Monday, June 29, 2015

'"THE AGE OF ADALINE (2015) MOVIE REVIEW. Everything fades, so does Beauty.

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 HERE’S a blistering portrayal of a BEAUTIFUL WOMAN who’s on an anonymous run and who finally muster the COURAGE to confront the DARKNESS of the WORLD that engulfs her.

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Adaline, through a supernatural consternation, has remained 29 for nearly a century. It’s great to be forever young. Right?

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This romantic fantasy film is specially designed to set female hearts aflutter. Do bring along your hankie just in case, as the narrative rolls on, you will feel a tug at your heartstrings. You might cry.

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“AM I IN LOVE THIS TIME?”

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In order to protects her identity, she bolts and lives a solitary existence until unexpectedly, the love she hungers for comes knocking and things start to go awry.

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HAPPILY EVER AFTER? or NOT?

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“I AM THIS PROFESSOR’S AGE ACTUALLY.”

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THE FAMILY RALLIES AROUND FOR EMOTIONAL SUPPORT.

“The AGE of ADALINE” (2015) Movie Review.

This romantic fantasy film is specially designed to set female hearts aflutter. Do bring along your hankie just in case, as the narrative rolls on, you will feel a tug at your heartstrings. You might cry.

It’s “all kinds of beautiful” in terms of lavish production values with an award winning performance from Blake Lively who brings applause to the lead character Adaline.

Adaline, through a supernatural consternation, has remained 29 for nearly a century. It’s great to be forever young. Right?

In order to protect her identity, she bolts and lives a solitary existence until unexpectedly, the love she hungers for comes knocking and things start to go awry.

The movie is about a woman who develops the uncanny ability to remain   forever young.

The film focuses on her, almost as a metaphorical character study, on how the major events and emotions of her life are affected by her condition.

Her daughter grows older than her. She avoids love for fear of death and loss. And, she’s always on the move.

There is a lingering fear in her that one day, the man in her dream shows up, and things will start to change.

 “The Age of Adaline” is fashionably directed by Lee Toland Krieger who has probably splurged a fortune to create the vintage fashionista look for the Adaline character. The end result is: she looks absolutely stunning.

The film stars Blake LivelyMichiel Huisman,Kathy BakerAmanda Crew,Harrison Ford, andEllen Burstyn.

Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) is seen purchasing fake IDs at an apartment in San Francisco. She goes home to her apartment where her dog greets her. During her 107 years of being alive, she has raised the same kind of dog over and over again. She notes that she is late for work at the downtown library’s office of archives.

While working, she opens a film reel and her life is explained. She was born on New Year’s Day in 1908, got married, had a child, and became a widow. One night, an unexplainable snow began to fall as she was driving to her parents’ house. She suffers a car accident/lightning strike combination that causes her to remain 29 years old forever. As her daughter Flemming grows older, it becomes apparent that Adaline is not aging. One day she is pulled over by a cop, who takes away her ID as it says she is in her late 40s.

One night, she is walking home when two FBI agents put her in a car and try to take her on an airplane. She escapes and decides she will spend her life running. She explains this to Flemming, and they have a heartfelt goodbye. At present day, she adds a cosigner to her bank account and has a flashback to when she opened the account. She had invested in Xerox, and it has paid off well. She is planning to leave soon to live in Oregon.

On New Year’s Eve, she enters the hotel to a party where she meets Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman). Sparks fly …..

You have to catch the movie for the nail-biting suspenseful finale.


Rating: 4 out of 5

Local Distributor: GSC MOVIES

Saturday, June 13, 2015

LONELINESS versus SOLITUDE.. SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO TRAVEL THIS PATH ALONE.

 Loneliness can kill, This ailment can be Brutally Overwhelming if left untreated.

Read hard into the lines of this popular vintage song “WE ARE ALL ALONE” and you will envision what loneliness can do to damage the unprepared soul:

“Outside the rain begins

And it may never end

So cry no more

On the shore, a dream

Will take us out to sea

Forever more, forever more

Close your eyes and dream

And you can be with me

‘Neath the waves

Through the caves of ours

Long forgotten now

We’re all alone,

we’re all alone ….”

LONELINESS is one big, ugly word. No one can escape from it.

It stabs you deep with a sinking feeling, bringing along a strange sense of  foreboding.

You can be oh-so-lonely, even in the midst of a swelling crowd.

You can certainly be lonely when no one understands you, much less want anything to do with you.

You can meet a special someone and suddenly this sense of loneliness assails you.

 It saps into you like a physical pain because you long to be with that person all the time. Yes, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

LONELINESS is a salient, crushing word.

It gnaws at your heart inciting a tinge of apparent hopelessness.

There’s only so much work you can do to paint a vivid landscape of abject loneliness.

A painter can dabble with a thousand hues.

A poet can put a special burn to the sunrise and the solitude.

But will all these effectively eradicate the illusion that we are not alone?

Every one gets lonely, now and then, for different reasons.

Some turn to friends, relatives or seek solace in prayers.

Whatever it can be, we just have to deal with the destructive power of loneliness. We are born alone and die alone.

Only divine friendships can see us through.

Mother Teresa had long advised us that the most terrible poverty is loneliness, the feeling of being unloved.

The eternal quest of a human being is to shatter his loneliness.

Sure, there are those who  put up walls not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break these wall down.

As the old song says, “WE ARE NOT ALONE.”

Monday, June 8, 2015

"LOVE IS ...." (2015) THAI MOVIE REVIEW. Three Cannot Play the Game of Love.

LOVE IS POSTER

 TRUE LOVE, by definition, is complex, multi-layered and what have you.

Didn’t Shakespeare teach us that the path of true love never will run smooth?

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“LOVE is ….” (2015) THAI MOVIE REVIEW. A Complicated Love Triangle.

TRUE LOVE, by definition, is complex, multi-layered and what have you.

Didn’t Shakespeare teach us that the path of true love never will run smooth?

Love in all its abstract structure, is also a many-splendored thing. Believe it.

It will come aknocking at your doorstep when you least expect it, and it is liken to a pandora’s box of surprises.

Strip away the outer wrapping, you may savor apparent sweetness that is both lyrical and passionate.

Upon probing further you may uncover a lost love that has gone awry, marred by nosy parental objections with their old fashioned values.

PLOT:

We have Ah Wei,  a pure bred Thai Chinese man.

And his best friend Kamol, a true-blue bohemian city dude.

Both suitors are charming, and both are clamoring for the affection of Ah Ching, a sweet teacher who lives in a Chinese Yunnan community within the Ma Salong Valley.

The villagers there are simple-minded.

During their spare time they revel in folk-dances, swaying to the tune of the late Taiwanese songstress Teresa Tang’s songs such as “The Moon Represents my Heart” or “The Darkening Skies tell us the Rain is Coming”.

The friendship of the two friends is tested when they start to woo Ah Ching.

Even Ah Wei, with  his selfish nature, is already engaged to be married to Siew Ping. The more wives the merrier, he thinks.

But Ah Ching chooses Kamol and here is where the sparks fly.

Prior to Kamol and Ah Ching`s engagement party, Kamol is unfortunately involved in a car accident and has completely lost his eyesight.

Ah Wei  takes the opportunity to muster his self -confidence so that he can win Ah Ching back.

But will this mindless merry-go-round really make Ah Wei happy?

Ah Wei finally begins to wonder if  all the consternation he created and left behind has jeopardized his friendship with all his loved ones.

“LOVE IS …” is a moving , well-crafted story of  a brotherly bond and the hapless emotions between two bosom buddies.

There is a metaphorical fine line that draws them together and the same line that rips them apart.

It’s worth a watch.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Local Distributor: GSC MOVIES