The movie The Time Traveler's Wife (2009) was directed by Robert Schwentke and stars Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams. The movie is based on the book written by Audrey Niffenegger about a man who has a rare gene that causes him to randomly time travel against his will. The book was very complicated and hard to read but the movie does an excellent job of explaining and dumbing down the thick plot in a few words or less. Rachel McAdams does an extremely well job of portraying the helpless woman who can only watch as her husband disappears time and time again. I rated this film four and a half stars because it was very well written and it is a difficult feat to make a movie out of a book and do such a good job.
Robert Schwentke has also directed the film Flightplan (2005) which stars Jodie Foster. Flightplan and The Time Traveler's Wife are two completely different films. Flightplan is a thriller and almost of a horror film where The Time Traveler's Wife is a romance. Though they have completely different plots they both have the same filming style. They both have a fast paced feel and both jump between two stories in the film without overwhelming the viewer. The Time Traveler's Wife jumps between Clare (Rachel McAdams) and her coping with Henry (Eric Bana) disappearing and Henry time traveling to the past and trying to survive in whatever time he appears which includes running from the cops. Both movies use quick scenes jumping back and forth. It reminds me of the movie Dear John (2010) where a couple is separated by a war. Him off in Iraq and her back home trying to cope. This is also not the first time that Rachel McAdams has to play the woman left behind waiting for her lover to come home. She plays almost the same role in The Notebook.
The movie The Time Traveler's Wife is low-key and dark portraying that even though it is a romance there is a sadness aspect of it when you realizing that they won't be together forever. The shots are mostly wide shots because there is a lot going on in each scene. The one special effect that was amazing was the disappearing of Henry. In most films it would turn the camera away and when it goes back he is gone but they keep the camera on him at all times as parts of him disappear till he is gone and his clothes fall to the floor in a heap. It made the disappearances more realistic and made you become emotionally attached to the characters and their feelings. People who would enjoy this movie are hopeless romantics; people who love the movies The Notebook, The Vow, A Walk to Remember, Dear John, and Water for Elephants. I usually do not like sappy romance movies but found myself completely intrigued by the plot of a couple who are kept from truly being together by time. It definitely tugged on my heart strings and got me hooked.
The movie that I am choosing for the Review of the Reviews is The Help. Based on the book by Kathryn Stockett, it stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis, and Octavia Davis and is about three women in Mississippi during the 1960's who decide to write a book showing the racism and how maids are really treated working for these white families in the south. They form an unlikely friendship and support each other through hard times as they take on the challenge of getting equal rights for the help.
Jason Best from Movie Talk (http://blogs.whatsontv.co.uk/movietalk/2011/10/26/film-review-the-help-the-maids-have-their-say-in-civil-rights-tale-with-heart-soul-and-sass/) gave a positive review. The structure of the review starts with the plot and then an analysis of the characters and how they contribute to the film. Jason Best uses the points of how humor is used through the characters to make you root for certain characters. The tone of the review is light hearted with comments that say "you will get it when you see it" and sly jokes that say "I know something you don't know." He uses plays on words that have hidden meanings that only someone could understand if they had seen the movie. He focuses mostly on the stars and how they did a really good job. There were no references to other film directors or stars.
Ben Sachs from the Chicago Reader (http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-help/Film?oid=4166616) gave a negative review of The Help. The structure of the review starts off with the plot from the movie and then an analysis on the characters. He talks about how he thinks that there are "no real characters" and that it wasn't appropriate to the theme. The tone of the review was tough and sarcastic. The vocabulary was used to accentuation that he does not like the movie at all. He mostly focuses on the theme and characters. He references the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? and how they both are "handsome to look at".
One point from Jason Best's review that i agree with is "The Help paints its characters, black and white alike, with a very broad bush, but the superb ensemble cast invest their parts with soul and sass." I agree with this because I believe that the actresses did a really good job of showing the characters.
Pretending that I have never seen the movie I would probably believe the review written by Ben Sachs because it was very well written and talks about more things about the movie and points on why he did not like the movie. He talks about points about the quality of the movie and how there aren't really characters. Even though I love the movie, if i had not seen it yet his would be the one I believed because it was very well written.
If I were to write a film review about The Help I would definitely include how the actresses did a very well job becoming their character and showing how they think that they believed the character would act. I would also include how powerful the movie is and how it makes you want to cry one minute and laugh the next. I would definitely talk about how it closely followed the book but how you can understand everything that is going on without having to read the book. I would leave out how it is kinda slow at some parts and you are kind of thinking ion some parts for it to move on and get to the good stuff.
The movie The Time Traveler's Wife (2009) was directed by Robert Schwentke and stars Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams. The movie is based on the book written by Audrey Niffenegger about a man who has a rare gene that causes him to randomly time travel against his will. The book was very complicated and hard to read but the movie does an excellent job of explaining and dumbing down the thick plot in a few words or less. Rachel McAdams does an extremely well job of portraying the helpless woman who can only watch as her husband disappears time and time again. I rated this film four and a half stars because it was very well written and it is a difficult feat to make a movie out of a book and do such a good job.
