Becoming Jane

Jane Austen was not your typical English girl for her era; she was reaching the age that society deemed she’d need to be married or she’d never be married, she had suitors she didn’t want, and she wanted to write. However, soon Jane meets Tom Lefroy, an impulsive poor lawyer and the two fall madly in love. Their romance meets rejection at every turn and Jane begins one of her most popular novels Pride & Prejudice based on the experience.

Becoming Jane is yet another in a long line of Jane Austen movies, though the obvious bent in this particular film is to show the similarities between the life of Jane Austen and her fiction. While I cannot say this film is a failure, as obviously what occurs in the film is framed on Austen’s life, but I can say that the film was not as engaging as I hoped it would be.

What struck me as strange was that one of the issues I had with Becoming Jane was an issue I had with Brokeback Mountain: the two romantic leads meet each other and without any real impetus or motivation besides the writer needing a story beat, they are suddenly, madly, deeply in love and we as an audience are asked to buy it. It’s instantaneous, they are friends then suddenly one character kisses another and the next thing we know they are professing their undying love. My problem is that this moment doesn’t play as genuine because it comes out of left field and it’s the moment that the rest of the film hinges on.

Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy are two actors I could watch in just about any role and they are also fantastic in Becoming Jane. I’m not sure they had a great romantic chemistry in this film, but both are enormously talented and made their relationship onscreen work.

While I don’t think that Becoming Jane was a waste of my time, I do think that if I want a Jane Austen fix I will just watch a version of Pride & Prejudice.

Director: Julian Jarrold
Writers: Kevin Hood & Sarah Williams
Jane Austen: Anne Hathaway
Tom Lefroy: James McAvoy
Mrs. Austen: Julie Walters
Rev. Austen: James Cromwell
Lady Gresham: Maggie Smith

Jane: My characters shall have, after a little trouble, all that they desire.

Penelope

penelope21
Originally uploaded by Alessandra Ogeda

I watched Penelope again today; this movie is adorable and I think it hold up on repeat viewings. This is a fully imagined fairy tale that is light hearted and fanciful to its very core.

Watching the movie again I have to say that Catherine O’Hara as Penelope’s mother is perhaps my favorite character in the movie. She is so meddling, overbearing and frivolous that she is the perfect antithesis to the wicked stepmother in Cinderella. She has some of the best lines in the film and is perhaps one of the best comical mothers I’ve ever seen on screen.

I must also commend the director Mark Palansky. Too often there are fantasy films where the unique worlds are just not unique or realized enough, but in Penelope this is a complete, whole world that is one of the most adorable, realized worlds that I have seen on film since a movie like Pitch Black. I would like to see another movie come out of his imagination.

Jessica Wilhern: Penelope, just one man, one man.
Penelope: And he'll run too! They always run. Why can't you accept that? For seven years I've been watching them run. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel? Do you?
Jessica Wilhern: I'm sorry, but we just can't quit.
Penelope: We can, because no matter how much I want to believe there's one man who won't run away, one man who... who...

Penelope

penelope
Originally uploaded by yee.leng

I watched this again over the weekend because my best friend really wanted to see it. The movie didn't get old for me. I will admit that it probably palys better to girls, but I think this is a fabulous, cute movie.

What I didn't even think about until my friend pointed it out is that there is absolutely nothing objectionable in this film; there is no swearing, no sex, no vulgarity - and yet it plays to adults. I do think that this film really does show that if you make a good movie it is worth watching, even if you're trying not to be flashy and controversial.

I also really love that this movie is set outside reality while somehow keeping "reality" totally in mind. It bends just enough so that there is no specific time or place this film is set in, but that we can believe this crazy mystical world does exist. This movie was brilliantly designed.

Duty Cop: Detailed description?
Jessica Wilhern: Brown hair. Brown eyes.
Jessica Wilhern: A unique... ly pleasant personality.
Franklin Wilhern: Think pig.
Duty Cop: So she's a fat girl?

Penelope

penelope5
Originally uploaded by Alessandra Ogeda

When I saw Penelope in the theatre I thought that it would be either a pointless chick flick (which I hate) or a guilty pleasure movie; luckily, the film surprised me and turned out to be a thoroughly modern fairy tale.

Penelope follows the plight of Penelope Wilhern who had the misfortune to be born into a family curse; due to the dalliances of a distant relative far back in the aristocratic family line the town witch cursed the Wilhern family so that the next daughter would be born with the face of a pig and would remain that way until she was accepted by “one of her own kind” – another blue blood. Like any responsible parents, the Wilhern’s lock Penelope away from the outside world to help her escape ridicule and as soon as she is of age they begin to work on breaking the curse by finding an eligible blue blood man who will marry her.

Unfortunately, no blue blood can stand the sight of her and all run in terror –but are caught by the butler and made to sign a gag agreement until one day blue blood Edward manages to get away; he then teams up with Lemon a photographer to track down the truth about Penelope and expose her to the public. Along the line they bring in Max, a down and out blue blood to infiltrate the Wilhern’s system and help expose Penelope only something goes terribly wrong with their plan – Max begins to have feelings for Penelope but when she asks him to marry her he refuses. This leads Penelope to run away, discover herself, and continue to break the curse in this thoroughly contemporary fairy tale.

I think my favorite part of Penelope (other than James McAvoy & Christina Ricci) is the production design. I know it sounds little crazy, but there was no part of this movie that was not fully flushed out and created on a visual level, from Resse Witherspoon’s hair and winged vespa to Penelope’s scarf and room every detail was attended to, designed and placed to underscore the special world that Penelope takes place in. The costume designer too needs to be lauded and praised for what they did within the style of this film. All of the elements truly are things of beauty.

I highly recommend this film to anyone that enjoys a fairy tale, young or old. Penelope is a world that should be experienced by a great many people.

Director: Mark Palansky
Writer: Leslie Caveny
Penelope: Christina Ricci
Max: James McAvoy
Jessica Wilhern: Catherine O’Hara
Annie: Reese Witherspoon
Lemon: Peter Drinklage
Frank Wilhern: Richard E. Grant
Edward Vanderman III: Simon Woods

Penelope: Helaborasoreantalis. They're amazing; they bloom even in the winter.
Annie: That's cool.
Penelope: They just pop up without any help from anyone.
Annie: [laughs] Kind of like my ex-boyfriend, if you know what I mean.

Wanted

Wanted
Originally uploaded by jankoraseta

Let me start by saying that I know nothing about the comic book Wanted is based on. I couldn’t tell if it was a faithful adaptation, or a incredibly loose one.

That being said I enjoyed Wanted when I was in the theatre; the action is fun, James MCavoy is entertaining and I didn’t hate Angelina Jolie. However, the more I think about the film the more I dislike it.

What completely pulls me out of the film the more I think about it is the very premise. A few thousand years ago a group of weavers formed a society of assassins called “The Fraternity”. This is literal shuttle and loom weavers, not the name of some cool, covert group that calls themselves “weavers”. I was a bit confused, and later found out that this is not in the comic book at all.

On top of this it is explained that the assassins are not assassins for hire, but get their orders from “the loom of fate” – a giant weaving loom and when threads are examined it gives a code that translates into names and this orders a hit. I’m sorry, does this mean if I were to examine my carpet I’d find a hidden code that could spell doom for the fate of the world? I don’t get it, I think it’s dumb and again, I found out that this is not in the comic book.

Wanted is the typical tale of an average Joe who wants to be more and finds out that he is, it’s buried in his lineage. What follows is an entertaining if typical tale of intrigue, double crosses and mindless action. It’s not that it’s not enjoyable – it’s just a little thin.

Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Writers: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas& Chris Morgan
Wesley Gibson: James McAvoy
Sloan: Morgan Freeman
Fox: Angelina Jolie
Pekwarsky: Terence Stamp
Cross: Thomas Kretschmann
Gunsmith: Common
The Repairman: Marc Warren
The Exterminator: Konstantin Khabensky
The Butcher: Dato Bakhtadze
Janice: Lorna Scott