Movie Monday - 1/24/2011

For some reason, there hasn't been much movie watching in the last week at Chez Merry Karma.

I did stream Babies on my iPad.  It's a cute little documentary looking at four babies in their first year of life.  One was born in the US, one in Japan, one in Mongolia and the other in Namibia.  Their upbringing has many similarities in that first year...probably because what all babies want early on is to hear momma's voice and to nurse.  Not all babies have a billy goat come check out the situation during bathtime, but if they have a sibling, they will take abuse - no matter where they live.  It was entertaining.

I went to the theater to see The Company Men with Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Craig T. Nelson, Chris Cooper, Rosemarie DeWitt, Kevin Costner and Maria Bello.  Affleck is an executive with a nice house and a fancy car.  He is among many of his coworkers who get downsized by this company that prefers to build new buildings with luxury offices for the top officers than to do what it can to retain the employees that keep the company in business.  It was interesting to watch Affleck's character go from materialistic to altruistic.  Maybe the word altruistic is going too far, but at least he learns what the important things in life are.  I liked this movie.

I also when to see Blue Valentine, the much-hyped because it started out with an NC-17 rating movie.  First of all, I think most of the movies rated R today should get an NC-17 rating for the sex or the violence in them.  Secondly, this movie had one scene that was racier than most R-rated movies, that probably was the one that was in question.  I am not going to argue what rating this movie deserved here.  Instead, I will discuss why I didn't think this movie was all that great.  The acting (Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling) was very good...don't get me wrong.  I failed to see how this movie communicated its premise...or at least the one some of the critics are saying is the premise.  This movie is supposed to show how relationships start with the couple not being able to get enough of each other because they are so in love and then life happens and they find themselves so apart.  I don't think a handfull of sex scenes showed real true intimacy at the beginning of this relationship.  Maybe, it was the editing...Yeah, let's blame it on the editing.  Seriously, this couple did have a little spark, but they got married for circumstantial reasons that I don't want to give away.  So, six years later, here's this woman who wanted to be a doctor now very dissatisfied with her life.  She is married to a housepainter who is very happy being a husband and father and feels he is just where he needs to be.  Maybe, the filmmaker is going for a nuanced story...I don't know, but it doesn't take rocket science to know that this relationship was doomed from the beginning.  If the plan was to show how love can lead us to make poor decisions, then the filmmakers succeeded.  Star-crossed lovers facing conflict and staying together against all odds??? No.

Cynical, much?

MK out.