“You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s almost gone.”
Married Life
Director: Ira Sachs
This confusing plot was set back in the late forties era. To be married seemed like a robotic, typical thing to do at the time. The story starts off with Harry (Chris Cooper) who’s married but wants more out of his marriage other than the physical aspect. Instead of just working on his issues with his wife he finds someone else he believes “loves” him more. His best friend Rich (Pierce Brosnan) believes he’s crazy for not believing he has a perfect marriage with wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson).
So Harry introduces his mystery mistress Kay (Rachel McAdams) to Rich who realizes he’s actually jealous. Rich would rather help patch Harry’s relationship so he could have her for himself. Harry wants to be with Kay so bad but he notices he doesn’t want to hurt Pat. With the help of a hitch hiker he comes up with an idea to let Pat go without suffering. The plot thickens even more with Pat’s secret life and Rich’s outings with Kay.
This movie to me is like a curvy road in the dark. Just when you think you know what’s going to happen it changes. The characters where very well played out by the many stars they chose for the cast. They also did a really good job on costumes and music for that particular time period. I’m not usually into romantic movies, but this one kept me interested. It had a great suspense factor to it towards the end.
Rating – a 3
Justice vs. Revenge
Red
Director : Trygve Allister Diesen
This film starts out as a calm setting with an older man (Brian Cox) and his dog Red. There’s a definite long relationship between the two. An unsuspected twist arrives when some punk kid takes away the man’s only companion. The kind hearted man tried finding justice in the situation through the law. After finding out there wasn’t much they could do, he searched for an honest apology. He soon found out he was dealing with the most corrupted, uncooperative family alive. Back and forth he goes with this family and the situation gets worse and worse. The whole thing just about drives him insane and he quits being so nice.
Animal lovers I advise you avoid this movie. If it wasn’t for the festival I probably would’ve never seen this movie. I almost wish I didn’t because I don’t like movies that make me cry or portray animal cruelty. The rest of the film was intriguing because you want the good guy to win of course. It’s one of those movies you want to jump through the screen to help fight. Other than the beginning I would say it’s a pretty decent film.
Rating- I give it a 3
Here Pretty Bird
Song of Sparrows
Director: Majid Majidi
This is the story of an Iranian man (Reza Naji) just trying to make a living for his family. He puts his best efforts into his job as a worker at an ostrich farm that he seems to enjoy. A sudden mishap with his daughter’s hearing aid makes him even more desperate for the extra money. The next day at work, a mistake with an ostrich jeopardizes his job. Now all that’s left for him to do is try different ways to earn that money for his family.
My opinion is it seems to be a slower moving film. The rise and falls are subtle because of the way things just happen for the lead character. The story seems to have deeper symbolism behind certain objects and the people in the movie. What kept me watching was the cinematography and outer shots of the scenery. I think the land where they filmed isn’t what I would expect for that culture. It almost takes away from the fact that that family’s living in poverty. All in all I would say it’s an “OK” film.
Rating- about a 1
