Movie #356 - Lars and the Real Girl

Lars and the Real Girl
2007 - Rated PG-13 - 1 hr 46 min
Director: Craig Gillespie
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Kelli Garner, Patricia Clarkson

This movie could have been a total farce or completely tasteless.  But somehow, Ryan Gosling falling in love with a plastic sex doll that he things is a real Brazillian girl named Bianca is.... sweet.  I don't know how they did that. My head is still spinning.

Anyway, he's lonely and isolated and really, really awkward.  His brother and sister-in-law do everything they can to help him out, but Lars needs to get that help himself.  He orders a doll online and from the moment she shows up, he's treating her like a "real girl."  She even gets her own bedroom and rides around in a wheelchair.

And although Gosling's performance does much to transform this movie from would-be farce to true heartwarming story, it's not even him that has the biggest impact.  What's more amazing is how the people in town react.  Totally committed to playing along until Lars deals with his unaddressed anxieties/problems/depression/weird plastic doll affair, they just help him keep up the charade.  Before you know it, Bianca's quite the social butterfly and Lars is coming out of his shell. 

Then when Lars is finally ready to say goodbye, they let him do what he needs to do.  By then, it's not just playing along anymore, his friends and family and neighbors are truly attached.  It affects them all in a really beautiful way. 

I'm so glad this isn't a tasteless sex comedy and a guy who fantasizes that his plastic doll is real.  This is so much better.

Movie #224 - The Ghost and the Darkness

The Ghost and the Darkness
1996 - Rated R - 1 hr 49 min
Director: Stephen Hopkins
Starring: Michael Douglas, Val Kilmer, Tom Wilkinson, John Kani, Bernard Hill, Brian McCardie, Emily Mortimer, Om Puri

I really enjoyed this one, much more than the first time I watched it.  Actually, I barely remember my first viewing, so this was almost like the first time I guess.  I also did not realize that this story is based on true events.  Apparently, two lions really did kill around 130 people in Africa in 1898 and really are stuffed and mounted in a museum in Chicago.  Who knew?

So Val Kilmer plays the bridge engineer, whose staff keeps getting eaten, and Michael Douglas is the rogue lion-killer sent in to help him kill these things.  There are a few things that seem weird to me. 1. Val Kilmer is a British officer...without a British accent.  2. Male lions don't hunt, female lions do. 

Of course, these lions act against almost all natural lion-like habits.  So, in a way, I guess it doesn't matter if they're male or female.  It's more weird, but okay. True story. I guess I can't argue.

Anyway, it's a really good story and really well told in this movie.  Except for Val Kilmer's accent.

Movie #212 - Formula 51

Formula 51
2001 - Rated R - 1 hr 32 min
Director: Ronny Yu
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Carlyle, Emily Mortimer, Meat Loaf

Did you know Meat Loaf's last name is Aday?  So... a Meat Loaf Aday keeps the doctor away?  I can't be the first person to think of that.  I really hope he gets that joke all the time.  Too good to pass up.

In any case, he features prominently as the bad guy in this movie.  A caftan-wearing bad guy, too. Poor form, Meatie, poor form.  (Do you think that's his nickname? Meatie?)

This is a fun one. Who doesn't love Samuel L. Jackson in a kilt? The premise is interesting, culminating with a nice twist ending, and made much more lively by a couple of Brits.  Yeah, it's the guy from The Full Monty. Woo!

Did this enrich my life? Was I better for watching it? Maybe not. But it's a good time. End of story.

Movie #179 - Elizabeth

Elizabeth
1998 - Rated R - 2 hr 4 min
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Fiennes, Vicent Cassel, Emily Mortimer

Time for me to geek on you for a second.

This movie is fantastic. Sorry, but the portrayal of Elizabeth I here is unparalleled.  Cate Blanchett is Elizabeth.  Like, for real. Her transition from young, persecuted Lady Elizabeth to the Virgin Queen throughout this film is brilliant. 

Joseph Fiennes's Robert Dudley, on the other hand, isn't exactly what I expected.  Dudley's more brash, less suave, less Shakespeare-In-Love-y.  It works for the movie, but it could have been better.  Geoffrey Rush is excellent (no surprise) and look! Thomas Frain! He went from this movie to The Tudors. Huh.

My one regret is that I owned the sequel The Golden Years so I could finish up her story.  Guess I'll put that on my wish list (not that I need another movie to watch right now).  And so we move onward...