“Do not insist upon your own fixed ideas. If your mind is broad, it can easily embrace the entire world.” (Zen Master Daehaeng) This quote relates beautifully with the theme of the movie that I recently viewed called No Reservations, directed by the great Scott Hicks. It is a romantic comedy with a side of drama that involves a very stubborn and perfectionist Master Chef, whose life is flipped upside down when two unpredictable events occur all at once. This movie had a marvelous cast. Catherine Zeta Jones gave a fantastic performance. Aaron Eckhart was just phenomenal. Abigail Breslin was such an incredible young actress throughout. All three were perfect for this movie. Jones plays the workaholic Master Chef Kate, who was purely focused and centered her entire life in the kitchen she works in, located in the heart of New York at a fine dining restaurant. Her work ethic was remarkable with cooking and plating, but at the same time her personality frightened her staff to the point where they felt like slaves and just taking orders from Kate. Her perfectionist lifestyle does not allow her to take criticism lightly, as she explodes at customers when they have a complaint about the dishes they received, which were prepared and inspected by her before it leaves the kitchen. Nothing else mattered to her but her work, until an unfortunate accident happened to her sister, which left her niece Zoe, played by Breslin, as an orphan. Having no father in her life, Zoe had no one to turn to …show more content…
but to the care of Kate. Kate had no children of her own; neither did she know anything about being a parent to a child. Kate tried her hardest to bond with Zoe, but she did not know what to do, as seen by her not knowing what to give for food to a little girl and forgetting her at school. Things took another turn for the worst for Kate. Not only did she had to struggle with raising a child, but now a new sous chef by the name of Nick Palmer was hired to her kitchen. Nick, played by Eckhart, was the complete opposite of Kate in his personality and workmanship in the kitchen. While Kate was on leave, Nick brought laughter, joy and equality to the staff. The staff all enjoyed his personality and skills. But not all liked his presence, as Kate would demonstrate. She felt threatened by Nick, as she thought he was here not only to disrupt her way of life in the kitchen, which she had worked so hard for years to create, but also to potentially usurp her. Nick, on the other hand, had a different mindset. He chose and loved to work under the tutelage of Master Chef Kate and would never try to take her place. Even though she felt that way towards him, she later began to fall in love with him as Nick generously assisted Kate in how to raise Zoe in his ingenious ways. Finally, I enjoyed the flow of the movie.
It was not choppy and the feel of the movie was uplifting with the precision timing of certain music for different events in the movie. Some were melancholy when it needed to be and moving when there was happiness. I also was fascinated by the ending, where Kate finally tore down her walls of stubbornness and allowed Nick and Zoe to come in, as they all ultimately became a family and opened up their own small bistro for their friends and
neighbors. Overall, this movie was amazing. It was a roller coaster of mix emotions throughout the movie. The characters and cast were outstanding throughout the movie; I could not have pictured any other actors/actresses to perform in this film. I would really recommend to everyone to see, especially those in the culinary field, as it shows in great detail not only kitchen life but the food and plating as well. This would be also perfect for those that are so focused in their own little world and don’t see the bigger picture around them and are afraid of change. This movie showed the negative effects of when one closes their doors and build walls around them as to not accept any change or any help from the outside. Just like the quote from the cover of the film advertisement, “Life isn’t always…made to order”.
Anyone can teach others from leading by example. Showing others what you can accomplish establishes confidence in others to try out their own dreams, wishes, and goals. A great example of leading by example is Gus, Clark, and Richie in the movie The Benchwarmers. These men meet Nelson, a stereotypical nerd that is bullied by baseball jocks every day just because he wants to play with them. This little boy inspires the men to show others that everyone should have the same opportunity to play baseball, no matter the skill level.
The film Jindabyne, is a story about death, marriage, and race in an Australian town in New South Wales called Jindabyne. In the film, four men go fishing, and one of them discovers the dead body of a young indigenous girl. Instead of reporting what they found to the police immediately, they decide to stay and continue fishing. They decide that there is nothing they could do for her, so they tie her legs to a tree and continue with their fishing, reporting the death only when they return home. After they are done with their weekend of fishing and report the incident, conflict starts, as the men are criticized for not respecting the dead. Through the story of the town’s reaction to the four fishermen’s response to the dead girl, the movie shows Australia to be fragmented and divided over white-indigenous relations.
One of the main products of this movie that popped out to me was the stars. They all seemed to be great actors even though I only knew one of them. For example, I thought that Ian Michael Smith did a great job portraying Simon Birch. He made the movie cute and funny all at once. I also thought that Joseph Mazello did a great job portraying relatable feelings in the movie. You could tell by his facial expressions what his mood was. All the actors did a great job and I can’t pinpoint one of them who did worse than the
All characters in the movie were played well by the actors in my opinion. They
The movie is, most likely, done well enough to intrigue its intended audience. It captured the theme and story line of the book. It falls short, though, when compared to the beautiful, sensitive and contemplative prose of Natalie Babbitt. One could only hope that a viewing of the film will lead the watcher to try the book and be delighted all the more.
...and several more keeps you and your emotions on a roller coaster ride. Which is brilliant because we all know that as humans we adhere to stimulation and that is what it does, it stimulates us by incorporating all these emotions and jumping around with them. With the movie it also adds a score and soundtrack as well as camera shots and things that appeals to our senses that much more. At least it does for me.
In the documentary “Fed Up,” sugar is responsible for Americas rising obesity rate, which is happening even with the great stress that is set on exercise and portion control for those who are overweight. Fed Up is a film directed by Stephanie Soechtig, with Executive Producers Katie Couric and Laurie David. The filmmaker’s intent is mainly to inform people of the dangers of too much sugar, but it also talks about the fat’s in our diets and the food corporation shadiness. The filmmaker wants to educate the country on the effects of a poor diet and to open eyes to the obesity catastrophe in the United States. The main debate used is that sugar is the direct matter of obesity. Overall, I don’t believe the filmmaker’s debate was successful.
The book and the movie were both very good. The book took time to explain things like setting, people’s emotions, people’s traits, and important background information. There was no time for these explanations the movie. The book, however, had parts in the beginning where some readers could become flustered.
The Bad and The Beautiful (1952) and State and Main (2000) are films within films that unmask Hollywood Cinema as a dream factory and expose the grotesque, veneer hidden by the luxury of stars. The Bad and the Beautiful, directed by Vincent Minnelli, is a black and white film narrated in flashback form. The films theatrical nature requires more close-ups than wide-screen shots to capture the character’s psychological turmoil. For example, Fred and Jonathan’s car ride is captured in a close-up to signify their friendship; however their relationship deteriorates after Jonathan’s deceit. While the camera zooms out, Fred stands alone motionless. Here, Fred is captured from a distance at eye-level and he becomes ostracized by the film industry and
Within the German Democratic Republic, there was a secret police force known as the Stasi, which was responsible for state surveillance, attempting to permeate every facet of life. Agents within and informants tied to the Stasi were both feared and hated, as there was no true semblance of privacy for most citizens. Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the movie The Lives of Others follows one particular Stasi agent as he carries out his mission to spy on a well-known writer and his lover. As the film progresses, the audience is able to see the moral transformation of Stasi Captain Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler primarily through the director 's use of the script, colors and lighting, and music.
Gran Torino is an interesting portrayal of communication dilemmas, spread out across several characters and in particular that of main character Walt Kowalski. After the death of his wife, Walt is bombarded with unwanted attention from several angles and attempts to “deal” with the attention to the best of his ability. There are many examples of communication struggles in the film, but they all seem to follow a similar pattern, and that is distance in time and culture. I’d like to focus on some of these communication barriers between his family, neighbors and priest and see how some of these walls got broken down, or could have been removed more easily.
The movie I decided to analyze for this course was American History X (1998), which stars Edward Norton. Though this movie isn’t widely known, it is one of the more interesting movies I have seen. It’s probably one of the best films that depict the Neo Nazi plague on American culture. The film takes place from the mid to late 1990’s during the Internet boom, and touches on subjects from affirmative action to Rodney King. One of the highlights of this movie that really relates to one of the key aspects of this course is the deterrence of capital punishment. Edward Norton’s portrayal as the grief stricken older brother who turns to racist ideologies and violence to cope with his fathers death, completely disregards the consequences of his actions as he brutally murders someone in front of his family for trying to steal his car. The unstable mentality that he developed after his father’s death really goes hand-to-hand specifically with Isaac Ehrlich’s study of capital punishment and deterrence. Although this movie is entirely fictional, a lot of the central themes (racism, crime punishment, gang pervasiveness, and one’s own vulnerability) are accurate representations of the very problems that essentially afflict us as a society.
What does it mean to give yourself completely to your vocation or life? We find in a fictional story from Wes Anderson, his eighth feature presentation, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” What it means to be completely giving of oneself. Even though Wes’s movie is fictional, we find many deep and underlying themes, tones, and values. these are values are applications that anyone male or female that one can implicate in ones life to any situation. The main values we can find in the movie are simple, but can improve life ten-fold. Three easy steps to improving ones life are as stated: gratitude, positivity, and you must contribute yourself 100% of the time no matter how hard the road in front of you is going to
The Associate is an entertaining movie that brings forth gender disparities in the workplace. Whoopi Goldberg, Laurel Ayers, portrays a financial analyst who has been stuck in a position that does not give her true credit for all of her hard work and talents. The Associate exemplifies the sexism that is occurring in the workplace through satiric wit and a strong story line.
The world before her is a film of hope and dreams for Indian women. We examine two girls with different paths but one goal in common, empowerment. This term conveys a wide range of interpretations and definitions one of them being power over oneself. Both Prachi and Ruhi manifest a will for female empowerment but both have distinct views on how this is achieved. Prachi believes the way to achieve empowerment is through her mind and strength, while she still confines to tradition views of Indian culture. Ruhi desires to achieve female empowerment by exposing her beauty in a non-conservative way while maintaining her Indian identity.