Plot
Madelyn and Lucy are connected by one person, Paul, Madelyn’s husband and Lucy’s affair. They two meet on the street while both are desperated, Madelyn found out about the affair of her husband, and Lucy has experienced a broke up with Paul. They both make a pact to fix the unhappy lives: Everyone will do what the other wants her to. But there’s a secret, Madelyn knows about Lucy as affair of her husband while Lucy doesn’t know about Madelyn as Paul’s wife. As Madelyn supports Lucy to play the fool in the amateur play King Lear, Madelyn’s life changes in an unexpected way, she begins to perform as King Lear, like him, her life is falling apart while she has to fight with death, betrayal, loyalty and love.
Review
A funny and sad story at the same time!
As I’ve heard of this film for the first time, I couldn’t imagine what it is about or in which way; certainly not what the title is supposed to say. I’ve had no imagination.
The cover of the movie is okay, I like the colour combination, but I think the film looks more like a comedy than a drama. In my opinion the kind of drama predominates, more than the comedy. So I think it’s a really suitable cover for the impression of a comedy movie, a simple film for laughing only. But I miss the dramatic part of the cover where you can see the emotions which are used in it.
The story is unique, I don’t know how you can have an idea like this, I like it. The story has an original combination of humor and sadness, which you won’t find anywhere else. In the beginning of the movie I got more the effect that it’s funny, like comedy, but while watching the film it was going to be sad and emotional. And in the very end I got a feeling of happiness. It’s a story which treats a lot of different feelings. You have a different view on the persons in the end than in the beginning. The persons develop themselves during the film. Lucy seems like a naïve girl who has not the intension to damage someone but who doesn’t think about what she do and what it means for others. Later, she appears like a bad girl, stealing a woman her husband, knowing that and blaming others for that. But in the very end she looks much better, I got the impression of a working young woman who grew-up and thinks about what she does. She’s not the girl from the beginning. Madelyn seems like a strong lady busy concentrating on work, drifting apart with her husband which bothered her but not because of the feelings, only because it happened. Suddenly you can see her inside, how much the marriage means to her, how important her husband is. She shows her inside, her sadness and most of all her weakness. In the end she comes out like a strong lady with a heart, a weak heart.
Marcia Gay Harden and Leonor Watling did a solid performance, I think the acting is good.
Leonor Watling makes a credible performance, she as a girl or young woman like that, so naïve and sparkling, is really conceivable. But she did another thing, she makes it happened that I don’t really like the character of Lucy in the end. It’s an excellent performance of “the bad one”. I rarely dislike people in movies but she got it.
Marcia Gay Harden fits in the role like no one else could. She performed in a way that you feel like it would be real, and happened near you. She embodied the angriness, the sadness, the hope and the stand up again feeling of Madelyn with brilliance.
In the beginning I understood every situation, of both, but that changed in the end. Harden and Watling bring about that I sympathized Madelyn more than Lucy. Leonor Watling fits in the character so well, she played two roles, the nice Lucy and the bad one, the performance of the last is great, she evokes the “hate” in myself, she made it possible that there isn’t only sympathy and that you get real feelings. I felt so sorry for Madelyn and got angry on Lucy and the husband. Cause Madelyn was the one who was cheated on and no one else, maybe she had done something wrong, yes, but after knowing the affair, she hadn’t done it when that hasn’t happened, it wasn’t worse than the things the others did. The moment, when I noticed she wants to suicide with pills, is so sad, I realized the meaning of the broken things for Madelyn, what I hadn’t expect at the beginning, I could cry. Marcia Gay Harden let me feel with her. As the things happened, I really wanted to punch the people. Harden fits in the role like no one else, she presents the situation in magnificent way.
It’s so beautiful to see Madelyn laughing again with Derek, a man who appreciates her and who doesn’t pretend to. I have to admit that it delighted me that Lucy and Paul are separated in the end and Paul gets no one. He was the bad ass, the one who cheated on his wife and left her because she lied to him to fight for the marriage, he deserved it. It’s really heartbreaking when Madelyn talks to Lucy before the show and motivates her, although she was the one who destroyed her marriage and made her wanting to suicide. Marcia Gay Harden fulfilled the role, she reveals very authentic the strength of the character, a woman standing on her own two feets.
Both makes it possible to get real emotions!
If the music and the picture is one, feelings have a better effect than only the shown picture or the heard music only. In this case the music supports very well the emotions, the funny and the sad parts. Especially the sadness is underlined by the sound and is better felt as viewer. I really like the sad acoustics, they provoke crying in me, so that I really did.
This film taught me some things, but I haven’t realize that until I’ve thought about that for writing this post. It gives me hope and believe that everything what happens will get better and will be great in the end, maybe the things happen and something goes wrong that something better is possible. There are three kinds of people, the ones who aren’t interested in you, the ones who pretend to and the ones who really are. This kind believes in you and follows you everywhere on your way. They stand in your back and support you, no matter what it is. There are also humans who pretend to love you but they have proven that they aren’t, some things you doesn’t do if you really love and like. If you lose someone, you love, because he found someone else, you will have pain in the first time, but when you are strong again, that person will feel it. He will noticed what shit he did, what he has lost, but then it will be too late, karma hits back. The King Lear part shows really good that working for what you want, will bring you to the goal. You have to improve yourself by practicing, practicing, practicing. Work is the key to everything, become a greater you and it will happen one day.
It is a movie of change. The people in it changed, the relationships did, my thoughts from the first view until now did, it’s a movie about developing. Everyone changes, the characters and the viewers.
We can all do more. That’s what we do, we work hard, we get better, then we analyse our mistakes, we work hard again and we get even better. That’s life.
If I were you Quotes
If I were you Soundtracks
Impressive movies 