Throwback Thursday: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)

Retirement presents an interesting conundrum. Our working years are over, but that does not mean that our lives are over. There are opportunities for experiences that simply could not or did not exist when we had to go to work.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) is the story of a group of British retirees who decide to pick up and move to India. Among them are Evelyn (Judi Dench), Douglas (Bill Nighy), Muriel (Maggie Smith), Graham (Tom Wilkinson), Jean (Penelope Wilton), Norman (Ronald Pickup), and Madge (Celia Imrie). They find a rundown hotel and in addition to the individual adventures, go about fixing it up.

Assisting them is Sonny (Dev Patel). Sonny is long on enthusiasm and dreams, but short on the practical aspects of opening and maintaining the hotel. He also has a significant other that his mother openly disapproves of.

The prequel to The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, this movie is charming, entertaining, and lovely. The cast is picture perfect, the imagery is lovely, and the story is perfect. It proves that life does not end when we stop working.

Do I recommend it? Absolutely.

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Jenny’s Wedding

Hollywood, depending on whom one sometimes speaks to, is either behind the times or right on target.

Katherine Heigl’s newest film, Jenny’s Wedding, is right on target. In light of the recent SCOTUS ruling that states that marriage is no longer just between one man and one woman, Jenny’s Wedding put a human face on the issue.

Based on the trailer, Jenny (Katherine Heigl) and Kitty (Alexis Bledel) are not stereotypes. They are simply two women in love who want marry and have the same privileges as Jenny’s straight and married sister, Anne (Grace Gummer).   Jenny’s parents, Eddie (Tom Wilkinson) and Rose (Linda Emond), again based on the trailer, are like many parents. They see the change that is going on in this country, but they cannot truly confront their own feelings until the issue in the persona of their daughter.

It will be interesting to see how this movie is received when it is released later this month.

Throwback Thursday- The Debt (2010)

Guilt and what if’s can often be our greatest downfall in life.

In The Debt (2010) three former Mossad agents are facing the guilt and what if’s of the past.

The film begins in 1997. Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren), Stephan Gold (Tom Wilkinson) and David Peretz (Ciaran Hinds) are being honored for a mission they completed in 1965 to bring to justice Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen). But the truth is that while they were able to complete their mission, it was not as smooth as hoped. The film then flashes back to 1965 where the younger version of the characters, Rachel (Jessica Chastain), Stephan (Martin Csokas) and David (Sam Worthington) are in Berlin, in the early stages of their mission.

After the flashback, the film then reverts back to 1997 with the characters being lauded as heroes, but questions still linger. Were Rachel, Stephan and David truly able to complete their mission or are there loose ends that may come back to haunt them?

I happen to like this movie. Beyond the very talented cast, the movie grabs the audience by the throat and does not let go until the very end.

I recommend it.

Flashback Friday-The Governess

Sometimes, in life, it is the challenges the define us.

In the 1998 movie, The Governess, Rosina da Silva (Minnie Driver) is the daughter of a privileged Sephardi  Jewish family. When her father dies, she takes a position as a governess in the home of Charles Cavendish (Tom Wilkinson).  Mr. Cavendish’s wife (Harriet Walter) takes little notice of her husband’s work.  Rosina, under the name of Mary Blackchurch, has an affair with her employer while his teenage son, Henry (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) also starts to look differently at his sister’s governess.

I enjoy this movie. It is quiet, simple British indie drama was a top notch cast and a story that draws the audience in.

Do I recommend this movie? Yes.

Belle Movie Review: C’est Magnifique

I’m a girl. I like romances and more specifically I like period romances. I like see men wearing stockings, breeches and neck clothes. I like seeing woman wearing petticoats, corsets and  long dresses. But that doesn’t mean I want a mindless, predictable story with an ending that can be seen a mile away. I like an intelligent story that makes me laugh, that makes me think, all while providing the happily ever after that makes me smile at the end of the story.

I am very happy to report that Belle is such a story.

It is based on the true story Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a bi-racial woman raised on her great uncle’s estate in 1780’s England. Her father, Captain Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode) is only able to care for his daughter for a brief time before he passes her to his uncle to raise.  His uncle, Lord Mansfield  (Tom Wilkinson) was Lord Chief Justice at the time, was reviewing a case in regards to a slave ship where many of the slaves were drowned.

When Dido reaches the age when marriage is expected, there are road blocks. She is attracted to the son of a local vicar, John Davinier (Sam Reid), but finds herself and her cousin Elizabeth Murray (Sarah Gadon) in the company of  James Ashford (Tom Felton), his brother Oliver (James Norton) and their mother, Lady Ashford (Miranda Richardson).  Dido’s mother figures, her aunts, Lady Mansfield (Emily Watson) and  Lady Mary Murray (Penelope Wilton) do their best, but they are blinded by their own prejudices.

This movie is wonderful. While it has the hallmarks of a BPD (British Period Drama), it also brings up issues that have not been raised in the genre previously.  I’ve seen many BPD’s, but 99.9% of them have an all white cast, the issue of racism and people of color in England is rarely addressed. It also addresses the fact that English women, up until approximately WWI, had no rights. They were chattel. Wealthy women and aristocratic women, were especially viewed as chattel. If they were lucky, they had  a father or a  brother and then eventually a husband who loved them and respected them.

I highly recommend this movie.

 

Dont Bother Riding Onto This Range- The Lone Ranger Review

Disney’s latest foray into the action/adventure moviedom is The Lone Ranger, a reboot of the classic TV series of the same title.

Armie Hammer plays the title role of the Lone Ranger/John Reid and Johnny Depp is Tonto, his Native American partner in crime. Joining Hammer and Depp is Ruth Wilson as Rebecca, John’s sister in law/love interest, William Fitchner as Butch Cavendish, the film’s villian, Tom Wilkinson as Cole, a questionable politician and Helena Bonham Carter as Red Carrington, the town Madam.

Other reviewers have reffered to this movie as bloated and misshapen. I would add predictable and trite.

Armie Hammer’s approach to the character is one dimensional, the only actor that held my interest throughout the movie was Johnny Depp. Ruth Wilson, whose portrayl of in the title role of Jane Eyre in 2006 is one of my favorite Jane Eyre’s, is completely wasted in this part. Despite any press stating that Rebecca is not the typical love interest/damsel in distress, I disagree that outside of a few moments in the film, the character does not move beyond the stereotypical female role. The supporting cast of Tom Wilkinson, William Fitchner and Helena Bonham Carter are also wasted as actors.

This movie clocks in at 2 hours and 40 minutes. Frankly, the screen writers seem have lifted parts of plot from 1998 film The Mask Of Zorro. If I could gotten those two hours and forty minutes back of my life, I would. But instead, I warn anyone who is considering seeing this movie, do not see this movie. If Much Ado About Nothing was the best movie I have seen so far this year, this movie is the worst.