Movies

Last week I spent the week with my very good friend Amy.  She and I stayed at her house with our youngest children (three each) while our husbands and oldest daughters (two each) attended Coram Deo the Higher Things Youth Conference in Bloomington, IL.

Since our friends are going to move, I had told Amy that I would gladly help her pack boxes while our kids splashed around in their pool.  But we didn't.  Not that first box.  Even though the kids were in and out of the pool constantly every day.  Instead we spent the first two days sitting and talking.  We discussed all sorts of homeschool ideas, figured out a good plan for the coming year's history, and went over the plans for our fall trip to Camp Luther.

By the end of that second day, Amy found out that her garage needed to be painted soon in order for the loan process of the buyer to proceed.  So for the next day and a half, we scraped and painted her entire garage.  It was hot.  It was hard work.  But it was fun, and painting is one of those instant gratification projects that really puts a smile on a face.

But that wasn't all we did.  Each evening we watched movies on instant Netflix.  Here is the rundown.

The first night we watched For the Love of Grace. We didn't like it.  We didn't think the actors had any chemistry.  We thought the plot was lacking as was the lighting and dialog.  It all seemed obviously fake, just like the main actress's facial features.  This is definitely not a movie you should see. So to not go to bed on a bad movie, we started another one.

We watched Maid in Manhattan.  I had thought it was one I had seen before, but as the movie progressed, I realized I had never seen this movie.  This movie was definitely better than the first.  The characters had a lot more chemistry, and the plot seemed more realistic.  We could both get lost in the story unlike the other where we never forgot it was a movie.  I liked this movie and would watch it again if the person I'm with would like to see it, but it isn't one I would necessarily repeat.  If you like a nice love story don't count this one out, give it a try and see what you think.

The second night we watched Sabah. We thought this movie would be an interesting look into the Muslim culture.  But instead, it brought more questions than answers.  Like, why can the women wear provacative clothing at home?  Why was the wife of the brother, who now was the head of the family, able to be out in public without the head covered, yet the other women couldn't?  Why would that man be so interested in Sabah?  What was the attraction?  Why did Sabah do what she did?  Would the family really be the happy-ever-after ending they portrayed?  Even though, it was interesting and I do think I'll watch it again with David and get his opinion.  Who knows, I might even like it better the second time.

Wanting to watch a second movie, we picked Outsourced.  This was another interesting movie.  It showed some of the culture differences, like the Indians love of bartering and their un-American toilets. The main character was never fully developed, he seemed quite one-dimensional, and not always likable.  We also thought that the story-line could have been more developed and not so flat.  It seemed to jump to the conclusions one expects in this type of movie, but doesn't do a good job of showing the character's progression.  Simply one day the main character liked India now, and by the way it has only been a short time even though the perception was one of much longer time passage.

The third day, after having painted three-fourths of the garage, we watched the movie Arranged.  This by far was my favorite movie of the week.  I think it was for Amy too.  The two main characters were beautiful and charming.  The dialog was often very real. I would comment about how that would have been an actual conversation between two girlfriends.  I liked how it showed a positive picture of arranged marriages and of young ladies who are confident in themselves to defend their beliefs and non-wordly ways to an annoying outsider (the principal).  I also liked how it showed that one can be in the world and not of the world.  It simply was a fascinating movie and I highly recommend it.  I liked it so much that I had David watch it with me when we got home (he liked it too), and I want to see it again.