June 23, 2006

• Movie Review section deleted from Xanga!

   
  

  
  
  
  

  Recently Xanga introduced the "PhotoBlog" feature. (Mine can be found HERE) I wondered where they were going to put the link for the PHOTOBLOG, and I was aghast when I found out they put it where the reviews section had been and had deleted the "Reviews" section from each blog. Now hardly anyone, nay, almost no one used the "Reviews" section, which was like a "piggyback blog". I used it from Day One however, and I wrote about a dozen reviews, and I included links in the blog when I wrote one, but hardly anyone ever clicked "Review". And when I did on other blogs, I rarely found one. Since I wrote movie reviews almost every week on the original AllThingsMike website, which had the subheading : "Movie Reviews, Poetry, and Stuff", I was pleased that Xanga had a place for me to put my reviews. When the reviews disappeared, so did all the ones I'd written. So far, I have only been able to find the text and image on my present computer for one of the reviews I wrote on Xanga, in 2004 after watching the excellent film "The Notebook" in a theater. I will present it here on the blog right now. CLICK HERE for the internet movie database entry on the film, which is on DVD. I'm sure I will find my other reviews in time. But it did upset me that Xanga deleted this complete section from our blogs without letting anyone know, so we could save our work if we did have posts online, like I did. I always found writing reviews to be almost like "work" but from 1999 to 2003 I wrote quite a few which can be found on my old "ElectricMovies" website.   I also wrote a movie themed blog called the ElectricMovies Diary, which is still online. EDIT: 5:48 PM pdt. Abby (abbyndc) just pointed me to a link which takes me to my own Reviews, so I copied all 8 of the ones I have on Xanga on to Notepad documents, and saved them to a folder on my puter. I probably already have a folder somewhere but I misplaced it. So thanks to Abby for the link.

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

   "I am a common man, with common thoughts" These are the words in voiceover that open Nick Cassavetes film version of Nicloas Spark's novel, "The Notebook" a very uncommon film about a "common love" that touches the viewer deeply and almost spiritually. James Garner plays Noah, the "common man", and his voice is the voice we hear. A familiar voice, a nostalgic voice, and a fitting beginning to a film which deals with voices from the past, the voices we hear and choose not to respond to, and the voices of great films beackoning us to live a little in the lives we see presented to us on screen, and to love, suffer, and bear empathy with "common" people experiencing the most "common" and universal of emotions.
  Reviewed by some as a 'chick flick' or 'weepie', "The Notebook" is a valentine to "true love", the kind which supersedes all manner of emotion to "win" in the "end". The kind of love so few people really feel in life, and if they do, it always seems to be so fleetingly. The film delves into memory and emotion in ways that are not "naked" and harsh as in Nick's father John's films, but wispy and nostalgic, tempered with realism and knowledge of life.

  
  

  So far, prior to viewing "The Notebook" which has been out in theaters for a few weeks now, I had chosen two films as my "Best Picture" picks this year. The first is "The Passion of Christ" by Mel Gibson, a film which supersedes the idiom of film, and Michael Moore's latest excellent documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11." I quite feel after viewing "The Notebook" that this film is in fact the "Best Picture" this year. It certainly qualifies as bravura filmaking, and has some of the best performances I have seen this year. The plot moves along very smoothly, and there is not a "false note" in the film, as far as this reviewer is concerned. The audience truly feels deep emotion for the characters, and the tears and laughter of life are the tears and laughter which accompanies the audience as they experience the story told in "The Notebook".

  
  

  Noah is reading the Notebook to Allie. They are both interned in a rest home in the North Carolina hills. (PLOT POINT ALERT) The story of their lives told in flashback, the events are being related to Allie so that she might break out of her dementia. Noah begins each day at the facility hoping for the spark of memory to show itself to Allie so that he might share some of this "true love" again. As he tells the story, the audience sees the events happen, from the first meeting, through the summer romance, to the breakup, and the evetual reconciliation. I do not like to discuss plot because sometimes the elements of the plot are meant to surprise the audience, and this film is seemingly simple in these elements, and I know people who have read Spark's book, which was pretty popular, and knew the story before going in to the theater. I have already given too much "away" but I shall refrain from relating these plot elements further. Suffice it to say that the romance and true love told in the story written in the notebook are real for the characters, and there is a seamless line between the "modern" story, and the flashbacks. This is almost a "nostalgic" film, like "The Summer of '42" with sweeping music lush with strings by Aaron Zigman, soft, painterly photography by Robert Fraisse, who also shot "Ronin" and "Enemy at the Gates", and warm performances by the principals, but it is also a "realistic" film which deals with loss of memory as we age, and the fact that "true love" involved with this human memory also can flee along with the memory.

  
  

  The young lovers are played by Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. I have seen Gosling before, in "The Believer" and "Remember the Titans". McAdams is in the current "Mean Girls" which I haven't seen. Both are attractive and believable, delivering heart wrenching performances of two people truly in love. This reviewer, and the couple of girls seated to my left, were physically caught up in the chemistry of these young actors as they play out their relationship.

  
  

  The love story in "The Notebook", in the flashback sequences, dates back to the late thirties and early forties, and includes a section in WWII. Joan Allen is Allie's mother, who tries to stifle the summer romance before it becomes a full blown love affair. James Marsden, (Cyclops in the X-Men films) plays Lon, who falls in love with Allie during the war when she and Noah have been separated for seven years. His is a powerful "small" performance which adds a lot of weight to the complications in the story. The acting is not showy or overburdened, which sometimes happens in this type of film. Each character is completely believable, and for a long while, I actually felt involved with these "people" rather than merely watching performances on a screen. When film can do this, the film supersedes being a "movie" and approaches art.

  
  

  I would "nominate" this film for Best Picture, Cinematography, score, and acting accolades for Garner, Gosling, Rowlands, and McAdams. Gena Rowlands is aging not only gracefully but she remains beautiful, and will always be a powerhouse actress. I enjoy her performances in any movie, and will not miss a film in which she performs. I am very glad Nick has made use of her considerable talent in both this and "Unhook the Stars".

  
  

  This is a film I would recommend to anyone who is touched by the human condition. I could have chosen to see "Spiderman" or "I, Robot" this weekend, both high profile "action pictures" but instead chose to see the "chick flick" and in the process have found another choice for "Best Picture of the Year". There will doubtless be other fine films released this year, but I will not forget this one. I have the feeling, as I did when seeing "Braveheart" or "American Beauty", both early releases which went on to win Oscars, that "The Notebook" will get some Oscar buzz if it hasn't already. I wonder why the filmakers plopped it in the middle of the summer blockbusters, where it is being bypassed by audiences. Hardly anyone attended the afternoon matinee. Those that did were touched deeply.

  
  

  This is "definitely" a "weepie". I "started" to cry at least four times, and I kept drying my eyes throughout most of the last third of the film. Perhaps this aspect of the film will turn off most guys from wanting to see the film, but that is a shame, because this is a great film with a great cast.

  
  

  James Garner's Noah says he is "a common man" but the film of "The Notebook" is uncommonly wonderful and one of, if not the best film in the marketplace as I write this. Let's see what happens come Oscar time, and in the meantime see this movie. You'll be glad you took my advice.

  
  

  "The Notebook" gets a whopping 10 of 10 on the Mikometer.  

  
  

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  EDIT: 6/24/06: 8:09 a.m. pdt. I have just added three photos to my PHOTOBLOG, which allows comments on each individual photo. They are shots of the L.A. skyline taken last year on the day I met Liz for the first time in East Los Angeles. MFN

   

  • 7:04 pm
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