My Life Without Me (2003)
THIS IS YOU, WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED IT?
by Erika U.
23-year-old Ann is dying.
In between night shifts scrubbing talcy black boards and speckled linoleum hallways at a university she didn’t attend.
In between rousing to dress, feed and nuzzle four and six-year-old daughters and…
One Week
What would you do?
One Week 2008 low-budget Canadian indie movie, written and directed by Michael McGowan, Joshua Jackson’s (whom you might know from tv series as Dawson’s Creek and Fringe) character Ben Tyler goes on a self-discovery motorcycle trip across Canada.
Ben Tyler is a man in his early thirties lives in Toronto and at the very beginning of the movie, he learns that he has terminal cancer in a late stage and has a very short time left. 3 thoughts come to his mind immediately: call off his wedding, kill himself or accept. He voices his fourth opinion: there must be a mistake, I feel fine. Regardless, the doctor says that he actually is not fine.
(The film is narrated by Campbell Scott by the way. His voice sometimes sound aloof and disinterested, but nevertheless, his story-telling gives a great insight to the movie.)
Ben Tyler was a dreamer, but events dating back to his childhood has turned him into a realist and instead of chasing his dreams, he settled for becoming an English teacher in an all-male school in Toronto - where the boys do not share his passion for literature. He wrote a play and wanted to publish it, but after receiving numerous rejections, he gave that up too. The only thing he can consider optimistic and fulfilling in his life is Samantha, his fianceé, who started watching and loving golf because he loved it and if that’s not love then what it is.
Ben first buys the motorcycle he always had an eye on (he did not buy it before because Samantha is completely against it) and goes to buy some coffee to drink upon hearing the news. Because he still has a small portion of a dreamer inside, he lifts up the coffee cup to see that if he had won some prize, but the cup says something completely different: go westward young man. And that gives Ben an idea.
He immediately goes home to tell Samantha of his condition and shares his idea: he wants to travel on his motorcycle for 2 days just to know how it feels like. Samantha is against the idea, suggesting that he should go to a hospital to begin his treatment, but Ben rejects the idea of spending days in a hospital, being injected dozens of medicine which will make eating seem like having glaciers shoved down his throat.
So, his trip a.k.a. self-discovery journey begins. He rides his motorcycle all day long, he stops to take photos of ‘the biggest’ something monuments he finds (the biggest sun-chair, the biggest camel, the biggest penny), spends his nights at cheap motels while Samantha begs him to come home every chance she gets. Ben, liking the journey, decides to lenghten his journey. On his way to the west, he meets numerous people and touches their lives somehow (as the narrator describes) and realizes that he was missing excitement in his life and that he should go and find ‘grumpps’, the imaginary mysterious creature his father used to tell stories of.
After realizing that he might actually never really loved Samantha the way he wanted and the way she deserved and that he was actually settling with her just for the sake of it and that his first thought of calling off the wedding (upon hearing the news of his condition) was actually a lucid and valid one, he breaks up with Samantha and continues his journey.
He finally finds grumpps in the image of a whale while surfing (his father never described what grumpps looked like, but one would know what it was upon seeing it), he returns home. And he finishes his book: One Week. The story narrated was actually the audio-book recording of his second, successful autobiographical book.
The film shows great sceneries from Canadian states: Ontorio, Alberta, Manitoba and so, and is accompanied by great music from various Canadian artists and bands (such as Stars). Joshua Jackson gives a great performance, and so does Liane Balaban as Samantha. I can say that the movie is a mix of ‘Thelma & Louise’ in its self-discovery/cross-country movie sense, a mix of ‘Pushing Daisies’, my favorite tv-show of all time, in its background-story narration style and and a bit of ‘My Life Without Me’ in the sense that it has a protagonist who decides to change her/his life upon learning that he/she has cancer.
The movie ends rather ambigously since we don’t learn if Ben died or not, and he didn’t have a week to live, the title refers to his one week with the motorcycle. Overall, it is a good movie to watch for 90 minutes.
When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold on to them. They are the life boats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely illusive. So the question becomes, or should have been all a long… What would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What life boat would you grab on to? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfil? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write?
Breakfast At Tiffany’s
This was actually a paper I wrote for a class, and is based on the character Holly Golightly.
In the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, based on Truman Capote’s novella of the same name, Audrey Hepburn portrays the loveable Holly Golightly. Holly Golightly is the glam girl. She is beautiful, she wears fancy clothes and everybody loves her. She lives in a nice apartment in Manhattan, she throws parties at her home an invites people from high society, whom she calls rats and super-rats. And as her surname suggests, she goes lightly. And Holly is a call girl.
Born and bred in Tulip, Texas, Holly moves to Manhattan, New York with hopes of finding a rich husband and finding herself along the way. Holly once married an older man back in Texas when she was only 14 years old and that experience was enough for her to escape from things in her life, such as commitment and belonging to another person. Portrayed by a 31-year-old Audrey Hepburn, Holly seems innocent in her not-so-innocent life and profession. She is given $50 for the powder room and though not clearly mentioned in the film, she spends the nights with her customers and visits the jewelry shop Tiffany’s after her work first thing in the morning and have her breakfast while watching the jewels displayed.
Although it is never directly mentioned in the film since it would not be appreciated by the audience of the time, Holly makes a living by escorting men and getting “$50 for the powder room”. The money she is given is a promise that she would be spending the night with her customer. The audience is given this information several times in the film through a humorous way and the only time it is shown as a humiliating is when Paul sees Holly in the library and gets angry with her and gives her his paycheck when she is going to the toilet, saying that it is her $50 for the powder room. Apart from that, her profession is shown as something normal. Holly makes money with her body and it is never discussed in the film.
The film is considered as a romance film; the kiss in the rain scene at the very end is one of the most famous kissing scenes in the history of films. None of the viewers, including myself, would consider the film as one that depicts the ups and downs in a call-girl’s life. Because of the norms and values of the society when the film was shot, the film simply makes an almost traditional female outcast character out of a call-girl. It is a fact that Holly is a call-girl, but she is depicted as one with a golden heart. The viewers can never hate Holly or at least be judgmental to her because of her profession since she is shown in an optimistic way. She gets off the taxi before Tiffany’s, she eats Danish as her breakfast, she is in beautiful clothes, with her hair done and with big black sunglasses. One would never judge such an innocent-looking, stylish woman for being a call-girl since there is no description to her profession and her sexual life in the film.
Holly Golightly can be considered as one of the best example of a “whore with a golden heart”, both in literature and films. She is naïve, in the sense that she carries messages between mafia bosses but not aware of that fact. She is lovable, even her neighbor whom she annoys constantly cannot help but love her. She has a thick Southern accent that she worked on over the years to change but that adds her a character as well. She still has her inner child. She is both Lula Mae and Holly. She is sometimes a tomboy; she hails a cab herself and she tempts Paul into stealing masks from a store.
Holly Golightly looks for love in her life, but looks for it in the wrong places. She wants to marry a rich man to live off for the rest in her life. She flirts with a rather bad looking man at the party in her apartment since he is one of the richest men in USA but when she learns that he is engaged to be married, she changes her object of affection. She then starts going out with Jose, whom she calls the next president of Brazil. She considers Jose as a good man as he is rich and good looking, but Jose is rather conservative and he and his family cannot accept Holly’s way of life and attitude.
Things are transitory in Holly’s life except from her cat and the sofa in her house made from a bathtub. The decoration of her house constantly changes: one time it is all modern and simplistic, another time there are Brazil posters and a huge moose head on the walls. Her name changes as well, she was Lula Mae, now she calls herself as Holly Golightly. The men in her life are subject to change as well. One day she dates the one of the richest man in USA and the next day she dates the “future president of Brazil”.
The song Holly sings, “Moon River”, depicts the story of Holly herself. It is a self-song. She crosses the river “in style”; she even goes to the library in style. She is a “dream maker”; she dreams of living in a home one day. She is a “heart breaker”; she has many men chasing after her but she is afraid of committing herself and thus breaks the hearts of many men, including Paul several times. She is a “drifter”; she was born in Texas then she moved to California and finally she moved to New York, in an attempt to find herself. “Moon River”, written especially for Audrey Hepburn, is like the summary of Holly and the movie itself.
Holly tries to show herself as one who does not need other man. She, in the very beginning of the film, shoos away a suitor of hers and also when Paul opens up to her, she tries to ignore him. She tells her ex-husband, Doc, that being in love is being in a cage and she also says that she is a wild thing and loving a wild thing only causes more suffering. She keeps on saying that she does not know who she is. Yet she still wants somebody to sleep next to at night to feel safe, like when she climbs up to Paul’s apartment and sleeps next to him. And also she has numerous attempts to find a rich husband to get married, have a family and have a home. She tells Paul that she cares for him and would have married him if only he were rich. Holly tries to stand on her two feet but she still needs a male figure, someone like her brother Fred, to look after her and be there for her when she is about to fall. And that person becomes Paul who looks after her when she breaks down after learning her brother’s death.
The Holly Golightly we see in the film is not just a body who makes money with it. She has feelings. She is sensitive. She gets sad, overwhelmed, excited, confused; just like any humanbeing. These make her a call-girl with a golden heart. She is not just an object. Yet when a man treats her like more than object, considering the fact that she has emotions, she tries to run away. It is rather confusing for Holly to realize that there are actually people out there who care for her. Maybe it is because of the fact that she got used to be seen as an object while doing her job and that she expects people to treat her the same way in her daily life, but we can never know it since it is never directly shown in the film. Yet no matter she avoids her feelings, she finally gives in at the end and the famous kissing scene takes place, where Holly realizes that Paul is the one for her.
When Capote wrote the novella, he had Marilyn Monroe in his mind to play Holly Golightly. Of course if Marilyn played Holly, Holly Golightly would no be as the one we know. She would be sassy and more likely to be the typical character of her profession on screen. However Audrey Hepburn gives Holly a sense of dignity and style, no matter what her profession is. Audrey was older than what Holly was described by Truman Capote in the novel and scripts, yet Hepburn made it possible for the audience to like and sympathize with Holly Golightly. In her designer-made clothing, which she even wears when going to Sing Sing the prison, Holly seems more like a rich, stylish, high-class woman than a call-girl. Audrey’s classy style, her attitude and the almost royal way she acts creates an entirely different from the Holly what is in the novella and what Capote had in mind.
Breakfast At Tiffany’s is a movie not only depicting the story of a good girl on the wrong side of the tracks but it also shows how women are wanted to be seen in the society, especially in the 1950s. A woman is expected to be respectful, be the woman of her house and be married with children; Holly Golightly is the exact opposite of these qualities. She has her dreams that keep her going. She wants her life to be how it is when she goes to the Tiffany’s. She once was what the society expected her to be, as Lula Mae, but she gave it up. She is a call-girl, but she has dignity. She is Holly Golightly, call-girl with a golden heart.
Shutter Island
Based on the 2003 book of the same name by Dennis Lahane, Shutter Island is about a US Federal Marshall, Edward “Teddy” Daniels who arrives at the Shutter Island, an island reserved for the criminally insane, to discover the disappearance of a patient. It is by the genius director Martin Scorsese and it is his fourth collaboration with Leonard DiCaprio (Romeo+Juliet, Titanic, The Departed). It also stars one of my favorite actors Mark Ruffalo (My Life Without Me, Collateral).
Shutter Island takes place in 1954 in an island on the coast of Boston which hosts an asylum called Ashecliff Hospital. The patients of the hospital are actually mentally ill convicts. Teddy is on the island with his partner Chuck Aule to investigate the disappearance of a patient named Rachel Solando. Dr. John Cawley , the head psychiatrist, explains that Rachel was institutionalized after drowning her three children. She believes, however, that she is still home and that her children are still alive.
Apparently Teddy lost his wife in a fire and has visions of her in his dreams… then during his day. His wife, Dolores, tells him that the man who was responsible for the fire, Andrew Laeddis - an arsonist - is also on the island. Together with Chuck, Teddy searches for clues for the disappearance of Rachel and uncovers a note from her suggesting the existence of a 67th patient on the island (the official records show that there are 66 patients all together).
Teddy took place in the liberation of a concentration camp back in WWII and suffered from PTSD which led to his drinking problem. A storm hits the island and with all the electricity of, the island becomes a complete mad house with patients running everywhere. Taking that chance, Teddy starts investigating the island fully and visits the C Ward where the worst are being held - and where Laeddis is also supposed to be.
A patient in Ward C, a patient Teddy knew from before he came to the island, tells him about the lighthouse where apparently evil experiments takes place - mind control! Seeking a way to the lighthouse, Teddy follows after Chuck down the cliffs, thinking he fell down, and then he finds out a cave where the real Rachel Solando is hiding in. Apparently, she was a doctor on the island who was branded insane after she started questioning the experiments taking place in the lighthouse.
Teddy tries to find a way to get to Chuck, believing that he is held in the lighthouse.
Spoilers Below
Once in the lighthouse, Teddy cannot find any evil experiments going on, but finds Dr. Cawley, who was expecting him. Cawley tells Teddy that he is not actually Teddy, that he is actually Andrew. He was a US Marshall, but two years ago, he killed his wife after she drowned their three children. His wife, Dolares, was schizophrenic, but Andrew never accepted that fact even after she burned their house. Feeling guilty of killing his wife and never acknowledging that guilt, Andrew created a reality for him where he was a man named Teddy going after his wife’s killer Andrew Leidoff.
Apparently, Cawley was conducting a role-play for Andrew so that he could finally acknowledge the fact that he killed his wife. Chuck Aule was never his partner, he was actually Andrew’s primary psychiatrist Dr. Sheehan. They were hoping that the role-playing would help Andrew come back to the real reality and so they would avoid lobotomizing him. Andrew finally regains his memory and accepts killing his wife.
The next day, Dr. Sheehan comes to Andrew as his Chuck persona, and Andrew seems to relapse as he accepts him as Chuck Aule and wants to investigate the island. However, before they take Andrew away to the surgery to lobotomize him, Andrew asks which one is better: to live as a monster, or die as a good man, suggesting that he is actually recovered but is willing to be lobotomized so that he could get rid of his bad memories.
Scorsese does a terrific job with the movie. Leonardo DiCaprio is really mature, is funny at times, and is very believable, I quite loved him as Teddy/Andrew. Scorsese makes the island appear in a way that you feel claustrophobic while watching it. It is dark, old and full of people that are very dangerous, but cannot control themselves. It is not entirely a thriller, but its gothic atmosphere scares you even without showing you things (much like in Scorsese’s “Rosemary’s Baby”).
There are many arguments about the ending of the movie, about whether Teddy was sane and was really Teddy, or was insane and was Andrew and was acting like Teddy. I go with the latter, that Andrew was being Teddy so that he could avoid the reality and live in his imaginary world where the doctors on the island were plotting against him and were conducting evil experiments.
The directing of the movie is superb. The music is just great! It scares you even when the movie doesn’t. If you are in the mood to watch a really good movie that will leave you thinking after, do watch Shutter Island and enjoy the genius of Scorsese.
Sherlock Holmes
Based on the famous detective novels of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes is about the famous detective Sherlock Holmes (played superbly by Robert Downey Jr. of Chaplin, Iron Man, Charlie Bartlett, Gothika, etc.) and his confidante and partner in solving mysteries, Dr. Watson (played by Jude Law of Closer, eXistenZ, Tears of a Crocodile, Gattaca, etc. with a mustache that for some reason looks good on him). The supporting cast also has Rachel McAdams (of The Notebook, Mean Girls, and The Time Traveler’s Wife) and the amazing Mark Strong (from Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Stardust). It is directed by Guy Ritchie - and it probably is his biggest feature film with a big budget.
The film takes place during the turn of the century, in 1891 - while the London Bridge is under construction. Holmes (Downey Jr.) and Watson (Law) solves a mystery involving black magic and as a result of their success, Lord Blackwood (Strong) is arrested and given death penalty.
Just before he is hanged, Blackwood wishes to see Holmes and tells him that even after he is hanged, things will not stop and the whole London will tremble in fear. And he is very eager to keep his word. He is hanged, Watson confirms his death, and in 24 hours, he escapes from his tomb and everyone starts to believe that he is resurrected.
Holmes and Watson races against time to solve the case and proove whether Blackwood is really dead or really resurrectedi and in the meanwhile they deal with their own personal relationships: Watson begins to attempt to begin a new life with his fiancé - of whom Holmes doesn’t approve because their marriage will probably mean the end of the Holmes-Watson relationship, and Holmes is coming to terms with the reappearance of his crazy love/hate relationship with Ms. Adler (McAdams). Adler is as clever and as cunning as Holmes and comes to him to ask for him to find someone.
In the meanwhile, Holmes and Watson follow clues that lead to Blackwood and come face to face with many enemies, and more murders take place in London - and the Londoners are getting more and more scared. Finally, Holmes finds out that Blackwood is somewhat related with the secret Temple of Four Orders society. 3 members of the society are killed - and one of them is actually Blackwood’s father - and Holmes tries to hunt Blackwood down before he gets to his fourth victim.
Holmes realizes that Blackwood is meaning to take his fourth victim in the Parliament - with the world’s first mass-murdering special weapon/bomb - and he is actually meaning to kill the entire Parliament except from the members of the Four Orders. They stop the weapon on time and Adler starts running with a piece from the machine. Holmes follows her, and Blackwood follows him. The climax takes place on the unfinished London Bridge.
It is revealed that Blackwood is not involved with black magic, he just used his villanious ways: bribing, making himself look dead, special potions to kill people without leaving a trace. He was not resurrected, he wasn’t even dead in the first place. Sherlock Holmes, as seen in his books, reveals the mystery behind the so-called mysteries one by one with proofs and in the end, Blackwood is properly hanged - by hanging down the Bridge.
The end wraps up the story: Watson leaves the house he shares with Holmes to move in with his fiancé, Holmes is convinced of the findings of the Blackwood case, and Adles is arrested. Yet, their favorite detective from Scotland Yard comes and asks for help again for a case that involves Adler’s employer - and the movie ends with room for a sequel.
To wrap up, I have to say that Sherlock Holmes is very, very entertaining and the actors/actresses are great. It is directed properly - though a lot of scenes including CGI are rather poorly done - and it mirrors some techniques Guy Ritchie uses in his movies - especially during the fight scenes (the guy - no pun intended - loves shooting fight scenes). It has a contemporary feeling though it properly reflects the England of the time and Sherlock Holmes is not the detective we usually know with his weird hat and pipe, he looks modern.And also, Hans Zimmer’s interesting choices of music also makes the movie even more enjoyable.
Yet, even after 2 hours, I felt like the movie should have been made as a TV series because it feels like the pilot of a new TV series rather than a movie - we are introduced the characters, and there is a new case presented in the end. However, if you are in the mood to watch a really fun movie, awe at Holmes’s geniusness and the hotness of both Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, do watch Sherlock Holmes!
An Education
Based on the memoirs of British journalist Lynn Barber, An Education tells the story of 16 year old Jenny.The script was written by the well-known English writer of our time, Nick Hornby (About A Boy, High Fidelity, A Long Way Down). It stars Carey Mulligan (Pride and Prejudice) and Peter Sarsgaard (Garden State, Kinsey, Orphan).
It is the 1960s in England. Jenny (Mulligan) is a hard-working student in a all-girls school, and it is very possible that she will go to Oxford once she graduates. Her parents are regular middle/working-class family, and are saving up for Jenny’s future education.
Jenny is rather a girl with the whole package: she has the looks, the talent and the brains. She is really smart, she is really beautiful (and even gets more beautiful as the movie progresses) and she is in a youth orchestra.
One day, while waiting for the bus under a heavy rainfall, a sportscar stops by her, and the gentleman in the car offers her a ride. Jenny first refuses, saying that it is not a habit of hers to ride in cars with strangers, so the charming stranger only takes her instrument in his car, then Jenny gives in and accepts the ride.
After that day, Jenny and the rather older guy David (Sarsgaard) start running into each other. David sends her flowers before her concert. David charms her, and even manages to charm her parents and they start going out and going to jazz bars and all. Jenny is confronted with the life she always wanted, but never had: money, glamor, understanding, appreciation.
David is rich, and the way he makes money is rather upsetting for Jenny at first: he, with his partner Danny, steals valuable things in rich woman’s houses, and he also blockbusts. Jenny manages to oversee that. David even takes Jenny to Paris on her 17th birthday (and she loses her virginity to him). There is a really weird scene that takes in Paris involving a banana.
As her relationship with David progresses, her success in her school starts to decrease. She decides to marry David (since he had proposed) and quit school. Her school teachers disapprove because it was Jenny’s dream and prerogative to go to Oxford, but even when Jenny’s rather strict family approves her decision to marry David and not to go Oxford, they can’t stop her.
Just before Jenny and her family are going to celebrate the engagement, Jenny finds out something: David is married, and has a kid. She breaks up with him immediately, and later finds out that David kind of has a habit of getting involved with young woman and making them fall in love with him - and his wife knows all about it.
Jenny is devastated after everything, but feels like this was “an education” for her. She comes to her senses and starts going to school again, studies hard and succeeds in going to Oxford. The movie rather ends abruptly with Jenny making a voiceover suggesting that “she was happy in Oxford and met new boys (not men like David) and went to Paris with them as if it was her first time”.
The movie is good. The atmosphere gives a really understanding of how it was in England in the early 1960s (people afraid of black people, discrimination against both blacks and bourgeoise, women expected to behave etc). Carey Mulligan is great as Jenny. Peter Sarsgaard (an American) plays a believable English man role, and is good in his role (though there could have been an English actor casted). Alfred Molina as Jenny’s father is great, and steals the show in the scenes he is in. The songs and scenery are beautiful (especially during the Paris scenes), the costumes are amazing.
The only thing that bothered me about the movie was the ending. Sarsgaard leaves the movie about 15 minutes before its end, and doesn’t show up again. The movie is a coming-of-age story and is based on a narrative, but it rather ends abruptly with a voice over that never was in the movie before. If there was a voice-over at the beginning, it could have been accepted.
Anyways, do watch An Education if you can, and don’t be surprised if it wins awards in the next award shows.
The Ugly Truth
The Ugly Truth stars Katherine Heigl (“Grey’s Anatomy”, “Roswell”, Knocked Up) and Gerard Butler (Dear Frankie, Phantom of the Opera, 300, P.S. I Love You).
In Sacremento, CA., Abby (Heigl) is a successful, hard-working TV producer. She is amazing at her job, but conversely when it comes to relationships it is suffice to say that she sucks. She has a list of the perfect man in her mind and wants a man who’ll fit that list. She wants control in everything in her life, and is possibly that she’ll end up alone with her cat, (or that’s what she subconsciously thinks). Enter Mike (Butler) who is the absolute opposite of Abby’s dream guy and he runs a TV show called “The Ugly Truth” in a local channel in which he discusses the real relationships between men and woman.
Mike is rather obnoxious, especially to Abby, vulgar and talks his mind. He even calls Abby a lesbian without thinking of her feeling because that’s what he think she is and the man Abby looks for doesn’t exist, and that is the Ugly Truth. For him the truth is that men think with their penises and women think with their heart and mind, and that is rather ugly.
Abby’s boss hires Mike to take part in their show and Abby gets frustrated but it is out of her hands. In the meanwhile, Abby meets her neighbor (Eric Winter) via a strange event and is convinced that he is the man of her dreams. Abby and Mike make a deal: Mike will her Abby get the neighbor and Abby will let him run his show. If he fails, he’ll quit.
Thus begins the transformation of Abby. Mike helps her see the male point of view and act accordingly. Mike and Abby become somewhat friends along the way. Mike is successful though, because soon the neighbor is interested in Abby and they’re dating. However the Abby with the neighbor isn’t the same Abby. She is less controlled, sexier and more easy-going.
Mike gets famous and is soon asked to be on the “Late Late Night with Craig Ferguson” which is actually an audition for him. Abby’s boss asks her to stop Mike from accept the proposal he’ll be given so she follows in to San Francisco despite her plans with the neighbor in Lake Tahoe.
In San Francisco, Mike and Abby dance to celebrate and Mike reveals that he didn’t accept the proposal. In the elevator, they share a somewhat strange moment that ends with a kiss and Abby leaves for her room. Her door is knocked, she opens it expecting Mike, but her neighbor/boyfriend is on the other side instead. A few minutes later Mike shows up but makes an excuse and leaves.
Abby breaks up with the neighbor and the next morning we find out that Mike quit his job on Abby’s channel. There is a show to be made about hot-air balloons and Abby finds a replacement for Mike who turns out to be a disaster so she takes his places. Watching Abby on TV talking about their relationship, Mike breaks in and they have an argument/stand-off about men and women and actually about themselves. Then, live, the balloon takes off and they have a talk. Mike reveals that he is in love with her and then after a little heated argument they kiss.
In the final scene, we see them in bed and Abby’s having an orgasm and Mike asks whether it was fake or not and she answer vaguely that he’ll never know. And credits.
The Ugly Truth works on the same formula that Hollywood has been doing for ages: man and woman of opposite sides hate each other at first then fall in love. However, this time it is full of funny stuff going on with a lot of obscene words and occasions (i.e. Abby wears “vibrating panties” while at a meeting in a restaurant and a kid controls the remote, there are several usages of the f word and all). There were many movies this year about relationships (He’s Just Not That Into You) and strange couples (The Proposal) but I have to admit this was by far the best of them. It is a rom-com heavier on the comedy part (except from the last 20 minutes). And Gerard Butler, as usual, is charming and Katherine Heigl acts her part nicely. They have greet on-scene chemistry and they make you laugh, hard.
All in all, I’d definitely recommend watching The Ugly Truth, especially if you are looking to have fun for 90 minutes.
Part-Time Movie-Watcher
As a complimentary blog to my Full-Time Procrastinator blog, I decided to make a blog for all the movies I watch since I watch movies a lot! So here, you can find comments, views, ideas about the movies I watch. Hope you guys enjoy it.
