Saying Yes to the Designer Dress

Family Movie Night

 

By Karyn Bowman

 

One of the things I love most about Oscar night is the parade of dresses.

 

image from missuniversesketch.blogspot.com

There is nothing like seeing what styles are making it to the red carpet. Beautiful wide skirts, strapless bodices, bright colors, muted colors, beading and ruffles galore.

 

It is enough to make this clothes-horse wannabe die and go to heaven.

 

I loved the structured Art Deco gowns that  Halle Berry, Naomi Watts, and Nicole Kidman wore. Anne Hathaway’s simple pink sheath was perfect for her body. Octavia Spencer looked fabulous. And Jane Fonda looked great for a woman in her late seventies.

 

Perhaps that is why I am always fascinated by the beautiful costumes in the movies.

 

For sheer numbers of bridesmaid dresses, there is nothing comparable to 27 Dresses. This romantic comedy stars Katherine Heigl as a woman who has been a bridesmaid 27 times with horrible dresses to match. While there is a great montage scene in which Heigl puts on each dress, the movie is about this young woman who is having trouble finding the right guy after a terrible rejection.

 

Image from IMDb.com

Another movie that is more recent is actually an homage to the fashion industry. The Devil Wears Prada started life as a whiny book by a woman who worked for the infamous editor of Vogue. The movie, which stars Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway as the editor and assistant, makes our key personnel into real people who have reasons for being as tough as nails and so malleable. But the other part of this movie is the great clothes that Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt wear throughout.

 

One of my favorite movies during the glamorous age of Hollywood is Mame starring Rosalind Russell as the intrepid and unstoppable Auntie Mame. This movie is non-stop tour-de-force that tells the story of Mame Dennison who becomes guardian of her nephew during the end of the roaring twenties. They adore and care for each other when the party ends with the great depression. Russell is great but so is her wardrobe that surprisingly does not reflect the style of the 1920s.

 

We forgive this aspect because in the 1950s, costume design was bent on making great outfits that were not necessarily historically correct. There is nothing that remotely looks like the loose dresses with the flat chests of the 20s. I thought most of the movie took place in the 50s until the portion about the Great Depression.

 

As time passed that would change. Costumes became breathtakingly accurate.  Marie Antoinette starring Kirsten Dunst as the doomed queen featured incredibly intricately detailed dresses and shoes. There are sublime moments in this costume drama as a young princess learns to be a queen while walking the treacherous path of court and public opinion.

 

Grace Kelly in the final scene of “Rear Window,” Image from clothesonfilm.com.

But perhaps my favorite movie for wonderful costuming is Rear Window starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly. This thriller follows a photographer, grounded at home with a broken leg, as he begins to investigate the odd comings and goings of a particular neighbor. Helping him in this adventure is his girlfriend, an editor at a famous fashion magazine. Each scene has Kelly in a gorgeous outfit that accents her figure and is fitting for the moment.

 

At the end of the movie, she is by Stewart’s side as he recovers from two broken legs. We see the high fashion maven in jeans and a cinnamon-colored shirt reading a book on Asia until her boyfriend is asleep. It is a fitting end to a movie that is both suspenseful and beautiful.

 

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle.

Hoping For an Oscar Win

Family Movie Night

 

By Karyn Bowman

 

As Oscar night creeps closer, I would love to say I am going to be in that audience. I would love to work as a seat filler just so for a moment I could sit by Jennifer Lawrence or Meryl Streep, Christoph Walz or maybe even Ben Affleck.

 

Poster Image from IMDb.com

The closest I will ever get to these people is through the TV screen or having their latest movie in my hot little hands. And this week when Ben Affleck’s movie, Argo, comes to the home theater market, I plan to do just that.

 

The story is about the Iranian hostage crisis, the one that took place in 1979. Miraculously, six people managed to escape and hide in the Canadian embassy. The trick would be getting these people out along with the Ambassador, his wife, and their housekeeper.

 

Affleck’s character is an intelligence consultant who comes up with a crazy plan after watching a sci-fi movie on TV with his son. They will create a phony movie company and state they are searching for exotic locations for a movie like Star Wars. When they get permission to go into Iran, the pieces begin to fall into place to get these people out.

 

It is an incredible story, even more so because it really happened. However, the American participation had to be unknown and unacknowledged for many years. As you hear the details it becomes clear that this has to be a movie.

 

This movie has been winning awards from the Golden Globes, the British Academy of Film, the Writers Guild and the Directors Guild. This could be the movie that takes home the prize on Sunday night when the golden Oscars are handed out.

 

To me, this will be an even bigger prize for Ben Affleck. While he and Matt Damon won a statue for the screenplay of Good Will Hunting, Affleck followed that up with years of blockbuster movies that were not very good. Then there was the bad press he suffered while dating Jennifer Lopez.

 

Bennifer

 

Poster Image from IMDb.com

That is when he made Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Gigli, and Surviving Christmas. The last one may have been one of the most unfunny movies about Christmas I have ever seen. Then in 2005, Affleck disappeared for a while. He and Jennifer broke up, he started dating Jennifer Garner while stepping out of the spotlight. It was as if he realized we were as sick of him as he might have been about himself.

 

Sometimes, we all need to step back, re-evaluate, and come back stronger.

 

Affleck did just that in a little movie called Hollywoodland in which he portrays Superman actor George Reeves who died under mysterious circumstances. For Affleck, it was a return to the artist he started out being who had matured during the time fame went to his head.

 

He also directed his first full-length feature with Gone Baby Gone, winning critical approval. His second movie, The Town, was also well received. Argo is his third effort that is winning awards. In his personal life, Affleck married Garner and started having kids. Nothing like having kids to truly ground you.

 

I am hoping on Sunday night once again Affleck will get to come on stage to win that little gold statue. I like to see people rewarded for doing good work after a period of growing and re-defining your life.

 

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle.

Sultry Valentine’s Day

Family Movie Night 

By Karyn Bowman

 

Image from IMDb.com

Every year, when it gets close to Valentine’s Day I always suggest renting Return to Me. The movie stars David Duchovny and Minnie Driver as two Chicagoans who meet by chance but have a deeper connection than either is aware.

 

It would complicated to explain but let’s just say it involves a heart transplant and a terrible car accident. The movie was written and directed by Bonnie Hunt who used to be a nurse.

 

I like the performances by the cast and the sincerity of the script. I know the places where the movie was filmed and love that people get messy. Life is never neat and clean which sometimes needs to be reflected in the movies.

 

It is a very sweet love story. And that is fine most of the time. However, sometimes, we need something a little sultry. We want to live on the edge just a little bit.

 

Maybe not as crazy as Something Wild starring Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels in which the yuppie’s life is taken over by the wild woman. It is all fun and games until her ex-husband, who is a bit crazy, returns.

 

No, I am thinking sultry as in Lauren Bacall. Is she a good girl or a bad girl or is it simply hard to tell. She drinks hard, lives hard, and has her own sense of right and wrong. Throughout it all she is beautiful in a mysterious sort of way.

 

Some of you might be asking who is Lauren Bacall. Some might remember her as the mother in the Barbara Streisand movie, The Mirror Has Two Faces. But those of us with longer memories have seen her paired up with her first husband, Humphrey Bogart. She and Bogey were a part of the Rat Pack in the beginning. They lived the glamorous life in a Hollywood that is far different from today.

 

Poster Image from IMDb.com

Recently, some tv show featured a clip in which a beautiful woman flirted with a man by asking him if he knew how to whistle. Her dark sultry voice lets him know she is there for the taking but he has to put in a little effort. He only had to whistle.

 

“You know how to do that, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.”

 

That line from To Have or Have Not stops most men in their tracks, especially when delivered by Bacall in her film debut looking like the beautiful model that she was at the time.

 

Her sultry presence was paired again with Bogart in The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and Key Largo. Bogart and Bacall were a very popular movie couple with the movie-going public. While the story might focus of the darker side of life, these noir films also featured deep rich characters.

 

None of these are kids friendly in regards to context. Most kids simply do not have the patience to sit through these old movies. But for film buffs, it is a chance to relive movie-making in a period that seems to be so much more glamorous than the current time.

 

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle.

Working Up to Animated Oscar

Family Movie Night

 

By Karyn Bowman

 

Can I admit that I have not kept up with movie viewing as much as I should?

 

I have been watching some movies. The other week a friend and I went to see Les Mis. But let’s be honest, the movie that is the most grand at being sad is the one that will win the Oscar. The one that tries to state the most about the human condition and its actors will be the one that wins.

 

This year I have tried to focus more on the animated features with the thought that I have seen those.

 

Once I looked at the list I realized I had seen just one – Brave.

 

Judging an animated movie means I am not looking at just the story and how well it is told and portrayed. I am also looking at the animation. What about the animation of a particular film makes it better than any of the others out there?

 

This year, the big feat was creating the curls of Merida’s hair in Brave.

 

Poster Image from IMDb.com

I assume that most animated characters have straight hair or a helmut of hair because it is very detailed work to make curly hair. Even the Japanese anime have hair that is a consistent collection of angles and sharp points. This way, hair does not have to change very much.

 

With curly hair, the story is different. Strands move with every tip of the head. You don’t have to merely move the shadow on the head, you have to move over 100 strands of corkscrew curls. That takes effort.

 

We did rent Frankenweenie after the nominations came out. The story is about a boy named Victor who re-animates his dog, Sparky, after the pet is hit by a car. But as competition for the upcoming science fair heats up, the other kids want the secret to Victor’s success. But problems occur, monsters are created, and only Victor and Sparky can solve the problem.

 

I like the stop action-animation, it worked smoothy and integrated well with the storyline. I also liked the black-and-white color palate which was a reference to every monster movie that would have inspired director Tim Burton.  This movie had many references that the parents or movie buffs would have recognized more readily than the kids for whom this movie was aimed.

 

I found the story to be very sweet, how actual love of a project makes it successful in terms of ending up the way you want it. But overall, I was under whelmed by Frankenweenie. It is a good movie, it is not a great movie. While that is good enough for deciding what to watch at home, is it enough for the grandest award in the film industry?

 

I would love to see Wreck-it Ralph before it completely leaves theaters. It is possible to rent The Pirates and ParaNorman but to be honest, neither of those movies appeal to me or my kids. Every time I say “Let’s get The Pirates,” they say “let’s not.”

 

When it comes to family viewing, sometimes what you want more than an award nominated film is something everyone wants to watch.

 

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle.

Soon Pitchers and Catchers Will Report.

Family Movie Night

 

By Karyn Bowman

 

While we are dealing with crazy weather, there is one constant that makes winter less bleak for me.

 

Baseball.

 

In mid-February, I do not know any sweeter words than “pitchers and catchers report.”

 

Bring on sub-zero temperatures, ice storms, and big thaws all in the same week. Bring on snow and rain and sleet because soon, very soon, the players will take the field in that spring ritual that leads us into a summertime of hope.

 

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball.”

 

Image by D. Harder

James Earl Jones states this while telling Kevin Costner that people will pay money to come to his farm in the middle of Iowa and sit on the bleachers to watch a field. Perhaps they see the players, perhaps they don’t. But what Field of Dreams, the best baseball movie ever, seemed to understand is that baseball is the undercurrent of our lives. It connects us to other people whether we are a participant or observer.

 

Bull Durham is the absolute best baseball movie because while the game might be the setting, it is dreams that are found or lost that drives the plot.

 

Another baseball movie that usually makes the list is Major League with Charlie Sheen and Tom Berenger. The driving force to this baseball movie is the desire to stick it to an unfeeling owner determined to have a losing season so she can easily move the team to a different city.

 

The latest baseball movie to come to the home theater market is Trouble With The Curve starring Clint Eastwood as an aging baseball scout. He is having issues with his eyes which is not good for a man who watches baseball games to find the next best player.

 

But he has other problems as well. He does not believe in computers as a way of predicting players. That makes some in management leery of depending on a guy who will not adapt to new technology. It makes his boss wonder what is going on and leads him to call Clint’s daughter, played by Amy Adams.

 

She became a lawyer to please him, except she has bitterness that has to do with the death of her mother and his abandonment of her as a child. But at this critical time in her career when she is being considered for partnership, she feels the need to take a few days to go with her father on a scouting trip.

 

I enjoyed the movie because there are some great moments between Adams and Eastwood. Justin Timberlake, John Goodman and Matthew Lillard provide good support as well.  But sports movies are built on clichés and this one has too many that are easy and pat. New technology being bested by the ‘old way.’ A trite conflict that ends a relationship at its start. A discovery of a player hinted at throughout the movie. A prospect who is demanding and arrogant in the worst ways.

 

Most baseball movies are really meant for adults, the language and/or context is saltier or deeper than most kids under the age of 10 are interested in hearing. That is true with Trouble With The Curve as a parent and his adult child try to reconcile what happened with the here and now.

 

If there was ever a great movie about baseball for kids, it has to be The Sandlot. This film came out in 1993 and did not seem like a big deal. It is about a bunch of kids who played ball in an empty sandlot everyday. When a new kid moves into the neighborhood, he lies about knowing how to play. But soon he is taken under the wing of the best player and that summer becomes memorable for many reasons.

 

Like many movies that seem like they are about nothing, this one brings back childhood memories that are sweet and horrible and the shaping forces of our life with baseball as the background.

 

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle.

 

 

 

Going with an Old Favorite

Family Movie Night

 

By Karyn Bowman

 

There are days when all one wants to do is watch a favorite movie or genre.

 

Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, Image from IMDb.com

The other day, I caught a snippet of You’ve Got Mail starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. One of the kids came through and said “oh, it is that movie.” I was at first amazed that he could identify the movie. But then he commented that I am always renting this movie or the Mamma Mia! flick.

 

I admit that these are the two genres that I love the most and turn to when I am in need of comfort. We all have our favorites. That would explain why marathons happen all of the time on some TV channels. That might explain why the Godfather movies are constantly playing. Fans know them, love them, quote them.

 

Go to the Mattresses.

 

It’s not personal, it just business.

 

Perhaps one of the reasons why I love You’ve Got Mail is the discussions about The Godfather and how it fits into daily life – at least for some people. I like that Meg Ryan tries to live some of these phrases and then realizes how some of it does not fit for her. As she puts her life back together after her business is driven to failure by a big box book store, she tells the owner of the big box that at the very least business should be personal.

 

It is personal because it is your life’s work; your heart and soul goes into creating a business. For me that is the turning point of the movie when Ryan explains why business is personal.

 

Poster Image from IMBd.com

I was thinking about that on Saturday as we watched The Avengers again. It has become a family favorite for the quick lines, the surprising depth of characters, and the great action scenes.  We love it for the scenes we have seen several times, for the moments that Hulk purposely hits Thor or Tony Stark baits Loki. We love the schawarma scene at the very end.

 

Favorite movies give us comfort because we know what is going to happen with each scene. We know the scary parts, the parts that make us happy. With favorite movies we know every line, every expression, and every song. With each viewing we are reminded why we love the movie and find something new that we have never noticed before.

 

That is why I watch certain holiday movies and why some of my friends watch horror/scary movies. The comfort we receive from the familiar also has something to do with the need for successful problem solving. Every movie sets up a problem of some sort -  trying a new romance, saving the world from evil domination, solving a mystery regarding a crime or supernatural forces – that must be solved.

At the end of the movie the world has been saved and we feel good. It all works out in the end, just as we wish for real life.

 

 

 

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle.

Sing It, Anne, Sing It!

Family Movie Night

One of the great things about being a parent is all of the things we do with our kids.

Just this past weekend, we went to the RV and Boat Show at McCormick Place. There the kids climbed on boats, tramped through RV’s, and planned a life of camping as we looked at pop-ups.

Sara and Sam had fun jumping and running in a floating tube while David explored a Coast Guard boat. All of us marveled at beautiful wooden boats.

On Saturday, the kids insist we have a picnic outside while the weather was still warm. We watched the colder temperatures roll in with darker clouds but for that moment we ate our lunch outside. Who does that in January in a northern state?

Later that same day, I took in a movie with a girlfriend.

This was not a movie meant for small kids. And sometimes that’s OK, parents should have movies that are meant just for them. Sometimes we want adult situations, adult context and content. Some of us adults want music and soaring vocals to accompany a grand story.

Anne Hathaway as Fantine in Les Miserable, image from IMDb.com

Les Miserables is a movie about the poor in post -revolutionary France. Life is hard and unforgiving of mistakes made in your youth. Victor Hugo created conflicted characters, people who do wrong in the hope they are helping to do right.

We have characters who acknowledge their sins, characters who believe they are acting correctly in all circumstances. There is a political power struggle and love-at-first sight. We see unrequited love and a parent’s love for a child that pushes a woman to the brink.

The story starts with men working as slaves to bring in a big ship that has been damaged. But the focus goes on one prisoner who is about to go free on parole. That man is Jean Valjean, imprisoned for stealing bread and trying to escape.

His greatest moment of salvation comes when a priest forgives his sins, even after being released from jail and stealing from the church. But the greatest love of his life starts when he agrees to take care of a child left behind by a former employee.

We will have battles of will, battles of faith, battles against the harsh realities of life. Mixed in all that are horrifying moments when a woman loses her pride, a man loses his purpose, another realizes that he was only taking care of a child before she found her true love. And then they sing about how their hearts are broken and love did not go the way they had hoped.

Just when it gets too heavy, we have Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham-Carter to lighten things up as the inn keepers who are willing to lighten their customers’ pockets.

So is this movie worth your time? Is it Oscar worthy?

Yes IF you are a fan of musicals. Yes IF you do not mind sitting through a two and a half hour movie. Yes IF you do not mind going through a slow spot. Yes IF you love great singing and acting from Hugh Jackman.

If you prefer chase scenes, explosions, and fighting with weapons such as swords I am going to disappoint you and let you know those things to not happen in this movie.

If you are looking for commentary on the human condition, if you are looking for a testimony of faith, if you want to see a person die with dignity then this is the Oscar-nominated movie you have been waiting for.

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle.

On The Hunt

With Christmas over, the hunt for perfect gifts is over as well.

As I have been hunting around for presents, I have taken on a near ‘buyer beware’ attitude. The other  week when I was in the stores I thought I had found the perfect present for my mother.

Image from IMDb.com

It was a “Sherlock Holmes” set on DVD with four movies, episodes from an old TV show, and a featurette. Right on the box was a picture of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. These two men were and will always be what I think of first when I hear “Holmes and Watson.”

On a closer look, I read the titles and realized that Nigel Bruce was in only one of the movies. The Hound of the Baskervilles in the set which meant these were all of the lesser movies. That was very disappointing. So I put the box back on the shelf and moved on. If I am to give my mother a box set of Sherlock Holmes movies, Nigel Bruce and Basil Rathbone have to be together.

Thanks to the Guy Ritchie movies starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as the British detecting duo, interest in Sherlock Holmes has been renewed. Ritchie’s version of the detective is less clean, less proper than Rathbone’s version. Then again, Rathbone was a Shakespearian actor and carried that Victorian gravitas with him.

I like the Downey Jr. version of Sherlock, it makes him more approachable and understandable in some respects. I see a man who has many interests, many abilities but with a touch of the lack of social niceties. He knows enough how to be in society but only because he remembers what happens when it does not work out well.

There is a new edition of Holmes on TV in the CBS show Elementary starring Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu as the detecting pair. The premise is that Sherlock has recently left rehab and Watson is a former doctor who is his ‘sober companion.’  The British citizen has a beautiful but messy grey stone and consults on cases with the New York City police. His contact there is played by Aiden Quinn.

Image from IMDb.com

Sherlock is rude, brusque, incredibly smart and highly annoying. Watson is constantly frustrated at his behavior, amazed at his deduction abilities, and constantly thwarted in her efforts to help Sherlock on his path to sobriety. But they work well together as partners when it comes to solving crimes. The writing is crisp and fast moving without giving a person whiplash. There is not a box set of this series – yet. I tend to watch it on my computer since I never get to watch it when it is actually broadcasted on Thursday nights.

The other night, the husband and I went out to see a different British detective in the movies. We finally got out to see Skyfall starring Daniel Craig and Dame Judi Dench. The opening sequence of this movie is worth the price of admission. The story focuses more on M and her career at MI6 but Bond is right there in nearly scene trying to figure out who is trying to destroy M.

This movie still has those fantastical chase scenes and an incredible villain in Javier Bardem. But the realistic point are the meetings and hearings that M is forced to attend to give testimony regarding her agency and if it is necessary any more. I was thrilled with all aspects of this movie and heartily recommend it to action movie fans. In my mind, Craig may be the best Bond after Sean Connery.

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle.

Making Do

Family Movie Night

by Karyn Bowman

One of the problems of renting movies from the store in town is that the movie I want to see is not always back and ready when I am ready.

Case in point, Sunday I was ready to watch The Odd Life of Timothy Green starring Jennifer Gardner and Joel Eddgerton.

I wanted to watch a life re-affirming movie, one that reminds me a of the joys that are mixed in with all of the sorrows.  The story is about a childless couple who write down all of the aspects of their dream child that they have not been able to conceive. Then they take the papers, put them in a box and bury the dream in the back yard. Imagine their surprise when a child comes from that spot who slowly reveals himself to be all of the things they dreamed. That was the movie I was hoping to see.

What I saw instead was the movie box with an empty hook for the tag.

Someone had beat me to the movie, someone was enjoying it but I was not.

Bummer.

That is when I went with my second choice, Dark Shadows starring Johnny Depp.

I had put this movie on my list of safe scares. Trust me, there are things here to scare a little kid but not a tweener or anyone older.

Poster Image from IMDb.com

A re-vamp of the 1960s soap opera, this movie brings Barnabas Collins (Depp) back to his mansion in Maine after being trapped for nearly 200 years. His goal is to bring greatness back to his surviving family members. Elizabeth Collins (Michelle Pfeiffer) is the strong matriarch raising her daughter while Roger (Jonny Lee Miller) is the weak willed patriarch more interested in lifting money than making it. Nor is he interested in his son, David,  who misses the mother who died at sea.

The family appears to be plagued by a curse. Their livelihood has failed, they are barely keeping the manor together. Elizabeth hires a new nanny for David who fits in perfectly, maybe too perfectly. But the curse is really a series of problems caused by vengeful former lover of Barnabas who has lived as long as he has and worked to create a fishing empire.

What works is Johnny Depp as Barnabas. He delivers lines well and remains true to the character, with the exception of one or two scenes that are entertaining but do not work. However, when he is paired with Pfeiffer the air crackles and pops. They share the same goal and intensity of saving the family. There are hidden layers for nearly every character that makes you want to keep watching.

However, I find there are some glaring problems with big holes in the plot and characters that do not stay true to themselves. I wanted more Victoria, David and Liz, less Doctor Hoffman. I wanted more gothic atmosphere and less killing.

For me this movie was a miss while my 15-year-old thought it was a hit. Perhaps it is a case of great style, little substance.

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle.

La, La, La, La, Laaaaa

Family Movie Night

by Karyn Bowman

This past weekend, some of the women at my church got together for a different kind of women’s fellowship.

We had a cookie party.

Each woman brought either cookie dough or frosting. We had sugar cookies, gingerbread, ranger cookies and red velvet cake cookies. In four hours we made dozens of cookies with nine varieties in total. After cookies had been frosted and decorated, each woman took a variety of cookies home. We had the ovens going until all of the dough was gone.

Somehow the cookies lasted through Monday evening at our house. I am not sure they will last another day. But what was important was not coming home with a ton of cookies, it was the fellowship with other women.

We talked about family traditions, Christmas legends and Susan Boyle. Then there were discussions about jobs, blood drives and church events. By the end of the evening we got around to talking about Les Miserable which opens at the end of the month. Soon we were making plans to get together to watch this spectacle.

Image from IMDb.com

Have you seen the commercials? Just Anne Hathaway singing sends chills up and down my spine.

The story is about a man who escapes parole and makes a new life for himself. But then a factory worker who has become a prostitute to support her child makes him promise to care for her child. He agrees and that decision leads to trying events in the future. The Oscar buzz for this movie is already crazy and all we have seen are the trailers and various clips.

While this movie is more of an opera because most of the dialogue is sung, it is still considered a musical. Most musicals have songs as interludes, pushing forward the emotions of characters.

The best musical of all time does just this with songs that were not written specifically for the movie. Singin’ In The Rain was a collection of songs that directors Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen liked and wanted to use for a revue-like movie. Each song leads us to know how a character feels at that moment.

One of my favourite musicals is Mamma Mia! Perfect for when I am cleaning house, I love watching this adaptation of the Broadway show starring Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan because most of the music is toe tapping fun. Perhaps it is too hedonistic for some, it also delves into the emotions of those who are wondering if life has passed them by while they were simply living and raising a family.

Another musical I love is Moulin Rouge starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. Set in 1899, McGregor is a young man who comes to the big city and immediately falls in love with the star of a show. But, being that this is based on La Boheme, she is a courtesan. She should not give in to love as she supports the theatre and allows Kidman to star in the shows.

And like most operas, she has a secret. One that is not that secret and will kill her. We know this going in but who care? The songs, modern and anachronistic, are major spectacles. Even the simple songs fills the heart while the dancing is incredible.

That is what a musical should do, lift your heart, take you to a higher level of emotion, make your spine shiver because the singing is incredible.

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle.