Once Upon a Time

Seriously, this show shouldn’t be good. Retellings of fairy tales are often old or too weird and in my experience, they never break new ground that follows any kind of believable logic. At best, they are parodies (though sometimes good ones — like Shrek).

But Once Upon a Time keeps me coming back week after week. Sure, I already know the story of Pinocchio and Little Red Riding Hood and all the others; I know the platitudes embedded within, to warn youngsters about various vices and evils. But as OUaT explores these characters both in their fairy tale origins and in our own modern world, a new depth emerges! Pinocchio has finally learned to be a good boy, but tragically late. Red has more fire in her (or shall we say, wolf?) than we ever saw in the original story, making her a worthy descendant of spry old Granny (in both the traditional tales and OUaT. The Huntsman is colorful, Jimminy Cricket is sympathetic, and every week surprised me with the interesting backstories of this character drama. I was pleasantly surprised for the Mad Hatter week that they expanded outward from strict Grimm’s stock characters.

It’s Mr. Gold (Rumpelstiltskin), though, that I have my eye on. The wicked stepmother has some interesting backstory but her acting is a bit flat. I can take or leave obtuse Emma. Henry, the boy, enh. Snow White does better in the fairy world than in the modern one, and don’t get me started on Prince Charming. Blech. But really, who reads fairy tales for the heros? They’re always bland white hat characters. But these writers have built Rumpelstiltskin into a twisting shapeshifter that keeps my attention every scene he’s in. I love the actor, I love the character, I love the dialogue and I wonder where they’ll go with him in Season Two. I loved the moment when he thought August was his long-lost son.

Overall, OUaT has some stilted dialogue, some bland acting, but the storytelling is excellent. TV is made for these kinds of deep character studies.

Legend of Korra

And that brings me to the other great new character series by Mike and Brian, who brought us Avatar: The Last Airbender, the best family TV series in… I don’t know, maybe since Cosby? Everyone in my family could sit down to watch Airbender together: laugh, cheer and thoroughly enjoy the characters and story without any uncomfortable situations or language. Entertainment should always aim for such heights!

(Please note I'm talking about Nickelodeon's anime series, not the ATROCIOUS Hollywood movie of Airbender.)

Enough about Airbender. We anxiously anticipated the opening episode of Korra, and were enticed by the new type of story it represented. The setting is urban rather than a rural quest, and that is a fundamental difference. Korra and the other characters are also older, which changes the game a bit, as well. I worried that my seven-year-old would find it too mature and lose interest, but he hasn’t. There are just enough hybrid animals and silly Flinstoney jokes and animation to keep him interested. After each episode, we’re having great family discussions about the story elements: the tension between Benders and Non-Benders, the heavy-handed Metal Benders, the goals of the villian Eman, how Korra is going to develop and learn Airbending, and so on. Clearly Mike and Brian, et al, had more stories up their sleeves and I have every confidence we’ll see a steady build of great storylines for three “books” (as they call the seasons). One question: since Book one is titled “Air”, and Korra already knows the other elements, what will Books two and three be? Hmm. Let’s all keep watching to find out!

Enjoy!

*Our fam, in order to enjoy the pleasures of the outdoors more this season, is taking a break from our internet connection, effective immediately! So don’t go away, stay tuned, and I’ll be back in September for more reviews of books, film, TV and whatever else strikes my fancy. Have a great summer!

I saw Cars 2 in the theater. Yes, I did.

What, I’m not ashamed.

However, the fact that it was the only movie choice and that it was was $3.00 a ticket might have had something to do with my sitting in a seat for two hours when I could have been happy to leave after the (superb) Toy Story short at the beginning of the film (“Hawaiian Vacation”, about Barbie and Ken, very cute).

But, see, cars are not my thing, and the first Cars movie didn’t do it for me, but I know that many a young boy have gone googly over the wide-eyed, friendly vehicles from the film. I can appreciate that it pleased its target audience. Perhaps my disappointment in Cars radiated from the fact that the previous Pixar film was The Incredibles, which I so completely adored. So. adored.

As for the second movie: they went with a spy storyline, which was moderately interesting to me… I am a sucker for spy stuff. But the bummer was that every under-7-year-old in the theater with me was squirming in the seat from boredom. It was clear that it didn’t keep its core audience happy. And frankly, I’d take a real person or even a computer animated one over a vehicle doing spy stuff.

Come on, Pixar, you must have more up your deep, magician’s sleeve! Tread new ground in storytelling as well as in slick computer animation. Chat more with Miyazaki, just hire him as a consultant, how about that?

Anyway, I did notice that Pixar’s John Lasseter had a hand in another movie I saw recently: Tangled. I didn’t know it until the end credits, but then it was obvious. Tangled could have been another tired retelling of an old tale, or a weird, warped misadventure in differentness, but it was neither! It was cute, yes, and technically beautiful as modern CG movies, but it was more than that. But it was creative and exciting, and the Alan Menken music wasn’t half bad. It made the old Grimm’s tale make more sense, actually, more believable in the context of a world where hair can be magic. I particularly loved that Rapunzel was all Indiana Jones with her hair, which could have been a major liability.

So, instead of waiting eagerly to rent Cars 2, just go for Tangled now — even if you have boys!

Enjoy!

* you may have noticed that I’ve stopped awarding nods in my reviews. It’s silly, really, but I hate grabbing and placing the graphic, which for some reason doesn’t play nice in a set like that. So, I may modify my rating system, but for now, I shall just opine.

Marley & Me

That’s what I’ve determined after seeing it for the second time last night. My daughter wanted to rent it because she thinks it is one. But I wanted to rent it because I knew better.

Because it is better than a boring old dog movie.

I won’t say I cried (on second viewing, no less) because I don’t cry at movies. But there may have been a little hard blinking.

See, Marley & Me uses a dog to take us through the seasons of life — specifically the seasons as they change from spring to summer. As a man and woman’s lives change from being about themselves to being about their family. It just happens to be told within the framework of a puppy growing into an old man-dog.

Marley provides a fair amount of the funny of this movie, but he also helps us get a window into the hearts of the main characters, Jenny (played by Jennifer Aniston) and John Grogan (Owen Wilson). Nothing really horrible happens. There’s a mild couple’s quarrel here and there, just the friction that comes from rubbing up so closely against another person’s life. That friction which rubs off the rough corners of our selves.

In a way, I  identify with this movie because it has a wonderfully talented (and beautiful, of course) woman choosing marriage and family over career, and depicts the normal ups and downs to a tee. It also shows a guy making career choices that are not only in line with his personal ambitions, but that suit the needs of his family. He’s striving for balance, and you admire him for it. I like seeing people sacrifice their own desires for a greater good. What greater good is there, really, then a happy family?

I haven’t read the memoir (of the same name) that the movie is based on, but I like the idea that a memoir can make a good story… even if it is just about people like you and me. What we do every day — choosing dependability, choosing responsibility, choosing to love others more than you love yourself — does make the world turn. We are the builders of humanity. For real, dude.

Too heavy? Well, if all you want is to commiserate about your aging dog, the movie provides ample grounds for that emotion, too. See the picture there? This is my old girl, Pesto. No, not the sauce. Though she is saucy, yeah. My husband and I, when we first got the runty little pointer mix from doggy jail, named her after the secretary character from the TV show Moonlighting. I know. We thought it was funny: Ms. Agnes dePesto.

Pesto.

She’s now fourteen years old, and I could write a book about the crazy little stories of her life, too. When she gorged herself on dog food and could hardly walk, when she jumped off the boat trying to reach the dogfish we’d snagged (we had to snag her, then), when she met each of our children and wholeheartedly opened her heart (and tongue) to them. But her last chapter is coming to a close now. Her time is near. She’s had a good run. Been a great dog. None better, I think. You forgive me the hard blinking, right?

Did you avoid seeing Marley & Me because it looked like another Benji or Beethoven? Well, go rent it. Though, perhaps it is. I didn’t see Benji or Beethoven. Maybe boring old dog movies aren’t bad at all!

I’m not going to rate this one — you may not like it at all. It’s a personal story, you’ll have to see how it hits you, eh?

The more you appreciate the things in your life — whether they be good or bad — the happier you are.The more you expect things to be a certain way, the more you are likely to be unhappy; the more your joy is conditioned upon your circumstances.

My first manuscript

So, a few things I am grateful for this Thanksgiving season:

1. I’m thankful that I have to beg, borrow and steal time to be able to write. It makes me treasure the moments I spend creating stories.
2. I’m thankful to have struggled financially for the past decade, for that has made me realize how little we need to live — how we don’t need things to make us happy. I’m grateful that my kids have learned this lesson, too.
3. I’m grateful to drive an old, beat up car that I never take the time to wash (see #1), so my kids have a renewable canvas for their love notes to me. I’m most thankful for the moments I spend in said car chatting about the world with the most important people in my life.
4. I’m grateful for a marriage that has grown from youthful adoration to a deep and resounding love that makes Hollywood movies look shallow and trite.
5. I’m grateful for a God that loves me enough to tailor my trials, just for me, so I can become my best self (over time. Like, a looong time.)

Hmm, I was seeing if I could be thankful for my challenges instead of my blessings. It made me feel lucky even for the hard things! And yes, my awesome marriage is on the list of trials — anyone with a lasting marriage will agree. I tell ya, sometimes, everyone hates their spouse. It’s what you do then that counts.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

(Though, like Spanglish, it is not an all-ages movie — it’s also PG-13.)

The Family Man is about a wall street executive who gets a chance to see the life’s road he didn’t take — the one of marriage and family vs. high-powered career. A “what might have been” story.

Now, the last movie Nicolas Cage was in that I really liked was Raising Arizona, so I remember that I didn’t have high hopes when I first saw this. But his pairing with Tea Leoni (also from Spanglish) was so charming I was taken in.

For instance, when he wakes on the second morning of his “glimpse” he hears the baby cry and goes to the bathroom door where his wife is showering to tell her about it. She can’t hear him because she’s singing in the shower (Rolling Stones, no less) so he must open the door to get her attention. The look on his face when he must deal with her nudity (not shown on camera, but firmly implied through the obscure glass) as a non-sexual event is PRICELESS, as is her annoyed “what’s the problem” attitude of a woman who has been married for thirteen years and is interrupted in the midst of an otherwise perfect shower experience.

Okay, found the vid — right at the beginning of this clip on YouTube. I warned you of the semi-nudity right? But finish my review first because once you start the clip, you won’t want to stop as he tries to change the baby’s diaper and deal with the daughter’s awareness that he is not actually her dad.

There are some great lines in this movie, like when Cage tries to have it all by moving his family into the city so he can work for his pre-glimpse firm, and he tells the upset Leoni that he wants to give her a life that people will envy.

“They already do envy us,” she says. And she’s so right — yes, some people envy those with worldly success. But another class of people value personal, family success even more. It’s the kind of movie that makes you question which class of person you are.

And of course, the movie’s mantra: “I choose us.” It’s Jerry Maguire-worthy!

This one gets four out of five nods.

Hopefully, people didn’t go into this movie looking for a love story like Dates (or a crude farce like Waterboy) because this movie actually had something to say — something Hollywood almost never says.

So what did this movie (which was, incidentally, funny and charming as well) say?

It showed parents sacrificing their own happiness for their kids’ well-being. It showed them choosing family obligation over momentary pleasure. It showed them, in short, being responsible grown ups.

Shocking, I know!

Well, not Tea Leoni’s character, but she was the catalyst for the story, and she played her part so that you both laughed at her and felt sorry for her. It was a razor-fine line. She must be a pretty great actress.

But Adam Sandler and Paz Vega played their concerned parent roles well, and it became obvious that Sandler believes in this story. He didn’t set himself up as a perfect man, but as a real one, trying desperately to hold his family together.

The show-stealers were the two daughters, though. Shelbie Bruce as Vega’s Mexican-born, Americanized daughter and Sarah Steele as Sandler’s kind, grounded, charming daughter. It was those two parent-daughter relationships that made the film, and these two actresses did wonderful jobs.

Two things were wrong with this film:

1. The Title — come on, who thought this was a good idea? Yes, a language barrier is a part of the movie, and you could even argue that the two people communicating the worst were Sandler and his wife! But the word Spanglish is just plain ugly. Words have shape and sound, and much like Susan Sarandon’s movie Stepmom, this title kept me away from the film. It doesn’t say heartwarming movie to me.

2. The Teasers — this movie is grossly mis-billed as a “zany” comedy, which, aside from Leoni’s incredibly strange sex scene, is way off. Here’s what Netflix’s blurb says about Spanglish:

Cultures clash with a mighty clang in this comedy of manners and mayhem directed by James Brooks. When a beautiful Mexican housekeeper, Flor (Paz Vega), is hired by a rich Los Angeles family, everyone’s life is upended in hilariously zany ways, especially when the parents (Tea Leoni and Adam Sandler) make it their mission to be so welcoming that they become overwhelming — especially the dad, who’s quickly smitten by Flor’s beauty.

This makes it sound like Sandler plays a guy who would start an affair with his housekeeper right under his wife’s nose, which is really the opposite of the events of the movie. And using words like “hilarious” and “mayhem” makes it sound like fluff when it is substance (with flair). And it led me to worry all through the final moments of the film that the whole movie setup was just to get the two leads into bed. Thankfully, it wasn’t, and if you haven’t seen this movie, be forewarned. It is a movie about parents and children more than about men and sex. Hurrah for that!

Think I’ll start rating the things I review… how about nods? I give this four out of five nods. If you’ve been avoiding Spanglish for fear it is like Big Daddy, don’t worry. It has its priorities straight. See it.

= 4 nods