inessavalueva

If you haven't watched the trailer yet, don't. The trailer gives too much away and robs the viewer of the sense of constant discovery, and there is a trove of things to discover.

This is a story of an unloved soul looking for a way out of the somber world of his own feelings and thoughts, while carrying the burden of a beautiful mind. Being a theater piece at its inception, the movie ravishes with its dialogues and beautiful scenes. The lack of color is abundantly compensated by the vivid close-ups, the overall suspense and poignant flashbacks.

Michael (the mental patient being the centerpiece of the story) is lovable from the first seconds as a character and as an actor playing the character. Xavier Dolan has a way of wooing people, so it's very hard not to fall in love with his performance and his character by the end of the movie. He's brisk, accurate, hits the target with every line, and when he opens up in the end, the beauty of it is so tremendous it pierces your heart like a golden needle. The performances of the other actors are no less impressive, but Dolan is an inevitable scene-stealer.

Tragedy here is more of a liberation of sorts. The witty and at times funny story takes a sharp turn into the abyss of emotional pain. All the elements fall into place perfectly, creating a feeling that you've just watched a short.

Elephant Song is a masterpiece worthy of watching and rewatching, listening and relistening. It will leave no string untouched.

First of all, the movie is everything you can expect from it after reading the synopsis. Yes, predictable, yes, naive, yes, full of clichés, yes, there are thousands just like it. But don't hurry to judge. The simple story line - an ugly duckling (well, piglet in this case) finds her prince and lives happily ever after (please, don't tell me it's a spoiler, it's written all over the poster) - turns into a beautifully told story. The movie has a tone of a loving mother telling you a bedtime story, and after watching it you can go to bed still smiling. This is one of the great example of how to tell a standard tale in a non-standard way.

The good points that I saw: great camera work - the picture is a delight to watch; excellent timing - trust me, you won't be bored even for a second, the plot is unfolding exactly as it should, no long scenes, no jumping over important moments, the movie feels like 15 minutes; surprisingly good cast and acting - if you don't like the story, you're bound to melt at the sight of James' blue eyes and Reese's face act. Among other things, the settings are perfect, the music doesn't bother; there are some funny moments and some gushy- mushy moments. Overall, the movie lets you enjoy the story and think about it in the end.

There is much food for thought about the danger of gambling one's life away, the hope of turning around and choosing a better path, about faith in true love and damage an unloving parent could cause, about the power of having control over who you are and the will to become a better person (or a better journalist in particular). Penelope is an ideal family movie and a wonderful choice for a rainy evening warmed by a cup of tea and a blanket.

Have a go at it, you won't regret it.

My summary may seem like a contrast to my vote, but they are in perfect balance. There was so much talk about how bad the movie is that I had to go see if it was really true. It's not. Let's me explain why. One half of the world accuses it of being perverse. Have you seen Nymphomaniac? FSG is beautifully made even if you don't compare it to anything. Adult movies are supposed to provoke lust, erotic movies are supposed to arouse, this one does neither. FSG teases your senses and takes your breath away, because the sex scenes are not too long and not too short, but perfectly timed and purely beautiful. The other half of the world accuses it of being cheesy and trite. My question is, how many romcoms did you see? If you liked any of them, you're lying about this movie: FSG is deeper than a romcom. If you don't like romcoms, this movie is just not your taste, stop chastising it. A lot of people hated Twilight, but a lot of people loved it, which didn't make the movie any better or worse. I read the books, I wasn't the fan of them, I was prepared to be disappointed when I went to the cinema (purely out of curiosity and love for art). Like many reviewers on this site, I was pleasantly surprises. Dakota is natural in her take on Ana's character, Jamie showed an amazing transformation from a cute guy he is in life to the cold and domineering Christian. The music is the best part of the movie, the pictures are spectacular. There's humor, love, romance, love, nice ending. I wish some of the dialogs had been better thought through, and some of the secondary story lines had been a bit less vague, but those didn't stop me from enjoying the movie. A friend of mine said the movie is about making contracts. I think it's rather about trust (not unlike any relationship, including the contractual ones). Ana is free in her concept of a relationship, she's familiar with all things spiritual from literature and she has this romanticized notion of what life with a man should be like (watching her mother, her friend, reading books), but she fears physical pain. Christian is free in terms of physical things (except for his issue with touching), there's almost nothing he can't do sexually, but he fears normal relationships, he has complexes in the spiritual world. So these two people come together and realize: she has to trust him physically, he has to trust her emotionally. This is where it all goes haywire, because trusting another human being is extremely hard. This movie, like any piece of art, deserves a deeper look (a lot of research lies behind the story to the credit of E.L. James). Feel free to hate it, you're making it notorious, hence popular, hence commercially viable. But feel free to love it too, no one has a right to make your opinion for you.