Movie Review: Labor Day

Unfortunately I’m that kind of person that doesn’t have so much time to watch movies. Or better, I usually spend most of my evening at home, but watching TV is really soporific for me.  Except when I travel.

So during one of my last flights I decided to watch Labor Day, a drama movie which I discovered later is based on the novel of the same name written by Joyce Maynard in 2009.

Protagonist of this movie is Kate Winslet who plays the role of Adele, a depressed single woman and mother of Henry (Gattlin Griffith) a 13-years-old-son. Co-protagonist is Josh Brolin, who played Frank Chambers, a convict, broke out of jail and wanted by the local police. While Adele and her son are shopping in a clothes store, a bloody Frank “asks” them to take him home and look after him. It’s the Labor Day weekend and in five days the life of Adele and Harry changes completely. Frank reveals to be an incredible man with an incredible past.

Now at this point I don’t want to reveal to you the final. I really suggest you watch the movie for this.

What I want to add is that I loved this movie because yes, it’s romantic but not in the classic way.  I loved it because it talks about love, about second opportunities in a different way. Labor Day talks about hot themes like depression and the effects of prejudices and misunderstandings. But it does that through the eyes of love, the love of a son for his mother, who always try to protect her, the love of a man who lost his better years and his freedom and the love of a woman who has been hurt and she has become the shadow of herself.

But no matter what happened, life always gives second opportunities even if not in the way we expect.

In the movie Kate Winslet is a great actress and again she played Adele's role with a strong personality and a deep impact. I didn't know Josh Brolin as an actor, but what I know is that both Kate and Josh made me forget that I was sitting on a plane while I was watching Labor Day. They were able to keep my attention from the beginning to the end of the story.

For more info and for the trailer, please click here.

Reviewed by

Bonjour Chiara

www.bonjourchiara.com

Instagram: @bonjourchiara

Twitter: @bonjourchiara

Facebook: Bonjour Chiara

Movie Review: Divergent

Finally! I saw it!! I got it from iTunes. In your face Doha Cinemas!! I can’t believe they didn’t release it in Qatar. And it’s good! So much better than I thought! For a movie based on a book, it’s awesome!

So the movie that is based on the best selling trilogy with the same title. The story of post-apocalypse society that built itself a virtue based system. The system has 5 factions, which value five different virtues, Bravery, Honesty, Intelligence, Kindness and Selflessness. Tress (Shailene Woodley) who comes from the Selflessness faction, Abnegation, learns that she is a Divergent, people who belong to more than one faction. However she choose to move into Dauntless, those who value bravery. Through her initiation period, she meets Four (Theo James) and is sucked into the middle of a political mutiny.

For me as someone who read the books, it’s very exciting to see the world come to life! Every detail is alive and just as you imagined it. Even though in the book there’s a lot of these unspoken little details that goes into Tress’s head, but this doesn’t stop the movie from having really good scenes. I liked it. 

The action scenes were just right and it's thrilling to see the initiation process then the last half hour is intense. The choosing ceremony was fun too!

Shailene Woodley is shockingly good! I was very impressed. She really played her role well. If she kept choosing smart choice of characters to play, she’ll get far. Also It was fun having Kate Winslet as the icy ruthless Jeanine. Theo was ok for me. He played a good Four, but he could be better I guess.

Book one is my favorite in the trilogy so it was nice to watch the story come to life like that. The second book movie, Insurgent will be out March 2015!

To read my book review and if you have Instagram, check it @KemzBooks.

For more info and the trailer, click here. And remember, “Faction before Blood”.

Till the next one,

Kemz

Twitter & Instagram: @KemzMovies

Facebook Page: Kemz Movies

Movie Review: Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind

The story of Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine(Kate Winslet); two opposites characters who fall in and out of love and how they try to get rid of the heartbreaking memories by visiting a memory erasing clinic. It’s amazing to see how when they had to face the fact that they’ll never be together again they tried their best to run away from this process. Through that we dive into their worlds of memories and scene by scene we learn more about their relationship. And in the end we are touched by the last thought of the movie which is for me was, if you’re meant to be, you’ll always find a way to be together.

The movie starts with a beautiful scene of Joel just feeling fed up with his life and skipping work. We all have these moments, when we feel so empty that we just want to leave everything and just walk away and see where life takes us and hope to meet someone who will makes us feel less alone in this world; someone who will save us. Also the idea of being able to erase all your sad memory is very appealing. This kind of clinics will attract millions of people. I myself thought, I want that, but then as I watched the movie and heard Joel saying “Just let me keep this one.” I felt no, memories are meant to be kept or else we’ll be empty and lose our souls even if these memories were heartbreaking. Memories make us who we are and for that we should cherish them.

You cannot help, but feel related to the story, even though it has some fictional aspects. I mean this is what I loved about this movie, even though it took us inside of Joel’s head, (which is complete sci-fi thing) the scenes took us to the most realistic places like Joel’s childhood home or the beach. The whole story felt spontaneous and natural, especially the dialogue. I mean Clementine reminded me of myself. Michel Gondry (Director) is just a genius. The way he shot the scenes with sharp frames made this simple story really artistic. My favorite scene was when they were laying on the frozen lake. It was just mesmerizing.

And let’s not forget to talk about performances. This by far is my favorite Jim Carry movie. I never thought he could get out of his fake funny face, but here he was warm, sweet and funny. He was believable and the brilliant Kate Winslet was so comfortable in her own skin that she made me feel this is her true character and she’s been like this her entire life. It was such a perfect compensation.

It’s definitely going to be on my favorite list. It’s such an eternal movie. 

By:
Kemz
Twitter & Instagram: @kemzmovies