batik_jenny

I've grown older, I've grown sedated - this was the first time in I don't remember how long that a movie really made me FEEL so much. The music, the camera-work, the speeches, the feeling of just wanting to c h a n g e so much! I got completely wrapped up in it, especially, like someone else wrote, since the state of the world is at it is today; it makes this movie feel more accurate than ever! Why, oh why, aren't there revolutionaries like these on the streets and in the universities of today? One thing though. The movie very accurately portrays women of this time and this movement, and by that I mean they are portrayed either as sexual objects, passive jewelry for the revolutionaries (men) to lean on in their "headquarter" (in this case the dean's office)or as frail and beautiful little birds the men have to care for. It is true that this is how women of the movement were treated - as someone who could make coffee whilst the men drew up revolutionary plans of how to overthrow the government - that is until women fought back and started their own revolution. I just wish that when revolution comes next time, there will be no sexism in its lines...

Dickens' is known as an author who wanted to change society and make people aware of the problems the workingclass suffered in London at that time. He was especially concerned about children, but his intention was often ruined by the fact that Dickens couldn't help writing happy endings that badly fit his dark stories. This movie, an updated version of Dickens' classic "Oliver Twist" is a little like an effort to do the darkness in Dicken's stories justice. It's "Oliver Twist" but without the unnaturally happy ending.

Jacob Tierney has changed the story slightly to adjust it to our time. For example Fagin's boys are not pickpocketers but hustlers who work for the mysterious and dangerous Bill, never seen throughout the movie. Also, focus is more on The Artful Dodger, here called only Dodge, than on Oliver. The darkness in the human wreck that is Dodge is nicely explored. You kind of get the picture of what happened to him for him to become the person he is, and you do understand from the beginning that he will probably go down on the streets due to the life he is living. Still, you hope until the very end that the happy ending Dickens provided will somewhere be present here too. But you still knew all along: there are no happy endings in real life. In real life, a homeless orphan does not by mistake find his rich relatives who gladly take him in. In real life, the Oliver Twists out there on the streets live and die the life of a homeless junkiewhore. In real life, the Dodges of the world crumble under the haunting memories of a painful childhood.

This is a great but dark and sad movie. The actors are all fantastic, especially Michèle-Barbara Pelletier as Bill's wife Nancy and Nick Stahl as Dodge. I watched "Twist" partially because it sounded like a good movie, but mainly because I admire Nick Stahl so much. Here he gives a great performance of a young man literally going under before your eyes.

***SPOILERS**** There is especially one scene that is extremely hard to watch. Dodge's older brother comes looking for him, and it's hard to really understand his motives. You understand that Dodge ran away, probably because he was sexually abused by their father, and blames his brother for not interveining. His brother is sort of looking for forgiveness, but then turns cold and harsh, saying he made the right decision, trying to secure a good future for himself and therefore having to let Dodge down. He says he will get married, get his masters and live a happy life with kids and everything he wants. Dodge on the other hand "will probably lay face down on a street having OD'd". He knows Dodge is hustling, and after having promised him 400$ to help suddenly says "Show me what you do". Dodge doesn't understand at first, but when it hits him he can't believe it. "Why are you doing this to me?" he asks and cries desperatly. The scene is gutwrenching as Dodge's older brother forces him to give him a blow job to get the money, and Dodge has no choice but to do it, because if he comes home without money again, Bill will kill him. A scene that will go down in moviehistory, at least in my book. ***SPOILERS OVER*****

Anyway, it's a superb movie, with a dark and frustrating ending. You know this is how it is in real life, but you can't help hoping there is a happy Dickens ending for some streetkid out there, somewhere, sometime.

All praise goes to Jonathan Jackson who saves this sticky sentimental crap movie. The screen lights up whenever Jackson enters as Beth and Pat Cappadora's oldest son Vincent. You can feel the torment in that adolescent body. Why the heck is it so hard for his parent to understand him?

If you like the Vincent character I can recommend you to read the book by Jacquelyn Mitchard. It's about as sentimental as the movie (if not more) but interesting in the way that it is told through a shared view, with both Beth and Vincent narrating the story. In the book we learn a lot more about Vincent and his life, why he became who he is and what he thinks and feel about the whole situation. Most of the time seen from Vincent's view is spent at his psychiatrist Tom, a character they completely cut out of the movie. That's too bad, because that's where all the action really takes place. Vincent is a really messed up kid, and the scenes between him and Tom are both funny and thoughtful.

In the book Vincent also suffers from panic attacks, something experienced by many teens and that could have been used in the movie as a good identification issue. Sadly, that was cut out too. Basically, what they have done is taken what is in the book a multilayered and very interesting character, and turned him one-dimensional and less inspiring. What we can be thankful for is Jonathan Jackson who I think does a great job with the little he is given. Ryan Merriman, who plays the lost son Ben/Sam is also very good.

But otherwise this movie seems like a made-for-TV-sleeze-thing and I can't stand the bad acting put up by the adults. Michelle Pfeiffer can be really good in roles that are more toned down than this one and her overacting everything is annoying. Treat Williams is mostly just vacant. Whoopi Goldberg on the other side does a fine job as a minority within the majority: a black, lesbian cop that befriends the family. Basically: you can get a lot out of reading the book if you just skip the parts about Beth.

Stefan Jarl is one of Sweden's most interesting personalities and "Jag är din krigare" is as special as he is. What starts out as something of a naturemovie you'd recommend to kids, develops into a very scary and painful story about fanaticism and the evil done by man's hand. Jarl is as pissed off as he always is and doesn't portrait the grown-ups of this movie in a very sympathetic way. Kim is the hero, but even he towards the end starts to lose control. What kind of 14-yearold is so dedicated to saving the nature that he will stop at nothing? Not even killing other humans. Basically; don't judge this movie too quickly. In the beginning it's mostly natureromance and a cute story about a boy, his fox and his search for peace among the animals of the forest. But then the movie changes, you can't say when, and you start getting chills down your spine because you realize things will go wrong. People will try to hurt Kim and he will probably try to hurt them back. Robin Milldoff is superb in the role of Kim, and this is really his movie. His stern face, that reflects Kim's determination, tells even more about him than what he says. Jarl is frustrated, almost desperate, at the thought of what man is doing to Mother Nature. He wants you to open your eyes to what is going on around you. If this young boy can do it; why can't you?

As usual a beautiful performance by young actor Nael Marandin, here only 16 years old. I hope Marandin will continue acting although I don't think he's appeared in a movie since 1998. The story is also beautiful and the subject doesn't feel out of date at all. Recommended to those who can appreciate a nice, little flick with a slow pace.

Maybe it's hard for people outside of Sweden to fully understand what this movie has meant to Swedes through the years. You would especially think so after reading the other comment which compares "Bröderna Lejonhjärta" to Ingmar Bergman - HELLO?!? We do have other directors than Bergman and to compare him to "Bröderna Lejonhjärta" is like comparing "American Pie" to Spike Lee or something. Please don't think you know EVERYTHING about swedish moviehistory just because you've heard of Bergman, there is so much more to it and this movie has virtually nothing in common with Bergman's work.

I am also sorry if people are too destroyed by American blockbusters and can't handle the fact that this movie is for an audience of youngsters and that it's about death. I must also say that grown-ups as well as kids can enjoy this movie. It's very good to see with your children to then discuss it afterwards.

Astrid Lindgren was without comparison Swedish literature's queen and when she died last year it seemed like we couldn't stop mourning. "Bröderna Lejonhjärta" ("The Lionheart Brothers") was maybe one of her most important books, because it handles such heavy subjects in such a great way. When Olle Hellbom's movie came in 1977 it caused a mediastorm Sweden had never seen before. First of all it had a completely new way of speaking to kids about death; a movie that took children seriously and didn't treat them like they could handle only joy and happiness.

Second of all, back in those days the only agelimits on cinemas were 15, 11 and under. They made "Bröderna Lejonhjärta" available only to people over 11 and this caused such a storm that they actually changed the swedish law so that a new agelimit came at 7! All this over one movie.

You can't understand how many kids have found comfort in this story. To children that are about to die you read this novel or show this movie and I don't know how often you read the inscription "We'll see eachother in Nangijala" on gravestones in Swedish cemeteries.

This movie was groundbreaking and it's often wrongfully accused of being too dark and strange. Children can handle a lot more than you think when it comes to strong emotions like love and loss. The only thing that scared me as a kid was the sometimes graphic violence in the end. See this if you have a chance!

"Jesus lever" ("Jesus is alive") holds a fascinating and interesting story filled with questions about religion, the loss of loved ones - and how to deal with your father's new wife.

Felix hates Helen, his stepmom, and his relation to Tomas, his dad, isn't really that great either. Tomas is the local priest in the tiny town on the swedish countryside the family resides in, and he is clearly embarrassed that his only child is the singer in a band often accused of being satanists. So when someone starts vandalizing the graves on the graveyard, everyone's eyes turn to Felix; even though his own mother's grave was among those destroyed.

What makes this movie as lame as it sometimes is, is probably the bad acting. Sverrir Gudnason, who plays Felix, is clearly too unexperienced to have the lead in a movie. That's sad, because you can see he hides a great deal of talent. Give him a couple of years and he will be a brilliant actor. All in all, the acting is not that good, but I would guess you should hold that against the director, Bengt Johansen, more than the actors.

Johansen manages to waste a story that could have been made into a really interesting movie. The questions raised are worth a thought, even though Johansen doesn't have the guts to take the issues all the way. My compliments to his manuscript (co-written with Stig Larsson) and the beautiful camerawork. Sad to say, but "Jesus lever" falls into all the traps there are for shortmovies. The character's aren't fully developed and the story has many plotholes. Still "Jesus lever" made a great impact on me so I must have been able to find something good in this otherwise kind of messy movie. Give it a try and judge yourselves, because it's still worth watching.

Starting out as the typical romantic movie about relationships, "Playing by heart" (In swedish "Six lessons about love" which I think is a better title) surprised me A LOT. With twists and, in a way, a heartbreaking ending, you couldn't ask that much more from this movie.

"Playing by heart" is a mix of six different stories of love: a marriage on the verge of ending, the love between a mother and her child, relationships that have just begun and secret, as well as forbidden, passion.

I am going to concentrate on the story of Joan (Angelina Jolie) and Keenan (Ryan Philippe). Joan is glamorous, witty, loves acting, loves her cat and never stops talking. Mostly she talks about herself. At a club she spots Keenan, a boy with blue hair and hard eyes. One of the first things he tells her is he doesn't date. "Sure thing" Joan says "But if you want, meet me at the cinema tomorrow. But it wont be a date if you don't want to." And what do you know: he actually shows up! But Keenan is a boy with secrets. He won't tell Joan what has happened to him, so she assumes he's been ditched by the girl he loved. She's close to the truth, but she could by no means ever emagine what Keenan has gone thrue.

**WARNING SPOILERS!!**

My God! The scene where Keenan tells Joan the reason he hardly ever smiles and is persuaded he will never be alowed to love again is one of the strongest scenes in movie history! I cried a lot over this young couple's destiny. I cried because it was so unfair that they, so in love and so happy, were going to be punished for something someone else did. How unfair isn't the world when a young guy like Keenan is given HIV by his unfaithful girlfriend, and is therefor going to be ripped away from the girl he loves. Twice! First his girlfriend dies and then he is going to die and leave Joan alone here to grief. And the s***tiest part of it all is that it happens every day, all over the world!

Both Ryan Philippe and Angelina Jolie are magnificent in this movie. Especially Jolie surpasses almost all of her co-stars. She is truly amazing; something I thought I'd never say about her. All in all this is a great movie. I guess that it wants to leave you with a feeling of hope. Hope in life and love and humans, but it actually mostly left me with the feeling of "why is this world so unfair?!"

Watch it if you can. Already have? Then take the time to watch it a second time. Because it's worth it, it really is.

This is a heartbreaking story, simply about the incredible bond between son and father. Walter and Henry have always worked as a team. They earn their living thrue streetmusic, both of them being extremely talented musicians. But what happens to twelve-year old Henry when his father gets seriously ill? Henry has never met any of his other relatives, he has never gone to school and never had to rely on anyone except his dad. Now a new world opens for him. Nicholas Braun, the kid playing Henry, carries this movie on his small shoulders. The rest of the cast, wellknown and respected actors, are also good, but there is something special about Nicholas. He truly makes you f e e l the pain in having to see your idol in life, the man you love and respect the most in the whole wild world, being so sick he can't even take care of himself. And even less; take care of his own son. I give you only one advice: keep your eyes open for Nicholas Braun in the future. Lets hope he makes more breathtaking performances like this one.

I saw this movie at the Stockholm Filmfestival Junior and being 16 I am actually too old for it. But I still enjoyed this nice little movie. My only wish is that I had seen this when I was around 13 or something. I would've certainly had easier to identify with Tanja then. As it is now, I feel more like her much wiser older sister.

I agree with the comments written below. Why the HELL did they have to show Tanja naked ALL the time? The showerscene was a complete waste of time and all those changings of clothes; why!?! I mean, come on, she is only 15, her body isn't really the main interest here. And I might also add that my company, a male friend, agreed with me.

The actors are very good indeed, but it might be so that I only think so because I don't speak their language. Anyway it's a nice peace about growing up.

The beginning of this movie is good and a long time, I thought I was gonna see a great movie. The part were John (Matt Damon), Lacey (Henry Thomas)and Blevins (Lucas Black) ride to Mexico is funny and charming. But as soon as they get there, everything starts going downwards. It all becomes too much Hollywood for me. And as soon as Blevins is out of the picture, all lot of the charm disappear with him. But the actors do a good job. I mean, can Matt Damon be anything but good? Fun to see Henry Thomas as a grown up too. For all of you who doesn't know it, he played Elliot in E.T. back in 1982. But the best actor is 19-year old Lucas Black. He's funny and one of the few persons you care about in this movie. If you want to see more of him, check out Sling blade from 1996. Billy Bob Thorton, the director of All the pretty horses, both directed,wrote and acted in Sling blade.

But All the pretty horses is a very beautiful movie and worth a watch for the actors and the horses if you happen to like those animals. I give it a 2,5 out of 5.