MOVIE - Captain Fantastic

R (1:59)

7/8/16 Limited Release

Viewed Sunday, 8/14/16 at Carlisle Theater on High Street, Carlisl

RT Critic: 79   Audience:  85
Critic's Consensus:  Fantastic's thought-provoking themes -- and an absorbing starring turn from Viggo Mortensen -- add up to an above-average family drama with unexpected twists.

Cag:  5.5 Wonderful, thought provoking movie which I really loved (though a tear jerker in places)

Directed by Matt Ross

Electric City Entertainment

Viggo Mortensen

My comments:This was a wonderful movie to watch.  Pulled me right in, I was there, laughing and crying and relating and commiserating. The whole cast really worked, and Viggo Mortensen was fabulous.

IMBd Summary:  Deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, isolated from society, a devoted father dedicates his life to transforming his six young children into extraordinary adults. But when a tragedy strikes the family, they are forced to leave this self-created paradise and begin a journey into the outside world that challenges his idea of what it means to be a parent and brings into question everything he's taught them.

MOVIE - Me Before You

PG-13 (1:50)

Wide release 6/3/16

Viewed Carlisle 8 on 6/17/16 (new recliners were very comfy)

RT Critic: 57   Audience:  80
Critic's Consensus:  Me Before You benefits from Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin's alluring chemistry, although it isn't enough to compensate for its clumsy treatment of a sensitive subject.

Cag:  2 - Didn't really like it that much, the acting, the setting, but hated the story.  All of it.

Directed by Thea Sharrock

Warner Brothers Pictures

Based on the book by Jojo Moyes

Emilia Clarke, Sam Claflin

My comments: Emilia Clarke, the grinny, upbeat protaganist of this movie is none other than the gal who portrays the white-blonde haired Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones!  Who would have thunk it?  She did a superb job in this movie.  The costume designer did a great job picking out the perfect just-a-little-offbeat separates for her, which I enjoyed immensely. That being said, this is a story for lovers of Nicholas Sparks, of which I am not.  This is a tear jerker.  I despise tear jerkers.  I'm so glad I didn't read the book, and I think I'm going to wipe any Jojo Moyes titles off my wishlist.  She gets filed away beside Nicholas Sparks (ech!) for me. 'Nuff said.

RT Summary:  Adapted from the bestselling novel by Jo Jo Moyes, Me Before You tells the story of the unexpected relationship that blossoms between a contented small town Englishwoman and the wealthy, paralyzed Londoner who hires her as his caretaker.

MOVIE - Labor Day

PG-13 (1:51)

Wide release 1/31/14

Viewed at Century Gateway 12 on Sunday afternoon, 3/16/14

RT Critics: 31  Audience: 58

Cag: 4/Liked it a lot

Directed by Jason Reitman

Paramount Pictures

Josh Brolin, Kate Winslet

My comments:  What do the critics know?  I liked it.  It was slow in places, but the tension built and built, the charisma between the two adult leads was lovely, and the part of 7th-grade Henry was played perfectly.  I loved the special touches added to make Frank's personality show through - the way he treated the neighbor-boy with cerebral palsy, his cooking and baking talents, his love of baseball.....  I couldn't wait to see the end credits, because the scenery was all Massachusetts - even though it was set in New Hampshire.  I've been down those roads before, I've seen those houses on those quiet streets - and sure enough, it was Massachusetts.  It couldn't have been anywhere else!

Reviews:  "Labor Day" centers on 13-year-old Henry Wheeler, who struggles to be the man of his house and care for his reclusive mother Adele while confronting all the pangs of adolescence. On a back-to-school shopping trip, Henry and his mother encounter Frank Chambers, a man both intimidating and clearly in need of help, who convinces them to take him into their home and later is revealed to be an escaped convict. The events of this long Labor Day weekend will shape them for the rest of their lives.

7. Jellicoe Road - Melina Marchetta

2006 Australia, 2008 USA, HarperTeen
419 pages
YA
Rating:  Awesome/5
Michael L. Printz Award

Setting:  Australia, somewhere in the Sydney vicinity.
OSS:  A 17-year-old orphan, still yearning for the mother who abandoned her, traces all sorts of secrets that ultimately lead to her own future.
1st sentence/s:  "My father took 132 minutes to die."

There are reviews of this book all over the web, mine would never do it justice. It was everything I look for in a perfect novel.  A seamless, well-plotted storyline; lovely writing; characters that become real, they're so well written, and a mystery.

Taylor Markham has little memory of her growing-up years with her drug-addicted mother, she only knows that she was abandoned at 11 and sent to a boarding school on the Jellicoe Road.  The only adult in her life since that time has been a woman named  Hannah, who works at the school but lives in a house on the riverside, quite close by.  And now it is Taylor's last year, and for six weeks a school ritual is about to begin - "wars" between the townies, the school, and the Cadets who come each year to camp and live in the wild.  From the lives and memories of five close friends 18 years previously, to the lives of five who will end up being close friends in the future, I am left to ponder love and family, grief and forgiveness, secrets and honesty.  Wow.  what a book.

The last line of the blurb on the jacket is what made me begin this book (finally): " If Taylor can put together the pieces of her past, she might just be able to change her future."

Oh, how many times I've taken this out of the library and returned it without beginning.  And to think I almost didn't read it this time, either.  What a shame.  This book is bound to be a favorite.  Incredible story-weaving, and gorgeous word-weaving.