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As You Like It (2006)
A Review? Simple. It's absolutely Beautiful!!
This movie is beautiful! That's right. That's my whole review.There are stylised Komonos and rich 1890-ish Western costumes. A palette of amazing reds, maroons and rose colors set against a magical green forest with ancient towering trees and exotic oriental marshes. The romantic comedy element is all about being in love; being giddy with all consuming love. The Shakespearean words are edited short and crisp and are delivered naturalistically and effortlessly by the likes of Kevin Kline and Brian Blessed. Of the leads, David Oyelowo stands out as a very masculine and handsome leading man and Bryce Dallas Howard (an American) more than holds her own with the mostly British cast. Perhaps due to Branagh's pruning of the tesxt, I also found listening to, and understanding As You Like It just as effortless as the actors' delivery. I'm not an English teacher nor an Elizabethean scholar and this movie spoke to me, taking me on a wonderful escape. (NOTE: make sure to watch all the way through the credits.) It is obvious that Kenneth Branagh puts his whole soul into his movies. Thank you, Kenneth!
Warm Springs (2005)
What kind of President would FDR have been without having polio?
Thank you HBO Films! Warm Springs is a tautly written, well acted story, which is made more authentic by filming much of it on-site. Screenwriter Magaret Nagle said in an interview that one way to describe the movie is: "What if the worse thing that happened to you also turned out to be the best?" We meet the young FDR in the film's beginning; a dynamic 38 year old who's already running for Vice President. His life is fast and things come easy to him. He thinks he's in touch with the people but he's an ambitious, self-absorbed rich man. What kind of President would have this man become? Within a year he has polio.
When we see FDR again three years later he is almost unrecognizable. Staying for long periods of time living on a boat off the coast of Florida, he is unshaved, drinking a lot (mostly to relieve the aching in his legs, which can still feel)and incapable of standing or dressing himself. Every movement for this man is slow and painful. Polio almost won here; it broke his body, ruined his career, and as with all people with a permanent disability, strained his relationship with his family and his own sense of self.
FDR goes to Warm Springs partially to hide. Despite its run-down appearance he stays, desperate to find a way to walk. Here he has to interact with folks from all walks of life, many poor and worse off than he is. When a newspaper article about his rehab attempts is printed nationwide, many other "polios" arrive in Warm Springs. This disrupts his single-minded attention on his own plight and awakens his natural born leadership attributes he has as he strives to help them all.
Warm Springs does not shy away from showing the reality that FDR had to face every day with his disability. It also tells the wonderful story of a man, who thinking that his life's dream is gone, finds himself again by helping others.