DVD Smurf

What is your perspective on this film? Please, I am interested in what YOU thought of it.

BartleyR7

I really enjoyed this movie. I did have reservations about it (I waited until it was out on DVD before I viewed it), but I was happy that one of my friends picked this movie to watch one evening.

I loved Charlize Theron and Michael Caine, and they story line was interesting enough to hold my attention throughout the movie. Although the ending was predictable (I won't give it away in case some of you haven't seen it), I was still happy with the final outcome. The whole story about Wally going to war and Homer getting the girl has (obviously) been told before, but I though Irving added several subtle turns and twists that made this an "atypical" movie.

As for the DVD, the audio and video quality are both excellent. There are several extra features, but nothing really exciting - some deleted scenes and the like.

garmonbozia

I love this movie. I think the cinematography is amazing. The film is very beautiful. I took my parents to see this movie when I went to visit them last Spring because I wanted to see it again. I have the dvd but it is in piles of other movies I haven't watched yet. Charlize Theron is beautiful, I have never paid attention to her before. Tobey Maguire is one of my favorite actors, very subtle and makes me laugh. Everyone was great in this movie I thought. I was surprised to read many comments on this forum by people who didn't like the movie because of its pro-choice message. Maybe I didn't notice because I'm a med student and pro-choice, but I didn't think that was a major point of the movie at all. The movie was definitely not intended to change people's mind about any issues. The point of the movie is to illustrate that people have opinions and things that happen to them can sometimes change or alter those opinions, if even only in certain situations. People claim that John Irving mentioning the abortion issue in his acceptance speech (for best adapted screenplay...from his own novel) that the movie has some overt agenda or something. I really don't see that at all. I thought the movie was about people who happen to have their own opinions. Homer is not made to look ridiculous or to be thought of as anything less than who he is becasue of his pro-life beliefs in the film. I don't understand why some people thought this was a heavy handed pro-choice message. No one I met in real life thought it was, but many people on this forum were complaining about it when the movie and dvd first came out. I guess if you are very very pro-life and people being pro-choice in a movie bothers you, then avoid it. If you can tolerate stories told about beliefs different than yours, you shouldn't be offended.

StrickNet

I haven't seen the DVD, so I can't comment specifically on that, but the movie is very well done. It treats the abortion debate with much respect to both sides. I would disagree with anyone who would label this as a "pro-choice" movie. What made the story so successful in critical terms is that it avoided portraying the issue in black-and-white terms, as both pro-lifers and pro-choicers often do. There's so much gray area between either side. This movie really gave each side its say, and in so doing, revealed the good and bad points to either perspective.

All comments about this central issue aside, the movie itself is very compelling in terms of performance, direction and cinematography (and a great musical score as well). It was very deserving of its Best Picture nomination.

Collin

Some people have labeled this an abortion issue movie and see it as such which is sad, because this really tells a great story of a boy growing up and seeing the world outside of his protected home.