favorite movie #103 - holiday edition: the holiday

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #103 - The Holiday (2006) - Iris (Kate Winslet) and Amanda (Cameron Diaz) are severely unlucky at love. To escape their most recent heartbreaks they switch houses on a home-exchange website for the holidays — Iris moving into Amanda's palatial L.A. mansion, where she meets musician Miles (Jack Black), and Amanda into Iris's charming, but very quiet Surrey cottage. Quiet, that is, until Iris's brother Graham (Jude Law) stops by looking for his sister. The Holiday on its surface is a fairly standard rom-com. You'd have to have never seen one before to not guess the outcome. What sets it apart from the pack is the charm of its four leads and the twin holiday backdrops of wintry Surrey and sunny Hollywood. There is also some great supporting work from Eli Wallach, who plays a Classic Old Hollywood screenwriter who teaches Winslet about meet-cutes and how to be a gal with gumption.

 

Holiday connection: Home and life swapping during the holiday season

cameron diaz — the body book

"Oh great," you might think, "Another celebrity diet book." But Cameron Diaz has taken a different spin with The Body Book: The Law of Hunger, the Science of Strength, and Other Ways to Love Your Amazing Body. Yes, it will most likely garner interest because of its celebrity association. But Diaz is not interested in anyone who might pick up this book to not eat or eat less or grab it as a quick guide to losing weight. She wants to celebrate bodies — hers, yours, everyone's.

That sounds a little goofy, and, as Diaz is the first to admit, she is, a little. But there is also a lot of common sense in The Body Book. It can even be viewed as a tour of the human body (primarily geared towards women's bodies), with Diaz sharing anecdotes on how she got herself strong and healthy over the years. Things seemed to come together for her while she was making Charlie's Angels back in 2000. The role required a lot of training, and she had to change the way she ate and the way she worked out to get strong enough for the physically demanding role. She admits that she has always been physically active, which is half the battle to staying healthy, but at the same time her diet was in a shambles — fast food and cheeseburgers seem to have been her go-to cuisine, which resulted in skin and stomach problems.

"If you are what you eat, I was a bean burrito with extra cheese and extra sauce, no onions."

The Body Book, which Diaz has written with the help of Sandra Bark, is divided into three sections, Nutrition, Fitness, and Mind. With the help of many credited experts, Diaz covers all of the body's amazing abilities, from digestion to exercise to sex. She also points out that discipline is at the core of her health regime. One has to be pretty consistent about eating right, moving their body, and getting enough sleep if they want to live long and prosper. Yes, a lot of this is what your mom or grandma has been telling you forever, but it is presented in a witty and enthusiastic manner. It's a modern day self-help textbook, reminding us how the body works — you know, all the stuff you might have dozed through in high school biology class but now might find pretty interesting.  And Diaz wants to get you interested. She is so jazzed about amino acids and the true nature of calories (energy, people!)  and what our bodies have been designed to do that it is hard not to get excited along with her. Plus, she's funny.

"Just because you can put something in your mouth, chew it, swallow it, and then poop it out does not mean it is food. It just means you can chew it, swallow it, and poop it out!"

She has some good tips for folks who need a little push to get started to clean up their diets. She recommends drinking a big bottle of water every morning, first thing — and continuing to drink water throughout the day. She relates why sugary mochaccinos and sodas and the like are just not good enough. She has some simple, practical advice for getting a good night's sleep — create a routine and stick to it, including keeping things quiet and dark and gadget-free. One chapter that really resonated with me was towards the ending of the book, "Unpacking Your Habits," which points out how much more control we have over our choices, our habits, than we think. That afternoon run to Starbucks — do we really need it, or have we convinced ourselves we do because we have chosen to do it so often that it has become a habit? On the plus side, we can take a walk, do some exercise, skip the sugary snack too, make those a habit, if we start do them on a regular basis.

I really liked The Body Book. I have already instilled a new habit inspired by Diaz — drinking a big glass of water first thing when I rise. A lot of the other information shared by Cameron Diaz and her advisers I am taking as a nudge to keep on the healthy path, or to amp things up a little, especially in the realm of getting moving, as a lot of the things I like to do — write, read, watch movies — are sedentary activities. Diaz has obviously had fun putting this book together and I had fun reading what she had to say.

oh baby ... a movie ... just as expected

When you're pregnant it seems that everyone has an opinion, advice, or just something to say about having babies. They get an opportunity to relive their own pregnancy experience, or to regale your pregnant self with some birthing horror story. One of the other things that gets shoved down your throat, I mean suggested, are all those baby advice books, and the one at the top of the must-have list is still What to Expect When You're Expecting. I'm not sure if I got that particular baby bible as a gift, or just zombie-like bought it for myself while I was gestating, but I know that I put it aside pretty quickly. I ended up finding some of the pregnancy calendars online a lot more helpful. After my daughter was born I was drawn more to the extremely old school. but down-to-earth advice of good old Dr. Spock, as well as friends and family. But enough about that. I have no intention of boring you with my pregnancy stories. There's a movie for that.

There is a glimpse of the book early on in the movie What to Expect When You're Expecting, and then it is ditched. What is served up instead of advice, or even a plot, is a hodge-podge of pregnancy vignettes, featuring five couples who live in Atlanta. They are all white, all straight, and all going through pretty typical pre-baby travails. And the film is capped off by the highly predictable in-tandem rush to the hospital, as three of the couples give birth simultaneously. Uh huh. Yawn. Grrr.

The dudes group, cruising through the park.

It's a shame, because there are a few hints that the movie may have had some potential to be funny, if it had been in the hands of (dare I say it) someone like Adam Sandler or Judd Apatow. It's clearly trying to flirt with Bridesmaids Kristen Wiig-like humor with its focus on the hemorrhoids and morning sickness that frequently afflict pregnant women. But it plays it safe and serves up too many stories featuring people that the audience is unlikely to care about. Its two highest-marquee stars, Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez, are featured in completely superfluous story-lines. Diaz plays a Jillian Michaels-like television host who is having a baby with a reality dance show star (Matthew Morrison). Lopez is a highly glamorous professional photographer who wants to adopt a child from Ethiopia, and who wears enormous false eyelashes while she travels there to pick him up; she has a doubtful-about-adopting husband (Rodrigo Santoro), who we all know will be a happy big daddy in the end. Neither couple is highly relatable or amusing.

In a blatant attempt to bring in the youngsters, Chace Crawford and Anna Kendrick play rival food truck owners (talk about trying  to hit all the current trends at once) who find themselves pregnant after a one-time hook-up. They could have and should have been in their own rom-com. The two have some genuine chemistry, and if they were given better material, they could have stolen the movie, but in this silly Valentine's Day-like celebrity cameo kaleidoscope, they are really out of place.

The two couples at the center of the movie are a father (Dennis Quaid) and son (Ben Falcone) whose wives are both expecting (Brooklyn Decker and Elizabeth Banks, respectively). Their storyline gets to the competitive nature of pregnancy, and Banks gets to exhibit all of the stuff that isn't usually rhapsodized about when you're pregnant — flatulence, having to pee all the time, mood swings, etc. Their scenes together are goofy and over-the-top, but at least they are attempting to make the audience laugh. Most of the other plot lines fall very flat.

The only genuinely funny performances in What to Expect When You're Expecting are provided by Chris Rock and his accident-prone toddler. Rock functions as a guru-of-sorts to a local daddy group, who meet for dude time, taking regular strolls in the park with their young-uns. Every time his crew is onscreen is a good time. Paired with Bank's disillusioned mama-to-be, maybe the movie could have really have gone in the direction of pulling the rug out from under all of the "pregnancy is wonderful" stuff we are used to hearing. But it is doubtful that What to Expect When You're Expecting's author Heidi Murkoff would have approved of that interpretation. So what we are left with are some stale baby jokes and the "when I had my baby" stories that people are dying to share, but no one is ever that excited to hear.

dvr quick takes

On a rainy day I caught up with some movies that I had missed or never even heard of before. Here are some quick takes:

The perfect movie to watch while you are deep-cleaning your carpet:

Cameron Diaz gets ready to greet the day

Bad Teacher (2011). It's not horrible, but it's not good. Jason Segel is always a welcome presence and Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, and Lucy Punch have fun with their bad roles, but if you miss some dialogue while you are running the cleaner back and forth you won't really be missing much.

The perfect movie to watch when you are hungry, but you might have to pause it and whip up something in the kitchen, especially the chef's magical trifle dessert:

Dougray Scott serves up a trifle like no other

Love's Kitchen (2011). It's a slight romantic comedy featuring a chef (Dougray Scott) and a restaurant critic (Claire Forlani) who fall in love. Scott and Forlani are a real-life couple, and have undeniable chemistry. The setting and supporting players are great (Simon Callow, Peter Bowles, Caroline Langrishe, Cherie Lunghi), but it all has a made-for-TV quality and the script really isn't up to the actors. Still, it's fun to watch. And Gordon Ramsay even makes an appearance. It's the sort of movie you watch and wait for it to get better, for things to come together, but it never quite does.

The perfect movie to watch when fantasizing about having a romantic liaison at Lake Como:

Antonio Banderas and Liam Neeson contemplate their next move

The Other Man (2008). Liam Neeson discovers that his wife, shoe designer Laura Linney, has been having an affair with another man (Antonio Banderas). Although his daughter (Romola Garai) cautions him not to, he decides to track down the man where he lives, in Milan, and get some answers. The acting again is excellent, as are the Italian locations. But the editing is deliberately confusing, trying for an arty effect at telling the story of a love triangle out of chronological order. It undercuts the performances rather than giving them more meaning. Still, it's worth a look, especially for the one-on-ones between Neeson and Banderas.

button, button ...

Your home is a box. Your car is a box on wheels. You drive to work in it. You drive home in it. You sit in your home, staring into a box. It erodes your soul, while the box that is your body inevitably withers ... then dies. Where upon it is placed in the ultimate box, to slowly decompose.—Frank Langella, in The Box

The Box isn't a great movie. I'm not even sure if it's a good one. But it sure held my attention. It was enthralling. Maybe it was the performances by Langella, Cameron Diaz and one of my favorite actors, James Marsden. Or maybe it was the out-of-this-world set design. I was a child in the seventies, but I never saw patterns like the ones on Diaz's and Marsden's walls and upholstery—but I have to admit I loved them in this movie and found them as intriguing as the convoluted plot. The crazy plot can be blamed on famous sci-fi writer Richard Matheson, best known for I Am Legend, Hell House and Nightmare at 20,00 Feet. The whole film does have an extended Twilight Zone episode feel to it. It doesn't quite successfully pull together the disparate themes of (possible) alien intervention, religion (is Langella a god or a devil?), or existentialism (Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit is an oft-referenced subtext.)

I have an offer to make. If you push the button, two things will happen. First, someone, somewhere in the world, whom you don't know, will die. Second, you will receive a payment of one million dollars. You have 24 hours.—Frank Langella, in The Box

But mostly I keep going back to the visuals. Some of the film's scenes have the color and tone of an old Kodachrome print. That crazy wallpaper. The scene at the school where Cameron Diaz is challenged by a creepy student. Gigantic rectangular shapes of water. Arcade Fire's creepy-beautiful score.

I had to laugh at a scene that was full of danger and suspense, but also humor (It's a Christmas movie!)—a waving Santa Claus (creepier than any clown, and we all know how creepy clowns are) blocks the hero's progress in the middle of a road, causing the car to crash. I remembered at that moment that the film was directed by Donnie Darko's Richard Kelly.

Where can I get that wallpaper?Sometimes a movie can be scary and funny and not make any sense and you can still enjoy it. It may never be on the "greatest movies" [arbitrary] list, but it's still worth watching. If movies weren't so g-d expensive we wouldn't have such high expectations, be so hard on them. I guess because it's getting rarer and rarer for me to rush out and see a movie first-run (I'll make an exception for Harry Potter, of course) I can be a little more open-minded. I've only invested a DVD rental or my monthly cable bill at most to see it, and not a six dollar soda and 12 dollar popcorn and parking, etc., etc. So I didn't think The Box "owed me" anything. Not even, as Dr. Evil might say, "One Meeelllyun dollars!") I just found it interesting. Interesting enough to recommend. Maybe even interesting enough to see when it rolls by again on cable, if I'm in the mood for a puzzler. And great set design.

Film is ephemeral. It's a shame that it is so industry- and profit-based. Taking a quick glance at the box office receipts on Wikipedia it seems that The Box cost about $30 million dollars to make. It made its money back and then some. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus cost the same amount of money to make. It also made its money back, but like The Box, not from its U.S. release, but predominantly from receipts outside North America. But both movies, I'm sure, are considered by Hollywood to be flops. I love movies, but this way of thinking sucks.

Anyway, check out The Box—not the greatest movie you'll ever watch—intriguing, interesting, and original. How's that for a conundrum/recommendation?

the magpie effect

previously published on Associated Content.

All that glitters . . . musings on the Rachel Zoe Project

I have always liked things shiny. Baubles, bangles and beads. Is that the reason I find myself, like the proverbial magpie, drawn to watch the Rachel Zoe Project? I share this impulse for bright things with the celebrity stylist, who said in her latest installment, (paraphrasing here) that "it doesn't matter how great the dress is, it's all about the jewels." Looking at the results of her styling efforts it's hard to disagree. The jewelry, which she considers "the most fun," was the best part if the show, and I suspect, the best part of her job. She actually looked animated, practically giddy as she sorted through tens of thousands of dollars worth of gaudy gems to adorn her clients, as opposed to her perpetual glum demeanor when faced with finding a designer gown (or just trying to get a sample delivered.) Trying to select the "right dress" is almost always agony for Zoe and her staff.

It would be easy to make fun of her, and her cockeyed world and its values. Many do, but what is probably most surprising is how willing Zoe herself is to poke fun of her image (which she is also so desperately trying to promote.) Watching her deadly serious depression at the LA "downpour" that might ruin her clients' red carpet moment—well it's hard not to snigger. But the tiny woman takes her job seriously and she does want her charges to look their best. It may be a superficial world that she inhabits, but it is true that a "great red carpet moment," the right dress (matched with fabulous baubles) might actually boost the career of an actress whose latest films may not have been huge at the box office.


Most of what Zoe does is behind the scenes, and I suspect, still off camera, as what the audience gets to see is a lot of worrying and kvetching, but not a lot of actual legwork or even schmoozing of new clients. The editing of the show wants to add the drama by hinting at troubles with previous assistant Taylor (drop that - she's gone and bringing her up is boring) and intimations of her marriage possibly suffering as a consequence of her pursuit of success. We are only two shows into the season and her husband Rodger is whiny and downright pissy about wanting to be a dad and his fear that her clock is losing ticks by the moment. There is also a lot of proclaiming on his part of his masculinity and weariness of always being surrounded by girls and gays (protest much?) Do we need this storyline? I might be a tad more sympathetic to "his story" and the human angle the show is trying to push if he didn't (I assume) let his wife style him with white flowing scarves and get his hair cut like Justin Bieber. Who needs it, just get back to the clothes.

No offense to the domestic discord or bliss that may occur in their white-on-white world (their furniture reminds me of Sex and the City's Charlotte and her horror that her husband Harry might sit his naked butt down on her pristine white furniture), but the real appeal, the real "story" of the show is the suspension of disbelief that Zoe and her career can actually exist and the vicarious thrill of imagining playing dress up with all of those designer samples. Even though she is proving her clout this year by trotting out some of her bigger-name clients (Demi Moore, Kate Hudson, Cameron Diaz), it is mostly the inexplicably eternally stressed Zoe that fascinates.

What was the most interesting moment of the second episode? After all the flurry and build-up of Zoe and crew to dress four women for the Golden Globes, after Zoe's frantic rushing around to fit each actress, she didn't hang around all the lights and cameras but quietly returned home in time to watch the pre-show on television, with her buds, just like any other fan, albeit insecure that her husband might make fun of her and her love of fashion (he did and does in his soliloquies) or not like her work (he actually was quite supportive.)

Suddenly it all seemed like one big dream. Is Zoe delusional? Did she really do all or any of what we just watched? Who's to say that Jennifer Garner didn't dress herself? It's the most ephemeral of careers to fairy-godmother these Cinderellas. No wonder Zoe has decided lately that she might also like to go to the ball.

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