Movie Junction

Over the years, I have developed a love-hate relationship with “The English Patient” (1996). On one hand, I appreciate its epic grandeur and opulent images, but on the other hand, its characters leave me indifferent. The first time I saw the film, I was deeply bothered by the repercussions of the loving relationship between a Hungarian geographer, Count László de Almásy (Ralph Fiennes), and a married English woman, Katharine (Kristin Scott Thomas). The attachment between the two has a callous undercurrent that represents the harsh side of infidelity. Perhaps, someone always gets hurt, which in this case is Katherine’s husband, Geoffrey (Colin Firth), as a result of unfaithfulness, and the film depicts this complexity realistically. The Count and Katharine might be emotionally wrought characters given the context of their attachment to each other, but their coldness to external characters in their lives is brutally unsettling, and yet honest in its depiction. Being the cent...

Jane Campion’s “The Piano” (1993) is a powerful testament to blind passion, bringing in a wave of unexpected consequences for its protagonist, Ada (Holly Hunter). The opening sequence shows Ada with her daughter Flora (Ana Paquin) on a beach with a piano, along with their other belongings. The piano is big, and it can’t be accommodated in the home of her newly wed husband, Alistair, played by Sam Neill.   The size of the piano represents a prominent metaphor on Ada’s life. The piano’s size is irrelevant to Ada, and her love for the piano is unflinching. Clearly, the piano occupies a major portion of Ada’s life, and taking the piano away disturbs her greatly. Eventually, she becomes a part of a deal and ends up developing a relationship with a local Maori, Mr. Banes (Harvey Keitel). As the opening scene plays out, we think we will see the main character talk. But what we hear is Ada’s voice-over, and she hasn’t spoken since her childhood. To fill her world with sounds, ...

Call him Robert LeRoy Parker, or Butch Cassidy, or James Blackthorn--the last one is the fictional name assigned to Cassidy in the movie, “Blackthorn” (2011)--the legend of a notorious robber still lives on.  In the climax of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969), the final scene freezes as Butch and the Sundance go down in a blaze of glory with their guns. We hope they escaped death at the hands of the Bolivian army. But as the segment ends, the outcome of the encounter was never revealed to the audience. Whether Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, whose bodies were never found, survived the deadly encounter is still intensely debated among historians, leaving a wide speculation on their whereabouts and their eventual deaths.  As such, the year and time of their deaths is still marked as “unknown” in historical artifacts. Indeed, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid belonged to the counterculture of the late 1890’s and early 1900’s, and in spite of their crimes, th...

“Indian recipes are like ragas” – Akbar, “Today’s Special” I clearly remember the day I clashed with my brother--who is a professional cook and has been a sous chef at several restaurants--about how to cook a spicy Indian dish. I have never taken a cooking class or read a cooking book, but in spite of this, over the years I have learned to cook by myself, picking things by watching other people cooking food. For me, a recipe is not important, but my brother likes to utilize his culinary skills, always worrying about the recipe and the right proportions of ingredients.   My brother’s methodical approach to cooking would occasionally clash with my spontaneous, nonprofessional cooking. The reason I mention this is because the protagonist, Samir (Aasif Mandavi), in “Today’s Special” (2009) is a sous chef by profession, a man who is simply speechless at his assistant Akbar’s (Naseeruddin Shah) wild approach to cooking. They argue about cooking styles, but eventually Samir l...

“Favelas” is a word popularly used to describe the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro. These places are not controlled by any state or federal agency. Rio’s favelas are located on the edge of the city, with houses spaced so closely that it feels like one big constellation of houses. Surely, the slums are like small outlets of underground economy, working within the supply-demand side of economics. Unlike the slums of Mumbai where legal manufacturing activities create jobs for many people, the “favelas” of Rio have pockets of housing sectors where drugs, guns, and violence are rampant, and they are homes to some of the most-dangerous criminals in Brazil. Certainly, the Rio’s slums create jobs, but they are illegal and risky, and the illicit businesses in the slums break every law possible. In fact, these slums were very unsafe back in the late 60s, making it impossible for anyone passing through without getting robbed or attacked by gangs. Even now the place is a major headache ...

“And in a perfect act of serendipiocity or serendipaciousness, he runs into in a beautiful, attractive English girl with a boyfriend.” – Jonathan, “Serendipity” In the opening moments of “Serendipity” (2001), we see John Cusack’s character, Jonathan, flirting with a young English lady, Sara (Kate Beckinsale), in the hope that she will give him her phone number. In order to impress Sara, Jonathan constructs a story, with Sara blushing at every word. Nonetheless, their meeting is not coincidental, as moments earlier they were trying to buy the last pair of black gloves at Bloomingdale’s. No matter how hard Jonathan tries to impress Sara, she is not going to give in. Sara asks Jonathan to write his number on a $5 bill, and she writes her phone number in a book, which she is going to sell at a used bookstore. If it’s their destiny to meet again, then the $5 bill and the book will be in their possession at some point in the future. Years later, Sara and Jonathan are with their ...