Just when we thought AI has taken over!

 It is 2024 and we are afraid that creativity has died because of the advent of ChatGPT and AI. And just when we thought that movies are no longer going to be written by humans, comes a breath of fresh air in the form of "My old ass", and I am not talking about the amazing cinematography!

It might be a coming of the age movie but has science fiction hidden in the form of time travel. It speaks volumes to young women discovering (or rediscovering) their sexuality. And my best dialogue is the line that Elliott says to her brother Max when they discuss what she wrote on his birthday card ! "Happy Birthday, Max. Like Cis men need any more happiness!" lmao! 

Go watch the movie and scream out loud that "human creativity is not DEAD!" 

Also Maisy Stella is a stellar find (no puns) ! May I see more of her. 

"Why do women have to pretend to be something that they're not? Why do we have to pretend to be stupid when we're not stupid?" - Midge Maisel

The thing about "The Marvelous Mrs.Maisel" is that I identify with it. A lot!

I know. How can an Indian girl in tech identify with a 1950's Jewish woman who is well on her way to becoming the most successful stand-up comedian of her time?

Allow me to elaborate.

Midge Maisel is feisty, wears bright colors, loves her makeup, tries to be a dutiful daughter, the perfect wife, the amazing mother, the good friend and balances it with being a feminist (not in the traditional sense). It is not often that we come across such characters.

The thing about Midge is that even though her husband leaves for another woman, her parents seem to not understand her and she is making all the mistakes of a rookie stand-up comic, she is cheerful. She mouths one-liners like this :

" I can be a cool chick with a doorman and a Kelvinator Foodarama refrigerator, can't I?" 

or this "It's the bras, right? It's the bras. And the girdles and the corsets, all designed to cut off the circulation to your brain, so you walk around on the verge of passing out, and you look at your husband, and he tells you things, and you just believe them. "

Of course, her Jewish mother with her passive aggressive attitude is no different from a lot of Indian mothers. Her consultations with the clairvoyant is similar to Indian parents seeking guidance from astrologers and other Godmen. 

But, I must admit I like her manager, Susie Myerson, even more. Susie is much more impressive than Midge in the sense that Susie is the ambitious one. She is the one who dreams of Midge becoming successful. And she is the one with even better lines than Midge. 

Midge: Oh, this is the cutest thing ever. Bing Crosby Sings Mother Goose. I had such a thing for Bing Crosby when I was little.
Susie: Really? He's so oily looking like if you got on top of him, you'd slide right off.
Midge: Never watching White Christmas again.

Burrowed underneath this blink and miss type of one-liners, the amazing clothes, and the exuberant outlook is a story that is more realistic than most others today. 

Midge does not whine or cry and although comes across as cold sometimes, you can see the emotions just brimming under without ever overflowing. 

Add to it, her funny father played wonderfully by Mr.Monk, her mother who is overly melodramatic, her hilarious father-in-law and you have a show that is as bright and sunny as Mad Men was dark and depressing. 

Feminists are the most misunderstood lot. Both on-screen and off. You are either a bra-burning, slogan carrying feminist or an aggressive and hateful speech giver wearing overalls. 

Midge is neither. And that is what makes her identifiable to a lot of us. 

And for those of you who think that feminism is not your cup of tea, watch it for the laughs. I guarantee a dozen for a dime. 

Eagerly awaiting next season.....  

" Adapt or Die " - Billy in Moneyball

Moneyball is really not my kind of movie.

I am not into baseball and I do not enjoy an "all-guys" movie.

But, I made an exception and decided to give it a shot. And I am glad I did.

My weird reason being, in one of the podcasts I listened to, Malcolm Gladwell mentioned that the author he admired the most is Michael Lewis, the writer of Moneyball.

Moneyball is actually not about baseball. It is about change.

How everyone dreads it, how people like to stick to status-quo, how the odds are against change agents, how people oppose the change, why the stakes are really high for those who introduce change, why some adopt new methods and others don't.

I see that everyday in the world of technology and can totally relate to it.

Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), the General Manager of Oakland Athletics baseball team, is looking for a new strategy to bring victory to the team with the minimum budget provided to him.
According to him, "We're like organ donors for the rich. Boston's taken our kidneys, Yankees have taken our heart. And you guys just sit around talking the same old "good body" nonsense like we're selling jeans. Like we're looking for Fabio. We've got to think differently. We are the last dog at the bowl. You see what happens to the runt of the litter? He dies." 

He meets Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a math wiz from Yale, who uses statistical  analysis to predict winning patterns.Peter's theory is to pick relatively unknown players, but who have techniques that can be used to their advantage to beat other teams. And, they cost way lesser than well-known players.

(Side note: Those of us in tech would draw an analogy to the use of data analytics in decision making. Most organizations even today don't use it to the extent that it can be leveraged.)

When Billy presents the selection of the players to his team, they all revolt. They have the usual excuses when anyone looks at disrupting the status-quo.

The other classic example is when Art (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the manager of the team, does not agree with Billy and does his own placement of players on the field. After multiple loses, Billy deals with this situation like a player of chess. He makes an excellent move by sacking some of the players that forces Art to pick the players Billy wants him to.

This is an instance of when you have to deal with someone who opposes the change and has the power to meddle with the situation. You will have to think creatively to get around that situation. And that is exactly what Billy did.

The Oakland As ultimately break the record for the highest number of consecutive wins in a major baseball series. They do not actually win the series.

But, it changed the way baseball is being played.

Baseball players were previously paid big bucks based on gut feeling, based on what people like, based on intuition. While all these produced some results, they were not as powerful as using data analysis to pick players.

This quote expresses the movie best "If you challenge the conventional wisdom, you will find ways to do things much better than they are currently done".

Power is neither male nor female.

Although "Pulp Fiction" is touted as the best Quentin Tarantino movie, I disagree.

"Jackie Brown" according to me is his best. Not to mention the best movie ever with a strong female lead character. (Not it is not Erin Brockovich!).

The villainy laced with humor, the edge of the seat thriller with a touch of romance and the memorable one-liners. Yes! this is my favorite Tarantino movie.

Having watched it over five times, I still get some nuggets every time I re-watch it.

Jackie Brown (an awesome Pam Grier), a middle-aged 44 year old air stewardess, is in trouble when she is caught smuggling cash and some dope. She needs two things to survive and live a decent life - not go to prison and not get killed by her repugnant boss and smuggler, Ordell (Samuel L Jackson).

What she does to achieve both these goals would put Scarlett O'Hara to shame!

There are so many things that hit the right notes in this film that it is difficult to know where to begin.

So I will start with my latest favorite scene (this keeps changing every time I re-watch it).

There is a scene where Jackie Brown is picked up by the bail-bonds man,Max Cherry, from jail. Jackie is sauntering towards the car and Max strains to catch a glimpse of her. That somehow forms the essence of the movie. Here is a woman who is coming out of jail but her pace and her stature seems dignified, cool and almost intimidating. Is this the moment that Max falls for her or is it when she plays "Didn't I do it baby" by The Delfonics, the next morning?

But don't be fooled by the soft undertones described above.

The gruesome scene where Ordell kills one of his employees,Beaumont, with the famous line
"An employee I had to let go" shows that Ordell is out to get Jackie unless she out-smarts him.

And she does more than out-smart him. She comes up with a ploy to fool both Ordell and the cops. With the help of Max, she manages to come out of it unscathed.

But that is not the point of the movie after your first viewing.

Quentin is great at establishing characters. Listen to this dialogue by Melanie, Ordell's girlfriend.

Ordell  You know you smoke too much of that shit, that shit gonna rob you of your own ambition.

Melanie: Not if your ambition is to get high and watch TV...

Melanie is also greedy and how that greed lands her in trouble is a scene not to be missed.

And what can I say about Robert De Niro. We forget that he is the great actor from Taxi Driver or God father. He plays Louis, a daft friend of Ordell. His role is understated and De Niro morphs into it.

The highlight of this movie is Pam Grier.

As Jackie Brown, she dominates every scene that she is in.

The way she smokes her cigarette in front of the cops,  how she manages to buy a suit in the midst of a sting operation, the music that she sways to just after getting out of jail and standing up to Ordell even when the stakes are high. She is the female version of Rick Blane. Except with brass knobs on!

Of course, this writeup wouldn't be complete without mentioning Robert Forster. He was rightfully nominated for the Best Support Actor Oscar for his role as Max Cherry. His restrained acting whether dealing with Ordell or not revealing his true feelings for Jackie makes him the twenty-first century Stevens.

In the last scene when Jackie asks Max if he is scared of her? He gestures with his fingers saying "A little" and we can't help but nod in agreement.

(And whether this last scene is better than the one in "Lost in Translation" is debatable) 

"But Marx wasn't a German, Marx was a Jew." - Professor Charles Rankin in "The Stranger"

Orson Welles' "The Stranger"  reminded me of Hitchcock's "Shadow of a doubt". But do not mistake them for being alike. They use very different formats to enthrall the audience. While "Shadow of a doubt" revels in oscillating between the truth and doubt, The Stranger focuses on nothing but the truth. There in lies the beauty of this film.

How can a movie still hold any intrigue and aura if the secret is revealed in the first half of the film? How can you hold your breath in anticipation when you know what you are looking for? But you do. Orson Welles creates that sense of suspense right from the opening scene where a Nazi prisoner,Meinike, is set free. The hope is that Meinike would lead Mr.Wilson (Edward G. Robinson) ,of the United Nations War Crimes Commission, to a dangerous mastermind Nazi criminal,Franz Kindler. 

Meinike leads Mr.Wilson to a small town in Connecticut, Harper. But before Mr.Wilson can find out Franz, Meinike is killed. Mr.Wilson stays back in Harper to reveal the true identity of the hidden criminal. 

Professor Charles Rankin is a local school teacher who marries the supreme court justice's daughter Mary (Loretta Young). There is an interesting conversation between Mr.Wilson and the professor. The professor believes that " people cannot be reformed except from within. The basic principles of equality and freedom never have and never will take root in Germany. The will to freedom has been voiced in every other tongue. "All men are created equal", liberte, egalite, fraternite - but in German..."
Mary's brother remarks " There's Marx. "Proletarians, unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains." to which the professor replies "But Marx wasn't a German, Marx was a Jew." 

This confirms his identity to Mr.Wilson but he has no proof. Only if Mary confesses that she had seen Meinike the morning of their wedding, the professor can be persecuted. In spite of being shown the atrocities of the genocide, Mary refuses to believe that her husband is a criminal. She is torn between her love and her belief that she cannot fall in love with a criminal. 

Every step of the way, we are shown the truth, the truth is shouted from roof tops but what would Mary do? Would she turn her husband in or live in the hope of reforming him? Would Franz Kindler win this battle between the innocent and the conniving?  Would Mary's family and the Harper town people know the true identity of an innocent teacher? 

Watch another of Orson Welles' great movies where you get a good dose of closeups, play with shadows and light as well a slickly edited action-packed climax that makes you wonder why modern day film-makers do not learn such techniques.

"I still have a mind of my own. Elsewhere being gracious is acceptable. "- Leslie Benedict in Giant

 I would count "Giant" in the same category of David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia". It is a saga but the big difference is that Texas forms the background of Giant instead of Arabia and the story is a family epic. 

There is a scene in "Giant" where Leslie Benedict (an excellent Elizabeth Taylor) walks into a group of men and wants to participate in a political discussion. Her patriarchal husband , Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson), asks her to join the women in their siesta and "behave like everybody else" and boy! she fights tooth and nail to make her point. Her feisty yet caring nature is the backbone of their marriage. This saga spans a few decades starting with Leslie's move from Maryland to her husband's home in Texas and ending with their grown-up, married children. Adopting both the Texas land as well as the people, Leslie is a strong support to her rancher husband, Bick Benedict. Bigotry forms an interesting thread inside the story without being glaring about it. Leslie helps the Mexican-Americans with medicine and help, which is frowned upon both by her husband and other locals. Although Leslie is not the ideal wife that Bick expected and their marriage has the ups and downs over the years, their bonding shines through. 
I cannot help but mention, the role of Jett Rink (James Dean's last movie role) , who starts off as their help and later strikes oil and makes it rich. Jett Rink is someone whom we have come across in our lives. He is apathetic, loathes others just because they have money and finally becomes a wealthy alcoholic.

 The movie is a concoction of strong performances by both Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson but it Liz Taylor that shines through. Her feminist and spunky Leslie shows the real Elizabeth Taylor, who could not be bridled by anything. I was not impressed by James Deans' acting - as a young and unruly help, he was being himself and as an older drunkard, he seems too melodramatic.He is remembered for 'Giant' as the last movie before his untimely demise. The surprise for me was Rock Hudson, who  represents a rancher in the '50s,  caught between his feudal upbringing and his wife's attitude against sexism and bigotry. The director, George Stevens' Texas is no Arabia but he showcases the brown and rugged terrain and the ranger home Reata equally beautifully. He is worthy of the Oscar he won. 

I wish there were more movies made today that can juxtapose a romantic epic saga along with issues of women empowerment and color discrimination. Although it was made in 1956, "Giant" is worth viewing today to appreciate the amazing actors we miss.

“What happens when a man stands up and says, ‘enough is enough?'" - Martin Luther King, Jr. in 'Selma'

What is the difference between a person who manipulates people for the good or for the bad ? The former  is called a salesperson and if it is for the good, he is called a "Leader". Martin Luther King is one of those leaders , who through sheer force of words led the movement of the African-American suffrage in early sixties in America. "Selma" showcases King's( David Oyelowo) campaign and struggle to win the rights they truly deserved. All politicians have agendas and it is no surprise when King meets President Lyndon B. Johnson and requests a bill eliminating restrictions on voting for the Black community, Johnson says it is not his priority. How King manages to ultimately convince the President of the Bill forms the rest of the story. 

The movie focuses on Martin Luther King and his strong belief in the cause, without being melodramatic or documentary. It shows that King is not only a great leader, he is also sympathetic, warm and compassionate to everyone. He influences people to participate in this fight of equal voting rights. The initial march between Selma to Montgomery is stopped midway by violent police attacks on the innocent African Americans. This incident is very similar to India's salt satyagraha march by Mahatma Gandhi and shows how much King was influenced by Gandhi and his non-violent methods. It opens this injustice to the rest of the world and soon King has followers from both Caucasians as well as African-Americans. Finally Johnson had to concede to the bill of rights , which posterity will remember Johnson for. It is a huge landmark in the history of African-American civil rights movement. 

Selma is excellent at  creating this '60s period drama. It provides a glimpse into America's history by focusing on the cause rather than people and creates a beautiful narrative flow because even though we all know how history turned out, we are still eager to find out what happened to one man's quest for voting rights in a non-violent manner. 

"People, they love blood. They love action. Not this talky, depressing, philosophical bullshit." - Riggan in "Birdman"

I remember reading Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” and moved by his simple yet powerful writing. In “Birdman”, Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) directs and acts in a Raymond Carver play "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" to revive his long-forgotten acting career. Who is Riggan? He, like Keaton in real life, was once famous for his super-hero movies and this play is his only chance for revival. His co-star, Mike (Edward Norton) is a method actor but erratic during their previews. What stands between Riggan and a successful opening on Broadway? Is it Riggan’s voices-in-the-head, a spiteful critic or Mike?

Movies like “Birdman” reinforce my love for the silver screen. As the camera pans the claustrophobic labyrinths of the back-stage, I was excited to see what Riggan was upto next. He oscillates between a surrealistic world and the world of Broadway theater in New York City. Michael Keaton plays the role of his lifetime. He slips into the character of Riggan as if he is playing himself and the parts where he has to act in the play, he surpasses any Broadway actor I have watched. There is a scene where his alter ego persuades him to return to playing a super-hero and his response reminded me of Betty Davis refusing to return back to Broadway in “All About Eve”. He has my vote for the best actor Oscar this year.

What is Birdman really about? There are so many inferences you can draw. It is not just the personal quest of a great actor; it is also contempt for blockbuster movies versus theater. And maybe it is not about anything but an ode to the art of filmmaking. 

"When two people love each other and they can't make that work, that's the real tragedy." - Amy Dunne in "Gone Girl"

A marriage is a byproduct of the co-existence of two personalities. Sometimes you spend your entire life with the person yet you might not know them completely. "Gone Girl" is a dark tale of a marriage gone so awry that it is impossible to set it right again.

Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy Dunne(Rosamund Pike) are celebrating their fifth anniversary. Instead of a date night, Nick finds himself in an empty home with his wife missing. The police are brought in and it becomes a sensational news story. We see Nick through the eyes of Amy as we read her diary. Is Nick really a sociopath or a grieving husband? Is he capable of murder? Was Amy the devoted wife? The second half of the movie deals with a different side of Amy and catapults you in the opposite direction. The twists and turns come to an unexpected yet not totally plausible ending. 

The problem I see with Rosamund Pike is that she is wooden. Amy is a one-dimensional character but Pike does nothing to add depth or layers to her personality. She seems to play the extension of herself in "Die Another Day", which might be fine for a James Bond movie but does nothing to a thriller like "Gone Girl". 
Ben Affleck is convincing as the troubled husband who does not understand his complex wife. He also depicts a cool and level-headed spouse that can be easily mistaken as indifferent and apathetic, which forces the audience to suspect him as a murderer. 

David Fischer, well versed in his craft, showcases the beauty of not just the small town in Missouri but also moments during their dating period, which paints a picture of a potentially wonderful marriage.  

This is not a story of the American dream  of a young couple with two kids and a white picket-fence house. It is of two warped individuals who unable to deal with the realities of economic downtime, turn to their own means of amusement. 

"Everyone wants Atticus Finch until there's a dead hooker in a bathtub." - Hank Palmer in "The Judge"

Most children would wonder at some point in their lives why dads are so obstinate. Robert Duval as the father in "The Judge" is the epitome of this. His son, Hank Palmer, is a Chicago lawyer, infamous for defending rich and guilty clients. On the death of his mother, Hank visits his sleepy small hometown in Indiana. This is the beginning of a thrilling courthouse drama filled with dynamic dialogue and the acting prowess of Robert Duval and Robert Downing Jr. 

We know that things are not well between The Judge and Hank early on when his father and brothers go to the diner before his mother's funeral without  inviting him. Hank spits venom at his father who does not flinch at hurtling abuses back at his son. After his mother's funeral , an exasperated Hank boards the flight back to Chicago. The only thing that stops him from flying is a phone call from his brother. The Judge has been arrested for a hit and run case. The victim is someone that the judge had sentenced to jail twenty years ago. As the judge suffers from amnesia of the incident, Hank volunteers to defend his father. But, the judge stubbornly refuses and opts for a local lawyer.The best arguments are those where you relate to both sides and are confused as to who is right and who is wrong and this is exactly what you feel as  the father-son relationship is stretched thin with the father hating his son for not coming back home after college and the son retaliating for not being cared for. The poignancy of this hits us in a scene where the old man awakens in the middle of the night and cries out to his dead wife and Hank reaches out to him. The courtroom drama is exciting in the struggle between the judge who wants righteousness to win even if it means that he is arrested, while Hank battles for his father in the hope of rescuing him from a painful death in the prison.

Robert Duval as the judge is powerful, stubborn and vulnerable all at once. He portrays a man torn between his pride for being a morally just person and his decaying health in ways that in the hands of a lesser actor would have been reduced to cheap melodrama. Sometimes a silent man looking into his past, other times a father roughing up his son and yet other times a dying old man trying to grasp on his final days of dignity, Duval truly deserves the Oscar he has been nominated for.

"You know how everyone's always saying seize the moment? I don't know, I'm kind of thinking it's the other way around, you know, like the moment seizes us." - Nicole in Boyhood

For those who are familiar with creative writing, the story arch is the most important element of a story. How you hook the reader from introducing your characters to a cresendo and then back down. This is the most important aspect that 'Boyhood' lacks.

"Boyhood" is the chronicle of a boy,Mason, from ages eight to eighteen going through the motions of a normal life. It is no 'To Kill a Mocking Bird'. The life we see through Mason's eyes is dull, insipid and lacks the curiosity of a child. The story starts off with Mason's mother Olivia (Patricia Arquette), bickering with her charming ex-husband, Mason Sr. (Ethan Hawke). Much to the dismay of the children, she moves to Houston, where she marries her professor. Mason experiences the pain of living with a step-dad . The marriage turns out badly for his mother, who decides to move once more to a smaller town. Mason is a silent child. If he is anguished, we are unable to see it unlike his elder sister, who always protests against the relocations. His happy times are during the weekends with his father, who is charming , happy-go-lucky but very irresponsible. He experiences girlfriends, breakups, smoking and finally off to college. And that pretty much sums up this movie. It is as if someone shared a home video with us but edited out the drama that goes on in people's lives.

A lot has been said about the filming of the movie over a period of twelve years as you see the kid age appropriately. Is that the only criteria for us to judge a movie? I am disappointed that "Boyhood" is nominated along with 'The Imitation Game' and 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'. It is not about the budget, the sets or even the actors. It is about the Plot. America has a divorce rate of 50% , so what we see and experience is very normal. It is as if they made a conscious effort to edit any dramatic moments in life - no one gets lost, no one meets with an accident, no one gets attacked or no one goes through any pain.  Ingmar Bergman's 'Seventh Seal' did not win a single Academy award and I would be disappointed if this movie wins even one!!!

"What is a lobby boy? A lobby boy is completely invisible, yet always in sight." - M. Gustave in 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'.

Would you like to awaken your inner child? Do you like fairy tales? Do you mind a movie that takes you to a zany world made of vibrant colors? Welcome to the world of Wes Anderson's ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel'.

 ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel' is like Arabian Nights, where stories are nestled into each other waiting to be explored. It starts with a girl reading a book where the author visits a decaying hotel in the Republic of Zubrowka. The author meets the hotel’s owner Zero Moustafa, who narrates the story of his inheritance of the hotel and why it is important to keep it open.

It is the year 1932 and young Zero (Tony Revolori) is fascinated with the opulent hotel and it’s glorious concierge, Monsieur Gustave (Ralph Fiennes). Gustave is a favorite with older women and one of the ladies is "Madame D" (Tilda Swinton) who spends an entertaining evening with Gustave. A few days later, Madame D is found dead under mysterious circumstances and in her will she bequeaths a valuable painting to M.Gustave. This enrages her family who implicate him as the murderer. The story catapults into chases, the discovery of a second will and the final capture of M.Gustave. 

Ralph Fiennes and Tony Revolori are a joy to watch as the duo who escape the villains in a series of adventures. Fiennes is as comfortable with humor as he is with serious intensity (The Reader). He breathes life into Anderson’s whimsical world. Tony matches Fiennes, even though he does not have as many dialogues. His large expressive eyes make up for that.

Wes Anderson is a master of a distinctive style of art décor. The

intense colors -  pink walls, crimson carpets, staff waistcoats of electric magenta camouflage the gray fascist regime in Europe at that time. Inspired by the writings of Stefan Zweig, Grand Budapest Hotel also has the morbid dreaminess of a Grimm fairy tale: quaint and picturesque, but reflecting real-world anxieties and the dangers of manipulative villains, while heroes of yesteryears try to bottle up the nostalgia.

"Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine." - Joan in The Imitation Game

As a technologist, I often wonder about the value of something I work on. How can I measure it? Alan Turing had no such questions - he saved 14 million lives and ended a war two years sooner than it would otherwise have, with a brilliant mathematical invention, which we know today as ‘computers’.

'The Imitation Game' might be the story of World War II but it is no 'Schindler's List'. War forms the backdrop of the story of a man who is socially awkward but wants to solve an unsolvable puzzle. This is portrayed in a scene early on when Alan Turing(Benedict Cumberbatch) goes to the army headquarters not because he likes politics but because  'Enigma is the most difficult problem in the world'. 

Alan's strategy is to build a machine that can be programmable and reprogrammable to break  'Over one hundred and fifty million million million possible settings' that would take millions of years to decode manually. With the help of a team of code-breakers, researchers, mathematicians, Turing embarks on a journey to build this machine. This includes crossword wizard, Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), who befriends Alan and helps him interact with his team-members. Turing now has a hundred thousand British pounds to make or break the war. 

The most dramatic scenes are from Turing's childhood. In 1927, Turing is a nervous teenager who is bullied by his buddies because of his social awkwardness until Christopher rescues him. It is Christopher who introduces Alan to a book on cryptography. As Turing gets engrossed in the world of codes and cyphers, he realizes his true feelings for his friend. 

The casting choice of Cumberbatch is apt. He portrays the over-confidence of Turing very differently from Sherlock . As Sherlock, he is cocky, defiant and arrogant. As Turing, Cumberbatch has a total transformation - naive, ignorant of social dogma, he portrays at once a mathematical genius as well as an innocent victim, with aplomb. Whether he is scribbling on his notepad or sipping beer, the quirks and nuances he brings to this character are truly remarkable. It did remind me a little of Russell Crowe in 'A Beautiful Mind'. 

The tension of Turing breaking the Enigma is followed by his downfall after the authorities find out about this homosexuality. He accepts hormonal therapy to imprisonment for 'gross indecency' and slowly resigns himself to suicide. 

"The Imitation Game" manages to not just be a thriller but a historic biopic that educates the viewers of the compelling story of Alan Turing. Sixty years after his death, the Queen of England has pardoned Turing and condemned his punishment in 1950s as unjust. Alan Turing totally deserves the universal recognition that this movie has brought to the world. 

This is #Day1 of #YourTurnChallenge. During this 7 day challenge,I would be blogging about one Oscar nominated movie per day.

'When it comes to marriage, one man is as good as the next. And even the least accommodating is less trouble than a mother.'-from Dangerous Liaisons

‘There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book’, said Oscar Wilde.

The 18^th century French novel ‘Les Liaisons dangereuses’ was born before Wilde yet the statement applies to it perfectly. The movie version of this book is  ‘DangerousLiaisons’, where the vicissitudes of the story and dialogue are comparable to Oscar Wilde's 'The picture of Dorian Gray.' In fact, there was a brief moment when I debated if this is even better than Wilde’s famous work.

Set in early 18th century France, the movie opens on ‘immoral’ high ground – the popular socialite, Marquise de Merteuil (Glenn Close) wants to avenge her abandoned lover, Bastide and seeks the help of the corrupt Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich).

The count has to seduce the virginal fiancée of Bastide, Cécile (Uma Thurman) before the marriage. The unscrupulous Count Vicomte thinks that game to be trifle and suggests going in pursuit of a married woman, Madame de Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer). The Marquise agrees provided he brings back proof of his accomplishments in order to spend one glorious night with her.

What follows are the adventures of the sexual predator, Vicomte who plays women as pawns in his game of chess. He easily conquers the chaste Cecile but Madame Tourvel proves more challenging to him. Throughout this game of decadence, the Marquise is supportive of him as well as to other women by presenting a façade of a malevolent chaperone. The moral ambiguity of this game is revealed in a dialogue by

Marquise to Vicomte ‘When I came out into society I was 15. I already knew that the role I was condemned to, namely to keep quiet and do what I was told, gave me the perfect opportunity to listen and observe. Not to what people told me, which naturally was of no interest, but to whatever it was they were trying to hide. I practiced detachment. I learned how to look cheerful while under the table I stuck a fork into the back of my hand. I became a virtuoso of deceit. It wasn't pleasure I was after, it was knowledge. I consulted the strictest moralists to learn how to appear, philosophers to find out what to think, and novelists to see what I could get away with, and in the end, I distilled everything to one wonderfully simple principle: win or die.”

The manipulation by the countess is unlike Scarlett O’Hara. While Scarlett’s justification is never to be poor again and to restore the grandeur of days gone by, the countess seeks this game to extract vengeance on men who cross her path. Either ways both women resort to the only methods that are available to them at that period of time - cunning manipulation of men.

Glen Close is superb as the middle-aged countess, whose face expresses immense depth of emotions that most modern actresses are incapable of. She portrays the immoral Marquise by a mere change in her eyes, sometimes revealing the love/hate relationship she has with Vicomte and other times as a beautiful and intelligent woman caught in a society in 18th century France where women are supposed to listen to their husbands and act docile. She portrays the moral ambiguity so subtly that you are caught between appreciating and condoning her.

The movie reaches a crescendo when a triumphant Vicomte produces the evidence but the countess refuses him the one night she promised since she cannot face to be second fiddle, given that the count had fallen in love with the married woman. Does Marquise really love Vicomte or merely considers him a worthy rival?  Who would get the last word in this battle of the sexes? Does Marquise manage to destroy Vicomte or does the count get an upper hand? Watch this movie to seek your own answers, which might not be the same as the person next to you.