Saturday, December 20, 2014

The Theory of Everything

This week I'm gonna talk about the biographic film of the physicist Stephen Hawking and Jane Wild, based on the book Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, who's author is Jane Wild. I was very excited to see this film because I knew that Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones were going to give life to these two persons, and they are great british actors whose careers are ascending year to year, and I have seen them perform since their beginnings.

The film is about the relationship of them: how they met, how they struggle together the disease of Stephen, their marriage, the climb in his career, and more. James Marsh, the director, takes us to another decade and manages the struggles brilliantly. All the time in the film he highlights the relationship of Stephen and Jane is such a sweet way.


To prepare for these roles, Eddie and Felicity did a lot of research about the ALS disease, they visited a clinic were people with this disease are treated, they met Stephen and Jane, and more. In Eddie's case, he worked with an specialist in London, showed her pictures of Stephen and tried to determine with her the stage of the disease: and in Felicity's case, when she met Jane, she tried to absorb her as much as possible.

For Felicity Jones this has been the most demanding role she has ever done, specially since the person she was portraying is still alive and she was afraid of doing it wrong. We have seen her in The Invisible Woman as Nelly who was the mistress of Charles Dickens (played by Ralph Fiennes), in Breath In as Sophie, an exchange student who gets involved with a married man (played by Guy Pierce), in Like Crazy as Anna, a british college student who falls in love with an american student (played by Anton Yelchin), and in other films, mostly independent.

And for Eddie Redmayne this has also been the most demanding job he has ever done for the same reason as Felicity and all the research he had to do about the disease Stephen had and his work as physicist and cosmologist. He became more know in the film My week with Marilyn as Colin a guy that gets involved with Marilyn and in Les Miserables as Marius who falls in love with Cosette.

The rest of the cast is amazing!! Emily Watson, Charlie Cox, David Thewlis and Harry Lloyd are in it!!

The Theory of Everything has received nominations for the Golden Globes in the categories of Best Motion Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Original Score. Good luck to the film in this awards season!!



Saturday, December 13, 2014

Gone Girl......cautivating

The Awards Season is approaching and the bets have started. Different websites and blogs are commenting about their favorite films and performances. In my particular case, I will talk about all the movies running on this upcoming season.
So my first film to approach is Gone Girl.

When I saw the trailer I completely believe that the movie was about a husband that killed his wife to get rid of her to gain her money and have the possibility to be with his lover. Imagine my surprise when story reveals that Amy )played by Rosamund Pike) was a maniac!!! The story have a turn of 360 degrees and I LOVE IT !
My perspective changed completely from believing that the husband Nick (played by Ben Affleck) was a murderer and cold hearted to the idiot who underestimated his wife intelligence and now was losing in her game. Later on, I couldn't avoid to laugh when Amy comes back all covered in blood and tells Nick to thank her because he was scoured.And the ending, when Nick decides to stay with her for his kid, is surprising and disconcerting at the same time.

The combination of Gillian Flynn, the author, and David Fincher, the director, created a masterpiece, where we don't know what is going to happen next in David Fincher's words.

Regarding the performances, Ben Affleck is great as in Argo, where he was aclaimed as an actor and director. Rosamund Pike was extraordinary, her capacity to bond the sweet and maniac Amy was perfect! I couldn't believe that she was the same person who gave live to sweet Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (2005) and carefree Helen in An Education (2009).

I believe the movie is all up ascending and already has significant nominations in the 72th Golden Globe Awards, like Rosamund Pike as Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama, Daivd Fincher as Best Director in a Motion Picture Drama, Gillian Flynn as Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score.

To finish, here is an interview of the actor, the director and the author.