Movie talk: Solitary Man

We saw this movie this past weekend at one of our friends.we started the movie without any idea what is its story or how it would be. 

In this movie Michael Douglas plays a handsome, cool  middle age man ( named Ben Kalman).  the movie starts with a scene  in doctor's office when doctor drop the bomb ( bad news)  on Ben, and then we jump more than 6 years ahead and shows how his life is now. which I guess was kinda sudden and hard to follow  because the scene in the doctor's office comes too early ( since we have no background on the character) and then  everything goes fast so it was like we were trying to figure out the story and try not miss any points. 

The first part of the movie follows Kalmen as he takes his girlfriend's' daughter to collage campus and since there is no background on his life so far, there I figure out he is as alumnus and donated to that collage which kind of effect his girlfriend's' daughter collage application.while at the collage, something happens which you could never guess ( and I won't give it away), I literally screamed OH MY GOD ( and I might woke up some friends that were napping during the movie !!!) but that was a great shock and also key moment in the movie; from there his life goes downhill, and about 5 minutes to end of the movie everything comes clear and you kinda get the whole story of his life and why he became like that, although I did not buy the explanation.

It is a weak movie; with nice story. Michael Douglas performance was good ( oh did I mention that he was very handsome !! ); he is the main character and was in all the scenes.apparently he had a great life but destructed himself. although he did everything to himself, his performance kinda makes you sorry for him. it was a negative point that we did not see his journey from his normal life to the man he was after 6 years, I think more of that story would have been better. the movie shows how everything in life is connected that a act that may seem unimportant could lead to Domino effect of events and changes everything; and finally nothing explains better than this quotation from John Donne :

"No man is an island entire of itself; every man

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;..."

So have you watched this movie before, what was your thoughts on that!? do you have any good movie suggestions for me ;) 

Mania

Painted veil

Last weekend we watched "The Painted Veil" movie with our friends. the movie is plotted around 1920s (I think); and it is story of two person who have absolutely nothing in common. Walter ( played by Edward Norton)  who is a smart, shy and rather unsocial person falls in love with Kitty ( Naomi Watts) who is a social girl, loves going out, playing piano and basically loves being the center of attention.  even they have nothing in common they got married ( for reasons you 'll find out if you watch the movie) and because of Walter's work they move to China and then things happens ( which I can not tell you if you want to watch) and they move to the cholera struck region where Walter is busy with his works and Kitty only have one English speaker neighbor ( which is very hard for someone like her).

This movie is absolutely beautiful. it shows how the couple begins to see each other for what they really are and the coldness between them replaced by love after their marriage. It is a progression story of both of them toward a point that they meet each other. it shows that people are complex and they hurt one another but what is important is the healing after. 

The place and the surroundings in this movie is amazing and also the acting. it really transfers you to that time. It is romantic movie but not those cheesy ones so probably if you are into romantic movies you will enjoy it regardless of your gender preferences. It made me cry ( and I have to tell you I cry in sad moments as well as happy ones; so you never know) 

Have you seen this movie or any other non-cheesy romantic movies lately ?!

Love,

Mania

The Butterfly Effect

Saturday night we watched the movie " Butterfly Effect"  which is a psychological thriller. the movie is based on the theory of so-called Butterfly effect, which says "a small change may lead to much larger changes elsewhere". the movie has very small scenes of violence but not much.  in order to get the whole story it requires full attention. I liked the movie and it made me think about my own life. anything happened in the past ( small or big ) can change the our life pathway completely, something as small as a smile.

After we finished watching, we started to tell what was our own butterfly effect and where would be today if something else had happened. one of our friends said, it is like our life is a circle and we are at the center, we have so many  pathways to choose to get to the other side, but the slightest shift can change the whole route. 

I really recommend this movie, believe me it would make you think about your own life ;)

Love,

Mania

Happy Groundhog day ( yesterday !!!)

Ok yesterday was groundhog day. it is the 2nd of Feb. each year and is celebrated here in Canada and US. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter-like weather will soon end. If it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will continue for six more weeks.

The Quebec's groundhog is named Fred and lives in the eastern Quebec town of Val-d'Espoir; unfortunately yesterday he saw his shadow, so what is that for us: 6 more weeks of winter and by winter I means loads and loads of snow and cold weather . it is very interesting to know that in other places of Canada their groundhog promised an early spring for them :) 

Yesterday a very major snow storm hit the US Midwest, Ontario and Quebec. The storm was one of the biggest I saw here. I don't know exactly how much it snowed but this morning when we were heading to work some cars were completely buried under the snow. It took us almost 2 hours to get to work ( usually takes 20 min top); so we are officially covered with snow and so desperate for a groundhog to predicts an early spring, but that's not gonna happen this year (in Quebec alt least).  yesterday evening nearly 70 cars hit each other and the accident stretched about 3 km long in one of the highways here in Montreal. so by a good approximation we could say the weather here is crazy now!! Having car accident is bad by it self but in those weather conditions :(

But today it is sunny and every where is white and beautiful. but don't let the sun fool you cause it is freaking cold outside. 

In the subject of groundhog day, there is a movie with this name which is fun and special. it is not those ordinary movies! If you didn't see it yet, maybe you should ;)

Wish all of you a happy and safe winter, till next time.

Love,

Mania

Movie talk: Harry Potter and the deathly hallows-part1

Last night we went to watch the Harry potter movie, and.....
wooooooooooooo, loved it . I think it was much better that the last one.
the movie opened Thursday midnight and we ( us with 4 of our friends) decided to go watch it Sunday evening. so we went to get the tickets on Sunday morning and it was all sold out !! so we got the tickets for Tuesday night since it is our usual movie night.
although we went 1 hour earlier to get good seats, the salon was full ! and we kind of sat separately ( me and my husband,oh and it is playing in IMAX which is very cool). he is a big Harry Potter fan and read all the books, but I didn't so in any of the movies if I didn't get something he would explain it to me. in this movie I think they had more time ( since it is in 2 parts) so they paid attention to details and I think stick to the book ( I have to check that with him).
so If you are a Harry Potter fan you diffidently seen it by now but if not, go see the movie; you gonna like it :)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Trailer Official HD- there are some scenes from the part 2, here too

movie talk "Julie and Julia" and ...

this weekend we saw Julie and Julia; it was a nice movie specially the Julia parts. I love Meryl Streep, she is such a great actress, and she can pull of any role.
In the movie there was part that I enjoyed very much , where Julie had a fight with her husband and he left him ,she was in a bar with her friend and she told her that yeah you’re a bitch..! . I liked that honesty and the fact that she did not get offended. I never had any friend that could tell me my mistakes or tell me how they really felt about me, I never had a courage to tell someone something that I was not nice. I always think that if you don't have something nice to say just say nothing. and that's bad because I know that some of my friends said bad stuff behind my back ( I don't care that they were lie or not, I preferred they told me in my face) and of course I never had a courage to confronted them about those lies. that's very bad, I really like to have a close girlfriend that I could talk to about girls stuff and be able to share my feelings with them sometimes but I don't.how they could be found !?
another point that I never got was why Julia said that Julie's work was disrespectful!? she wrote a book for other people to use it and Julie was using it , maybe she taught that Julie is judging here book and her work ( or herself) by cooking all the receipts or something like that. but through out the movie it showed how strong Julia was and cared about other people feeling , why she said that about Julie I did not understand.


yesterday I went to the gym and did cross trainer for an hour , 20 min of cycling and 1 hour of belly dancing which was fun. but in the middle of the night I woke up from a bad dream ( which I explain later ) combined with a feeling that my legs are disconnecting from my body . it was painful but not only in my legs, the pain was all over my body. I know I should have a program in the gym and stick with it (or not?!?!) but sometimes the machines are not free so I do whatever else is free and also after 30 min of cardio I still have energy so I continue. so the results of this much of cardio would show itself in the middle of the night.;)
I 'll talk about my bad dreams parts some other time. because now I'm leaving and tonight I'm going to bake ,hooora..(I'll take a picture and post it here tomorrow)

Tuesday movie night and bad cooking experience

this Tuesday, like every week, we went to see a movie (planet 51) it was funny but not something special . I 'm a big  fan of movies but it really depends on my mood which movie I like. I have some favorites like god father,.... between animated movies I like the old one : sleeping beauty, Cinderella ( lots of childhood memories) and from this generation : lilo & stitch , Madagascar and kung fu Panda . I never get tired of watching them ( saw them each several times). so the final point is that "I did not like planet 51 ".

One of my friend here is recently is finishing her master study and she was exhausted of working on and writing her thesis. so we decided to go out and have little fun and do some shopping on Wednesday morning. it was good for both of us. after that I went to home and started to work and did some cooking. I cooked Falafel which I never did before and it turned out to be fried tasteless ball !even it had a lot of vegetables and other spice it was tasteless to me.so this cooking experience wasn't that much fun ..sometimes the picture of one recipe seems so  good I get fool and cook it :(. I will never cook falafel again or till when I get over this bad experience.