I don't remember the last time I have had so much deep, mixed, disconnected, and good feelings about a movie but more than six hours after watching Once I am still processing a messy but very good movie. Have you seen it? Critics liked it. It did great at the box office. I thought for a movie, it was indeed, good. But it also left me with many questions. I had several people recommend the film to me as a great example of cross-gender friendship. For me, I couldn't recommend this film for anyone who wants to see a solid movie on cross-gender friendship.
Have you seen it? Do you think it a good film about cross-gender friendship? I think it is a good movie. But I don't consider this a good film on cross-gender friendship. Part of my mixed response to the film is that I came into it expecting something that would value cross-gender friendship but also knowing that almost everywhere I looked at read that this was a romantic film.
I saw the movie, Reign Over Me last night with Jennifer for the first time:
Jen says it is quickly becoming a habit for me to review movies on my blog that the two of us just watched. This was a powerful movie for me at many levels. It was somehow fitting that I saw it with Jen. If you haven't seen it, this is a spoiler alert if you want to read on.
It has been rare in my experience when a woman highly recommends a boxing movie as a "must see" film. That was indeed the case, when Jennifer O. urged me to see Rocky Balboa the sixth film in the Rocky series released several years ago.
What is even more rare than a woman telling me a boxing film is a "must see," is when Hollywood does do a great job of portraying the depth of a complex, intimate, cross-gender friendship that doesn't end up in sex or romance. Jennifer urged me to see this last film saying that it did a wonderful job of depicting such a relationship. So this past Friday night we rented the dvd and watched the movie.
Have you seen the film? Have you seen it through the eyes of a cross-gender friendship grid? I highly recommend it. Spolier alert if you haven't seen it and don't me to give anything away....don't go further.
Have you seen Gran Torino yet? It is playing in selected theatres so you might not have had the opportunity even if you wanted to. I've seen it twice. First, I went with with Jennifer and then once with Sheila. Its a a "very powerful movie." Jennifer, who is usually is never for a loss of words when it comes to critiquing a movie after she has seen it, repeated her observation at least 6 times within 20 minutes after we had walked out. This is a film for men and women to see--but it does have crude language and violence.
Part of the richness in this movie, is Eastwood's history of characters from the spaghetti westerns to dirty Harry, to Unforgiven their ways of reacting to violence in their immediate community. I had a good conversation with Shelia after the movie, and as well as with Jennifer. I'd love to have one here, but I don't want to spoil it for you who haven't seen it.
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