Magic in the Moonlight (2014)

“All my optimism was an illusion.”

            We all want to believe there is a force greater than us guiding out destiny. We want to believe this guiding force is leading us to bigger things in life that will make us happy. I feel that this belief is what gets us through the day. I am a very broke post-grad who is working a part time job in a library. But I believe my guiding force (and other forces) will lead me to a better job one I can use my degree for and have me do fun things in life I have never done before. Some people in this world, however, are skeptical. They need to see it to believe it. With some of these skeptical people they can only see the rational. Anything that may need to be based on a faith or a guiding force they cannot see they immediately reject everything. Magic in the Moonlight takes a skeptic, makes him believe in an idea that is beyond reasoning and rational, and becomes happier person.

            Stanley (Colin Firth) is a magician who pretends to be a person from the Far East called Wei Ling Soo for his performances. He is very well known for his tricks and performances around the world. One night after a show his friend Howard comes to see him. He tells Stanley there is a family in the south of France that has become enthralled with a young American girl named Sophie Baker (Emma Baker) who claims to be a medium of sorts. This family is obsessed with her except for the older brother and sister who thing Sophie is a charlatan. Stanley has called fakes out before and gladly accepts the offer.

            Honestly, I do not even feel like writing out too much more of the story. The rest of the story is typical: Stanley starts spending time with Sophie, Sophie starts to like Stanley but he does not even notice because he is too wrapped up in himself, Stanley believes Sophie to be a real medium when he feels he cannot prove how she has her visions, then he figures her out, and then he falls in love with her. That counts as boring in my book.

            I absolutely adored Emma Stone in this. She definitely did not fit the 1920s time period, she is way too modern, but she was just really good. She did, however, fit very well in a Woody Allen movie. Colin Firth was good too but his character was so damn annoying. It was Woody Allen being played by another actor. Stanley was an annoying, self-absorbed man who kept telling everyone he was a genius and was neurotic with a lot of things. The two actors had absolutely no chemistry which made the ending of them falling in love not that great. I just could not believe them loving each other. It was not the age difference even though that was a bit weird that did make me believe their characters love for each other. I think it was the actors and their style of acting. As I said, Stone is a very modern actress. She is lose and has a big presence. Firth to me is still a good actor but he is getting to be like a curmudgeonly English man. I am sure that comes down the characters he has been playing lately as well. Ah, wait I know what it really was that was bothering me with the characters falling in love; they were totally opposite each other. Sophie was free spirited (no pun intended… or was it?) and Stanley was totally stiff and not relaxed.

            Magic in the Moonlight I felt was a letdown. I really, really wanted to like it but I just could not. I liked how it was set in 1920s France but I felt that it could have been set in any time period. I would guess the setting made things feel a bit more laid back and romantic but not that much. Magic in the Moonlight was not that great but it was not terrible. I will not say to not watch it, it is worth watching at least once.

 

Arthur Newman (2012)

Have you ever wished you can up and leave the life you are living and start a new one with a different name, a different outlook on life, and a different personality? I think we all have wished that at some point. I definitely wish I could. I would want to be someone stronger who is not so emotional and attached. I would want to be like the character Rosa Diaz from Brooklyn Nine-Nine who is like this total bad ass who could melt your soul with one look. I would mostly want to just live my live. I feel like I have not lived that for all of my twenty-six years on earth I have been afraid to let go and just do things. I have always felt stuck and it is killing me to no end.

Arthur Newman takes two people from two completely different backgrounds and brings them together through their want to be someone they are not.

Wallace Avery (Colin Firth) feels stuck in his life. He is a manager of a Fed Ex with a girlfriend who kind of likes him but just puts up with him for the most part and a son who does not even want to speak to him. Wallace buys a new identity and decides to fake his own death. He tells his girlfriend that he is going on a camping trip that will end with him on the beach. On the beach Wallace throws a few beers around, takes off his socks and shoes, and leaves his wallet in one of his shoes.

Wallace takes off on the road as his new identity Arthur J. Newman. In one town he drives through he sees a group of cops have blocked off part of the road. They are trying to get a young woman (Emily Blunt) out of a car she has stolen. Arthur does not think anything of it until he sees the girl at the same motel he is staying at. She is sitting incoherently on a chair beside the pool. Arthur sees something is not right with her at all and takes her to the hospital. Trying to get her checked in he finds her ID and finds her name is Michaela and she snaps back that she wants to be called Mike. Sometime later a doctor tells Arthur that Mike overdosed on cough syrup with codeine and needed her stomach pumped.

The following day Arthur waits for Mike so he can give her a ride. He did not want her to go along with him but they get to know each other. They find out they are both trying to run away from their responsibilities and from being who they originally were.

Colin Firth and Emily Blunt were great together. Their roles were corky for them or at least they seemed so to me. Arthur and Mike were darker roles for Firth and Blunt than I am used to seeing them in. Both Blunt and Firth did a fantastic job with their characters. They were both so uncomfortable and unhappy with themselves that they make you feel kind of uncomfortable watching them. I like those kinds of characters and they only really work if the acting is good.

      Arthur Newman was a good movie. I remember wanting to see it when it was originally released. I had no clue what it was about but I just wanted to see it because I really like Emily Blunt. She did not disappoint and neither did Colin Firth. The story did not disappoint either. It was unlike most movies that are released today. The characters were not very likeable and the story ended in a not so typical way. I like untypical endings very much. I liked how this showed that running away and becoming some else is not all it is cracked up to be, there is no real happily ever after. Arthur Newman is a movie I suggest seeing

The King's Speech



“If I'm King, where's my power? Can I form a government? Can I levy a tax, declare a war? No! And yet I am the seat of all authority. Why? Because the nation believes that when I speak, I speak for them. But I can't speak.”

            The King’s Speech is one of the better movies to have come out within the past few years. It is very well acted, directed, and written.

            Assuming you know your history and you know somewhat of the history of the Royal Family you will know most of the story. If you do not: King George VI came to the throne after his brother King Edward abdicated in order to marry an American woman who was twice divorced. George’s wife is the Queen Mother Elizabeth and her daughter is Queen Elizabeth mother of Prince Charles and grandmother to Princes William and Harry.

            George (or “Bertie” as he is often called) has a very huge obstacle to overcome: he as an almost debilitating stammer. He does not like to speak in public because the more he thinks about his speech the more nervous he gets the more he stammers. All his life he has been seeing speech therapists and specialists but no one has been able to help him. Elizabeth has heard from someone about a man named Lionel Logue who is a speech specialist. She goes to him as a last hope for her husband. She does not immediately tell Lionel who she and her husband are but eventually she has to tell him.

            When George and Lionel first meet it is the beginning of what will become a very long and trying relationship.

            The movie is very well done. The story is so good. I knew what would happen but I was nervous and kind of on an edge for George with all he had to go through and what he was trying to overcome. Colin Firth deserved to win the Academy Award for Best Actor he was so wonderful. He looks like he could have been a king or a royal back in the 1930s and 1940s. Helena Bonham Carter is always amazing even though she was not in the movie a whole lot. It was nice to see that George had strong support and love from his wife. Bonham Carter and Firth made a nice pair. Guy Pearce plays Edward and he is just an awesome actor and so good looking. Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue was perfect.

            The King’s Speech deserved to win the Academy Awards that won. You can tell the care and quality that went into making this movie. The cast down to the supporting actors were perfect. The script was great it mixed struggle and (not so much) drama with a good amount of humor. The King’s Speech is a movie to sit through and watch especially if you like historical based stories or are just looking for a good story.