Provoked

Provoked, the true story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a Punjabi woman who leaves India to marry her British-Indian husband. For ten years she suffers his abuse, mental, physical, and sexual.

In an attempt to prevent him from chasing her, she tries to burn his legs, and succeeds in giving him fatal burns, for which she is sentenced to life imprisonment. The efforts of a team of dedicated activists allow her story to come to light, and her sentence to finally be remanded to the over 3 years she had already spent in jail.

Aishwarya Rai plays her so sensitively, evoking such emotion, her facial features perfectly reflecting the turmoil of her soul. A touching movie - brought tears to my eyes.

Look into my eyeball

Along Came Polly, a funny romantic comedy about Reuben meeting and falling for Polly, a woman with a fear of committment, two weeks after finding his wife in bed with another man on their honeymoon. Loved it.

(The eyeball quote is by Claude, the Frenchman that seduced his wife.)

I carry your heart

In Her Shoes, a wonderfully emotional movie about two sisters, so diametrically opposite, and yet so much the same. Maggie, the wild and crazy one, so spontaneous, thoughtless, and carefree. Rose, straight-laced, responsible, a lawyer, treats herself to one beautiful pair of shoes after the other, but never goes out to show them off.

A story of desperation, of self-esteem, and finally of acceptance. My favorite lines are at the end, a poem by E. E. Cummings:

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear;
and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)
i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

Slow Motion Raindrops

The most wonderful cinematography. The coolest scenes. Like the bubble of air surrounding Ben and Bridget in the middle of a hurricane as he reconnects with her after a crazy two days on the road with the precocious Sarah. And my favorite, the slow motion raindrops falling on tires and wheels seen from above as Ben and Sarah run over them on their way to shelter.

Forces of Nature, a romantic comedy about the choices we make in life, about love, commitment, spontaneousness, regret. The first half of the movie is depressing, Ben seeing one example after another of how marriage for so many people was a mistake. And then so many things go wrong as they race the clock on their way to Georgia, while Nature, in all its various forms, conspires against them.

What would have happened if Ben had stayed with Sarah, the wacky, unpredictable, amazing Sarah? Instead of staying with his first choice, the safe, respectable, conventional Bridget. Is the first choice always the best? I don't know, but I do know its a tough choice.

Nasty vs. Horrible

Alien vs. Predator Requiem: not sure why we keep going to see these movies. Pretty much after Aliens (which was fantastic) it has been downhill ever since.

Predictable, lots of dying, not much suspense, and a weak storyline characterize all these sequels. Guess I'm just a sucker for alien creatures.

Gee, I seem to be seeing a lot of movies lately. I wonder why...

Treasure Hunt - Again

Got to see National Treasure - Book of Secrets. Pretty good movie, with everything from kidnapping the president to finding the secret compartment in the Queen's desk, and long forgotten hidden caves with cities of gold. Not quite as good as the first movie, but still not too shabby.

Will Smith and Zombies

I Am Legend, quite amazing how they make New York look empty. My god Will Smith works out, talk about muscles. Anyway, cool movie, if you like suspense and nasty looking creatures chasing you in the dark. Or chasing someone else preferably.

Charlotte's Daemon

My Daemon

Charlotte's Dream World

The Golden Compass, a wonderful story of a strange world where everyone's soul is physically manifest as a creature, a bird, a lynx, or any of dozens of different types. A world where the proud ice-bears fight with terrifying power, where fantastical machines and futuristic blimps roam the skies, and where witches fly without broomsticks. A world of stunning beauty. Don't miss it.

The only downer was nobody warned us that it was only part 1 - the movie ends rather abruptly right in the middle of the story. Will have to see part 2 of course.

Enchanted

Kids drag us off to see another Disney movie. Is a bit too sugary for my taste. Lots of singing and dancing and big scenes with hundreds of people. And stereotypical fair maidens and evil witches and dashing princes.

And of course happily-ever-afters.

The kids love it naturally.

The Mist

The Mist.

Scary. Great.

And yeah, I don't like spoiling movies by giving too much away. Go watch it.

Rachel Nichols

P2.

Tense. Great.

Bee Movie

Charlotte gets a phone call from a boy at school. "Would you like to go and see a movie?"
"Yes, I would love to."

She gets dressed up and is all excited. "Dad, I think this my first date!"

"Not really Charlotte. Just relax and have fun. You're only 11."