Cheesy Plot Can Still Make an Everlasting Love

Week Number 1 (still) and Movie Number 3: The Notebook (2004). (Yes, it is based on the novel of Mr. Nicholas Sparks of the same title.)

The only bad thing about this movie is that it is one of those country-boy-meets-city-girl movie he making the plot very predictable. You know that in the end, Noah and Allie will be united despite their differences and the parent hindrance. Although they have twisted the timeline (making it non-linear because the story is told on a flashback), they made their greatest flaw by giving a very obvious hint that the two oldies are in fact the lovers in the story as written in the notebook when the nurse "gave" the name of the old girl. Nevertheless, watching the movie makes a well spent two hours for the audience.

Of course, the timeless plot template of well-refined-girl-fell-in-love-with-the-bad-boy is always cherished especially by the girls (and I am gay, thus, I count as "girl"). The movie makes it you remember that day when you first fell in love no matter if it was only a puppy love. Noah was a man of few words and it makes him simplay hot and it makes you want him (or not him, maybe someone like him. Talk about Derek Ramsay). And naturally, you would want to act like the spoiled Allie who wants to be with her beau most of the time and start to make fights with him which both of you would reconcile in sweet caressing hugs and maybe a prolonged kiss. Romantic it is for the girls but I think the guys have some difficulties appreciating this movie because an obvious appreciation would have them appear to be at least effeminate.

With Alzheimer's Disease being the major blockade of their supposedly continuing love story, the movie saved itself from the major fires because of this trick. We are sure that Noah, as steadfast to his love for Allie, reads the notebook to her so often in order for her to fulfill her promise to "return" every time the story is retold. And we are glad that she "returns" everytime he reads the story to her; however tragically that it only last for five minutes at most. Also, the recurring symbolism of the mansion highlights two main "roads" of the story line: First, the mansion's renewal manifests the hope that Allie would come back to him once the mansion is finsihed, and last, its transformation from old to new can be juxtaposed with the implied resurrection of their love after their physical death. Therefore, the movie, although it has the cheesiest plot template, have depth and unique visual palatability. It makes us still believe that there are wonderful things in our life amidst the pain and trials that we are burdened.

Ryan Gosling has already proven to be one of the greatest actors of this era. His hotness and the believability of his acting is a very good choice for the movie. For this movie, he won the Teen Choice Awards for a breakout performance of a male and an actor for a drama flick-- a true evidence that the movie hs a lot of teenage fans (what would we expect?). Also, Rachel McAdams has used her innate Queen Bee she also used for Mean Girls (2004) in order to portray successfully the spoiled, rich kid nature of Allie. Combining the innate talents of this actors, they made one of the classic kiss flicks in the entire history which catapulted them into series of dating sessions after the movie screening. Indeed, they make a wonderful couple and it contributed so much to the success of the movie.

One thing that we can learn about The Notebook is that love endures forever. However cheesy that line is, it gives us hope and it encourages us to engage in a loving relationship. In our times now, true love maybe hard to find and girls would have the difficulties now to find a bad-boy sawmill worker but the movie assures us that love is always there hoping to be found in the right place and time.

Of Apologies and an Eternal Love Story Further Immortalized

Apologies first: Sorry to you that I haven't posted anything else since Sunday because my grandmother chose to stay on that isolated town without internet access rather than spending the rest of our vacation with my cousins here in the city. I am just sooooo hooked in to writing this blog that it bothers my conscience all the time that I didn't write anything for the past how-many days. At least, I am still on the schedule and it is still Week Number 1 so I could catch up with my everlasting vow to make this blog a success.

SO HERE IS NOW THE MAIN COURSE

It is Week 1 and Movie Number 2. Romeo + Juliet (1996) is one of the most creative movie I have ever saw. Having these classical script from William Shakespeare's play of the same title, it is refreshing to see this modernized movie after years of seeing the script staged with those elaborate and flamboyant costumes. how there costumes where and especially seeing the nice body of Benvolio and the hot boyish body of Romeo.....ooh ooh, sizzling. "(Okay, I'll stop talking hotness here, it is getting cheesy).

The classic love story of this two couple which started as love at first sight never fails to bring tears to my eyes. However, this film was astoundingly amazing because instead of sticking to the conventions set by the script of Shakespeare, this movie has done a positive make-over for the entire story. While retaining the traditional dialogue of the script, the movie seamlessly and naturally fits itself to the revised and modernized adaptation. Thus, having instead the original family feud between the house of Montague and the house of Capulet, the film made it a corporate war between the feuding families which didn't exactly terrorize the original storyline. As an example for those who haven't seen the movie yet, here is the legendary balcony scene from the movie:

Starring Leonardo di Caprio and Claire Danes as the juvenile lovers, the acting was as superb as the novel characterization of the dramatis personae. No one could ever predict that Lady Capulet could wear a very sexy Cleopatra-inspired costume and Mercutio cross-dressed during the Capulet's party. No wonder that this movie earned several awards for the creativity it exhibits.

Overall, the movie makes the very difficult Shakespearean vocabulary easier to understand and lets my generation appreciate the play with such ease. I do hope that many producers would modernize other Shakesperean plays as much as this movie has been a success.

PS. There is a new trending topic in Twitter that is just running five weeks. It is also about a modernized Romeo and Juliet. If you are reading right now, try to log-on to your twitter account and follow Romeo and Juliet. http://www.suchtweetsorrow.com/

Julie and Julia (Again)

Well, this is not really "again", I just made a reference from my first post in this blog.

It is my first week to my new devotion and actually, I did not made any plans to write this blog until I watched Julie and Julia (2009) few days ago. I know it will be redundant to say (my apologies) that this movie had inspired me to do this blog and now, I am trying to follow Julie Powell's tract: WRITE.

This movie is more than just about cooking and baking and writing. This movie is about Love and Passion towards life. This movie made me wonder what life has to offer me and what I am passionate about. (Well, I would not want to be an existentialist again and I am saving my life-is-a-bitch ranting to my other blog because that will bore you). Julia and Julie are passionate about their cooking that that became there life. This movie taught us that passion is the antecedent of life. And not just life, but also the greatest joy of being in love- not just with someone, but with life itself.

The movie was great. It made me laugh at the unusual voice of Julia (it is soo ipit and it made me remembered the voice of Felicity Huffman in Transamerica---ooh I love to write about that) and the way she makes up for her mistakes in cooking. It also made me as frustrated when Julie overslept and find her Boeuf Bourguignon burnt. It is a mixture of all the emotions and the aggregate of these emotions makes you to commit to something and achieve something in life. Thus as inspirational as it is, it makes us do something in life.

In some funny way, I felt kinda awkward to Amy Adams because she is far beyond the Giselle I watched on Enchanted (2007) when I first saw her. You can see a great difference between her portrayal of the two characters which makes her a very good actress. Moreover, Meryl Streep is as astounding as she is as she portray Julie with that unusual voice and awkward manner in the "high-fashioned, well-groomed" streets of Paris (no wonder she won a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Actress).

Needless to say, Julie and Julia is one of the greatest movies the world has seen. As it is work on the development of a certain passion to propel one person, it makes us realize that in life, hardships come and go but with enough passion and strength, we could have anything that we wanted on the right time and on the right situation.

PS: I will follow Julie Powell to her site and I would love to take correspondence with her!

Whew! Hard!

It is hard having a life without a certain goal-- when you had just witness that your whole world, together with your dreams, had crushed upon your very eyes. It is hard, yes: harder than having Sue Sylvester gets to have a scoliosis for 30-so years.

Whenever I am alone by myself, thoughts are haunting me and they confront me with an excruciating suffering of whether I will stay this slowpoke for the rest of my life or not. Of course,I would want to be someone great. After all, that was my fuel way back those time when I was in the Ateneo. TO BE GREAT. Whatever form it will take, basta, I have to be great. Also, I dreamed of being a surgeon (as inspired by Meredith Grey) or a teacher in college having all these Ph.D's or any other affixes to my name. Yes, I was so determined that time to have as many achievements as I could and I was so competitive. But you see, those days are replaced (I would not say that they were gone. There is still hope. I know) by a cruel nightmare spanned its way for almost a year now. I lacked focus and I feel strength to continue with life was snatched away from me. I am not that enthusiastic with life now. I feel miserable and even I can't comprehend the gravity of grief that I am feeling now.

It is just I feel that I am lost from the chaotic history of life. Yes, I fucked up entirely but you know, there is always these thoughts that if ever I had a better family, i would be a better person right now. I know it is sooo foolish of me wanting for something that is irreplaceable but if you could just know how my father terrorize me emotionally, you would want to have a better father. How could he be so selfish? He is! Soooo selfish that he can't even help me overcome my sickness. He always looks at me with disgusts that I didn't know where it is coming from. He just hated me being myself and I can't even get his respect. Well, I am just going with the flow with this kind of father and as God as my witness, there will come a time when I am the one who will have the last hearty laugh over him. Thinking of him is enough to have my mind discombobulated and chaotic. I hate it when he can't even feel a sort of remorse and blame everything to me including the death of my tita who died because of a heart failure. He would not even take some responsibility over the craziness of his life and often tell me that we have problems of our own and we must deal with it by myself. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE CONCEPT OF FAMILY AS A FAMILY. They were the one who taught us to be selfish with our feelings!

Life is hard especially having my situation. I just wish to have something that will inspire me to do again. Just a little something to propel me forward!