A week ago - last Sunday during the night - we experienced our first extreme weather adventure: snow storm! We are used to snow in France, of course, but when it happens in Paris, it only lasts for one or two days, and people manage to deal with it. Here, it was a lot different. No more buses, a closed office, canceled shows, but also the possibility to watch more films (oh yes). I don't wanna bore you with all that I've seen this week - believe me, there was more than one movie -, so I'll try to focus on good or interesting discoveries.
First, we chose to go see "127 Hours", Danny Boyle's latest film. I am not very familiar with his work, and I actually hated "Slumdog" (apart from M.I.A's music). But as any other normal girl, when I know James Franco is going to be around, I'm in. And it was a very exciting film. Short plot : A mountain climber becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone in Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive for 127 hours before finally being able to get himself out (IMDB source). You have no idea how intense it is. At first, you would think that an entire film with only one character - a trapped guy - could easily get boring, but it is not. Boyle's shots a complete human being, and how a man slowly starts to get crazy and paranoid when he has (almost) no water, no food, no light, no one. It is beautifully edited, with a great presence of flashbacks and hallucinations. James Franco's performance is strong, convincing and he manages to keep you focus and anxious the whole time. And you really feel like being in front of the most natural and honest man, confronted to his fears, his dilemmas and his desire of life. Simply stunning.
Another good surprise in an entirely different genre was "Love & Other Drugs". You'll say I'm corny, but it was also a good surprise. I am very fond of romantic comedies, especially when Christmas is getting closer (watched Love Actually, Pretty Woman, Bridget Jones, La Bûche... again), and this one had some good sides. Plot : Maggie is an alluring free spirit who won't let anyone tie her down. But she meets her match in Jamie, whose nearly infallible charm serve him well with the ladies and in the cutthroat world of pharmaceutical sales. Maggie and Jamie's evolving relationship takes them both by surprise, but Maggie is sick...(IMDB, thanks). Gyllenhaal is charming, funny, sexy, and Hathaway is good, natural and acts well. And the chemistry between them works! You let the characters, the love scenes, the laughters carry you away for 2 hours. The first part is excellent, but the second one tends to be a bit slow and tries to turn the film into a drama when it started as a romantic comedy. Nevermind. You leave the theater with a stupid smile on your face and pray that it's gonna be just as good at Christmas with your own boyfriend - well, I am -.
MJ.
