Review of the Movie Up (2009)

Up (Animated) 2009

“The Buddha approached suffering differently. He said that suffering is not inherent in the world of impermanence; suffering arises when we cling. When clinging disappears, impermanence no longer gives rise to suffering. The solution to suffering, then, is to end clinging, not to try to escape from the transient world.” (Insight Meditation Center - http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/articles/impermanence/)

Carl Fredrickson has lost Ellie, his soul mate. He feels as though they did not live the life of adventure that she wanted and becomes trapped in longing and regret. Using helium balloons, he launches his entire house, determined to see the Lost Land in South America, a place he and his wife, Ellie, dreamed of visiting. Inadvertently, he takes along a scout who is trying to earn his last badge for assisting the elderly.

Carl is deeply trapped in suffering, in great need of realizing the Four Noble Truths. He wants the transitory to be permanent, clings to his memories of life with Ellie, and lives in the past. Shakyamuni Buddha would have understood Carl’s suffering for it was the understanding of illness, old age, and death that motivated Siddhartha to seek enlightenment.

It is only by learning to live in the present that Carl escapes suffering. Through compassion for the boy and the bird, Carl is able to set aside his own sense of loss and experience happiness again.

Movie Review of Yes Man (2008)

"The Tathagatha avoids the two extremes and talks about the Middle Path. What this is, that is; this arises, that arises. Through ignorance volitional actions or karmic formations are conditioned.
(Samyuktagama, Chapter 12)
Jim Carrey portrays Carl Allen, a man whose life has stagnated sinking him into depression and withdrawal. His friend, Peter, convinces him to attend a “Yes” conference. Because of his resistance to the concept of saying yes to opportunity, the Yes Leader Terrance Bundley targets him and convinces him to agree to a covenant of saying “Yes” to everything. This leads him to both negative and positive experiences, sometimes at the same time. He also develops new relationships, one with a fascinating, spontaneous woman. Carl learns to live in the moment, but things become extreme.

Carl is a man who would benefit from the Middle Way. At first he is overly withdrawn and despondent, not even attending his friend’s engagement party. After the Yes conference, he acts without thought, his behaviour is indulgent and reckless. It is only when he finds the middle path that Carl is able to find true happiness.

Movie Review Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009)

Movie Review for Did You Hear About the Morgans?

Movie score = C+

Recommended age = 14 and up

Indulge in lust just a little, and like the child it grows apace. The wise man hates it therefore; who would take poison for food? Every sorrow is increased and cherished by the offices of lust. If there is no lustful desire, the risings of sorrow are not produced, the wise man seeing the bitterness of sorrow, stamps out and destroys the risings of desire…
- Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king 852-854

Hugh Grant has his usual dry sense of humour as the cheating husband Paul Morgan. Sarah Jessica Parker plays his separated wife, Meryl, a sweet romantic with a broken heart. After witnessing a murder, they are put into a temporary witness protection program together in rural Wyoming. This is a gentle comedy about love, trust, disappointment, and priorities.

The acting is fine, the script predictable, and the cinematography only fair. Unfortunately, if you watch the trailer, many of the funny parts are spoiled.

Movie Review of The Princess and the Frog (2009)

Movie Review for The Princess and the Frog

A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another. If these minds love one another, the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden.
- The Teaching of the Buddha, Society for the Promotion of Buddhism

This is a typical Disney princess/love story with a couple of cute plot twists. The heroine is an African-American, the setting New Orleans, and the music jazz and Cajun. The graphics are very similar to Cinderella.

The messages, love and family are the most important treasures, and only through hard work can we achieve our dreams, seem very topical in these financially difficult times. The shadows from the other side are a bit scary. Whenever the story started to lose the interest of the young audience, it would break into song or slapstick humour. A good family holiday film.

Movie Review of Sherlock Holmes (2009)

The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage. Like the apparent distances in a picture, things have no reality in themselves but are like heat haze.
- The Buddha, The Teaching of the Buddha

Robert Downey Jr. makes an excellent obsessive, tough, scruffy Holmes. Jude Law is his saner, resilient, compassionate side-kick Watson. Irene Adler makes a beautiful foil for Sherlock. Mark Strong’s portrayal of the ambitious, deceitful Lord Blackwood is straight out of a DC comic.

All the clues are laid out for a good detective to solve, but Holmes is the one to put them together in a meaningful way for the audience. The plot is complex, the characters colourful, and the villain grandiose. However, there were moments when we were bored. It was difficult, at times, to understand the speech due to the accents, occasional mumbling, and poor quality sound. Victorian England was vividly pictured; the audience could almost smell the pollution and stench.

On a personal note, my husband and I visited the Sherlock Holmes pub in London, England where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote many of his stories. Much of the original atmosphere has been preserved. However, you have as much chance of getting a seat as winning the lottery.

Movie Review of A History of Violence (2005)

Movie Review A History of Violence

Let him no creatures kill and none incite to kill, nor sanction others taking life, but put by violence for all that lives.
- The Buddha,Sayings of the Buddha, William Wray

The movie begins with two opposite groups, a pair of cold-hearted killers and a loving family of four. While it seems obvious they will meet and the family will be damaged in some way, David Cronenberg never fails to surprise.

Viggo Mortensen, as Tom Stall, is a convincing protagonist. Maria Bello is perfect as his wife Edie. Ashton Holmes, as their son Jack, brings the question of violence into a different arena. Ed Harris makes a terrific mobster but William Hurt seems formulaic.

The movie raises several questions: When is it acceptable to use violence to solve a problem? Do we ever really know what anyone is capable of? Can a person change? Is it possible to escape the karma of past violence? Can love forgive grand lies and deception?

Movie Review of the Pool (2007)

Movie Score = A

Recommended age = 10 and up (too difficult for younger)

“May our heart’s garden of awakening bloom with hundreds of flowers.” Thich Nhat Hanh.

In this movie the major characters are known by their actual first names. The story centers around two boys, Venkatesh Chavan plays an 18 year old who is working in the city or Panjim, Goa, India, to try to provide money for his family back in the small village. Jhangir Badshar portrays his best friend, an 18 year old orphan surviving on his own. Although the two began as entrepreneurial rivals, they have learned the power of teamwork. The future does not look bright for either boy.

Nana Patekar portrays the owner of a luxurious summer home with a pool that no one swims in. Venkatesh has been gazing longingly at this pool for quite some time before Nana arrives with his angry, withdrawn daughter Ayesha Mohan. Venkatesh befriends the father and daughter in an effort to gain access to the pool. Nana and Venkatesh exchange stories as they work together revitalizing the neglected garden. The garden symbolizes the family which has disintegrated since Nana’s son drowned in the pool as a child. When Ayesha asks, “Who leaves a seven year old to take care of a four year old?” we realize her brother probably drowned in her care and she hates her father for putting her in that position. The karma of Nana’s carelessness has cost him everything, dead son, divorced wife, and distant daughter.

Venkatesh becomes Nana’s substitute son. He relates wisdom stories and observations to Venkatesh who tells him an odd story of being possessed by a dead girl’s ghost, a parallel to the dead boy who possesses Nana’s family. Venkatesh was exorcised by a village wise man; Nana must exorcise himself.

Nana offers to take Venkatesh home with him and enrol the young man in school when the monsoons come. At first Venkatesh accepts but after witnessing Jhangir’s desperate anger and fear of being deserted, he decides to put his friend first. He passes on the compassion shown to him by Nana.

As each character reaches out and empathizes with another, opportunities appear. Interdependence is illustrated with each twist in the plot. By isolating themselves, the characters have suffered more. It is only by joining together that they are able to ease some of the suffering.

Karma, interdependence, wisdom, and compassion are explored beautifully in this story.