The Pianist (2002, France/Germany/UK/Poland)

Adrien Brody is a genius. He has such an impressive acting range, I just can't say enough to praise him. The variety of intense emotions he can portray just leaves me speechless.

This film was powerful, you can't deny it. I think the main reason that I didn't like it more was because it was so long, which gave a good feeling of time passing, but they didn't use a lot of the time as well as they could have. So many scenes that seemed like the natural progression of the story just never happened.

However, since the whole movie was pretty much Brody on his own, it was powerful stuff. Music was also beautiful. I would definitely recommend this for music lovers, Holocaust buffs, those who like character-driven films, and those who like slower-paced historical drama.

Rating: 3.5

Love & Rage (1998, Ireland)

I haven't seen many Irish films, but I've liked the ones I've seen. Of course, this one I watched because it stars Daniel Craig.

It's based on a true story. From what I can tell online, it's very, very loosely based. The long and short of it is that an aristocratic widow running her own estate took on an inexperienced, peasant estate agent. They fall in love, have an affair, he gets violent and things get tense. In the historical case, all I can find out says that he raped her, beat her, left her for dead. He fled Ireland, was hailed as a hero by Teddy Roosevelt (I think it was) for something unrelated, and wasn't tried in Ireland until years later.

So in other words, this story is screaming for a melodramatic interpretation. And the filmmakers did not disappoint in that regard. Personally, I thought it was just too over the top. And even the normally brilliant Daniel Craig laid it on too thick. I guess that's what they were going for. I don't think I'd recommend it at all.

Rating: 2.5

Smoke Signals (1998, U.S.)

Sherman Alexie is an author I've really gotten into recently. (His YA book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is the best YA book I've ever read, I think.) I was in Spokane for a job interview, and he's a Spokane/Couer d'Alene Indian. So what better movie to watch in the Spokane airport on my laptop?

I think I didn't appreciate it as much as I could have because I had heard it was a comedy and was expecting it to be a comedy. It's much more serious than that. It's a coming of age story about two native boys who are unsure about their places in the world. One is a sheltered orphan, the other is much more worldly and has issues with his father. It was a really beautiful film about self-discovery on many levels.

I would definitely recommend this film. The characters are very real, and you feel as if you can relate to them on some level (even though their problems are so different). The scenery is beautiful. The writing is great. And it will make you think. Good film.

Rating: 3.5

Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009, U.S.)

I never would have watched this on my own, because I knew I was going to hate it. They were showing it on the airplane, however, so I decided to watch it to kill time. Kill is definitely the right word. I want my time back.

The premise is ridiculous. The characters are shallow, and the actors aren't even that great. The jokes are stupid. They all live happily ever after even though they most certainly do not deserve to.

Absolutely, positively awful. Don't watch it. And that's all I have to say.

Rating: 1.5

The Proposal (2009, U.S.)

I'm very picky about romantic comedies, and I do not like Sandra Bullock at all. However, I had a pretty good feeling about this one. And it was spot on.

I absolutely loved this film. It was hilarious. Canadian businesswoman is going to be deported, so she gets engaged to her young American PA, who pretty much hates her. Magic.

The chemistry between the leads was believable. The whole ensemble interaction was good. In fact, the acting was pretty impressive overall, for a romantic comedy. And Betty White stole every scene she was in.

Also, the Alaskan scenery was incredibly beautiful.

And who doesn't love a movie where the characters actually learn something and grow up a bit?

Rating: 4.0

Kissed (1996, Canada)

I don't think anyone will be surprised to know that Blockbuster recommended this movie to me. It's an indie Canadian film about a young woman obsessed with death. I thought that sounded interesting. I didn't realize her obsession would be sexual.

From the beginning, this one made my skin crawl. From a young girl stripping to her undies and rubbing a dead animal's blood on her to a young woman finding employment at a mortuary so she could engage in sexual acts with corpses... It was just icky, for lack of a better word.

I have to say that the concept was good, as was the writing and the acting and everything. Really, it is something that makes you think. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get past my crawling skin to appreciate it more.

Rating: 1.5

Angels & Demons (2009, U.S.)

Even though I thought The Da Vinci Code was terrible (couldn't hold a candle to the book!), I decided to tempt fate and the movie gods and watch Angels & Demons. (It's really hard to say no to Ewan McGregor!)

Here's what I think. Like the first installment (that used to be a sequel but is now a prequel... weird), it took quite a few liberties. Mostly it was over-simplified to better fit a film format. However, there was strangely less suspense than in the book, even though they had a great opportunity to make it really come alive. A huge plot point involves a terrorist killing a cardinal every hour, and yet somehow they have time between locating each body to change clothes, do research in the Vatican archives, drive around in traffic, have some drawn out conversations, and then make it to the next murder scene with two minutes to spare. It was completely unbelievable it this respect.

Acting. Tom Hanks was okay. I felt like he didn't capture Langdon at all in the first film, and this was barely an improvement. His female sidekick, the brilliant scientist, was barely there. The strongest performances came from Stellan Skarsgård (the commander of the Vatican police) and Armin Mueller-Stahl (Dean of the College of Cardinals). They weren't major characters, but they were important and played their parts well. Ewan McGregor absolutely stole the show. Surprise, surprise. He was impassioned and calm-headed and pious and worldly at all the right times and in all the right amounts. Brilliant. The one thing that was lacking in his performance was a perfect accent. Usually his accents are passable, but he just sounded like a more toned-down Scot than the Irishman he was supposed to be. Details, details.

The mis en scène was pretty awesome, considering a large percentage of it was probably reproduction. Having been to Vatican City myself, I was pretty impressed with their recreation of the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Square. If I didn't know the Vatican would never allow film crews in there, I would believe it was the real thing. Other locations, such as the Castel and Ponte Sant'Angelo and the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (absolutely breathtaking in life) could also have been the real thing. Maybe they were. All I know is that I want to rewind time and relive those days I spent strolling around Rome. (Only this time, not in the summer with half of the U.S. and Japan there!)

Away from personal notes. I was impressed with the score from the first notes. I kept thinking that the style of the composition and the quality of performance sounded familiar. Turns out it was composed by Hans Zimmer (one of my all-time favorites) and the violin solos were performed by Jamie Bell (whose performance on the Defiance score is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard). It had the right mix of suspense and beauty at the right times and did wonders for the film. The only thing that stuck out was when Cardinal Strauss tells Langdon that "of course" God sent him to Rome—and the score becomes suddenly ominous for a few bars. Very odd.

Overall, I can see how people who haven't read the book would love this movie. I thought it was okay, and I didn't want to tear my eyes out after watching it like I did with the first one. So there you have it.

Rating: 3.0