Una vita quasi perfetta

A reporter, Lanie Kerrigan, interviews a psychic homeless man (Shalhoub) for a fluff piece about a football game's score. Instead, he tells her that her life has no meaning, and is going to end in just a few days.

The moral of this story has been told ever single time from "It's a Wonderful Life", to "Last Holiday", even to "Click". Each of these movies have always won me over because I love moral stories and I certainly love this movie!

Sure, you've seen this so many times before. Sure, it's filled with clichéd, Sure, it's predictable what's going to happen before it happens. But it's a feel good movie. It puts a smile on your face when it ends. Don't go on the movie too hard.

I loved the performance by Angelina Jolie. The supporting characters give us some laughs along the way, although the film isn't too funny but more like a drama. I like the score for the film. I liked the film a lot but not as much as I thought it would be. Still, it was a pretty good film if you like moral movies. "Live everyday like it will be your last."

I enjoyed this movie, thanks in large part to the fact that I saw it on FX channel, on their "DVD on TV" movie night, where those two hosts (can't remember their names...) give you supplementary facts and other commentary about the movie during the commercial breaks.

The story was actually fairly engrossing: Angelina Jolie's character (Lanie Kerrigan), who is a news reporter, is told by some strange street prophet, Jack (played by Tony Shaloub), that she will die in a week. The story unfolds as she proceeds to live her rather hectic, self-absorbed life interspersed with romance, a somewhat strained relationship with her father and sister, and the ever-present wonderment as to whether Jack the Prophet will be correct in his prophecy that Lanie will in fact die in a week. In other words, the movie does manage to keep you on the hook right up to the very end. (The ending was a bit lame, but still had a good message if you care to adjust yourself to it.)

Jolie's character, Lanie, is interesting, because if you watch the movie more than once, you will most likely start to be intrigued by her appearance: the platinum blonde hair, the puffy lips, the expressive eyes, the makeup.... you might start to think she resembles Marilyn Monroe, or, you may just write her off as a woman who actually looks a bit like an attractive transvestite(!). But no matter, because whether you like Angelina Jolie or not, you can't help but be a bit intrigued by the appearance of her character, which is kind of "out there" for Jolie. One potential problem, though, is that she is possibly TOO out there, to the point where she may distract the viewer from seeing the message of the movie

Tony Shaloub's character, Jack the Prophet, is very well portrayed by Mr. Shaloub. He's lovably wacko, and plus he has some pretty funny lines in spite of his plight in life. I like the Ed Burns character, Pete, because he reflects reality, whereas Jolie's character is kind of too unreal, but still fun to watch.

I liked the setting of the movie, Seattle, since I live in Seattle. For those of us who live in the rainy city, it's fun to see an interesting movie that takes place in our environs. They also used actual news people from a local Seattle TV station, so it was kind of fun to see people whom I've been seeing on the local nightly news actually appear in a Hollywood movie. They changed their real names, though, which was kind of weird.

There were a few things I didn't like about the movie, the main one being that Lanie, who works as a modern-day TV reporter, comes across to me as just way too much of a sex-pot, I mean just way outside the realm of reality. It gets to be jarring after awhile to see such a sexy creature being passed off as a news reporter when we all KNOW that no modern local news station would put such a pouty, platinum-haired blonde on the air (....or WOULD they??? as Conan O'Brien would say.) But mainly I liked the movie, and it was actually worth a repeat viewing, as it kind of grows on you, and ultimately makes you THINK about your own life, your own values, your personal destiny, etc. BTW, there's a pretty good batch of songs that accompanied the movie too, though I don't believe there is an actual soundtrack available, so you will probably have to hunt down each song individually.

All in all an interesting movie, with a message worth pondering - if you can get past the steady distraction of the appearance of Angelina Jolie, of course.

Well, that's my review. You guys have been a great audience, thanks for listening!

LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT has a premise of reporter Lanie Kerrigan being told by a homeless man that she's going to die in a few days from now and right away I was expecting some bitter-sweet angst , a sort of present day morality tale inspired by Frank Capra and I guess very early in production this was the idea but I was left confused . Is it a redemption tale ? If so then why does Lanie start out as a not unlikable person and remain a not unlikable person throughout the movie ? You see there's little in the way of character development and the situations and soul searching never seem to draw the audience into Lanie's fears . None of this is helped Stephen Herek's shallow direction either

In short this is a shallow film but while being confused as to what it's trying to say it's also fairly watchable too . Angelina Jolie is breath takingly beautiful and in many ways she's like a female Leonardo Dicaprio in that her good looks disguise she's a much better actress than critics give her credit for and imagine how worse the movie would be if her role was taken by say Sandra Bulloch while Dave Newman's haunting score also helps the movie greatly

I wouldn't watch this movie.

I gotta start off by saying that I'm still not sure if Jolie's character was a brunette or a blonde naturally. All the "young Jolie" pictures show her blonde (I thought) but she's obviously not a natural blonde.

Honestly, when I leave a movie that's supposed to make me re-evaluate my life and what it means to live (like American Beauty did) and the only thing I can think about is the hair color of the star I think the movie failed. Sure, it wasn't too hard to watch and it worked out well as a Saturday afternoon hang-out w/ the lady-friend flick, but w/ Jolie I was really hoping this movie would fulfill its promise and be the engaging, interesting, thought-provoking film that it could be. Instead we see very strong similarities to American Beauty w/ a little "To Die For" thrown in for good measure and a helpin' heapin' of a John Cusack film (doesn't really matter which)

What really bugs me about this film though is that I really thought the cast was great. They were so believable (well, except for Jolie's hair, which really is a character in its own right) and their performances were so strong that as I look back on the film I really don't understand where it went wrong...maybe it tried to hard at the end, maybe all the logic fell apart just to bring about the thrilling climax, maybe it felt too much like a parody of tv news to also be the love story/life lesson that it also sought to be. Sure parodies can have morals and realistic love stories but this one doesn't.

I wouldn't avoid this film, but I wouldn't seek it out either.

So the plot is thin, the characters not entirely likable, and some scenes knuckle-bitingly awkward when you know they're trying to be cute. Some of the dialogue is pretty good, and most of the acting if superb.

But what I really want to talk about is Seattle. In a world where my hometown is turned into a shallow replacement for New York, or just stereotyped to DEATH (see - Fraiser, Sleepless In Seattle, The Ring etc) it's nice to see a film that actually gives a crap about the city.

Holy doo-doo pants! Is that KOMO 4 News?! Okay, so they made one of the Os and Q, but those are the faces I watched every Saturday before the morning 'toons.

We see all kinds of places in Seattle that aren't international landmarks - Leschi Elementary School, Alki Beach, the Downtown Transit Station, the Queen Anne Easy Street Records, giving the viewer a realistic representation of the simultaneously snooty and gritty City of the Sound.

There are no slip-ups of speech. No one says anything about Lake "CHELL-un" (Chelan is pronounced "sha-LAN", Fraiser!) nor is the Sound ever accidentally referred to as a bay.

So basically what I'm saying is that if you want a movie that took its time to understand the character of the city it was taking place in, this is it. And avoid The Ring at ALL COSTS!