The Christmas Box

The Christmas Box

July 1, 2014

           The Christmas Box is a mixture of suspense and an allegorical tale. The movie blends two families together that becomes an eye opening journey for both. The Christmas Box is a television adaptation of the bestselling novel by Richard Paul Evans. The book is based on true life events. Evans never intended on publishing a book, he originally wrote it for his family just to read. Both the book and movie centers around a man (Richard Evans) that is a workaholic, who thinks his work is important for his family’s survival, but also for his family to have a life of ease.  The Evans family moves into Mary Ann Parkins house. Mary Parkins lawyer suggested that she take in a family to help her not only around the house, but to be there for her just in case something happens. Mary Parkins reluctantly took his advice and after interviewing Richard and his wife, Keri, she lets them stay on with her and employs them. Richards runs his ski company and seems to never have enough time for his wife and daughter. Mary sees to it that he does his job around the house and always has questions for him that puzzles him, such as “What is the first gift of Christmas?” Keri pleases Mary by doing her job well and therefore their relationship of employer and employee becomes more of a friendship. Mary has a hard time adjusting to the Evan’s daughter, Jenna, a four year old. But warms up to Jenna, after Jenna gives Mary a homemade book to say she is sorry for breaking her vase. Mary becomes like a grandmother to Jenna. Mary is a sick woman who only wants to see Richard learn the truth about the true nature of love and family. On her deathbed Richard comes to Mary and says he knows what the first gift of Christmas was and has an epiphany and is forever changed.

            The novel is an example of a self help touchy feely non-realistic story, while the movie is grounded in some truth of how people and families really are. Mary, in the book, welcomes the family without any kind of hesitation and without really knowing who they are. Also in the book, Mary wants the family to be there, to have them become like a surrogate family that she lost too soon and wants to relive the happy family life again. In the movie, Mary is not only hesitant; she is also a bit more standoffish and is short with the family. Richard, in the book, is patient and accepts Mary’s loving ways and has no problems of her becoming a part of his family. Richard is a workaholic; the movie is more in tuned to the way a workaholic would act. He loves his family, but doesn’t have time for chores around the house and becomes flippant towards Mary and what he feels is her weird ways. Workaholics often forget their loved ones and friends. They only see the work that is ahead and they forget to live and love and see what is truly important. Mary in the movie points out to Richard that family and love is the most important things, not work. This concept was not fully developed in the book.

            The suspense and the allegory in the movie appear in the form of the dream sequence involving a beckoning angel. Richard has recurring dreams of an angel repeating his name and a haunting musical tune that shows an angel beckoning him. These dreams cause Richard to question his sanity but also worry him to the point to where he goes and investigate where he thinks the music is coming from. Richard hears the music from his dream in the attic. Upon entering the attic the music beckons him, like the angel does in the dream, to a Christmas box filled with love letters.  The audience does not know who wrote the letters or who it is meant for.  The letters, the dream, and the angel all tie together with Mary’s questions toward Richard, which brings us to the end of the movie and gives the audience a better understanding of  the mystery. Richard’s enlightenment came with the suffering Mary endured in her life and the wisdom that she passed onto him. Sometimes it takes the death of a loved one to make someone realize the importance of friendship and family. The movie version of The Christmas Box illustrates this point that work is not better than the love and comfort of family without it being overly sentimental like the book does.

Stand by Me

Stand by Me

June 24, 2014

          Stand by Me was directed by Rob Reiner and came out in 1986. Stand by Me is based on the short story “The Body” written by Stephen King. “The Body” and Stand by Me have similarities but are also different in some aspects. Both the movie and the short story are coming of age tales that involves four friends searching for a kid that is around there age, and is supposedly hit by a train and died. The main characters in the short story and movie are: Gordy, Teddy, Chris, and Vern. On this journey they grow and find a little truth about themselves and each other.  

            The main kids in the movie all come from a troubled family life. Teddy’s dad has fits of rage and is mentally unstable. Teddy keeps repeating that his dad is war hero, who stormed the beaches of Normandy. He does this to make his dad a hero, instead of a man with a troubled life. Chris comes from a family known in town as a bunch of trouble makers. Chris is stereotyped in school and in town, because of his family’s reputation. Vern’s brother also has a bad reputation in town and is constantly picking on Vern. Vern is afraid of his own shadow. Gordy feels that he is the invisible boy because; his older brother was the hero of the family and the hero of the town. After the car wreck that killed his brother, Gordy’s parents couldn’t find a way to “put back the pieces” and ignored him while grieving their son. To prove to themselves and to the town that they are worthy individuals these four friends go on a journey to find a missing a kid.

            The movie and the short story have different titles because they show the center story in two different ways. “The Body” tells of the journey of the boys, but is more descriptive of the body and what takes place after the discovery of the dead boy. In the short story, the boys turn the body over and try to figure out how to get the body into town when a hail storm breaks out. The description of the hail hitting the body is very vivid through the characters eyes. Also, Gordy talks in length about the body, when they find it, and later through the years he talks about going back to find the pail that the kid was carrying when the train hit him. The title Stand by Me fits the main theme of the movie, rather than a title like “The Body” would. In Stand by Me, the journey finds the boys in different situations where they back each other up, or have heart to heart talks. Teddy and Vern both have memorable encounters with a train, in which they both need the help of Gordy and Chris in order to survive. Teddy stood on the tracks and proclaimed he was not afraid of an oncoming train and was ready to die. Chris talked to him and said to get off the track, we need you. When Teddy refused to get off the track, Chris carried Teddy off. Teddy needed someone to be there for him and show him that everything is alright. Vern became scared when an oncoming train was approaching him and Gordy on a narrow bridge. Vern simply laid on the tracks and said he was too afraid to move. Gordy could have easily ran passed him, but instead he picked him up and forced him to run side by side next to him, until they made it to safety.  Chris and Gordy are the closest of the four friends and stood by each other by having heart to heart talks.  In one of the heart to heart talks, Gordy wanted Chris to go with him to college so Chris could make something out of his life. Another heart to heart talk was when Gordy was down about not being in the same classes as his friends. Chris said not to take classes with his friends because they will only bring him down. Chris wants Gordy to succeed in his classes and tells him he is going to become a great writer. After the four friends found the body, they once again had to stand by one another to figure out what to do. They all decided to leave the body alone and to call in anonymously the location of the body. The four friends walked back to town, in silence, contemplating the turn of events and the growth that just happened among all four of them. The title of the movie describes perfectly the main four boys because even though they came from a troubled life, they stood by one another and never let each other down.         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Watcher in the Woods

The Watcher in Woods

June 17, 2014

(This is from an alternate ending of the movie; here the unseen watcher is seen as an alien like creature.)

 

            Disney’s The Watcher in the Woods was released in 1980 and was adapted from the young adult novel written by Florence Engel Randall. Randall combines the elements of science fiction, fantasy, and suspense that takes the reader into the realms of the natural world and the other world. The book gives the reader a look into another world through a door in a tree. The father and daughter takes the journey into the world of the watcher that shows the life of the watcher and why Karen and the watcher traded places. The movie leaves out the storyline involving the father and daughter entering the watcher’s world.  In an alternate ending we only see a glimpse of what the watcher looks like, in the form of an alien like creature, and what the other world, of the watcher, looks like. The book becomes muddled in fantasy and sci-fi where it becomes confusing for the reader. The movie is more audience friendly because it gives more of a supernatural and suspense feel that gives a better storyline and leaves out the confusing fantasy aspect of the novel. The audience hears and sees the suspense while being kept involved in a great storyline without having to decipher which world they are in. The director of the movie weaves elements of suspense that involves the use of music, the unseen watcher, the wind, the woods, and flashes of light that gives an eerie feeling of what is really out in the woods.

            The back-story of the movie involves the disappearance of a teenage girl named Karen. Karen, the daughter of Mrs. Aylwood, one night was in the process of being inducted into a secret club, run by her friends, when she mysteriously disappears and trades places with the watcher. The movie is scary but not gory, as result it is family friendly while still being suspense filled because of the elements that the director uses. Some of the supernatural and spookier elements of the movie that keeps great flow involves, not only the unseen watcher in the woods, but also the uses of séances, sudden bursts of wind, humming from unseen forces, and the younger daughter talks in an unnatural trances. When someone thinks of a séance they think of communicating with the dead and brings an eerie mood to that moment. The unseen dead could, like the unseen watcher, attack any moment. One cannot defend themselves against an unseen force. The unseen watcher is a suspense tool because the audience never knows where it is, if and when it could attack, or what it is. The disappearance of Karen and the appearance of the watcher were neatly resolved using the supernatural, natural, and a touch of suspense at the end of the movie. The director had Karen’s friends repeat the séance while a solar eclipse was occurring. During this eclipse the watcher possessed the body of the younger daughter, Ellie, and told the friends that Karen would return if they repeated the same ritual that caused the watcher to enter the natural world and Karen to enter the watcher’s world. The suspense filled ending gave a better understanding of what the novel essence was all about.

 

 

 

Rear Window

Rear Window

April 9, 2014

Alfred Hitchcock was coined “The Master of Suspense” because he used everyday things, noise, animals and built suspension from these everyday, non-threating entities. The use of sound in Rear Window brings chills to the audience in Rear Window. Hitchcock builds tension with the noise of a ringing telephone. Hitchcock keeps the camera on the phone while the background is black, the phone is the only in the frame, until Jeffries picks up the phone and no one answers at the other end, the only thing the audience hears is heavy breathing. Something as simple and non-threating as footsteps signalizes a terrifying scene is about to happen. Hitchcock has no background music, no noise, no birds, no human voices, just the heavy footsteps that are slowly approaching Jeff’s front door. The room is pitch dark and Jeff is helpless in his wheelchair. The heavy footsteps get louder and louder till they are no more and a menacing Thorwald enters the room ready to destroy. Sometimes beauty is dangerous and things that seem innocent may not be innocent at all. In Rear Window, Hitchcock uses Thorwald’s flower bed as the flowerbed of death for Mrs. Thorwald. The flower bed is where Thorwald buried his rage and his hatred and evil thoughts for his wife. Throwald hacked up his wife and put her in the flowerbed. This juxtaposition is what Hitchcock was famous for, innocent, none-threating animals that can in the blink of the eye become threating, i.e. Hitchcock’s the Birds. In The Birds, Hitchcock uses something as non-life threating as a bird and they become the killers. Hitchcock uses the Birds to show that innocence is dangerous and that beauty can be deceiving. The idea of beauty being deceptive is evident with the character of Lisa in Rear Window. Jeff saw Lisa as beautiful but boring, even weak. In reality Jeff was the weak one, Lisa was the one that did all the hard work, while Jeff sat in his wheelchair and just observed. Lisa became the one in danger and proved that outward beauty can be dangerous. Rear Window is so much a classic that it has been intimidated through the years, examples of homages to this classic is found with the movies: Disturbia, Fright Night, Body Double, and the TV show Castle. 

A still from the TV show Castle. This episode was a homage to Rear Window.

Emma

Emma

April 9, 2014

This version of Emma is a comedy.  Just like Shakespeare’s A Midsummers Night’s Dream with Puke matching couples in a mischief way, Emma becomes a character like Puke when trying to match up Harriet with all the wrong people.  Puke and Emma create a comic relief at the cost of mix matching of couples that have disagreeable feelings for each other.  But then Emma also becomes a typical comedy with her love hate interest with Knightly.  How many movies and TV programs have we seen when the male and female characters bickers all the time, insults each other, and shows distain and hate for each, only to become lovers and then eventually marry in the end? Some love/ hate relationships that are featured in TV and movies are: Rhett and Scarlett in Gone with the Wind, Peter and Ellie in It Happened One Night, Tom and Laura in Legal Eagles, Richard Castle and Kate Beckett in Castle, Amanda Woodward and Peter Burns in Melrose Place. Can you name other love/hate relationships in TV and movies that ended in marriage? This version of Emma is a classic example of accident proneness being used as a tool of comedy. Emma is seen as a good archer, but not perfect. When Knightley and Emma are trying to outdo each other in archery Emma misses and comes close to shooting Knightley’s dogs, Knightley sarcastically says, please don’t shoot my dog. Emma also shows a comedy of manners and how ridiculous the rich can be when Emma and Harriet go to feed and look upon the poor. Emma gets down and feeds a poor elderly lady, while Harriet is scurrying in the corner running and bumping into everything and dropping things on the pets of the house. This scene shows the absurdity of the upper-class and how corrupt the upper-class can be, even though Harriet herself is of lower class origins. Emma also ties in comedic history with the use of classic Vaudeville techniques. Miss Bates is a woman always scurrying about and never stops talking. Miss Bates lives with her hard of hearing, perhaps on purpose, mother, Mrs. Bates. Mrs. Bates sits quietly while Miss Bates yells mundane words at her like: cake, letter…etc.  Miss Bates and Mrs. Bates are examples of the straight man and the buffoon, other examples of this is found in Abbot and Costello, Martin and Lewis, and to certain extent, The Three Stooges. The concept of the straight and buffoon character is found in comedic movies but two that stand out are, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation and National Lampoon’s Vacation.  Where do you see other classic elements of comedy present in this movie?

The Great Gatsby (2013)

 

The Great Gatsby (2013)

March 14, 2014

            This movie shows a bigger than life version of The Great Gatsby, from the party’s to the introduction of Gatsby to his death.  I loved the elaborate party’s, fireworks and the bright cars.  This movie shows the audience what F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby would look like if the roaring twenties would take place in 2014.   But what I did not like was the death scene of Gatsby.  I do not want to believe it was Leonardo DiCaprio’s acting.  I believed he did a great job but just like Robert Redford’s fake smile in the introduction to Nick of the 1974 version, DiCaprio was too over the top and it seemed like he was over acting.  The 1974 and 2013 movies strayed from the books death scene.  Do you feel that the movies could have stayed true to Fitzgerald’s version?  The audience could have heard a gunshot going off and then show Gatsby’s dead body in the 1974 movie but I do not believe that just a off camera gunshot would have fit in the elaborate 2014 movie.  Do you think the 2014 movie version strayed too far and created a different meaning than the book? 

MacMillian Dictionary states the meaning of a cautionary tale is a story or series of events which something bad happens that you can use as a warning for the future.  In the book, Gatsby being shot and killed was a warning for Daisy and Nick.  But Nick is the one that adheres to the cautionary tale.  He was the only one that supported and tried to do the right thing for Gatsby.  The 1974 movie showed the shooting but did not change the meaning of Gatsby’s death which was a cautionary tale and made Gatsby a sympathetic character.  Do you think that The Great Gatsby is a cautionary tale or just a love story that became a tragedy?  Do you feel Gatsby was a sympathetic character?  I googled life lesson learned and found this quote that could have paid tribute to Gatsby and his death, “No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories” Haruki Murakami.  But the 2013 movie made Gatsby’s death pathetic.  Instead of him staring at the house that brought back memories of his love for Daisy and their past, Gatsby was doing more beckoning with his hands and his death was too long and drawn out that would resemble an Edgar Allan Poe death scene.  Instead of Gatsby’s death being sad, the over acting made it silly.  Do you think it was DiCaprio that made a bigger than life death for Gatsby or do you think that DiCaprio was following the script?   Did you like the way DiCaprio stared for a long time at Daisy’s house?  Did you like his hand and body gestures, I call this beckoning?  Should Gatsby’s death scene been a tribute to his love for Daisy’s?