ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[Fran]

aka Broken Wings



From IMDb:

Dafna and her four children try to cope with the abrupt death of husband/father. As the family seems to fall apart, a sudden incident gives them a chance to heal their "broken wings."

and

I fell in love with the trailer every time I heard the singing and smiled at the video-recording segment where Dafna was told not to say she's 43 with 4 kids but say 39, and ended up saying she has 39 kids. I was most eager when I finally get to see Broken Wings. It was a filmic experience full of human, family emotions -- those ever anguish-ridden teen growing pains (conflicts and raptures). I was quite pleased, tearjerker and all.

Broken Wings, aka K'Nafayim Shvurot (2002), a film from Israel in Hebrew with subtitles, is the debut feature of writer-director Nir Bergman. It may seem like yet another movie about teens, mother and kids in a struggling household -- somehow there's a different tone and humanity level that's most warm and welcoming in feeling. Good story, thoughtful plot with trying crisis, and heartfelt performances....


[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Dq0bKauUa8[/youtube]
Trailer:  1:38

[oilgun]

From IMDb: "Life as a House" is not an easy film to watch. Its story is piercingly poignant, sometimes depraved, and unbearably sad. If you insist on flashy amusements and naive happy endings in your films, this is not for you. If you are "real" though, about the dynamics of our troubled lives, then it is for you. And if you are sensitive, then this is a film you can only watch about once a year.

It is well written, directed, and acted, especially by Kevin Kline and Kristin Scott Thomas. Hayden Christensen gives us the same believable anger, sullenness and pathos as his Anakin Skywalker character did in Episode II; maybe better. He makes a good troubled teen. And Jena Malone is good with the script she is dealt.

[Ellemeno]

[Fran]

aka Dare mo shiranai



From IMDb:

This film was very well received at the latest Telluride Film Festival where I saw it. Based on a true incident, it is the story of four children, each child by a different father, abandoned by their mother and trying to survive in modern Japan on their own. The film is paced wonderfully slow, allowing the viewer to focus on small details that overlay other details. It does not drag at all and has moments of humor mixed with pathos.

The oldest, a son of about 13 or 14, incredibly acted, becomes the parent. He is in transition from becoming the responsible one of the family and a typical kid but one with real values.

There are moments where a box of tissues is in order. The film ends in a moment of hope mixed with a real desire to know what ultimately happened to them all.

Here's Part 1:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWRRoV7wH3g[/youtube]
Time: 9:59

[southendmd]

Not a classic tearjerker, but very moving nonetheless.




[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_d8FKgrZ1E[/youtube]

Nothing Gold Can Stay
by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

[oilgun]

Although all I remember is the cringe-worthy party scene with Tom dancing with Antonio & looking horribly uncomfortable.

[Lynne]

From wiki:

==ASIDE==
GONE BABY GONE didn't make me cry, it made me livid.   The film I enjoyed the least in 2007.

==ASIDE==
Very sorry you hated Gone, Baby, Gone, oilgun.  I was really invested in that film because I am a big fan of Dennis Lehane's, in addition to my Boston connection...I knew how it was going to turn out and it was for me, emotionally, like a train wreck that couldn't be avoided. 

[Fran]

From IMDb:

Based on a true story and set in Australia in the 1930s, Rabbit-Proof Fence is about three "half-caste" aboriginal girls, Molly Craig (Everlyn Sampi), Daisy (Tianna Sansbury) and Gracie (Laura Monaghan), who are taken from their mother and shipped 1,500 miles across the country to the Moore River Native Settlement where they are to become more integrated into white Australian culture. Molly, the eldest and most experienced of the three, initiates an attempt to return home, on foot.

There is some controversy over just how factual the film and its bases are (including the book by the real-life Molly Craig's daughter, Doris Pilkington), and there were some interesting parallels to the situation depicted in the film and behind the scenes facts about star Sampi and director Phillip Noyce. I won't get into that here, because it's irrelevant to the question of whether Rabbit-Proof Fence is a good film. It is. It's an excellent, inspirational film that should leave nary a dry eye whenever it's shown.

On the other hand, there is a politics present in the film that is not ignorable. The aborigines in the film are abused and pushed around by a culture that misguidedly wants to "protect them from themselves." A segment of historical white Australia is portrayed as the "bad guy." Noyce doesn't paint a picture completely without ethical nuance, however. The chief villain of the film, A.O. Neville (Kenneth Branagh), keeps talking about his good intentions, and such claims do not come across as insincere. This all sets the backdrop and motivation for the heart of the film, which is a story of just what conviction, persistence and a bit of resourcefulness can do.

Rabbit-Proof Fence is mostly a combination of an adventure and a suspense film. Set primarily in the breathtaking Australian wilderness, magnificent cinematography goes without saying. The suspense is realistic and comparatively subtle.

As for the cast, Sampi is simply enchanting, and Branagh is as good here as I've seen him in any other film of his, even though his role is a relatively minor one. The tracker, Moodoo (David Gulpilil), managed to be very effectively complex, all while uttering barely a word. The music, by Peter Gabriel, is also worth noting. It is very unobtrusive, but elegantly emphasizes mood throughout the film.

[oilgun]

SOPHIE'S CHOICE has already been played 

[Ellemeno]

I Always Loved You