Sommersby

I can’t tell who had the idea to pair up Jodie Foster and Richard Gere together in a romantic story; they’re a couple I couldn’t imagine to be together had I not seen Sommersby. Even after I’ve seen it, still the idea of them starring in a post-Civil War southern romance seems a little preposterous. Why? Because in my mind Jodie Foster is the last person I would choose to play in a romance movie. She’s too tough and gleaming with her performances to be following other successful Hollywood actresses’ path. An English teacher falling in love for the King of Siam, or the kickass FBI agent she might be, but the truth remains that she’s a capable actress who tackles on difficult, challenging roles. To see her playing a Southern woman falling for a man who’s not her husband, and basically just that, makes her somehow not so Jodie Foster anymore. And then, Richard Gere. I know he’s the right guy for a role like Jack Sommersby: charming, kind, anything but violent, but not in the 19th century! He didn’t speak the part, or was convincing enough to be an ex soldier. I don’t know if he was good enough to be bad because he’s usually just too good a man.

Beyond that, the story is something else. I’m a sucker for historical piece, and I love romances. And I’m gonna admit that seeing Jodie Foster’s character really falling for her husband was so touching, my stomach had a few flipflops (this is a bad example). So I’d say Sommersby is a real good romance movie, as simple as that. What I don’t really get is this: why would a woman, inherited with abundant assets from her thought-to-be-dead violent husband, waited for 6 years (I don’t know what she’s waiting for), while along the way there was an available man who loved her better than her husband did? Love? Possibly. Soon afterwards she realized the man who admitted to be her husband was not her real husband after all, but she kept quiet. Who would want to ruin the new serenity worth waiting 6 years for? I couldn’t agree more.

The ending might come too bitter to accept, considering they’re working too well as a couple. I still can’t get over the fact that it had to end that way. People do expect the “happily ever after” phrase to turn out exactly as it is, most of the times.

4/5.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Looking at the lack of update around here, I don’t think I’m really up to maintain a blog after all.. Life interferes, what can I say. Major life changes. Anyway, if I’d seen more movies, I’d've updated more. Or so I said to myself everytime.

The last movie I watched was actually Disney’s Annie, but other than two popular songs (“Tomorrow” and “It’s The Hard Knock Life” ), the rest of it sucked. Bad. Before that, it was Fried Green Tomatoes, another venture into a movie which I’ve heard of only from its soundtrack. My first opinion as the story unfolded was.. “man, this is going to be a story about a tomboy”, and later on… “lesbian love story?”, but as it reached the end, I found my eyes slightly shed in tears.

Because I’m never good with synopsis, here’s a.. borrowed synopsis:

In a Southern nursing home, a feisty resident and old local fixture named Ninny Threadgoode (Tandy) befriends Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) a depressed housewife and stirs her to action with an inspirational tale. She tells the story of a transcendent friendship between two young women living in Georgia in the 1930s, Idgie Threadgoode (Mary Stuart Masterson) and Ruth (Mary Louise Parker), who forge a powerful bond after witnessing a terrible tragedy together. The two women open a cafe (where fried green tomatoes are a house specialty) together in their small Southern town of Whistle Stop and manage to survive the hardships of life, despite racism, prejudice and the pressures of trying to live their lives as individuals in a strict and close-minded Southern society.

Fried Green Tomatoes is everything a southern movie should be: among others are the typical accent, the manners, the race and pride issues. At its heart it’s a story about friendship that stretches from childhood to death. The character Idgie is like no other I’ve ever seen. She made me believe her relationship with Ruth (I figure it’s more than friendship; too many subtle hints of flirtation to ignore) is worth sacrificing for. If I were her, I’d go as far to kill anyone who threatens my best friend and BBQ him for lunch. Needless to say, she played the role of a tomboy very well.

What bothered me while watching this was the brief showing of Kluxers in an act of tormenting of a black man. As if the picture of a KKK member with his head cloth on carrying a torch was not creepy enough already. It gives me chills everytime. I’m just glad it wasn’t lynching; it could carry on as a nightmare. (Die, you racists!)

This movie made me laugh (Evelyn, in responding to whether she has problem with her sexuality, says: “Uh….No, ma’am. But, I do have a problem with my girdle.”), inspired (“Towanda!!!”), sorrowful (when Buddy Jr. lost his arm), and a bunch of other mixed feelings I can’t quite express well in words. But on top of everything else, it made me feel good being a woman. And having some really good friends around me.

For a similar viewing pleasure, I recommend Terms of Endearment.

4.5/5.

Days of Heaven

Note to self: never watch oldie when not up to it.

Come to think of it, when did I ever feel up to any old movie at all?

There must be something about old movies that bewitch people enough to rate them as classics. Or maybe it’s the age thing. Unfortunately the spells never work on me, and I’m merely one and twenty (sorry, Ms. Austen, I borrow your line). As fas as the age thing goes, the earliest movie I remember to have watched was Batman Forever. Yeah, when I was in elementary school, my then-teen sister didn’t bother to take me to the movie at all.

Days in Heaven, 1978, a Terrence Malick feature is a movie with a plot, according to a Portuguese reviewer on the IMDb, unimportant, tells a story about two lovers and a child, the latter is the narrator, whose family connection to the first is still a mystery to me. To cut to the short: they came to work in a farm with a bunch of other people riding on train from Chicago, then the guy (Richard Gere) gives up the woman (Brooke Adams) to the farm owner (dubbed only as “The Farmer”, Sam Shepard) he believes will die soon, so they could reap the money later. Turns out the women falls in love with her husband, so the guy leaves. Comes back six months later, the husband gets jealous and tragically killed. The trio runs away, chased by police. Guy gets shot, dies.

It’s a simple story, so simple I can’t understand what it’s trying to say. I figure the script must be easy to write, though, seeing the lack of verbal exchange between the characters and all. Well, they say it’s about visual beauty and rich cinematography, which is, age-wise, my main problem when discussing old movies. They’re just too old, too sleepy, too silent to watch. Gone with the Wind, my fave oldie, was a pain to sit through, but I survived it because of the story (being a romantic helped a lot).

I rented it yesterday, watched it last night. A promise of a love story drove me to it, but I have to say Richard Gere looks cuter when he’s older.

Sigh. 2 out of 5 does its justice? (me being a sucker for critics’ reviews)