Sunday, December 17, 2006

Miss Potter

I saw this film on December 17th, 2006 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

This is the story of Beatrix Potter, the author of many classic illustrated children’s stories such as “Peter Rabbit.” She was raised in the latter part of the 19th Century in an upper middle class, stuffy family. And worked in the early part of the 20th Century.

It is a story of rebellion, and one woman’s liberation from knowing one’s place, settling on an arranged marriage, and quietly raising a family in the shadow of a man. Beatrix (Renee Zellweger) would have none of that. She had a dreamy artist’s imagination and talent and temperament from an early age and simply rebelled and lived in her own created world. When the world recognized her talent, she slowly became a part of the commercial world via the book publishing industry and a mentor/love interest (Ewan McGregor) and the mentor’s sister (Emily Watson).

The cast is brilliant. You go back in time with them a 100 years and live with and understand their stilted social mores. The art direction and cinematography are stunning and are worthy of Academy Award nominations.

There is one neat trick of animation that appears throughout this film. The drawn animal characters occasionally become animated, but only to Beatrix. It sounds hokey, but it is a clever way to demonstrate how real these characters were to their author. And, it’s why they have rung true to children and to adults for many generations.

Beatrix is a model for determination and pluck and steadfastness. This is a beautiful story beautifully told. Undoubtedly, this film will be compared to “Finding Neverland.”
“Miss Potter” is of the same high quality.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Freedom Writers

I saw this film on December 13th, 2006 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

Woodrow Wilson High School is located in Long Beach, California. The school is voluntarily integrated, and it isn’t working. The Asians, the Blacks, the Latinos, and a very few whites not only don’t get along, but also stay with their own and are part of protective and violent gangs. There isn’t much teaching or learning going on at the school. It is a warehouse for young teenagers until they can drop out or are kicked out.

With this background, an idealistic teacher (Hilary Swank) arrives to teach Freshmen English. She is very educated, pretty, middle class, non-ethnic, well-dressed, and smart. From day one, she doesn’t fit in the classroom with these tough kids, and she doesn’t fit in with the faculty, who have all but given up and resigned themselves to being the keepers of the student warehouse.

But our idealistic teacher will not give up. She slowly and painfully tries to teach by first learning about “…the pain…” the students feel. She encourages each of her students to keep a journal of their painful and difficult life, and then to share the journal with her. She also attempts to get the four ethnic groups to come together by getting them to recognize what they have in common; specifically, their music, their movies, their broken families, and their broken community surroundings.

While struggling with the students, she has to deal at the same time with two complicated and demanding male relationships. Her husband (Patrick Dempsey) is often supportive, but often jealous of her time commitments. Her father (Scott Glenn) is often disappointed of her career choice, but often proud of her courage and tenacity.

This story feels real. It is beautifully done. The acting of Swank, Dempsey and Glenn is professional and believable. More importantly the story highlights our society’s challenges in schooling the children of poor and one-parent families.

The movie doesn’t give miracle answers. But it does give hope. And in the end, sincere effort appears to count for something … maybe everything.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.