The Departed

oh yeahhhh....good ole Martin S....lotsa rats and dropping bodies (my brother noticed "lotsa close range shots")...The Departed was really good. You try to figure out who know's what and who might be working for whom and that keeps you following the story. In the end, the one left standing was the one who walked away at the right time (and walked back in just in time to make a killing ;) ).

I'd like to think that Vera Farmiga's character had something to do with that last hit. She reminds me of Emmanuel Beart with those big eyes...and her thin body makes me think of her as Beth Orton at times. Jack Nicholson opted to inject his own interpretation during production and while it does come out really well, I'm left to wonder how far he strayed from the real character in the original script. Matt Damon plays the rat, as he did in The Talented Mr. Ripley, to perfection. Playing a character with bones in the closet is becoming a skill for Matt...he uses it repeatedly in playing Jason Bourne. Let's hope this doesn't limit his character choices.

A lot of great supporting performances...enjoyed all the dialogue from Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg (way to go guys).

Like Mother Like Daughter

It's amazing how parents see themselves in their kids. I saw this image of Madonna with her kids and was really surprised to see young Lourdes. I felt a shiver through my spine....she looks exactly like Madonna at that age! Somewhere lodged in my memory is a magazine article that shows a young Louise Ciccone....so I surfed the web frantically looking for the image...but to my despair...was unsuccessful.

The closest one is the black & white below. Don't you think the resemblance is uncanny? It must be even stranger for Ms. Louise Ciccone herself. Do you think she ever stops to stare at Lourdes and ask herself, "Jesus Christ kid you look just like me!" If it were to happen to me, I'd probably get weird sometimes....probably try to talk to the kid as if I was talking to myself.....like I found a way to teleport back to my childhood....and now armed with experience can tell everything I need to know to survive in this world.

Ok ok I know....I sound creepy....here's the photo...

The Horse Whisperer

While sifting through all the magazines i was collating for my scrapbook i found myself watching this film. Seeing Scarlett Johansson in her debut reminded me how not much has changed about her to this day. She will always have that blunt look in her eyes. The more I watched, the more I wish Tommy Lee Jones played the lead character. I just couldn't see Robert Redford as this horse whisperer...Tommy Lee would have been perfect (and he's a real rancher).

I really think that romance between Kristin Scott Thomas and Redford should have been taken out (or done differently). It just felt gratuitous and unoriginal. This reminds me of how well director Clint Eastwood portrayed the chemistry between Tommy Lee Jones and Marcia Gay Harden in Space Cowboys. It held just a few moments in the film but delivered really well. Sometimes it's the short powerful moments that count.

Why does Sam Neil always play the husband destined to be abandoned? Poor guy. I appreciated the fact that in this movie it wasn't a cliche "terrible-husband-definitely-leave-him" character but a person who had a clear grip on the reality of the relationship and was very honest about it (way to go, 'mate).