This past week was filled with movie watching – far more so than book reading. I’m not the world’s biggest movie person, but every now and again I watch an obscene amount of movies in a very short amount of time. My husband and I devoured some cinema this weekend and enjoyed quite the eclectic mix.
Earlier in the week, I viewed Sarah’s Key by myself. The Litwits read de Rosnay’s novel very early on and so I greatly looked forward to the film version. Overall, I was quite satisfied, but didn’t find the movie amazing. It was engaging, simple, did great justice to the book, and eliminated most of the modern day Julia inner monologue that I hated in the novel. If you’ve read the book, I recommend the movie and promise that the subtitles aren’t too distracting.
Friday night Jimmy and I sat down to Contagion. They title really sums up the plot and I’m told the science in the movie is superbly accurate. All in all, a decently engrossing film. I particularly enjoyed the Matt Damon story line of father and daughter during the outbreak – touching, realistic, and worth the watch. Jimmy jokingly thinks the movie is anti-Asian propaganda.
Out of the 5 movies I’m quickly reviewing, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the only film I don’t recommend. I think the movie LOOKED amazing, the actors are brilliant (Gary Oldman, Colin Firth), but the film itself is heavy-handed, convoluted, and extremely long/boring. Maybe I’m just completely stupid, but many other reviews I’ve read have said this version of the story is incredibly hard to follow as it cuts out most of the novel. People highly suggest the mini-series as an alternative. Nothing good can be happening when I am repeatedly asking Jimmy – “do you understand what’s been going on?”
To rid ourselves of the bad taste left by TTSS, we immediately turned to True Grit which I admit being wary of. Nothing about ‘western’ really turns me on. But this movie was by far my favorite of the week! I adored it entirely and all of the actors did an amazing job. The movie is hilarious, but at the same time gives enough weight to its rather serious material and themes. I loved Jeff Bridges as Rooster – superb performance. Watch this movie!!
We ended our Saturday night with Harry Brown starring Michael Caine – because who doesn’t like Michael Caine. Jimmy selected the movie just because he loves Caine’s accent. Seriously – that’s all we need to persuade us to watch a movie. Harry Brown is not a movie for everyone and I was pretty convinced based off the summary that I was going to hate it. The story takes place in a modern day Britain where young thugs and the criminal element have pretty much taken over normal society – very reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange. The police are barely even allowed to do their job – most times only knocking on doors to tell loved ones of violent deaths with no hopes of catching the guilty parties. Riots are the norm. Michael Caine loses his wife and best friend back-to-back, gets sick of how things have gotten, and begins a vigilante spree that is gory, gritty, and admittedly, extremely satisfying.
Who knows what we’ll watch tonight?! In the way of books, I did reread Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins and loved it the second time around. I’ve started One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest which sucked me in immediately. Also began reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower which is the April read for book club. Hopefully, I’ll be reading much more this next week. I think I’ll probably post a review of Mockingjay on Monday since my opinion on the story did a complete 180.
Happy Reading!
The Blog of Litwits 
I agree with you about the movie version of Sarah’s Key. They kept the good stuff of the novel and kept out most of the bad stuff. The visuals of the conditions at the Vel d’Hiv were striking.
The visuals were very striking and turned my stomach a couple of times.
I really want to see True Grit, and have heard that so many people found it amazing. It does seem like you got a lot of movies in over the past week, and that’s very cool. I hardly ever sit down to a movie nowadays…it’s like the time just flies away on wings of its own! Great mini-reviews today!
Definitely give True Grit a shot! Such an entertaining and well acted film. So much fun and flies by!
I have been a super loser when it comes to movies lately. I have a bunch of good ones on my DVR but I can’t seem to stay up late enough to watch any of them!
Did I mention my team is doing social media for the new Steve Jobs movie that’s about to begin filming?! CRAZY! But fun.
My brain has been much better suited to movie watching than reading lately – plus we’ve cancelled cable which frees up a lot of leisure time. And that’s awesome about the Steve Jobs movie – your job sounds fabulous!