My time has come to an end.

It's that time. Summer is almost over for me and I've been a busy bee. This means that this blog is now a 'review-when-I-can-so-don't-expect-a-lot-until-break" blog.

It's been fun! See you whenever!

Movie Review: The Impossible (2012) Part 2:

Warning: Naughty language, kids.

Notes: Sorry this is so late!

Previously: This movie tore your heart out a little bit, tsunamis are scary, and I never thought a can of soda would give me so much emotion.

_________________________________________________________________

Music is still 7/10 waves.

Henry tells Thomas that he hasn’t found his Mom or brother yet.  He also tells Thomas to look after Simon because he is sending them to a shelter in the mountains. Henry is going to stay behind to continue his search for Maria and Lucas. No, Henry. Don’t separate the family even more. This movie just loves to make me pull out my hair.

It’s dark as Thomas and Lucas are loaded into the back of a truck. Henry asks to use a phone but the person is a jackass. Even in disaster, assholes will be assholes. He asks the group in the truck to take care of his boys.  A woman tries to get him to go with them but he is determined to find the rest of his family.

Henry keeps stumbling about, searching, until his flashlight goes out. He falls down a hole and when he gets out he goes to the road. People find him and give him a ride to a shelter. He sits with a group of strangers. Awkward. A man is telling the group about how he lost his family. He woke up and found a note from his wife that she and the kids went to the beach. Seriously movie, break my heart every five minutes. Henry is asked about his family, so he tells them about how he found his youngest boys, and how he is still looking for Maria and Lucas.

The man who told about his family, Karl, lets Henry use his phone to call home. He gets ahold of some family and starts crying when he tries to tell them about Maria and Lucas. I cried at this part. Tears streaming down my face as I hugged my blanket. He hangs up because he can’t even talk. Once he calms down, Karl tells him to call his family again because he can’t leave it like that. He promises his family that he will find them no matter what. Karl asks to go with him.

Meanwhile, Thomas is trying to help Simon sleep. An older lady asks to sit by them and Thomas nods. They chat about the stars and how some are dead but their light still shines and how it’s impossible to tell which start are alive and which ones are dead. The older lady cried as she talked with Thomas. It was a symbolic conversation. The scene was short, but I liked it a lot.

Back with Lucas, some nurses ask him to take a look at a few items. It’s a watch and some jewelry and he can’t recognize any of it. The nurses look at one another oddly and ask Lucas to come with them. The music swells as they closer to a bed. A nurse pulls back the curtain and there is Maria. It was a mistake in the records, saying that she was someone else. She went into surgery for her chest but wasn’t strong enough for her leg, they have to wait until she recovers. It doesn’t look like the surgery helped, Maria looks deathly.

Henry and Karl are on their mission to find their loved ones. They look through shelters and hospitals and rows of bodies trying to find familiar faces.  At one shelter, he sees the group from the truck he put his kids on, but not Simon and Thomas. It turns out they were taken away with other kids without parents. Fucking great, a reunion coupled with another separation.

At the hospital, Mara is looking worse (I didn’t even know that was possible). Lucas watches as the lady that was next to his mom earlier is taken away. As he watches her be wheeled out of the room, he sees Daniel. Remember cute little Daniel? Lucas follows Daniel as he runs off and watches as Daniel runs up to his father. It was so awesome to see that. Lucas tries to tell his mom but she asks about the color of her leg. Lucas checks and lies about it, saying it’s red. As she rests he goes to get help. The nurse says they are doing the best they can. Do better, nurse. Do better.

Henry and Karl arrive at the hospital where his family and wants to check it out. But the other people in the truck they are riding in want to skip this one. Henry manages to get five minutes to look, while Karl writes down the names of his family and give the paper to Henry. He doesn’t want to slow Henry down.

 At the same time, Lucas goes to get water for his mom. Thus begins the frustrating game of: “one goes one way and the other goes the other way”. Henry walks up the stairs away from the lobby just as Lucas runs into the lobby. Henry walks past Maria’s room but doesn’t see her because her curtain is closed. Yet, Maria opens her eyes as he walks past.

 Just as I begun to lose hope, Lucas sees his dad’s shorts from the floor above him. He runs after him, yelling. This was so scary. We want Henry to hear his son, but it’s too crowded and noisy. Lucas loses his dad in the refugee camp outside the building. Despair starts to set in.

Then for better or worse, I wasn’t sure at the time, the truck with Simon and Thomas stops outside the same camp. Simon hops off to pee and Thomas follows, telling him to hurry. Lucas is hurriedly looking throughout the camp, but can’t find his dad. At the same time, Henry is back in the truck, ready to leave, but the vehicle is having trouble starting. Thomas and Simon run back to their own ride and I was yelling at the screen.

 Lucas gets frustrated and yells for his dad as loud as he can. This is how Thomas and Simon find him. They run at each other, yelling each other’s name and they collide, hugging the shit out of one another. This part made me cry the hardest. Dammit, I’m crying as I type this. The emotions are so overwhelming.

The boys are crying too.  And just when your heart is about to burst, Henry finds them. There is more running and hugging and crying and I was a blubbering bubble of tears, not coherent at all. Karl tells the truck driver that they can go now.  The music crescendos and adds to the emotion. It’s so beautiful. But the music stops when Lucas tells them that Maria is there as well.

It’s a much quieter reunion this time but Maria’s face when she sees her family is so sad. She asks if she is dead. She never thought she would see her family again. Finally everyone is together again; but maybe not for long. Maria tells Henry she can rest now because Lucas won’t be alone if she dies. The doctor and nurses come to take her to surgery.

A little while later, the boys are in a makeshift waiting room, worrying about Maria. Lucas tells his dad that he never told Maria something that she needs to know. But we don’t know what that I just yet. The movie cuts to Maria in a room with other patients for scheduled for surgery. Next to her is the lady from earlier, but now she is more coherent. She says she has a family too. They look at each other and reach out to hold hands but the lady is wheeled away and even though she was in the movie for like a minute total, it’s very unsatisfying.

Maria is finally taken into surgery and is scared to go to sleep. The nurse calms her down and anesthetizes her. She dreams about the tsunami and we see what happened to her between the time the tsunami hit and where we joined her again as she held onto the tree. It’s hard to watch. It’s loud, her leg gets cut, and she screams.

The next morning, Lucas wakes up startled. His dad is there, telling him that they are going home. The family gets taken to the airport, including Maria, who is wheeled onto the plane.  They are all on board and ready to take off shortly. Lucas gets up and goes to Maria and tells her what he never got the chance to earlier. He tells her that Daniel found his family. They hug until a stewardess asks him to take his seat.

Lucas realizes his still has his sticker from the tent on and peels it off. Henry looks at the list of names Karl gave him and turns the paper over, reading “we are at the beach.”  Of course, one more strike at the heart just as the movie is about to end. The plane takes off, carrying the family far away from their nightmare.  Maria looks out of her window and cries as they fly over the destroyed island.  The final shot is of the plan flying over the open ocean.

The End.

Movie Review: The Impossible (2012) Part 1:

Warning: Naughty language and description of gore, kids.

Notes: Finally another multi-part review. I took my time with this one because this movie is dear to me. But it doesn’t say much considering the usual state of these reviews. Oh well. As soon as I found it online, I watched it and wrote about it. I usually take forever when I choose a movie to review. Not this time. Enjoy, bitches.

__________________________________________________________________

Music: 7/10 waves

If you haven’t seen this movie, stop reading this and watch it. I don’t care how, just watch it. This movie is one of my all-time favorites.  I won’t listen to excuses, just watch it. If you don’t know what it’s about, well guess what, it tells you in the first minute of the movie.

Here are some hints: Thailand, 2004, tsunami.

This movie is about a family that lives through the disaster. After the opening credits, we are greeted with a black screen. All to be heard are rumbling noises and it gets louder and louder and your heart rate goes up a little bit waiting for the tsunami to- just kidding it’s a plane. Ewan McGregor plays Henry, who worried about whether or not the alarm was set at home. Naomi Watts plays his wife, Maria, who tells him not to worry. They have three boys: Lucas, Thomas, and Simon.  The family is headed to Thailand for the holidays.

Thailand is very beautiful, and I was almost jealous until I remember what movie I was watching. They get a lovely room with a seaside view on the first floor even though they booked a room on the third floor. It was the hotel’s fault. A little background is given on the family: they live in Japan for Henry’s job, Maria is a doctor, though no longer a practicing one, she now acts as a stay-at-home mom. Lucas wants a soda he found in the mini fridge but Maria says no. Lucas is obviously getting into his teenage, my parents are annoying, angsty years.

The island is alive with tourists and families ready to spend their holidays in an exotic setting. Everyone is having a good time. Their first day is full of fun, food, and floating lanterns. The sequence is wonderful and sad. As an audience, we know how bad everything is going to get.

The next morning is Christmas morning. Maria and Henry film the kids waking up and opening their presents. One of the boys, I think it’s Simon, gets a red kickball and they all play with it on the beach. Their Christmas day is spent diving and enjoying being together as a family. Even the ocean was pretty and serene; like the calm before the storm.  At least the family had a good Christmas.

The next day is the day. You can just tell as the scene opens. Everyone is out by the pool; it seems like most of the hotel residents are actually. Henry is worried about getting fired from his job, something very trivial in light of what is about to happen. But how can he know. Ever the comforter, Maria says she will go back to work if she has to. It feels terrible listening to them plan for the future. I wanted to scream at the television and tell them to get out of there.

Henry gets out of his little funk and goes to plays kickball with the boys. Maria is reading when one of her pages gets blow away. She retrieves it and is kneeling in front of a glass panel when the power goes out. The wind picks up even more and the rumbling starts. My entire body was tense because this is the whole reason people watch the movie, to get a closer look at what that day was like. The pool goes quiet and everyone looks toward the beach as palm trees get knocked over and the rumbling gets louder. No one had a clue this was coming.

The wave crashes through the hotel, washing it away. People start screaming a running. Maria yells for Henry, who is with Thomas and Simon in the pool. He manages to grab ahold of both of them before the water overtakes them. Lucas jumps into the pool just as the wave reaches him. Maria braces herself, and as the water hits her, the screen goes dark. The few seconds dark are silent. I was even holding my breath.

Flashes of dirty water take up the screen. It’s swirling and crashing as the camera surfaces to find Maria clinging onto a palm tree. She’s cut up and screaming. An overhead view shows the audience the extent of the destruction. Everything is gone. You can’t even hear her screams over the roar of the water.  Miraculously, Maria hears Lucas scream. He is being washed away with the current, and away from her. Maria, the badass mom she is, lets go of the tree to get to him. She gets impaled by a branch along the way. It’s very cringe-worthy.

This is the second most frustrating scene of the movie because you want them to get to each other, but fighting a tsunami is difficult.  Luca is able to grab onto debris but Maria can’t, so he lets go. They both mange to grab hold of a mattress, on opposite sides of course, and reach to hold hands; but just as they are about to, the mattress hits a pole and flips. Back in the water again; it’s really frustrating.

A car floats by Lucas with no one in it except a crying baby. I had a moment of: “what the fuck?” He watches the car float by and sees another wave coming from the other direction. It drowns the car and Lucas gets pushed under. He spins out of control with the debris and you cringe as you wait for him to get hurt by something, which does happen. He gets knocked on the head with some metal. He is able to surface and grab a hold of a pole.

 Across the water, he sees his mom drifting with the current, face down. Lucas screams for her and thankfully she stirs while she gets stuck on some downed trees. They swim for each other and finally manage to stay together. They hug it out and I will admit that I almost cried. The agony of the sequence is over, just an entire movie to go (I think I might be a masochist when it comes to these things).Mother and son are able to find a tree to wait it out on.

When the water goes down enough, the pair goes off to find higher ground. We see just how badly Maria is hurt when Lucas sees the back of her leg. It’s flayed, like almost completely. The skin is hanging below the open wound. Lucas stops to tell her, but when she turns around, Lucas does as well. Maria’s shirt is torn and her breast, along with the wound from the branch, is exposed. She fixes her shirt as best she can and has Lucas walk in front of her.

 Along the way, Maria bandages up her leg with leaves and twine. She also coughs up blood, which she hides from Lucas. They find a nice tree off in the distance and make for it. Before they get there, however, they hear a call for help. Lucas doesn’t want to help but Maria tries to convince him by pulling the: “What if it was your brothers?” I thought that would convince him but instead he yells that Simon and Thomas are dead. That just punched me in the gut. Thanks for reminding me, kid. Maria is still able to convince Lucas to go look for the person. They find a little cute kid stuck under some debris. His name is Daniel, and he becomes an honorary family member by getting to go with them to the tree.  Lucas finds a can of soda from the hotel and puts it in his pocket. He then helps Daniel and his mom up the tree. Boy, Maria is in really bad shape. The three hang out in the tree and share the soda until some local people find them.

Note: Every destruction shot is heart breaking. This shit actually happened. People died and people lived. The music really adds to it as well. It’s not the most unique soundtrack ever, but it was used beautifully to add emotion to every important moment.

An elderly man drags Maris through the muck because he isn’t strong enough to carry her. Her screams are hard to listen to. They end up at an unscathed home and get cleaned up.  She’s so thankful and starts crying for her boys (this is a music moment). Men put her into the back of a truck on an old door to drive her and Lucas to the hospital. They are leaving as they realize Daniel isn’t with them. We don’t know what happened to Daniel.  It’s sad. So are the dead and injured people they see on the way.

The hospital is poorly equipped for such devastation. It’s crowded as shit. Maria ends up in a closet because they don’t have enough rooms.  A doctor comes and tends to her injuries, painfully, and not very thoroughly. She is then moved to a crowded recovery room. Maria asks Lucas if her leg is red. It is and that’s a good sign. She’s a doctor, remember. The pair shares a tangerine while Maria tries making conversation with the woman next to her. But she isn’t talking.

 Instead the lady starts coughing up blood. Maria tries to help but then she does the same thing except she pulls a nasty string of blood clots from her throat. Way to outdo her, Maria. It’s gross, but necessary to show how bad people were having it. Lucas obviously freaks out, telling her to stop and looks away from the gore, something I’m sure a lot of audience members did.

A while later, a man comes through the room, yelling for Francesca, I think he said Francesca. Maria knows how busy everyone is and tells Lucas to go help people. He agrees after some convincing that Maria isn’t going anywhere. While he tries to find something to do, a man pulls him aside to ask if he’s seen his kid so Lucas goes on a mission to find him.

Along the way he gathers more names from people looking for loved ones. He walks around the hospital calling out for people. The music grows steadily louder the longer Lucas looks for people. Then it stops when he yells out the first name and a boy answers. He runs to go get him and it’s finally a good moment as father and son are reunited. Lucas is excited, hell, even I was excited. He runs back to tell his mom but when he gets there, she’s gone.

He panics and a nurse comes up to him, saying she will help. It’s not the help he wanted though. He ends up in a lost children tent. The nurse asks him a bunch of questions that he struggles to answer due to the shock. She gives him a name tag and leaves. Lucas cries when he sees the other kids with name tags and realizes that he might be an orphan. This is the third most frustrating moment of the movie.

The movie goes back to the resort. What are we doing here? A person is walking through the mud. They find a red ball and pick it up. The person turns around and, surprise, it’s Henry. He’s alive, a determined to find Maria and Lucas. He keeps looking for them until sunset. Then he treks back to the hotel and we see there were many survivors. Who does Henry meet at the hotel? Simon and Thomas. The entire family survived. This movie is called The Impossible for a reason.

TBC..