What the Film » Great films

Pan’s Labyrinth

what film — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:00:34 +0000

Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is a wonderful movie. Really, wonderful is the word for this fantasy tail that nevertheless has so much reality in it. For those who loved Benigni’s Life is Beautiful, we are sure the same feeling will go for Pan’s. Although these might look to be two very different movies, there is in fact endless food for thought that spurs out of both these two great pieces of work. That is because both have skilfully put the viewer in the fading margin that lies between reality and imagination.

The crude events and desolating life of Spanish post-Civil war clash with the smooth and sparkling fantasy world that only little Ofelia, the main character, is able to see. These two layers never find a final resolution all along the story but nonetheless create the whole essence of the plot.

The story of the film starts with Ofelia and her pregnant mother meeting her new stepfather, fascist Captain Vidal. Leftist opponents to the Franchist regime, in the meantime, are secretly building up the resistance movement. In this setting, the little Ofelia embarks in a mythical and fantasy world where her principal interlocutor, a fascinating and somewhat scary faun, engages her into quests and promises that the little girl will take up to regain her original belonging in a supra-natural world.

There would be a lot to talk about to fully understand the deepness of this film. The figure that we really loved is that of the faun. It fully embodies the dimension of a lost original world with which human beings have lost touch and that, ultimately, can only be regained through the path of imagination, faith, innocence and morality. It is actually amazing how a movie is able to make you think about such topics in, nevertheless, the most light and entertaining way.

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Maid in Manhattan

cinema review — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:47:32 +0000

Natasha Richardson had just died after a skiing accident. Her death came as a shock to all her fans and family. She left us with a handful of great movies to watch and enjoy and one of these movies is Maid in Manhattan of 2002.

Natasha Richardson played Caroline Lane, a socialite who was a guest at a Manhattan hotel who asked Marisa Ventura (Jennifer Lopez) to return an expensive designer clothing for her. Marisa tried the designer clothes after being persuaded by her co-worker, Stephanie. While wearing the expensive outfit, there comes her son Ty with Mr. Christopher Marshall, an aspiring senator behind him. He spots her and felt an attraction. With what she was wearing, he didn’t think for a second she was a maid but a hotel guest and he asked her to join him and that’s where the lie started.

The story is pretty much about a lie that grew and grew. She wore the designer clothes of Caroline Lane, got mistaken to be a socialite, went along with it, fell in love, can’t tell him the truth, he loves her so much and she has to tell the truth.

Eventually TV reporters came in the picture and the two were always invaded by paparazzi. Marisa was spotted wearing that dress by its owner and all hell broke lose. There was a bit of a chaos after her true identity was uncovered but, love conquers all. In the end, he really didn’t care if she’s rich or poor as long as they have each other and so the story ended with the two of them still madly in love with each other, the maid and the aspiring senator.

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Mamma Mia, here we go again!

what the film — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:00:26 +0000

Mamma Mia is a feel-good movie with lots of singing and dancing but although it is a musical, there is still a funny story behind it. All the songs sang in the movie are all from the famous pop group ABBA while there are some additional music there too as composed by Benny Anderson who was also a member of ABBA.

The story rotates around Donna Sheridan portrayed by Meryl Streep, Sophie portrayed by Amanda Seyfried and how Sophie was trying to find her real father. She was about to get married and she was in the quest to find who her real father is and she sent 3 invitations to the 3 men who he suspects could be her father. She read her mom’s diary and learned about them. After sending the invitation, they came but Sophie wanted to keep it a secret to her mother so she could surprise her but of course, eventually Donna found all 3 of them and was shocked and the story just started from there.

It’s funny how in the end it wasn’t Sophie who ended up getting married but Donna did. It reminds me of a similar scene from Princess Diaries 2 when the queen got married during the ceremony that was intended for her daughter.

It’s amazing how they used several ABBA songs throughout the movie and they did not just sing these songs for the heck of it but the songs are actually just perfect for the scenes! It’s brilliant and it will give you a hell of a great time watching it.