The Park Bench. Film reviews by Chartreuse at Heypressto at Health & Happiness Magazine.
A touching, comical story of a tutor and student who find unexpected friendship and romance through their sessions on a park bench. Over a college year Emily helps undergraduate Mateo with his studies and learns some lessons about herself. Emily’s perfectly planned future begins to blur as she discovers what it is like to truly connect with another person, through stories, a dance and a wedding day. A lovingly made, budget movie that won an award the Toronto Film Festival and was recently released on DVD. This film may help you if you feel lonely or out of place.
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More film reviews at Health & Happiness by Chartreuse:
New Year Feel-better film choice: Peter’s Friends
Stephen Fry throws a New Year’s Eve party at his newly inherited stately home to share some news with loving lovies reunited for the first time in 10 years since their last student song-and-dance performance. Maggie (Emma Thompson) is on a quest for love, couple Mary and Roger (Imela Staunton and Hugh Laurie) find relief and resolution, US resident Andrew (Kenneth Brannagh) and wife (Rita Rudner) fly in for some moments of truth and Sarah (Alphonsia Emmanuel) discovers her relationship to a hamster in a leather skirt on a weekend with fish out of water (Tony Slattery). Delightful, humorous and transformational. May help if you feel isolated, bereaved, lost.
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Winter comedy pick: Cold Comfort Farm
Youthful Kate Beckinsale in a hilarious 1920’s comedy. Orphaned Londoner, Flora, opts to move in with country relatives, the Starkadders, to ‘tidy up’ and collect ‘life’ to put in her great novel. There she meets talkies fan and sultry cousin Seth (Rufus Sewell), doom-laden aunt Judith (Eileen Atkins), ardent preacher to the Quivering Brethren uncle Amos (Ian McKellan), dashing neighbour Dick Hawk-Monitor (Rupert Penry-Jones) and a mud-drenched dilapidated farm. Fortunately Flora has moral support in the form of Mary Smiling (Joanna Lumley). Engaging spoof of the rural novel. A bit of diverting froth to lift your spirits if you want to feel more hopeful and purposeful.
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Halloween favourite supernatural comedy: Practical Magic
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman star as sisters Sally and Gillian, descendants of a family of witches. Together with eccentric aunts, Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest, they take on a curse and an embarrassing problem under the rose bush. Wild child Gillian’s flirtation with danger and Sally’s rescue mission end in a risky spell with awkward consequences. Sally’s wish-list hero (Aiden Quinn) comes to investigate and casts an enchantment of his own as he seeks to unearth the truth. Magical, whimsical entertainment. May help if you’re under a cloud to feel that lifting it is possible.
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Selection from Spiritual Cinema Circle: Orbit Ever After
A science-fiction romance starring Thomas Sangster (Love Actually). Space recyling, love, aspiration and a shooting star.
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