stefanee Reviews

The Color of Paradise (1999)

This young, blind boy might actually change the way you see the world!

[10/10 · 27 January 2001]

I saw this film about two weeks ago, and it is still affecting me. The young boy who plays Mohammad, Mohsen Ramezano, was magnificent. This is the story of a father who cannot accept his blind child, and who is "blind" to his son's gifts and absolute adoration. And Mohammad, in his seemingly fruitless struggle to gain his father's acceptance, will break your heart. I didn't just cry, but wept during a very emotional scene where Mohammad breaks down and lets it all out about what it's like to feel so big inside, but be made to live a small, choiceless life only because his father dwells on the shortcoming of his blindness, and not the intelligence and talents he possesses. He is loving, attentive, playful, and full of dreams. Yet his father treats him like he's a suitcase full of anvils, dragging him around and trying to find someone else to carry the burden. This movie is full of meaningful symbolism, and the actors do not seem to be acting. The dialog is sparse at times, but it is then that we hear the things to which we never pay attention: The many different birdsongs, the breeze within the trees, the water running over rocks. And for minutes at a time, we see Mohammad learning about the world through his fingertips -- the Braille letters of his lesson book, the grooves of a leaf, the fragile skin of a baby bird, the dimensions of another child's face. And during those moments, I found myself thinking, "I should really open my eyes." Precisely.

Solomon & Gaenor (1999)

This is an engrossing, heartbreaking, wonderful film!

[10/10 · 26 January 2001]

Solomon and Gaenor is a film that sincerely captures the magic of the discovery of pure love, and also depicts so painfully what happens when ethnicism and hate work against it. I found so much of the film to be right on target with what people will do to make the "impossible" possible. There are so many forces at war in this movie: Truth versus deception; love versus hate; joy versus pain; sin versus virtue; ecstacy versus agony; and that's just a glimpse! I felt that I was not watching actors, but rather that I was part of the air surrounding the goings-on in these characters' lives. I was completely immersed in the story. Not only was the acting so on the mark, but the dialog was superb, the emotional struggle was palpable, and the lessons learned are as pertinent today as they were portrayed in this story set in Wales long ago. The story itself is truly a tragedy. The film, however, is magnificent.