The Secret of Kells

One of the most unique animated features in the digital animation era is The Secret of Kells.  Made by the Irish film studio, Cartoon Saloon, it tells a fictional story about the origin of the Book of Kells.  The Book of Kells is one of the most prized artifacts of early Irish history, dating back to the 800s.  It contains the gospels, elaborately illustrated like nothing ever seen before or since.

The visual style of the film is wonderfully derived from the Book of Kell’s illustrations.  There are beautiful symmetrical patterns, thick continuous lines and a variety of textures covering every bit of the screen.  It may sound like chaos in words, but it is absolutely beautiful on screen.  It looks like a wonderful blend of classic hand drawn animation, maybe even some water color textures, yet moves and feels smooth like digital renderings.  All the creativity and attention to every detail in this small budget film puts big animation studios to shame.

The story is that of a young orphan boy, Brendan (Evan McGuire), who lives with his uncle, Abbot Cellach (Brendan Gleeson).  The Abbot is a stern, hard working and quiet man who strives to keep Kells safe from the vikings who have been devastating the land all around.  To ensure Kells’ safety, a huge wall is being built around the city, and the Abbot lives in the center of Kells, in a tower tall enough to look over the wall.  When Brendan gets word that an old man, Brother Aiden (Mick Lally), is arriving to work on a book claimed to be so amazing it can turn sinners blind, he can’t resist a peek.  But it is blank.  Soon, to help create the legendary book, Brendan is recruited by Aiden to find berries for ink in the forest.  This means disobeying his uncle and sneaking out of Kells protective walls.  In the forest he meets Aisling (Christen Mooney), who helps him along the way.  But with the vikings drawing nearer, will the book and Brendan be safe?

While I loved the entire film, the scenes in the forest were my favorite.  Here, things become a little less rigid and much more organic, but still keeps to the overall style of the film.  More curves and water colors are used and less patterns and straight lines.  And Aisling (the only female character in the film) is a wonderful mixture of mythical, wise and wild, dashing up trees and cowering in the ancient ruins.

What I find very interesting is mixture of dogmas within the film, with no tension.  It isn’t said that the book will contain the gospel, but that it could make sinners blind.  We aren’t told exactly what Aisling is, but she is a deity of ancient Irish mythology.  And while we told that the Abbot fears pagans (which we assume the vikings, who only destroy, are), Aisling is a force of good.  Not many modern films can bring so many sides of history, legend and mythology together so cleanly and not receive any backlash.

I have to recommend The Secret of Kells to everyone.  Never before have I seen such unique animation!  There’s nothing for little ones to be afraid of, except possibly the vikings.  And I know some may not feel compelled to seek out an Irish film about Irish legends and mythology, but it really is wonderful and something fun to learn about.  Besides, it’s on Netflix instant right now and only 75 minutes long.

“Wait until you see the rest of my forest.”

Drag Me To Hell

Drag Me to Hell has become one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies.  It’s gotten to the point where if I find it on tv, I cannot turn it off.  The first time I saw it, I wasn’t sure if it would be a truly scary film that would give me nightmares or a campy modern eye-roller.  Happily, it lies in some beautiful spot in between.  It’s kinda scary, gives some great jump and shock moments and gets so outrageous you won’t know whether to laugh or look away in disgusted terror.  When I first borrowed this from Netflix, I held onto it for a whole week, just to show it to my when they visited.  Their reactions to the film were well worth it.

Christine Brown (Allison Lohman) is a normal young woman with her life going in all the right directions.  She has a supportive boyfriend, Clay (Justin Long), a good job at the bank and she’s in the middle of competing for a promotion.  When an elderly gypsy woman, Mrs Ganush (Lorna Raver) asks for another extension on her loan, Christine makes the tough decision to decline her.  The woman then causes a scene and later attacks Christine in her car, where she curses her.  Never cross a creepy old gypsy woman.  Soon Christine is plagued with nightmarish visions and shadows that seem to follow her.  Could the curse be real, or just superstition growing in Christine’s mind?

The old gypsy woman, complete with gooey false teeth and a dead eye, is wonderful fuel for ghoulish nightmares.  Not only is she creepy, but can attack viciously.  Her gross gummy mouth ends up on Christine in ways that you cannot believe, and usually won’t.  But that’s not the point, it is meant to gross you out, make you cringe and look away in horrified disbelief.  Or outrageous laughter.  God, I love it when she vomits maggots on Christine.

 Honestly, I love the outrageously gross moments and not always because I find them quite funny (at least after the initial viewing).  I think it’s a great use of horror that can balance surprisingly well between supernatural activity and blood chilling violence.  Best of all, there is a good amount of psychological horror also present in the film.  For a while, there’s the possibility that these events are only in Christine’s mind, the mystery grows and pulls us in well.  Small moments that may or may not be connected add so well to the feelings of uncertainty growing within Christine, and we feed off of them as well.

I won’t say Drag Me To Hell is Oscar worthy, it knows it’s not that kind of movie.  It’s a good horror story that isn’t afraid to get a little ridiculous.  Sam Raimi had fun making this film, and he knew exactly what he was creating.  It’s entertaining, pulls us in and lets us lose ourselves, kinda like going to a local haunted house.  It’s fun, some people may find it really scary, others might just laugh at the horror.  And either reaction is perfectly fine, as long as you’re having fun.

“I desire the soul of Christine Brown. We will feast upon it while she festers in the grave!”

Watchmen

Back in 2009, my husband was very excited for the opening of Watchmen.  In the past year, he had read the graphic novel (written by Alan Moore, art by Dave Gibbons) and we went to a late showing, though we’re usually matinee people.  I went into the film bind, only knowing it was a superhero movie with some good looking effects.  I never expected something so big, a characters so compelling, a plot so dense and an intelligently altered look at post WWII history.  Since seeing the film, I’ve read the graphic novel and only became more intrigued and found more respect for the film.

Watchmen takes place in an alternate 1985.  Costumed vigilantes have helped win WWII.  An experiment gone wrong has resulted in a super powerful, nearly god-like being, Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) who helps the United States win Vietnam.  After costumed vigilantes have been outlawed, the government and the people live in fear of nuclear disaster, as the Doomsday Clock sits at 5 minutes to midnight, and moves closer.

The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has just been murdered.  This sends rogue vigilante Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) out to figure out who and why.  He fears that someone is out wanting to murder other costumed heroes, so he warns his comrades: Dan Dreiberg aka Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson), Laurie Jupiter aka Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman) and Adrian Veidt aka Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), who owns one of the biggest companies in the world.  As Rorschach searches deeper, he discovers something bigger than a simple murder.

When Oscar season rolled around, Watchmen was completely snubbed.  Now, I wouldn’t give any of the acting major kudos, but visually, this was one of the best films of the year.  Sure, 2009 also boasted Avatar and District 9, but I believe Watchmen is at the same level of excellence.

So much that is beautiful in the graphic novel, is fleshed out unbelievably in the film.  Shots are set up straight out of individual panels.  Even senses of timing and anticipation are translated for the film’s advantage.  Some of the more fantastic scenes become as realistic on film as possible.  Dr. Manhattan’s transformation is a beautiful shocker that translates so well into film, as does his amazing construction on Mars.

Watchmen is perhaps the best graphic novel ever made.  To turn such a great work into film is a big task, but I think Zack Snyder did an excellent job here.  This film does the graphic novel justice, perfectly preserving the story, not shying away from the violence or adult themes, while honoring some of the most rich visual aspects of the original work.   While others may find Watchmen just another long, drawn out superhero movie, I believe it is a vastly underrated masterpiece.

“What happened to the American Dream?  It came true!  You’re lookin’ at it.”

Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart

In the spirit of honoring the Academy Awards, this review will focus on Bridges’ Oscar winning role, rather than the entire film.  This seems more appropriate for an Oscar focused blog, especially since Crazy Heart is a film driven and focused on Bridges’ performance.  In the film, Jeff Bridges plays Bad Blake, an aging, washed up, alcoholic country singer.

What many people remember most from Crazy Heart is Bridges singing and playing his the songs.  Now, I’ve listened to classic country music most of my life.  Country may be easier on the guitar, but they come so close to the heart that the singing cannot be faked.  Bridges captures this idea in his voice perfectly.  And it doesn’t matter whether he is drunk on stage or solemnly writing new songs on his porch, that country style brought on by heartache and hard times shines through as if he were channeling Hank Williams.

The most powerful things Bridges shows us about Blake are his low points.  Sure, he can remember to dedicate a song to people he met earlier that day, but he will be too busy drunkenly vomiting outside to sing the song.  When he quietly walks out of the concert with Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell, who also sings his own numbers), who was hoping Blake would do a duet with him, we feel a mutual shame and disappointed in him.  And when he loses a child as he is trying to satisfy his thirst for whiskey, we know that things have gone too far.  The half-drunk, limping desperation Bridges brings in his frantic search in Houston is heartbreaking.

I never believed Bad Blake was really a bad person, just a man who had made some bad decisions.  Perhaps earlier in his life, Bad was more appropriate, but who we are shown is a man stuck with an old name he cannot shake.  It seems to be one of the things keeping him in his rut.  As the film progresses, his atonement for the bad decisions he made becomes more fulfilled.  If there were doubts about Blake’s good side, they are washed away.

So far, this has been Bridges’ only Oscar win.  Since 1971, in The Last Picture Show, he has been nominated by the Academy for six acting nominations, three for lead actor and three for supporting.  His most recent nomination was in 2010 for playing Rooster Cogburn in True Grit.

If I wasn’t lied to, the Oscar statue I held back when I first began this project was intended to go to the winner of Best Actor of 2009.  I’m sure my fingerprints, along with countless others, were wiped clean before the ceremony, but it is still fun to think that I got to hold Jeff Bridges’ Oscar back when I was just hoping that it would go to him.

“Ain’t rememberin’ wonderful?”

Inglourious Basterds

More daring than a gritty war movie, is rewriting the history of WWII.  In Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, we are taken to Nazi occupied France where we meet SS officer Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), nicknamed The Jew Hunter.  The riveting and mesmerizing opening scene establishes a few things: 1) Hans is very smart.  2) He’s viciously ruthless.  3)  He enjoys a good chase, leaving Shoshanna (Mélanie Laurent) to run.

Four years later, Shoshanna is the owner of a movie theater in Paris, where she is being forced to host the premier of the latest Nazi propaganda film Nations Pride.  The star of the film, young Nazi veteran Pvt. Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl), lets his ego grow before his fame is known and tries to weasel a date Shoshanna.

Meanwhile, a band of American Jews, the Basterds, have been terrorizing the Nazis all across Europe.  Led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), they collect scalps of Nazis they kill and leave any survivors forever marked with a swastika on their foreheads.  When they hear that Hitler and other major leaders of the Nazi party will all be attending a movie premier in Paris, they concoct a plan with movie star Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) to get inside and set off explosives.  Little do they know that Shoshanna is planning to trap the Nazi’s within the theater and set the whole building on fire, with a spectacular surprise on the fourth reel.

If I wanted to compare the Oscars to a black tie affair, Tarantino always dresses his film in something slightly flashy and quirky, and is unwilling to compromise.  That’s what we love about his films and he fits right in, because he does this so well.  Here, he is turning WWII on its head, where a band of American Jews travel to Europe with a strict agenda to kick some Nazi ass and end up aiding in ending the war in a very different way than the history books read.  He also throws in his signature style of music and grind house inspired moments, like when we’re introduced to Hugo Stiglitz.  Even in this 1940’s setting, we don’t find these moments distracting because the whole film already has this quirky flare and each odd moment is done so quickly and cleanly.  To do this well takes practice, Tarantino has done a lot of that in his previous films.

Waltz is not a big, threatening looking guy, but he makes Hans look like a force to be reckoned with.  He is cunning, speaks many languages and is always looking out for himself, especially towards the end.  What I think really tipped the scales and made him the indisputable winner for best supporting actor was his ability to also be so funny.  That first scene is just starting to become very tense, and then he pulls out that ridiculous pipe and we can’t help but laugh, even though we’re nervous.  Right there, Hans puts on a funny hat and doesn’t even realize it, which makes it all the better.  And I dare anyone not to burst out laughing the first time they see the “Oooh, that’s a bingo!” scene.  I can’t remember another time that one simple line made me laugh so hard.

Do most people notice how much this story seems to circulate around the film industry?  The main plot is to trap all the Nazi leaders in a theater during their movie premier, in a fire fueled by highly combustible film.   There’s also Hammersmark, an actress who helps the Basterds gain entrance to the premier.  Then there’s the star of Nation’s Pride, who thinks that because he’s a big enough war hero to have his own Nazi propaganda film he can be with Shoshanna.  Thing is, all these movies, their stars and their political agendas need a place to be seen.

Even though Shoshanna is forced to hold the premier for Nation’s Pride, she ultimately decides what will be shown and how everyone will leave.  Tarantino makes a movie theater the ultimate weapon to end the war.  Imagine if more theater owners were so bold, you really have no idea how much your average theater employee can alter your visit.  I was part of that rat-race for four summers.  We really decide how much butter is on your corn or if your movie will be in the nice theater, the one that smells weird or the one with noisy crickets living behind the screen.  One of my favorite moments at work was to stand along the side of the theater, in the shadows and watch people like you during the best moments in the movies.  Why else do you think they make us wear such dark colors?  Honestly, I loved to see your reactions, some of you are quite entertaining.  That close-up shot of Hitler laughing like a maniac; I’ve seen many of you make similar faces.  And I think Tarantino knows it too.

“You know how you get to Carnegie Hall, don’t ya?  Practice.”

The Hurt Locker

I would dare to say that I’ve reviewed close to a hundred war movies on this blog.  Most of those deal with WWII, usually with a sense of pride and valor.  Coming in second would be Vietnam, with a more jaded and anti-war agenda.  Then there were some dealing with WWI, the Civil War and other wars spread throughout the history of the world.  Until The Hurt Locker, there was not one good movie made about the war going on in Iraq.

In a way, it seems that a typical war film has gone out of style at the Oscars.  Since 1998’s Saving Private Ryan, the only other nominated film focusing on soldiers in action was Letters From Iwo Jima, and that took on the Japanese perspective of WWII.  More often, we find war just to be the background and setting for twenty-first century films, like The Pianist or Atonement.

What I’m trying to say is that it takes a leap of faith and some real balls to make gritty modern war film these days.  Those balls belong to Kathryn Bigelow, who fearlessly brings us a story of men on an army bomb squad in an Iraqi city.  There, everyone is a possible enemy and nearly anything could be a possible bomb.  We quickly sense how nerve-wracking this life is.

It may look like fun at first, playing with the cool little robot to get a look at the possible explosive from a safe distance, but we quickly realize how things can go dangerously wrong in a flash.  The term kill-zone is used in the most accurate sense.  It’s scary to think of that as just part of a normal on-the-job vocabulary.

The Hurt Locker does some of the best moments of suspense in recent film history.  Paraphrasing Hitchcock, it is not the sound of the bang that brings suspense, it’s the anticipation.  Over and over throughout the film, we’re watching men defuse bombs.  That in itself screams suspense, but add in a reckless character, and his crew scouting out onlookers on balconies and rooftops wondering if any of them hold the detonator.  You won’t be able to take your eyes off the screen and won’t even realize that you’re holding your breath.

Men like Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) realize the constant danger far too well and becomes obsessed with the fact that he could be dead at any moment.  It’s not healthy to dwell on the risks of this job too much.  On the other hand, it doesn’t help that Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) puts himself in unnecessary danger.

James focuses on being on the brink of demise in a different way.  He thrives on it.  Like an artist in the zone, he is at his finest when he is trying to figure out how to defuse a bomb.  Simply put, he is a real expert about things that are meant to blow up and kill him.  There’s a feeling of swagger and power about him and he loves wearing the padded suit.  Besides taking rough chances, he is an excellent soldier.  Though it’s what he is best at, James isn’t the kind of guy who cares about medals or rank.  Under his bed, he keeps bits of bombs he’s defused, “things that nearly killed me” he calls them.  Back home he has baby son and ex-wife, those are the things he doesn’t know how to handle, so he keeps coming back to Iraq for more.

“The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.”

District 9

District 9 is one of those rare science fiction films that can sneak into the Best Picture category.  It is here because the film is so much more than an alien flick, but evokes a powerful sense of drama about humanity and discrimination while using a wide variety of narrative techniques.

Two decades back, an alien spacecraft descended over Johannesburg, South Africa with a healthy population of aliens inside.  The spacecraft has not moved since and the aliens, referred to as Prawns because of their crustacean attributes, have been contained by the government into refugee camps that have deteriorated into slums called District 9.  When Multi-National United decides to launch an operation to evict all the aliens, the man leading the operation, Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley), comes in contact with a bio-chemical substance that slowly transforms him into an alien.  His service and loyalties to MNU are disregarded as he becomes hunted to become a test subject for his new alien powers, mostly being able to use their advanced weapons.  The only chance for escape and survival are within District 9, where one alien and his son have been preparing to leave Earth.

Many science fiction films require some sort of prologue so the viewer can understand the alien situation at hand.  By making District 9 look like a documentary film, it’s more acceptable for all of this setup to be thoroughly explained.  Between interviews, old news “footage” and a variety of surveillance cameras, the whole film, especially the beginning, is very quick and informative, but does not lose us for a moment.

All these different camera techniques evoke a great sense of realism that can be difficult to achieve well in a science fiction film.  Gritty news and documentary footage gives the viewer a false sense of authority about the situations shown, while the use of typical narrative techniques bring us closer to the characters and emotional story as well.  Never in the film did I feel an awkward jump from one media to the next.  Editing these multiple camera techniques together so that they flow seamlessly is quite a feat, I honestly wish District 9 had won that Oscar.

The way Wikus acts when he knows he is on camera makes us think that he is not an actor.  During interviews he’s nervous, fidgety and a little goofy knowing he is in a spotlight.  On location in District 9, he tries to keep this air of an informative performer for the camera until his contact with the alien substance.  It’s hard to fake a smile when your body has entered fight-or-flight mode and you’re puking a black liquid.  Soon, his documentary personality is gone and we believe we are really watching a man deal with the horrors of turning into an alien.  Between the way Wikus talks straight to us for the documentary and watching his painful descent into an alien body that pushes him out of society, we form a real connection to him and become one of the few who have sympathy for him

I’ve seen District 9 three times now, and each time has been a totally engrossing experience.  The realism, violence and camera-splattering gore still makes me gasp in the most wonderful ways.  There are very few films of the twenty-first century that I can enjoy as much as District 9.  Any documentary style or science-fiction film needs to look back at this film’s brilliant techniques and narrative style.

“He was an honest man, and he didn’t deserve any of what happened to him.”

Up

Opening weekend for Up must have inspired Take Your Grand-kids to the Movies day, making my husband and I stick out like not-childlike, but not-wrinkly thumbs.  As we settled in between the aching joints and the bouncing sugar highs, I cried with the grandparents and squealed in delight with the kiddies.  Somewhere along the way, we all found a new sense of adventure and I wanted a balloon.

The story is about Carl Fredrichson (Edward Asner), an elderly man who has longed for adventure all his life.  His idolization of the explorer, Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer) is how he met his wife, Ellie, as a child.  We get a quick scene of the two bonding over Ellie’s Adventure Book and a promise to go to Paradise Falls one day, then we’re shown a short montage of their lives together as a married couple.  It’s in these first few minutes of the film that we understand and bond with Carl, through the highs and lows of his life with Ellie.  In mere moments, we see dreams grow and then become quietly crushed.  We see the couple save change for their big trip to Paradise Falls, but life just gets in the way and soon that dream is forgotten too.  As the sun is setting on their time together, Carl tries to make that big adventure come true for Ellie, but time runs out. That quick look at Carl and Ellie’s life together is one of the most emotionally poignant moments I’ve ever experienced in film, animated or otherwise.

After Ellie is gone, Carl’s life looks so drained and boring.  All around his beautifully colored house, which he associates directly to Ellie, there’s construction going on and swirling dust.  It seems the construction manager is just waiting for Carl to either die or slip up so he can take the land and build on it.  After Carl panics and hits a man with his cane trying to save his precious mailbox (it has he and Ellie’s names and hand prints!), they find a way to force Carl into a retirement home.  But the night before he is to be picked up, Carl hatches a crazy plan to strap thousands of helium filled balloons to his house and fly it to Paradise Falls.

Here’s the thing about the magic of a floating house, no one cares how improbable it is.  We love Carl, we want him to escape and find his adventure.  And the mix of beautiful colors soaring across the sky and the perfect musical score only elevates the wonder and happiness we feel.  It’s perfect and even my cynical mind didn’t doubt this wonderful event for a moment.

Problem is, Carl has a stowaway.  Russell (Jordan Nagai), an enthusiastic Wilderness Explorer, had come knocking on his door trying to achieve his Assisting the Elderly badge only to be sent on a Snipe hunt (the same kind my dad would send me on!).  Now Carl must fly his house to Paradise Falls and watch over Russell.  Along the way, as they walk the house across a South American tepui, they encounter a rare giant bird, Kevin, a pack of talking dogs and their master.

In my opinion, Up is the most beautifully, thoughtfully animated film by Pixar yet.  The characters have that chunky feel, based off simple shapes with details built on.  A great example is Carl’s ear, get a good look at it.  The color coordination throughout the film is striking with all the bright and happy colors.  We see them on the house, on the balloons, on Russell and on Kevin.  When we get to South America, the landscape of the tepui  is amazing.  Some of the artists from Pixar actually traveled to South America to see a tepui to bring real life details into the landscape shown in Up.  It is a new world to explore, full of whimsically shaped rocks, odd and beautiful plants, a giant waterfall and a maze called “the twisty rocks.”  It’s evident that the artists brought back some amazing details from their own adventure.

What we find in Up is a story about adventure in all forms.  Carl has this need to fulfill his childhood promise to Ellie, even if she’s already passed, not realizing the grand adventure he has already given her.  When Russell comes along, there’s prospect of a new chapter for Carl, but he can’t let go of Ellie, at least not without her permission.  What we walk away with after seeing Up is that adventure doesn’t always come from dangerous landscapes in far away places, it comes from being a part of other people’s lives and just living your own.

“Adventure is out there!”

Avatar

Back in December 2009, my husband and I went out to dinner and then strapped into three hours of 3D mayhem with James Cameron’s overrated Avatar.  In no way do I encourage the 3D movie industry that has plagued theaters recently, but I am lucky to be one of those who is not hindered by the 3D experience.  Clearly, I see that in 3D films, everything is dimmed and colors are not nearly as bright, but it does not give me headaches or makes me queasy in the slightest.  The effects, 3D and otherwise, of Avatar were appreciated.  However, the recycled plot really brought me down.

In a way, I have to applaud Cameron’s technique on making a 3D movie not look so dingy.  The use of bright colors and contrast went a long way in the theater.  It was still saturated, but the contrast makes it more difficult to detect.  And with so much action constantly going on, my eyes were glued so well that they vetoed my begging bladder for the last half of the film.  Damn that 32 ounce soda.

Oh yeah, there was a plot to Avatar right?  Somewhere between all the visuals they snuck in some Dances with Wolves meets FernGully: The Last Rainforest story set on the futuristic planet of Pandora.  Don’t open that box, you don’t know the power of unobtanium!

Sorry, let me start at the beginning; seems that military forces from Earth have come to Pandora to learn about its inhabitants, the Navi, and drill its natural resource, unobtanium.  On the Earth base, there is a clash between the military personnel, lead by a scar-headed, G.I. Joe action figure model, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), and the “egghead” scientists lead by Grace (Sigourney Weaver).  It’s your typical brains vs brawn approach to how to handle this new planet.

Plot structure dictates that the protagonist must be able to have his foot in both courts, so bring in Jake (Sam Worthington), a disabled marine whose recently deceased  identical twin brother was a scientist on the Avatar program.  How convenient.  Rather than toss out the Na’vi body government money has made for his brother, Jake simply replaces him, with no training or scientific knowledge of Pandora or the Na’vi to aid him.  Grace isn’t happy about bringing a jar-head in to do her research, and Quaritch is excited to have a man he can trust on the inside.  Jake quickly gets a sort of double-agent agenda, do the Avatar program, but report to Quaritch about how to overrule the Na’vi.  When Jake gets lost in the jungle and eventually becomes accepted by an entire Na’vi tribe, falling in love with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), the king’s daughter, and learning that unobtanium is the life force of the planet, his agenda changes.  He has to help the Na’vi defend their planet.

There is no doubt that all the astounding visuals are huge technological achievements for the film industry.  Huge kudos to Mr. Cameron there.  But honestly, after that first viewing it becomes a novelty.  Once I’m over the pretty colors and flying mountains, I yearned to feel like I have for some real movie moments that were naturally beautiful.  There is sense of adventure I always feel watching the helicopter first land in Jurassic Park, with the jungle and waterfall behind it.  The buffalo stampede in Dances with Wolves is a heartpounding experience that leaps off the screen without 3D.  The sprawling deserts in Lawrence of Arabia have this majestic feeling of vastness and being that I just don’t find in Avatar.  Even Peter O’Toole’s camel ranks higher than that neon pterodactyl.

It is not enough for a film to be a wonderful visual overload and leave me hanging for that emotional connection or sense of adventure.  I knew the plot structure too well, therefore the only surprises were for my eyes and not my mind or heart.  In the climatic battle, I had a moment in the theater where I stepped back from the action and asked when the chick with the helicopter would make a surprise attack for the good guys…and there she was.  You’re not supposed to let me be able to step out of the moment and predict that Mr. Cameron.  Big no-no.

“I see you.”

An Education

In today’s society, we are conditioned to assume that any adult man offering a ride to a teenage girl is a predator.  In An Education, it seems Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is not completely blind to those precautions when she is approached by David (Peter Sarsgaard) in his sports car.  He explains that, as a music lover, he just wants to make sure her cello does not get damaged in the pouring rain, so he offers a ride for the instrument, trading cash as insurance, while she walks beside the car.  Smooth.  After less than a block of intelligent conversation about classical music, Jenny decides to get in the car and arrives safely at home minutes later.  With that safe arrival comes a bond of trust, which can mean everything to a teenage girl.  And when David just happens to run into Jenny again with an invitation to a classical concert, how can a girl say no?

The film is an adaptation of Lynn Barber’s memoir of the same name where she details her teenage love affair with a much older man.  To really believe that David and Jenny will have some happily ever after is completely naive.  This is not a cheap vampire fantasy.  Yet, the film is so good at making this happy ending look tempting.  David actually likes being with Jenny.  He has a charm that makes us believe all his actions, including some self control.  That only makes Jenny feel safer and let him go further.

Since Jenny is only sixteen, surely her parents could intervene and stop this relationship.  Thing is, though they only have love and hope for their daughter, the parents are completely naive and unworldly.  When they meet David, he puts on the charm, looks like a real gentleman and seems to only have decent, platonic intentions with their daughter.  Within the first minutes of meeting them, David actually gets an extension on Jenny’s curfew.  Surely he can talk dear old dad into letting him take Jenny to Paris.

As we watch this relationship continue, we can’t always do the tsk-tsk at Jenny.  She is using David almost as much as he is using her.  How else is a middle-class teenage girl going to get into these concerts, fine restaurants and see the a more cultured world.  The boys her age are a bore and can barely make conversation over cheap coffee.

What is most detrimental to Jenny is the prospect that she can just marry David and forget about going to Oxford.  The way she sees it, with prospects of a man to take her to all the high culture things she’d have to work for, what’s the point of school?  Jenny only sees old, sad looking, unglamourous women who have received higher education, and what girl wants to end up like her tight-laced school teacher?  Her parents are no help in this idea either, expressing financial relief to the idea of marriage instead of college.  But what’s the cost of putting security in her future with David rather than pursuing an education?

This is one of those films that all young women should see.  I try not to be too cynical, but rather than continue the asinine fantasy of Team Edward, we need to realize that if a man seems too good to be true, do not pursue.  But if you do, as many girls have and will continue to do, appreciate the valuable education.

“You’re my father again now, are you?  And what were you when you encouraged me to throw my life away?  Silly schoolgirls are always getting seduced by glamorous older men, but what about you two?”