It should be a crime to look as good as Brad Pitt.
TCCOBB is one of the best movies I've seen so far this year. The retelling of BB's life, from young to old, or rather, old to young, was a 3-hour slowburn that ended with more than a few questions about living, dying, and growing old. David Fincher seems to have mellowed from his Fight Club/Panic Room days and focusing on long storytelling, like Zodiac and TCCOBB. While I never understood the rave reviews over Zodiac, I'm liking this TCCOBB. It must be the pensive script, or the extensive and marvellous makeup that miraculously made Brad Pitt younger and older by some 30 years or so.
Brad Pitt was just looking good, not acting. Well, maybe he was acting old, but I definitely did not think the performance was nomination-worthy, nor even his career best. Cate Blanchett mesmerises as always. Her performance wasnt her personal best, but it is always a joy to see her on screen, even when she plays a flawlessly skinned and bodied young woman till an old, wrinkled one.
The story is heart-breaking, but hopeful at the same time. This fable will leave you with something to bring home, a feeling or emotion that sticks around for a while even after you have left the theatre. All good movies do that.
But a movie is sometimes only as good as how much you immense yourself into it. So if your butts and minds are not ready for a 3hour long sit, you will most probably not enjoy this year's most nominated Oscar front-runner.
I chanced upon Away From Her on OKTO while channel-surfing after I reach home. The story about a woman's decline while suffering from Alzheimer's, and her husband's efforts to come to terms with it, is a heart-wrenching one to watch. Beautiful shots of snow-covered cottages, mountains and flowers, coupled of more than a few scenes that hinted at the line "do not go gentle into that light", and the actors' performances lifted the movie. I was not very convinced with how the second part happened, because it seemed to have drifted a little too far off the main plot of coming to terms with the disease. The second half lacked focus. But the first half, when the old couple was newly acquainted with the disease, and the symptoms start to pour in one after another, was a harrowing part to behold because of the reality of the illness. Alzheimers can make you forget how to pronounce "wine", where to keep your kitchen utensils, and even make you forget how to put out a fire.
Honestly, I would rather die from a painful disease that toils on my body. But then again, I wouldn't want to live long enough for that to happen. I believe not a lot of things can be quite as scary as losing the memories and the ways of living.
The recent deaths around me awakened the painful realisation that death is imminent, and it is coming; I hate to think of how my funeral will be like, because sometimes a person does not have much choice over matters of his dead body. But if ever I could, I would want to be cremated. Then the ashes released over some beautiful ocean. Or so I think.
Julie Christie was nominated for her role, but she lost to Marion Cotillard, who gave a STUNNING once-in-a-lifetime performance in La Vie en Rose.
A new day begins tomorrow. One should always have the courage to "start over again".
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