Change Your Image
Valerie-Garber
Reviews
Stardust (2007)
Very entertaining
My 13-year-old son and I went to see this without knowing anything about it except for what we saw in the trailer. (A friend had recommended the book it is based on, but neither of us had gotten around to that yet.) So we didn't really have any expectations about it, and we LOVED this movie. We thought it was one of the best films we have seen in the past several years. The cinematography is beautiful, and the special effects are really great. It is a very good fantasy story, but is also very funny in places. (My son said it wasn't just a comedy with some fantasy elements, which he thought would have been a bad thing, for some reason). I thought both Robert DeNiro and Michelle Pfeiffer turned in terrific performances. Also, it is fun to see the transformation in attitudes of both of the main characters, Tristan and Yvaine over the course of the movie. The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies, and I would agree with the reviewers who have described this as being like that film, but darker.
Two Harbors (2005)
Quirky sci-fi drama rocks
Two Harbors is a very interesting exploration of an actual incident reported in the New York Times several years ago. James Vculek has written an engaging work exploring the character and quirks of the two main characters, Vic (Alex Cole), and Cassie (Catherine Johnson). There is a very nice contrast between the curmudgeonly action figure dealer Vic and the vulnerable Cassie. The film has very witty dialog, and nice cameo performances by Claudia Wilkins, Richard Ooms, and Ari Hoptman. The cinematography really evokes the feeling of winter in Two Harbors, MN, a small town on the north shore of Lake Superior. I also really liked the music soundtrack, which contributes greatly toward the mood of the piece.
Matilda (1996)
Hooray for bookworms!
I loved this movie, which celebrates Matilda's love for books and learning as opposed the greed, anti-intellectualism, and consumerism of her parents. Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman are terrific as Matilda's awful parents. And the character of the school principal is also terrific in a terrible, larger than life way. I don't remember the name of the actress, but she did a terrific job. I think the film really captures the feel of Roald Dahl's book, and contains some of the same kind of dark, wacky elements of some his other books that have been made into films, e.g., Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1973)
Good, although not true to book
I loved E. L. Konigsberg's book, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. It is one of a few books that I remember fairly vividly from childhood, and I recently read it with my son, so we decided to watch this movie. I liked the movie, and thought that the children and Ingrid Bergman all gave fine performances. However, the movie differs from the book on minor details that I could see no rationale for changing (saying that Mrs. BEF lived in New Jersey, rather than Connecticut, for example). Mainly, though, I was very disappointed in the way the story ends in the movie in comparison to the book. In the book, Mrs. BEF gives the children a time limit and lets them figure out the answer to the mystery themselves. But in the movie, Mrs. BEF leaves Jamie playing cards with her butler, while she takes Claudia to another part of the house, where Mrs. BEF essentially solves the mystery for Claudia. I would still recommend the movie, but it's not nearly as good as the book.