After reading and loving the book Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates) I just couldn’t wait to see the movie. Especially with Kate Winslet starring in it. I have to confess that I knew who would be playing the leads in the film and already envisioned their faces while reading. The book is absolutely fantastic. I was astounded at the way Richard Yates described feelings and situations. He created a very real environment and makes readers feel like they are right there in the New York suburbs.

April (Kate Winslet) and Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) move to the suburbs to raise their children, even though they really fancy themselves to be city folks. They always feel like they are special, above the other people around them. This is the thought they cling to while drifting more and more into becoming a typical suburban couple. When April sees no way out, she convinces Frank that they should fulfill their dream and move to Paris in order to become who they are really meant to be.

I hesitate to call this a love story, it is really a story about hate. April and Frank not only start detesting each other but also themselves. Both of them are unhappy with their situation and their lives, which makes them incredibly miserable and they take it out on each other even though they still seem to care for one another. They even want the same things in life but they just can’t get it together because they are blaming each other for there sorrow.

The movie is very good, even after reading the book, but the book (as it is always the case) offers so many more details about what the characters are feeling and thinking that I felt the movie didn’t really convey the entire story. I had a feeling that people who hadn’t read the book couldn’t possibly know what was going on.

What I thought was most striking about the story is how easily I could identify with the characters and how much I did not want to do so. I guess that most people feel that they are somewhat special and not many actually do fulfill their dreams in the end. Even though April and Frank are in a completely different situation from mine, I still saw an awful lot of me in them. And I think this is really the beauty of storytelling, to make the reader or viewer feel what it is like to be in the story, and Richard Yates certainly succeeded in this.

Even though it is a painful film to watch, I absolutely recommend it. It is set in the fifties but it is dealing with a modern topic of a couple growing angry at the realization of not being special or who they thought they would be. I don’t think I have ever seen a film with quite the same subject matter. It goes unsaid that the acting in this film is phenomenal.

Revolutionary Road really deserves to get a MovieCat Award for having and outstanding cast perform an unusual and at the same time very ordinary story.

In post WW II Germany fifteen-year-old Michael Berg (David Kross) is having a love affair with the much older Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet), which changes his life forever. The affair lasts one summer, at the end of which Hanna simply disappears. Years later, Michael is studying law at the university in Berlin. His class attends a court trial where Hanna is on trial for having been a guard in a concentration camp. The film begins when Michael is a grown man (played by Ralph Fiennes) and uses flashbacks to tell the story about the affair and the years after that.

The Reader has a very engaging story. Especially David Kross’ portrayal of the young Michael Berg is very moving. You can really feel his love for Hanna (I guess it isn’t soo hard to pretend to be in love with Kate Winslet ). Hanna, on the other hand, is very difficult to identify with, or even like. Even before the audience knows that she was working in a concentration camp, Hanna seems distant, odd and unpredictable in a bad way. It is certain that Michael will not find happiness with this woman.

It is a great film, with fantastic actors, but I just have to say this: I did not care for the ending. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but I guess it is not too much said that there isn’t a happy ending. And my question is, why? There is not one positive aspect in the entire film. The affair Michael and Hanna are having is uncertain, not real love, Hanna has no true interest in Michael other then to listen to him read to her and Michael is sort of falling for a pretty girl in his class, although he doesn’t act on it. Hanna is miserable for the rest of her life and so is Michael. And then at the end, there is a glimpse of very late happiness and suddenly it is taken away again. Michael is doomed to be unhappy forever. Where is the hope in this story? Somehow, I, as the viewer, felt cheated. I am not saying that I necessarily need a happy ending, but there should be some happiness at some point.

It is a bit odd that Kate got the Oscar for best actress rather than best supporting actress. She is not really on screen a lot…

As I have previously said, I loved Hugh Jackman’s performance at the Oscars. Somehow this song got stuck in my head on Oscar night and I haven’t managed to shake it off since then… it is so funny how he is almost cracking up!

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of my absolute favourite films and Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) is one of the coolest characters ever to be on screen.

If you like her as much as I do, here is a “style guide” for copy cats Unfortunately I couldn’t find her exact clothes, but I think I came pretty close…

Clementine as a grown up child:

green tights

pink cowboy hat

pink broach

 Dorothy Dress 

These are my favourite outfits: 

orange sweater

Love is t-shirt

I love the skeleton costume and especially the 70s dress:

I couldn’t find the original crazy purple boots but here are some fun Wellingtons and a very quirky Prada pair:

leather jacket

horse sweater

And finally: Wikihow knows how to dye your hair blue (although, personally, I like the red hair best)!

During my search for Clementine’s costumes I came across an online museum of props and movie costumes where you can look at the original costumes that Kate wore in the film.

And the Oscar goes to…

…Hugh Jackman

His performance at the Academy Awards is worthy of an Oscar! He dances, sings, simply performs as if there is nothing on earth he would rather do! What a great host.

The whole show was new and exciting. There have been some great improvements. It feels quicker and there is a theme to it, showing the audience how a film is being made from make-up to editing to sound mixing etc.

As for the actual Awards: I am quite pleased with a lot of them. Penélope Cruz really deserved the Supporting Actress Award for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, WALL – E was my favourite for Best Animation and Sean Penn did a swell job on Milk, but what’s up with giving an Oscar to Heath Ledger? I love him, his acting and especially his Joker, but couldn’t they have given him an Honorary Award or something like that? It is so unfair to the actors who are still alive. Obviously they had no chance!

But now the best thing about the 81st Academy Awards: Kate Winslet finally got the Oscar she should’ve gotten five times before! And she gave such a beautiful speech.

Tonight is the night we have all been waiting for! Yay! Personally I haven’t really seen a lot of the films that are up for awards, which is a pity. My absolute favourite to win is Kate Winslet though. She just really deserves it after having left the Oscars five times empty-handed.

The poll results from the last few weeks are in and your votes were as follows:

Which film should win the Oscar this year?

The Reader 6

Slumdog Millionaire 5

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 2

Milk 1

Frost/Nixon 0

Which actress should win the Oscar?

Kate Winslet – The Reader 7

Meryl Streep – Doubt 5

Angelina Jolie – Changeling 2

Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married 1

Melissa Leo – Frozen River 0

Which actor should win the Oscar?

Sean Penn – Milk 5

Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon 3

Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 3

Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler 1

Richard Jenkins – The Visitor 0

Enjoy watching the Academy Awards tonight!

Update after the Awards: Your wishes have been granted. Two out of three anyway

Thank You for Smoking

After watching Juno, I wanted to check out what else director Jason Reitman had done. He has not only directed but also written the screenplay for Thank You for Smoking (adapted from a novel by Christopher Buckley).

The film has a rather odd theme: Nick Naylor, the “hero” of this story is the spokesman of the tobacco industry, and the villain is a Senator who tries to get the world to be a smoke-free zone. Over the course of the film, Nick discovers why he is doing this job and how he feels about promoting cigarettes.

The film is quite funny but not ground-breakingly so. I am not sure what exactly it wants to say, because it is advertising smoking (in a sarcastic sort of way, but still doing so) and the protagonist never really has the epiphany that what he is doing is actually a really bad thing and he should stop. Well, to be fair, he does realize this but he never really gets it. If you happen to come across the DVD it might be interesting to watch the film, because it is quite different, but I wouldn’t advise you to go out of your way to get it…

Little Children

Since Kate Winslet is one of my favourite actresses (well, actually my all-time favourite) I have watched pretty much every film she is in. Here she plays a bored suburban mother who finds herself living in a strange big house, married to the wrong man and spending her time with her daughter whom she doesn’t really care for. She can’t connect to the other mothers at the playground and is fairly miserable until one day the handsome stay-at-home father (Patrick Wilson) shows up and turns her life upside down. There are other characters, such as a pedophile who has exposed himself to minors and is now facing the consequences for it.

Adapted from the book Little Children (Tom Perrotta) by actor/director Todd Field (Eyes Wide Shut) this film is a masterpiece of tragedy. Everyone in the story is leading a depressing life and even though there are some ups, the poor characters don’t get to be happy in the end. Nevertheless it is a very thought-provoking and complex film, using some black humour so as not get over-dramatic. The actors are remarkable. Kate Winslet manages to not make her character seem too desperate, but rather unluckily misplaced. It is really worth watching this film.

Bridget Jones’s Diary

This is an absolutely fabulous British comedy, which has quickly become a classic such as Notting Hill or Four Weddings and a Funeral. Another film which has been adapted from a book (a really great one as such, written by Helen Fielding), which in turn has been adapted and turned into a modern story from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Bridget is a fairly average British woman, slightly overweight, liking her alcohol, single and unhappy about it.

Anyone who hasn’t seen this film (are there still some people left?) should go out tonight and get the DVD. It really is a lot of fun. Poor Bridget (Renée Zellweger) is utterly clueless about life, falling for the wrong guy (Hugh Grant in a brilliant role) until she finally finds her Mister Right (Mark Darcy, played by the gorgeous Colin Firth who was Mr. Darcy in the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice). She is determined to improve her life by starting a diary but of course she can’t really turn herself around. It is a real delight to watch her misfortunes!

Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (Welcome to the Sticks)

Apparently this film has set new viewing records in France. Directed, produced and acted (in the main role) by Dany Boon this is a comedy about a post office administrator who (after doing something stupid) gets transferred to the North of France. The audience learns quickly that the North is a really bad place: people are only forced to go there as punishment. Boon’s character leaves his depressed wife and child behind in the warm South. Once he gets to the North things turn out to be quite the contrary to his expectations: it is not freezing and the people are actually really nice!

I am sure this is a very funny film in the original, it does not, however, work well in translation. The people up North have a peculiar accent which I am sure is hilarious. In the dubbed version (at least in the German one) the accent is completely made up and sounds utterly ridiculous. It turns the comedy into slapstick, which ruins it. Other than that the characters are sweet and the story is strange but amusing.

Bridget Jones’s Diary and Little Children are being awarded the MovieCat Award for being two outstandingly well-made films (even though mentioned in the same sentence, they are, of course, great for completely different reasons).

One of my all-time favourite films! I just love everything about it: Kate Winslet, Jim Carrey, their characters, the feeling it creates, the soundtrack, New York, the whole thing. Sometimes I get the urge to watch it, like putting on a CD, just to feel the mood of the film.

Clementine is tired of her relationship with Joel and decides, as a lark, to have him erased from her memory. Lacuna Inc. provides this possibility. When Joel finds out, he wants to have the procedure done as well.

His memories of their lives together is a roller coaster of happiness and despair. I fell in love with both of them from the first time I watched it.

(Photos: Ness/ Montauk and Grand Central Station 2006, both places were used in the film)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is being given the MovieCat Award for being one of my favorite films of all time.