Review A to Z - Sweet Home Alabama (2002)

Here we are! With another guest post for my little blog. This time I have got a movie review from Kajal Kapur. 

I first got to know Kajal when she did a story for Ultimate Blog Challenge. While I was writing (read struggling and failing) a story too, she did a wonderful story with right surprises and perfect end. 

I have been a regular visitor to her blog Rainbow hues since then.

A few weeks ago I saw that her blog wasn't doing A to Z and requested her to be a guest blogger, and I got to know that she was doing the challenge through her other blog Movie Masala. 

Here is her review of Sweet Home Alabama

Sweet Home Alabama 

Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas, Patrick Dempsey, Candice Bergen

Director: Andy Tennant

Music: George Fenton

There are romantic movies and there are comedies and then there are some movies that fall in both these categories and yet stand on their own. This one, for sure (for me) falls in that category.  I fell in love…and then I fell in love with this movie. And this stays as one of my all time favorite movies. In spite of how clichéd this movie seems, it is very close to my heart and shall stay for a very long time, I believe.

Melanie Smooter (Reese Witherspoon) and Jake Perry (Josh Lucas) are childhood sweethearts and are married but Melanie takes off to New York City to fulfill her dream of becoming a fashion designer. She changes her last name to Carmichael and also gets engaged to the mayor’s son Andrew (Patrick Dempsey) and does not tell him that she is still married to Jake back home. She takes off to meet her parents with the intention of finally getting a divorce from Jake back in Alabama, which he has been evading since the last seven years. Jake refuses to sign the papers and suggests her to spend some time with her parents.

Melanie spends some time with her family and friends and feels that she has only moved away from the place physically but her heart still connects with the local people and her old friends.  She begins to understand how well she is still rooted to her hometown. In the mean time, the mayor Kate Hennings (Candice Bergen) sends her assistant to check the family background of Melanie. While Melanie is at her friend Bobby Ray’s place, where she had gone to apologize for her misbehavior with him, the mayor’s assistant discovers her. She lies to him that the plantation belongs to her family.

Simultaneously Jake, upset with her behavior with their mutual friends, signs the divorce papers for her. Melanie learns from a friend that Jake had once gone to New York to meet her because he was still in love with her. She finds her heart melting and confesses this to her dead dog when she goes to the cemetery. Jake and Melanie chat for a while and Melanie on realizing that she still loves Jake and tries to kiss him. Andrew also follows Melanie to her town and discovers that she is already married to Jake. Melanie’s father explains the situation to Andrew and he agrees to get married to her in Alabama. On the day of her wedding, Melanie realizes that she cannot marry Andrew since she still loves Jake and follows her to the same beach where they used to play as kids and had promised to be married to each other. Jake and Melanie finally kiss and make up.

As I said before, the movie is highly clichéd and hence on the surface looks too easy. Indeed it is but it has moments that melt your heart and dialogues that live with me even today. Yes, like some of my favorite rom-coms, I have seen this one multiple times as well and remember the dialogues even now. Here I reprise some of the moments:

Melanie: The truth is I gave my heart away a long time ago, my whole heart, and I never really got it back.

Melanie: You're the first boy I ever kissed, Jake, and I want you to be the last.

Jake: Since when does it have to be one or the other? You can have roots and wings, Mel.

Jake: Nobody finds their soul mate when they're ten. I mean, where's the fun in that, right?

Young Melanie: What do you want to marry me for anyhow?

Young Jake: So I can kiss you anytime I want.

Melanie: And don't even pretend like you missed me.

Jake: Oh, I missed you all right, but at this range, my aim is bound to improve.

Stella: You know for someone whose been holding onto something for so long, you're pretty quick to let it go.

Jake: I can't control her, any more than I can control the weather.

Lurlynn: It's funny how things don't turn out...

Melanie: ...It's funny how they do.

Jake: C'mon, I wanna show you something.

Melanie: I can't.

Jake: Can't? Or won't?

Melanie: Both.

Jake: The girl I knew used to be fearless.

Melanie: The girl you knew didn't have a life.

Jake: Guess you better get on with it then.

Well, for someone who’s taken away to the big city chasing her dreams while her heart stays back, I made a connect with this one immediately. Also the tag line  “Sometimes What You're Looking For Is Right Where You Left It ” did it for me totally. You gotto check it out for sure. Here’s why: 

Review A to Z – Oh My God!

Oh My God! is one of those rare movies which I hear being mentioned every now and then even after two years of release. I was supposed to review a place today, but I made a last moment change in plan and chose to write about this movie as I heard two people speak about how it changed their perspective.

1. My mother called me on eight day of navratra and we were discussing what should I cook for kanya pujan. She agreed that there is no point in cooking halva and rather I should give some fruits and nutritious biscuits to these girls. A change in opinion I see. Credit – to a thought provoked by the movie.

2. A colleague narrated how he no longer offers milk packet to lord Shiva every Monday. He rather offers a fraction of that milk to the God and gives rest to a poor guy near his house. Credit – a revelation on wastage of milk shown in the movie.

I rarely watch movies and I consider myself as bad movie reviewer. Therefore, I avoid pondering over the message that movie provided and review until it is absolutely necessary. However, Oh My God! is not just a movie. It is a small revolution, a message to all. It is not just entertainment, it is thought provoking. Moreover, it is balanced.

Paresh Rawal is a wonderful actor and he has done complete justice to the role of Kanjiram. The bit on Krishna was a bit hilarious but it added life to the movie. Dialogue and script of the movie are powerful and leave a long lasting impression.

But if you are thinking it is a comment on religion, you are mistaken. It is not a question on existence of God or comment of any religious belief. It evaluates each religion in a neutral light and only questions the elaborate practices that take place in name of religion.

It isn’t easy to make a movie that is balanced to all religion, but even being a Hindu, I didn’t feel it was anti Hindu and one has to admit that it displayed truth and nothing else.

As a three hour movie for which I shelled out a good portion of my entertainment budget, it is a paisa vasool. It is a remake of Man who Sued the God but I haven't seen it. Have you seen either of the two movies? What is your opinion?

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Linking it to UBC and A to Z challenge.

Have you found Shades of Life on Facebook yet? Please check it out here. 

Please take out time to read more about the featured blogger for the month of April here.

Guests are always welcomed at Shades of Life. Drop me a line at sugandha118@gmail.com and I would love to share your thoughts here.

Reviews A to Z – The Devil wears Prada

I am not a big fan of movie adaptions of a famous book. One of the few movies that I like even after having read the book is Devil wears Prada.

Maybe it has to do with my love for Meryl Streep or it has to do with a wonderful acting of Anne Hathaway. But to me Devil wears Prada as a movie is a better version of the book.

The Devil wears Prada is a story of a naive young woman comes to New York and scores a job as the assistant to one of the city's biggest magazine editors, the ruthless and cynical Miranda Priestly.

Of course you can’t see the pencil skirts and high heels of the movie in the book, neither can you shabby hairstyle and out of shape bag of Andy. However, the movie depicts exactly what your mind forms when you read of the ramp, the lunch and the meetings.

I especially love the scene where she goes shopping selecting clothes from samples that came from best designers. The fashion student in me goes OOOH over the labels and designers.

To spill out a secret, I saw this movie twice and took a note of brand names that were dropped in during the movie. It was one of my first to hear of Alexander McQueen.  

It is one of it kinds in the category of Comedy and Drama.

It is a good 3.5/5 for me.

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Linking it to UBC and A to Z challenge.

Have you found Shades of Life on Facebook yet? Please check it out here. 

Please take out time to read more about the featured blogger for the month of April here.

Guests are always welcomed at Shades of Life. Drop me a line at sugandha118@gmail.com and I would love to share your thoughts here.

An account of my last weekend activity - review of Ship of thesus and Tribute to Begum Akhtar

I have wanted to write about my last weekend for the whole week and finally I can do it on today. Nothing is more pressing today and I can happily write reviews of the two pleasurable shows I watched last weekend.

First was the highly acclaimed movie “Ship of thesus” which has made me debate from both the sides with my own self. Ship of Thesus is a paradox that questions about originality of an award winning ship, parts of which replaced over years. You can read more about the paradox at Wikipedia.

When I went for the movie, I briefly remembered the reason for the name. Kiran Rao has done a beautiful job by showcasing three lives in need of transplantation and the impact on lives of each.