M&M: The Terminal

Dear reader,

considering the growing number of refugees coming over to Europe, it probably makes sense to watch the movie The Terminal from the year 2004 once or again.

In it Tom Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, who comes from the fictive Krakozhia to America. But due to a revolution in his country, he's seen as stateless. With no proper passport, barely able to speak English, he's unable to travel further in America, nor allowed to fly back to his country. Viktor Navorski is stuck at the JFK airport. But he's not idle. He tries to make himself comfortable at the airport and find a job to get something to do. But because he has no passport, many don't want to employ him. So he needs to be creative and find things to do on his own, to get money to at least pay for food and something to drink. Only when builders are working on a wall and Navorski finishes the wall in the middle of the night, he gets employed. Other foreigners befriend with him (one Afroamerican, one Latino and one Indian). He also befriends with the stewardess Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones). He even invites her to, believe it or not, an actually quite romantic dinner at the terrace of the airport!

Then the revolution in Krakozhia ends and Navorski can finally leave the airport. Before he flies back to his home though, he's got a task to finish from his father. He had found a picture of 57 Jazz legends in a newspaper and set himself the goal to get an autograph from all of them. Only one, that of Benny Golson, is missing. Will Navorski be able to find Golson after his long stay at the airport and finally get the autograph? See for yourself!

Probably not always quite realistic, but still with lots of heart and humour, this movie is a nice pastime. Like I hinted at the beginning, because of the growing number of refugees and asylum seekers, it's still up to date even in these days.

Until next blog,
sarah

M&M: No Reservations

Dear reader,

after the dandelion recipes, even though it would probably have been more fitting last month, I think the movie “No Reservations” is a good addition. In the movie from the year 2007 with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart in the lead roles, there's loads of cooking!

Kate (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is top chef in a restaurant and also totally a perfectionist. But even though she sets high standards for herself as well as her cooked food, she cannot handle critics on either her as a person or her food well. So her boss Paula (Patricia Clarkson) eventually sends her to a therapist.

Her perfectly organised world is put to a test, when her sister and her 9-years old daughter, Zoe (Abigail Breslin) have an accident. Only Zoe survives and Kate decides to adopt the girl. Kate tries hard to treat Zoe with exceptional food. In doing so she seems to forget that children don't necessarily want to eat extravagant things. To top it all, a new cook is recruited to help Kate in the kitchen: Nick (Aaron Eckhart). Nick has a completely different cooking style (with music!) and is full of enthusiasm and passion. Of course Kate doesn't like that at all. It takes some time for Nick to not only stir food for Kate, but also her blood. Certainly one crucial moment is when Zoe visits the restaurant and kitchen one time and Nick manages finally to make her eat spaghetti with relish.

Paula is so happy with Nick's work in the restaurant, that she offers him to replace Kate as top chef. Will Nick take that offer and what does Kate think about the possibility of maybe not being the no. 1 in the kitchen anymore?

“No Reservations” is a remake of the movie “Bella Martha” from the year 2001. The names have changed and so has the ending. Personally, I like the actual ending of “No Reservations” better. The ending of “Bella Martha” is a bit too fantastic for my taste, although not totally unrealistic. Catherine Zeta-Jones worked as a server in a restaurant for one evening as preparation for her role. Of course Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart had to learn how to cut veggies “professionally” and how to turn barbecued food. In the “Making-Of” Aaron Eckhart says that the scenes in which they had to cook as well as speak dialogue, where especially difficult. On the one hand they had to look professional, which is difficult enough for someone not professional, as well as speaking lines, wasn't always as easy as it may look for the viewer.

Sometimes a somewhat sad, but often very funny movie about a bit of cooking and kitchen, but especially (sadly) not cookbook example of life and family. I'm sure we all sometimes wish, as Kate does, to have a cookbook for life, so we don't have to make up our own recipes for life situations.

Of course the movie has some bits of songs that “Nick” is playing. Otherwise Philip Glass is responsible for the actual film music. Although one theme can be repeatedly heard, which is actually from Mark Isham from the movie “Life As A House”, which is the melody of the song “Building A Family”. I like the melody a lot. It's one of my two favourite tracks from the soundtrack album. In “No Reservations” however the melody is played so often, that for me it feels like it's only that melody and the music “Nick” plays. With all due respect for Philip Glass, and I'm sure it's not his fault, but ultimately the director's decision, but I hardly consciously hear any of his melodies at all, when watching that movie.

Until next blog,

sarah

M&M: Big Fish

Dear reader,

imagine you've got an egoist and story teller as a father. He's so much an egoist and story teller that even in his speech at your own wedding, he tells stories of his own childhood, instead of something nice about you. Can you imagine how that would be? Well, if the answer is “yes”, you might have an idea of how Will Bloom (Billy Crudup) felt at his wedding in the movie “Big Fish” from the year 2003. The result is not surprising: Vater, Ed Bloom (Albert Finney) and son don't talk much with each other or if they do, it's through the mother, Sandra Bloom (Jessia Lange).

Until that day when the mother calls the son, to tell her that the father is going to die and he should come by for a reconciliation. The son then goes to his parents. He is accompanied by his wife, Josephine (Marion Cotillard). She didn't hear the stories of the father and she's curious. So he gets another chance to tell his adventures.

The younger Ed Bloom is played by Ewan McGregor, who has a striking resemblance to Albert Finney as the old Ed Bloom. Which was in fact the reason why Ewan McGregor got the part. Also part of the movie is Helena Bonham Carter in no less than three roles: the young and old Jenny as well as the witch. Danny DeVito can be seen as the circus director and Steve Buscemi might also be known to some film enthusiasts, to name only a couple of other stars of the film.

With all the fantastic and wonderful adventures, you might almost forget why the son actually went to the father. But the end is as sad as it is funny. Even after his death the story of the father's story is by far not completely told.

Behind every story is also some truth. Just how much truth in the case of Ed Bloom, you'll have to find out yourself by watching the film. Altogether I'd say that the film makes a skilful, successful balancing act: the life of Ed Bloom is not quite normal, but also not totally far-fetched. This film might bring back people, who themselves have listened to the parents telling stories to the children or parents, who have and still tell stories to their children. I believe that especially Ewan McGregor, who was able to play all the adventures of the young Ed Bloom, had certainly fun making the film. At least it seems like that for me watching the film, but also when I watch the extras and “behind the scenes” and Ewan McGregor as well as the others involved talk about it. Speaking of involved in the film: the film music was composed by Danny Elfman, like it was for (almost) all Tim Burton films. This Tim Burton film is not as scary as most of his other films. But it is a varied collection of many smaller, mostly funny stories in one single film.

Until next blog,
sarah 

M&M: How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Dear Reader,

my mother didn't like the actor Jim Carrey much. He was grimassing too much for her liking. But one day our half american friends once borrowed us their only english dvd of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. Jim Carrey is hidden behind a hairy green mask in that one. My mother understood english well, but it wasn't quite good enough for the details of the film. She borrowed the german dvd from the library a couple of days later. The story was compelling enough for her and Jim Carrey hidden enough, that she found it well worth watching a second time.

But what's the story about anyway? The film from the year 2000 tells the christmassy story, based on a story by Dr. Seuss. In english speaking areas Dr. Seuss is well known for writing stories for children in rhymes. As already in Nightmare Before Christmas, this story too is about an unhappy outsider. Though with the Grinch we've got someone who hates christmas as much as one can hate a celebration. He lives up north from Whoville, a small town, in which all inhabitants just love christmas like no other celebration. Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsn) is the young daughter of the post officer Lou Lou Who (Bill Irwin). She is a bright, curious girl and when she finds out that the Grinch never sends, nor gets post, she goes to find out why. It's because of her insistence, too, that during the party before christmas, the Grinch should be the cheermeister of the party. Because the book says, “The cheermeister is the one who deserves a back slap or a toast. And it goes to the soul at Christmas who needs it most.” Not that the Grinch would agree, that he needed christmas the most... But Cindy Lou goes to him up on the mountain and invites him. The Grinch thinks hard back and forth and eventually goes. Gritting his teeth, he makes it through all the festivities.


And then... then comes the night. The Grinch is up on his mountain and sees how Santa Claus with his sleigh and reindeers is bringing the presents to everyone. So he sets out and makes himself a christmas costume and his loyal dog Max is converted to a reindeer for the sleigh. Then the Grinch sneaks down to the town and steals all the presents to destroy them in the dump. When he gets to Cindy Lou's house, she's just awake, too. He hides behind the christmas tree, which he was just about to steal. When she asks him what christmas is really about, he simply tells her, “Vengeance!” only to correct himself quickly with, “I mean... presents... I suppose.”

In the early hours the first couple of people realise that the presents are gone. But the inhabitants of Whoville are flexible and find that christmas isn't really about presents anyway, but being with your beloved family. So they sing and are happy after all. The Grinch hears that and realises for the first time, that he, too, can change. What that change looks like and what the Grinch does with that, you'll have to find out for yourself. I also won't tell you, why the Grinch is living so alone on the mountain in the first place. That's a story you'll have to find out together with Cindy Lou.

By the way Jim Carrey's mask was really good According to a trivia entry on imdb.com to that movie, the latex skin was so confining and uncomfortable for him, that he needed counselling from Navy SEAL who taught him torture-resistance techniques.

It's interesting how in certain kind of movies, the bad guys come across as very sympathetic somehow. The Grinch is one of those. With his deep seated hate, he is certainly entertaining and is different from the often only cheesy christmas stories.

Until next blog,

sarah

M&M: Patch Adams

Dear reader,

August, 11 this year was a strange day for me and certainly also for a friend of mine (you know who you are). On the previous evening we chatted about comedies and actors. We found that we both like Adam Sandler and also Robin Williams. I thought to myself that I wasn't aware of what he had been up to the past couple of years, didn't hear of him for a while. But I was too tired to check just then. I went to bed and the next morning I read in shock and total surprise my daily mails from the Guardian newspaper with latest news. Robin Williams was dead. When I went online with my chat programs, I read that my friend had already read the sad news, too.

So with some delay now, this M&M today in memory of Robin Williams. Philip Seymour Hoffman is an actor, probably unknown or by not too many German speaking people. In “Patch Adams” he's a fellow student and room mate of Patch Adams. Philip Seymour Hoffman died this year (February, 2^nd) and I write this entry in his memory, too.

Patch Adams is a movie from the year 1998 and tells the true (as always with feature movies, for dramatic reasons not always the very true) story of Hunter “Patch” Adams. Okay, I know close to nothing about the real Patch Adams and many (online) reviews about this movie are rather negative. Since I know only very little about the “real” Patch Adams and this is a movie review anyway, I'll only stick to what's in the movie.


Hunter Adams is suicidal and admits himself to a hospital for treatment. His room mate is a man, who keeps him awake at night with a squeaking bed, because he needs to go to the toilet, but doesn't dare out of fear for the squirrels he sees. Adams starts a squirrel hunt then and shoots the squirrels (with his hand miming a pistol). After a wild squirrel shooting, the room mate is finally able to go to the toilet. Adams is impressed that he was able to help another person with humour and decides to study medicine to help even more.

During his studies, Adams notices that he doesn't have to learn much. We actually never see him sticking his nose in his books. (I don't know how much this was true. Although there are some lucky ones, who really don't need to do much to learn and remember things.) Adams notices something else, too: the doctors seem often very functional and stern and distant towards patients. Once they talk about a patient in the hospital as she's lying in bed, surrounded by the students and the doctor. They talk about her illness (diabetes with poor circulation and diabetic neuropathy), also treatment (shocked the patient hears the possibility of “amputation”). Then Adams asks, “What's her name?” All just look at him. “I was just wondering the patient's name”, he says. The doctor has to look at the chart. “Marjorie.” “Hi Marjorie”, Adams greets her smiling at her and addressing her personally.

In time he also makes friends with patients and is able to give them some treats and grant them wishes. Some find it “a little disturbing”, that he's sneaking into a room full of kids (the children's ward) and “acting like a clown”. Surely he was eccentric in that scene. Surely I personally couldn't get out of myself like that. Simply because I'm too shy and introverted for something like that. But “disturbing”? Because he's a man among children? He isn't a child molester! He wanted to make the children laugh and they were happy! What's so wrong about that?

Like many Hollywood movies, this one too can't come without a love story. Patch Adams befriends with female student. At first she only wants to study and not make friends, tells him that, too. Some say that Patch Adams is pushy and reckless, forcing his will and happiness on everybody else. I read that just now, as I was reading some comments at the imdb.com Patch Adams forum. All I can say is that I didn't see this movie and certain scenes in that way so far. Anyway, his girlfriend meets this mentally disturbed patient as the movie goes on, which leads Patch Adams to a faith and life crisis for a short time. (From what I read, this student/girlfriend never existed. One might wonder why all of that is in the movie then.) She meets this patient when she and others help Patch Adams starting a free hospital, even though they're still students. Because Adams is shocked when he sees that desperate relatives are first asked to fill out forms and give information when their sick partner is clearly in pain and in need of immediate help.

The fact that Patch Adams is always happy, seemingly never learning and still gets top grades and that he's practising medicine without a doctor's degree, leads him to almost not be able to finish his studies. So he goes to the court and that fight fills the last about 15 minutes of the movie.

Like I already wrote, I don't know much about the life and works of the real Patch Adams. It may also be questionable why Patch Adams gets this girlfriend, who has to go through what we see in the movie. I have no idea how eccentric the real Patch Adams is or isn't and whether Robin Williams' portrayal is realistic or not. Some critics ask in a provocative way if you really like to be treated by a doctor wearing a red clown nose. I'd like to tell those people one thing. A couple of years back there was a hot summer and I went to see a female doctor. It was so hot that most girls and women wore short t-shirts or sleeveless tops. When the doctor came into the room, she didn't have her coat on. She asked me, if I was okay with that. I don't remember, what I actually said to her. Certainly something affirmative. Today and in hindsight I might have asked her, whether her knowledge is in her coat or in her head and depending on it, I would have insisted on the coat or not.

Tastes differ. Nobody has to like the movie “Patch Adams” or watch it. I still think some thoughts expressed in that movie are important: being friendly to the patients, asking them every now and then, how they're doing or what they would like, instead of talking about then in their presence in a sort of “Mrs. Broken-Leg” and “Mr. Terminal Cancer” sort of way. Especially the American health care system is in need of a change. The idea of a free hospital therefore is commendable and worthy of support. For fans of Robin Williams, who didn't know Patch Adams and his works, at least he showed them that and I think that's a good thing.

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: Gun Shy

Dear reader,

in 2000 the actor Liam Neeson had the leading role as the DEA agent Charlie in the film „Gun Shy“. Charlie comes back from an undercover mission, which has gone horribly wrong. It ended in a disastrous shooting, in which Charlie's colleague got killed and almost got him killed as well. Instead Charlie ended up head first in a water melon. Needless to say that he hates melons since then. From that moment on he has severe digestive problems as well as anxiety. There's nothing he wants more than retirement and the view of the ocean.

On his flight back, Charlie meets the therapist Dr. Jeff Bleckner (Michael Mantell). He notices how uncomfortable Charlie is and offers him help. Dr. Bleckner suggests Charlie goes to do some group therapy. During those sessions Charlie finds out that he's far from being the only one unhappy with his (professional) life. As he tells the others about his problems, he falls on sympathetic ears. Charlie has to take on one last job to stop the scary mafia boss Fulvio and his money laundering business. Charlie is so nervous meeting Fulvio the first time, that Dr. Bleckner prescribes him some pills. The therapist makes it very clear to Charlie only to take one pill. But Charlie is so nervous and the effect doesn't come fast enough for Charlie. So he takes a second. That leads to Charlie not only being calm during the meeting, but he very much not to fall asleep. In the end Charlie can't fight it any longer and just falls asleep in his chair as he is. Fulvio is enthusiastic and impressed how Chrlie can go to sleep and just sleep peacefully.

Charlie and Fulvio become friends for real. That's how Charlie realises that the mean mafia boss is just a show. Fulvio's wish for life is to grow tomatos. He only plays the mean mafia boss, because that's what everyone seems to expect him to be like. So Fulvio is just one more person, who is unsatisfied and with totally different dreams for how his own life should be. Charlie decides to help him.

Charlie consults the beautiful Judy Tipp (Sandra Bullock) about his digestive problems, who not only is able to help him with alternative medicine about his bodily problems. He's also infected by her optimism and the to of them come closer.

All in all this film can't be taken too serious and is far from what might happen in real life. But the film has much humour and it's much fun for me to watch all those great actors. The characters were written which much love and care, even the smaller parts and I enjoy it a great deal to see them all with their quirks and their problems they are fighting with and do their best to stick to their dreams and come closer to fulfilling them. At the end of this turbulent adventure especially Charlie and Fulvio clearly learned something for themselves and have been through quite some changes and achieved things for themselves.

Until next blog,
sarah