Spitfire Grill

“The Spitfire Grill” is the first movie in a while I just don’t know what to think of. Most movies today immediately take off and grab the audiences’ attention within the first ten minutes. This movie was unbearably slow and didn’t pick up at all until the very end. Fighting against their rich accents and boring story, it was hard to stay awake.

            Percy Talbott (Alison Elliott) was just released from prison and finds work in the family owned Spitfire Grill, in Gillead, Main. As she tries to fit into the small community she can’t seem to be accepted. When the owner, Hannah Ferguson (Ellen Burstyn), falls and can’t take care of the grill, Percy takes over and with the help of Shelby Goddard (Marcia Gay Harden) they find a way to raise money to save the grill from closing. With the town beginning to fall in love with Percy, Nahum Goddard (Will Patton), Shelby’s husband and Hannah’s son, starts to recognize the shift of power in the town from within his grasp to Percy. A young girl such as Percy, who was in prison for killing a man, should not have such power over the town.

            Along with the drama within the town Percy finds a man living in the woods who she calls Johnny B. (John M. Jackson), that she desperately tries to hunt down and talk to. This man and what he represents in this movie is the only thing that I enjoyed. To Percy he represents the hope that she has in her future. The hope that one day she will be forgiven of her past mistakes. To Hannah he represents the hope that her first son is still alive. He never came home from Vietnam but they never found his body. To Nahum he is all that he hates. His jealousy towards Percy, his anger at his mother for never appreciating him, his jealously towards his late brother for being the town’s favorite, his attitude towards his wife.  Nahum will find any way to destroy the pact that he thinks Percy has with this mysterious woodsman. Within this character there are so many different representations of him and who he is even though he never speaks a word. In a lot of ways he is the “God” figure in this movie, and Percy is “Jesus.” Johnny B. is the one the town is always trying to find because they know he’s there and yet can’t find him. Percy is Jesus-like because she brings the town together in a way that they never knew was possible. She brings hope and happiness to a dying land in the promise of a brighter future.

            I’m sure there are many more hidden meanings to this movie that I have missed but after about half an hour of this movie I couldn’t find something or someone in this movie that I could latch on to. Their accents were extremely tough to understand at times, and after seeing almost nothing change for an hour I got bored of watching it. I stopped listening to what was really going on and didn’t pay attention to what the meaning of the story was. It has a great end and a meaningful story, but it takes a long time to get there. 

Read more...

Groundhog Day

If there were one holiday that you hated most, one holiday that you dreaded, one holiday that you tried to skip year after year, anybody would do everything in their power to stay as far away as they can from it.  What would happen if someone had to live that day over and over again, exactly the same, every time, forever?

          Phil (Bill Murray) is a self-centered celebrity weatherman who absolutely hates Groundhog Day but is forced to visit Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania every year to cover the story. This year seems to be the same boring story but when he wakes up the next morning and finds that he has indeed woken back up to Groundhog Day, hilarious insanity ensues. In the beginning of the movie it’s all about Phil figuring out how to deal with the fact that he is living out his worst nightmare and can’t find a way out. No matter what he tries it always ends up with him waking up on February 2 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He quickly finds ways to benefit from his dilemma and begins to take advantage of people. Phil is able to steal money, have one night stands with a woman, drive drunk and almost kill his friends, eat everything he can get his hands on, smokes, treat his coworkers like trash and never have any repercussions. After living for only himself he quickly becomes bored and lonely. A life lived with the only goal of benefitting yourself can be a very successful life, but in the end is it really worth it?

            Phil realizes that he is a very lonely man so he learns about everyone else’s life in the town. He shifts his concentration onto others instead of himself. He tries to save an old man’s life, he rescues a boy from falling out of a tree, he saves the mayor from choking on some meat, he replaces a flat tire for some old ladies, and on and on. He discovers the true beauty in life is in helping and caring for others. When he discovers this he finally finds a way into the life of his producer Rita (Andie MacDowell). He had been trying to hard to get her attention and find a way to end up with her in bed with him but couldn’t get it. As soon as he gave up on finding his own happiness and started concentrating on helping others he became the better man she always wanted. It was then that the two of them became one and fell in love. It wasn’t when they finally had sex, but when they were true to themselves and cared for each other. This is a great story that portrays the effects that a single man can have on an entire society just by his attitude. Phil’s attitude affected the way he treated people and how people treated him. When all that changes, his world can change.

            Bill Murray used his comic genius to traverse the emotional journey from self-centered bigot to an adoring passionate man who found the love he always wanted. "Groundhog Day" is a classic tale of self-discovery that will stick with you for years to come. 

Read more...

Unbreakable

What if super heroes actually existed in our world? “What if there was someone who couldn’t be hurt like the rest of us? Would they even know it?”

Elijah Price is a man who has been breaking bones and getting sick all his life. What keeps him going is the thought that if he is so weak and powerless, there must be someone on the other side of the spectrum, right? Maybe someone is immune to sickness. Maybe someone really is “Unbreakable.”

After a series of events causing hundreds of innocent lives to be lost and none surviving, one man “is miraculously unharmed.” David Dunn (Bruce Willis) walks out of a hospital without a single scratch on him after his train derailed. Something about Dunn just seems off the entire time. Dunn isn’t happy with his life, his job, or his family. He is searching for something to fill that void that keeps him from waking up and actually feeling like he is useful. When Price (Samuel L. Jackson) presents the idea of him being a real life “super-hero” it seems too far-fetched to even be considered. M. Night Shyamalan tells a unique story about a simple man trying to figure out the balance between absurdity and reality. He takes what usually happens within the firs act of a movie, and expounds on it for almost two hours. There are so many discoveries that take place within Dunn and Price’s lives that it needs to be told this way. This is not a story about a superhero, but a story of two normal men finding their place.

As an avid art collector, Price specializes in comic book frames or covers. With his vast knowledge and personal beliefs about the source of comics and the stories they tell, he takes on Dunn, somewhat as an apprentice, to help him discover his own calling. Throughout this movie there are countless references to comic books and how their stories are told, how their characters are revealed or portrayed, or how the artist uses shapes and colors to confuse or distract from the real nightmare at hand. Even though we are told how a comic book is built and told, it isn’t clear that this movie is portraying everything that Price is explaining to Dunn. Shyamalan’s use of mirrors and color is astounding in the way that it reflects how a reader would see a comic. Just like in a comic book, the action is framed. With mirrors Shyamalan takes that same idea and frames his action accordingly. He takes natural elements within a building or city and frames his characters and action around the thought that it should emulate a comic book. He even gives life to his characters by their wardrobe. A simple raincoat reveals a considerable amount of information about Dunn’s character. Dunn is dressed in dry, neutral tones and loose clothing while Price is dressed in brighter colors, tighter clothes, and longer coats. Within these costumes grows a believability of the characters underneath them. There are so many little nuances weaving their way in and out of this film that give so much depth to the story it’d be hard to find yourself getting sidetracked.

As soon as the movie is finished, all I want to do is watch it again. This time with the foreknowledge of the story, all the tricks Shyamalan is pulling out of his hat might just be easier to spot. With this knowledge it becomes a completely different movie. You realize the genius behind the camera. With such a brilliant story, high caliber actors, and an innovative man sitting in the director’s chair, you can’t stay away. You shouldn’t stay away. This is a must see.

Read more...

Away We Go

“Are we fuck ups?”

Burt Farlander and Verona De Tessant are two people dedicated to each other who are searching for their place in the world, as they are about to welcome a baby into theirs. “Are we fuck ups?” Why haven’t they done anything with their lives? Why don’t they have more things figured out by now? Questions dominate this story. When they can’t answer their own questions, they travel all around America to try and find the answers in their family and friends.

"Away We Go" goes through all the different types of family lifestyles within the span of ninety-eight minutes. With the kind of questions they are asking they go to all of their close family relatives, people they trust, and look at how they operate. What is the answer, what is the best way to raise a family? Where is the best place for a young child? These are the biggest questions facing any young family. Even though the couple isn’t exactly young their worries are that of a young couple. They aren’t the richest, and they aren’t the smartest. They don’t have many friends, and they don’t have that many opportunities awaiting them. However, they are in love. With love they will discover everything they need to know.

What makes this movie so wonderful is the portrayal of love in so many ways and situations. I have never seen this kind of love shown in a movie. It usually is the perfect love story when two people meet serendipitously and everything works out in the end for them both. This movie takes a different route by actually portraying love in the way that most people in the world can relate to. Verona (Maya Rudolph) is six months pregnant and all everyone wants to tell her is how big she is. Not exactly what a woman wants to hear. Burt (John Krasinski) isn’t the businessman of his dreams and hasn’t been able to provide all of the riches for Verona like he once planned for. These are broken people with real stories and real hurts. They have sacrifices that need to be made. With love as their guiding light they are able to make it through obstacles and tribulations. After seeing their friends and families, they discover that none of their lifestyles are what they want. They have to find a way to live their own life and raise their child in their own way.

Verona doesn’t want to ever get married. Burt wants to marry her with all of his heart. The marriage might not happen, but the love, the most important factor in a marriage, is there. They don’t have all of the answers to life. Nonetheless they will make it because they have each other and love. This movie could have been so cheesy in many ways, but somehow the comedy and drama were interwoven beautifully.

One of the last scenes of the movie explains everything in such a simplistic and graceful way. They had made promises to each other after everything they had learned and experienced over the past couple of weeks, and wanted to stop looking for the answers from other people and instead just live their lives as it comes. They can’t plan ahead for every kind of situation and there’s no need to. A home is something a family builds. It’s not something a family can find. 

“This place is perfect for us” Burt said.

Verona can only respond with “I hope so. I really hope so.”

Read more...