Sunday, June 26, 2005
Buena Pelicula
Last night after having to go buy a new VCR since ours died and most of the stuff the kids watch is on Video, shopping for other stuff (shoes, groceries, Sunday pants for Andrew etc.) at 5 different stores, loosing Andrew's favorite stuffed dino snuggly, (though I am still holding out hope it will be "lost and found" at one of the stores and by some miracle he hasn't realized yet it is missing), taking the kids to the pool where Paul "showed off" his diving "skills" and played some hoops with the kids, not to mention making meals and snacks (though Paul did make and grill the Asian wings for dinner). [See I had to prove that sometimes I'm almost as busy as Trish :-)], Paul and I sat down to watch a movie we had rented earlier in the week.
The movie was Spanglish. I had heard good things about it and after having seen it I have to say I really recommend it and would like to see it again myself. With the exception of one scene of marital intimacy(in which both parties are fairly well covered and which is done in the interests of character development not just for titillation) it is a fairly clean movie and it has little to no offensive language.
Many of the main characters are somewhat disfunctional and sinners but that is part of the point and they are dealt with in a realistic way and not just played for laughs or as stereotypes. The white mom in the movie sort of makes all the evil step moms of fairytale fame look good by comparison, she is just so skanky and self serving. We frequently paused the video to laugh but it also examined and made you think about things like, marriage, infidelity, class and culture differences, mother/daughter relationships, success, love, kindness, how you handle adversity and what is really important in life.
It is hard to say what role religion/faith plays in this film, it is certainly not an overt one. There is no point of it made positive or negative and no one seems to go to church, yet a couple of characters do pray, briefly and arguably not in fully appropriate ways, but those prayers do seem to be answered in some ways.
Anyway, I would recommend it and would love to know what others who have seen it think.
The movie was Spanglish. I had heard good things about it and after having seen it I have to say I really recommend it and would like to see it again myself. With the exception of one scene of marital intimacy(in which both parties are fairly well covered and which is done in the interests of character development not just for titillation) it is a fairly clean movie and it has little to no offensive language.
Many of the main characters are somewhat disfunctional and sinners but that is part of the point and they are dealt with in a realistic way and not just played for laughs or as stereotypes. The white mom in the movie sort of makes all the evil step moms of fairytale fame look good by comparison, she is just so skanky and self serving. We frequently paused the video to laugh but it also examined and made you think about things like, marriage, infidelity, class and culture differences, mother/daughter relationships, success, love, kindness, how you handle adversity and what is really important in life.
It is hard to say what role religion/faith plays in this film, it is certainly not an overt one. There is no point of it made positive or negative and no one seems to go to church, yet a couple of characters do pray, briefly and arguably not in fully appropriate ways, but those prayers do seem to be answered in some ways.
Anyway, I would recommend it and would love to know what others who have seen it think.
