This is naïve, but I very much would like to have what Amélie had.

I cried. At the end. Not so much because of what happened, but why it happened and how things led to it. I loved Bruno’s character right from the beginning, and Asa Butterfield was so charming.

I loved the cinematography and the atmosphere all the scenes created – there was a very light feel to everything, though much graver things were hoovering in the background at the same time. Much like the world presents itself to children like Bruno; there are no bad things, just your own little world where everything is fine and dandy, and either you don’t know anything about the more serious things or you just ignore them. The way Bruno became more aware of his surroundings and the situation with Shmuel was interesting to watch, but he never got things quite right. Perhaps he wasn’t capable of understanding yet, as his own world had always been so safe and serene, and that made the ending even more heart-breaking. He didn’t fully understand what he was doing and how big of a danger he put himself into. And that led to grave consequences.

It just broke my heart.

The Accidental Husband is a thoroughly unsurprising film, it follows the same pattern that all romantic comedies do and the story isn’t that good either. Rather unoriginal and simple, this film is one of those you can watch once but hardly think about watching again.

Of course there were a couple of nice twists, like the Bollenbeckers (they were absolutely hilarious) and the Indian family Patrick was living with, but that’s about it. Otherwise the story and character development was pretty much non-existent and for example Colin Firth’s character remained rather distant and cold to the viewer.

This wasn’t a bad film, I’ve seen many worse, but it wasn’t anything exceptional either. No scene in the film moved me in any way, so I doubt I’ll be ever watching this one again.

Oh… wow. Be it my love for zombies or foreign films in general, or just the fact that I haven’t seen a decent film in ages, but this film almost blew my mind and I feel like exploding with joy.

All zombie films follow the same pattern; there’s a disease, someone gets infected, turns into a zombie, infects people around him/her, most become victims and few survive to witness all the horror. It’s a very simple and rather boring storyline, but for me that has never been the reason I love this genre so much. I’m not completely sure what it is, actually, there is just something compelling about these flesh-eating creatures that are solely driven by their instincts. And I love the fact how the infection traces back down to either bioengineering or some sort of virus cultivations, quite the things that are “hot” topics of today, and all these zombie films are apocalyptic fantasies of what might happen if something goes wrong with those experiments.

Back to the film itself. I didn’t like Angela that much, I thought she was extremely annoying at times, especially when she kept pestering Pablo to tell her what he sees. Now Pablo, the cameraman, was a very interesting character, since we never get to see his face, only hear his voice and apparently get to see what kind of shoes he wears. Of course, cameramen don’t usually shoot themselves but I still thought it was an interesting twist in the film.

I loved the ending. Loved, loved, loved it! So awesome, the film couldn’t have had a better ending, and the last 15 minutes or so – oohh, so suspenseful! Not scary, I hardly ever get scared by horror films, but so suspensive, I was glued to the screen (when I wasn’t leaning away from it in surprise) and that hasn’t happened in such a long time. And that… thing in the penthouse. With a hammer. What was it? Not that it really matters, I just thought it was the most brilliant thing I’ve seen in a long, long time, I was amused by my own comparisons (which I will not say here, because I’d surely insult someone).

Oh, I feel so hyper and happy right now, my only complaint is that I didn’t watch this sooner! This gets on the list of films I’ll definitely be watching again.

Yeah… no. This season had its moments but the final episode was dreadfully boring. I felt absolutely nothing while watching it, and the chemistry between Jack and his brother was just non-existent. They were brothers, really? And Gray was bitter and insane and all that? How come I didn’t see any of that in him? Meh, I was so disappointed, I was expecting something much more. I really liked Captain John Hart, though, he’s a rather interesting character. Overall, not a waste of time, but I’m not sure if I can call this season “worth consuming”, either.

I read this is Finnish but it doesn’t matter – it’s still the same book. I picked up this book without any expectations, in fact I had no idea what the book was about, but the name and the small pictures intrigued me so much that I had to give it a try.

I didn’t think the book was depressing at all. Surely it depicts a grim world of today; a humankind raised and living in a vacuum. And it’s all true, our generation is cursed with the never-ending quest to find some sort of a meaning and a place in this world. Everybody wants to more or less fit in, and we feel lost and scattered whenever the emptiness inside grows too big.

I’m not saying religion is an answer, I’m an atheist and feel no need to replace that with anything supernatural. That doesn’t change the fact that there really is a vacuum of faith, and the short stories in this book cleverly observe this emptiness, what it means to a human being and how it is present in even the most ordinary of lives.

For me, there was nothing in the book I hadn’t already thought through at some point in my life, and perhaps that was one of the reasons the stories didn’t depress me. I’ve come to terms with my emptiness, and these observations in the book just confirmed me that other people go through same kind of feelings – a completely different thing is, how they process them and if they’re able to accept them and move on. Though perhaps that’s exactly the message of the book; we go through these kind of thoughts, feel empty and lost, and still discard such thoughts and continue as nothing has happened, even though everything has changed. This is how life is in the centre of the vacuum.

I’m biased, for my love and adoration for Audrey Hepburn increases with every film I watch, but Funny Face might very well become one of my all-time favourites.

Forgetting the story itself for a while, the direction and the time period the film portrayed were so captivating, and all the singing and dancing scenes put a huge smile on my face. I don’t think there was much of a story in the film, just like there wasn’t one in Roman Holiday or Breakfast at Tiffany’s; but that’s not the point, it’s the feeling you get from watching these films, for me it’s happiness, inspiration, contentment. Art house and indie films are the ones to choose for really deep and meaningful storylines – everything else is meant to be taken more lightly and enjoy the moments that bring you joy.

I just can’t get over the fact how beautiful Audrey Hepburn was, she’s beyond… everything.

As much as I adore Gwyneth Paltrow, this adaptation wasn’t very good. Perhaps it was because I had just finished reading the actual book a week ago, so the whole story was still rather fresh on my mind, but I felt that too many corners were cut and the whole wonderful story of Miss Woodhouse and the people of Highbury was rather rushed through. Of course that’s the case with every adaptation, so much has to be squeezed in such a tiny amount of time.

I didn’t quite like the character of Emma, she wasn’t as composed and rational as she is portrayed in the book. Her frenzy over the possibility of Mr. Knightley loving Harriet instead of her was just beyond amazing, I couldn’t believe they made her act like that. And the way she was daydreaming of the said Mr. Knightley before he confessed his love to her – the way it was portrayed was just… not right. Certainly Emma had dear feelings towards Mr. Knightley, but she didn’t show them like, say, Harriet. Overall, I’d say the Emma Austen had written was much more gracious than this film-Emma (it’s not Gwyneth Paltrow’s fault, she was very charming).

On the other hand, I really liked Jeremy Northam, he was a very good Mr. Knightley, though I had imagined him to be a bit more serious still, perhaps. Nevertheless, an enjoyable performance.

I do think this version of Emma could have been better, although it wasn’t a complete disappointment. It made me realise that I actually like Emma (the book) a lot more than I had previously thought, I might even like it almost as much as Pride and Prejudice. :)

Ah, Emma, Emma. When I first read Emma – it was years ago, I must have been somewhere around 14 or 15 – I found both the story and the heroine so very alluring and without a fault that I feared the resolution of picking up this book again would leave me with such altered thoughts that I would end up resenting the book. At one point, it almost seemed so – I noticed I had had too high a regard for Emma at first, she wasn’t quite as extraordinary and witty as I had thought. A great dislike was very near to be developed, for a while all I could see Emma was ill-witted and manipulative, musing over her designs in the seclusion of Hartfield.
Then, as the story went on, Emma seemed to become more sensible, more mature, and she truly seemed to understand just how spoiled she was and how much damage her actions and words could actually do – I immediately liked her better and from that point on, my affection for her grew more and more. (I did remember how the story ended all along, so I never feared for her not having a happy and most satisfying ending, I just didn’t remember the particulars)

Why all this mattered so much, why I cared as deeply about Emma’s character was, well, because I see a lot of myself in her, many similarities, even though I might take too many liberties by comparing myself to the intelligent and beautiful Miss Woodhouse. I relate to her and thus didn’t want to resent her – that would mean I’d have to resent myself as well, and no sensible person wants to degenerate ones view of oneself willingly like that. I didn’t force myself to like Emma, but it happened in the end, and I’m happy.

It was also extremely interesting and gratifying to read Emma in English, I was a little hesitant to try it at first but I did better than I had thought, it wasn’t near as difficult as I had imagined.

Great season finale, couldn’t have been better.