---still catching up with films seen over the holidays:
Love Letters (1945) Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotton. Wonderful romance with a bit of mystery, and a murder. Beautiful score with words for a song composed when it became so popular, using the film title for the song title. Story about a serviceman who composed letters for another soldier, to woo his girlfriend, but who fell in love with her letters in return himself. She was also deeply moved and fell for the man of the letters. Reality, when the faker came home and she married him too quickly, led to drinking and conflict, twists and turns and more to the story. A favorite. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037885/
Runaway Jury (2003) John Cusack, Rachel Weitz, Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman. From a John Grisham novel. An inside man on the jury and a woman working on the outside, find a way to have a trial turn out the way it should, despite big bucks spent to defeat the truth.. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0313542/
The Phantom Of The Opera (2004) Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson. Andrew Lloyd Webbers' musical version of the Leroux tale, directed by Joel Schumacher, is of a disfigured musical genius and his obsession and love for a young singer he has trained at the Opera Popular, without showing himself. As she becomes successful and her childhood sweetheart reappears, The Phantom becomes the terror of the Paris Opera House. The music is the star and tells this tale of tragic love well. Cast is first rate and okayed by Webber himself. Holiday favorite - watch it every year on December 26th, my anniversary of my theater experience. I was dazed I loved it so much. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293508/
The Other Man (2008) Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Anthony Banderas. I love Neeson, but this film almost defeated me. We have a man who discovers his beloved wife cheated on him during her trips, as a shoe designer, to the continent. His obsession becomes finding who she was involved with and when he finally does, his whole perspective changes. Strange, slow, and I for one, could not identify with any of the characters. 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974613/
The Other Woman (2009) Natalie Portman, Lisa Kudrow, Scott Cohen. Well! You know those films you keep hoping will end? This is one of them. And writing this 2 weeks after watching it, I had almost forgotten the story or the performances. There you have it. Rich jerks and their problems - divorce, kids, babies, death. By the end, I didn't care. Some good shots of NYC. 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974613/
Temple Grandin (2010 TV biopic) Claire Danes, Julia Ormond, David Strathaim. Story of an autistic child and the mother who finds schooling to bring her to her highest potential. Temple achieves a Ph.D in animal husbandry and was an innovator in the humane treatment of cattle for market. Wonderful film about the triumph of a family over handicaps. Danes is superb. She won an Emmy, and the show won seven in all. It also won the Directors Guild of America award for a mini-series. HBO is showing it as a film and it is marvelous all around. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1278469/
More to come....
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