Posts Tagged ‘ romance ’

Writer/director Laurent Firode‘s 2000 film Happenstance (Le Battement d’ailes du papillon) is a fabulous French-language romantic comedy starring Audrey Tautou, one of my favorite actresses, as Irene, the leading character. It is a romantic comedy that uses its simplicity to showcase the elements of Chaos Theory or the Butterfly Effect, where one action leads to a series of progressively larger actions so that, for example a butterfly in Indonesia can cause a hurricane in Florida.

Along Came Polly is the most recent film in Hollywood’s long tradition of cookie-cutter plots.  Reuben Feffer, portrayed by Ben Stiller in a rather mediocre performance, lives a comfortable, if cautious life where his professional efforts are so focused on the prevention of any type of risky behavior that he lives a very quiet and very carefully planned life.

The third and final installment of Baz Luhrmann‘s “Red Curtain” trilogy is the first musical in recent memory to capture public notice. Moulin Rouge is the story of a young writer named Christian (Ewan McGregor) trying to get a break in 1899 Paris. The focus of the Bohemian community in which he resides, is a nightclub called the Moulin Rouge, where Satine (Nicole Kidman) is a dancing courtesan. 

Edward Scissorhands is a work of visual excellence and stylistic beauty that can scarcely be described in writing. Director Tim Burton soars past the brilliance of his other films to bring us this touching story of a man created by an inventor and raised in isolation from the surrounding town. The artificial man, Edward, played to the point of near-perfection by Johnny Depp, is someone different in a world where conformity is everything.

Waitress is the 2007 movie starring Keri Russell as Jenna, a bored waitress at a local restaurant specializing in custom pies created by Russell’s character.  Pie is used as a metaphor and an internal dialog as the pies are created within Jenna’s head and named after whatever is happening at the moment, for example, “I Just Stubbed My Toe and It Fucking Hurts” pie.  It’s reasonably sweet and clever and really just works.