Eat, Drink, Sing, Meditate, Love

Ok, so I removed ‘Pray’ and added ‘Drink’ and ‘Sing’, seems more suitable to me. I wasn’t planning on seeing the movie, Eat, Pray, Love, starring Julia Roberts, but I ended up going with a friend on a spur of the moment outing. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the film and also at how much of the film pertains to my life. Based on a personal memoir of Liz Gilbert’s international quest for self, love, food, and the one word to describe herself, the film was quite entertaining. It was in no way the best film of the year, but it delivered some interesting messages in an entertaining way.

I think everyone can relate to either having her heart broken or breaking someone else’s heart along the way. The fear of putting yourself out there in a relationship and being vulnerable to someone else is a very scary proposition. Julia’s character, Liz, comes across as cold and heartless for parts of the film, often leading men on. She has no problem starting a relationship with a man, having sex, living with him for a while and then suddenly telling him she doesn’t love him or want to be with him any longer. In many ways, Liz behaves like a stereotypical man, perhaps out of fear of getting hurt. Regardless, the film delivers the message that it is better to put yourself out there than to shelter yourself from possible pain. If you never take any risks in life, how are you ever really living? Also, a big message in the film is to allow yourself to forgive yourself for past indiscretions, which is a very difficult thing to do. The film also made me realize that I would like to travel to Europe, particularly to Italy to enjoy some of its delectible cuisine. Also, I really need to follow through on my promise to myself to meditate; it is a great way to be centered and to really be present in the moment. I still do not know what my word would be…I guess I will keep searching.

INCEPTION

Well, I finally saw the movie Inception and it was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. Not only were the special effects phenomenal, but the storyline was unique and intriguing. Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the best actors of our generation and Ellen Page is one of the best up-and-coming actresses of the next generation. The film is not only entertaining, but also thought-provoking. Since the film contains many dream sequences and dreams within dreams, and as the characters struggle to remember what is real and what is a dream, it makes one ponder whether what we think is real life, is merely a dream. How do we know this is really happening? Are we dreaming right now? Are we a figment of someone else’s subconscious mind dreaming? How do we really know the truth?

There are two interesting notions brought up in the film. First, no one remembers the beginning of a dream. When we dream, we are suddenly in a school, a house, a building, but the dream never explains how we got there; much like life itself, on both the individual and collective levels. Each of us certainly does not remember when we were born. We don’t recall the first few years of our life. Instead, we merely take someone else’s word on it or see it through pictures, but we do not remember how we actually got into this world, how our life began. If we cannot remember how it began, is this merely a dream? On a larger scale, humanity in general has only theories as to how life began; no one really knows or remembers. Like a dream, there is no tangible beginning. Second, in the film when one dies in a dream, they wake up in real life. Does this mean that it is only when we die in this world, that we wake up to what is truly reality? Are our concepts of heaven and the after-life, actually real life and this which we call life, is merely a dream that we are waiting to wake up from? How do we know? As you can see, this film brings up many questions surrounding what is real and what is not. At least that is what I got out of the film. I highly suggest that you see this film. If for nothing else, because of the amazing special effects.

Eclipse and Dragon

I decided to write a review of the most recent movie I have seen coupled with a review of the most recent book I have read. OK, I admit it, I am a Twilight fan. I have always had a fasination with vampires, and this is just one of the recent vampire chronicles that I enjoy. I am also currently a follower of True Blood and The Vampire Diaries. Eclipse was my favorite of the 4 Twilight books and I was not disappointed in the movie-version. I actually saw Eclipse twice. The first time was the weekened after opening week and I had the unfortunate experience of sitting in front of some pre-teen ‘Twi-hards’ who were most certainly members of ‘Team Jacob’. Everytime Taylor Lautner was on screen, they let out high-pitched screams; very annoying when trying to watch the film. I got a much better sense of the movie by my 2nd viewing, sans pre-teen girls. The film was entertaining, very true to the book and had great effects. This was my favorite of the 3 Twilight movies so far. I highly recommend it to any Twilight fan as well as anyone who just likes vampires and maybe a few werewolves (and these are HUGE werewolves). I am at a loss as to how they will be able to accomplish turning book 4 – Breaking Dawn – into 1 or 2 films. I was quite disturbed on many levels with the storyline of that final book. I don’t think it would make a good film, unless they drastically diverge from the book. I guess we will have to see what happens with that…

I just finished reading ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ by Stieg Larsson and loved it. The first 60 pages or so I found to be very uneventful and somewhat confusing. Beware that the author is Swedish and the character names can be a bit unusual and confusing to remember or even pronounce. Once I got past the boring part and onto the beginning of the plotline, things were much better. I really like the 2 main characters in the book, the mismatched duo of - Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. After the plot began to unfold and about 250 pages into the book I wasn’t able to put it down. The story was exciting and thrilling and I just needed to find out more. This book has already been made into a Swedish film which I heard was very good, and will be made into a US film as well. I believe the book definitely lends itself to being a great film. I highly recommend this book.

The next film I want to see is Salt and the next book I intend to read is The Hobbit – Look for my reviews of those soon!