Movie Review: Sunshine Cleaning

My friend and future roomie in the hippie commune :), Leigh and I went to see the movie Sunshine Cleaning at the Indie theatre in Royal Oak last night. Bentley had a night watching the Red Wings and playing Settlers with the men! Anyway, so the movie was really good. It's about sisters who are struggling financially so they start a business cleaning up crime scenes and stuff- better known as bodily fluids and blood. Gross! It's about their relationship with each other and the people around them. I really liked it. So if you get a chance, rent it, pop some popcorn and get out the chocolate. You'll enjoy (I hope!)
Here watch the trailer!

Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire

So everyone has been telling me how I should see this movie, and it arrived on Netflix yesterday. So Scott, David, and I watched it this afternoon. I just finished A Fine Balance for the 2nd time and it is all about India (an incredible read by the way... thanks Jane!) So anyway about the movie... it is really good! I love the cinematography... especially the opening scene. The stories in the beginning are all along the same lines as the stories in A Fine Balance... further revealing the painful truth about India.
So I definitely recommend the movie. The whole find your love and win a million bucks isn't my favorite, but showing the truth about life there is really intense and worth experiencing.
So Steven... I think you should see it... oh and Jane too... since the two of you are all anti Slumdog!

A Book Review: El Zahir

Yes, my first book review ever! First, this book was amazing. I really liked it. There was a section that I found thought provoking.
"To begin there was a city wall. The wall remained, but part of it was used to build a chapel. Many years passed, and teh chapel became a church. Another century passed, and the church became a Gothic cathedral. The cathedral had had its moments of glory, there had been structural problems, for a time it had been abandoned, and then restoration work had distorted the whole shape of the building, but each generation thought it solved the problem and would rework the original plans. Thus, in teh centuries that followed, they raised a wall here, took down a beam there, added a buttress over there, created or bricked up stained glass windows.
And the cathedral withstood it all.
I walk through the skeleton of the cathedral, studying the restoration work curently being carried out: this time the architects guarantee that they have found the perfect solution. Everwhere there are metal supports, scaffolding, grand theories about what to do next, and some criticism abou waht was done in the past.
And suddently, in the middle of the central nave, I realize something very important: the cathedral is me, it is all of us. We are all growing and changing shape, we notice certain weaknesses that need to be corrected, we don't always choose the best solution, but we carry on regardless, trying to remain upright and decent, in order to do honor not to the walls or the doors or the windows, but to the empty space inside, and where we worship and venerate what is dearest and most important to us."

I guess that isn't really a review...more of a quote... anyway

A Movie Review: Water

A foreign film that takes place in India in the 1980's. An 8 year old girl wakes up to be asked if she remembers getting married. No. Her husband has just died and she is required to go live in a home for widows. She must wear a white linen sari all the time signifying her misfortune. A woman in India lives while her husband lives, and following his death she must also die partly. "Why must I live like I am dead if only part of me is dead?" She asks. The separation from her parents is dramatic....obviously, since she is only 8.
The little girl becomes the hope for the women. She offers life.
While all the other woman embrace their destiny the little girl constantly pushes and asks all the tough questions. "Where do the men widows go," she asks. She is shunned.
The woman have no way to earn money and live so certain beautiful women are used as prostitutes.
Changes are beginning to happen throughout the movie. A law is passed that widows no longer have to be separated from society...but no one follows it. The untouchables are called children of God as well. (Even though many won't embrace that idea either).
So this gorgeous woman in the widow home is exploited to this rich Brahmin on a regular basis. Meanwhile she is beginning to spend time with this good looking Indian who thinks modernly. He doesn't care that she is a widow. So they begin to fall in love. Finally, he shares his heart with his family. Another moment of shunning. Finally, the agree to meet her. While crossing the river to his mansion she aks the name of his father. And yes, it's the same man who has been paying for sex. She orders him to take her back and kills herself.
The next day the little girl is sold to the old man for the evening.

So I thought that this would be a great movie for movie night at our house except I forgot about the following topics along the way: suicide, sexual exploitation of a child, and severe loss.
Overall, I liked the movie. I am thankful that many of these things in India no longer happen in big cities.
It's funny how much people from this part of the world criticize the west and our disgusting pornography, movies, television shows, Hollywood....but I guess we are open about it. We don't promise "safety" and then offer your child to old men.