Late summer movie reviews

this weekend, the weather here was so miserable, I went to three movies to avoid it all.


Friday after work, I saw Paper Heart. This is one you may not have even heard of, but if you went to see 500 Days of Summer like I told you to, you saw the trailer. It's a cute story, very simply told, funny and sweet. Michael Cera is hilarious and the cutest thing ever.

Have I mentioned that I love Michael Cera?








Saturday afternoon, after sweating it out with a run/walk through the park, I went to see The Time Traveler's Wife. I should start by saying that years ago, my friend Heather gave the book to me & my roommate, Julia, to read. I read a page or two and said, "That's silly," put it down and didn't pick it up again except to put it in a pile of books to get rid of. Then a few weeks ago, I saw Heather and she was talking about the movie and expressing concern that it wouldn't live up to her love of the book. A few days after that, I was talking to Julia who said that she also enjoyed it and was surprised that I hadn't given it a shot. Soo.... needing something to read, I decided take it with me on my trip to Hawaii. After getting over the silly premise, I quite enjoyed the book and, at times, didn't want to put it down. It was a great "beach read" even though I kind of hate that expression. So, the movie was also quite enjoyable and they did a good job of whittling down the story to fit into an hour and 45 minute movie. If you can get over the silliness of the idea that a person time travels because of some genetic trait, that is. Perfect for my mom, if that tells you anything.


After that, I saw Julie and Julia. It was an okay movie. All the buzz about the movie has been about how great Meryl Streep is, which is true. Because I had just read the book, I couldn't help but compare how different Julie was in the movie from how she was in the book. I keep saying this, and people assume it means that I loved the book, which is far from true. However, it was enjoyable and there were times as I was reading it on the train that the ride seemed to go by really quickly (always a good thing). People also seem to think it means that I love the narrator, Julie, and she didn't measure up in the movie. Also far from true. They are just different, which is okay, I guess. It just left me thinking through the whole movie that Amy Adams (whom I adore) was miscast. But by the end of the movie, I realized that maybe it was just Nora Ephron that changed it up.

But this I will say, in the book, NYC becomes a sort of character. Julie has to schlep to Astoria to buy a specific cut of meat, and the West Village for a specific cheese. This is true about living in New York and it's one of the things that I love/hate about it. All of that is left out of the movie, and instead, you just see Julie glowing as she talks about how much she loves Julia Child.



So, there you have it. To sum up:
Michael Cera: adorable
Time Traveler's wife: good, but silly
Julie and Julia: good, unless you think Julie's character is annoyingly sweet and then it's just okay.