The Other Woman (2009)

The Other Woman (2009)

Drama

 

Rather than being just another movie about a step mother trying to have a difficult connection with her step son this movie actually goes beyond the mundane for a very good reason. That is the excellent performance by the Oscar worthy Natalie Portman. She delivers yet another powerful acting as a disturbed and a complicated young woman who lost her child at the infant stage. It is a very hard to portray character with many emotions and strong feelings to bear up. And Natalie does is so well that even I not being a woman feels the emotions so strong. In that case I’m sure if you’re a woman you will understand her better than me.

 

The plot has a good balance. There are few characters and one or two side story lines in it too. And all of them fuel the main plot with or without interfering directly to it. And the tale flows with good phase bringing the most emotional moments to life with a good pause in between. Apart from being all that it’s a movie that could be watched with a mild heart and to fathom about.

 

තම අත දරුවාගේ හදිසි මරණයෙන් තැවෙන තරුණ මවක්. ඇයගේ සැමියාගේ පළමු කසාදයේ අට වයසැති පිරිමි දරුවෙක්. මේ දරුවාත් තම පළමු බිරිඳත් තරුණ බිරිඳත් අතරට සිර වූ මැදි වියේ පියෙක්. මොවුන්ගේ ජීවිත අන්දරයය් The Other Woman. නතාලි පොර්ට්මන් ගේ ප්‍රබල රංගනයෙන් සහ වින්දනය කල හැකි කතාවකින් මේ චිත්‍රපටිය රසවත් වෙය්. එය හුදෙක් බොළඳ පෙම් කතාවක් හෝ ඛේදනීය පවුල් කතාවක්ම නොවේ. ජීවිතයේ අභාග්‍යයන්ගෙන් වැරෙන් බැට කෑ මිනිසුන් කිහිප දෙනෙක් තම සිත තුල සැනසිල්ල සොයා කරන වැයමය් මේ කතාව.

 

විටෙක ඉතා ප්‍රබල හැඟීම් ජනිත කරවන තවත් විටෙක පිහාටුවක් සේ සැහැල්ලු මේ චිත්‍රපටිය නතාලිගේ තවත් විශිෂ්ට රංගන දායකත්වය සමග සිතට දැනෙන එකක්. මා කාන්තාවක් නොවුවද ඇයගේ හද ගැස්ම මටද දැනේ. ඔබ කාන්තාවක්නම් ඒ ගැන කුමක් පවසම්ද ?

 

3.5/5

 

-Priyantha Bandara

 

Synopsis: A drama that details the story of a woman's difficult relationship with her stepson.

Mary and Max (2009)

Mary and Max (2009)

Animation | Drama

 

This is a clay animation and its funny but it’s very dark. Maybe it’s the depressingly darkest clay animation that you might every come across. Definitely this is not for kids and it is not for the usual animation movie lovers. If you expect to see Chicken Run you will be very disappointed. This easily could have being a great feature film considering the nature of its plot and the mix of characters in it.

 

But the director has chosen it to be an animation but rather an imperfect ugly clay animation. The sheer ugliness and the bitterness of the characters make the plot ever strong and the dull monotonous color scheme doesn’t really help to boost the mood either. But that’s what this whole movie is about. The difficult side of lives of two people who find true friendship in their hearts in a very awkward manner is the base of all of it. And there is little bit of laughter and joy but for a good amount its pain, anger and anxiety. Most of you may not digest it as we are not used to this type of cinema. We want animations to be colorful, funny and joyful. But this is the total opposite. Yet it is powerful movie making.

 

 

මෙය මැටි සජීවිකරණ හාස්‍යෝත්පාදක චිත්‍රපටියක්. නමුත් එය ඉතා අඳුරු තේමාවක් රැගත් එකක්. මෙවැනි අඳුරු තේමා රැගත් සජීවිකරණ චිත්‍රපටි අපට දකින්න නොලැබෙන තරම්. එම නිසාම බොහෝ දෙනෙකු මේ චිත්‍රපටිය හෙලා දකින්නට හෝ එයට කිසි සෙත් රිසි නොවන්නට පුළුවන්. ඔබ බලාපොරොත්තු වන්නේ සුන්දර චරිත ගොඩක් සහ වින්දනීය චිත්‍රපටියක් නම් මෙය ඔබට සුදුසු නොවේ. එසේ වන්නේ මෙහි එන කතා තේමාව සාමාන්‍යය  කලාත්මක චිත්‍රපටියකට ගැනීමට තරම් සුදුසු එකක් විමය්.

 

නමු අද්‍යක්ෂ වරයා මේ කතාව කීමට මැටි වලින් කල අවලක්ෂණ චරිත කිහිපයක් උපයෝගී කර ගන්නවා. එසේ කිරීමෙන් කතාවේ ඇති තීව්‍රතාවය නිතැතින්ම වර්ධනය වන බව පෙනේ. ලොවෙහි දෙකොනක ජීවත් වන දෙදෙනෙකගේ ජීවිත වල ඛේදනීය බව සහ දුක් මුසු බව ඔවුන් ලියුම් මගින් හුවමාරු කර ගැනීම සහ ඔවුන් බොහෝ කලට හොඳම මිතුරන් ලෙස වචනයකුදු නොදොඩා හෝ කිසිදා හමු නොවී ගත කරන අයුරූ මෙහි මුලික කතාවය්. විශිෂ්ඨ පිටපතක් සහ අඳුරු වර්ණ තේමාවක් රැගත් මේ චිත්‍රපටිය ඇත්තෙන්ම වෙනස් නමුත් නිර්මානශිල්ත්වයෙන් පිරිපුන් එකක්.

 

3/5

 

-Priyantha Bandara

 

Synopsis: A tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York.

Triangle (2009)

Triangle (2009)

Thriller | Mystery | Horror

This practically is not a horror but a physiological thriller that would leave your mind twisted for a good deal of time. The first 40 minutes runs like a baby with no big thrills or surprises. And then it starts to change face to be something you can hardly imagine of. And the plot is very difficult to predict which is one of the key reasons that it’s so effective. Apart from that the sets and atmosphere is fairly simple. And it lets you to digest the twisted plot completely without any background interference. The plot can be discussed, argued and hated upon many bases such as fiction, science, belief or religion. Yet whichever the way it’s explored or explained it will just leave you with a thrilling movie experience. If you do not have previous experience in mind and time loop cinema plots you will definitely be blown away by this. And believe me you are equally helpless to face the horrors yet to come just as the set of people in the movie!

කාලය සහ එහි ප්‍රතිගමනය ගැන ලියවුනු චිත්‍රපටි කතා ඇත්තේ සුළු ප්‍රමාණයක්. මේ ඉන් එක සාර්ථක කතාවක්. එය ඔබේ මනස සැබවින්ම අඹරා වියවුල් කර දමන්නට සමත්. කුඩා යාත්‍රාවක නැගී මුහුදු සවාරියකට යන කණ්ඩායමකට හදිසි කුණාටුවක් නිසා තම යාත්‍රාව අහිමි වෙනවා. ඉන් පසු මුහුදේ පාවෙමින් අතරමන් වී සිටින විට විශාල නවුකාවකට ගොඩ වීමට ඔවුනට හැකි වෙනවා. එය අති විශාල පාලු නවුකාවක් බව ඔවුනට ඉක්මනටම තේරුම් යනවා. මේ නවුකාව ඇත්තෙන්ම අභිරහසක්ද නැත්නම් මායාවක්ද කියා තීරණය කිරීම ප්‍රේක්ෂක ඔබට භාර වේ. නමුත් ඒ තීරණය ලේසි පහසු එකක් නොවන බවනම් කිව යුතුමය. මක් නිසාද මේ චිත්‍රපටියේ සිදුවන සිද්ධි දාමය කෙතරම් වෙනස් සහ සිත සලිත කරවන සුළුද කියා ඔබ තවමත් නොදන්නා බැවිනි. එසේ ගත් කල චිත්‍රපටියේ ප්‍රධාන චරිත මෙන්ම ඔබද අසරණය!! ඒ ඔබට අත් දකින්නට ලැබෙන බිහිසුණු දේවල් ගැන ඔබට කිසි ලෙසකවත් පෙර සුදානමක් නොමැති බැවිනි.

3.5/5

-Priyantha Bandara

Synopsis: The story revolves around the passengers of a yachting trip in the Atlantic Ocean who, when struck by mysterious weather conditions, jump to another ship only to experience greater havoc on the open seas.

Sin Nombre (2009) (Mexico)

 Adventure | Crime | Drama

 

Bullets don’t know the good side or the bad side but humans must know how to choose. When they don’t and their judgment is clouded by anger, ego and greed they fall in to an eternal abyss of darkness. Serious movies about gangsters are always disturbing yet very powerful. They make you wonder if that world really exists and how lives of underworld really prevail in such stability. While we get to see the beautiful side of the planet and life they live a low life with no future to claim for exactly. This tale is about few people who wished that they changed the system. But while some make it out some taste the bitterness of the lives they ones stood for.

 

3.5/5

 

Synopsis: Honduran teenager Sayra reunites with her father, an opportunity for her to potentially realize her dream of a life in the U.S. Moving to Mexico is the first step in a fateful journey of unexpected events.

Cargo (2009) (Switzerland-German)

Mystery | Sri Fi | Thriller

Somewhat bringing the memories of early sci fi’s like Sunshine and Moon, Cargo has a tale to tell of its own uniqueness. The whole flick has an eerie emptiness and a mystery that keep the viewer glued to the plot and overall feeling of it. This good plot met with fantastic CG makes a perfect sci fi movie that rarely seeing these days. The set creation is wonderful; flow is great and etc etc. Maybe a little downside is the vision of non evolved simple future technology like torches or welding machines at year 2270. The rest is all mind blowing.

 

3.5/5

 

Synopsis: Year 2267. The ecosystem of Earth has been destroyed and mankind is forced to live in orbit. The story of CARGO takes place on the derelict spaceship KASSANDRA on its 8 year journey to a remote freight-station in deep space. The young and inexperienced medical officer LAURA PORTMANN (Anna Katharina Schwabroh) is the only person awake on board. The rest of the crew lies frozen in cryosleep.

Mr. Nobody (2009)

Drama | Fantasy | Romance

 

 

If you thought Inception was mind boggling, wait till you see this. This is a fantasy drama which is so unique and twists your mind you might want to watch it over and over again just to catch up the scenes only. Filled with wonderful scenes of artistic cinematography, high speed camera work and slow motion and backward sequences it runs in several times lines without giving priority to anyone in particular. It’s like some magic or a spell that makes you wonder if you’re watching this movie for real or insanely that if you really exist after all! For each of us who watch it will have very different ways to explain it I’m sure because the internet is filled with different explanations at a glimpse. But the only thing matters is that the choices we make in life takes us in to different paths overall but each of us is connected or effects each other in ways unimaginable. We need more movies like this.

 

4/5

 

Synopsis: In the year 2092, one hundred eighteen year old Nemo is recounting his life story to a reporter. He is less than clear; often times thinking that he is only thirty-four years of age. But his story becomes more confusing after he does focus on the fact of his current real age. He tells of his life at three primary points in his life.

Breaking Bad – TV series

2008 on going

Crime | Drama

Created by Vince Gilligan

This is going to be my first ever review of a TV series on this blog. And I’m certainly glad that it’s ‘Breaking Bad’. Obnoxiously disturbing at some episodes and filled with drugs, drugs and more drugs this series at times will make you disgust. But yet the plot is so strong that you will hold on it no matter what.

The plot goes like this – When an 50 year old overqualified chemistry teacher Walter White is diagnosed with terminal cancer he realizes that all his future expectations is about to end in a jiffy. And that by being a good father and a husband and a loyal citizen has not made him to save anything for the family once he perishes. By luck or by fait he makes a drastic decision and a dramatic change of attitude. He decides to produce high quality Chrystal meth. His partner in this crime is a drug addictive and pathetic yet loyal and kind hearted small drug dealer named Jesse Pinkman who was once a student of Walter. 

The story starts right there and the series spread wide and fast just like the cancer in Whites lungs fast and furiously. There are so many twists and turns the duo faces and close calls they ditch in their illegal drug business. Without a doubt each and every episode is a new and exciting experience for the viewer and White and Pinkman both. So far after 4 seasons it’s so gripping and run the charts like hell. 

And as a series its busting my ratings of some other good shows I have seeing. If you have the spare time and the guts to enjoy this show I’d say go for it. If not the regrets are on you.

4/5

Chloe (2009)

For the simple fact of curiosity and mildly steaming skin show this film will keep you glued to it. You will want to know what’s going to happen next and what moves the characters will take until one big twist hits you on the head hard and say ‘Hay wake up’. I favor the plot, acting, glamour except the fact that the unpredictable situation miraculously solving itself at the end. Kindly ‘Bollywoodish’ for that matter.

2.9/5

Synopsis: A doctor hires an escort to seduce her husband, whom she suspects of cheating, though unforeseen events put the family in danger.