BECAUSE WHEN IT`S REALLY DISFUNCTIONAL, THERE IS NOTHING MORE PAINFUL THAN A FAMILY : `AUGUST : OSAGE COUNTY`

This is another film that should technically come with a disclaimer. I definitely knew not to expect a light hearted family comedy when I started watching it (and even if you have done no research at all, this fact becomes blatantly obvious under ten minutes into the film) but blimey, I did NOT expect it to hit me like a sledgehammer. Not like this. Those who know how close I am to my mother and grandmother can easily put two and two together to figure out that this was not easy watching for me personally but I think the problem is pretty universal. This is a family portrait. A frighteningly realistic one of what goes on at the other end of the `family` spectrum, when all is not rose-tinted Hollywood bliss.

Barbara (Julia Roberts), Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) and Karen Weston (Juliette Lewis) are three sisters. Ivy lives close to their parents in Osage County, the delegated family member who takes care of the parents while the other two sisters have, to all intents and purposes, made a dash for it, living their own lives far, far away. God knows there is stuff to run away from. The matriarch of the family Violet (Meryl Streep) is not the easiest person to get on with by any stretch of the imagination, so much so that she has pushed her husband Beverly (Sam Shepard) to his wits end. So when tragedy forces all these strong and disparate people with years of unspoken grudges to bear under the same roof, nobody can quite predict what the result is going to be or who, if any of them, is going to get out of this ruthless melee emotionally intact…

This film is based on a play by Tracy Letts and I have no shadow of a doubt that she had first-hand knowledge of the workings of a problem family. I mean at least one. I mean I say that, but hand on heart, how many families can really aspire to what the mainstream holds up as `perfect`. At one point in the film Ivy speaks of how she has lost faith in the whole concept of sisterly love. `Just random bunches of cells that are genetically connected` is how she describes herself and her sisters. I do see her point. I don`t see things quite as darkly as all that, but I do see her point. It is a tough lesson to learn – and not all of us end up learning it – but the fact is, in my experience of the world, that just because you have family ties with someone it doesn`t necessarily mean you get along. It doesn`t even mean you like each other. In fact, if for whatever reason you turn out to be not very compatible as people, your relationship may well turn into a special kind of seething black pit of resentment that you only see between relatives. This usually has its roots in the fact that despite, for whatever reason, you don`t like or don`t get along with the person you are forced together, time and again, sometimes for decades… I mean there can be upsides to this kind of non-compatibility, God knows I have my own share of difficult relations but this has, for the most part, taught me patience. It has given me the ability to look more effectively for the good in people. Because when you are `lumped together` with a group of people, it is actually quite rare that you are able to have a relationship with them spanning decades or lifetimes and be unable to see the good in them at all. Because let us remember, it is very rare indeed that a person has no good in them at all… It all depends on how willing we are to look for it. That`s what makes families so extraordinary for me. It can well be that you are like chalk and cheese, even with your closest relations, but somehow you make it work… Except when you can`t…

Tracey Letts finds so many little things to touch on surrounding this kind of difficult situation. She touches on how difficult it is to get used to the concept of caring for your parents… Violet`s mental decline is especially hard to watch, although it is hinted out that she has never been the easiest of people to live with. Then there is Ivy, the one who got left behind and couldn`t leave her parents to fend for themselves… The line between taking responsibility for your family members and sacrificing your own life is such a fine one sometimes and taking a step either way is more painful than words can express… It is this pain the August : Osage County captures so well…

So yes. August: Osage County is about families. The real deal. Warts and all. Good times and bad. It is definitely not a feel good movie, nor is it for the faint of heart. But I reckon, if we watch it with honesty, many of us, if not all of us, will find something from our own families in there somewhere.              

A CLASSIC IN ITS OWN RIGHT : "ANGELS IN AMERICA"

Now, I have mentioned more than once how I approached something with definite negative prejudices and turned out to be very, very wrong indeed. Never more so with this series. I had, quite a while back, watched an episode of this series (for it is the HBO adaptation and not the Pulitzer Winning play we want to talk about here folks!) . Credit where it’s due, the said episode was from the middle of it. Taken completely out of context, with absolutely no backstory, you won’t be surprised to find out that I hated it and never went back to trying it again. Until, a very dear friend pushed the box set into my end, assuring me that I would love it. I distinctly remembered disliking the small bit of it I had watched passionately but smiled politely and put the case into my bag. At home, I thought for a bit, then I took a deep breath and put it on. Here was a valued friend whose opinion I trusted. At the very least I should be able to explain why I didn’t like it – and “I think I watched an episode some years back” wouldn’t quite cut it. So I took a deep breath and took the plunge. Rarely have I been so glad I have taken a risk. This is not only my favorite out of the three films this week, it is one of my favorite series ever and will be, I think, for always and always. Let me try and explain why.
Angels in America is the story of five people living in New York in 1985. Louis and Prior are a gay couple, whose lives are torn asunder when Prior is diagnosed with AIDS and Louis proves less than capable of coping with this development. Joe and Hannah are a Mormon couple with their own problems. Joe is caught between his beliefs and his sexuality – battling daily to “overcome” his homosexual desires, while Hannah is addicted to Valium and unable to cope with day to day life, much less support her husband. However if Joe’s personal life is complicated his career is going strong; he’s chief clerk in the D.A.’s office and works for Roy Cohen (supremely played by Al Pacino) who is homosexual but refuses to accept both this fact and the fact that he has been diagnosed with AIDS – adamantly claiming he has liver cancer. Cohen’s diagnosis comes at a bad time for him as from his death bed he must battle a rather deserving smear campaign based on the fact that he is a rather unpleasant character and not an entirely honest person at that. Their lives come together, dragging along friends and family members with spectacular results that I do not wish to reveal at this point in the review.
The “epilogue” at the end of the series – and I assume the play as well, clearly shows the work’s message. It harks of a moment when the AIDS epidemic was pushing the gay community to speak out clearly, in a time of great human suffering and death what is needed is solidarity. We have no time for petty preconceptions, we must work together to stop the suffering Therefore, Prior tells us (and I’m paraphrasing a bit but this is the gist of it ;) “We will no longer live secret lives and die secret deaths. The world spins forward, you may want it all to go back to the time where we lived and secret and you could pretend we weren’t there – that’s just hard luck. You’re just going to have to cope with it. Not just because we have to, but because we have a right to. “
But don’t get trapped into thinking that the film consists of “in your face” activism. On the contrary, Angels in America shows anyone who had any prejudices that what they baulk from is actually not so different from well… Any love affair any straight person has ever had. Throughout the series you will bear witness to some of the most truly touching and emotional dialogues, the most passionate loves and some of the “hottest” love scenes (and I’m not just talking about the fact that I am a straight woman and I kinda don’t mind extended opportunities to admire the male physique, the energy infused into the scenes is just so electrifying I defy your toes not to curl. At the very least that is. ). On the other hand there is a deeply symbolic narrative as well, through somewhat extravagant symbolism we see the gay community’s battle against the conservative part of society that somehow refuses to accept that the world goes forward and the time has come to embrace what is different. Blind rejection is not right and is no longer an option…
The story is also remarkable in its portrayal of characters. Al Pacino’s character Roy Cohen may be both gay and an AIDS victim but easy to sympathize with he is not. In actual fact he is quite despicable, but we can’t help but stop and ponder his open refusal of his homosexuality, based (as he explains in a rather impressive monologue) on the fact that in this world if you want to be strong, you cannot afford to be known to be gay. Gay is what nobodies are. If you’re somebody, you’re straight. And Roy is somebody. So there. His attitude stinks, but at the same time reflects a sad truth about society where openly gay men and women are at a blatant disadvantage no matter what their personal talents are. Then there is Louis. He is not the knight in shining armor nursing Prior to the end, on the contrary he is revealed to be deeply, seriously lacking. At the same time, he is so utterly human one cannot help but sympathize with him – even though one might want to throttle him at the same time.
And though it is incredibly sad, the end carries notes of optimism. No, the characters don’t all “live happily ever after”, such is not the way of the world. But there are changes, the consequences are as painful as the changes themselves but they are no less necessary for being so – and they are probably better in the long run, although we leave our characters at a worrying moment as far as their futures are concerned. Others change for the better, and one character that has to be mentioned is Mother Pitt , Joe’s conservative mother (played exquisitely by veteran actress Meryl Streep) who is a Mormon through and through but will end up opening up… And accepting. Another quick mention goes to Emma Thompson who executes her role (details of which will have to be searched for in the series!) wonderfully and powerfully.
If you are not a stone, you will be deeply moved by this series. I defy you not to cry at least a couple of moments of it. It is a long, hard look at a realistically portrayed part of life that well, let’s face it… Us straight folk don’t look at as long or as hard as we sometimes should…

A STEP BACK IN TIME - AND TO THE ANIMAL KINGDOM "FANTASTIC MR. FOX"

One thing I must confess: I love the fact that cartoons are no longer only geared to kids. I think there are quite a few of us who are well over 18 and either openly or secretly enjoy watching animations of various forms, be it the Simpsons to Japanese Anime. I mean, it’s the best form of escapism if you think about it… Technology in the olden days only allowed so much but now… Entire worlds and universes can be created with the flick of a computer (so to speak). You can just kick back and vanish into the new world for 90 minutes (or however long the film is) and forget the cares of the day… Now, I love the works of firms like Pixar for instance. They are, no doubt, the absolute rulers of the computer animation world. But Disney, once the ruler supreme of the “imaginary” world, are not lagging far behind. And last year they came up with a film that filled me with warmth, excitement and nostalgia to the cockles of my heart, because it was the animation (finally!) of one of my favorite, FAVORITE books as a little girl: Fantastic Mr. Fox….
Mr. Fox (voice of George Clooney) is a typical fox. He is a professional chicken hunter and damn good at it too. He is married to Felicity Fox (voice of Meryl Streep) and have a happy and fulfilling marriage. Mr. Fox is good at his job, but Mrs. Fox has a piece of news that is going to push him to reconsider: She is pregnant. So, Mr. Fox stops his thieving ways and gets a safer job (columnist in the Animal Gazette). Their son is born, Mr. Fox is successful and they even move to a larger house (in a large birch tree). In short Mr. Fox has everything his heart could desire, except… Well, adrenalin. Temptation presents himself in the form of his human neighbors, the rich and unpleasant farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean. With the large farms so nearby, Mr. Fox simply can’t resist “one last job” to the farms, to get some juicy chickens, geese and cider among other things. However he has not factored in the endless greed of the farmers. To his horror, they will band together in their effort to sniff him out and kill him, putting the entire forest – all his friends and neighbors – Mr. Fox must use every ounce of his wits and cunning to save the forest – not to mention his marriage…
It is a rather rare occurrence that your tastes in reading when you were a child continue into adulthood (unless you are some sort of child prodigy and kick the whole thing off by reading Tolstoy in the first place). But in one particular instance, for me, this has been the case. Two words for you : Roald Dahl. If you have not heard of it I highly recommend his adult short stories, I guarantee you they are like nothing you have read before. But as we are all about animations this week I want to go a little further back on the age scale. From Charlie and the Chocolate factory to James and the Giant Peach, nearly all the “majors” by Roald Dahl have been dramatized (for good reason!) and Fantastic Mr. Fox is the latest. I am so, SO glad this was done now rather than later. Because this has definitely become an animation for adults (or rather, adults as well as children). There are, I have to admit, quite a few things that were not in the original children’s book, but Wes Anderson (the director) and Noah Baumbach (who helped him write the screenplay the credits inform us) have kept the spirit of Roald Dahl to a “t”. As a fan at any rate, I highly doubt he would have minded…

"ADAPTATION" OF A LIFETIME!

Those of you who have made my humble blog a place of regular visit may have noticed I enjoy writing. I only wish I could find more time to do it in! However, as someone who LOVES movies and loves writing, when I saw Adaptation – a film about writing – I had to see it. Technically, it was the second time I saw it, but the first time was years ago and it doesn’t seem to have made much of an impression on me (I couldn’t remember a thing about it) although God knows why… It’s a truly magnificent film on almost all counts…

Now, this film is based on true events. But please put an emphasis on “based”. Although there no doubt are real events it is based on, the film is by and large fictionalized by its scriptwriter Charlie Kauffman. The film is about – Charlie Kaufman. After gaining critical acclaim with Being John Malkovich, Charlie Kaufman (played here by Nicolas Cage. Funny, didn’t we see more of him in the past? Where is he now?) receives another commission. He is to adapt a book – The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean (the acting legend Meryl Streep) – to screen. Doesn’t sound like a challenge for a professional scriptwriter, no? Well, yes in this case. Try as he might, Charlie can’t adapt the book; meanwhile, his infuriatingly outgoing and smooth twin brother Donald (also Nicolas Cage) decides to take up screenwriting as well and plunges ahead. Between his personal life that is crumbling at the edges due to Charlie’s timidity and pressure from the producers Charlie, begins to become slightly obsessed with Susan Orlean and the real life character of her book John LaRoche (Chris Cooper who won an Oscar ® for his performance in the film). As he struggles with the script and follows his obsession – with help from his twin brother Donald – he will make many discoveries… A lot of self-discovery but a couple of scandals as well…

Now, between Chris Cooper, Meryl Streep and Nicolas Cage, one isn’t surprised to come across some of the best acting of our times… Spike Jonze is well known as a director anyway, I’m not going to go on and on about him… And with a scriptwriter like Kaufman (Yes you DO know him actually. He wrote stuff like Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich) it is one HELL of a yarn… But it is interesting on another level as well – I mean this is a master talking about his trade. He even brings in one of the great academics in the field of screenwriting – John McKee in for a short spurt. But it’s not bookish in case you’re wondering; it’s HILARIOUS to start with. And then it takes a surprise turn and becomes INCREDIBLY exciting… It provides plenty of laughs, plenty of food for thought… All in all very similar to a good meal executed by the best of the profession for every course… And what about the reality of it? Well, just to start with Charlie Kaufman DOES NOT have a twin brother called Donald. And although the book The Orchid Thief does exist and Kaufman was supposed to adapt it, he couldn’t exactly – the book was too void of structure so he wrote his own frustrations in, and lo and behold “Adaptation” was born – bringing a trail of BAFTAs, Golden Globes, a Silver Bear and a Golden Bear nomination at the Berlin Film Festival for Spkie Jonze and much, much more… You will not be disappointed…

KRAMER VS KRAMER

Yes, yes, I know, shocking. A disgrace. How can one possibly not have watched this… I, however, somehow managed and thus here you find me pounding away at my keyboard, in the attempt to share this films with other misfits like me or take the rest of you down memory lane… Now, I am aware of the fact that 1979 isn’t exactly an eon away but still… Check out Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman (CLICK)… My God… And while you’re at it – you remember (or if not you saw him on the dvd cover back then) that they play a couple who has a six year-old son, right? Look at him (Justin Henry) now! Haha, maybe it WAS an eon away after all… But I digress… The film was won five Oscars® and was nominated for a further 3 more (including the above-mentioned Justin Henry, quite an achievement for a six year-old I’d say!) and deserves a touch more respect.

Okey-dokey artichokey; so, Kramer vs Kramer is the story of a family – the Kramer family. Ted (Dusin Hoffman) works in advertising. He’s talented and ambitious which makes him good at his job but a far from ideal father and husband. It’s ok, he loves his family in his own way but the fact remains that he is… Absent. His wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) has become a homemaker after birth of their son Billy (Justin Henry). She is not particularly happy with her lot and Ted’s constant absence (physically and/or mentally) is not helping them solve the matter. Thus one day she just gets up and leaves – leaving her six-year old son in the care of his father. Ted is devastated by her absence and struggles to adapt to his new double-role – yet succeeds brilliantly. He is closer to his son than he has ever been, ok on the job side things slip occasionally but one has to have ones’ priorities… So all seems to be going well until Joanna shows up almost a year later… And demands to have her son back…

Now this, in my humble opinion, is a film that every cinephile should watch. It is without a doubt the first of a genre, the “granddaddy” of a lot of – if not all – modern family dramas. And when I say drama, don’t go thinking it’s a tear-jerker. I mean, you will get a bit moist round the eyes from time to time but it’s not unrealistic or overdone… It’s very realistic portrait of something that is considered commonplace back in the day – yet not so much so back in the day : Divorce. It’s effect on the children, on the couple… And also the heeling process and moving on – for everyone. And besides there are some scenes simply worth watching for the “aww” value – Justin Henry’s absolutely ADORABLE (shame he doesn’t seem have done any “substantial” acting since… As for Dustin Hoffman floundering to adapt to actually being there and looking after Billy will have all the ladies ROARING with laughter – and this is a tribute to Mr. Hoffmans’ considerable talents. He is SO natural… A warm and fuzzy classic with a rollercoaster of emotion. Now get out there and watch it.

JULIE & JULIA

Ok, so “the spirit of Oscars® past” is right above us, how about the spirit of Oscars® present? And it would be a shame to finish the week without at least one “true story”, right? Well, technically it’s “two true stories” as the film says, but I’m getting slightly ahead of myself…
Julie and Julia is based on two books. One is “My Life In France” by Julia Child – one of the greatest cooks and cooking writers of the 20th century. The second is “Julie & Julia” written by Julie Powell, who is possibly one of Julia Child’s greatest fans… Now, Julia Child (as some of you may know) was the wife of a diplomat. She discovered and fell in love with French cuisine when her husband Paul Child was posted to Paris in the 60’s. She then discovered she had a distinct talent for it. Her life’s ambition became to popularize French cuisine “for the servantless American cook”. And boy did she succeed. As we all know, her recipe book is a household stable item pretty much all around the English – speaking world. Julie Powell was a secretary in a government agency in 2002. She had a loving husband and an OK life but she felt in a rut and was looking for direction. Then one evening, completely by chance, she and her husband happen on an idea. Julie will take Julia Child’s 524 recipe long book, cook every single recipe in it, and try to finish it within one year. She will share this experience with the world, via a blog. By the end of the year, Julie has been through more than she could ever possibly imagine… Throughout the film we go back and forth through time hearing her candidly sharing her experiences via her blog on one hand, and learning about a truly fascinating cooking icon on the other…
First and foremost, this is a film the “gourmands” of this world MUST NOT miss. Cooking and food dominates the film and some of the food shots simply make me salivate to think about them… Secondly, the acting was top notch. Meryl Streep gives a brilliant performance as Julia Child, and Amy Adams as Julie Powell is not too far off… (interesting to note by the way, that Stanley Tucchi who plays Paul Child, Julia Child’s husband and Meryl Streep were also in The Devil Wears Prada together!) This film is good quality, heart warming and fulfilling entertainment at its best. Many “entertaining” films will come and go without a trace, this is not one of them. It will leave its mark. Now go on, take a bite – and bon apetit!