If I were you

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

 

Canvas

Plot

Mary Marino (performed by Marcia Gay Harden), a woman who loves to paint, suffers from a mental illness, schizophrenia. The desease affects the whole family, Mary, her husband John (performed by Joe Pantoliano) and their son Chris (performed by Devon Gearhart). One day she freaks out, in a way she never did, and hurts her son. Therefore the police is coming and takes Mary away. She is taken to a mental hospital for therapy to improve her mental situation, while that  John and Chris have to learn how to handle with the situation and the illness. Only the love has the chance to reunite the little family.

 

Review

Beautiful one showing the importance of holding together!

Canvas is a movie which is beautiful and simple, simple in the meaning of you haven’t to concentrate while watching the film. You can let yourself fall and just watch the movie. It’s suitable for everyone grown-ups, children, teenager, people in high age…It’s sad and happy at the same time but nevertheless you have the feeling like sadness starts the film and it ends up with happiness although the problem isn’t disappeared. You can watch it if you have a bad day or a problem, maybe a family problem, and you end up a little happier and brightend.

 

There are two covers I’ve seen of it, they bring on different emotions in me. I think the first one I’ve seen fits better than the second. They are both simple but the first has a good expression of the inside and the feelings of the persons. You see the pain and the hopelessness in the eyes of them. Everyone who really matters is included, I think it’s important because it is about a family problem and the family is needed there. The second expresses the feelings of the boy but excludes the parents. You need every person, it is an internal problem which is bad for everyone, the mother, the father and the son, for no one more than the others.

The acting is appropriated. The credibility is impressive, the schizophrenia is performed truly real by Marcia Gay Harden. I got a good imagination of the mental illness and the affected persons feelings. Devon Gearhart made a great job in his expression of sadness and happiness, he made a good balance between both. Joe Pantoliano shows us how difficult it is to focus on life if you have to hold your family together. They all let you feel sorry for the roles by let you understand and comprehend every situation. The actors make it possible to imagine this happens in real.

It is a realistic story, a lot of families we doesn’t know are out there having exactly this problem but no one notices because they hide it, so no one is able to. The story is extremly close to watcher because of its credibility. The most important thing told in the story is love, family love to hold together.

The music underlines the sad and happy feeling. There are beauiful songs which improve feeling the situation the family is in. But there’s not only sad music, no, there are different kinds. It enables that you haven’t a constantly feeling of sadness.

The drama teaches things for everyone, young and old. It shows you the difficulties of a life with a mental illness, no matter for whom, whether an affected one, a spouse or children. A lot of people in public talk bad about humans with mental deseases like they are crazy or weird. The film teaches that no one has choose to be ill like this, I’m sure no one chooses that fate.It’s difficult enough for them to handle it, so you should not judge them or talk about them. Imagine someone you know will get a mental illness tomorrow and you will never see him like you do today, it shows something like this happens can change everything, maybe you will somone never get back. So use the time, no one knows what happens. It’s a pity that you can’t talk about your mental illness in public cause the judging, the rate of affected people increases, it need to talk about. This film represents perfectly how important family, love and holding together, no matter what, is.

Go crazy…

 

Canvas Quotes

Canvas Soundtracks

After Words

Plot

Jane (performed by Marcia Gay Harden), a librarian for whom books are her life, turns into depression after she loses her job. She decides to give her life a final short cut by suiciding. But she wants to see some last beautiful things before she dies. So Jane travels to Costa Rica to explore the beautiful nature and to end up life. There, she meets the younger man Juan (performed by Óscar Jaenada) who works as tour guide and makes his living off the single female tourists who come there. While Jane has to fight with her depression Juan has to pay for his daughter(Anna performed by Jenna Ortega)’s school without having money. Together they go on an adventure to experience the beauty of Costa Rica. They both turn into transformation, Juan reads his first book and Jane learns about “Pura Vida” what may change her decision of ending up life in beautiful Costa Rica.

 

Review

Everybody Deserves A Love Story and Everybody Deserves This Film!

After Words is a film with a wonderful love story. It shows that love knows no edges and you can’t plan or determine it, it simply happens.

The cover is beautiful, it exactly reflects the feeling you get in the movie. They look really happy and you feel the confidence and love. I like the quote “Everyone Deserves A Love Story” because it says perfectly what happens in the film. Jane is a woman doesn’t look like having and getting a love story and certainly not interested in it. But if you watch the film you look deeper inside librarian Jane, you’re getting an impression how weak and lonely she is and how broken her heart is because she feels no love for long time.

Marcia Gay Harden makes an extraordinary performance in representing the transformation of Jane. The transformation of Jane is spectacular, at the beginning she’s shy, introvert and very serious but then she changes in a woman knowing what she is and what she has and laughing a lot. It’s like she’s playing two different roles at the beginning and the end but she accomplishes to link them in a way that you notice the change but you doesn’t notice the size of the change. While you exactly feel, see and hear the change you feeling Jane being Jane all the time. It looks real. I can’t imagine someone else performing that role like this. She gives you the feeling that it happens exactly like this. Óscar Jaenada plays a surprising role, I didn’t expect Juan to be serious and to getting a love story with someone like Jane. But at the end it’s imaginable though it wasn’t at the beginning. He transformed very well, at the end you feel like Juan growing up. Óscar Jaenada makes it happened to balance on the narrow extent between being a womanizer and a good, serious father at the same time. It’s like having two lifes – the “working” and the home life. He did a great job. So did Jenna Ortega playing Anna. Although you don’t see her often, you’ve the impression that she’s very smart and wise more than her father, because SHE gaves HIM advice.

The story is perfect. On the one hand no one would expect the womanizer Juan being interested in a introvert, depressed librarian, on the other hand no one would expect the serious, weak Jane being interested in making his living off single female Juan. Seeing Jane and Juan for the first time it isn’t imaginable that they have a love story, but you it happens. It’s incredible in which way they develop themselves. Though you can’t imagine them both having an affair together it looks real as it happens. Juan is a very funny, stupid guy making his living off the single females and being able to handle woman, he hasn’t an effect that it’s possible that he can take things and feelings serious. But as Anna gives him advice you see another side of him. You realize that he has a lot of knowledge and experience with woman on a sexual level but he doesn’t have a lot on a feeling level. So Juan knows how to handle woman on the surface not on the inside, Jane is his first since his wife. Jane looks very introvert and not interested on the outside or in feelings. But you learn that she is interested in feelings, she just gets no chance. She makes an amazing change to a woman who cares for herself and for someone else. She becomes a beautiful woman, you wouldn’t think about the first time you see her. The people transform in the story so does the mood. First, it’s like sadness, poor Jane having a bad life, then it turns into fun, exploring the nature and it ends up beautiful life, loving and being loved.

There’s a lot of different music, sometimes music making you feeling sad, sometimes music making you feeling happy and sometimes music making you feeling great. There’s a great mixture between being pressed down by life, simply living and experiencing something wonderful. Some tracks really gave you the feeling of “Pura Vida”.
The landscape is beautiful I understand why Jane wants to see it before dying and why it heals her and makes her feeling better.

The voice of Jane sounding while pictures of the landscape are shown gives a good impression how Jane feels and what she blames about herself, about life.

The story is a story which makes me feeling better – every time I watched it I get in a good mood, I watch it when I’m very down and weak, it makes me to the point that I’m up and strong. I see and feel how weak Jane is and how good she goes out of the very bad situation. I learned that it will be better, no matter what happens. There’s every time a way out. I see how separate yourself from everything you’ve done before can change your life and sometimes there needs to be a change to be happy. You should not live in front of yourself rather enjoy life and do things you’ve never done, do things you fear and do things to waste time.

Create some beauty in a wasted life…

 

After Words Soundtracks

After Words Quotes

 

 

Rails&Ties

Plot

Rails&Ties is a Drama about a married couple and a boy who find together in an unusual way. Megan (performed by Marcia Gay Harden) and Tom Stark (performed by Kevin Bacon) have a hard fate, Megan has breast cancer for the third time, the doctors don’t see any possibility to handle it. The married couple has to face that she will die soon. As if that wouldn’t be enough, Tom who works as train man has a crash between his train and a car in which a woman, the mother of Davey Danner (performed by Miles Heizer), dies. While Megan and Tom experience how short life is Davey is looking for a new home.  He founds a lovely family in the Starks and makes Megan a wonderful few days before death. Whereas Tom opens his heart to the child and builds up a new relation to his adored wife.

Review

A great movie with brilliant acting!

First of all, I have to say that I haven’t expected a movie in this dimension. First I’ve seen the cover I thought: „Okay, that will be a good movie, a simple story“. Then I’ve watched the movie…I rudimentary haven’t expect something like this. My expectation that it is a good movie hasn’t be confirmed, it is a great movie with a rich in content and internally consistent story! I get really surprised.

That movie doesn’t contain only one criteria of a great movie, it contains most of them, I guess.

The first criteria that is satisfied is the brilliant acting. You really feel to be a part of it and you feel the emotions. Marcia Gay Harden made a breathtaking performance. She allows you to be in it. She perfectly represents the emotions of Megan. You get an impression of the strength of her and the hardness of knowing you will die soon. I sympathize Megan’s loosing of believe, Marcia Gay Harden expresses perfect the absence of energy and power for fighting again. You see the hopelessness in the situation what makes you really sad because you feel like knowing that person and not want to loose her. There could have been no one better to express the presence of the role in this way. Kevin Bacon also did a great performance in the role of Tom Stark. You feel the love he is feeling for his wife. He lets you know how hard it must be to loose your love, the person who is by your side for long time. You understand his situation, the difficulties of knowing and seeing your wife will die soon although she is around you at the moment. The third one, Miles Heizer, makes nothing different, he takes you in the story too. As Davey Danner he has to figure out a tough situation. You realize the only person who matters for him is his mum, he feels very lonely because there is no one else in his life. Suddenly his mum gives up and suicides, at this point you really feel empathy for this boy, I was very sorry for him. He expresses very good what the boy is missing and the big wish and the needing of having a constant family with love and caresses. The three have fulfilled all the potential of the roles. You feel the love! Although Megan and Tom aren’t gentle at the beginning, you see the love. You feel they really love each other and no one else counts only by the looks to each other.

A second criteria is the great story, it is full of emotions. I’m very impressed by the fact that the story is heartbreaking and heart beating at the same time. While sadness is fulfilled the life there’s big love in the little moments. It is drama in a realistic way, you can imagine something like this happens in reality, in a life of a person you know although it is a hard and sad fate. The believability is very formidable.

The music is very suitable. It fits to what happens, the texts of the soundtracks express the feelings like the big love, it is accompanied by the melody which represents the sadness. A line of sadness pulls through the movie, in this line are little sequences of happiness, enjoying and living. So does the music, it underlines and emphasizes the love and the hopelessness of the situation. The soundtracks aren’t music you listen to in the charts, but after you’ve seen the movie, you are able to listen to it because you connect it to the movie – every song you listen, you are carried back into the scene of the movie.

Not every movie established to be watched more than one time, but this one did. You can watch Rails& Ties more than once and you will be inside the story every time. Your feelings are affected by the emotions in the film every time and you can cry all the time, although you have still watched it once. After the first time I felt like directly starting it again because I wanted to see more Megan, Tom and Davey. Now I have watched it three times and every time my heart was beating and breaking, I always was crying.

The story enables you to learn of it. I does, I learned for myself. I’ll take off that love is very important and very special. Only a few have the chance to meet their soul mates like Tom and Megan.
Sometimes there is no solution than giving up because there is a point when holding on is hurting more than giving up. So we have to accept what happens, also if we die young, sometimes there is no way out.
We all have the chance to make the best of our life before we die, we’re not supposed to waste time cause we don’t know when our time is over. If we want to do things it’s better to do them now, sometimes it’s too late.
The film expresses very well that knowing someone will die soon and loosing that one by death is the hardest thing happens in life.

Some things you know for certain…

Rails&Ties Soundtracks

Rails&Ties Quotes