Friday, February 10, 2012

MOVIE REVIEW: 'The Vow' is a toothy Valentine's indulgence




Fri February 10, 2012
Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum play a husband and wife who have to rediscover each other in
Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum play a husband and wife who have to rediscover each other in "The Vow."

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • "The Vow" hits on an intriguing yarn and plays it out
  • Michael Sucsy's movie is a different beast, a romance first and foremost
  • Channing Tatum is a good fit for the bruised and brooding Leo
A love story released in time for Valentine's Day, bringing together the stars of "The Notebook" (Rachel McAdams) and "Dear John" (Channing Tatum)?
Sounds like a cookie-cutter chick flick, for sure. But "The Vow" surpasses low expectations, for this male film critic at any rate, if only because it hits on an intriguing yarn and plays it out with some respect for the characters involved.
Tatum is Leo, a young man whose blissfully happy marriage is rear-ended by a snowplow -- propelling wife Paige (McAdams) through the windscreen and into a brain trauma unit. When she wakes up, she's okay -- except that she's wiped out the last five years entirely. She doesn't know Leo, doesn't remember dropping out of law school and switching to art classes, and doesn't like anything she finds in her wardrobe. She also doesn't remember cutting off her parents and her sister -- Leo's never even met them before -- or why she broke up with her fiancé, Jeremy.
Amnesia often figures as a handy crutch for thriller writers who love teasing out doubt and deception, but Michael Sucsy's movie is a different beast, a romance first and foremost, but a romance that claims to be inspired by a true story.
Sucsy (who directed Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange in "Grey Gardens") plays down the condition's inherent paranoia, in part by drawing us in through the eyes of the husband, Leo.
Here's a guy who loves his wife, but who finds himself alone in the marriage because everything they shared as a couple has been erased. For Paige, home is the house she grew up in and the parents she remembers -- wealthy, privileged suburbanites who are only too keen to set back the clock and pretend their little girl never strayed across the tracks.
An actor who finds "perplexed and concerned" well within his limited range, Channing Tatum is a good fit for the bruised and brooding Leo, and the lively Rachel McAdams has some nice moments as the (blank?) Paige -- but flashbacks to happier days try too hard to force a chemistry that remains more theoretical than felt.
Still, the scenario (Sucsy is one of five credited writers) throws up some arresting questions about the nature of love. How can Leo still be in love with this woman who is a stranger to herself? Can he make her fall back in love with him? Is it even fair to try? Because these ideas are also emotional dilemmas the movie works surprisingly well despite its shortcuts and shortcomings.
It certainly isn't subtle about its preference for the sympathetic Leo -- and by extension, the vegan, tattooed, artistic Paige who voted for Obama -- over her domineering father, played by Sam Neill, and the conservative values he represents -- even though the uptown scenes are generally better written and more convincingly played than what amounts to a sitcom notion of bohemian chic.
Of course it's more than a little convenient that Paige never stops to ask why she walked out on the life she was groomed for -- the story's second, hidden trauma. If she had, the whole construct falls apart. But let that go.
This is mostly a poignant and touching effort. Just as Leo woos his estranged wife with "Chocolate roulette" (not a game Rachel McAdams plays very often I'm betting), given the choice between hard edges and gooey centers, Sucsy invariably heads for the fudge: it's sweet and chewy and fun to share.















































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Me encantan estos recopilatorios de fotografías de famosas desnudas. Ya sean en escenas del cine o la tele, o en posados de revistas glamourosas y/o morbosas, siempre me sorprende la de veces que suelen aparecer despelotadas, sobre todo porque en general las vemos con impresionantes trajes de diseñadores famosos paseando cual princesas de ensueño por la alfombra roja.
Pero obviamente no siempre son dulces y sensibles, también tienen su lado morbosos y alejado de perjuicios, y por eso no suelen tener mucho problema para enseñar sus encantos si el personaje o el momento lo requiere. Esta vez le ha tocado el turno de ver desnudita a la actriz canadiense Rachel McAdams.
La conocemos de pelis como Chicas Malas (en inglés Mean Girls, junto a Lindsay Lohan) o El Diario de Noah (The Notebook), y junto a ella lloramos a lágrima viva. Pero ahora es el turno de verla en acción, y nada mejor para disfrutarla que babear con todas las imágenes de sus mejores topless y momentos subidos de tono.
Description: Recopilación de desnudos de la actriz Rachel McAdamsDescription: Recopilación de desnudos de la actriz Rachel McAdams
Fotografía | www.cityrag.com

A diferencia de muchas actrices de su generación, la actriz canadiense Rachel McAdams no solamente no empezó a despuntar el vicio de la actuación como muchas tantas colegas si lo hicieron, casi, casi saltando de la cuna al set de filmación, sino que Rachel, nacida en el pequeño pueblo de St. Thomas, en Ontario, Canadá, se tomó su tiempo para debutar en el mundo artístico, prefiriendo primero dedicarse al estudio, amplia prueba de ello lo es que logró recibirse con los máximos honores en la Universidad de York en Toronto y con el notable grado BFA en teatro, lo que claro nos hacía ya sospechar lo que vendría…
Los comienzos de Rachel en la profesión de actriz podría decirse que fueron bien desde abajo, es decir, no participó en una de esas cintas tocadas por la varita mágica de la popularidad y ella se convirtió de la noche a la mañana en una luminaria, sino más bien primero hizo algunas muy pequeñas participaciones en tevé y cine como The famous Jett Jackson, Guilt by association y Mi Nombre es Tanino.
Pero claro, por las anteriormente mencionadas nadie conoció a McAdams sino que habría que esperar por ¡Este cuerpo no es mío! y luego por Chicas Malas en la cual compartía escena con Lindsay Lohan y encarnaba a una bastante manipuladora chica de instituto (yyy, dime con quien andas y te diré quien eres, dicen…).
En tanto, su primer protagónico llegaría un poquito de tiempo después con El Diario de Noa, la cual a instancias interpretativas marcaría un gran quiebre en su cortísima carrera porque se pondría en la piel de una joven que tras la segunda guerra mundial se reencuentra con un viejo amor y la crítica vaya que lo alabó!…
En tanto, el dramón romántico de época fue un lapsus, porque Rachel volvió inmediatamente al viejo amor: las comedias y así es que la vimos desplegar su talento en De Boda en Boda y La joya de la familia. Pero cuando todo hacía suponer que la comedia sería la mejor aliada nuevamente, Rachel, pateó el tablero, sumándose a las huestes de es Craven para protagonizar el thriller Vuelo Nocturno en el cual interpretaba a una mujer que era secuestrada en pleno vuelo por un loco que la obligaba a organizar el asesinato de un político a cambio de no matar a su familia.
Y aunque parecía que ya nada más nos podría sorprender en el CV de esta versátil actriz, Rachel volvió a hacerlo estelarizando junto a Pierce Brosnan y Chris Cooper la cinta El Juego del Matrimonio en el cual encarnaba a una mujer que enamoraba al mismo tiempo a dos hombres.
Con paso firme y aceptando retos, McAdams, promete seguir dando muy bien que hablar, en tanto es su participación en la cinta de Guy Ritchie sobre Sherlock Holmes, el proyecto más importante en el cual se encuentra embarcada.





The Time Traveler's Wife
Below is our first look at Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana in The Time Traveler's Wife. The film is directed by Flightplan director Robert Schwentke and adapted from a novel by Audrey Niffenegger of the same name. In The Time Traveler's Wife, Eric Bana plays Henry De Tamble, a Chicago librarian with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel when he is stressed. Though he disappears often for long periods of time, he tries to build a romantic relationship with artist Clare Abshire, played by McAdams. I'll admit, I had not heard of this movie until I saw these photos. And I'll also admit, now I'm interested. Partially because of how gorgeous Rachel McAdams is, and partially because of the intriguing plot.
Thanks to gossip blog Just Jared for originally posting the photos.
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Time Traveler's Wife
Does this sound like a funny mix of Jumper and The Time Machine to anyone else? Not that it is, but just on the surface it does. Unless the trailer shows something different, I'm definitely into this.
The Time Traveler's Wife is directed by German filmmaker Robert Schwentke of The Family Jewels and Flightplan previously. The film is written by Jeremy Leven (The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Notebook) and Bruce Joel Rubin (Jacob's Ladder, Deep Impact, The Last Mimzy) and adapted from the novel by Audrey Niffenegger. The Time Traveler's Wife doesn't have a release date yet, but is expected to arrive in theaters sometime in 2008.
The Time Traveler's Wife



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