Illusion of Words

Thanksgiving and Two Movies

Pecan Pie!

Pumpkin Pie!

Two indispensable items on Thanksgiving meals. They don’t look as appetizing as they should - blame the camera and/or my photographing skills.

Anyway, I was exceptionally productive (if could be said so), watching 2 movies which I saw from the previews on the dvd of the movie Bella.

Away From Her

A sad story about an old couple, the wife getting Alzheimer’s and all the complications afterwards. So you can tell it’s a pretty heartbreaking movie, although surprisingly not as sad as I’d thought it would be. Of course, the wife forgets the husband, especially after she moves into the nursing home. And of course, it’s just all so sad. Great performances from both leads, especially Julie Christie as the lady with Alzheimer’s. She had an Oscar nomination for that role, not to mention a Golden Globe Award.

Akeelah and the Bee

I don’t usually like to watch this sort of ‘uplifting’ and ‘inspiring’ movie, since they all tend to be quite cliched. There’s always the loser person who has great potential and a person to inspire him/her, and there’s always the person’s mother or somebody who’s totally against their being better and stuff like that. But I thought, since this is a spelling bee and not yet another football movie, it should be pretty good.
As it turns out, it is pretty good. While it did have some of the usual elements of a competition film, and a too-perfect ending, I thought it was done very well. It is about Akeelah, from southern Los Angeles, where people were basically not good in their studies, but Akeelah was exceptional in spelling. So she has a mentor, and makes a friend or two along the way, and heads for the national spelling bee.
I thought it was really funny - Akeelah’s main competitor, who was Chinese. And of course, he had a Chinese dad who was totally, “You have to win this.” Very stereotype-y. After all, aren’t all Asian parents crazy about their kids being the best and studying hard (*sarcasm*)? I laughed out loud at the scenes of the strict father and the poor Chinese kid.
Oh, and icing on the cake - there was Angela Bassett, if you’d remember from Alias (season 5, Director Chase, yay!). And Laurence Fishburne, whom you might remember from the Matrix, and who is going to take over William Petersen’s (Gil Grissom) role in CSI:LV (boohoo. oh, and I just found that out. I always wondered who Fishburne was from reading CSI spoilers, and now I know). He (Fishburne) is a great actor, but honestly, who can ever replace dear ol’ Grissom?

Overall, I’ll recommend ‘Away From Her’ if you feel like watching an old couple’s love story (kind of). However, I must warn you not to see the trailer first, because really, the trailer shows pretty much all the best scenes of the movie and detracts from the overall enjoyment (sadness, whatever) of watching the movie. Or if you’re in a mood for inspiring stuff, watch ‘Akeelah and the Bee’ and perhaps learn how to spell some of those crazy words which I don’t understand how 12-year-olds could ever want to learn or know. I mean, who ever uses those kind of words?

Posted in General, TV/Movies |