M&M: Little Children

In a small suburban town Brad (Patrick Wilson) is on the playing ground with his son Aaron (Ty Simpkins) as they meet Sarah (Kate Winslet) and her daughter Lucy (Sadie Goldstein). Being the only man amongst women on the playing ground, Brad is idolised a lot. Brad and Sarah decide to play a trick on th other women. They both start to like each other soon. Brad is married, but his wife is very controlling and he wishes himself back to earlier times. Sarah is married, too, but her life as a housewife and her daughter go on her nerves.

The idyllic times of the suburb comes to a hold when Ronald „Ronnie“ McGorvey (Jackie Earle Haley), who was convicted to two years in prison is released and moves in with his mother May (Phyllis Somerville). Especially the ex-cop Larry Hedges (Noah Emmerich) is not at all pleased with this and starts a hate campaign against Ronnie McGorvey. Larry Hedges quit the police job after he misjudged a situation and a teenager got killed in the process.

So effectively every adult in this town is insecure, unhappy and burdened by their fate, each in their own way. Only the little children are confident and innocent. If and how the adults work on a (better) future for themselves, you'll have to find out yourself.

The movie came out in 2006. Todd Field was the director and also wrote the script together with Tom Perrotta. It is based on the novel by the same name by Tom Perrotta. The movie shows the daily life and struggles of suburbanites. Still the relationships of each individual person and their fears and difficulties are complex and well played by the actors. Kate Winslet got an Oscar nomination as leading actress and so did Jackie Earle Haley for supporting actor. Todd Field and Tom Perrotta got a nomination for best writing for adapted screenplay. “Little Children” is by no means a cheap suburban daily life movie.

I haven't read the novel yet, so I can't draw any parallels. I do think the movie is worth watching. Ronnie McGorvey's sexual offence and his moving in with his mother may give this movie an uneasy sexual aspect. Apart from the fact that I like Jackie Earle Haley as an actor, I did have the feeling that Ronnie McGorvey wanted to start a better life for himself. I thought that Larry Hedges with his aggressive ways was more disrupting for this place and for way to live together peacefully. But he, too, had his very own problems and at th end of the movie he shows that he can overcome his anger and disgust to help.

M&M: The Legend Of 1900

"You're never really done for, as long as you've got a good story and someone to tell it to."

The trumpet player Max Tooney (Pruitt Taylor Vince) tries to sell his trumpet in a shop. The shop owner (Peter Vaughan) actually wants to close the shop at that moment, but grants Max to play the trumpet for one last time. Max plays a melody which sounds familiar to the shop owner, who heard it on a broken matrix he found in an old piano. Max says that this matrix shouldn't actually exist and that's how he starts telling the shop owner the story of 1900.

1900 isn't a number but a man. As a baby he was left by his mother on the Virginian, a ship that was going back and forth between America and Europe. Danny Boodman (Bill Nunn), a worker on the ship, finds the boy in a box and raises him. Since Danny found the boy on the first month of the new century, he calls him that. Danny never registers the boy at any office, for fear they may take him away. When 1900 is eight years old, Danny dies from an accident. After that the boy hides so well that nobody can find him. When he's seen again, he's playing the piano perfectly and moving everyone. So he ends up playing in the band on the ship to earn himself some money. In the first class he is more or less playing from notes, in third class he's playing totally free and his own melodies. Although he's never registered somewhere, more and more people on land hear about his ingenious playing. That's how Jelly Roll Morton (Clarence Williams III) also hears of 1900 and challenges him to a duel. 1900 however has no idea how such a duel works.

One day Max leaves the ship again and loses contact with 1900. But when Max hears they're going to destroy the Virginian in short time, he goes looking for his old friend.

Will 1900 ever leave the ship? Who'll win the duel? Will Max find 1900 again? Those are questions only you can answer to yourself by watching the movie.

It's a bit curious that this movie from the year 1998 runs more than two hours when the book on which the movie is based is only about 80 pages long written by Alessandro Baricco. The book is thought to be a monologue, a one-man-theatre-play, which is why it also includes some directions. The trumpet player is called Tim Tooney in the book and he tells the story as a flashback, similar to the movie.

At first I was sceptical about such a long movie. But I was very positively surprised and the story totally captivated me, so the movie wasn't tedious for me. If you like piano music and/or movies about friendship, you might enjoy this movie.

M&M: Prestige

Dear reader,

today I want to introduce you to a movie with magicians and about magic. No, of course not Harry Potter! Probably everyone knows that magician already, even those among you, who didn't read the books or watched the movies know enough for me not to write about him in my blog.

The movie “Prestige” is from 2006 with Christian Bale as Alfred Borden and Hugh Jackman as Robert Angier. Borden and Angier work together at first. Although Borden is the younger magician and more a helper or stooge playing an audience member. One day an escapology act goes terribly wrong though and Angier's wife, who is bound underwater in a watertank dies. Since Borden as an audience member tied the important knot, Angier makes him responsible for the death of his wife. Needless to say that they go their separate ways after that. Although not quite, because both spend a lot of time to bust the other and being the better, if not the best magician.

Both develop a number: they go into one cabinet and seconds later, the step out from a second cabinet. That's the main principle of the big number they both have. Is Borden using a double? But Angier, in one of his bustings hurts Borden that he actually lost fingers on one hand and Borden stepping into the cabinet as well as the one stepping out are missing those fingers. Angier on the other hand (no pun intended) is travelling from great britain to america to meet the physicist Nikola Tesla (David Bowie). Tesla really existed and was famous for unusual inventions. To this day it's not known how some of his inventions he presented actually worked. In “Prestige” we see that he hands Angier a light-bulb which then lights up in his hand like that. But are feats and inventions like that enough to give Angier a second man?

Angier wants to destroy Borden desperately and definitely. That means that he has to set him up. During a performance Borden gets to enter the backstage area and sees Angier seemingly trapped in the watertank. The top lid can't be opened anymore. Angier drowns. This leads to a trial. Borden, meanwhile with a wife and a daughter, faces a possible death sentence. His life up to that point is the main part of the movie. In prison, waiting for his execution, Borden gets a visitor. Only when that man tells Borden that he'll take care of his daughter from now on and is about to leave, does Borden recognise that man. It's Angier! So Borden is no murderer!

At the end both magicians paid a high price for their big number and they know the secret of the other ones trick and what that trick has cost him.

For me “Prestige” is something special, because I'm interested in magic and do a bit of magic myself. I guarantee you that almost all tricks are real and possible, the way they are presented. The tricks are actually learnt and performed in front of the camera by the actors, quite unlike “The Illusionist”. “The Illusionist” is very disappointing in that regard, because many things would be real, but were quite visibly, at least for me, done with “film tricks”. “Prestige” is as real in the magic it shows as it can be with a movie like that.

My top favourite scene of all in the movie is when Borden is in prison and gives the warden a wipe. He does that with a combination of two main principles. He shows the warden a ball and throws him in the air. Once. That's supposed to be a magic trick? A second time. Okay, we get it now. On the third throw we look up and often the magician doesn't throw the ball really at that time. The human eye is used to the routine of the ball in the air, it looks like the ball vanishes in thin air. The second principle is to seemingly let the trick go wrong. The magician looks like an idiot. When Borden throws the ball a third time, he doesn't catch it and the ball drops off the table. The great magician is in prison for murder and can't even escape like Houdini, and then he can't even catch a ball properly.The warden likes that, of course, up until...

A couple of magic notes and anecdotes for those interested:
- Teslar isn't the only real person in "Prestige". In a performance Borden sees a chinese, Chung Ling Soo, who deceived the world (including Harry Houdini!) In reality he was an american by the name of William Ellsworth Robinson. But the first and only english words he ever spoke on stage would be shortly before his death, "My God, I've been shot."
- He was shot performing the so called "Bullet Catch", a classic magic trick, which Borden will perform in the movie, too. Robinson is one of the 11 magicians, who didn't take enough precautions, which cost them their lives.
- Other classic magic tricks performed in the movie are: the water tank (made famous by Harry Houdini especially), the "chinese linking rings", coin magic, the bullet catch. I don't know what the trick is called, but Angier tries to do one once where different objects are revealed from the long coat of the magician, usually ending with the revelation of a huge bowl filled with water and a gold fish in it.

I admit I haven't seen the movie in a long time. So I can't think of any more notes and anecdotes just now. Probably I missed some. If I should think of more, I'll add them here later. Anyway, the movie is a real pleasure for me to watch as someone interested in magic and sort of performer in magic myself, I love it for the relation to reality and because almost all of the tricks can be done that way, as you see them.

Also I like the soundtrack by David Julyan a lot.

The movie was made on the basis of the book by Christopher Priest with the same title. Like so often the case, the book is different from the movie. Angier and Boden never worked together. Angier's wife never died, but was pregnant and lost her baby because of Borden. The book is separated in different parts as diary entries which one reads and the rivalry goes on for several generations. The history of magic is more fleshed out. The background story of what life was like for the two magicians before they were on stage performing can be read. The book is different. Film and book are just two different media with their individual ways of story telling and creating suspense.

Until next blog,
sarah

M&M: Instinct

Dear reader,

the movie “Instinct” was released in 1998 and is based on the idea of the novel “Ishmael” by Daniel Quinn. They truly don't have much in common than the idea really. Those who know the book, will certainly be disappointed about how much of it can be found in that movie, which is precious little. I still think it's good to know both - the book and the movie. Here's the story of the movie:

Dr. Ethan Powell is a famous anthropologist. Before he got missing in the African jungle for several years, he was studying gorillas. When they find him, he hurts some and also kills one of the men. He's send in jail in Rwanda. He doesn't speak a word to anybody. They get him back to America, where the young, engaged psychiatrist Dr. Theo Caulder feels he'd get more popular if he can get Powell speak again.

But when Powell starts talking to Caulder, something strange happens: everybody thought that Powell was the patient and Caulder the doctor, but when Powell begins to talk, he becomes a teacher, a guide to Caulder, who now is a kind of student. Powell doesn't only guide to the last two years in the jungle, but also gives him a different way of seeing the world and shows him that what we think is the truth, may not be quite right. In the end Caulder didn't only lost a couple of things, but - and even more important - found interesting ones also.

Director was John Turteltaub, maybe best known for his movie "While you were sleeping". Dr. Ethan Powell is played by Sir Anthony Hopkins, who's most famous role was as Dr. Hannibal Lecter. He got his first Oscar for his Dr. Hannibal Lecter in "The silence of the lambs". Dr. Theo Caulder was played by Cuba Gooding, jr, who also got an Oscar (supporting act), for his play in "Jerry Maguire". Composer of the score was Danny Elfman, who also did the film score for movies like "Spider man" or "Men In Black".

On his homepage Daniel Quinn answers questions from interested people and fans. Here is his answer regarding his reaction to “Instinct”:

http://www.ishmael.org/Interaction/QandA/Detail.CFM?Record=420

Here you can read his thoughts on common elements between “Instinct“ and “Ishmael“:

http://www.ishmael.org/Interaction/QandA/Detail.CFM?Record=433

Until next blog,
sarah

  

M&M: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Dear reader,

based on the book with the same title by Paul Torday the film came out in 2011 with Ewan McGregor as Dr. Alfred Jones, Emily Blunt ad Harriet Chetwode-Talbot and Amr Waked as Sheikh Muhammadin as leading roles.

The sheikh is a fishing enthusiast and wants to be able to fish salmon in the jemen. So he hires the financial adviser Harriet to take care of that. Now she contacts the fishing expert Dr. Alfred Jones. At first he thinks this is all a bad joke. But Harriet is on fire and Alfred has many difficulties, to bring this project to an end. Alfred doesn't have much of a choice but to take part, the british prime minister's press secretary forces him to, after she realises what a project like this could mean for britain, should it succeed. Alfred and Harriet soon turn this into a sort of game. All just in theory, of course, because salmon fishing in a desert area like the yemen is pretty crazy. Alfred one by one puts high requirements on Harriet for the project, in the hope that she has to say it can't be done... and Harriet fulfils them without an exception. Through this salmon project Alfred and Harriet get closer to each other. Alfred has a wife, but she thinks about her own career a lot and with that their emotional relationship has gone rather cold. Alfred has a wife though... Harriet on the other hand met the soldier Robert only a couple of weeks ago. He's now stationed in afghanistan. Then she gets a message that Robert has gone missing. Is that the chance for Alfred and Harriet to get close? Everything seems to go well, the fish are swimming and the sheikh can go fishing. Just then Robert is back and for PR-purposes he gets flown to Yemen to Harriet as a surprise for her. But that project of salmon fishing in the yemen has gone too well so far. A small group of rebels don't like that there is a dam for fish for the oh so open-minded sheikh to be able to go fishing. They blow up the dam and then everything seems lost for the fish. But is it really? And who will Harriet go for: Alfred or Robert?

It's a lot of fun to watch Harriet and Alfred together, the way they interact with each other. First how they're working all in a theoretical way and against each other and then work with each other and for salmon fishing in the yemen. Maybe sometimes what it needs is people, who are bound and determined and a big, nearly impossible project to work on step by step and for starters purely on a theoretical level. In the end it may just really work for real. A very beautiful film about the possibility of (seemingly) impossible projects.

Until next blog,

sarah

M&M: Skellig

Dear reader,

as today's M&M post, I want to introduce you to the movie “Skellig.” The film is based on the book by David Almond with the same title. Although it's a children's book, I enjoyed reading it as an adult a lot, too. It's one of the rare books, which are ageless. Like Harry Potter is read and loved by teenagers as well as adults.

The film (so far) is only available in English. It's got English subtitles, too. The book is available in English and German.

The story is about a boy, Michael (Bill Milner), who moves with his parents Dave (John Simm) and Louise (Kelly Macdonald) from a flat in the city to a rotten house further away and that house so needs renovation at least. Michael feels very alone without his friends. His dad is busy renovating and sees his life dream come true. Michael doesn't understand that at all. The baby is born then and has a heart problem. So the mother is away a lot to the hospital, dad sometimes as well. Michael feels even more alone than he felt already.

But he finds a new friend in the girl next door. Mina (Skye Bennett) is her name. She also knows a lot of things, especially considering she doesn't even go to school. Her mother teaches her at home.

Also there's this strange man (Tim Roth) in the garden shed. He seems to be ill and totally lost all his interest in life. All he wants is to be left alone. Michael and Mina however totally thwart those plans. Michael doesn't feel he gets any attention from his parents or that he's able to help them. But maybe he can help that man.

Michael doesn't only get help from Mina. There's also Grace (Edna Doré), an old lady he meets in the hospital. She's constantly walking up and down the hall to keep Arthur away, Arthur-itis. Michael tells her about his sad friend and Grace hands him some of her cod-liver oil pills. Maybe they can help him, too.

For a long time Michael and Mina don't know who this man in the shed is and it takes a while for him to tell them his name at least: Skellig. Once the two of them try to make it more comfortable for him, so they take the jacket off him. That's when they see he's got wings on his back. During their research for creatures with wings, they come across angels, too, of course. Maybe Skellig is an angel? Are human shoulder-blades the last bits or the starting points for wings of highly developed creatures?

One night the father is so desperate with the house and the situation with the baby in the hospital and everything in general, that he decides to just burn the shed. But Skellig is still in there and it takes all of Michael's effort and persuasion, to get him out at the very last second, without the father noticing. He hides Skellig in the forest near by. In doing all that however, Michael burns his hand. Thanks to Michael's and Mina's cockering, Skellig is soon on his way to get better. Then something strange happens: Skellig heals Michael's hand within only a few minutes completely! So when Michael's little baby sister is getting worse, he asks Skellig for help. Surely he can help with her heart problem, after healing Michael's hand. But Skellig is still grumpy.

Will Michael be able to persuade Skellig in time? That's for you to find out and read or watch or both.

And what kind of creature is Skellig? He tells the children that, “I'm something... like you. Something like a bird.” “Something like an angel?”, asks Michael. “Yeah”, says Skellig. “Something like that.” Tim Roth once said in an interview that for him Skellig is an “atheist angel”, an angel who's had enough of all of that, until he meets Michael.

Until next blog,

sarah