taker, Claude, who pain-stakingly dictates his story, which becomes the book.

The use of flashback and POV filming make this incredibly interesting and opens up a whole new cinematic style that is breathtaking. Parts of the movie were hard to watch and it did lag a bit in other times, but as a whole, it is quite enjoyable. A note on the Wikipedia page said that Johnny Depp was originally tagged for the role. I am so happy that quirky self-righteous guy was busy doing something else (note: I enjoyed his work before, but he either oversaturated himself or believed too much that he needed to be ever so quirky in every role and I gradually stopped caring).

As it stands, however, he did not leave his mark on this film and it gets a solid 8.25/10 from me.