Recent viewings

I've now finally seen Slumdog Millionaire. I completely understand what all the hype is about for this film, but don't believe it was the best of 2008. While the story is very well done - a great use of the game show questions to tell the life story - it is was in the end unsatisfying. All of the characters are redeemed, and those who deserve it get what's coming to them, but the resolution is unbelievable. The sudden development of a conscience by the brother makes no sense, and the strong bond of love between Latika and Jamal is hard to understand or believe, since they really do not know each other at all. Those problems aside, the film was enjoyable and very well done - a nice crossover from Bollywood to small Hollywood.

Other recent sightings of note (all on DVD or Blu-Ray):

• Let the Right One In - a Swedish child vampire story, with Oskar and Eli as the Jamal and Latika of this strange little love story. While pretty slow and dark, it was actually an interesting story, with a strange moral message about how to deal with school bullying.
• Role Models - I'm embarrassed to admit that I really enjoyed this film. It is not normally my kind of genre for comedy, but I found the stories and characters very entertaining and sweet.
• Nobel Son - a story with potential gets terrible treatment here. I keep rooting for Alan Rickman to get into a good groove in a role like this, but he seems to keep missing the mark.

Pickings are a bit slim these days, both at the theatre and the movie store.