For date night this week, our movie options were limited.  We are lucky enough to live nearby cheap movie theaters that allow us to go to the movies weekly, so we see almost everything that comes out.  Well, everything we have an interest in  seeing, anyway.  There are movies such as Krank 2 that you couldn’t PAY me to see – I would rather just skip the movie altogether – same with the upcoming Star Trek (no offense to you Trekkies – just not my kind of movie!).  So this week we were left to choose between Obsessed, a stalker-thriller with Beyonce Knowles and the new boss Charles (who already left) from the Office or a movie called The Soloist, which is about a Julliard-trained musician who ends up homeless because his schitzophrenia stands in the way of his success.  The Soloist actually seemed to have some substance, but it also seemed like the kind of movie that could wind up being a tear-jerker or just plain boring.  So we went with Obsessed, despite its 4.0 rating on imdb.com (which had slipped to a 3.8 as of today – ouch).  Obsessed is a movie about a successful business man who had a beautiful wife (Beyonce) and child – essentially the perfect life – until an obsessed temp gets in the picture.  This woman is truly psycho, and I really enjoyed watching how she made this poor man’s life unravel.  The movie wasn’t bad until a few clues shed the light on the movie’s secret – Beyonce can’t act.  Add in bad character development and a weak script, and I can definitely see where the 4.0, er, 3.8 came in.  There was one line near the end of the movie that was one of the stupidest lines I’ve ever heard in any movie.  I won’t spoil it for you, but let’s just say that my husband and I got dirty looks for laughing out loud at its absurdity.  On top of all of that, the movie was completely predictable – it must have been based upon (copied) every popular stalker movie ever made – The Crush, The Temp, Hand That Rocks the Cradle…  Would I recommend it?  To the right person, maybe…  you have to like thrillers; so much so that you’d want to see one that is almost a thriller parody.  You have to go to this one in a cynical mood, looking for stuff to make fun of  – and you won’t be disappointed.

After the movie, we decided to mix it up a little and go bowling –  something we haven’t done in a LONG time (I blame my 4 pregnancies – bowling is NOT a recommended sport for expecting women, and I’ve been pregnant for about one tenth of my life!)  So anyway, for my first game, I’m embarrassed to say that I got a measly 99 – not very good for someone who used to bowl in a weekly league for years.  My second game was back on par with a 137 – but I was still surprised at how quickly I got the sore muscles of bowler’s fatigue.  I guess picking up 10 lbs with three fingers uses muscles that haven’t been thought about for years.  While I’m happy to report that I wasn’t sore at all the next day, I do have to say that my first attempt at bowling as a 30-year-old wasn’t pretty.  I guess I have to practice, especially if I’m ever going to go ahead and join that league I’ve been talking about doing for years.  I just hope I don’t hurt myself too badly.

Out of respect for my wonderful hubby, I will not disclose his bowling scores.  Let’s just say that he didn’t stand a chance against the former high school ‘Female Intramural Bowler of the Year’.  😉

I am not a huge movie buff.  Sure, I enjoy movies, but it is not my primary form of entertainment and a good 80% or more of movies I read about in the paper are just a big yippee in my book.  That said, every once in a while a gem comes out that almost requires me to buy the DVD, er- if I actually bought DVDs (let’s just say I’m chea-, um… frugal and leave it at that 😛 ).  The movie I’m referring to is titled August Rush.  Released in 2007, it stars Freddie Highmore (Spiderwick Chronicles, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Finding Neverland) as a Evan Taylor, a musical super-prodigy who seemingly puts ordinary prodigies like Mozart to shame.  Any instrument he picked up in this movie he was able to play just a short time later.  He never saw musical notation before, yet started writing music while the girl who brought him in at one point was at school.  Wait- why wasn’t Evan at school?  Well, this is a key point of the story.  He is a runaway orphan.  Only he shouldn’t be an orphan.  Conceived in a one night affair between two musicians (Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers) his father never knew about him and his mother, through the machinations of her wealthy father, though he died at birth.  Evan ran away to find his mother, who he believed he could find through the music he could hear in his mind.  Not unlike a certain Charles Dickens tale, he finds himself in the big city of New York and meets a child street musician who eventually takes him in to meet the Fagin of this movie, Robin Williams as the Wizard, who quickly latches on to Evan as a means to make money once he becomes aware of Evan’s talent at playing the guitar in a .

Continuing the Oliver Twist Theme Evan soon finds himself under another roof, and a bed that clearly makes another connection to our 19th century story with a sign above it that says “God is Love.”  Here his composing talent is now discovered by a minister who wastes no time getting him into Julliard where Evan composes a symphony.  However, remember what happens to poor Oliver after he gets himself away from Fagin’s gang?  Well, Evan is found by the Wizard, who claims to be Evan’s father and promptly removes him Julliard, though the symphony he composed is still set to be played in Central Park (I think that’s the park).

What about his parents?  Well, neither of them found happiness and in fact quit their music shortly after their fling.  Twelve years later they find themselves in separate parts of the country, neither place New York where Evan is.  Meyers’s character gets an urge to find his lost love again, and after finding her phone number but not being able to get a hold of her, and going to her home where she is nowhere to be found, he tries New York since that’s where they first met.  And where is she?  Come on now, just one guess.  That’s right, she went to New York too, but for a far more logical reason.  Her dad finally ‘fessed up to what he did and she is searching for her child who of course had already run away.  By the end of the movie it turned out Evan was right- through music, his music, he found his mother.  Or rather, she found him.  And she in turn was found by her ex at the same time.  He must have been shocked to find out that he had a son (who he coincidentally had met just a short time earlier- see picture above- as he was playing with his guitar, having no idea just who he was talking to).

I guess I enjoyed this movie so much in part because of the ties to Oliver!, which was at one time my favorite musical.  Plus, it deals with music which I understand, having been a musician of sorts since 5th grade.  The road to their eventual but clearly obvious meeting kept me glued to the screen as well.  The plotline was a little ridiculous at times- I mean, his gift is really a bit over the top, and neither the preacher nor the staff at Julliard called the police or child services after discovering him which would realistically set them up on some sort of criminal charges- but then they do call this movie an urban fairy tale so a little unrealism is expected.  If you enjoy music, Oliver Twist, or stories of separated people finding each other, see this movie.  If you don’t, then see it anyway.  🙂