Showing posts with label Winona Ryder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Winona Ryder. Show all posts

Monday, January 16, 2012

Mr. Deeds

Released Year: 2002
Directed by Steven Brill

Casted by:
Adam Sandler as Longfellow Deeds
Winona Ryder as Babe Bennett alias Pam Dawson
Story:
Preston Blake started out in his career hoping to be a disc jockey as a young man, slowly working his way up through the ranks to found Blake Media, a corporation running hundreds of television and radio stations and with 50 thousand employees. After Blake freezes to death at the summit of Mount Everest with a triumphant smile on his face, a search for his heir begins.

When it is found that he has a living nephew named Longfellow Deeds who runs a pizzeria in New Hampshire, Deeds is contacted and brought to New York City by attorney & businessman Chuck Cedar. Plans are made for Deeds to sell his shares in the company to Cedar and return home $40 billion richer, but he must remain in New York for a few days as all the legal details are worked out.

The story is major news, and reporter Babe Bennett, who works for a tabloid show called Inside Access, has a friend pretend to steal her purse in sight of Deeds, because their research indicated Deeds wanted to meet a girl by saving her, the same way his father had met his mother. Deeds rescues her (as well as mercilessly beating her "robber") and she continues to go out with him under the disguise of Pam Dawson, a school nurse from Winchestertonfieldville, Iowa (a town she made up on the spot when asked where she was from, which later turns out to be a real place (Syosset, New York).

Though Pam initially hopes to just get a good story on the new heir, she eventually falls for the unfailingly kind-hearted Deeds, and decides to tell him that she's not who she says she is, but Inside Access, in concert with Cedar (fed the truth by the "robber", still suffering from the effects of Deeds "saving" Bennett) reveals it to Deeds first. Heartbroken, and upset, Deeds decides to return home to Mandrake Falls after giving $40 Billion of his money he inherits to the United Negro College Fund (much to the surprise of the chairman, who has a heart attack). After returning to Mandrake Falls, he learns from Crazy Eyes that Chuck Cedar intends to sell off the company, which will cause thousands of people to lose their jobs. Babe visits Deeds in Mandrake Falls and tries to win him back. He rejects her saying he doesn't really know who she is.

At a shareholders meeting, Cedar has everyone convinced to sell the company, until Deeds (who has bought a single share) arrives and manages to convince everyone to not sell. But Cedar has control of a majority of the shares and the sale is approved. Babe arrives, and reveals that Blake's butler, Emilio (John Turturro), is Preston Blake's illegitimate son (at one point he had told Deeds that Blake treated him "like a son"), and the true heir.

As a result, Deeds' sale of his shares to Cedar is not legal. Emilio immediately takes control and fires Cedar, as well as the entire top brass at the company, with the exception of Cecil Anderson , a good-hearted executive who had befriended Deeds (when he asks to remain, Emilio leaves the decision to Deeds, who quickly says yes). Babe reveals herself to Deeds and apologizes for tricking him, and they reconcile and Deeds falls in love again. As they're leaving, Emilio thanks Deeds for his support and asks how he can repay him. Deeds says that all he wants is his friendship. Emilio ends up giving Deeds a billion dollars, some of which Deeds spends on Corvettes for the entire town, and he returns to Mandrake Falls with his new wife Babe, where he learns that Hallmark Cards has bought one of his cards, the one he wrote for Babe.

The film includes several references to the novel (or its resultant movie) To Kill a Mockingbird. For example, Pam Dawson invents a story about falling out of old Boo Radley's apple tree and breaking her arm. Dawson also greets a woman as "Mrs. Finch" and her dog as "Atticus"; Atticus Finch was the father of Scout and Jem in To Kill a Mockingbird. Dawson also claims to become sexually excited by fire, which may be a reference to the burning of Ms. Maudie's house in the novel.
L² Scored: 2/10

L² Comment:
Sorry to say that, i don't really like this film. Though Adam Sandler has been always be my favorite comedian, but this movie is so boring and predictable. The funny point is a bit lame and not exaggerate much enough to create any laughter for me. And... Ms Ryder, u look like a mess in this movie :(

Monday, March 14, 2011

Black Swan

Released Year: 2010
Directed by Darren Aronofsky

Casted by:
Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers
Mila Kunis as Lily
Vincent Cassel as Thomas Leroy
Barbara Hershey as Erica Sayers
Winona Ryder as Beth MacIntyre
Benjamin Millepied as David
Story:
Nina Sayers is a young dancer with a prestigious New York City Ballet company. She lives with her overbearing mother, Erica, a failed dancer turned amateur artist who tries to control much of Nina's life. The ballet company is preparing for a production of Swan Lake. The director, Thomas Leroy, has to cast a new principal dancer. The lead must be able to portray both the innocent, fragile White Swan and her darkly sensual, evil twin, the Black Swan. Nina is selected to compete for the part alongside several other dancers. The director does not intend to cast Nina as the Swan Queen. When Nina visits him to request the role, he tells her that her rigid technique makes her ideal for the White Swan, but that she lacks the passion to dance the Black Swan. When he forces a kiss on her, she bites him. Thomas sees her potential and gives her the role.

Nina displays a number of psychotic symptoms, including strong delusions and elaborate visual hallucinations. She begins to feel paranoid that Lily, her understudy, is determined to take the lead away from her. Thomas, meanwhile, becomes increasingly critical of Nina's "frigid" dancing as the Black Swan, and tells her that she should stop being such a perfectionist and simply lose herself in the Black Swan role. One evening Lily appears at Nina's door and invites her for a night out. Nina is hesitant at first but joins Lily after having an explosive argument with her mother. During the night, Lily offers Nina Ecstasy which lowers her inhibitions. Nina becomes sexually interested in not only the men at the bar, but Lily as well. Upon returning to the apartment, Nina has another fight with her mother. She barricades herself in her room and Nina hallucinates having sex with Lily. Nina wakes up alone and late for rehearsal the next morning, and rushes to make it on time. When she enters the studio, she finds Lily dancing as the Swan Queen in her absence. Furious, Nina confronts Lily, and asks her why she did not wake her up in the morning. Lily states that she spent the night with a man whom she met at the club and teases Nina for fantasizing about her.

The night before the ballet's opening, Nina continues to experience strong hallucinations. Nina awakes the night of the opening performance, locked in her bedroom with her mother. Nina's mother tells her that she called the ballet company and informed them that Nina wasn't feeling well and will not be able to perform. After violently forcing her mother to let her leave, Nina arrives at the theater to discover that Thomas has asked Lily to dance the Swan Queen in Nina's place. Nina ignores this development, prepares for the performance and convinces Thomas that she is able to dance.

The first act goes well until Nina is distracted during a lift by a hallucination and the glare of the overhead lights. The Prince drops her. Distraught, Nina returns to her dressing room and finds Lily there, dressed in the Black Swan costume. As Lily announces her intention to play the Black Swan, she transforms into Nina herself. Nina and her duplicate wrestle. Nina shoves her duplicate into the mirror, shattering it. She grabs a shard of glass and stabs her duplicate in the stomach. Upon realizing what she has done, Nina sees that the body is Lily's. Nina hides Lily's body, returns to the stage and dances the Black Swan passionately and sensually, growing black feathers, her arms becoming black wings as she finally loses herself and transforms into a black swan. At the end of the act, she receives a standing ovation from the audience, appearing normal from their point of view. When she leaves the stage, she finds Thomas and the rest of the cast congratulating her on her stunning performance. Nina takes Thomas by surprise and kisses him with a seductive power.

Back in her dressing room preparing for the final act, the dying of the White Swan, Nina is interrupted by a knock at her door. She opens it to see Lily, who has come to congratulate her on her performance as the Black Swan. Nina realizes her fight with Lily was another hallucination, but sees the mirror is still shattered. She notices a wound on her body and realizes that she stabbed herself, not Lily. Back on stage, Nina dances passionately and seamlessly as the White Swan. In the last moments of the ballet, when the White Swan throws herself off a cliff, she spots her mother weeping in the audience. The theater erupts in thunderous applause as Nina falls. As Thomas and the rest of the cast enthusiastically congratulate her on her performance, Lily gasps in horror to see that Nina is bleeding, and some of the cast run to get medical help. Though Nina lies wounded (and perhaps dying), she is content and satisfied with her performance. The film closes with Nina staring up at the stage lights while whispering "I felt it - Perfect - I was perfect," as the screen fades to white and the audience chants her name.
L² Scored: 9/10

L² Comment:
Yes, finally have the chance to watch this marvelous movie. Natalie Portman won several best actress awards based on her character as Nina. The whole movie is so cool, love both Natalie & Mila. Though Vincent Cassel is not that good looking, but i think he's hot. And he got several other French movie which he show his frontal nude. :)