The Impossible (Lo Imposible)

Hello all! 

Today I am here with my opinion about last film I have seen: The Impossible. I know it's not in my TBW, but it was aired on TV recently. It's a spanish film, but it surprised me a lot.

Title: The Impossible (2012)
Genre: Drama. Disaster film. Based on a true story. Family relationships.
Country: Spain.
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona.
Screenwriters: Sergio G. Sánchez. (Original story: María Belón).
Cast: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Geraldine Chaplin, Oaklee Perdergast, etc.
Music: Fernando Velázquez.
Awards:

• 2012: Academy Awards: Nominated for Best Actress (Naomi Watts)
• 2012: Golden Globes: Nominated to Best Actress Drama (Naomi Watts)
• 2012: 5 Goya Awards: including Best Director. 14 nominations
• 2012: National Board of Review (NBR): Best New Actor (Tom Holland)
• 2012: Critics Choice Awards: 2 nominations
• 2012: San Sebastian Film Festival: Official Selection (Out of Competition)
• 2012: Chicago Film Critics Awards. 2 Nominations 2013: European Film Awards: Nominated for Best Actress (Naomi Watts)

Plot: 

December 2004. The lives of María (Naomi Watts), Henry (Ewan McGregor) and their three small children who are spending their quiet holidays in Thailand turn into a nightmare when a huge tsunami engulfs the grounds of their hotel.

Trailer:  

 This is a very hard story. A hard film and, above all, it's real. Remember the tsunami in Thailand in December 2004? You probably remember from the news. This is the film of a spanish family and what they had to go trough the nightmare of the tsunami.

The film starts showing us the relationship between the family. This is important because it will not be the same at the end of the story.

They were in the hotel and, suddenly, the wave came. All the physical wounds, the desperation of not finding your family, the hell that their trip became.

This film shows you with almost every detail how is to live that. People never imagine, people do not care their lives until something happens, and we all should learn from them. It encourages you, and it tells you how cruel can all be. I was watching the film and I was feeling awful only imaging how bad was the situation.

I have to make an appointment regarding to María. She was the most hurt character. The strongest one, with her wounds, trying to survive for their little children and family. And she will never forget.
They will all even have not the same relationship.

A very hard movie, but I recommend it 100%. You will not forget.

I give it a 9/10!

And my congratulations to the director, Spanish movies are rising at last.

Let me know you opinion. Have you seen this film? What do you think? How did you feel when you watched it?

See you later!

Best wishes,
Cat.

Breaking Bad, Season 1.

Hello there!

How are you? Me,  I've just finish the first season of a lately very well-known series: Breaking Bad. I am sure you have heard about it.

Title: Breaking Bad.
Season: 1. [2008].
E/S: 7 episodes in season 1.
M/E: 45 minutes per episode.
Production Co.: AMC.
Genre: Crime. Drama. Thriller.
Country: United States of America.
Director: Vince Gilligan.
Screenwriters: Vince Gilligan, George Mastras, Peter Gould, Sam Catlin, Moira Walley-Beckett, Thomas Schnauz, John Shiban, Gennifer Hutchison, J. Roberts 
Cast: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, Dean Norris, RJ Mitte.
Music: Dave Porter.
Awards: The Infinite Awards Breaking Bad have. 115 wins & 191 nominations.

Synopsis: 

When chemistry teacher Walter White is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given only two years to live, he decides he has nothing to lose. He lives with his teenage son, who has cerebral palsy, and his wife, in New Mexico. Determined to ensure that his family will have a secure future, White embarks on a career of drugs and crime. He proves to be remarkably proficient in this new world as he begins manufacturing and selling methamphetamine with one of his former students. The series tracks the impacts of a fatal diagnosis on a regular, hard working man, and explores how a fatal diagnosis affects his morality and transforms him into a major player of the drug trade. (Source: IMDb). 

Here we have a good guy, teacher of Chemistry in High School. One day, he discovers that he has cancer. In an advanced degree. Lungs cancer. This affects him and he thinks "Well, I'm going to die anyways, I don't care" and starts to cook meth with an old student of his. That's the basic plot everyone have heard.

I've just finished the first season and at the end it has surprised me. I started to watch the series long ago, and I didn't like it at all. The first chapter seemed boring to me. Okey, one man now had cancer, but what else? I just wondered why everyone was so amazed about this series and also drugs are against my ethic.

But.

Second and third episodes were meh. The fourth was good and the rest of the season was better and better, I watched it in one day and I ended up enjoying it. The characters are not strangers anymore, the story goes on and it takes stability, something that first episodes hadn't. I also kinda like more the plot in the following episodes.

About the characters, I'm sorry but I don't like Walt. At all. I can't understand what he's always doing, and what is he thinking. He's a strong man, I don't doubt it, but some things make no sense.
On the other hand, I understand better his wife Skyler, which I heard everybody hates -who knows why-. Finally, the one that I like the most by the moment is Jesse (Walt's "partner in crime"). I think the more I know him, the more he's agreeable to me. And he's very credible as a character.

In conclusion, I think this could be a good series that show you the cruelty of the real world, but also a lot of action and interesting characters. I will continue watching it, we will see how it goes on next season. At this moment I think that the series are worth trying to watch, at least all first season.

Let me know your opinions!

Best wishes,
Cat.

Becoming Jane

Hi everyone!

Today I am here with a review of the film "Becoming Jane", that I recently have seen. For those who do not know, I am a huge fan of Jane Austen, and that is what this film is about.

Title: Becoming Jane (2007)
Genre: Drama, Romantic, Biographic, Historic.
Country: United Kingdom.
Director: Julian Jarrold (Great Expectations TV film)
Screenwriters: Kevin Hood (Man and Boy), Sarah Williams (Poppy Shakespeare) and Jane Austen (her own letters).
Cast: Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, James Cromwell, Maggie Smith.
Music: Adrian Johnston.
Awards: 

• Won the Truly Moving Sound Awards (Heartland Film Festival, 2007). 
• Won the People's Choice Awards 2008 (USA) for Favorite Independent Movie. 

Here is the trailer:

Synopsis: 

"The year is 1795 and young Jane Austen (Anne Hathaway) is a feisty 20-year-old emerging writer who already sees a world beyond class and commerce, beyond pride and prejudice, and dreams of doing what was then nearly unthinkable--marrying for love, without any regard for financial well-being. 

Naturally, her parents (Julie Walters, James Cromwell) are searching for a wealthy, well-appointed husband to assure their daughter's future social standing. They are eyeing Mr. Wisley (Laurence Fox), nephew to the very formidable, not to mention the very rich, local aristocrat Lady Gresham (Maggie Smith), as a prospective match. But when Jane meets the roguish and decidedly non-aristocratic Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy), sparks soon fly along with the sharp repartee. His intellect and arrogance raise her ire--then knock her head over heels." (Source: FilmAffinity). 

I love the plot. Really. And the great film. It has this usual charm of all Austen's world, including the real world and her writings. Despite the fact that it reminds me of Pride and Prejudice, it is a biography of Jane Austen's youth, her relationship with Tom Lefroy and her evolving as a writer.

At first we are introduced to Jane and the rest of her family. Here I was a bit lost because they do not introduce them very clearly. I ended only knowing who are Cassandra and Henry Austen, and Jane is supposed to have seven siblings. However, the truth is that maybe the rest in this period of time in Austen's life are not so important.

[About Anne Hathaway playing Jane, I am not sure if it was a good idea because her face is very known in Hollywood and I think I didn't imagine Jane as Hathaway. Nevertheless, she has done a truthful work about the manners and personality of Jane and I have to congratulate her. She even had to fake her accent to become British one.]

Not very much afterwards, we meet Tom Lefroy. He is not perfect, he is human. He is arrogant, selfish and young, but poor and occasionally idealistic. While the film goes on, we witness how the character grows and evolves, I'd say thanks to Jane. This time I am completely agree with the cast choice. James McAvoy enlivens a fantastic Tom Lefroy for who everybody will fall.

This is a film about love, but also about society and the limits of social condition, between others, like all Jane Austen's novels. We have marriages for money, the debate of marrying for love, the role of the family, the pride, the real world, the social conditions and the social life. Also, a Jane like the writer she was, which is essential to show in this story.

However, it is important to say that the romance showed in the film is fictional or "a legend", despite being a biographical production, because in real life we do not have proves they had a romantic relationship, but an intimate one indeed; they are assumptions from Austen's letters.

Last but not least, I would say the staging is very good, they filmed on location in Britain and Ireland. A good script (I don't mind very much that faults I have commented before, because I have enjoyed a lot the film), delicious scenes and above all, the amazing clothing or atrezzo and a better performance of the actors with all great characters. Actually, the clothing of the actors now are in the "Jane Austen's House Museum" in Southampton, where the writer lived her last years.

I give it a 8,5/10! 

I hope you enjoyed the review, please comment below you opinions.

Best wishes,
Cat.