Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby!!

I need to talk about the Ned Benson, who choose to first write such a story & then execute it in the manner he selected. Now, Richard linklater is right up there when it comes to new ways of storytelling,  what with the "Before" trilogy & "Boyhood". But for his first project Ned benson decided to make three movies out of a storyline, two of them from the perspective of two lead characters, played by Jessica Chastain & James McAvoy "Her" and "Him". Third is the version where its all shown together, named "Them". "Them" gives a third person account of the story, but the rest two are from the perspective of individual characters, hence the flow, the way the characters are shown, how much of them is shown, support cast & their prominence, etc changes in both the movies. And believe me, its a different experience to watch these movies. There have been so many movies which have explored the multiple narrative, like Rashomon, vantage point, Ulidavaru kandante, etc, but seeing a movie made entirely from one perspective & then seeing another one with a different perspective is a different experience altogether.

I saw both "Him" & "Her" versions of the movie & truth be told they are two different movies. "Him" explores the frustration that the character, played by McAvoy, feels while he is not able to understand whats happening to him wife. Whereas "Her" deals with the mental trauma faced by a parent, played by Jessica Chastain, on the loss of a kid. They fill out the blank spaces which are there in other movies, but when you are watching the individual movies the feeling of something missing is just not there. Its a brilliant experiment done by the writer-director, who goes beyond the normal to attempt a masterpiece. And the best part is that even the common scenes are done differently (minor details) in both the movies, which according to a theory of mine is to prove the impact of of perspective on our memories of same event. Same memory involving two people would play out differently when you ask them to describe them the same in details.

The one which I liked better is "Her" version and the credit for that goes to Jessica chastain. She has done so many good movies & her performance in Zero-dark thirty was par execellence, "I am the motherfu*&er who found this place" is a line from the same movie which is difficult to forget. And here she is in completely different mode, so vulnerabel in moments when she is trying to cope up with the emotional torture that she is going through & yet strong in scenes where she tries to take control of the situation. She looks beautiful throughout & manages to impress throughout the movie. Even in the "Him" version, where she has limited screen presence she manages to shine through. I have yet to come across a movie where she has not done well, according to me she is one of the most under-utilized & under-appreciated female actors. James McAvoy delivers what is expected off him & support cast is good as well. Both the movies also have a great last scene, which leave it on audience to decide the ending even though the director nudges people to imagine a happy ending.
 

Filth- James McAvoy's show!!

"Filth" is one of those movies which would easily divide the crowd, I am sure there would be many who would not find this movie palatable. But I would like to believe even they would agree that James McAvoy has put in a stupendous performance, he would have surprised a few for sure with the portrayal of the an extremely complex character.

Movie starts with manipulating cop, who would go to any extent to get the promotion. He is ready to do anything & everything to remove all the other officers from the race to become the 'Detective Inspector'. And without giving the unsuspecting viewers any hints on the background, McAvoy shortchanges one character after another, dupes one unsuspecting colleagues after another, creating hilarious situations in the process. Till that point the movie manages to extract quite a few laughter from viewers, it lives up to be a good dark comedy. Its only after you are in the movie for a bit you realize there is a past which has resulted in hallucination & mental instability. From that point on its just dark & sad. When a movie has to transcend the boundary of tragedy & enter comic sphere or vice versa, it becomes extremely challenging for viewers to follow & director to maintain the sanctity of the storyline. But here director managed to turn around a full fledged dark comedy & managed to bring it to its tragic end.

The transition in the lead character which should have been pretty weird, was managed in a brilliant way, thanks to James McAvoy. The manner in which he manages the complexity in the character that he is portraying here is amazing. Support cast also is nothing short of brilliant. There were two things which really made the difference, first is the music used in the movie, background score used throughout is pretty good & 'creep' fits the bill for the climax. Second was the setting of the movie in Ireland, somehow the accent & affinity towards alcohol lends that extra bit of credibility to an otherwise twisted plot. All in all, a good watch but an even better return on expectation for me personally.

It is indeed an obligation for everyone to be happy!!

Off late have been having conversations around happiness too many time with various friends. It seems to be that sort of phase in life where one ask oneself (and close friends) what is the calling of life & what constitute real happiness. In the movie the protagonist is also going through a similar phase & it seems he manages to avoid the existential questions for a long time. Finally he decides to take off for a journey where he would try to understand 'what make people happy', so that he can come back & help his patients (he is a psychiatrist) find happiness. But that's just one of the reasons, he wants to find answers for himself as well (according to me this is the only reason). He travels to China (somehow have never thought of visiting China, need to add that to my list), Africa & back to US. And by the end of the movie he does find the answers he is looking for, as everyone would have expected.

I am anyways a sucker for travel based movies & have been a Simon Pegg fan since I saw "Shaun of the dead". And this one also is a sort of Coming-of-age movie, as the protagonist gains the maturity that he has been lacking over the years. So as soon as I saw the trailer of the movie had decided that I need to see it at the earliest. Given the fitment it was bound to impress me, but it did that and went beyond. Sure movie is slightly exaggerated at places, but even those parts fit in well with the over all theme. Its funny as well, but maintains the right amount of funny given the subject & objective of the movie.

Does it answer the quintessential question? I think we would need a series, much bigger than cornetto trilogy, to tackle the subject. But a few points which they tried and projected were pretty interesting. Like happiness is "all of them at once", all stands for a combination of emotions. Another theory which hits home is till a point happiness was a state of being, but beyond a certain point it becomes a side-effect of activities. And there are several other noteworthy pointers in the movie, but those point aren't the most interesting thing about the movie. The most interesting bit in the movie was the journey where he struggles to find answers, as it is the case always. End goal (in this case answers to existential questions) is always different for different people, but the fact that one needs to take an interesting journey to figure out answers is always a given. And that's always the best part of all activity. Also, I loved the fact that it did not went on to become a preachy movie with a fixed answer about finding happiness.

Performances were pretty good, Simon Pegg gives another brilliant performance, Rosamund pike is versatile as ever & support cast comprises of solid actors who do not miss their mark often. All in all a movie which could be seen once for various reasons, although individuals would have to figure out which set of reasons work for them ;)