Dorian Gray (2009) – The Portrait and The Soul
January 12, 2010 
When a young person is exploring the world, he has the only two things worth having in the world – youth and beauty. He has decided to devote his whole life to chase after pleasures at the price of giving away his soul to the devil. In return, the young boy never ages and has outgrown his life mentor to become a heartless womanizer. Until one day has he met the true love of his life and he wants to begin again as a new person. It could be really anybody who makes such trade for youth and beauty. As they are still the two most valuable things in modern times, it never fails to sell anything related to these two concepts. Includes this very movie.
While Robert is triumphing with Twilight in USA or even around the world, one could not help being curious about how well Ben would do in such an influential movie. Similar age, similar handsomeness, similar talents, and I dare to say the category would be the same as well. To play Dorian Gray, which is a very challenging character, one needs to be breath-takingly handsome (otherwise not convincing to believe he could be an inspiration to a painter), to be able to play both innocent and cunning, kind and cruel, naiive and sophisticated (as this is how Dorian comes along the way dancing with devil). Only if Jude Law was 20-something, it would have been his role. After all, he played as Oscar’s lover. Ben has all it takes and yet there is something missing in the movie. The beginning and the end are simply not balanced enough. There may not be easy know why but obviously the latter part of Dorian’s corruption is way more empowering than the former part. There are moments I even doubt whether Ben really understands the importance for Dorian to trade his youth and beauty with his soul. It may be surprisingly difficult for an actor to understand this sometimes.
If I have to compare this with the 1945 version, there is one huge difference. Somehow, the 2009 version is not so scary. First of all, it is not easy to make the story terrifying. Because there is no mystery about it. If you tell the story as it unfolds, basically audience knows how Dorian keeps looking so young, how he kills Basil to silent his secret, how he indulges himself with women and men. There is only one thing left in Oscar Wilde’s novel which could bring shocker, the image of a rotton soul in the portait of Dorian. You don’t even have to put in any scary images. You just have to give a really close-up shot of people’s expressions when they see it. Unfortunately, among the three viewers of this image, Basil, Dorian and Henry, despite of the amazing casting they put in this 2009 version, they all looked rather blank or surprised than terrified. So what is left is just the pretty faces to await, which makes it quite boring. One thing more we could anticipate from Dorian is the love story. Except for the first love of Dorian’s, I am totally doubtful about the arrangement of Dorian’s falling in love with Henry’s daughter. After 18 years of travelling around the world, he finally got home and fell in love with girl with an opinion? Seriously? Wouldn’t the telling in the original version more compelling to give Dorian a reason to kill the self-devil?
It is a visual pleasure to see handsome faces and in the movie industry we never lack of fortune to fulfill that pleasure. But a true wonderful movie takes much more than a good story and a pretty face. For that, I mean the soul of the movie.
Yes, I Do – Project – Day 1
OK. This is official. I am 32 years old. Still single. Actually, I have never been non-single in my whole life. I am …OK. Anyways, having said that, I still have some people who care about my well-being. Believe me, I honestly think sometimes couples are much crazier. I am given this book Yes, I Do today and was told I will have to learn from this book about how to be non-single. If it is really this important, they should have taught me back in school. I am pretty sure I would have got good grades back then.
I am gonna start this Yes, I Do book project today by reading….No need to be too ambitious. I think I will start by reading the index before going to sleep. Fun reading.
It’s Complicated (2009) – Feeling Good
Except for being right or wrong, life does offer us a lot of other options to describe. It could be simple. However, most times it is complicated such as in It’s Complicated.
I am such a hopeless romantic that a wound could be healed just by sweet words. So when Jake asked Janey to take him back, I really thought, as a romance comedy to have a happy ending just for the sake of it, she would. I mean, after all, they do have great kids together and god knows how much damage it caused for them to go through with a single parent. But she didn’t. Because it has been 10 years. So much time has passed and so much has happened. It was complicated.
When Janey said those words to Jake on the swing chair, she was smiling with these smiling lines with a tear drop in her eyes. It is no longer a simple person to take back or a warm relationship to rebuild. After all those years of wondering “what if”, they finally reached out to have this experiment. Either to get a closure for un-finished business or to open up oneself for the answeres longing for, it feels good but never the same. It is really just the beginning of an end.
Fun is never over-rated. Neither is time. Even it feels so right and so good, it is complicated and we back off. I wish there was an alternative ending to this story. It will be simple and joyful. You may say it will not be realistic. Well, who cares, if I want to get real, I will watch documentaries. We all deserve a bit fantasy in movies. Don’t you think?
Wuthering Heights (2009) – Love You As Much As Love Myself
Would it be possible to understand a story two decades ago but not now? Something would have been crystal clear but now foggy blurring? The story of Wuthering Heights, for sure, hasn’t changed in all these years. But the reader did.
Different from the other two Bronte sisters, Emily was obviously the most talented one. She set out an ambitious storyline and three razor-sharp characters. They are so vividly written as if they were living flesh and blood and had loved with every bit of flesh and blood. Because of that, it is not easy to embody this rich love story within two hours. Or in fact, any decent measurement of screenwork. They lived much more life on pages and in mind. Having said that, this mini TV movie has done a good job to retell it.
One girl and two men, same setting running for two generations. Cathy had the human love for Edgar as he was handsome and rich. She also had this true love for Heathclief as he was as in her own existance. There was no difference between these two lovers. They were, literally, inseparable. But they were. As time went by, Cathy got married to Edgar, a seemingly more logical choice while Heathclief began the revenge by marrying Edgar’s sister. In Wuthering Heights, as now in our modern world, love doesn’t necessarily bring happiness, comfort and joy. It could have the same extent of negative impact on human lives, soul and heart to destroy, demolish and eventually determinate the last shred of love. In the meantime, the hopeless pain and suffering of aftermath was profoundly moving. It makes one puzzled by one’s own feelings to the characters. Do we love or do we hate?
In a sense, it is the most wickedly powerful love story I have ever read/viewed. Second to Vampire, Heathclief must be the most disturbingly unforgettable hero I would ever imagin in a love story. And yet, everytime when I see an actor performing his smiles and cries, I believe he is still that shy boy with pride and love deep down inside. He has been always consistant with his thoughts and wills; He has been always loyal to what he believes and who he loves; He has been always knowing what he wants to how to get them. There is probably just one thing he has neglected, his happiness.
Almost Famous (2000) – Stillwater Runs Deep
I have tried to think of another great movie which combines Rock ‘n’ Roll, road trip, teenager, love and fun altogether and ironically, it would be something we accomplished in this century. It is almost like one famous line from this movie. It’s all happening. And yet, we are living it.
When 15-year-old William set out to write the piece for Rolling Stone about an up-coming rock band “Stillwater”, he had little idea about how to approach rock stars. Back in early 70s, they were not just a bunch of musicians but icons of our era. A new era. William had more knowledge on rock music and his premature taking on music industry. He chased his dream to be a music journalist and so joined the band tour in 1973 with Stillwater. Together with him, there were the Band Aids, who were groupies but much more than that. Penny Lane was one of them. The young and bright blond girl was claimed to be the biggest fan of Stillwater. Following the band on tour, young William had seen America on a rolling bus, listening to music, crashing parties, and losing virginity. Instead of being an objective observer, he had become a close friend of the band. He had witnessed the pain and cracks among the band members, shared all secrets with them. The final cover story for Rolling Stone became a master piece as it consolidated a lifetime experience.
During the tour in 1973, William has broken all his promises to his dear mother, who brought him up as an upright and religious person. He missed more than two tests in High School, got absence at his own graduation ceremony, failed to call home once every single day. In return, he fell in love with music, band and Penny. That may be the truest love he has ever felt in his life and yet there was nothing he could do to pursue the last one.
The luckiest generation was William’s generation. They grew up with the times now known as “it’s all happening”. From the late 60s till early 80s, they basically shaped the major streams of music world. What we call rock, blues, jazz, country was pretty much all figured out during then. William was taking part in this revolution as a writer and he was truly living his life as a rocker.
The movie didn’t break even in 2000. That could only explain how great it was. As a movie about the past, it surely pioneers in its own right. Cameron Crowe got it all figured out when he was shooting the movie. It is just like Stillwater, running deep.
