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I took a little too long to get around to writing this review! So I’ll try to remember my first impressions…
I am a Jane Austen fan – despite reading all of zero of her books. But I do own the complete book series, which I might get around to reading one day… Continue reading
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Feeling flowery and happy and romantic? Or are you just here to get inspiration for an anniversary card? Either way, here are some beautifully romantic quotes from movies… Continue reading
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A classic 1990s rom-com! Featuring the mum and dad of 90s rom-coms – Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
It’s from the writer/director Nora Ephron – the brain behind When Harry Met Sally, the similar 90s story of Sleepless in Seattle, and Julie & Julia. (She must have really loved Meg Ryan – I wonder if Nora considered her for Julie & Julia because she has a striking resemblance to Amy Adams.)
You’ve Got Mail is the ultimate feel-good film… Continue reading
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I’m no longer ashamed! I will read the books I enjoy, and I enjoy a cheesey romance.
I haven’t heard of Kat French before, but the gist of the theme sort of reminded me of Nora Roberts’ books (of which I’ve read one: The MacGregor Brides – review coming soon!).
I love how this book is set in an old English village. Alice lives in a manor and her best friends live in the smaller dwellings that she owns next door. It’s the perfect life… Continue reading
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Eat Pray Love is about Elizabeth Gilbert (Julia Roberts) who has a large home, a husband and a great job, but she feels empty and without an ‘appetite’ for life. She soon instigates a divorce from her husband (Billy Crudup) whom she feels no connection to, before having a rebound relationship with David (James Franco).
So Elizabeth decides to go travelling for a year to Italy to find her appetite again (eat), then India to experience peace (pray), and then Bali for balance, which turns into love… Continue reading
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After finding out that Kathleen Turner and Nicholas Cage weren’t the best of friends in Peggy Sue Got Married, I decided to find out what other on-screen romances were less than genuine. Apparently there are a few!
It’s a shame that our favourite on-screen couples turn out to be played by people who strongly dislike one another. But from their point of view, what an awful situation to be in! It’s hard enough working with annoying or difficult people, but imagine having to pretend to be in love with them. Ugh. I guess that’s why actors are paid so much… Continue reading
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This is our Christmas film because it’s set at Christmas time in snowy New York – so magical!
It’s a fantasy romance film about fate, and whether you should act on impulse or allow life to take the wheel. When Sara (Kate Beckinsale) and Jonathan (John Cusack) meet on Christmas Eve by chance, Jonathan falls in love with her straight away, but Sara believes they must leave it to fate… Continue reading
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I’ve been thinking about this movie for days.
A gripping tale in post-war Germany, about a woman name Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet) who has a summer affair with a teenage boy named Michael Berg (David Kross). A few years later, Berg is a law student and is sitting in on a Nazi war crime trial in court where he is stunned to see Schmitz again… Continue reading
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A heart-breaking story about, not the person who leaves, but the person who’s perpetually left behind.
I like this unusual perspective, particularly since time-travel is such an attractive, but foreign, concept. Yet, the story is focused on the more human and deeply relatable themes.
I’ve heard the book is fantastic – I’m going to read it this summer. But, the movie is exquisite. If you haven’t seen or read The Time Traveler’s Wife, the low-down is that a man is a time traveller and his wife is not. The time traveller, named Henry (Eric Bana) can’t control his travelling, so his impromptu disappearances and reappearances become a way of life for his wife Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams)… Continue reading
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Because this movie isn’t in English, I’m just going to do a fat dissection of the visuals… Enjoy!
A story about two married couples who move into an apartment next door from one another. One couple is Chow Mo-wan, a journalist, and his wife. The other is Su Li-zhen, a secretary, and her husband.
Chow and Su both have a spouse who works over-time often, leaving them alone in their rooms most nights. However, their absence slowly brings Chow and Su together, and they speculate over unfaithfulness in their respective spouses… Continue reading
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This film is up there with Bridget Jones’ Diary, I reckon.
I got this DVD because there was a ‘buy two, get one free’ deal on. Since the choice was limited, I thought I’d give this a whirl.
I was concerned because I had no interest in any of Jane Austen’s romance novels and had little knowledge of the stories and characters. So I wondered if a film about people discussing these books would be confusing…
Not the case, surprisingly!
The first time I watched it, I was just like ‘meh’, better than a chick flick… But kind of average. So it gathered dust on my shelf until one day, boredom and exhaustion from watching my DVD collection five times over resulted in me indulging in The Jane Austen Book Club once again.
I have to say, I really love this film now. The six main characters are empowering and strong, they all… Continue reading
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Visually, this film was MIND BLOWING! This is Moulin Rouge on steroids.
The party scenes are phenomenal! The lights, the atmosphere, colours, fashion and music… It is ground breaking. Just beautiful sets, like we’re being sent to another world.
The sets and feel of the movie are very similar to the likes of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Edward Scissorhands (the garden scenes) and of course, Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge and Romeo & Juliet. I think it’s because all of those movies are fantastical and unbelievable.
The actors were very convincing, Leonardo DiCaprio gave another ground breaking performance. Although his accent was a little confusing on occasion, his dialogue was incredible! I feel like speaking formally, like an upper class person from the 1920s now.
Come on, old sport!
I wasn’t expecting much from Toby Maguire, and for a while believed that Ewan McGregor could have done a better job, until it was mentioned to me that his “pluckiness” was what made his character convincing. Which I thought was a good point.
I’ve never been a huge fan… Continue reading
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I bought this DVD as a bit of a whim. After stumbling across the trailer on YouTube I thought that the look of the whole film resembled the circus scenes in Big Fish.
It is the story of the dark side of the circus during the early 1930s, with a forbidden love story between Jacob (Robert Pattinson) and Marlena (Reece Witherspoon) intertwined. Jacob runs away with the circus and poses as a certified vet to continue travelling with them, but discovers that there’s much more to performing that the magic the audience sees.
On the way, he experiences the control and under handed acts that go on in order to keep the circus from failing during the depression. Staff would go missing in the night if the boss and husband of Marlena, August (Christoph Waltz), was unable to pay… Continue reading
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If you haven’t watched this movie, it is basically about a wealthy girl, Allison (McAdams), who fell in love with a poor country boy, Noah (Gosling), whom her parents did not approve of. She was taken away and after a few years was engaged to marry a more ‘appropriate’ man of wealth and status… That is until Noah comes back into the picture which forces Allison to choose between a respectable, kind young wealthy man or a free spirited, kind young poor man.
As I have mentioned many times in previous posts, romance is not my cup of tea. I don’t enjoy the predictability of them, the smooching, the overly-perfect and much-too-good-looking characters, as well as the either typically happily ever after or tragic endings. Or the mamsy-pamsy emotional blubbering characters who through the fog of their infatuation… Continue reading
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“Truth, beauty, freedom and love.”
I have never been a fan of sappy romance, and I still am not. Because Moulin Rouge! is not at all sappy or unbelievable, nor does the music break the suspension of disbelief. I think that it is because the acting is not over the top or overly theatrical at all.
Ewan McGregor plays the protagonist, Christian, who is a writer who wants to write about love, but with one problem being that he has never been in love. That is until he meets Nicole Kidman’s character, Satine, a courtesan at the Moulin Rouge. Satine is forbidden to fall in love, so they must keep their relationship a secret. Continue reading
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I think this is going to be a short entry today. Because I’ve been mulling this film over and over in my head for a good few months since I watched it.
It’s a film about how in the future everybody would be paid in time. With a count-down timer on our arm (which would make a pretty cool tattoo) we have to use that time to pay for things we need such as bus rides and food.
This film does have some powerful points… Continue reading
NZ Film Freak 