Blue Valentine
After a certain age, you stop spending Christmas Day playing with your toys, and, if your family is like mine, everyone heads to the movies on Christmas Day. The best Christmas gift for movie lovers, of course, is the crop of Oscar hopefuls that open at the end of December, many on Christmas Day. In addition to Oscar hopefuls, there are also some good crowd pleasers to see. Below is a preview of some of the movies that, according to early buzz, are well worth seeing between now and New Year's.
For those who like a good romantic drama: Blue Valentine took nearly 10 years to make, and the rehearsal process was unusual- the two lead actors, Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, literally played house, living together as a married couple would, and even working menial jobs similar to those their characters have in the film. The result is an intense story about a couple told from their first meeting to the dissolution of their marriage, with a gritty, documentary feel. The acting is supposed to be superb.
For those who like westerns: True Grit is a remake of a film of the same name that earned John Wayne his only Oscar. What do you need to know about the new version of True Grit? Jeff Bridges as the protagonist. Josh Brolin as the villain. Directed by the Coen Brothers. A story of revenge. What else do you need?
For the young (and the young at heart): Because one needs a break from all the dramas out there, Gulliver's Travels and Little Fockers promise laughs for kids. Gulliver's Travels is a liberal intepretation of the classic Jonathan Swift story, starring the always funny Jack Black. Little Fockers makes the previous "Meet the Parents" and "Meet the Fockers" now the precursors of a trilogy. The in-law tension between Robert DeNiro and Ben Stiller is the same, only this time Gaylord "Greg" Focker has young twins.
For anglophiles: The King's Speech tells the true story of King George VI of England- father of present day Queen Elizabeth II- and his struggle to defeat a debilitating stutter so that he could speak to his subjects confidently via radio before and during World War II. Colin Firth is consistently solid in romatic comedies ("Love Actually", "Bridget Jone's Diary") and has shown his dramatic side before, most recently in "A Single Man". The cast also includes Helena Bonham Carter, Derek Jacobi, and Geoffrey Rush as the unorthodox Australian speech therapist who helps the king find his voice.
For pugllists: The Fighter is garnering a lot of Oscar Buzz. It tells the story of "Irish" Mickey Ward- his struggle to rise in the world of boxing and his relationship with his family. Not to be missed.
This years' Avatar: Last year at this time, everyone flocked to see the fantasy and amazing special effects of "Avatar". This year's story of an adventure that takes place in another world is Tron: Legacy. The original "Tron" was a cult classic, telling a computer-centered story when computer technology was in its infancy. Now it seems, the protagonist of the first film, played by Jeff Bridges, is still living in the world he created in the first film. His grown son ventures into the world his father created, and finds strange auto races, futuristic buildings, and an alien Olivia Wilde.
