ITA la neve nel cuore . It was nice for a while but it lost itself. They wasting time adding slapstick comedy to the wrong movie, and totally overlooked important aspects of the various relationships. The plot in a few words: it's almost Xmas and Everett (Dermot Mulroney) is about to spend it with all his family. He brings his girlfriend Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) to the party, but nobody there likes her. His mother Sybil (Diane Keaton) needs a second and no more to be sure that she's not the right girl for his son. His sister Amy (Rachel McAdams) dislikes her more than anyone, who knows why. Meredith is very composed and formal and tries indeed too hard to be accepted. Feeling alone she calls her sister Julie (Claire Danes) for support. It's no surprise at all that Everett will fall for Julie, and his brother Ben for Meredith.
Now, the Meredith-Julie relationship totally failed to show, when it should have been a key point to understand Meredith and feel for her. Julie, very loyally, did not accept Everett's invitation to go out for a coffee together (or drink or whatever) but that was the extent of it. Ben's character (Luke Wilson) is not well defined, and it's not clear how he likes Meredith. She really tries too hard to be perfect and accepted, but she does so in a very strange way, because honestly she would often do better just by shutting up. Come on, the dinner scene was so absurd and so long and so unreal. Everett's brother Thad is there with his boyfriend Patrick, and Sybil made a joke about having wished all her sons to be gay, and the family were laughing and joking, and then Meredith very seriously asked her is she had really wished that, and went on and on and on about it. It's obvious it was a joke, of course Meredith's words were true and she was right, but she was totally out of line, she should have never asked the question in the first place because it was a stupid question and totally failing to be considerate towards Thad, but that she would go on and on about it to fill the silence in the room was stupid, and Julie was silent like the others, sort of embarrassed, and tried nothing to help her/stop her. When they stopped her abruptly (it was hard, she didn't seem inclined to do it herself) she stormed out and tried to drive away but she hit a tree (does she know how to drive? It doesn't seem like it, and yet she took the car.. I mean, she was in quite a state, but still, a tree is quite big you know) and Ben came to her. He talked to her and took her to a bar, and he told her she needs to relax and stop trying too hard, and they drank together and Meredith got drunk and started talking and dancing. They slept in the car but she woke up in Ben's bed and thought she had slept with him without thinking of asking him. Everett and Julie had gone out looking for her, but it doesn't seem to me like they tried all that much to find her: basically they walked and talked enjoying each other's company. The next day Everett asked Julie to try on the ring he had planned to give Meredith, because he had planned to propose to Meredith but now he likes Julie and insists until she tries it on and it fits too perfectly: it doesn't want to come off. Julie says it all to Meredith, and although she does ask her why did Everett asked her to try the ring, she doesn't seem too keen on an answer because the matter ends there. Still Meredith now believes that Everett will propose to her, and from that moment she avoids talking to him until she shouts in front of everybody that she will not marry him. Now, the Everett I never liked at all proved me right by saying in front of everybody that he did not ask her and had no intention of asking her. She looked at Julie confused, but still she seemed unable to connect the dots.
Meredith has a breakdown here, saying they must be all happy of this final humiliation, and in her rant she mentions sleeping with his brother and you know what? Everett has the face to appear angry, chasing Ben around the house while the women have various accidents with the food. Stupid.
It could have been a good movie, it had Diane Keaton in it and SJP and CD were good but unfortunately the script lost itself, I don't know why. They got the Julie character in with the only purpose of having Everett fall for her and nothing more. They should have used the character, show her relationship with Meredith and how she was more loose with her.
They should also have shown a reason for Ben immediately liking Meredith. I mean, why was she such a bad choice for Everett but it's ok for Ben??
The only nice scene was when Meredith went to talk to Ben and she laid in bed next to him and they seemed so comfortable together like we had never seen her before. That was a nice moment. There should have been something on that tone earlier on.
It was said that Sybil was very ill and had not long to live, and the movie ends with scenes from the next Xmas, without Sybil: the family going on, Ben with Meredith and Everett with Julie.
martedì 21 febbraio 2017
Christmas magic - 2011
A Christmas movie, one of those little things neatly wrapped, only to be watched at Christmas; it's got angels and love and good morals and of course the inevitable happy ending. These movies are often absurd and would not be acceptable at any other time of year, but in December they become part of the Christmas spirit in the air and all of a sudden they become bearable, sometimes even enjoyable. This one is very absurd, much more than usual in the end, because the girl is not a 'real angel' but merely in a coma although she doesn't know it, and she walks around as an angel, thinking she's dead, on a mission to help a man before she can be admitted to Heaven. So you see, her body is in two places at the same time: she's in the hospital, where her father sits by her bedside all the time, hoping, but she's also walking around, healthy and stylish.
In July this movie would be stupid nonsense, but in December it becomes "Christmas Spirit".
It goes like this: Carrie (Lindy Booth) is a young working woman, she has a good career as an event planner, and nothing more. One night a man warns her not to speak on the phone while driving, but she gives him the usual answer I so often hear from people: that she does it all the time and nothing ever happened! I've always thought it such a stupid thing to say, and yet people actually say that, for real.
That night she has an accident. She wakes up on a bench in Central Park where that same man Henry (Derek McGrath) explains to her what happened. I guess she remembers the accident because she believes it easily and believes she's dead. Henry tells her that she has an assignment, before she can cross over: she must help a man with his restaurant. Scott (Paul McGillion) is a widow with a daughter, and business is going so badly he might have to close down. Carrie meets him and offers to help him both by babysitting little Abby (Kiara Glasco) and by promoting his restaurant. She finds him a catering job that puts him back on business and becomes very fond of him and Abby. On Christmas Eve she has to go; when he learns that a woman with her same name and profession has been in a coma for the last two or three weeks (or days, it's not really that clear; Henry said she had only three weeks before Christmas, but the time they spend together seems really short) and he hears his daughter saying that Carrie is a 'real angel', he hurries to the hospital and there she is. They are about to suspend life support, but she hears him singing and comes back. She wakes up at midnight of course, and when she opens her eyes she remembers everything! They are in love and spend Christmas together as a family.
As I said, there's the happy ending and it's very very absurd, but well, it's a Christmas movie!
Edit October 2018 since I forgot I had seen this already:
It was nice but nothing great. Time means nothing in this movie, that’s completely messed up, and the ending is not very likable, but the Christmas spirit, the love story, the good sentiments are all there.
It’s the story of Carrie Blackford (Lindy Booth) who sort of works in public relations, planning big openings and such, and is totally absorbed in her job. One night she meets a kind old man at a gas station, and he warns her that the streets might not be safe because of the cold and to be careful but she doesn’t care too much for his words, totally focused on herself. Next thing we see her waking up on a bench in Central Park, where the same man, Henry (Derek McGrath), tells her what happened, and she remembers it now. She remembers that she ignored him and used her phone while driving and had a car accident. She asks him: since you knew about the accident, why didn’t you tell me? ...seriously girl? What could he say? He did try to warn her, and he says so now, but he couldn’t interfere with free will.
Since she remembers that, she accepts quite easily the idea of being dead.. Henry is an angel and is there to guide her, but before she can ‘go’, she has a task: she must help a man, who needs guidance and help, find again the will to live, basically. Help him with his failing restaurant and his sad life. There are only three rules: respect free will, don’t tell anyone you’re an angel, and don’t contact anyone from your previous life. Scott’s restaurant is failing and she must help him turning it into a success. She has three weeks from today to give him a reason to live. So, she goes in.
She meets Scott (Paul McGillion) at his restaurant, and waitress Rita “we have a customer??” :p Carrie orders chicken piccante but doesn’t eat it, after one bite she leaves it. She immediately starts offering her help and giving advice. she says “do you mind if I gang around here for a bit?” so she can stay there; she babysits his eight-year-old daughter Abby (Kiara Glasco), wins her over by putting on the Christmas decorations together; then she asks about the restaurant and she offers to promote it, other than to take care of Abby. She sees her dad outside, buying flowers so she hides from him. She talks to Henry about her bad relationship with her father. The next day (and we know for sure because Rita mentioned that she was in ‘yesterday’) Rita is already telling him that he should date her. Carrie picks up Abby from school before trying another dish at his restaurant... and again she leaves it aside. Abby would eat ‘the special’ instead, that she eats in the kitchen as if the customers were not even to see that. Carrie tries it too, it’s Scott’s father secret barbecue recipes, and she encourages him to try his own delicious barbecue food in the restaurant. He says his father always said that the best ingredient is love, but that he promised his old regular customers not to change the menu... how stupid is that? couldn’t he keep those two dishes they liked and then add something new?? Next scene, he’s looking at other recipes when Abby comes home with Betsy, already back after visiting her daughter and grandkids. Then, Scott tries his new food on the old customers... another stupid move, why force it on them? Just add it for the new customers!
Carrie then finds him a catering job: she goes to a gallery who’s about to open soon and offers ‘friendly advice’, changing the artist’s name from Danny to Dimitri, inventing a catchphrase and telling him what to do to make sure that people will show up, and of course suggesting a catering service... so Carrie takes Dimitri to meet Scott and since the opening is tomorrow they prepare all the food together: Scott Carrie Rita Abby and Betsy. When Abby’s tired, Betsy takes her home and they stay to have dinner together.
He says he was a musician, that five years ago on Christmas’ eve his wife died in an accident, then she leaves: “I’ll see you tomorrow”. It’s now the next day, since he tells Rita that he had dinner with Carrie before going back home, and since she insists he tells Rita that he’ll ask Carrie out and we see them spending an evening together, walking and talking and it’s dark already. He tries to kiss her but she pulls back saying she can’t... and Henry tells her she only has two days left now... then the next day there is the big opening night... they have a funny sense of time in this movie.
Lynette is there all bossy, looking for contacts, and she meets Scott. Now Henry says, talking to Carrie, that she had the accident only a few days ago...
The next morning, Abbie leaves for school and Scott tells Carrie they can’t see each other that night because he has a date with Lynette, and now she tells Henry that she loves him and can’t leave him with Lynette! Henry explains that angels and mortals can’t be together...
Carrie says goodbye to Abby who knew from the start that she was an angel, and when Scott comes back she says she’ll stop at the restaurant the next day. She finds him playing the piano and singing, something he hasn’t done in five years, and they talk for a bit and then he sings again and she walks out. Rita tells him to run after her because he loves her and he goes but can’t see her anywhere.
Scott goes to dinner with Lynette and she tells him about ‘the competition’, talking about her work, and explains about Carrie Blackford having an accident and being in a coma. He takes Abby and also Betsy so she can drive them to the hospital, and he takes his keyboard so he can sing for her.
Henry tells Carrie that it’s time to go but then she hears Scott’s voice singing, and only now Henry explains that she can choose, it’s her choice: the light will give her peace and serenity, or she can go back and live her life with Scott... Obviously she wakes up, and her big message to Scott from his father Henry is “the secret ingredient is love”... which is no big message at all since Scott knew that already. Anyway, she’s alive, they’re in love, Abby loves her and they spend Christmas together..
So, at the end we found out that she didn’t die, all this time she was in a coma and now that Scott found out the truth he sings for her so she hears him calling her and comes back, wakes up and they’ll live happily ever after as a family...
Of course there’s a happy ending, in this kind of movie there must be a happy ending, I never had any doubt because if a movie called Christmas Magic didn’t end well I’d fell betrayed, worse, cheated, scammed, there must be one at all costs, even if it makes no sense at all. Because of course it made no sense at all, this whole movie made no sense.
Basically, while her body was in a hospital bed in a coma with her father at her side, that same body could easily walk and help Scott get his life back on track. There were two Carries in the world :-/
also, we were told that she had three weeks but watching the movie you feel like only a few days have passed, certainly not twenty-one..
It’s all very easy in this movie: Carrie finds Dimitri, he hires Scott, it’s a success, just like that..
but then this is a Christmas movie, so all that matters is a dose of good feelings and Christmas spirit, and nothing more.
ITA un magico natale
In July this movie would be stupid nonsense, but in December it becomes "Christmas Spirit".
It goes like this: Carrie (Lindy Booth) is a young working woman, she has a good career as an event planner, and nothing more. One night a man warns her not to speak on the phone while driving, but she gives him the usual answer I so often hear from people: that she does it all the time and nothing ever happened! I've always thought it such a stupid thing to say, and yet people actually say that, for real.
That night she has an accident. She wakes up on a bench in Central Park where that same man Henry (Derek McGrath) explains to her what happened. I guess she remembers the accident because she believes it easily and believes she's dead. Henry tells her that she has an assignment, before she can cross over: she must help a man with his restaurant. Scott (Paul McGillion) is a widow with a daughter, and business is going so badly he might have to close down. Carrie meets him and offers to help him both by babysitting little Abby (Kiara Glasco) and by promoting his restaurant. She finds him a catering job that puts him back on business and becomes very fond of him and Abby. On Christmas Eve she has to go; when he learns that a woman with her same name and profession has been in a coma for the last two or three weeks (or days, it's not really that clear; Henry said she had only three weeks before Christmas, but the time they spend together seems really short) and he hears his daughter saying that Carrie is a 'real angel', he hurries to the hospital and there she is. They are about to suspend life support, but she hears him singing and comes back. She wakes up at midnight of course, and when she opens her eyes she remembers everything! They are in love and spend Christmas together as a family.
As I said, there's the happy ending and it's very very absurd, but well, it's a Christmas movie!
Edit October 2018 since I forgot I had seen this already:
It was nice but nothing great. Time means nothing in this movie, that’s completely messed up, and the ending is not very likable, but the Christmas spirit, the love story, the good sentiments are all there.
It’s the story of Carrie Blackford (Lindy Booth) who sort of works in public relations, planning big openings and such, and is totally absorbed in her job. One night she meets a kind old man at a gas station, and he warns her that the streets might not be safe because of the cold and to be careful but she doesn’t care too much for his words, totally focused on herself. Next thing we see her waking up on a bench in Central Park, where the same man, Henry (Derek McGrath), tells her what happened, and she remembers it now. She remembers that she ignored him and used her phone while driving and had a car accident. She asks him: since you knew about the accident, why didn’t you tell me? ...seriously girl? What could he say? He did try to warn her, and he says so now, but he couldn’t interfere with free will.
Since she remembers that, she accepts quite easily the idea of being dead.. Henry is an angel and is there to guide her, but before she can ‘go’, she has a task: she must help a man, who needs guidance and help, find again the will to live, basically. Help him with his failing restaurant and his sad life. There are only three rules: respect free will, don’t tell anyone you’re an angel, and don’t contact anyone from your previous life. Scott’s restaurant is failing and she must help him turning it into a success. She has three weeks from today to give him a reason to live. So, she goes in.
She meets Scott (Paul McGillion) at his restaurant, and waitress Rita “we have a customer??” :p Carrie orders chicken piccante but doesn’t eat it, after one bite she leaves it. She immediately starts offering her help and giving advice. she says “do you mind if I gang around here for a bit?” so she can stay there; she babysits his eight-year-old daughter Abby (Kiara Glasco), wins her over by putting on the Christmas decorations together; then she asks about the restaurant and she offers to promote it, other than to take care of Abby. She sees her dad outside, buying flowers so she hides from him. She talks to Henry about her bad relationship with her father. The next day (and we know for sure because Rita mentioned that she was in ‘yesterday’) Rita is already telling him that he should date her. Carrie picks up Abby from school before trying another dish at his restaurant... and again she leaves it aside. Abby would eat ‘the special’ instead, that she eats in the kitchen as if the customers were not even to see that. Carrie tries it too, it’s Scott’s father secret barbecue recipes, and she encourages him to try his own delicious barbecue food in the restaurant. He says his father always said that the best ingredient is love, but that he promised his old regular customers not to change the menu... how stupid is that? couldn’t he keep those two dishes they liked and then add something new?? Next scene, he’s looking at other recipes when Abby comes home with Betsy, already back after visiting her daughter and grandkids. Then, Scott tries his new food on the old customers... another stupid move, why force it on them? Just add it for the new customers!
Carrie then finds him a catering job: she goes to a gallery who’s about to open soon and offers ‘friendly advice’, changing the artist’s name from Danny to Dimitri, inventing a catchphrase and telling him what to do to make sure that people will show up, and of course suggesting a catering service... so Carrie takes Dimitri to meet Scott and since the opening is tomorrow they prepare all the food together: Scott Carrie Rita Abby and Betsy. When Abby’s tired, Betsy takes her home and they stay to have dinner together.
He says he was a musician, that five years ago on Christmas’ eve his wife died in an accident, then she leaves: “I’ll see you tomorrow”. It’s now the next day, since he tells Rita that he had dinner with Carrie before going back home, and since she insists he tells Rita that he’ll ask Carrie out and we see them spending an evening together, walking and talking and it’s dark already. He tries to kiss her but she pulls back saying she can’t... and Henry tells her she only has two days left now... then the next day there is the big opening night... they have a funny sense of time in this movie.
Lynette is there all bossy, looking for contacts, and she meets Scott. Now Henry says, talking to Carrie, that she had the accident only a few days ago...
The next morning, Abbie leaves for school and Scott tells Carrie they can’t see each other that night because he has a date with Lynette, and now she tells Henry that she loves him and can’t leave him with Lynette! Henry explains that angels and mortals can’t be together...
Carrie says goodbye to Abby who knew from the start that she was an angel, and when Scott comes back she says she’ll stop at the restaurant the next day. She finds him playing the piano and singing, something he hasn’t done in five years, and they talk for a bit and then he sings again and she walks out. Rita tells him to run after her because he loves her and he goes but can’t see her anywhere.
Scott goes to dinner with Lynette and she tells him about ‘the competition’, talking about her work, and explains about Carrie Blackford having an accident and being in a coma. He takes Abby and also Betsy so she can drive them to the hospital, and he takes his keyboard so he can sing for her.
Henry tells Carrie that it’s time to go but then she hears Scott’s voice singing, and only now Henry explains that she can choose, it’s her choice: the light will give her peace and serenity, or she can go back and live her life with Scott... Obviously she wakes up, and her big message to Scott from his father Henry is “the secret ingredient is love”... which is no big message at all since Scott knew that already. Anyway, she’s alive, they’re in love, Abby loves her and they spend Christmas together..
So, at the end we found out that she didn’t die, all this time she was in a coma and now that Scott found out the truth he sings for her so she hears him calling her and comes back, wakes up and they’ll live happily ever after as a family...
Of course there’s a happy ending, in this kind of movie there must be a happy ending, I never had any doubt because if a movie called Christmas Magic didn’t end well I’d fell betrayed, worse, cheated, scammed, there must be one at all costs, even if it makes no sense at all. Because of course it made no sense at all, this whole movie made no sense.
Basically, while her body was in a hospital bed in a coma with her father at her side, that same body could easily walk and help Scott get his life back on track. There were two Carries in the world :-/
also, we were told that she had three weeks but watching the movie you feel like only a few days have passed, certainly not twenty-one..
It’s all very easy in this movie: Carrie finds Dimitri, he hires Scott, it’s a success, just like that..
but then this is a Christmas movie, so all that matters is a dose of good feelings and Christmas spirit, and nothing more.
ITA un magico natale
domenica 19 febbraio 2017
Snow, glass, apples by Neil Gaiman
A short story, an alternative version of the fairytale Snow-white, only this is no fairytale at all. The Queen tells this tale, of the child that at the age of six or seven sucked blood from her hand, and when she barred her room the child started it with her own father, until ultimately he died the shadow of the man he once was. Once Queen, she was respected as a wise woman and ruler. Terrified by the little thing, she had a hunter bring her her heart, which he did, but the heart was still beating, and even without it she was still walking and drinking the blood of the forest folk, where she now lived. To save them from her, and to re-establish relations between them and her people, she did a magic spell with some apples and her own blood, and "gave them" to her stepdaughter who, supposedly, ate them and fell like dead. The Queen kept her heart in her room, and now it stopped beating. Two years of peace then a Prince came, and after a murderous, vampire Snow-white and some disturbing details here and there (like where the vampire bites were found), now we have a necrophiliac prince, out of his senses when he found in the forest a very young and very dead naked Snow-white, cold pale and with no heart.
The happy ending we all knew: he married Snow-white, and together they went to the Queen to take her heart back, then the Queen was burned alive while they all watched.
I don't know how I feel about this story. Well written indeed, but also disturbing.
The happy ending we all knew: he married Snow-white, and together they went to the Queen to take her heart back, then the Queen was burned alive while they all watched.
I don't know how I feel about this story. Well written indeed, but also disturbing.
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