Nana forChrist

A cute little movie for light viewing. Woman steals man away from unworthy competition. The ONLY criticism I have of this movie is that no one should ever use someone else’s child to manipulate the child’s father or mother into a love relationship with that same person. If I were a man and a woman I was dating did this, I would have serious thoughts about her mental stability, because in real life, we have a word for people who manipulate others without remorse. We call them psychopaths. The child actress made the movie for me. She had great timing, expressions, and eye rolls. A talented little girl.

So slow moving. Why would you want to watch two middle aged people make out in slow motion to corny piano music? Let’s get real. Both parties confess after finding their spouses were in an adulterous relationship, “I thought I had a happy marriage. I was happy.” Were that so, why would you entertain the thought of sleeping with a complete stranger… the spouse of a deceased fellow flight victim? You don’t know me, but you can trust me on this: If my wonderful husband dies in a plane crash, no way will I be having a romp in the hay with some cop who might’ve been the spouse of a woman whom my husband was seeing. When you love someone, you forgive their sins. Even after they’re gone… Maybe especially after they’re gone. No loose ends that way. Just the memory of what was good about the relationship. I wasn’t a fan of this lethargic melodrama.

What a talented comedic and dramatic actor Jack Lemmon was. A treat and a treasure to American film aficionados. I hadn’t seen this flick in 30 yrs and found it today on Cinema Classics on my Samsung movie channel. My favorite part was Edward G. Robinson’s dressing down of the marketing execs in the boardroom for their seamy, sexualized marketing campaign. That’s where Lemmon comes in, as the new brains behind the Nurdlinger Dairy sales extravaganza. Funny, entertaining, and a lesson for the younger crowd about living in 1960s suburbia. All male executives in the front office. Mandatory dress code. Nearly all white men in charge. All has, thankfully, changed in the corporate structure of America, where you’ll see every race and religion represented.

Just finished this adoption story based on real life events. Kirk Cameron’s movies have matured greatly since his earlier days. This movie was deeply meaningful, so well acted, and wowed me with the shocking ending. I tried four movies on Hulu tonight before choosing this one on Prime. Each one of the four, within three minutes, revealed an immoral, ungodly script unfolding before my eyes. I was about to give up, then found LIFEMARK in Prime. You can’t go wrong; it’s a true blessing to watch.

Excellent movie. I gain far more from watching movies if they’re based on the life of a real person. I’d never heard of Max Manus, and enjoyed learning about this true Norwegian hero who acted as a saboteur in his homeland during the Nazi invasion from 1941-45. The heartache of losing so many dear friends with whom he’d worked must have been difficult to bear. He still managed to build a life for his wife and himself, had a son, owned a prosperous business, but sadly, fought the wartime nightmares and alcoholism for much of his life.

I would have given this movie five stars because it had a good premise, but the obscene lines they gave the refined and lovely grandmother to say were so disgusting it ruined the movie for me. Note to screenwriters and director: you don’t win applause from your intended target for trashing up a cute movie; you simply push us away. Lastly, would a smart young woman really stay with a man who had such low self-esteem (or nefarious intent) that he would use another person’s photo? That’s creepy to me. An honest man, full of integrity and confidence was my pick for a spouse 40+ years ago, and he’s still solid.

Sophia Loren is given little dialogue (at 86), but she still presents as “une force majeure” onscreen. It’s the young actor in this Italian movie who holds it all together. He can do “intensely serious” with his face better than many adult actors. He is handsome and talented and had me believing this drug ridden ghetto he’d been orphaned to was truly his home. I’d like to see him in more works here in the States.

The three main actors did an excellent job. My three star review is more because I found the bird’s constant diving attacks viciously out of place with the empathy we as viewers were trying to feel for the grieving parents and the former psychiatrist. When McCartney climbs the ladder to discover the starling’s chicks, that could have been a pivotal moment with more subsequent interaction. It was ok, just not my favorite work of theirs.’