Diary of the Dead (2007)

“Are we worth saving?”

            I am not a huge fan of zombie movies but Night of the Living, the original George A. Romero zombie movie, is one of my all time favorite movies. The story was excellent and to me because it was in black and white it was scary. When I read about Diary of the Dead being written and directed by Romero I had to see it. Well, let me not lie to myself or to you, I had to watch it because Tatiana Maslany is in the movie that is the real reason I wanted to sit through Diary of the Dead, reading that Romero wrote and directed it was a bonus. Unfortunately this movie falls into a ditch way off the side of the road.

            Keeping this plot as short as I possibly can so as not to bore myself all over again or bore you to tears, the movie starts off with a group of film students out in the woods shooting a movie. The movie is for student Jason Creed’s senior project. He likes documentary films but this project is supposed to be a horror movie. Their teacher, at least I think that is who the guy is supposed to be, sits in the background and watches them film. Over the radio they hear that a group of people throughout a couple of states have been coming back from the dead.

            They all get back to school to pick up Debora, Jason’s girlfriend, and head back to their homes to their families. Obviously, this being a zombie movie, their numbers start to fall as they continue traveling. The entire time Jason is a d-bag with a camera feeling that he will be the one who tells the world the truth about what is really going on. He records everything no matter how dangerous the situation and eventually gets killed…. If that was a spoiler to you then you have never seen a shitty clichéd horror movie in your life. I knew right from the beginning that Jason was dead since Debra is the one narrating.

            I heard Diary of the Dead was not good at all but I did not know how truly terrible it was. I actually feel bad for Romero it was that bad. The concept of a film documentary of a zombie attack was actually good but the direction and the acting and even the script was awful. Every one of the characters were totally stupid. That seems to be the norm in horror movies that the characters are supposed to be stupid otherwise there would be no story and no one dying but these characters were stupid and outrageously annoying. The most pointless and ridiculous character was the teacher. He was like this kind of worldly older man who apparently was in a war and saw a lot of death. If he was made to be a kind of comical relief then Romero succeeded but I do not think in the way he intended.

   Tatiana Maslany’s character is in it for like ten minutes she is the first one out of the group to be turned into a zombie. I knew she was going to be one of the characters eating shit. I will say it was worth seeing her, she so little! At the time she made this Maslany was twenty-one. I almost did not even realize it was her because her voice changed so much. Seriously this is one of those movies where I think to myself the movies I will watch just to see my favorite actor/actress. Damn Tatiana Maslany for being amazing! (Tonight is the Orphan Black season three premier hence why I sat through this shit hole today). My advice is to run away from Diary of the Dead like a smart human being running away from a zombie. Even if you are a Tatiana Maslany fan stay away from this movie and let me just arrogantly say you are welcome for me having tortured myself watching Diary of the Dead so you will not have to. 

The Woman in Gold (2014)

“We should be reunited with what is rightfully ours.”

            Do you have an object such as a photograph or piece of jewelry or piece of furniture or a piece of clothing or china set, etc. that has holds special memories and meaning to you and your family? Is it an object that when you or a family member look at a flood of memories from a specific moment in time rushes to your mind?

            There is a saying “the most important things in life aren’t things.” This saying to me is like “money can’t buy happiness.” Of course money can buy you happiness it can make you comfortable. And there are without a doubt physical things in your life that are important to you and your family. Things hold memories of good and bad times, of people that are no longer in your life, or a moment or even a person you want to cherish forever.

            During World War II Hitler and the Nazis took things away from the Jews. They looted religious artifacts, jewelry, clothes, china, and most especially art. What they looted was not just solely inanimate objects they stole memories and culture and hard work. The Nazis went into peoples’ homes and told them they had no right to what they had because they were Jewish and inferior and inferior people should not have the privilege of owning anything valuable. Pride was also another thing that was also stolen.

            One of the most famous pieces of art that was stolen during World War II was Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by the Austrian Secessionist artist Gustav Klimt. The Block-Bauer family had been a patron to Klimt. They commissioned him to make several works of art for them but their pride was in his portrait of Adele. Adele was beautiful and intelligent. She had a great magnetism that pulled people into her orbit. She loved her country, her heritage, and her people. Adele unfortunately died tragically young at age forty-three of meningitis. Her husband Ferdinand never fully recovered from her loss. For decades after the War Maria Altmann, Adele’s niece, never forgot her aunt and her beautiful portrait, or how the Nazis forced her and her husband to leave their beloved Vienna and family behind forever. The movie The Woman in Gold, based on the book The Lady in Gold by Anne- Marie O’Connor, tells the story of how Maria Altmann, with the help of a lawyer who was also a family friend, took on the Austrian government to have her aunt’s portrait and all of her memories of a good life she had to leave behind returned to her.

            Maria’s (Helen Merrin) sister Luise has just passed away. At the funeral is a family friend whose son is a lawyer. She asks her friend to have her son Randy (Ryan Reynolds) contact her. Randy is a young man in 1998. He just accepted a job at a big law firm and he has a young wife and baby daughter. Maria wants Randy to help her try to get back her Aunt Adele’s portrait from the Austrians. Randy is given time by his law firm to explore the matter but only for one week.

            The Austrian government has an art restitution committee. They hold a meeting in which Maria and several others speak about what happened to their families and what was taken from them and never returned. The committee absolutely refuses to return The Woman in Gold it is considered the epitome of Austrian art and culture and their version of The Mona Lisa. They also state that it was in Adele’s will that all her art work by Klimt be given to the Belvedere Museum, where it had been since World War II, upon the death of her husband. There are several issues with Adele’s will: one, it was on a piece of paper and not official, and two, the most important was that she was not the rightful owner her husband was and therefore had no right to leave them to the museum. Of course the museum blew that off and so did the committee.

            Years and years pass as Randy and Maria try everything in their power to have The Woman in Gold returned.  Finally Randy decides that he is going to sue Austria. His plan works. The case makes it all the way to the Supreme Court and comes to a close in the courts of Austria which grants Maria with ownership of the portrait.

            To know much more than what I was able to articulately write and explain, I highly encourage you to research the painting, the legal battle, and to read O’Connor’s book (the book is poorly written in my opinion but the information in it outweighs the bad writing and editing).

            Based off the small summary I gave of the movie if you are wondering how can a work of art by a painter who lived over a hundred years ago be worth so much for an old woman fight for? It is mostly the idea of attached memories. The last scene of the movie is Maria Altmann walking into the apartment on Ringstrasse in Vienna and a flood of memories return to her. She sees her Aunt Adele following her and her sister around the house playing with them, her Uncle Ferdinand shows her a passage in a book he is reading, she sees her father happily playing his cello, in another room memories of her wedding come back to her, and in the last room she sees the portrait of her aunt hung prominently over the fireplace and the real Adele standing underneath it. That is what the portrait meant to Maria Altmann. It meant memories of her happy family and her loving aunt and the save comfortable home of her childhood. It represented not only happiness but also of all the people and things she had to leave behind in order to flee safely to America away from the Nazis. (That was my favorite part of the entire movie it was beautiful. I genuinely teared up a little bit).

            Another very important reason Maria wanted the portrait back and out of Vienna is because of the country’s role in World War II. The Austrians allowed Hitler and the Nazis to basically walk right in and take over. Austria has memory loss when it comes to WWII. Or better yet they chose to have that memory loss. Many of the people claim that their country was the victim that they were a conquered people when they were in reality not. One of the greatest atrocities the museum and the Nazis did to the portrait was to change the portrait’s title. They changed the title from Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer to simply The Woman in Gold. By changing the name to something simple and understated they stripped Adele of her Jewish identity and heritage.

            The Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer was sold to Ronald Lauder’s (Estee Lauder’s son) NeueGalerie in New York City for $135 million dollars. I remember reading about this before I knew the whole story of the painting and being quite upset because the woman fought for it, took it out of Vienna, and then sold it. But now after reading the book and knowing more about its history and of Austria’s attitude it makes perfect sense for Maria to have done what she did with the portrait. Ronald Lauder was once an ambassador to Austria and was a collector of late 19^th century/early 20^th century German and Austrian art. Maria Altmann stipulated that the portrait of her aunt should always be on display for people to see.

            I want to point out that the art we see in museums was never meant to be seen in museums. Portraits, like Adele’s were meant to be hung in homes and to be seen by family and guests. Ancient religious relics were meant to be used in ceremonies to worship gods and goddess. Rooms were meant to be in the homes or buildings for which were originally part of. They had an identity within their context. Every single piece of art be it a painting, a room, a sculpture, suits of armor, etc. has lost their context. Museums can, try as they might to, supply as much information on a piece as they can but its truest meaning has been lost in transference from place to place. They have been stripped of their original intent and identity much like Adele Bloch-Bauer’s portrait was just not to the extreme extent hers was.

            Now that I have gone over some of the true story let’s get back to a movie review.

            Despite the story being incredibly fascinating I feel it would not have work as well had Helen Mirren and Tatiana Maslany not been cast in the role of Maria Altmann. Obviously, Mirren played the older Maria and Maslany played the younger. The two women have an incredible ability to adapt to whatever role they are given. Mirren and Maslany are forces of immense talent. Maria Altmann would have been a very good character as the older version but the younger version would not have worked as well had there been an actress in the role other than Maslany. This may seem like I am being biased but I am a huge fan of Maslany’s from her show Orphan Black where she plays nine (yes, I said nine) different clone characters to such insane perfection that you have a favorite clone. I have seen all twenty episodes of Orphan Black countless times and I still have to remind myself that the same girl is playing all these different women with all this baggage and back story. Maslany is just amazing. You can see how hard she works and how deep she cares for her characters because she makes playing them all look effortless. In The Woman in Gold, she makes the emotional heaviness of playing Maria Altmann when she had to leave her family look effortless and completely heartbreaking.  When actors and actresses are great in whatever roles they are given you can see their dedication come through. With Mirren and Maslany you can see their dedication and that is why the character of Maria Altmann, both young and older, was fantastic.

            (I do not know if any of what I just wrote makes any sense. It is hard to articulate my view of these two women because I adore them both actresses they are just so immensely talented)

            Ryan Reynolds did a good job playing Randy. Randy was not an extraordinary character he was an ordinary character with not such an extraordinary history like Maria. I will say that Reynolds did a great job portraying Randy’s kindness, perseverance, and determination. Daniel Bruhl is one of the top billed actors above the title but he is barely in it and he does not leave a mark whatsoever on the story or movie. Katie Holmes played Randy’s wife. She is just a waste of film.

            The Woman in Gold as a movie was more than I could have hoped for. I had been so exited ever since hearing the story was being made into a movie but I did not want to get my hopes up because of the Monuments Men movie which I thought was terrible. Fortunately The Woman in Gold exceeded my expectations. I have a BA in Art History and MA in Museum Registration. I understand art and I understand art/museum laws/ethics. Art law and museum ethics are what make this story so fascinating. Plus the idea of who owns art is also fascinating. Restitution from World War II is still happening to this day. Over 100,000 pieces of art are still missing. For my one museum class I had to read an article about looted art. The author wrote that Nazi looted art is one of the greatest unresolved issues of World War II. Over eighty years later Hitler is still creating problems. Maria Altmann’s case is one such case that has brought art restitution to the attention of the public.

            The Woman in Gold on the surface is about Nazi looted art. But when you look deep enough it is a story of stolen memories, pride, love, and families. It is about the power of art and how much a work of art could mean to people. To me art is a thing on which to place your emotions and create memories around even if they are hanging in a museum and you do not physically own them. I understand all the different ways that art moves people and how powerful that bond with a work of art can be (I go crazy for John Singer Sargent’s Madame X. To me there is no greater feeling in the world than when I stand in front of that sassy woman). In America we are not fortunate enough to know what it is like to truly care for a masterpiece of our country’s art. We do not have that one defining piece of American art that we would do battle for if it ever came to a point where it might leave the country. You do not need to know what doing battle for a piece of art would feel like or even know what it feels like to be emotionally attracted to be work of art to be enraptured, enthralled, and entertained by The Woman in Gold. 

Blood Pressure (2012)

          I believe that people come into your life for a reason. They can come into your life for the better or the worst. I think we all want someone to come into our boring lives and shake things up and to just make us feel better about ourselves. Something similar to this happens in the movie Blood Pressure but with a very interesting twist.

            Nicole Trestman works a job as a pharmacist. She is married and has a daughter and a son. She wakes up early in the morning to prepare breakfast for her family. It is evident that her husband and kids walk all over her and expect her to do everything for them. One morning she receives a letter with details about her work life and other aspects of her life. The writer states that he knows how no one appreciates her and he would like to show his gratitude and help her feel better. If she wants to continue all Nicole has to do is place a green sticky page to the window facing the street. As the day goes on Nicole just feels ignored and unappreciated. That night she places the sticky page in the front window.

            With each letter the writer gives Nicole instructions and places to go. For her birthday he gives her a half day at a massage parlor. He tells her to go follow a guy with a cane in the park and to go to someone’s house and watch over them as they sleep. Another day it is lessons at a gun range and a karate center. Nicole is uncomfortable with some these tasks but for some reason she keeps doing them as if drawn by an unseen force. Her family and coworkers start to see her strange actions and activities.

            Eventually Nicole meets who has been sending her the letters and why he has been. The reason for the letters and activities gives the story a great twist.

            Blood Pressure had a really good story. It starts off as what I guess could be seen as a typical story and then this twist comes. I thought it was pretty genius. The ending was good it made Nicole see her life and people differently. Blood Pressure, for me, is an example on why it pays to get into an actor or actress and seek out as much of their filmography as you can. The reason I watched this movie was for Tatiana Maslany. She plays Nicole’s daughter Kat and she is not in it very much. I adore this girl and her acting so much that I will watch anything she is in. (Bonus for any of you who watch Orphan Black like me: Kristian Bruun aka Donnie plays Nicole’s boss!) I am glad I looked for Blood Pressure to see Maslany because it was a good movie. It was different and interesting. It is barely available anywhere to watch. I rented Blood Pressure off of iTunes

The Entitled (2011)

Thrillers are one of my favorite types of movies. If done right they can leave me on the edge of my seat and totally off my rocker with nervousness. No matter how many times I see a Hitchcock movie I still get tense even though I know exactly what will happen next. To me thrillers were great from the time Hitchcock was making them to about the 1980s. I think by the late eighties so many stories had been used to create tense situations that they got overused. That is just my opinion no throwing things at me! The Entitled is labeled as a thriller. I guess it can be but there was nothing intense about the plot. Some of the twists were very good which gave the story a bit of boost.

            Paul Dynan (Kevin Zegers) is struggling to get by financially. He graduated college two years previous and cannot find a decent job. His mother is sick and their bills are late. His father has been working later than usual. Paul goes up to his room one night. He changes and pulls a shotgun out of his backpack. Paul goes to see, who we assume, is his girlfriend Jenna’s (Tatiana Maslany) place. He tells her everything is set for the following day to execute their plan. Jenna tells him she will do whatever he wants her to do.

            Three rich spoiled college students Hailey, Jeff, and Nick, set out to Hailey’s family’s house around a lake. All they do is party, take drugs, and blow off school like they own the world. As Jeff drives, Nick and Hailey sit in the backseat and drink. They were passed out when Jeff stops the car after seeing someone standing in the middle of the road with a shotgun. He gets out of the car and asks the person what they are doing. The person is Jenna and she replies that she is waiting for someone. Another guy named Dean comes out of the woods also carrying a shot gun.

            All of the rich kids are tied up, blind folded, and placed in a basement. With a voiced distorter Paul calls Nick’s father and gives his demands. Each one of the fathers is to send a million dollars to a bank account by 3am. Their plan goes smoothly until Paul makes a second call to Nick’s father. Jeff’s father is taking his time getting to the house. Paul and Jenna think the story about Jeff’s father getting to the house late is bullshit. Jenna takes her gun and shoots Jeff dead. The two fathers hear what has happened over the phone.

            Nick and Hailey manage to get away. Nick realizes they are at his father’s house. To get to Hailey’s house they have to cut through the woods. Paul has Jenna and Dean go after them while he waits for the money.

            There is a pretty good twist that unfolds in a cool way.

            The cast was an interesting mix. Let me just get right to the reason I even watched this movie: Tatiana Maslany. If you do not already know I am a MASSIVE Orphan Black fan (Sarah Manning and Alison Hendrix are my favorite clones!) and I adore Maslany. The girl is an awesome actress. She is so awesome that I will watch absolutely anything she was ever in. I have yet to see her give a bad performance (Alright, I will say that she was not that great in Certain Prey but that whole movie was a damn train wreck and I blame the direction for her mediocre acting in that). Maslany was good as Jenna. Jenna was supposed to be a sociopath and social outcast and Maslany just nailed it. She played characters similar to Jenna before and since making this movie so I guess the character was not too much of a stretch for her. I had a fabulous time hearing her throw around the F-bomb. Victor Garber played Jeff’s father. I also adore Garber. He will forever be Jack Bristow from Alias to me. Like Maslany, I have yet to see Garber in a bad role and he also threw around some F-bombs. Kevin Zegers… where has been? I remember when he was all over teen magazines back in the day. I never really watched him in anything before this. I liked him and would not seeing more of his movies. Ray Liotta played Nick’s father. The character did not seem to be fleshed out too well. It was brought to suspicion that he might be behind the kidnapping because he seemed so calm and sure his son would be alright but nothing was ever made of that suspicion. Hearing him curse made me really want to watch Goodfellas, ha ha.

The Entitled was not terrible. The ending had a very good twist. Honestly, I think what makes the story intense in a small way is the character of Paul. He starts out as a nice kid who loves his mom and dad and who is a college graduate was himself a bit scary and had some kind of sociopathic tendency. He is the one who came up with the plan and researched Jenna and Dean to recruit them and he planned every single detail of the kidnapping and ransom out to scary precision. I definitely would not say that The Entitled was a thriller. There are decent twists and turns and characters that make certain situations a little tense but not like you need to grip your blanket in nervousness. The Entitled is worth watching for actors and for some of twists. 

Eastern Promises (2007)

“So you've read the diary. How can you keep doing what you're doing?”

“I'm just a driver.”

            A young pregnant girl is brought into the hospital where Anna Ivanova (Naomi Watts) is a doctor. Unfortunately the girl dies but her baby daughter lives. Anna finds the girl’s diary among her few possessions she had on her. The girl’s name was Tatiana and she was fourteen years old. Tatiana’s body looks horrible with bruises and track marks and marks of neglect all over her. Anna is determined to find the girl’s family. The diary is written in Russian. At first Anna goes to her Russian uncle but he is hesitant to translate it. Anna found a card for a Russian restaurant in the diary so she takes it there and asks the owner if he knew the girl and if he could translate it for her.

            The restaurant owner Semyon is not a nice man. He part of a dangerous Russian mafia in London. His son Kirill runs around town doing whatever he pleases drinking all day and going to prostitutes. Kirill is driven around by another Russian named Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen). Nikolai acts as Kirill’s bodyguard as well making sure nothing bad happens to him and that he is kept out of serious trouble. Nikolai sees Anna come out of the restaurant and talks to her about the motorcycle she rides.

            Anna’s uncle eventually translates the diary and tells his niece that Tatiana had been in a bad situation and had been raped. She had been raped by Semyon who then, along with his son, repeatedly shot her up with heroine. Semyon has also read the diary. He orders Nikolai to take care of the uncle.

            There is more to the story but I do not want to give too much away.

            Eastern Promises was alright. My two youngest brothers love the movie. The youngest one is fifteen and he was watching the movie with one of his friends. I was heading downstairs to my dad’s office to work on some papers and I heard a voice that was very familiar. The Russian voiceover belonged to Tatiana Maslany. I knew she was attached to Eastern Promises. I thought she was actually in the movie but she was just a voiceover with a different girl playing the character of Tatiana at the beginning. It was cool to hear her voice especially because one of the characters she plays on Orphan Black is Ukrainian which to my ear sounds very close to Russian. I thought the story would be more interesting than it was and that there would be a little more action. There was one scene where Viggo Mortensen fights naked in a bathhouse and that was the only action scene. To me Eastern Promises was dull. I cannot see why my brothers love it so much and they have seen movies that are lot better than this story wise. 

The Vow (2012)

How do you look at the woman you love, and tell yourself that it’s time to walk away?

            I just sat through an almost two hour chick flick. I do know why I put myself through this but that will be revealed in a bit. The last good chick flick I remember really liking and still like today despite its silly story is 27 Dresses (and if you hate this movie we cannot be friends. Sorry). I will be the first to admit I am not a sappy romantic girl. I like to be thought of as a cold hearted bitch when it comes to love. I am sure it is down to the fact that I have never really been in love and that I do not know what it means to truly love someone. I do understand the emotion of love and would not mind experiencing that emotion someday. I just really do not have the patience for anyone else but me at the moment. I am not a typical girl who dreams about having the perfect life. Honestly what I dream about at the moment is finishing grad school, getting a real job, moving out on my own, and marathoning the shit out TV shows and also being utterly devoted to this blog again (screw you grad school for sucking up my time!!).

            With movies I like stories, I like the unexpected. I do not like the typical. Chick flicks are all the same to me: guy and girl meet each other by chance, they fall in love, something bad happens, they have to repair their relationship despite all the obstacles thrown at them, and they fall happily in love all over again. Oh and their friends or family are always there for them as sound boards and for encouragement and support. What a boring story and incredibly boring one-dimensional characters. But there is a quote and unfortunately for the life of me I cannot remember who said it but it goes like this “All good stories are love stories.” Yeah, if they are Gone With the Wind or Casablanca. Classic movies could get away with romantic schmaltz and sometimes even they twist my insides with agony a bit. It kills me that typical chick flicks like The Vow are still so popular today. I understand most audiences want mind numbing, don’t-have-to-think movies they just want to be entertained. Sometimes I want to watch mind numbing, don’t-have-to-think movies or shows. One of my favorite TV shows is Bob’s Burgers for crying out loud! 

            Maybe I do not like chick flicks because I am cynical and stubborn and give up to easily. Although, I always rooted for the guy and girl to overcome their differences and get back together. I guess maybe I can be a little romantic and like typical endings…. NOOOOO!!!!

            Anyway, enough of my ranting about chick flicks and my awful views on love.

            The Vow is about Leo (Channing Tatum) and Paige Collins (Rachel McAdams). They were very happily married and in love with each other until they were in a car accident. Leo had the car parked. He was still in his seatbelt but Paige was not. A truck hit them from behind and Paige went through the windshield. She suffered a severe brain injury where she does not remember her life before the crash. She does not remember Leo at all. Her parents who she has not seen in years come to the hospital after finding out about their daughter weeks later. They are happy they have their “old” Paige back the one who was going to law school not the one who up and left and went to art school.

            Leo does everything he can to get Paige back into his life. He tries despite all obstacles thrown at him.

            Now I know you know the ending and do not need me to tell you. Well I will tell you that Paige never does regain her memory of being married to Leo.

            The acting was not too bad. I think Rachel McAdams is so talented and I feel terrible that she is so type casted in these chick flick roles now. Channing Tatum to me is a just a piece of hot flesh to fill up the screen and look pretty. 

            Alright so here is the reveal as to why I watched the movie: Tatiana Maslany. Not ashamed to say she is my current girl crush. When I was looking up her other work besides Orphan Black I saw that she was in The Vow. I was watching an episode of Orphan Black at my uncle’s house. It was a scene in the show where she was playing Rachel Duncan who is as far removed from looking like Maslany does in the movie. My cousin said to me “that girl looks familiar”. My cousin is one of those people that reads Nicholas Sparks books and all she has in her small movie collection is chick flicks. I knew right away that she had seen The Vow. After that there was no way I could have my cousin see a Tatiana Maslany movie that I have not seen! Seriously, Maslany is such an amazing actress that I will watch anything she is in as evidenced by my sitting through this stinker. She played Lily who was Leo’s soundboard and voice of encouragement. She showed more emotion than McAdams and Tatum combined in her few scenes. She was fantastic in two scenes: the first was when Lily and Leo are sitting outside drinking coffee and trying to figure out ways to make Paige remember him. He mentioned she liked to be tickled to help her relax. Maslany’s face of judgment was very funny. The next was when Leo is at the end of his ropes and realizes there may not be hope for them after all. The girl was brilliant. You can tell on her face that Lily was truly sad for her friend and cared for him. It is incredible to think that she was in a movie like this (by "this" I mean a mainstream Hollywood movie. She was in mostly independents up to this point) where she was just a second string character used only as a soundboard and no one knew who she was at all. Now she is all over the place with Orphan Black and it was considered (still is considered) an outrage she was not nominated for an Emmy. Maslany got the part of the clones a year after this movie. (if you have not watched Orphan Black stop reading this right now, stop watching any other series you may be into at the moment and watch the damn show! Tatiana Maslany does in twenty episodes with all the different characters she plays what has taken Meryl Streep forty years to accomplish with playing so many different types of characters).

Maslany as Rachel Duncan on Orphan Black

            Watching The Vow was like having my teeth pulled except it was not over fast and I did not have any medication for the pain of its bad acting and crappy story. There were some points that I liked. I liked how the guy never gave up even when he felt he had to. He never lost his faith he would be back with the true love of his life. Agh, there I go again talking like a romantic girl! And I also liked their studio apartment or whatever it was they lived in. I got really excited over seeing art books and the awesome shelving they had. Honestly unless you are a diehard Tatiana Maslany fan and are trying to get through the incredibly hard and emotionally draining Orphan Black hiatus do not even brother sitting through The Vow (or unless you really really like romantic movies). Oh, the movies I will watch just to see my favorite actors/actresses in!