Movie #414 - A Life Less Ordinary

A Life Less Ordinary

1997 - Rated R - 1 hr 43 min
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Ewan McGregor, Holly Hunter, Delroy Lindo, Ian McNiece, Stanley Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, Ian Holm

Weird movie, this one.  Weird, but weirdly cute too. Diaz and McGregor are an unlikely pair -- although their respective hair-dos are both awesomely 90s-tastic! -- who find themselves in very unlikely circumstances. Mainly, as kidnapper and kidnappee... although it's not always clear which of them is which.

Anyway, the whole angels-meddling-in-the-business-of-love bit turns this regular rom-com into something otherworldy, full of strange scenarios where Hunter and Lindo (the love angels assigned to the couple) are either trying too hook them up or kill them.  If they don't get these two together, they're doomed to a life stuck on earth. Bummer.

There is indeed as much going on here as the above synopsis suggests, and somehow, the movie doesn't get bogged down.  The plot moves along at a good clip, with lots of great scenes, and some actually believable scenes between our young lovers.  It's cute. Weird, like I said, but cute.

Movie #170 - Down With Love

Down With Love
2003 -Rated PG-13 - 1 hr 51 min
Director: Peyton Reed
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Renee Zellweger, David Hyde Pierce

Wow, is this campy! But it's great because everyone in the cast totally buys into it.  Renee Zellweger prances around like the perfect 60's woman and it's adorably funny.  The costumes are great, the music is spot-on, and the "battle of the sexes" is fought in the perfect social atmosphere.  Housewives unite over a book and the men are running scared!

And once we get to see what these two are really all about, and the crazy mind games they're playing, it seems like the only possible conclusion for this satirical romp through 1960s culture.  Female empowerment or love and marriage? Do you have to choose one or the other?

Movie #70 - Big Fish

Big Fish
Sony Pictures
2003 - Rated PG-13 - 2 hr 5 min
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, Marion Cotillard, Steve Buscemi

First Batman, then Beetlejuice, the second shelf turned out to be a veritable resume of Tim Burton's work. By 2003, however, his unique style was a bit more refined and he handles this tall tale like an epic movie. Visually, this movie is gorgeous. The field of daffodils, the giant fish, all of it is well done.

Albert Finney plays that stereotypical dad who always has a story to tell, some of them widely exagerated but usually rooted in truth. To tell us the story, we have Ewan McGregor as the young dad, his life a constant string of adventures from age 18. You could probably read into this movie to find elements from tales like the Odyssey or even Forest Gump, but it is unique enough to distract you from these similar "epics." In this movie, you'll find yourself wondering which parts are true and which are fabricated, but hoping that all of it did really happen.

Finney, still verbose as ever even on his deathbed, can't seem to connect to his adult son. The son, who perceives everything his father says to be a bedtime story, grapples with the impending loss of his father, a man he feels like he never understood. Their relationship is the real focus of this movie, with each tale driving them farther and farther apart.

As with most Burton films, the emotions and issues addressed her are commonplace. The relationships between father and son; the grief of loss; the desire to feel we've made a difference in our lives. But also like other Burton films, the characters are a bit quirky, the circumstances a bit off beat, and the premise an extreme version of what you might find in reality. I think this movie is one of his best.

Movie #29 - Angels & Demons

Angels & Demons

Columbia Pictures

2009 - Rated R - 2 hr 18 min

Director: Ron Howard

Starring: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor

Like The DaVinci Code, I was glad I read the book before I saw the movie. The books are better, but I can't say I'm surprised. It's hard to improve on a Dan Brown adventure. Also like The DaVinci Code, Angels & Demons centers on Robert Langdon, the world's leading symbologist, on another adventure rooted in Catholicism (and it's surrounding -isms). This time, it's the Illuminati out to get the Church, and Robert has to save the day (and Vatican City).

Unlike The DaVinci Code, the movie is well adapted from the book, rarely chopping out huge sections of action or dialogue. It also doesn't seem choppy. Oddly, this book is written as a prequel, but since DaVinci came out as a movie first, they chose to turn this into a sequel. It's not a plot point, but I know some Langdonites were irritated by this.

Overall, Angels & Demons is my favorite Langdon adventure, both in the written and visual artforms. I definitely recommend reading both titles (and the new one, The Lost Symbol) before adding this to the Netflix queue, however.