Posts tagged movie moxie book club

I’ve never been a fan of chick-lit, but One Day by British author David Nicholls is what I imagine good chick-lit is like—- funny, poignant, romantic without being overly cheesy, good supporting characters that don’t fade into the background, all that with an ending that still manages to surprise.

Any story worth telling has a “hook” and One Day has a pretty good one: we visit our two characters’ lives on the same date every year for twenty years. Dexter, the boy who always wanted to be famous but only somehow manages to become a drunk infamous reality/variety show host. He’s friends slash lovers slash emotional parasite with Emma, a school mate whom he had a one-night stand on the eve of their university graduation. I initially thought the hook was gimmicky but the authenticity of the stories told over time managed to change my mind.

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Imagine a story about a man who used his good looks to sleep his way to the top. Now imagine this story written by a late 19th century writer. That in essence is Bel Ami (“Pretty Boy” in French), author Guy de Maupassant’s second novel. What a refreshing role reversal, I thought. 

It starts off very much like a fairy tale: once upon a time, a young man George Duroy wanders up and down the fashionable streets of post-revolution Paris, wishing desperately to be something more, more than a young war veteran borne from French peasant stock with barely enough money to buy his next meal. But the one thing George has going for him is luck. He bumps into a former comrade who takes him under his wing and gives him a job at a minor Paris newspaper. Very soon, George’s good looks gains him access into the world of the political elite, not to mention the hearts and bedrooms of several women, including the wife of the helpful former comrade. Stepping on the backs of several mistresses and his own wife, George’s star rises rapidly in Parisian society, exactly like a talentless reality star in today’s world, only famous for being at the right place at the right time.

The book provides an interesting social commentary at Parisian society at that time. Even after a bloody revolution ridding the country of royalty, Parisians still retain an elitist social structure based on wealth and power. The book describes some of these affluence in great detail, to the point of being farcical.

In some way we’re all rooting for George. Even though he was not born with all privileges of the wealthy, he still manages to fool his way to the top. It is inevitable that he becomes more ruthless and intentionally destroys many lives to fuel his social ascent. It is not that the women he takes advantage of are weak. With the exception of one, the women often get what they want out of their relationship with George. George is as much of an escape from their lives as they are to his.

Guy de Maupassant was well-known for his short stories and the prose is equally tight in this novel (though I have to admit the archaic language made some of the descriptions rather boring to read.) The story is remarkably contemporary which is probably why it’s being adapted into a film. It’ll be interesting to see if the adaptation focuses more on being a period piece or a dramatic piece.

Rating: Slow at first it’s a good read at the end. Persistence will pay off but only if you love reading classics.

The elephant in the room brought them together (This is my favourite shot in the entire movie.)

(Picture source: David James, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation)

I left this movie thinking about eyes, actor Robert Pattinson’s big blues, the elephant’s enormous gentle brown liquid ones, and even Christoph Waltz’s creepy evil peepers. It’s not hard since Director Francis Lawrence seems obsessed with closeups. But if the eyes are the windows to our souls, the shades were kept mostly closed throughout this movie and no one seems to be home. Certainly not for the lack of trying though.

Robert Pattinson plays Jacob, a young man who has lost everything after the death of his parents. With nothing to lose, he jumps on a train and lands in the rough and tumble world of the circus folk ruled by a heartless dictator prone to violent mood swings. Of course behind every evil king is a queen of hearts and Reese Witherspoon plays the long suffering wife Marlena with so much grace and poise. Jacob falls in love with Marlena, and the love triangle that results ends with tragic consequences.

This is a movie that is reminiscent of films from eras past. With a lush orchestral score (none does it better than James Newton Howard), epic size sets and a large cast of extras, this genre of movies hardly gets green-lit today, especially by Hollywood studios and we are poorer for it. The golden age of filmmaking was built on movies like that and certainly director Francis Lawrence tries to capture some of that glamour and spirit in Water for Elephants. Jacqueline West’s costumes are polished. She has a great eye for detail and her clothes add another layer of visual interest in each frame.

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Judi Dench and Mia Wasikowska looking spiffy in bonnets.

(Picture source: Focus Features)

There are as many interpretations of Jane Eyre’s story as there are adaptations. Folks in the same theatre were clearly enjoying the film about a plucky teenager who lived centuries ago. Did they see it as a story about repressed Victorians? A plain Jane love story or a story about convictions and morality?

Welcome to Cary Fukunaga’s version 2011. In the opening, Fukunaga and screenwriter Moira Buffini plunk audiences right in the middle of the novel and begin to tell the story through flashbacks. How original, I thought. We get a clear view of who Jane is: a young unloved girl moving through life searching for acceptance and a larger existence. In what seems initially as a dull governess position, she meets her counterpart of sorts, Mr Rochester, who is looking for some way out of his own predicament. Love no longer has a place in Rochester’s jaded weary state of mind but Jane manages to fan a fire in his cold cruel heart. And then her world starts to open up in ways she cannot imagine or control, her self-respect and inner strength serving as her only guides.

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You’re never too old to enjoy a circus.
Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus elephants

(Photo source: Wisconsin Historical Society)

First and foremost this book is written by an animal lover for animal lovers. Yes, it’s also a romance set in the Great Depression. I think more importantly it’s a lesson about how we treat each other and our innocent 4-legged friends in the very worse of times.

Author Sara Gruen’s third novel reminded me of Big Fish, that Tim Burton movie where Ewan McGregor with a bad Southern accent played a man who coincidentally also worked at a circus. I wonder why popular culture frequently paints a romantic picture of Depression-era circuses when there’s clearly nothing romantic about poverty. Often, these circuses employ magical folk who manage to tempt unsuspecting commoners into spending their hard-earned cash on escapist entertainments. In Gruen’s version, the magic lies in that special bond between man and beast and how that relationship can have an effect on lives inside and outside the ring.

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There’s this part of me who wants to exult all the Gothic imagery in this book and turn this review into a copy of an essay I had written years ago for a high school literature class. So I’ll have to restrain myself.

It’s amazing how age can colour how you feel about a book. A simple tragic love story between a woman and a man that I enjoyed as a teenager turns into an uncomfortable morally complex story now through my adult lens. I think Jane Eyre was never quite as simple as I had thought. A young 18-year-old plain Jane takes up a position as a governess, a teacher to a child who is the product of an exotic European dalliance. Mr Rochester, her well-traveled boss, would fit right into any Jane Austen novel, a misunderstood rogue who is not thought of as handsome by all but still a diamond in the rough in Jane’s eyes. It doesn’t matter that the man is old enough to be her father and that he might be taking advantage of her youth and his position, the two fall in love almost immediately. On the day of their marriage, things fall apart as the truth comes out about Rochester’s sordid past and the morally uptight Jane has to make some difficult choices.

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Actor Timothy Olyphant, probably wondering why he’s in this movie.

(Photo credit: DreamWorks)

[My review of the book is posted here]

It might have been a less than enjoyable book but I Am Number Four the movie is a far better version of the story it’s based on, something that is rare these days when any adaptation going through the Hollywood wringer is likely to be louder, bloodier, and Imaxed out on special effects. But if your source material is bland oatmeal, spicing it up can only make it better.

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You can’t review a book about an alien superbeing living on Earth without thinking about our favourite Kryptonian. And neither can you expect any book about aliens with superhuman powers to stray far from the Superman themes of duty and destiny. I Am Number Four, a book about a young alien refugee living on Earth doesn’t bother reinventing the wheel. Yes, I know, it’s not Pulitzer Prize literature but neither was the incredibly enjoyable and layered Harry Potter.

Like Clark Kent, the alien Number Four also known as John Smith escapes a devastated planet seeking refuge. Like Kent, he has superhuman strength and unknown powers that are yet to be developed. Where it departs from the super
road is in the back story. John is one of nine alien children from the planet Lorien which was destroyed by another group called the Mogadorians. The children or the Garde as they are known on their planet develop superpowers in their teen years and are trained by their adult guardians called Cepans who protect them from the Mogadorians on Earth who are bent on killing all Garde. The children are protected by a magical charm that only allows them to die in the order of their numbers. Unfortunately the first three have been killed by the Mogadorians and John is the next one in line.

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