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Skjálfti (2021)
Great suspensful drama!
"Quake" is based on the book "Grand Mal" written by the esteemed Icelandic writer Audur Jonsdottir, which has been turned into a wonderful film by director and screenwriter Tinna Hrafnsdottir.
The film begins in a park, where the main character, Saga, a mother in her late thirties is walking with her 6-year-old son where she is hit by a sudden epileptic seizure. An epileptic seizure causes Saga to lose her memory and wake up in a hospital which develops an unexpected chain of events.
Saga fears that her son will be taken from her because of the memory loss and will desperately try to hide the memory loss and her confusion from her family. Step by step, the repressed memories and experiences of her childhood begin to emerge, revealing the painful truth about Saga's family and her own trauma. Gradually, Saga puts all the pieces of the puzzle together and this journey helps her getting rid of the painful past and making peace with herself.
I really liked the way the director gave the viewer food for thought about the facts and reasons Saga was trying to recall. Tinna Hrafnsdottir didn't spell it out to the viewer, but offered excitement until the end of the film. She fed the viewer pieces that turned into a beautiful, perfect mosaic when the story ended. The director gave hope that no matter what secrets one family has, getting from denial to acceptance is a journey worth visiting.
I think there are a lot of people and families where serious things are not talked about, they are either buried, pushed into memory somewhere far away, hidden, and this often leads to psychological traumas. It is these traumas that the film talks about, how one event reveals the painful secrets and denials of the whole family. Tinna Hrafnsdottir does this delicately and without blaming those involved, simply telling the story of a family's secrets, intertwining forgiveness and hope.
The acting was great! Anita Briem, who plays the film's protagonist Saga, has added fragility and strength to the role of the Saga. She is fragile after an epileptic seizure and when she does not understand exactly what are the flashes of the images emerging in her brain, and she is at the same time strong when she continues to search for answers with determination and courage. As the director used a lot of close-ups, they beautifully brought out the emotions of Saga, played by Anita Briem - fear, confusion, pain, as well as understanding and forgiveness.
Edda Björgvinsdottir, who played Saga's mother in the film, was also sympathetic. At the beginning of the film, I didn't understand how Saga's mother could be so cold and unaffected about her daughter, and when the truth finally came out, I, as a viewer, understood why she was like that. We all have our reasons and they are often hidden. In her role, Björgvinsdottir highlighted how one mother copes with pain. As individuals, we all react and deal with our problems differently, some deny the trauma, some break down under it and some people bury everything. Her role showed the latter most accurately, protecting both her family and herself.
Johann Sigurdsson, who played the father of Saga, was a perfect example of a loving father whose actions of youth had left him with deep wounds and guilt and who was obviously trying to redeem himself because of them. I especially liked how he thought that the soup pot and soup could solve all the world's problems in a peaceful way!
I cannot fail to mention that the director and screenwriter Tinna Hrafnsdottir also did a good and heartwarming role as Saga's sister Johanna in the film.
In short, "Quake" is a great drama, a family story, in which each person breaks through the connection with the painful past in their own way. I highly recommend going to this movie if possible!
Adoration (2013)
Loved it.
Let me start with saying that when the movie was finished and the lights were on again, I did not want it to end. I wanted to see what would happen even afterwards, I wanted it to continue. I was stunned to my seat with lot of thoughts and emotions.
Plot: Two lifelong friends and mothers - Lil, who is a widower and Roz, who is married - whose bonds go back to their childhood, adore each other and their sons. Their sons are also best friends and during one summer evening after wine and fun Roz and Ian (Lil's son) are getting attracted to each other. Passion takes them into unknown and questionable territory - they have sex. Tom (Roz's son) sees his mother leaving Ian's room and Tom takes the news to Lil. It doesn't take long for Lil and Tom to fall into the same pattern.
There are hesitations, but these do not last long and the secret relationships continue until the plot takes you to 2 years later when Tom goes to Sydney. His visit to Sydney changes everything for four of them - the nasty truth has its way to come out and alter everybody's happy lives.
I loved the story. It was dramatic, heartbreaking, beautiful and sad. I loved the relationships and how these were handled in the movie. It's a story where you have high doubts about happy endings. But the plot and the director kept surprising you and it asked a lot of important questions. What kind of love is acceptable? Does age matter? Can people handle the consequences of their own actions and do these make them happy? Is it allowed to fall passionately in love when you are middle-aged? Why are people willing to give up on love even though they do not want to do that, but know it's the only reasonable thing to do? Is it love when you do what you think is best and hurt the one you love with that? All these and many other questions were raised and it is up to the viewer to decide and find the answers to them. What I loved about Adore was exactly, that the answers were not given to you, it woke a lot of thoughts.
Adore was filled with interesting relationships. My favorite was the relationship between Roz and Ian and it broke my heart to see what people do to the ones they love. Roz wanted to give Ian free because of her loyalty to Lil and because she wanted that Ian could enjoy his young life. The sad thing was, that Ian did not want that freedom, he ached for Roz for years, he loved her. Roz did what she felt was right and suffered because of that.
When you look at the relationship between Lil and Tom, it was simpler, but not easier for that matter. There were more secrets and these secrets hurt the not only themselves, but also Ian and Roz.
Adore is a movie about love and betrayal and relationships.
Directing, sets: I have seen few other movies directed by Anne Fontaine and Adore proved once again, than she is one of the best female contemporary directors. I personally think she did an excellent work with the movie.
The settings in the New South Wales in Australia were beautiful. There were lot of scenes on and nearby the sea and beach. It was absolutely breathtaking! Casting and the ensemble: Both Naomi Watts and Robin Wright belong to my long-time favorites and the delivered exactly and more what I expected from them. Bigger surprises were the young men playing Ian and Tom - Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville. I truly liked how they played their characters, they had quite a big tasks with these roles and they were believable and natural as Ian and Tom. Very suitable cast in my opinion.
Generally: Adore is a controversial movie. I think there are people who would love the imbroglio of relationships and friendships and then there are the ones who would judge them. I belong to the first group. I really enjoyed the drama!
Beautiful Creatures (2013)
Great entertainment for fantasy lovers!
My review:
I had no expectations whatsoever when I went to see Beautiful Expectations, but I have to admit, that I enjoyed the plot, the characters and the visuals.
Screenplay:
As said, I haven't read the book, but I really liked what I saw.
Meet Ethan a young man about to finish his high school. He wants nothing more than to leave the small town he lives. Everything changes when new student appears. Lena is very different from the righteous and religious girls who are very narrow minded and Ethan feels the pull towards Lena. Lena is called a Satanist, but she is so much more than that – she is a caster who has less than 100 days to find out if she is good or evil. Lena and Ethan fall in love against all odds and Ethan is doing his best to support and protect Lena. They find out that their love is cursed and they throw themselves to a race against the time. Because time is running out and they need to find the solution before it's too late.
I loved the twists and turns in the movie and that there was a balance between what's good and evil. I loved the difference between Lena and Ethan and the dynamics between them; Ethan being all positive, encouraging and Lena being a darker personality searching for truth. The truth is surprising and that made the movie for me because it added to the quite simple love story. Young love was combined with Civil War, religion, magic – it all turned out nicely.
Directing, sets, visuals, soundtrack
The sets were amazing, starting from the place where the town was filmed to the interior of Lena's house. When he outside setting were lush and breathtakingly beautiful, then the interior of the house and the library were the opposite – minimalistic, simple, yet very modern. When you add then special effects connected to the magic, then the visuals gave very strong support to the story. The visuals were beautiful and created a nice frame to the characters. One other thing which I loved in the Beautiful Creature was the music! I think it was awesome that thenewno2 was participating as a composer!
Casting and the ensemble:
First of all, the actors who played main characters – Alice Englert and Alden Ehrenreich - did a great job! They were new faces for me and I think both of them will have significant futures in front of them. I think Alice Englert was a good choice because of her awkwardness and Ehrenreich gave such a shiny performance. It could have been little tacky and corny, but they nailed it with their talent.
I have always been a big fan of both Jeremy Irons and Emma Thomson and I truly enjoyed them in Beautiful Creatures. I absolutely loved Emma Thomson's Seraphine and Jeremy Iron's Ravenwood, they brought more matureness as a contrast to the freshness of young actors. Generally speaking, I think the devious and evil characters were the stronger part of the movie, they had spark and sassiness.
Generally:
Beautiful Creatures is a good fantasy movie with the necessary love story, magic, special effects and awesome music! There is excitement, tension and last but not least – good acting! Great entertaining!
Anna Karenina (2012)
Brilliant and unique movie version!
My review: When I entered the movie theater, I knew a lot about Tolstoy's book, but nothing about this specific movie release. I knew who were starring the movie and that was it. Usually, when going to see movies, I always check out trailers and features and interviews before actually seeing them on the big screen, but this time the title of the movie was plainly enough. I have been a big fan of classical Russian literature from very young age, so I thought I knew what to expect. I was wrong in many levels.
When the opening scenes were over, I knew that this movie was very different from any other movie version of Anna Karenina. Well, it was different from any movie based on classical literary fiction! It was mesmerizing and I was hooked from the first minutes and I did not want to leave the dark room of the theater even when the credentials were running and most of the people were leaving the room. I wanted to stay in the world that the movie makers had created! Screenplay: Let me start with saying, that screenwriter Tom Stoppard kept the story very close to its original and I was very happy about it! It seemed that there was a clear understanding between the late Lev Tolstoy and the screenwriter Tom Stoppard. There were only very few places in the story when I realized, that it is slightly different from the original and even that was falling nicely to its place in the movie.
The story was dramatic, heart-wrenching and beautifully executed! It's an epic forbidden love story which takes place in the Russian aristocracy. Anna Karenina is unhappily married, but she has no greater expectations to love, at least until she meets Count Vronsky. The moment they meet, there is attraction and as much as they try to deny it, it is inevitable. It's forbidden love in the society, because Anna decides to leave her husband and asks for divorce. As the isolation from friends, family and everybody else for Anna grows, the more consumed she is by darkness. Karenin does not give her divorce and it does not matter how big the love is between Vronsky and Anna, it gets dramatic consequences.
Directing, sets, visuals, choreography, design and music: What made this movie exceptionally unique was the fact, that director Joe Wright staged it on a theater. Watching the movie was like watching a theater stage where the scenes were elegantly changed as the story folded out in front of the audience. Scene after scene the settings were changed even though the room was the same. It was original and I loved it. I also realized the the only sets which were used outside of theater were about Levin and his life on the countryside. This change was nicely balanced where you had the hectic life of Sct. Petersburg and Moscow in one side and the picturesque and slow scenes from Russian nature.
There was a lot of attention on choreography and physical contact in Anna Karenina. It was a movie where choreography was a main storyteller. It was often where choreography was substituting words and you can say that in Anna Karenina a picture told more than 1000 words. The ballroom dancing and even a simple touch was sometimes telling more than words. It was tense and filled with passion. Another thing which was special in Anna Karenina, were the close-ups. The facial impressions were as important as the huge scenes with many people.
One of the interesting visuals were the usage of lightning and colors. For example there was a clear contrasts when Anna was together with Vronsky compared to when she was with Karenin. The scenes where Anna and Vronsky spend time together are brighter and softer, and the scenes at home with Karenin, the lightning is murkier and darker. It gave some nice effects to the plot and to the mood.
I would also like to mention the design of the costumes and the music in the movie. The costumes were breathtakingly beautiful, especially the ones designed for Anna and Kitty and the music was coherent with the development of the story: the intensity of which grew in the rhythm with the drama surrounding it.
Casting and ensemble: I liked the characters picked for the roles. Keira Knightly as Anna Karenina was a good choice. She was capable of mirroring Anna Karenina's essence showing both love, passion, courage, pain and last but not least jealousy. When Anna is consumed by isolation and jealousy and realization that the society will never forgive her, Keira Knightly gave her best to show these different reflections of woman in love and pain. I liked that a lot! Jude Law as Karenin was faceted. I liked that he did not show Karenin as a simple man. He loved Anna on his own way and I liked that Jude Law showed his soft side combined with the religious and hurtful side. I really enjoyed the way he played Karenin.
I was surprised by Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Vronsky. I have seen him in Nowhere Boy and realized that fact actually after the movie. He has matured as actor and he as Vronsky was a very good choice. He showed passion, tenderness, love and passion of a man in love.
Another surprise was Alicia Vikander as Kitty. This Swedish actress was perfect to the role. I was amazed by her grace when she played in A Royal Affair where I was stunned by her presence in acting. I loved her as Kitty, she had spark and feisty and humbleness when she met Levin after denying him as a husband.
I also enjoyed performances of Domhnall Gleeson as Levin and Matthew Macfadyen as Oblonski.
Dislikes: The only minor thing that I was disturbed by and it was how the Russian names were pronounced.