When we first heard about this movie, my wife wondered how they would stretch such a short book into a feature-length film. The answer, of course, is that they added a bunch of filler that, while designed to increase tension and excite the audience, nevertheless left me bored. I'm sure most of you have read Chris Van Allsburg's wonderful children's story that this movie is based on. In my opinion, much of the beauty and power of that story comes from its simplicity. The book didn't have roller coaster rides and children jumping to safety just in the nick of time. It didn't have cheesy, overproduced songs or even other "speaking" characters. It didn't need any of that. The movie is good where it sticks to the book, but all of the filler is just that. I give it two stars because it is an undeniably pretty movie. In fact, I have to say that the filmmakers did a very good job of capturing some of the feeling of Van Allsburg's paintings. Unfortunately, it seems like they thought that the illustrations were the only important thing about the book. I will admit, though, that I'm not necessarily the best audience for Christmas movies, especially newer ones. You might even like this one; I'm pretty sure it moved the woman behind me to tears.

Viewed: 11/12/2004 | Released: 10/20/2004 | Score: C

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It's a little hard to describe The Time Traveler's Wife. It is, obviously, a story about time travel. One of the two main characters, Henry, is a time traveler. It's a little different from your average science fiction story, though. You see, he can't control when he disappears, nor can he control when or where he goes. The other main character, Clare, is Henry's wife, who is not a time traveler. Clare first meets Henry in 1971; she is six, but he is in his thirties. Henry first meets Clare in 1991; she is twenty and he is twenty-eight. Is that confusing enough for you? The Time Traveler's Wife is the often confusing, very disjointed, quite circular, but exceptionally beautiful story of the love between Henry and Clare, and the way their lives intertwine and shape each other. Much like other time travel stories, it investigates questions of predestination, free will, and the nature of time. But above all that, it is a highly character-driven story about the unique relationship that develops between the main characters. I'm not sure what I could say to really capture the feeling of the book, but if my reaction is any measure of the story's quality then let me tell you this: it's one of the only books--possibly the only book--I've ever read that has made me cry.

Started: 11/4/2004 | Finished: 11/10/2004

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My one-word description of this movie? Incredible. OK, OK, I'm sorry for how cheesy the last two sentences were. I just couldn't help it. Seriously, though, The Incredibles was a great movie. Not that it's any surprise to anyone who has seen any other Pixar film. As usual, the animation was brilliant. (Those of you who are CGI buffs, check out the hair in this movie. It's really well done.) But these days brilliant animation just isn't enough. What Pixar brings to the table every time is a well-crafted story with excellent voice characterization. Some people go to a movie looking for action, others for laughs. Some people want characters with emotional depth. Some people want cool visuals, and some just want superhero meta-humor. The Incredibles has all that. But, look, you already knew you wanted to see it. So just go see it.

Viewed: 11/6/2004 | Released: 11/4/2004 | Score: A

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If Jamie Foxx doesn't get a Best Actor nomination out of this, I will take that as final proof that the Academy Awards are totally and completely meaningless. Looking back over the films I've seen this year I can't find a single one that has a performance that's even in the same league as Foxx's Ray Charles. It was just amazing. I didn't even feel like I was watching an actor; it just felt like I was watching Ray Charles. Now, a lesser actor might get bogged down in the physical details, the way Charles' moves. To be sure, Foxx got that right, from the way Charles walked to the way he moved his lips and fingers. But where someone else might have hoped that would be enough, Foxx gave us the whole package--at least as far as I can tell, not having known the man personally. The rest of the movie held up to Foxx's strong performance as well. It did tend to treat Ray Charles as something more than just a man, but we still saw all his human foibles. And above all that was the music. Of course we would expect a biography of one of this century's greatest musicians to have an excellent soundtrack, and it does. To me, though, seeing Ray Charles' music in the context of his life and times just made it that much better for me.

Viewed: 10/29/2004 | Released: 10/13/2004 | Score: A

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What would you do if you had your life to live over again? It's the kind of question that everyone has asked himself at one time or another, so it's not surprising that there should be so many stories about it. This one, though not the best of those stories, is nevertheless good. In the very first scene of Replay the main character, Jeff Winston, dies, then wakes up to find himself 25 years in his past. We then follow Winston through several iterations of his life as he continues to die and return to his life. Several of the plot devices are familiar to this sort of story; we see Jeff Winston use his knowledge of the future to change his fortune, we see him become disillusioned as his life continued to repeat. In spots things seem a bit cliché--though I can't honestly say whether these themes would have seemed so when the book was first published in 1985--but Grimwood manages to write some truly poignant scenes. It's by no means a perfect novel, but I found myself quite moved by parts of it.

Started: 10/24/2004 | Finished: 10/25/2004

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In the first chapter of A Widow For One Year, Ruth Cole, a four-year-old child, walks in on her 39-year-old mother having sex with Ruth's father's teenage assistant. It's a shocking scene, but also a funny and revealing scene. It's a very John Irving type of scene. Irving has such an interesting style. He telegraphs everything; indeed, he tells you everything before it happens, and yet when the time finally comes you still find yourself completely drawn into the moment. That takes skill. The rest of the book follows the lives of Ruth, her parents, and Eddie, the teenage assistant. One of the things that intrigued me the most is Irving's descriptions of the types of writers that Ruth, her parents, and Eddie are, or become. There's a lot in there that seems like it must be autobiographical to some extent, which is ironic in light of the fact that Ruth, herself, disdains autobiographical fiction. I'm not sure what else I could talk about that wouldn't give away too much of the plot--and in a John Irving novel the plot is what drives the book--but suffice it to say that it was a great read.

Started: 10/11/2004 | Finished: 10/23/2004

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Before I say anything else about this movie, let me offer one piece of advice: don't sit too close to the screen. I was in the second row, and between the hand-held camera, the frenetic action and cutting, and the frequent close-ups, it made the film difficult to watch. There. Now that that's done, let's talk about the rest of the movie. Friday Night Lights is one of the best sports movies I've seen. In a way, though, it's not even really about the sports. Well, that's a little misleading. It is a football movie, but it's much more about the town of Odessa, Texas and the way in which the town's obsession with high school football affects the people in it than it is about the sport itself. In that way it's a little like Varsity Blues, but where Blues is funny, Lights is gritty. Everything about the movie enhances that effect. The film is grainy, the camera is shaky, and the performances are so natural that you can even forget that you're watching actors. If you're looking for a movie that's uplifting or heartwarming or fun then this one isn't for you. But if you want a serious movie, a great movie, check this one out.

Viewed: 10/15/2004 | Released: 10/5/2004 | Score: A

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How can I describe I Heart Huckabees? I could tell you that it's about an existential detective agency, but that's a little inaccurate, and, besides, it's more confusing than revealing. It's a film about connectedness and separateness and people trying to understand. That makes it sound serious. In a way, it is, but it's also ridiculous. It's a silly movie that will make you laugh. I Heart Huckabees was written and directed by David O. Russell, who also wrote and directed Three Kings. You can see some similarities in the directing style, but the subject matter in this one is much more off-the-wall. The acting was, across the board, excellent. I always enjoy Naomi Watts and Dustin Hoffman, and Jason Schwartzman and Lily Tomlin were also fun to watch. Surprisingly enough, Mark Wahlberg was also very good. In fact, I think this role was perfect for him. It's a weird movie. I loved it.

Viewed: 10/9/2004 | Released: 9/30/2004 | Score: A

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I both enjoyed and didn't enjoy this book. Ross' story shows us the world of the Big Sur coast as it was in the mid-nineteenth century. Life is hard, but the land is beautiful. We follow the main character, Zande Allan, through the changes his life makes when he marries his mail-order bride, Hannah. On the one hand, the story resonated with me in much the same way that Steinbeck's works do. I have spent a lot of time in Big Sur; I've even lived there a couple of times. So, as I made my way through Stranger, much of description was familiar to me and made me feel connected to the story. On the other hand, I don't know that I really cared for the story or the way it was written. Ross wrote the story in the first person and so decided to write her prose as Zande Allan would say it. It added to the ambience, but made it harder to read. But even more, I just didn't care for Zande. In some ways his actions and attitudes can be excused as a product of the world he lived in, but even by the end of the story I just couldn't find it in me to like him. Even so, if the character tale was lost on me, I still found the book fascinating as a description of life on the coast.

Started: 9/23/2004 | Finished: 10/7/2004

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I love baseball movies. This one may not have been a Bull Durham, but even so I liked it quite a bit. I think that some people might go see it and be disappointed because it's not as funny as the previews make it out to be. Indeed, Bernie Mac is practically subdued compared to some of his other films. But even though he's not as funny as he could be, Mac manages a surprisingly nuanced performance that, by the end, even managed to get me a little choked up. Really, there's more of drama to Mr. 3000 than comedy, but there are enough laughs to keep the general tone light and the rest of the story works pretty well.

Viewed: 10/2/2004 | Released: 9/7/2004 | Score: B

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