I grew up in a weird family situation. Holidays were never filled with relatives. My dad's parents died before I was born. My mother had 2 brothers and Dad had 2 brothers. All 4 of my uncles spent every holiday with their wives' families. There were a few Thanksgivings with Mom's brothers, but that was it. I didn't realize quiet Christmas days were abnormal until I got old enough to watch Hallmark commercials.
Sometime during my teen years, after Mother's parents were gone, we started seeing movies on Christmas day. It's a tradition I love. This year, being unemployed has meant I had more time to watch movies, and we have seen some good ones.
Sometime recently my son and I saw a movie called Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis. He played a cop who lived his life in a chair and operated a lifelike robot self who went out and did everything fun and/or dangerous. The robot had hair and looked like a soap opera actor. It was a creepy little film. Interesting, but not great. A definite wait for the rental disc. However, it amuses me that James Cameron's new film Avatar takes the exact same concept - a person with an imperfect body operating a new and improved body robot. In Avatar it's a wheelchair-bound marine who chooses to be a 10 foot tall blue guy. I don't know why Surrogates did so poorly at the box office, while Avatar is setting new records, but I suspect the answer includes the word "hype."
Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jr. was the Christmas day flick. I liked it a lot. It was like a thrill ride at Six Flags. I had two issues. One, why is all the action slow-mo? Two, I couldn't always understand the English accents. Next time I see it I will watch it close-captioned for the hearing impaired and Americans.
Invictus stars Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela. I admired the film on a lot of levels. I only wished I could pause it and run Google "rugby football" because I had no clue what on earth those guys were doing. It's very much a political film, but it's also a sports film. It has a lot of interesting messages about race, but it doesn't hit you over the head with them. Good film to discuss with kids, like my 13 year old.
Did You Hear About the Morgans? I didn't want to see this film, I'll be honest. Love Hugh Grant but Sarah Jessica Parker was looking scary in the previews. There were some funny moments. It was a pretty intelligent film. I liked it at first, but the more I think about it the more I realize that Sarah and Hugh have absolutely no chemistry as a couple, ever. Hugh played a whining, sniveling git. Jessica played a work-obsessed yuppie. [Warning - next sentences contain a spoiler!] What really incensed me, at the end, was the shot of them with an adorable Chinese baby they'd been able to adopt in less than 6 months. Oh puh-leeze!! It takes YEARS to adopt from China, unless you accept a special needs child which the baby clearly wasn't. It also showed Sarah's character pregnant, like hey, the perfect scenario, a cute little Chinese baby and a baby of their own. I italicized that last phrase because that's how most people view a bio baby. It infuriates me. Why couldn't the Chinese baby be good enough?! Grr....
Blindside is by far my favorite of all these holiday movies. I am an adoptive mother of two "older" children and this remarkable true story is wonderful. I wrote about it on my personal blog The Crab Chronicles here. I hope a lot of folks see it and it raises awareness of the many children in foster care who need homes and deserve loving parents. It's also just a great story, told honestly and simply.
Here's hoping early 2010 will bring some more good movies!
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