Outlandishly clever - Outlander (2014)

A friend at work told me about this show, Outlander. She said it was a time-traveling romance that took place in post-WWII England and 18th century Scotland. 

Say no more. I was already hooked--it had 4 of my favorite elements: Britain, Scotland, time travel and romance. Then she told me that the show was based on a series of books by Diana Gabaldon, who lived in New Mexico.

Well, then, of course I had to represent.

I've watched the first few episodes and I'm enraptured. What kind of woman gets so lucky to have two handsome men love her?

In its second season on Starz, I had to buy the first season from Amazon Prime. But it was worth the purchase!

Houseboat - Cary Grant, Sophia Loren (1958)

To ease my soul--and my allergies--I downed a grilled cheese sandwich and settled in to watch one of my all-time favorite classics, Houseboat starring Cary Grant and Sophia Loren.

The back story on this is almost as good as the story itself: Cary Grant was deeply in love with Sophia Loren, having ended his marriage to the movie's uncredited screenwriter, Betsy Drake, to be with her. Then, before filming even began, Sophia ended it all to marry Carlo Ponti (he latered produced Dr. Zhivago).

And everyone thinks that Angelina Jolie was the original bad girl.

The movie, Houseboat, tries to sell itself as a frivolous romantic romp. But it is actually quite touching, addressing morality, parenting and family.

Newly widowed Tom Winters (Cary Grant) decides to take custody of his children, despite offers from his former wife's parents and sister. Abandoning the offer to stay in the country guest house, Tom returns to Washington DC with his 3 children, David (Paul Peterson), Elizabeth (Mimi Gibson) and Robert (Charles Herbert). 

Crammed into his a tiny bed-sleep in downtown DC, he is hard pressed to bring the youngest, Robert, around, who ends up running away. 

Meanwhile, Cinzia (Sophia Loren) is traveling with her father, who is guest conducting through the US. Tired of being trapped with him, she ducks out the window and just happens to find a stow-away, the young Robert. 

Cinzia and Robert strike up a friendship and as a result, little Robert insists that Cinzia becomes their housekeeper.

SPOILER: Sophia Loren's wedding dress is simply gorgeous!

Walken with the dead: Undertaking Betty - Alfred Molina, Brenda Blethyn (2002)

This farcical romance, Undertaking Betty, pairs dueling  mortuaries and philandering politicians to create a one-of-a-kind Welsh comedy.

Undertaking Betty has an all-star cast including Alfred Molina (Spiderman 2), Brenda Biethyn (Vera, Atonement), Christopher Walken (Hairspray, Pulp Fiction) and Naomi Watts (Mulholland Dr., The Ring).

Boris Plots (Molina) has been harbouring a 30-year crush on Betty (Biethyn), dashed when she chose to dance with Hugh (Pugh).

Thirty years later, Hugh is married to the blissfully unaware Betty but is catting around with his secretary (Watts).

And instead of Boris following his dreams to become a ballroom dancer, he ends up taking over his father's mortuary.

So begins this silly film. It is worth a couple of hours to see Christopher Walken in one of his sillier performances. His hair alone could be a character.

Good Girl Does Good: My Last Day Without You (Nicole Beharie, Ken Dukan)

Frankly, I am amazed by the movie, Good Girl Gone Good: My Last Day Without You. I was ready for a love story but this one really went off the training wheels.

Starring Nicole Beharie from Sleepy Hollow, this girl has pipes. She wails the blues like a child cries for her mother.

But I digress.

Leticia (Nicole Beharie) has been working as an admin for less than 6 months. Niklas (Ken Dukan) arrives from Munich to shut down her company. Before his fatal meeting with the heads of the company, he has a fateful run-in with Leticia at a coffee shop. Sparks fly and the romance ensues.

What I really liked about this movie was how Leticia handles herself. This is no wilting wallflower. She is strong, determined and knows who she is. I was completely impressed by this story.

This is not your usual fluffy romance.

Watch My Last Day Without You on streaming video.

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February Favorites!

I saw some great movies, binge watched some good TV and read some fun books. Learn more below!

Movies

The Way - Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez

This movie made me want to sell everything and walk the Pyrenes Mountains.

An unsentimental view of how man copes when his adult son decides to pursue his dreams only to lose his life.

Starring real-life father and son duo, Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez, the movie examines ambitions, dreams, grief and love.

If you love travelogues, don't mind a dose of spirituality and buddy movies, this is the movie for you. And, even though this does take place on a Catholic pilgrimage, it has a mild spiritual overtones.

Not Another Happy Ending - Karen Gillian, Henry Cusick

This British rom-com has Dr. Who darling Karen Gillian and French actor and Scandal star, Henry Ian Cusick.

If you love movies about writers, this one's for you. Jane has been trying to get her novel published. After a stream of rejections, finally the foul-mouthed editor, Willie takes her novel on. Together, they work to make it the "novel of the year". And that's when it all starts to go down hill.

Peruvian Henry Ian Cusick does a brilliant job of playing a bossy French man. And Kareen Gillian is delightful as the lovely first-time novelist, quirky menswear aside. Definitely one to watch.

Horns - Daniel Radcliffe and Juno Temple - instant view

A quirky morality tale starring Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe examines honesty, revenge and free will.

Ig falls in love Merrin when they are just children. Their love seems destined for marriage until she is found dead.

Traumatized and distraught, he is victimized by the town and his family who believes he is her murderer. After a night of debauchery, he wakes up to find he has grown horns.

Surreal and sad, this movie examines the nature of good and evil.

TV Shows

Justified - Timothy Olyphant - instant view

This 6-season series covers a volatile, recalcitrant US Deputy Marshall's return to his hom-state of Kentucky.

Fielding feuding hillbilly families entrenched in drug wars that would put the mob to shame, Raylan Givens picks up where he left off, running into old enemies, an ex-wife and an estranged father.

Bullets fly, bombs explode and alliances flip.

All in a single episode. Based on Elmore Leonard's short story, Fire in the Hole.

Bosch - Titus Welliver - instant view

Only available on Amazon Prime, Bosch is a video series based upon Michael Connelly's detective Harry Bosch.

Much like Justified's Raylan Givens, Harry Bosch runs along the edge of the law in LA. Described as new noir, the cinematography is shadowed and gritty.

Harry Bosch is maligned, shredded and accused from all sides.

Nevertheless, he solves crimes, closes down delinquents and generally cleans up the mayhem.

Books

Pilgrim Road - Albert Holtz, OSB - Kindle

Benedictine monk takes the reader through a Lenten journey through 40 days worth of pilgrim sites.

Illustrated by the author with small sketches of the pilgrim sites drawn during his journeys, his words will transport you to these saintly sites.

Traveling from Spain to Bogota, then France then England, this book is delightful, thought-provoking and will guide you towards a deeper Lenten experience.

To Catch a Bad Guy - Marie Astor - Kindle

Marie Astor's white-collar crime mystery follows former AG Janet Maple and financial investigator Dennis Walker as they stumble upon one another during their tenure at a financial investment firm.

Dennis is working under cover to investigate the firm's investments when Janet is hired by her friend to join as counsel after getting laid off from the AG's office. 

Sparks start to fly as both Janet and Dennis begin to realize their instincts are right.

A fun romp, there is no gratuitous sex and a smart read.



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Easy A - Emma Stone (2010)

This is a sharp, snarky romcom that takes a look at today's high school culture that, despite its 21st century facade of liberalism, has an untapped, hidden puritanical agenda.

A modern-day twist on The Scarlet Letter, Emma Stone plays Olive, who belongs to the invisible clique--the kind of girl who goes unnoticed.

Until one day, she makes up a whollop of a tale to get out of going on a camping trip with her best friend's bizarre family. She tells a tale of her own deflowering, which then spreads like wildfire through out the school, turning her into the school skank.

The next thing Olive knows, she is getting propositioned by nerd-boys to pretend to sleep with them so that their own reputation will be enhanced.

Funny, sad and full of teen-age angst, I was pleased at how smart it was. Probably one of my favorite scenes was when they did a montage tribute to all the great John Hughes movies.

Thomas Hadyn Church, Lisa Kudrow, Sam Tucci and Patricia Clarkson brought some great talent to the table.

I'd rack this one right up there with Clueless.

Easy A gets an A in my book.

Eat, Pray, Love - Julia Roberts (2010)

What is it with male critics?

They have a built-in bias against chick flicks. It really is annoying. I wish they would attempt to be a little bit more open-minded.

Because, I have to confess, I was pleasantly surprised.

Note that you will be paying to watch a woman go on a spiritual quest in what may be perceived to be in a most self-indulgent manner.

And because I have thought that very thing, I never read the book because I have told everyone "I already lived that book; I don't need to read it."

I was gratefully surprised as to how moving the movie was. Of course men don't like it; it wreaks emotional havoc on them. It stirs up empathetic feelings of sadness, loss, grief.

Women, we love to watch these movies. They help us heal.

Maybe if more men watched these kinds of movies they wouldn't be so constipated.

Although, I will say, none of the actors appeared to be crying when there were acting like they were crying. One time, it looked like someone put two eye drops of water, each one directly below each of Julia's pupils, in an attempt to make it look like she had shed real tears. Crocodile tears, I say!

And some of the lines were kind of hokey.

But I enjoyed the movie more than I thought I would.

Scott Pilgrim v. The World - Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead (2010)

It was odd, I was talking about the movie Dick Tracy today. Remember that movie? They combined animation with real people? I loved that movie for being so innovative, smart and funny.

Well, Scott Pilgrim v. The World is very much the same.

Combining film, with comic "Batman Show"-type sound ballons--think "BAM!", "THUNK!"-- and video gaming animation and you get the idea.

The story, which I believe is losely based upon Pilgrim's Progress (tho don't hold me to that since I have not yet read it), is about Scott's battle with the evil seven exes of his new girlfriend.

Each time he takes one down, he earns the right to move on to the next level and move closer to his heart's desire.

The movie is hilariously over the top. Smart, funny and edgey, be prepared for lots of loud music and young, cultural references.

Oh, also worthy of note: the new word these days is "scandalous". I heard it no less than three times in three different movies. Plus, I heard it last night at a bar. As in, "these women are scandalous", meaning that they are edging very close to skanky. Too funny!

Management (2008) - Jennifer Anniston, Steve Zahn

Another one of Jennifer Anniston's bittersweet single woman out-on-her-own romances, Anniston, as Sue, continues to explore the span between a young working woman's defeated ambitions and almost shameful yearnings for protection and love.

In this movie Steve Zahn plays Mike, a hapless manager at his parent's roadside motel. Only one step shy of creepy Bateman-type stalkerness, Zahn gets one good roll in the hay with Anniston and he is head over heels.

Traipsing from Arizona to Maryland to Washington, Zahn pursues Anniston's character with a boyish sweetness. Oddly, the movie follows more of his character arc than Anniston's.

With some truly funny scenes between James Hiroyuki Liao and Zahn, reminding me a bit of Harold & Kumar Go To Whitecastle, the movie also stars Fred Ward and Woody Harrelson.

Chéri - Michelle Pfeiffer (2009)

This gorgeously filmed movie, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, is an adaptation of two novels by famed French novelist, Collette.

Collette, a writer of the late 1800s and early 1900s, wrote the novel Gigi, upon which the same-titled film is based.

The novels, Chéri and La Fin de Chéri, are about a aging courtesan and her relationship with the son of a fellow courtesan.

Michelle Pfeiffer plays the 1890s version of a cougar with elegance and verve. Still startlingly beautiful, it is no surprise that Chéri, played by the equally beautiful Rupert Friend, is enraptured.

Opened with a fairy tale-like narration by the film's director,Stephen Frears, the stage is set for a magical, farcical tale with outrageously beautiful sets, costumes and staging.

Lovely to behold, it was a movie about beauty and its power to enrapture us and entice us to hold it at any price.

Pfeiffer did a wonderful job of capturing the certainty and knowledge of an aging beauty who knows her limits yet yearns to hold on to youth.

A truly French film, Chéri captured the ironic humor and angst typical of their films.

The movie also starred Kathie Bates, who made absolutely no attempt to use either a French or British accent. I was a little disappointed by this but she performed passably well.

The Cinderella Story - Hilary Duff (2004)

Heart Rate: YYY

After watching Hilary Duff in War, Inc. (reviewed earlier) and her next big gig as Bonnie Parker in The Story of Bonnie and Clyde, I was curious about her previous acting career . So I watched The Cinderella Story.

Light fare with a "GrlPower" message, the script is riddled with lines like "We have faith in you. You gotta have faith in yourself."
Definitely movie with Duff's target audience in mind, it follows the Cinderella Story but has given it a decidedly pro-female twist.

Austin Ames' (Chad Michael Murray) character is pretty shallow; but having a 17-year old nephew, I don't think Chad Michael Murray missed the mark and did a passable job.

Jennifer Coolidge, as the evil stepmother Fiona, always delivers a robust, over-the-top performance that have all we come to expect and love.

Hilary Duff, too, gave a solid performance, hitting her cues and delivering believable emotions. I am curious to see if she can move past her Shirley Temple phase and make the huge leap from teen star to adult actor. Its a scary jump and the chasm is littered with others who have failed.

The film is sweet, not too thought-provoking and has a nice message film for your teen-age girls. There's no harm in this movie and its mildly entertaining.

I just kind of wished that the boy had more backbone. But then, girls mature faster, don't they?