September 11, 2001-Ten Years

I am having a hard time starting this particular entry. It has been ten years since the single greatest tragedy our nation has ever seen and I felt compelled to reflect, but I am at a loss on how to start. There is not a single day that goes by that I do not think about the events of September 11, 2001. The numbers 9-11 are no longer just numbers, but a constant reminder. I cannot look at the time when the clock reads 9:11am/pm, or even talk about my final class period of the day without a slight hesitation. Ten years passing has not made that any easier.

It is a difficult day for me. It is a day that I still strive to understand. I struggle to wrap my mind around the shear magnitude of those whose lives were forever altered in a single second. Not only those who lost their lives, and their family members who miss them everyday, but even those people who where able to evacuate the buildings or those who missed their flights that morning. Each one of those lives will never be the same. They all carry that day with them as they live out their daily lives. I wish that I could reach out to each one of them.... I wish that I could let them know that I share in their pain.... I wish that I could take some of that burden and that sorrow from them....nobody should have to feel such pain.....I wish that I could help them.....

I think that is what bothers me the most. All of the 3,000 or so people that past away that day had family and friends that cared about them. They had people that relayed on them. They had people that loved them. They had children who looked forward to playing catch with their dads and shopping with their moms. Those children had their lives flipped upside down because of hate. That is a pain that can never be erased with time. 

They say that time heals all wounds. I don't know if I believe that to be entirely true. Time has allowed people to come to terms with what happened. It has allowed people to understand the why and to begin to move on with their lives and adjust to a new way of life. There will always be that memory. It will always replay in the mind. The wound may have closed, but there will forever be that scar. 

I have taken from 9/11/01 the importance of living each day to the fullest extent, telling the people around you that you care and love them everyday, not taking anything for granted, and to not waste time being sad. Anything can happen. Those people have given me that gift, and I will honor them each day by doing just that. They brought together our nation in a way that I never thought possible, and I am so thankful that I was able to be a part of that unity.

The first 16 years of my life were lived in a different world than the last ten years of my life. It pains me to think that my little niece and nephews will never know the world as I did. Terrorism was not in my vocabulary and War was just something you learned about in a text book. Nobody thought twice about getting on a plane, and I had no idea that we even had a color coded terror alert system. It is amazing what a split second can do. 

I do not dwell in the sadness and I do not think that we should take the day as one of mourning. I believe that it should forever be a day of true remembrance. We should take those moments of silence, we should listen to their names, we should remember the events, and we should reflect on how they have changed our nation and ourselves. Talking about it and remembering does not mean that we are stuck in the past, and not talking about it and remembering it will not change the fact that it happened and that it will forever be painful. We should never stop remembering and honoring. I think that it is important to educate the younger generations and allow them to be a part of the day and to teach them those precious life lessons that those who lost their lives left us with. 

I will take each September 11, for as long as I live, and I will reflect. I will shed a tear.  I will stand proud as an American. I will pray for those families. I will light my candle in my window, and I will never forget. 

Black Swan

The first thing that I said when I walked out of the theater was, "That was a mind________ (fill in explicit language here)." Black Swan was one of those movies that you're not quite sure what you just watched for the last hour and forty five minutes. IT took me about twenty four hours to sort through everything that my eyes had taken in, and that was after the damn thing gave me nightmares. They were not lying when they called the movie a psychological thriller.

The basic plot of the movie focuses on Nina (Natalie Portman). Nina is a young ballerina in NYC. The dance company that she belongs to decides to put on Swan Lake. The lead role requires the dancer who plays the Swan Queen to play both the White Swan (innocence) and the Black Swan (sensuality). It becomes apparent early on that Nina is a perfectionist when it comes to her dancing and in life itself. Nina is chosen for the role. She is able to perform the part of the White Swan with ease, but a struggle arises when she begins to practice the Black Swan. The company leader, Thomas (Vincent Cassel), tells her that she is not able to let herself go enough to become the role of the Black Swan. The dance is more than just dancing the steps correctly. Nina becomes distressed because she cannot understand what she has to do in order to perfect the dance. She becomes even more bothered when a new dancer in the company, Lily (Mina Kunis), seems to understand the Black Swan role. Nina begins to spiral out of control.


After initially watching the film, it is easy for someone to say that it was the role of the Black Swan that drove her insanity. Then I thought about it some more, and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that the movie is just one be ironic situation. It becomes clear throughout the movie that Nina has struggled with some kind of psychological problem before being award the role of the Swan Queen. She was able to control the problem, but not without the constant help of her mother. I believe that it was this psychological problem that drove much of Nina's desire to be perfect. The idea that being perfect would make everything wrong disappear. Her psychological problems began to surface again when she begins to struggle with dancing the Black Swan. She cannot be perfect without embracing the parts of her that are imperfect. That is the true story- Nina's struggle with perfection, and the fact that perfection sometimes is not always perfect.

Darren Aronofsky did a fantastic job directing this strange and twisted story. There are little things in each scene that take you into Nina's mind. You felt the mental struggle in Nina. You began to struggle with her. She    was never quite sure what was going on. You are never quite sure what is going on. He never gives you more information that Nina herself has. He allowed his audiences to become Nina and to suffer with her. That is something very hard to do.

Everyone who know me, knows that I have this deep dislike for Natalie Portman. It would be wrong of me to say that she didn't do a fantastic job with this movie. She was amazing. Her dancing was breathtaking. It is a difficult task to portray two completely different personalities with such ease and grace. I believe that the best actors say the most when they are not saying anything at all. She said so much with little looks and tiny movements that could easily have gone unnoticed. Mina Kunis also did a wonderful job as the opposite personality. Without a strong cast, this movie could have easily fallen apart with such a complicated plot. Snaps for the actors!

I would have to recommend this movie. The more that I think about it, the more and more I like it. Just be prepared to not really know what it was you just watched when you walk out of the theater. Don't think about it to much. It seems to figure itself out. One thing I would have to say though, don't watch it before bed!

The Girl Who Played With Fire

Without a doubt, the Lisabeth Salander series, written by Stieg Larsson, deserves all of the praise and success that it has been receiving. They are well written, well put together, contain intriguing characters that you care about, and you can never go wrong with a good conspiracy theory. I said before when I watched The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, that it was going to be very difficult to bring these novels to life. I thought that Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg did a wonderful job with the screenplay. Director Niels Arden Oplev did an equally good job with bringing to life Lisabeth and Mikael Blomkvist. Because of their  exceptionally good job on the first movie, I was excited to see what they were going to do with The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second book in the trilogy.

Arcel and Heisterberg did not return for the second film. Director Oplev also did not return. Daniel Alfredson directed both The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest. Ulf Ryberg took on the daunting task of adapting the second novel for the screen. What makes these novels so difficult to adapt, is the numerous points of view that Larsson gives you throughout the novel. He presents you with so much detail, and trying to determine what is important and what isn't is like looking for a needle in a haystack (yea I know Cliche, but a good cliche is needed every once in awhile). 

Ryberg did an OK job. Ryberg did a decent job of shifting through the many story lines and picking out what he thought to be the most essential to the story. Some of it he got right, some of it he didn't. 

The major thing that really was swept over, was the murders themselves. There was never any real evidence presented in the film that shows Lisabeth could have been the murderer, except for the fact that her fingerprints where on the gun. They never go into any reason why she would have been anywhere near the characters Dag and Mia, or what her motivation for killing them could have been. In the movie she never has any contact with the couple at all. This leaves a major hole in the story. 

Dag is the single link that brings Lisabeth and Mikael toward Zala, which is the real story. In the novel, Dag begins to research Zala before his death and brings him up to Mikael early on. Lisabeth learns about this through her amazing hacking abilities, and pays the couple a visit the night of their murder to discover what information that had on Zala. Ryberg almost completely passes over this.  Zala is only brought up in a quick 10 second phone call to Mikael right before went to Dag and Mia's apartment to find them murdered. There was no set up at all for what is supposed to be the main conflict of the entire Lisabeth Salander mystery. It felt like he was in such a rush to get into the mystery part of it, he forgot that the set up is sometimes more important than the reveal.

The novel also really gets into how the papers portray Lisabeth while she is under suspicion for these three murders. It shows how speculation becomes damaging and all consuming at times, and later on really begins to interfere with the police investigation. 

I thought that they did not show Mikael to be as good of a friend to Lisabeth as he was in the novels. He was always very careful never to tell anyone, anything about her without her permission first. In the movie, he seemed to be quick to give out some information about Salander that he had otherwise kept secret in the novel. The movie also did not show Armansky's desire to assist in proving that Salander is innocent. These things all become important in the third and final novel. 

 

All in all, I would say that this was an OK movie. It was not anything great. If you did not read the book, I think that you would be a bit lost at times. Like most books series that have been made into movies, this one did not feel like it was thought out. It was rushed and put together so that they could put it out while people still know what The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is. That being said, I still believe that the Swedish version of this film is going to be better and truer to the novels than the English versions in production right now. Rapace still did am amazing job as Salander, and to me she will always be Lisabeth. I would say that if you have read the novels, take a chance. If you haven't..... what the heck are you waiting for? WHAT PART OF INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND! 

The Day the Video Store Died...

There was once a time where Friday and Saturday nights were movie night. Blockbusters, Hollywood Videos, and Movie Gallerys would be packed. There would be a full staff of 5 or 6 people working, and that still wouldn't be enough to handle the crowds. The video store was the place to go, and if you ever where unsure about what to rent, the staff was there to help you out with a suggestion. Now, the video store is becoming obsolete. There is no need for them with red box and with on demand you don't even have to leave your house. Great right? No late fees, no driving to return anything in a hurry before midnight, it is simple easy and convenient.  The question I asked myself is if this really is a good thing?

I worked at a video store for 6 years. It was my first and only job from 16-22. I loved it. I loved the people I worked with (my best friendships were formed here), the people that came in were always so much fun, and I was able to learn things about movies that I never would have had I not worked there. There is something that becomes lost with the red box and on demand: the human factor. 

Something that this world has become so afraid of anymore is actual human interaction. We don't ever have to talk face to face if we didn't want to. Our customers would come in and we would have actual conversations. We knew people by name, we knew things about their lives and their families. When people we would see on a regular basis didn't come in for awhile, we would become concerned. We talked face to face and nobody imploded. I like to think that sometimes we helped to make someone's day a little better. Don't get me wrong... there were those moments that made me want to smash my head through a window, and those people that just are looking for a fight, but that comes with human interaction. 

I really also think that the movie industry is suffering from the loss of the video store. No, I don't mean from a monetary standpoint, but from a creative standpoint. There were so many times that we would get a shipment of movies in and there were at least 3 or  4 smaller titled movies. I discovered so many indie films. I would watch them and suggest them to people. So many times people would come back and tell me how much they loved the movie and they would have never picked it up if I didn't suggest that. You don't get that from red box or on demand. I think that many indie films become lost and forgotten about now. Those smaller movies don't have a chance.

I guess what I am trying to say is that it does make me sad to think that one day there is not going to really be a need for a video store as I know them. What is so wrong with that little bit of human interaction? 

{500} Days of Summer... (the girl not the season)

I can't even tell you how hard it was for me to get my hands on this movie. I have been trying for the last month  to rent this movie or catch it on TV without any success. I was really excited to see what this movie with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Dechanel was all about, and it did not disappoint. I am a sucker for any more that starts out by telling me that it is not a love story. (Sometimes the sap happy just gets to be to much... *gag reflex*) This movie really set itself apart. It didn't do so by any original story line, but in the way Marc Webb (director), Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber (writers) were able to put onto the screen that all familiar roller coaster of love. Levitt has shown that he can definitely carry the action/suspense film and the light romantic comedy roles. 

Tom's relationship with Summer touches on all of those important relationship moments. The moment that you should have made a move but you didn't, the first time they grab your hand, that moment you realize that they could hurt you, that moment in which all in the world is aligned and you want to hug everyone because they should be as happy as you. It brings back all of those open wounds of the time you where dumped. It is the perfect embodiment of all relationships.
What I loved about the movie is that it is not told in complete chronological order.  It starts at the end of Summer and Tom's relationship and jumps around. This would normally make me feel like my head was spinning, but this was the perfect story telling technique for this film was trying to say. We see that Tom is so devastated by his break-up with Summer, and like most people he remembers all of those good times that they had together. The first half of the movie is so heavy in the happy moments that it is hard to understand how we end up at the unhappy beginning (well...ending). It is near the last half of the movie that Tom begins to take a closer look at some of the "happy moments" and see that maybe they really aren't all that happy. Isn't that what everyone does when a relationship ends? Especially when you are the one who was dumped? It becomes a what happened, we were so happy, it came out of no where... when really the signs were right in front of your face you just didn't want to admit it to yourself.

And the narrator was right, it wasn't a love story. I thought that the over all theme of the movie is that everything in life happens for a reason. (this is the thinking that gets me out of bed sometimes) Each person that comes into your life helps to move you to your next phase in life, and sometimes that person is not part of that next phase. They might not be your soul mate, but it doesn't make them any less important. So it may not be a love story, but it is a story worth watching for sure.

"Everyone has Secrets..."

Over the past week I was finishing up with a book I purchased at Target called The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. (I have always been a bit late when checking out "internationally claimed" things.) It is the first book in a series of three written by Stieg Larsson. The first thing that sparked my interest in this book was that it was written by a Swedish author. The next thing that sparked my interest even further was that it was made into a film last year in Sweden. (I have more faith in foreign films lately than American ones, but that is a whole other rant) Both the book and movie did not disappoint.
The novel begins with a murder mystery that is over 40 years old. Henrik Vanger employs Mikael Blomkvist to investigate the disappearance of his niece, Harriet Vanger, in September 1966. Blomkvist is a journalist who was recently been convicted of libel and must serve a sentence of three months in prison for the conviction. He agrees to take on the investigation to separate himself from his magazine Millennium in an attempt to save the magazine.  It is only later that Blomkvist is joined by the interesting heroine of  story Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo. It becomes clear early on that the real story is about Lisbeth herself and the mystery that surrounds her. She is a troubled young woman, 24, who is an amazing investigative researcher, has a constant internal struggle, and does not like to become close to people. She teams up with Mikael to try and solve the 40 year old mystery that quickly becomes a modern day problem.
The novel itself is 590 pages and reading it I became very skeptical that anyone would be able to pull off a descent adaptation of the book that was a proper representation of Lisbeth and the rest of the novel. Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg did a wonderful job with the screenplay. They were able to cut away the pieces that where not completely necessary without taking away from the characters and their development. All major scenes from the novel that were essential to each character and the story were there. At one point near the beginning of the film, they mentioned the death of one character that is very important to the end of the story in the novel. I was very curious to see how they were going to get around that, but they did a great job. They used the death of the character to reach the same ending in a slightly different way for the sake of time. This really impressed me because it was clear to me at that moment that this entire movie was extremely thought out and put together with real care and with a certain respect for the novel. (Stieg Larsson passed away shortly after he completed the third novel and therefore was not there for any sort of direction) 
The one thing that was slightly different from the novel is that there are at least 2 moments in the movie that Nikolaj and Rasmus put in which gives the audience a look into the mysterious past of Lisabeth. The novel tells you about her violent tendencies as a child and adolescent, but never really goes into anything more than that. I felt that at the end of the novel I had more questions about her than in the beginning. The movie shows a short flashback into Salander's childhood. I am assuming that this particular moment comes from the second novel, The Girl Who Played with Fire. (I haven't gotten to that one yet)
The director, Niels Arden Oplev, did an equally good job with the film. Keeping the tone very dark and cold, not only in location but in the colors and contrasts that he used throughout. There was no real sunshine through 3/4 of the movie. A constant reminder to the audience of the looming situation and the cloud that it has been over Hendrik all of these years. 

My biggest praise will have to go to Noomi Rapace. She did such an amazing job with the role of Lisbeth Salander. Lisbeth is a girl that says so much in her silences. Rapace could not have done a better job with so much emotion in her eyes and her body language. She always looked as if she was deep in thought. Almost as if she was arguing with herself at times. Even the quick, awkward shuffle that she does says so much for her character. She has so much baggage that she is carrying around and her inability to trust is not helping her. At one point she talks about how a persons upbringing is no excuse for awful behavior as an adult. She says that everyone is given the same choice. I felt like she was not only trying to tell Blomkvist this, but herself more than anyone. Noomi was just fantastic. 
I really recommend this movie to anyone who as or hasn't read the novel. (If you have read the novel do expect some big changes) Don't be frightened of the subtitles. Hollywood is in the process of producing and English version of the film (like I have said before they have no original ideas left so they have the remake successful foreign films....sorry like I said a rant for another day),but I have my doubts about this. I do not think that there is an actress out there that will be able to pull off the dark and disturbed Lisbeth. I read something last week that Scarlett Johansson is in talks for the role.... and if that is the case...... the movie is doomed before it has even been made. I don't care how unreasonable I am being, but I have seen enough of her to know that she will not be able to pull of this role. I can see them trying to make this more of an action film than it is supposed to be, focusing on the things that are really not important, and not focusing on the things that are important. Will I see the movie? Yea of course.... I am a glutton for punishment and I love to compare.
 For now though I think you should all see this movie. I am excited to see what they have done with The Girl Who Played with Fire which came out in Sweden last September to just as rave reviews. Can't wait for it to be out here! 

Aliens are NOT an Answer

About two nights ago I was laying in bed and came across the movie The Box with Cameron Diaz, James Marsden and Frank Langella. I stopped because I was intrigued by the previews I had seen a few months earlier and I thought that it would be worth the view. (there was nothing else of any merit on) The movie apparently is based off of the short story "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson. I have not read the story so my comments are solely based off of this monstrosity that they call a movie.
The basic premise of the movie, that one would get from watching the previews, is that Diaz and Marsden are presented with a box that contains a button from Langella. Langella's character tells the couple that they have a choice. They can push the button and he will present them with a million dollars, tax free, no strings attached; except that someone in the world, that they do not know, will die. If they decide not to push the button, he will take it back and it will be reprogrammed and the offer will be given to someone else. Sounds like a pretty interesting story and defiantly has the possibility to be good. That was until they brought in the aliens.
The beginning to the movie really had me going. I was interested. It was clear that there was the underlying social message in there about actions having consequences and the greed of people causing them to do things without thinking about those consequences. (I never said that it was an original social message, nor did I say it was hidden well. I just said it was there) I wanted to see where they would go with this idea. Wouldn't you know it... an alien of some sorts was taking over the minds of people to perform an experiment on them.................... Huh........................ It was at this point that I had to refrain from throwing the remote control at my television set.
The thought that someone was paid millions of dollars to produce this movie just made me want to scream. It wasn't like they had cheap actors either! It was just awful, awful. Anytime that a movie contains a storyline and then suddenly throws aliens in there because they really don't know what else to do to make the story interesting is just lazy. No, I am not saying that a movie about aliens is bad. I love movies that have story lines built around the idea of aliens themselves... Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Signs are just two of my favorites. What is the difference you ask? UM.... those movies where supposed to have aliens in them, they didn't just throw them in there because they couldn't think of anything better to make the story more on the edge. Please. That is just laziness! WRITING LAZINESS. (Can you tell I am still angry about it?)
So I say, find a better way to make your big point about society that does not include the use of extra terrestrial  beings that have come to us from the lightening. That does not just go for this movie. Any movie that has ever used aliens as your way out... I am talking to you. And Yes.... if you liked this movie even remotely.... I judge you....and your movie taste.