The Legacy of Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron...you were a humorous, strong, brilliant, and inspirational woman. Thank you for creating your lovely worlds for us.  I have always thought of you as a kindred spirit and friend. You have always been there for me on the most difficult of days-- your bittersweet humor serving as a perfect band-aid.

Nora had a way of writing that not only feed your soul, but your inner foodie.  After watching "Heartburn" my puffy red eyes and tear stained face were craving the unusual concoction of roasted lemon  chicken, bellinis and rice pudding (with raisins). Deliciousness on both accounts.

"If we get married, we'll ruin everything" 
-Rachel from "Heartburn"

"You shouldn't have a ring you can't wear on the subway"
-Rachel from "Heartburn"



"When Harry Met Sally (as some of you know by now) forever changed my life! I first saw this movie when I was eighteen and even though Nora burst my bubble about relationships later on in an interview I saw in my 20's... I will always think of these following witty repartees and smile. 

Sally: "I'd like the chef salad please with the oil and vinegar on the side and the apple pie a la mode."
Waitress: "Chef and apple a la mode."
Sally: "But I'd like the pie heated and I don't want the ice cream on top I want it on the side and I'd like strawberry instead of vanilla if you have it if not then no ice cream just whipped cream but only if it's real if it's out of a can then nothing."
Waitress: "Not even the pie?"
Sally: "No, just the pie, but then not heated."

"There are two kinds of women: high maintenance and low maintenance... You're the worst kind; you're high maintenance but you think you're low maintenance." 

-Harry Burns from "When Harry Met Sally"

"You know, I have a theory that hieroglyphics are just an ancient comic strip about a character named Sphinxy."  
-Harry Burns from "When Harry Met Sally"



"I am not your consolation prize, Harry." 
-Sally Allbright from "When Harry Met Sally"

Then there is my favorite ending to a 
movie ever. Picture this: old blue eyes
singing "It Had to Be You" while Harry 
runs through the dark wet streets of New York trying to find
Sally and beat the clock to midnight...and then...to quote
Nora's words from earlier in the film..."best last lines in a 
movie ever"...

"I love that you get cold when its 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can
still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. 
And its not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New 
Years Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest 
of your life to start as soon as possible."  
-Harry Burns from "When Harry Met Sally"

Harry: "The first time we met, we hated each other"

Sally: "No, you didn't hate me, I hated you.  The second time we met, you didn't even remember me."

Harry: "I did too! I remembered you. The third time we met, we became friends"

Sally: "We were friends for a long time"

Harry: "And then we weren't"

Sally: "And then we fell in love.  Three months later, we got married"

Harry: "Ya, it only took three months"

Sally: "Twelve years and three months"

Harry: "We had this... we had a really wonderful wedding

Sally: "It was... it really was a (laughing) beautiful wedding"

Harry:  "We had this enormous coconut cake"

Sally:  "Huge coconut cake, with the tiers, and there was this, this very rich chocolate sauce on the side"

Harry: "Right, 'cause not everyone likes it on the cake, 'cause it makes it very soggy"

Sally:  "Particularly the coconut, soaks up a lot of that stuff, so you really... it's important to keep it on the side"

Harry:  "Right."

A lot of critics of rom-com's like to say that Nora Ephron basically makes the same movie over and over...I, however, disagree.  While "Sleepless In Seattle" does star Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks (along with an AMAZING cast of support actors) and also includes a terrific soundtrack..."Sleepless" tackles widowerhood, the loss of a parent, friendship, and destiny.  

In the nineties amid films with depressing and scary subject manner, it was the perfect "meet-cute" film depicting love, family, and friendship, with a different more updated or modern approach...yet it still stayed true to romantic comedies the way they "used to be".

Annie's Mother:  "...at one point I looked down and couldn't tell which fingers were his and which were mine. And I knew. Ya know? Magic. It was magic...I knew we'd be together forever and that everything would be wonderful."

Annie Reed:  "Now that was when people KNEW how to be in love. They knew it! Time, distance... nothing could separate them because they knew. It was right. It was real. It was..."

Becky:  "A movie! That's your problem! You don't want to be in love. You want to be in love in a movie."

"Look, Annie... I love you. But let's leave that out of this. I don't want to be someone that you're settling for. I don't want to be someone that anyone settles for. Marriage is hard enough without bringing such low expectations into it, isn't it?"

-Walter from "Sleepless in Seattle"

"Destiny is something we've invented because we can't stand the fact that everything that happens is accidental."

-Annie Reed from "Sleepless in Seattle"

"Well, I'm gonna get out of bed every morning... breath in and out all day long. Then, after a while I won't have to remind myself to get out of bed every morning and breath in and out... and, then after a while, I won't have to think about how I had it great and perfect for a while."

-Sam Baldwin from "Sleepless in Seattle"

But most importantly, I feel that among all of my emotions on the passing of Nora Ephron, is that we won't have her in Hollywood making films that need to be made...first chivalry died and now romance.  Nora, you will be sadly missed by this chick flick!

Carnage

Let me begin by climbing up on my soapbox for a moment and screaming at the top of my lungs that THIS is the kind of movie we need to have in theaters for a longer period of time than half a week! Why we can have Adam Sandler's "Jack and Jill" and others of that ilk in theaters for three or more weeks sucking up space is just beyond me! That being said, this film was brilliant!  


"Carnage" is the latest addition to the filmography of Roman Polanski.  Set in a modest New York City apartment is the microcosm for the world's issues with only two couples to defend them played by the incomparable Kate Winslet, Christopher Waltz, Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly.  Like an incredibly well oiled machine, these characters and their actors are perfectly matched and executed from beginning to end.  Based on the play "Le Dieu du carnage" by Yasmina Reza who also co-wrote with screenplay with Polanski, is a tale of two boys and their altercation in the park.  As the film opens we meet Nancy and Alan Cowan (Winslet/Waltz) whose son is accused of hitting another boy with a stick to the face and Penelope and Michael Longstreet (Foster/Reilly) who are the parents of the boy whose face caught the stick.  The two couples have come together to form a resolution in what they hope will be a civilized understanding and an apology.  What they find themselves in is a caffeinated, scotch infused battle royale of wits, words, the sexes, honesty, and humor.  

Roman Polanski (love him or hate him) is a master of film.  His perverse knowledge of humankind, his visualistic style, and his uncanny eye for detail are truly what set his films apart from others. Keeping true to his nature, he shot the entire film on one set... perfect for Polanski's penchant for voyeur-esque close-ups and odd angles. 

This film is witty, smart, and completely relatable to everyone!

Salmon Fishing In the Yemen... The Five Year Engagement... and Friends with Kids

I had the opportunity to see these films consecutively over the last month and what I realized is that when it comes to "Rom-Com's" there is definitely the good, the not so bad, and the ugly.  Love takes the stage in the leading role of all three of these films...and the lesson is the same--finding it and keeping it is really really hard!  Other than that, that is where the similarities end.

The Good... "Salmon Fishing In the Yemen". More cerebral than its counterparts, it asks bigger questions in its sweeping shots and exotic locals.  I have never seen Scotland or the Middle East look so beautiful! While this is not exactly a title one would expect for a film about love, hope and faith; but it is, and it is a wonderful adventure from beginning to end!  

A wonderful diversion from explosions and politics, this film in its own search for community, peace, humanity and faith delivers just that.  Based on the novel by Paul Torday, it tells the story of how two ordinary job-faring people with the inspiration and funds of a very wealthy shiek find the meaning of life and love by bringing salmon to Yemen.

As it is often easier to go with the flow than swim up stream, Ewan MacGregor's character, Dr. Alfred Jones, follows the easy current.  By doing so he lives a very dull, introverted, formatted life in his cubicle and his home controlled by his beast of a boss and his unloving emotionless wife.  Harriet on the other hand, played thoughtfully by Emily Blunt, is more open to experiences but is consistantly fearful of being hurt and has found her peace in being driven by her job. Like any good romantic comedy, strong-willed people and their beliefs make funny and eventually heartfelt stories.  Throw in the comic relief of Kristin Scott Thomas (yes, I said Kristen Scott Thomas) as the Prime Minister's energetically fierce Press Secretary counterbalanced with the calm and unflappable Shiek played by Amr Waked and you have yourself a beautifully casted film, adventure, and love story (on many different levels).

The Not So Bad... "Five Year Engagement".  Although riddled (and often) with Jason Segel's buttocks and lewd comedic efforts, this film has an endearing and honest quality to it that saved it from going in the direction of "Bridesmaids".  It follows couple Tom and Violet, as they embark on the adventure known as engagement and the following stages of wedding planning.  However, their careers have other plans.  Not wanting to be just a housewife and mother but rather to follow her academic dreams and goals, Violet (Emily Blunt) awaits to hear of her acceptance for a psychology teaching assistantship.  Tom (Jason Segel) is a successful sous-chef at a thriving San Francisco restaurant.  When Violet's acceptance letter arrives from the University of Michigan, the couple is required to make the decision to follow Violet's career path rather than Tom's.  The story follows a usual "rom com" formula and there are very few surprises but it has an endearing spirit that leaves you feeling good.

The Ugly... "Friends with Kids".  I had high hopes for what turned out to be this less than mediocre film.  While it seemed like a semi-fresh idea...instead of friends with benefits, friends with kids...it ignores all of the emotional building blocks for a good romantic comedy.   Attempting to conceal its blatent plagiarizing of "When Harry Met Sally",  it focuses on archaic themes which are run into the ground repeatedly with a heavy reliance on its brash and contemporary "Bridesmaids" cast.

I expected more from Jennifer Westveldt (Kissing Jessica Stein), a smart and wonderfully endearing actress who I hate to say bit off way more than she could chew with this project (writing, directing, producing, and acting).  I think this would have been a stronger film if she had chosen just one job , not focusing on her character but also those of her fellow actors and their characters.  

Where I had hoped that we would have a new modern script to uphold in "Rom-Com" history, we as the viewers were given the same force-fed humor and storyline with no emotional connection whatsoever.  

The little nugget to gleen from this car wreck of a film is the slightly interesting and honest portrayal of couplehood in 2012...here is where the story is interesting and where I would like to have seen it flourish.  As the story progresses we see three archetypal couples (the couple in lust, the couple in love, and the couple who doesn't know they are a couple) progress or digress as the case may be.  The strongest and best performances of the pack go to Maya Rudolph and Chris O'Dowd.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

By the looks of the cast it would be an easy assumption to think it's another pot-smoking Jason Segal movie with Ed Helms playing his affable big brother and Susan Sarandon his frustrated (with a right to be) mother.  But the magic happens when we get past these stereotypes and see the wonderful characters that the Duplass brothers ("Cyrus") have created. 

Superficially, yes, Jason Segal (Jeff) who lives in his mother's basement (thus the title) is a pot smoker... but he is a covert optimistic philosophical pot smoker who happens to hold the movie "Signs" as his holy bible and is waiting for his first sign from the universe to show itself.  And, yes, Ed Helms (Pat) plays his know-it-all big brother, but he is also a self-indulgent jackass lost in a emotionless marriage he hopes will be fixed by the purchase of a Porsche rather than building a nest egg with his wife (played by Judy Greer).  

What begins as a metaphoric quest for glue, is a story that follows Jeff who is searching for symbols that will lead him to his treasure of human contact, love, family, and a connection to the world.  What the brilliant Duplass brothers deliver is a brilliant, beautiful, humorous, and thought-provoking comedy.  Jason Segal, Ed Helms, Susan Sarandon, and Judy Greer are equally brilliant in their passive/aggressive and apathetic roles and act with a specific kind of quietness I have never experienced in film before.  Rarely does a film come along that just grabs the audience, for in the first five minutes one is savoring every word, every character, and every scene, hoping that 90 minutes will really turn into five hours.

"Jeff, Who Lives at Home" tackles the meaning of life and peppers it with a unique humor, grace, and empathy that I very much appreciated.  I will be adding it to my list of favorites in this genre such as... "Amelie", "Next Stop Wonderland", "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", and from the trilogy "The Three Colors: Red"...to recommend a few.

Shame and A Dangerous Method

It turned out to be a Michael Fassbender week at the movies with him starring in the lead of both "Shame" and "A Dangerous Method."  Not since Roman Polanski's "Bitter Moon" have I felt so embarrassed or intrigued while watching a film.  

"Shame," this aptly titled film, was difficult to watch (most of the time); however, I was not disappointed.  Brilliantly depicted by Michael Fassbender, Brandon Sullivan is a sex addict with oodles of issues, including a sister, Sissy, played by the wonderful Cary Mulligan who thrusts herself into his very regimented lifestyle of work, prosititution, internet porn, and masturbation.  Sullivan is a complex character, fractually part predator, child, and victim.  Fassbender is as mesmerizing to the voyeur as is his character.  Like a tiger staring down his prey, he lures women into his trap.  Even though he pounces on them before they realize why they are there, they are completely willing to be his meal.

Brandon and Sissy are both seductive and broken individuals, so different from one another and yet as the film moves on, so similar. We, as an audience, are never privy to their past which alludes to one that is tragically dark, sad, and perhaps even explicit--one that he can't come to terms with and that she can't escape from.  As Sissy says, "I'm not playing the victim.  If I left, I would never hear from you again.  Don't you think that's sad?  Don't you think that's sad?  You're my brother."

I found that I was left with many questions at the end which, like many movies of this caliber, is why I enjoyed it so much.  Most intriguing to me is that a film so raw and at times so raunchy is really a film of love and compassion no matter how one chooses to demonstrate it....much like life.

Second on the menu is the film "A Dangerous Method" directed by David Cronenberg, known for his films "Crash" and "Naked Lunch."  This film stars Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightly, and Viggo Mortensen.   

This, too, is a film about sex.  It was interesting to see these two films within a couple days of each other.  How does a studio hype a movie about sexual perversion in the early 20th century?!  Should they describe it or sell it as a costume drama?  Should they mention that it is an analytical film on the birth of psycho-analysis, oh, and should they mention there is a love affair?  I had you at psycho-analysis, didn't I? 

At times extremely intense, this film intriguingly and emotionally allows us the insight to the discussions, beliefs, and the circumstances that caused the split between Carl Jung (Fassbender) and his mentor Sigmund Freud (Mortensen).  Although that may sound like a snore-fest, it was not, I assure you.  Psycho-analysis has never been so sexy.  The two are very convincing as both of the great minds of modern psychiatry and that alone was a joy to watch.  

At the center of their discussion is Sabina Spielrein, played fantastically by Keira Knightly.  Russian-born Sabina is brought to the hospital that Jung oversees.  Hysterical and contorting her body in ways that don't seem humanly possible, she is difficult to watch.  This is intentionally well done.  There to be treated for mental illness and sexual perversion, she and Jung form a strong friendship that then turns into a love affair.  Increasing its interest is the fact that it takes place at the beginning of the 20th century when things such as sex, let alone perversion, are rarely allowed to be discussed.  It is a history of accounts and while entertaining, it is academic as well as enlightening.

I have to make mention of the other lesser known "stars" in this film.  The set design, costume design, and the cinematography are beautifully captured. Vienna looks supremely beautiful as does the countryside outside Zurich.  I thoroughly enjoyed the juxtaposition of the two personalities in both their homes, offices, and beliefs.  While Jung's "New Age" hospital is almost depicted as heaven filled with beautiful bright light and lovely gardens, there is a kind of menacing and medicinal stench lurking around in locked quarters.  In opposition, there are Freud's dreamlike caves of academia...dark and rich...filled fantastically with multitudes of bottles, spilling bookshelves, and artifacts.  The lighting is particularly amazing as it captures the contrast of the darkness of Freud's tobacco-colored world with the white milky nature of the smoke from his always-present cigar.

Whether it's the shame of today or the shame of yesterday, both of these films beautifully translate and capture what it is like to be human in a difficult world.  They both remind us we are all just animals filled with love, passion, anger, lust, and multitudes of other flaws... that no matter how hard we try to fix or change them, we cannot escape who we truly are.

The Artist

Nostalgic, cheeky, sweet, charming, bittersweet, thoughtful-- the list of adjectives could just go on and on; still nothing can really describe what a pleasure it was to watch this film!  Even in its darker moments, "The Artist" is a gift wrapped in celluloid black and white goodness!  

It's funny the reaction this film gets.  A silent movie, this day in age?  Are they serious?  Even when I went to buy my ticket, the clerk felt it important to inform me about the film... "are you aware that this is a silent movie?"  Yessssss... that is why I am here... I was thinking, geesh!  Are we THAT far removed from the past that we can't enjoy the purity of film?

After experiencing this, it reminded me of my adoration for simplicity.  The scenery and sets were uncomplicated, allowing the expression and enchanting efforts of the actors to shine through.  Jean Dujardin is absolutely wonderful in his role as George Valentin, a silent movie star at the top of his game.  He is all twinkle, smiles, and charm in his dapper tails and top hat.  Peppy Miller played by Bernice Bejo is equally charming in her role as a spunky, happy-go-lucky dancer looking for her big break in the business.    

This film reaffirms the magic of non-verbal communication, reminding me of phrases like "A look is worth a thousand words" or "silence is golden".  In a world where we are so plugged in, turned on, and tuned out, this was a refreshing and highly entertaining film!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

This film, just like Swedish design, is beautiful in its simple and stylish scenes, sets, and acting.  Because of its simplicity, the production and complex story line had to be tight and perfect; and that is exactly what this film delivers.  

The performances on every actor's part were exact, stylized, and played with perfection.  I was curious if the Swedish accent would come off well with American and English actors and it really did--so well in fact that I didn't even recognize Robin Wright-Penn at first.  Daniel Craig is wonderfully cast as Mikael Blomkvist, a discredited journalist out for redemption and a paycheck.  Understated and comfortable in his role, he fits it like a comfortable pair of fine leather shoes, and his intensity and vulnerability are fun to watch.  

Rooney Mara's performance is beyond words.  As Lisbeth Salander, a punked out and pierced computer hacker, she is barely recognizable.  Her world is a microcosm of all things horrific to befall womenkind and what she has lived through is only a part of her mystery.  Mara's performance is reminiscent of Glenn Close's in "Fatal Attraction" in its reality and vivid intensity.  She is enigmatic, quiet, and cognitively alert.  Amid the chilling winter landscape and quietness, it's as if one can hear her brain clicking faster than her fingers stroking the keys of her laptop.  Oscar nods should definitely go to Mara for her interpretation!  

Not to be forgotten are the wonderfully amazing performances of the supporting Christopher Plummer and Stellan Skarsgård.  Plummer's character, Henrik Vanger, exudes the gentle warmth of a hug in contrast to the coldness of the crime that is being investigated.  Stellan Skarsgård is Martin Vanger, the brother to the missing girl Mikael and Lisbeth are investigating. Unlike his Uncle Henrik, he is cool in his warmth, polished and charismatic; he is too friendly and too helpful.

The other star of this film is Sweden herself.  Director David Fincher and Director of Photography Jeff Cronenweth beautifully capture her dressed in dark gritty Stockholm or the elegant monochromatic stillness of her countryside.    

I left this film very intrigued--eager to read the trilogy.  A must see!  Very thrilling from beginning to end, it is one of the best films I have seen this year!