13 Going on 30, 2004

13 Going on 30, 2004
Director: Gary Winick
Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Kathy Baker



Stage: Home theatre, on a sunny Thursday after a beautiful afternoon

13 Going on in short: After total humiliation at her thirteenth birthday party, Jenna Rink wants to just hide until she's thirty. Thanks to some wishing dust, Jenna's prayer has been answered. With a knockout body, a dream apartment, a fabulous wardrobe, an athlete boyfriend, a dream job, and superstar friends, this can't be a better life. Unfortunetly, Jenna realizes that this is not what she wanted. The only one that she needs is her childhood best friend, Matt, a boy that she thought destroyed her party. But when she finds him, he's a grown up, and not the same person that she knew.


Preps: Well, I remember this one. I believe I am in a romantic mood for a comedy.


Reality: Well, this is a fairly cute comedy. However, you need to have the obligation to rest and you cannot expect your brains to fall out of excitement.

The scenes and dialogues are somehow witty and can drag my attention easily. I spend a lot of time figuring out how the girl will transform into a responsible adult. And she almost passes with merits until real »adult« stuff comes along, within this the sexual life she's supposed to have with her boyfriend and the responsibilities at work.

I am somehow surprised the director took the lighter path (or the screenplayer). I believe it's not so easy to fit into the adult shoes as here is shown, plus, there would be more complications deriving from »no experience with credit cards, payments, etc« boundaries. On the other hand, the light showing of a »dream come true« for a teenager ends up in dissapointment where she discovers, what a bitch she has become and becomes really depressed about it.

Cute music that fits the purpose, doesn't stand out and just emphasize the importance of different sequences of the story. It is vital that you don't feel overburdened with the music in the movie. In this type of stories, the view and the concentration should be on the story and main cast, the interaction within the actors. It is kind of cute finding your long lost best friend and falling in love again. The movie gives us the feeling we all have second chances. At least this is the first feeling I get and this couldn't be more wrong.. Maybe more important, we don't always have a second chance, therefore we should seize the day and grab the opportunity as they really fly away.

Don't think you will gain too much of this experience. However, Garner plays lovely and will give you a glimpse how it is for a 13 year old who doesn't know what she's having in front of her head and how hard it must hit her to appreciate it.

My personal rating: 6,0 (quite good in this genre, I believe I can live with seeing something like this every now and then. To remind me to live while I am alive and not thrive for being older and more experienced)


13 Going on on IMDB

Just like Heaven, 2005

Just like Heaven, 2005

Director: Mark Waters

Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Donal Logue, Mark Ruffalo

Stage: Home theatre, late Saturday night

Just like Heaven in short: Elizabeth Masterson, a dedicated doctor in San Francisco, had almost no time for anything. When her sister with two kids set her up on a date, she gets into a tragic car crash and gets in a coma. Meanwhile, an landscape architect named David Abbott moves into San Francisco and coincidentally, into Elizabeth's apartment for rent. While at the apartment, Elizabeth's spirit haunts him. She doesn't remember who she is, who her family is, and what she did - All that she remembered was her apartment and where everything was. To settle the arguments, David agrees to figure out who Elizabeth really is. When they get close to figuring out who she is, they eventually find love with one another and as they finally know who she really is, they learn that fate really has put them both together.

Preps: Well, unfamiliar, doesn't ring any bell. But I think Witherspoon could be cute. Genre..well, something appropriate for my state of mind. Let's find out.

Reality: Well, in a long run, I try to avoid the movies in this genre that are about the average. Or below expectations set. This is a hard genre, because most movies that derive from Hollywood machine, end up in some sort of comedy /romance /family adventure genre (whereas the other half would go to drama, I guess).. at least, judging from last 15 years of production and what do we have the pleasure of seeing. So to start with, a tough nut to crack, especially from the saturation point of view. Still, there were some positive surprises lately and I wanted this to be one as well.

The plot is simple and you don't need to be Einstein to follow it through. I like the energy between Witherspoon and Ruffalo. I bought it and for this reason I was a bit mushy at the end of the piece. However in the mean time I got bored and my mind flew away. This is not a quality of a good piece, as a good piece holds you to your bones until the very end. I wanted to check out the music, however almost impossible, the tunes never got the attention they would deserve. However, music can play the most powerful role in this genre and it's a shame they didn't abuse it more. To wake up from a dream and realize the one you just started to love, doesn't exist anymore (e.g. she didn't remember him).

The agony of the guy was so real, I fell into the feeling really deeply. Therefore I must claim the ending of the movie (very Hollywood-like, still..) extremely good and it made up for the rest of the movie, where I was stuck with stupid scenes, or dialogues. There are some scenes here that make this piece remarkable and in perticular emphasize the meaning of true love, soul spirits,
etc. Therefore, maybe a good choice for a relaxed afternoon when you need to dream away.

My personal rating: 5,0 (I wouldn't go for it if you aren't in a mushy mood, but still.. could touch your heart. If you have someone you lost due to a coma or trauma, you might fall into the spirit of the movie)

Just like Heaven on IMDB

The kids are allright, 2010

The kids are allright, 2010
Director: Lisa Cholodenko
Cast: Annette Benning, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo



Stage: Home theatre, almost HD :)

The kids in short: Nic and Jules are in a long term, committed, loving but by no means perfect relationship. Nic, a physician, needs to wield what she believes is control, whereas Jules, under that control, is less self-assured. During their relationship, Jules has floundered in her "nine to five" life, sometimes trying to start a business - always unsuccessfully - or being the stay at home mom. She is currently trying to start a landscape design business. They have two teen-aged children, Joni and Laser, Nic who is Joni's biological mother, and Jules who is Laser's biological mother. Although not exact replicas, each offspring does more closely resemble his/her biological mother in temperament. Joni and Laser are also half-siblings, having the same unknown sperm donor father. Shortly after Joni's eighteenth birthday and shortly before she plans to leave the house and head off to college, Laser, only fifteen and underage to do so...


Preps: I adore Moore and Benning, therefore two good reasons to see it. A family drama is a good description of the genre I would love to see again - in good shoes, I guess.


Reality: An excellent drama, bringing out all the devious stuff your children could think of when being raised and questioning themselves, who they are, who their parents are and what their role is.

The children want to know who the parents really are. Do they? Well, this movie brings a strong point to revealing these "secrets" at the early stage and not when they are teenagers. Lesbian relationship and motherhood is the second strong point, just waiting for the filmmaker to follow up on it. Philosophical dilemmas, really trying to pull through a perfect family. Even if it consists of two women that couldn't be more different in the way they perceive life, life choices, options, and the way they interact with everyday things or dilemmas.

Benning and Moore play an excellent role in this piece, firstly trying to seduce you with a perfect realistic way of living a normal life and afterwards complication when the biological father enters the premises. The children prove at this point their natural organic way of celebrating life as it is, with its ups and downs and accumulating or adopting to changes. On the other side, the older you get, the harder it is to change things from the way you used to cope with them to a newer, maybe even not necessarily better version. Therefore, a drama or a ironic comedy, filled with energy from the two ladies and every day scenes. You will find it really hard not to like this piece and easily to fill in the gaps that director left behind. As a woman, the perspective of dealing with things, the director of course puts in her perspective. I believe that a male director would not only see things quite differently, the movie would have a different course as a whole.

In some sense, the movie is also provocative. Can a lesbian family really (and I mean REALLY) function as a normal? What do the kids tell the others in school? It cannot be romantic like it is shown in the movie. But I leave this to the interpretation of the viewers. It was a thought that stroke me the most, while watching this.


My personal rating: 8,0 (a strong, feminine movie, still filling the gap with a guy and guy energy :)

The kids are allright on IMDB

My life without me, 2003

My life without me, 2003
Director: Isabel Coixet
Cast: Sarah Polley, Amanda Plummer, Scott Speedman, Mark Ruffalo


Stage: home TV selection, a nice Wednesday evening and no clue what is on when turning it on.


My life without me in short; Ann, 23 years old, lives a modest life with her two kids and her husband in a trailer in her mother's garden. Her life takes a dramatic turn, when her doctor tells her that she has uterine cancer and only two months to live. She compiles a list of things to do before she dies.


Preps: I don't know the movie, the genre, haven't got a clue about it. So no preps there. But I adore the title and the main actress in a glance.


Reality: The idea of living a normal life, when suddenly the breathstriking news about a cancer and two months to your life's end is.. well, it is taken out of reality. No place for fiction here, no exits and no tolerance beyond the image of death that is approaching. So what do you do? Do you tell other people? Do you at least tell your spouse? Or your children, if you have them.. or on the other hand, do you spare them the experience of going with you into the hospital and waiting for the inevitable..
The movie deals with many of these issues and aspects of everyday life - as it changes, if you get a mortal sentence. How much of this you share is up to the individual, in this case the woman decides to save the pain for herself and indulge life as much as possible for the next two months. Seems logical, to put things you should do until then, on a piece of paper and start making them real. Nevertheless, the scary part of the movie is the simple philosophical dilemma or question - how come none of us make such lists or live a full life as it is? Why does it have to include a deadline? And finally, will my life be richer if I decide to live it fully for the next two months - why not try to live it all the time? In any case, it makes me think about my every day decisions - the way we save champagne cups for special occasions or something that we are waiting for the right moment to come by to indulge - like a classy wine, or special suit. Do we need to have a speciall Cinderella ball to wear a pretty dress? No, definitely not.
The movie will remind you of the things you leave behind or things you want to do and wait for the appropriate occasion/moment. It sets pace to every day life so that you live it and don't watch it go by. And makes you put priorities to things. Or to look from other perspective. Is my partner the right one? How many nights do I still have with my kids. How about teenage romance or adventure? Or going around the country to visit a special spot. It's the philosophy that would need to be implemented in our normal life. Especially if we are healthy. The cast in the movie is great, the situations taken from scenery you can easily adopt and personalize with yours. And the message is clear - take whatever you can from the time that is given to you. And make others respect that too.


My personal rating: 8,5 (I would love to see it again as it represents a different spectrum of life as you are used to and familiar with. Takes you to the edge and because of its impact I think about it long time afterwards)

My life on IMDB
My life's official site