You are my sunshine

Last night I watched the movie Penelope on the recommendation of a good friend with reliable taste in movies. She said it was a good movie but not the most fantastic but worth watching for the cast. And she was right, though kind of wrong because I thought the movie was great haha, but the cast is odd. So many good and well known actors in such a low grade movie.

Due to a family curse a girl is born with a pig face. She must find one of her own kind to love her to break the curse. Not amazingly original, but sweet.

Things I love about this movie: the cast, especially James McAvoy, the clothes (think Nanny McPhee for grown ups) the bedroom and the small moments.

I am a fan of James McAvoy because to me a nice smile, fantastic facial expressions and an enthusiasm for life are the most attractive things a person can have. If you are a little bit quirky and have something unique or interesting about the way you express yourself chances are I will love you immediately. But you have to be nice as well.

My favourite moment in the movie might just be James belting out a rendition of 'You are my Sunshine' to Penelope as she tries to guess which instrument he plays. Worst singing ever, yet there is something so charming about the way he throws himself into it. Emotion and intent is everything afterall.

Here are some screen caps, I won't put them in order though or it might spoil the story.

I think she looks cute with a pig snout.

I want a tree swing!

tea strainer eyes

I want a call centre of vintage red phones...

playing chess through a one way mirror. He is sitting at a fireplace on a stack of books hehe

how amazing is this room. I could live in it forever

gorgeous wardrobe

x

Put your face on a contact lens, only I have been to all the places we've seen

The lovely Eleanor departed to lands afar this evening. Seems to be a trend among my nearest and dearest haha. I will have my turn one day. So to say goodbye I bussed/walked over to her house at a ridiculously early hour that required being awake before 7pm. Uuurgh. But walks in the freezing cold are surprisingly invigorating, if not so great for extremities like noses.

I hung around and talked to her mother about my vague overseas plans while she went through her own awakening routines and then we went to the movies. I was the mildly awkward 7th wheel to a 3 couple set but oh well. We went to see Toy Story 3. Quite the epic movie! I am not sure if I prefer that one or the 2nd one, probably the 2nd but give it time. I think it lived up to the hype.

Finished said beanie last night. It looks somewhat like a gum nut. It was a good learning experience. Now I know what to adjust and such so that the next one is better. As everyone has departed for sunny Europe I should have quiiite a bit of time on my hands.

Although this beanie was the 'learning curve' beanie I quite like it. I don't like beanies that cover my forehead...in fact I like beanies that I can forget I am wearing. Ones that keep me warm without bothering me, which this one does as I have worn it all day haha. Still, I will make the next one longer before I start decreasing so it sits on my head more. Or on the head of whoever I give it to.

I actually bought the skirt I am wearing to match my fox beanie. It has little red riding printed all over it. But it worked with this hat as well.

stegapurplesaurus

frustrations with phones

Bon voyage 'Noracle x

Remember Me

Last night I decided that I wanted to see a movie before going to uni today so I set about finding something to see that obviously fit in with my time frame and tastes/interests.

Movie wise I am a very big fan of strange American Indie films that end up being more about the characters than about any discernible story line. Of course I also love the character stories that have the added bonus of a great story line, but it's not essential. Generally I have a dislike for commercial American movies and cheap comedies. For the most part I like foreign movies, especially from France and the UK.

Now that you have a bit of background about the types of movies I like, I will tell you a bit about how I like to see movies. I like to see them on my own, I like to browse around the night before and go in the next day or later the same evening, with no more knowledge of the film than a trailer or brief blurb, or even the knowledge that I like one of the actors in it. I like to keep things a secret.

So, last night I noticed that Remember Me was playing and I couldn't remember what that was, so I Googled the trailer. In the back of my mind I was aware that Robert Pattinson had been working on another non Twilight related film but I wasn't aware that it was finished let alone out in cinemas already. I am a little hesitant to admit this but I am a Robert Pattinson fan, this stems not from Twilight but from my status as an incredible a Harry Potter fan. Being the HP geek that I am when the dvd for the Goblet of Fire was released I dutifully watched all the special features including a 'guided tour' of the movie making process by the 3 foreign Champions. This sparked a great fondness for both Robert and Clemence Poesy. While I am strongly of the opinion that Twilight was a bad move for him career wise, I still like Robert. But I do understand that many do not.

So I rounded up the money and went to see it this morning, knowing next to nothing about it except that there was a somewhat romantic theme to it and it was apparently set in 2001. I went in hoping for a bit more than a sappy romance and was pleasantly rewarded.

However here is where I enter a grey area. I am not sure whether I found this movie sort of amazing because I like Robert or because it really was good. I also think that having no prior knowledge of the movie helped. But I will say that for me the performances were quite good and convincing. I have always been of the opinion that it is easy to portray happiness, or to play a villain but that it is difficult to convincingly portray proper sadness or melancholy and rightful anger. For me this was done pretty well, Robert was convincingly melancholy, but with reason, and it played on the whole feminine notion of wanting to fix things. So I spent most of the movie wanting to hug him.

Unfortunately reading last night that the movie was set in 2001 I spent the last 20 minutes of the film worrying because my sad movie had suddenly turned happy and this could only mean a sad ending and I had a gut feeling about where it was headed. I was right, but also surprised even though it was what I predicted. It was a pretty gutsy choice of ending, one I think people have been too scared to touch on. And I appreciated so much that it ended well...right. Sad movies that suddenly end happily ever after in a thoroughly unconvincing way annoy me. This is part of the reason why I favour foreign and Indie movies. I would rather an ending that was consistent with the film even if it was sad or unconventional.

I will say that when the film ended the 20 or so people in the cinema sat in silence for about 10 minutes before filing out without so much as a squeak. Surely its a good thing that they weren't all clamouring to complain and ridicule it...

So to wrap up this rather long winded vocalising of opinion I enjoyed Remeber Me and it left me contemplating once more the real life stories that people out there have.