Magic in the Moonlight

Ratings: 9.2/10

Film Class: C

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Director Woody Allen has finally stolen my heart. I was never a fan of his movies, but have now succumbed totally and completely. I'm now a fan of his, a fan of Colin Firth and a fan of Emma Stone. Both the leads were stellar, performances demanding of only the best to pull off a film like this. Emma Stone was glowing with magic, while Colin Firth impressed with finesse. 

I'm not sure if its a satire on religion, using magic as its theme, or tool, but I do know it does address the irrationalism of love. 

Colin Firth is a professional illusionist as well as a renowned debunker of psychics. Approached by an old friend to help debunk a seemingly authentic psychic, he willingly pits his wits against his greatest challenge yet, a nemesis who could potentially knock him out of his senses.

It felt like watching a witty play, entertaining, upclose and personal. I'm sure it's Woody Allen's style (watched a couple of his previous movies); opening credit scenes without any background (black) coupled with playful upbeat music (and soundtrack), witty dialogue, mostly humorous but comes across more "stage-play-like" than "real-life" and a huge focus on the dialogue instead of fast paced cut scenes or CG. And usually, there's an engaging plot to back it, with the all-hated abrupt cliffhanger-like fade out ending scenes. Only this time, the ending was a stunning closer. 

I love how the magic of old school cinematography triumphs in this modern era through the lens of Woody Allen. Old school cinematography had more focus on characters, dialogues and scenes. In layman's terms, it's like watching a movie with lesser frames (settings) per second, or minute. Ok, perhaps that's a bad analogy. Basically, it's slower paced, and more engaging.

The lack of elaborate CG (though there's some CG of the countryside background during the driving scenes) further proves that it doesn't take impressive CG or Hollywood A-listers for a movie to reach the moon, it just takes an old school "observatory" to be able to get there. 

While there were some exposé, there was no harm done. Magic in the Moonlight was, simply put, beautiful. An absolute delight. An absolute eye opener. An absolute wonder. 

Like Father, Like Son

Ratings: 6.6/10

Film Class: C+

Genre: Drama

Like Father, Like Son tells the difficult story of 2 families who had their biological sons mixed up at birth. Raising someone else’s son as their own unknowingly for 6 years, the hospital called one day to break the news to them. This movie challenges your decision making ability and greys the line between what the “right” upbringing of a child should be.

Full of dialogue and rather slow paced, Like Father, Like Son is unlikely to impress. There’s too much of your everyday human factor, set in a rather realistic scenario which any parent would dread. And because it touches on such a sensitive topic, it’s the kind of movie people would rather not watch and hope that such a situation doesn’t happen to them. I, let curiosity get the better of me.

*major spoilers ahead* I sat through it hoping to witness an ingenious “solution”, a promising outcome to repair the broken situation. But I came out defeated. There was no solution, only grievances. It was realistically unrealistic, such that the events turned out to be rather extreme, the upbringing and the lives of both parents. It also portrayed the ugly side of the hospital’s management, though realistic, was too much for an equilibrated audience to tolerate. It was like blows and blows of injustice without a “hand of god” to right things. Furthermore, the film seems to “take sides”.

Just when I thought it was too one-sided, there was however, a powerful quote towards the end, about how a husband and wife is not blood related and yet they can still start a family, which really got me thinking, is blood really thicker than water? Is nurture really more important than nature?

I didn’t enjoy it because I experienced cognitive dissonance. On one hand it seemed like the obvious choice to choose your own flesh and blood, on the other, 6 years of nurturing cannot simply be discredited just by the appearance of “blood”.  Time is equally priceless as well, the magnitude of love is built by time, yet the logic of love runs in your veins.

It’s a melodrama that would make your better days worst, and your worst days better. And I watched it, on a good day.