Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing & Charm School
I’d not heard of this 2006 gem until recently, in spite of the star-studded cast, which includes Marisa Tomei, Mary Steenburgen, John Goodman, Sean Astin, and Robert Carlyle. Carlyle plays a widow who, through a chance encounter on a highway, makes a promise that leads him to a dance class. Once again, dance proves to be a reviver of lost souls. I particularly enjoyed the theme of gentleness in the face of difficulty, expressed through Carlyle’s portrayal of Frank Keene.
Another recently discovered older film, All Over the Guy is a romantic comedy, but the main action is man action. Yes, there are sex scenes, but they’re on the timid side if compared to many heterosexual movies in the romantic comedy genre. Besides enjoying the movie’s whacky humour and the way the story unfolds, I was drawn to the very real struggles the main characters navigate through in order to grow up and grow closer.
Whew! Fasten your visual seat belts. When a young girl with a grand imagination and a man (played by Lee Pace) with a talent for storytelling meet in a hospital in 1920s Los Angeles, they take a strange journey together. What we see is the man’s struggle in the hospital and the man’s story as told to and seen through the mind’s eye of the girl. This unlikely pair changes each others’ lives. Filmed without special effects (which will boggle your mind – scroll down on the Amazon.com page to see the trailer) in 26 locations in more than 18 countries, The Fall will take you away and return you filled, awed, and revived.
If The Fall is a wild ride, Lars and the Real Girl is a slow slide. I avoided this movie for a long time, uncertain about its flavour. Too sad? Depressing? Now I can’t seem to see it often enough. Ryan Gosling plays Lars, a man who’s kind, but also intensely introverted – to the point of painfulness. This story of Lars creatively finding a way into a healthier life – and the community that finds ways to support him as he does so – is full of small moments of well-crafted meaning, humour, and revelation. I particularly like the doctor who helps Lars, because of her way of being wily yet kind-hearted as she prompts Lars forward. Lars and the Real Girl turns out to be much more than the sum of it’s careful, beautiful, small parts.
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{ GEMS display remarkable sparkle }
Related reading: British TV Crime Dramas (Part One) and Part Two
7 Comments
Excellent!
Will definitely put all of these on my list. Watching movies is difficult for me since I won’t watch thrillers/chillers/killers/blood/core/mayhem/depressing/dysfunctional families/etc etc etc. But I do like movies when I can find one’s that fit!
Have felt for many years that one of the best realizations from having homosexual friends is that the grass is *not* greener on the other side: they have the same relationship problems as heterosexuals do.
It gives me great joy to recommend movies (and books). It helps me recommend to know how people like things, too, once seen (or read), because I can then fine-tune my offerings.
As for these movies, let’s see. The Marilyn Hotchkiss movie does have some blood, but it wasn’t much and was in the service of the story. All Over the Guy and Lars and the Real Girl are safe – there’s some anguish here and there, but everyone’s learning and growing, which, for me, makes the anguish not only okay, but a necessary step and one I don’t mind being part of, since it’s part of a progresion of healing. The Fall has a few moments of physical distress, but I found them to be not prohibitive and absolutely well worth the visual feast, by a long shot.
Movie snack suggestions: Popcorn with Bragg’s and brewer’s yeast. Dark chocolate cut up into tiny, melt-in-mouth pieces. Candied ginger. Apple crisp (with or without high-fat yogurt or ice cream). Pistachios.
Oh yum! I might have to taste-drive the snacks first, LOL!
Wow! My library has “Marilyn Hotchkiss”! It’s on reserve for me. Yes!
Yeah, I’m continually surprised, too, about what the public library carries in terms of DVD movies. I recently figured out how to look at a listing of new DVDs acquired by my regional library system — since the most popular DVDs never get onto the browsing rack at the library so holds must be placed to get them. That yielded a few tasty morsels I wouldn’t have known to reuqest otherwise.
Happy rejuvinating via the Darkened Room + A Good Story system (with snacks).
Thank you, Grace, for more suggesstions. I’ll go right away to find Marilyn–had dancing on my mind lately!
Love you, Mom
Let me know how you like Marilyn, Mom. (And I think you’d like the Lars movie, too.)
I love you back,
Grace
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