Friday, August 6, 2010

More musings about movies

This summer I’ve seen several good films. Last week I saw The Girl Who Played with Fire. I got there a bit late but had the good luck to sit next to a couple of my friendly library patrons! This film is the sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and was very good. But, having read the books, this story definitely leads up to the next one in the series: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. I loved reading the trilogy and the Swedish film versions are great! I’m a little worried about the American versions due to come out in 2011. I can’t imagine the films being made with Hollywood stars! Daniel Craig (James Bond) as Mikael Blomkvist! That’s Hollywood for you: let’s make it an action film with lots of special effects and CGI! Oh Boy!
Two weeks ago I saw Inception. It’s a Hollywood film with special effects and CGI but boy, was it ever exciting! I was sitting on the edge of my seat for the whole film! When Hollywood is good, it is really good but unfortunately, Hollywood films often seem to depend on the special effects and the star power rather than having a good story to tell. Inception was the exception though.
Then 3 weeks ago it was Solitary Man with Michael Douglas in a stand-out performance about a macho man beyond his prime. It’s not an upbeat film but it had some truth and some depth in it. I thought the Danny DeVito character was great and very wise. This is the kind of film I think actors must love to make because they have a role they can really sink their teeth into. Bravo performances all around!
One month ago it was The Secret in Their Eyes, an Argentinian film. This one was really great: it was a mystery which is the genre I most love. A retired lawyer begins researching the case he couldn’t solve and which has haunted him ever since. The performances were great, the story was great: everything about this film was perfect! I can’t wait until it’s out on DVD so I can recommend it to people. It won the Oscar for best foreign film and it truly deserved it.
Before that, I saw City Island, a film about a family with a big honesty problem. It was a cute and fun movie. My favorite scene has all of the family members hiding from each other to steal a smoke. It was a very funny film.
I will be buying all of these films for the library as they become available on DVD. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

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