Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Two good movies

I've seen two good movies in the last couple of days:

Reign Over Me and Amazing Grace.

I didn't expect to like Reign Over Me quite so much and I know I've probably seen the plot before, but, if nothing else, just the sheer surprise of seeing Adam Sandler handle the role so well made it worth it. I wouldn't recommend this for viewing with kids under the age of about sixteen as there's some language and adult humor. Otherwise, it was very much a tug-at-your-heartstrings movie.

Amazing Grace was based on the true story of William Wilburforce,the British abolitionist who was largely responsible for helping to make slavery illegal in the UK. They did a good job of relaying Wilburforce's struggle and managed to stay largely true to his real life.

It helped a great deal that they used the words of my favorite hymn ever. I don't know if Wilburforce was actually inspired by the words of this song, as the movie indicated, but it was very effective.

I watched this one with my boys and was pleased to see that two of the four were locked in to it. Strangely, it was the younger two who were riveted to the screen (Joseph, the 12 yr old, is a history buff and Sam is simply a gentle, sympathetic kid who doesn't like to see anyone suffer so slavery horrifies him). The teens were "bored". So I would recommend this movie to adults ages 30 and up, and children under the age of 13. Apparently it taxes the attention span of those in between.

Query report: I've found a fourth agent that I like. I've decided to re-write the first chapter as I've got to send off the first five pages with the queries I'll be mailing out later this week.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll be checking out those two movies, Mary, they sound good.
DavidM

Scotty said...

I agree with you, Mary; I too, was surprised at how much I enjoyed 'Reign Over Me'

I haven't seen 'Amazing Grace' yet but I'll keep an eye out for it.

I watched 'Next' on DVD the other day - a new one with Nicholas Cage where he can see the future, only his, and only 2 minutes ahead; it was pretty good too and worth a look.

Mary O. Paddock said...

Hello David. I hope you enjoy them.

Hi Scotty--Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check Netflix for it.