Sunshine Cleaning (2008)
I just want to start this out by saying that Amy Adams should win every award that can be given in the field of acting – best supporting actor and best actor included – because this woman is amazing in everything I’ve ever seen her in. She’s beautiful, talented and just generally awesome.
Okay, now that I have that out of the way, Amy Adams is just one of the incredible performers that make up the cast of Sunshine Cleaning. Little Jason Spevack is adorable as Ocsar and Alan Arkin is brilliant as family patriarch and perennial screw up, Joe. Emily Blunt (whom I first fell in love with as Emily in The Devil Wears Prada)… what can I even say about Emily Blunt. Her performance as Norah in this movie is absolutely heartbreaking.
I had some problems with Sunshine Cleaning – namely the ending. Sometimes a more open, unresolved ending works, but I felt there needed to be more here. I wanted to know what happened with Rose, Amy Adam’s character, and the one armed model builder Winston. Surely it was love? Am I wrong here?
Aside from the unsatisfying ending, Sunshine Cleaning may have been one of my favorite movies this year. Just a word of warning though, considering the premise of the movie (two sisters need money and start a bio-hazard removal service, which basically means they ‘clean up’ crime scenes etc, after the body has been removed) there is a fair bit of blood. If you have a weak stomach you might have a hard time with this one.
The Cake Eaters (2007)
Directed by the incredible Mary Stuart Masterson, The Cake Eaters isn’t just a great chick flick, but a great movie overall. Kristen Stewart (Twilight) plays Georgia, a young woman with Friedreich’s ataxia – a disease that causes nerve damage and eventual heart disease – beautifully and it’s impossible not to love Elizabeth Ashley as Georgia’s free spirited grandmother. I absolutely loved this movie, although there was one serious flaw, so let’s get to that now.
The Cake Eaters was written by Jayce Bartok who also plays the completely unnecessary role of Beagle’s older brother Guy. I kept waiting for something to happen with his character that factored into the story, but it never amounted to anything. He shows up, does his thing and is in the final scene of the movie, but he really has no impact on the movie at all. Jayce gave a great performance in the movie and wrote a great script but his character seemed to be written in as an excuse to cast himself in the movie.
Aside from that, I really have no complaints about the movie. Some people are frustrated by the ending (which I won’t ruin here) but I love a movie that doesn’t wrap everything up in a neat package and lets you draw your own conclusions. If that isn’t your thing, you might want to skip The Cake Eaters.
RIP Patrick Swayze
Such sad, sad news to post about today, ladies. After a two year battle with cancer, Patrick Swayze has passed away.
I would normally write more, but honestly, I’m a little at a loss for words here. While he has been sick, it’s hard to imagine him being gone. He has been such a part of pop-culture since Ghost and Dirty Dancing. In a year when we’ve already lost Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, it’s hard to lose another icon – and Patrick Swayze cemented his place as a pop-culture icon the moment he uttered the words “Nobody puts Baby in a corner. He will be dearly missed. Let’s keep his family in our thoughts at this time and appeal to the press to let them deal with his passing in private.
Ghost (1990)
September 15, 2009 by kitten
Filed under Tearjerkers
Oh Ghost… what a beautiful, amazing, moving, touching movie. Ghost features my favorite performances ever by Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. This is what love stories are all about!
The idea that two people could be as in love as Sam Wheat and Molly Jensen are in Ghost is so powerful. That’s the kind of unconditional and allconsuming love us ladies dream about. The pottery scene… oh goodness! That may possibly be my favorite love scene in any movie ever.
Ghost makes me a sappy, weepy emotional wreck and that’s why I love it so much. It cuts right to the core of your soul and holds tight. It is the ultimate chick flick, the ultimate tearjerker and the ultimate love story.
Romeo + Juliet (1996)
September 13, 2009 by kitten
Filed under Romance, Tearjerkers
It’s hard to choose a favorite Romeo and Juliet remake because there have been so many great versions of this Shakespeare classic, but it I had to pick just one, it would have to be the 1996 version with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes starring as the ultimate tragic lovebirds.
Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet is bold and visually stunning. Taking the actual Elizabethan dialogue and setting it against a modern backdrop was a brave step, but it works fantastically. There is nothing lost in translation here and that might be the biggest reason this film works so well.
Titanic (1997)
September 13, 2009 by kitten
Filed under Romance, Tearjerkers
Legendary – a classic. I don’t really know what to say about Titanic. We’ve all seen it and we all love it. This is a movie that gets better every time you watch it.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet have the kind of chemistry that sets the screen on fire. We lose ourselves in Jack and Rose. Leonardo and Kate don’t exist. They play their roles flawlessly. It’s no surprise no one believed they weren’t a couple off-screen.
Titanic really has everything a girl could ask for in a chick flick – romance, drama, action, a cute boy and a weep-inducing ending. There is nothing about Titanic that doesn’t work and that’s why we all love it so much.
Finding Neverland (2004)
September 11, 2009 by kitten
Filed under Fairy Tales
Why no one brought Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet together before Finding Neverland is beyond me. These two are so great together and the entire cast is incredible. The children, especially Freddie Highmore (Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, August Rush), are incredible. There is nothing about this movie that doesn’t work.
Johnny and Kate are brilliant in their roles and Johnny is unbelievably gorgeous as always. I don’t know how that man can be so consistently edible (except for maybe at the end of The Libertine). I loved how Finding Neverland really took us into the mind of the man that gave us Peter Pan and paralleled it so well with his home life.
