Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Review on Books & Movies - II

I thought I had to review two movies but I am going to end up writing comments on more than 2. 

Yuddham Sei
A tamil movie directed by talented Mysskin. Cheran is the protagonist and its a thriller. The movie has its moments, made me sit-up at times and at times the movie was just going along. Mysskin has that magic in him to weave a neat screenplay but he needs to get out of psycho characters. Its kind of scary that these psycho people maybe living in real world, our world and Mysskin scared us all in Anjathey, he does the same in Yuddham Sei. He has to get out of this genre else people will be sick of his films. 

Rabbit Hole
Nicole Kidman was nominated at Oscars this year in Best Actress category for her performance in this movie. She deserved the nomination as she brings out the pain and agony of losing her 4 year old son in an accident. I thought Aaron Eckhart was also fantastic bringing out the emotions that a father would. He was sublime because he is the 'man' and the 'man' is suppose to bring about change. He too grieves, cannot forget their loss but has to bring about the change required to move on. The truth is, this movie made me cry. Pain Stays, Life goes on!

True Grit
A typical western cowboy movie set in 1960s from Coen brothers. I learn from IMDb that this is a remake of original movie released in the same name in 1969. Hailee Steinfeld, Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon set out to catch the bad guy Josh Brolin in the wild west. Jeff Bridges accent is too difficult for us to understand and without no subtitle he was just blabbering. The rest of the characters speak clear and a good tone. I am not sure why this was nominated for this year's Oscar in Best film and Best Actor category among others. I guess Americans love remake of old Western movies!!!

The Fighter
This movie surprised me a lot. It is an amazing movie! Christian Bale better known as Batman in the Batman series is superb as Dicky Ward. Its difficult to transform and act in such a finesse, truly outstanding. He deserves the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Mark Wahlberg is good as Micky Ward who is caught between his family and boxing career. His girlfriend Amy Adams, his mother Melissa Leo and the rest of support cast have done a brilliant job. The climax fight where Micky wins the title is really good. I recommend you to watch it and you will be pleasantly surprised. 

Blue Valentine
Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star in this drama or practical life. I term it as life because this is what the couples go through certainly not in India but in the western countries. Ryan Gosling gives a brilliant performance as do Michelle Williams. The movies goes back and forth between past and present. The past being vivid and present miserable. How did they let this happen? Both are to blame. A well made movie and hope that if this was made in French by a French Director this would have won Best Foreign Film award at Oscars. I say this because Oscar jury wants winners or expects miracles in movies. They look for natural movies like Blue Valentine to come from foreign land!

Black Swan
Its a story of young Ballerina, Nina portrayed by Natalie Portman. She is extremely fragile, protective by her tough mother and wild in her dreams. She dreams to act as Black Swan a part in the new play but in the real world she is rejected by playwright since she cannot let herself go. The transformation that Nina goes under is somewhat predictable but the manner in which it happens is astounding. Here again Natalie Portman deserved the Best Actress Oscar this year.