Everybody's Fine

Robert Di Niro is fantastic in any movie he acts in and in this movie his majestic stage presence continues. This is a story about Di Niro's character taking a journey both physically and emotionally. He plays a father who recently loss his wife. He is lonely and wants to reconnect with his children. As a plot to have a reunion with the kids falls through, he then plans to take a trip around the country to check in with each of his children. As you watch the movie, you realize that this man really doesn't have a clue what goes on in his children's lives and that his family has always been good at lies.

My favorite elements of the movie are the cinematography and the music. Basically, the scenes in this movie are beautiful. It has been since Avatar that my eyes have been treated so well but this movie was impressive aesthetically! Much of the music was composed by Paul McCartney and hello this Beetle is a genius! This movie is both pleasing to the eyes and ears. Pick up this movie and have your heart touched. I give it an Eye and an Ear for the wonderfulness of art that this flick is!

Love Happens

Have I ever seen a movie with Jennifer Aniston in it and hated it? No. Have I ever watched a movie with Jennifer Aniston in it and disliked it? No.

The streak continues with Love Happens. Aniston plays a cynical florist who meets a motivational speaker(Aaron Eckhart). Eckhart's character helps people deal with the loss of a loved one. As he is in Seattle leading one of his seminars, he meets Aniston's character and is intrigued with her.

Of course, this is a love story. It has a lot of twists and turns in order for you to find out the truth behind Eckhart's character's motives for running the seminars. If I say too much, the movie will be ruined for you and this movie was much too good for me to do that to you. I say...get your butt over to the Redbox and rent this movie. Thanks to Redbox for letting me rent this wonderful gem for one dollar and for the picture I "borrowed" from your website. This movie earns The Wonderful Gem award for humor, romance and overall a great time!

Valentine's Day

Dear Katherine Fugate(the writer of the screenplay for this movie)-

Overall, you story was mediocre. There were about ten stiorylines too many in this flick. Although it was nice in order to get a zillion famous people to participate in this production, the problem of underdevelopment of both characters and story was created by the overuse of storyline. I think the story between Ashton Kutcher's character and Jennifer Garner's character would have been sufficiant for a movie in and of itself.

Please consider addressing this problem in your next screenplay.

Sincerely,
Movie Alice

P.S. Taylor Swift is not an actress but a fine singer.

Slumdog Millionaire

I saw this movie on the BYU campus this past weekend. I never even knew that BYU did an international film cinema. The cool thing about this movie being at BYU campus is that it was edited so that it really wasn't an R rated movie. I am not saying that all R rated movies are bad, because the rating doesn't mean it is a horrible movie. I do, however, limit myself when it comes to R rated movies because I do feel they often contain crap that they do not need to contain. I have also been told by my church leaders to avoid R rated movies because of the content and I actually agree with them. I don't see it as a restraint but rather as a protection. I really don't know why I am getting into the rating scale in this post. Maybe because I know that watching R rated movies in the Mormon world is taboo and I wanted to make sure I was not judged for watching this movie.

Now, what about the movie? It was plain fantastic. It takes place in India, and follows the journey of a young boy into young adulthood. The cool thing is that you learn of the boy's journey via the answers he gives during the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" I thought that, in and of itself, was a brilliantly creative way to show the adventures of this young man.

Slumdog Millionaire proves to be mix of many different genres. You have the drama of family relationships and how siblings can shape you into who you are. You also have the family drama of two boys losing their parents at a very young age and having to fend for themselves. Then you have a bit of comedy as you see the boys fighting and the main character has this odd dry humor about him. You also get a little bit of romance as you see the main character fight for the love of his life, who he decided was his great love when he was about seven.

I love how the characters were developed, especially the two orphan brothers who develop into very different individuals and how you see how decisions shape people's destinies. In fact, it was very symbolic how the main character is able to find riches and his brother chases other people's riches which later leads him to his demise.

I would recommend this movie for sure to anybody! It receives a bundle of wheat for my rating because it really adds sustenance to the soul!