The Man Who Mends Women (orig. L'Homme qui répare les femmes) [2015]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (4 stars)

IMDb listing
Allocine.fr listing*
CinEuropa.org listing

Black Star News review
DiaNova.org review
MoviesThatMatter.nl review
Opportunity Lives (C. LeBon) review
 
Critikat.com (A. Leysens) review*
La Croix (M. Soyeux) review* 
Le Monde (Thomas Sotinel) review*
TF1 (J. Faure) review*


The Man Who Mends Women (orig. L'Homme qui répare les femmes) [2015] [IMDb] [AC.fr]*[CEu] (directed and cowritten by Thierry Michel [IMDb] [AC.fr]*[CEu] along with Colette Braeckman [IMDb] [CEu]) is an excellent BELGIAN, CONGOLESE, AMERICAN documentary about the celebrated, three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and EU's Sakharov Prize winning Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and his multifaceted work with (and advocacy on behalf of) the rape victims of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and especially along its eastern border with Rwanda.  The film played as part of the 14th Annual Chicago African Diaspora International Film Festival hosted recently by Facets Multimedia in Chicago and its American distributor is ArtMattan which cosponsors the festival.

Over the last several decades, it has become increasingly clear that sexual violence against women conducted in the context of war needs to be classified as a War Crime.   This documentary along with another entitled The Uncondemned [2015] certainly make the point.  (Earlier, the drama directed by Angelina Jolie, In the Land of Blood and Honey [2011] advocated for the same point).

The physical, social and psychic damage inflicted on women (and children) by war-time rape, often gang rape, is simply horrendous.  The film, if often remaining clinical in its description of the physical damage caused by such rape to both women and girls, leaves no doubt that the victims are often mutilated in shockingly awful ways that prevent them from _ever_ leading normal lives afterwards.  There is also the obvious shame that such victimization brings to its victims even though it's clearly not their fault.  Finally, there are the necessary _years of coping_ -- often largely alone, without much help of family members who themselves often feel ashamed, in good part, because they proved unable or unwilling to risk their own lives to prevent the suffering inflicted on their loved ones -- with the most intimate / fundamental of life-altering physical injuries that one simply did not / could not possibly have deserved. 

Viewers are introduced to the remarkably holistic program that the good Dr. Dennis Mukwege has been able to put together (with lots of Western help) for these women, from: (1) using the services of volunteer western doctors to physically repair in as much as that is possible, the _physical damage_ that had been inflicted on the rape victims, (2) offering "boarding school"-like "recovery centers" to the rape victims, where TOGETHER with other rape victims they are slowly able to come to terms with their injuries / attendant psychic scars AND GET TRAINED IN SKILLS that would allow them to leave these centers with the capacity to live _independent_ lives (again _a lot_ of these women and girls have been abandoned by their families); to finally (3) advocacy for trials of perpetrators of rape so that at least some semblance of justice is done AND (4) advocacy targeted toward the male members of society to encourage them to stand-up (again together) against the armed perpetrators of rape so as to better defend the women/girls of their families. 

Viewers will certainly be impressed with what Dr. Mukwege, the son of a Pentacostalist Minister, has been able to accomplish.  And while it's clear that he's done this motivated by his Christian faith it's obvious that he's far more interested simply fixing / mending broken lives rather than "making converts." Besides it becomes pretty clear that most of the people in this part of the Congo, victims, perpetrators and bystanders are already (at least nominally...) Christian anyway.   Hence the language of his faith is as motivation for his actions appears to be clearly comprehensible to all he serves. 

It all makes for one excellent documentary about someone that Viewers deserve to know about and indeed support.  Great job!


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

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Gangster Ka [2015]

MPAA (R)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CSFD.cz listing*
FDB.cz listing*
CinEuropa.org listing

ČervenýKoberec.cz (V. Staňková) review*
iDnes.cz (M. Spáčilová) review*
Novinky.cz (V. Míšková) review*


Gangster Ka [2015] [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*[CEu] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Jan Pachl [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*[CEu] along with Czech writer/investigative reporter Jaroslav Kmenta [cs.wikip] [DbKn.cz]*[GR] [WCat] [Amzn-USA] [IMDb] based on Kmenta's books [Dbkn.cz-1]*[Dbkn.cz-2]*[DbKn.cz-3]*[Eng-Amzn-1] about now South Africa residing fugitive Czech swindler-turned-gangster Radovan Krejčíř [en.wikip] [cs.wikip]*) is a contemporary Czech gangster film (the first of a planned two part project) that played recently as part of the 2016 Czech That Film Tour organized annually by the Czech Ministry of Culture and the Czech Diplomatic Mission to the United States. As part of said film tour, the film played recently here in Chicago at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

The story of the fictionalized Radim Kraviec aka Káčko or simply as in the film's title Ká (played by Hynek Čermák [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*) makes for an interesting cautionary tale and arguably "forwards" / "makes its contribution" to the (gangster) genre.  This is because Ká didn't begin as completely evil.  To be sure, he _did_ begin as a crook, getting his hands (in a frustratingly unexplained manner...) on a fairly _huge_ stack of (counterfeit?) (Czech) currency.

But that's what Ká's BFF / principal goon (gauner in Czech) named Dardan (played by Predrag Bjelac [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]*) tells us that (coal mining town) Ostrava-born Ká sincerely believed was _all_ that he really needed to "make it" in life -- get his hands on a really big stash of (seed) money.

With said stash of money, Ká appeared to want to live life according to what is (quite realistically if also quite depressingly) the central credo of  much of contemporary Czech life -- the belief that "If only one had the money, then one could truly buy _anything_" and, more to the point, "That's the way it should be."  "Don't cry, just learn to play the game..."  Sigh ...

And so with his _big_ stash of ill-gotten cash, Ká went to work.  He blew-out of provincial Ostrava, bought himself a thoroughly chic/modern mansion somewhere on the outskirts of Prague complete with its own shark-tank (to amuse and perhaps vaguely threaten guests ...) and a garage full of the most expensive cars that one could ever imagine, and impressing / marrying then a sweet / drop-dead gorgeous Czech playboy model named Sandra (played wonderfully by Vlastina Svátková [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]*) who _also_ seemed to think that with Ká she now had it made.

Then having _created_ this very impressive "image" of/for himself, he used a good portion of the rest of his money to both "buy access" to other large scale swindles (notably with the State Gas/Petroleum Company) and to pay-off public officials to keep them at bay.   What could go wrong?

Indeed, his approach seemed so characteristically _Czech_ (again, I'm of Czech descent):  Yes, the "violence option" was _always_ there but in a strange "Just (Mob) War Theory" approach ;-) Ká (and perhaps other Czech mobsters) saw it as truly "a last resort."  First, you just try to buy people off.  Then, if that doesn't work, you bring out the lawyers, who'll also often enough come up with a larger, more formal, financial arrangement (or "financial arrangement") to "settle things" to "everyone's satisfaction."  Only when that doesn't work, you bring out the goons.  Why needlessly "pound heads" (or "pull out teeth...") if "a little grease" could "align" everybody in the proper direction and make everybody rich / happy?

Yes, but ... (1) No one can really escape one's past (there were folks, of course, who "knew Ká's number" from "Ostrava days"), (2) ill-gotten money always tends to get spent rather fast (that chic mansion w. shark tank / fast cars "didn't come cheap" plus the cost of other "habits" starts "to add up," (3) finally, "The Law" can be "kept at bay" for a while, but it'll "always be hovering."

So Ká's "shark tank" becomes a metaphor for his whole story:  Even sharks _don't_ spend most of their time "attacking."  Instead, they actually spend most of their time _swimming_, _circling_, _calculating_ until ...

Fascinating film ;-) ... and _hopefully_ a cautionary tale reminding us that no matter how smart we may think we are, we're almost certainly _not_ smart enough to out-smart Evil ...


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

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Now You See Me 2 [2016]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (2 Stars)  AVClub (B)  Fr. Dennis (2 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jensen) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller Seitz) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review  


Now You See Me 2 [2016] (directed by Jon M. Chu, screenplay by screenplay by Ed Solomon, story by Ed Solomon and Pete Chiearelli based on characters by Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt) continues a _fun_ if honestly _absurd_ Robin Hood-like franchise in which a group of magicians who in the first film coalesced as "The Four Horsemen" -- returning in the current film are three: J. Daniel Atlas (played by Jesse Eisenberg) who's graduated in this film becoming something of a David Copperfield-like illusionst, Merritt McKinney (played by Woody Harrelson) who's focused his attention in this film to become the group's hypnotist and Jack Wilder (played by Dave Franco) who's become the group's card trick expert, and replacing Henley Reeves, the escape artist of the previous film, is Lula (played by Lizzy Chaplan) who comes on the scene as a scrappy if talented wannabe -- use their skills to swindle super-rich people notably a billionaire bad-boy Arthur Tresser (played by Michael Caine) in oh so public fashion to the cheers of multitudes of regular people.   Oh, if it'd be _that_ easy ... ;-).  (Arthur Tresser comes back in this sequel seeking revenge...)

Stacked against the Robin Hood like Apocalyptic "Horsemen" are nominally both "The Law" personified by FBI agents Dylan Rhodes (played by Mark Ruffalo), Natalie Austin (played by Sanaa Lathan) and Agent Cowan (played by David Warshofsky) and then "professional debunkers" like Thaddeus Bradley (played by Morgan Freeman) but as in magic, so in life, "who's actually on whose side?"  It ain't that simple ;-)

Adding to the mix are various other super-rich people, notably two rival IT billionaires Allen Scott-Frank (played by Henry Lloyd-Hughes) and Walter Mabry (played by Daniel Radcliffe), who try their hands at manipulating / harnessing the skills of "The Four Horsemen" to _their_ benefit.

Much ensues as the story hops from New York to Macao to London at the end.  Indeed, enjoyable are the inspired additions of Li (played by Jay Chao) and especially his mother Bu (played by Tsai Chin) to the cast, who run a lowly if historic "magic shop" in Macao and yet seem to be involved in "Chinese Secret Society-like" fashion in far-far-bigger things than both the characters in the story (and Viewers watching it play-out) could hardly imagine ;-)

Again, it all makes for a fun ride.  Just honestly "don't think too much" ;-)


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The Good Life / La Belle Vie [2015]

MPAA (UR would be PG-13/R)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing

Miami Times (E. Johnson) article about the director

South Florida Times review
The Lioness (K. Hersey) review


The Good Life / La Belle Vie [2015] (written and directed by Rachelle Salnave) closed a day dedicated to Haiti at the 14th Annual Chicago African Diaspora Film Festival held recently at Facets Multimedia here in Chicago.

A documentary, it tells the story of the American born (of Haitian parents) writer/director Rachelle Salnaye's struggles with her Haitian-American identity.  Her family that had been "bourgeoisie,"  hence educated, relatively wealthy (but also still job holding) had left / was at least partly forced to leave Haiti in the 1970s during the Duvalier Regime.  A good part of Salnaye's childhood involved trying to reconcile the stories of her grandmother about their previous wealth -- her grandmother had actually spent much of her childhood studying in boarding schools in France and arguably, skin color aside, considered herself more white than black -- and her own experience of growing-up quite poor in Harlem of the 1970s, both clearly _black_ and _with heavily accented Haitian immigrant parents_, hence both _black_ and "not really African American" either.

Then her family's relationship with "the old country" was quite complex.  She apparently only visited Haiti for the first time _after_ the Duvalier Regime had fallen (unsurprising really, if the family had had to flee).  But then came the instability of the Aristide years, when basically the leftovers of the Haitian middle class were leaving the country, uncertain of what future was really left for them there. Finally in 2010 came The Earthquake.

The sheer tragedy of that Earthquake seemed to make settle a number of things for the writer/director (and for a fair amount of the Haitian-Americans of her generation):  It seemed impossible now to let the mother-country go.  It simply needed them.

But then the rest of the film is about some of the tensions / divisions that exist today (perhaps inevitably) between Haitians "born and raised" / living their whole lives in Haiti and the "members of the Diaspora," who sometimes the native-born Haitians would sometimes call, "blons" ("blondes" even if they clearly were not). 

Anybody from an immigrant household - my parents were Czech - could relate to a good part of the story and the inevitable conflicts between "the residents" and "the expats."

Haiti, of course, has its specific challenges unique to its particular situation (as do all countries have their own specific challenges as well). 

But what is very nice about this film is that it despite Haiti's problems and poverty, the film maintains a sincere / hopeful tone throughout.  Yes, Haiti may have enormous problems facing it.  Yet it does have a lot of educated people now -- if often in that Diaspora.  And as difficult as it may be, one day all these people are going to get together (indeed the trend is toward that now) and all of Haiti will have some of that "La Belle Vie" that writer/director Rachelle Salnave heard her grandmother talking about when she was young. 

Very nice film!  Good job.


ADDENDUM - I would like to add here that I fondly spent the first 3 1/2 years of my priesthood working in a parish in Central Florida that included a significant Haitian immigrant community.  I could not but be impressed by the Haitian community's almost _heroic work ethic_ and then _commitment to education_.  I do honestly believe that this bodes well for Haiti in the future.  Those talents will not go to waste.


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The Conjuring 2 [2016]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB ()  ChicagoTribune (3 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (B)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jenson) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (B. Tallerico) review
AVClub (K. Rife) review  


There are a number of things that potential Viewers should know about The Conjuring 2 [2016] (directed by James Wan, screenplay and story by Carey and Chad Hayes and James Wan as well as David Leslie Johnson), the MOST IMPORTANT being that while:

Ed and Lorraine Warren (played in the film by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmica) really were Catholic laypeople who investigated various paranormal phenomena including most famously the Amityville Horror about which two movies [1979] [2005] were made, and there really was an investigation of the Hodgeson family home in (Enflied) England, the actual level of the Warrens' involvement in the investigation of the case is apparently a subject of debate and the amount of actual prayer that the two CATHOLIC investigators were shown doing as they faced all sorts Evil seemed _really low_ to me.

I just can't imagine walking toward some place where I fully expected to encounter some kind of Evil without having a Rosary and quietly praying: "Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with you ..." or "The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want ..."  Then the apparent use of the Prayer to Saint Michael (in Latin) with crucifix in hand at the end (I'd think that the English version would have worked just fine... ;-) fulfilled perhaps the conventions of "Hollywood Exorcism Movies" but seems a silly overkill to me, (seriously one of the Spirits in the film was apparently that of "an old bloke" who had passed away in an old arm-chair while watching TV ;-) especially since I would _not_ have come even close to that room with the (expected) Evil Spirit / Demon in it without said Rosary in my hand, saying my prayers to begin with ... ;-).  [Interestingly enough, THE PROMOTIONAL POSTERS for the film all feature Vera Farmica as Lorraine Warren with a Rosary prominently in her hand.  In the film? ... Nah, not really, strange ;-)]

That all said, this is a pretty good PG-13 / soft-R "scary movie" with _some historical backing to it_:

Single parent Peggy Hodgeson (played in the film by Frances O'Conner) found herself having to deal with chaos in her working-class English home after 11 year old Janet (played by Madison Wolfe) started acting _very strangely_ at night (she thought she was sleep-walking but it got "more complicated" than that) and soon all three of the other kids 13-y/o Maggie (played by Lauren Esposito) and younger brothers Bill and Johnny (played by Benjamin Haigh and Patrick McAuley respectively) started hearing all kinds of menacing banging and eventually eventually objects moving about the house.  Even the Police called-in at one point witnessed a chair or a sofa propelling itself across from one room to the next on its own.

Needless to say, the story became a sensation and various British paranormal investigators including Maurice Grause (played in the film by Simon McBurney), Graham Morris (played by Chris Royds) and Anita Gregory (played by Franka Potente) found their way to the house to try to figure out what was going on.  Eventually news traveled all the way to the Warrens "across the pond" in Connecticut and they went out to look into the case too.

Much ensued ... ;-)

It all makes for a decently spun tale.  I just wish the _Catholic_ Warrens were portrayed a bit more Catholic than simply blurting out Latin phrases at the end ...


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Home Care (Domácí Péče) [2015]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CinEuropa.org listing 
CSFD.cz listing*
FDB.cz listing*

Aktualne.cz (J. Gregor) review*
Aktualne.sk (B. Ondrášková) review*
CervenyKoberec.cz (K. Benešová) review*
iDnes.cz (M. Spáčilová) review*
FilmPress.sk (E. Ťapajová) review*

APUM.com (E. Luna) review*
CinEuropa.org (M. Kudláč) review
Eye4Film.co.uk (J. Kermode) review
Variety (A. Simon) review


Home Care (Domácí Péče) [2015] [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]* [CEu] (written / directed by Slávek Horák [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]* [CEu]) is a four Czech Lion (the C.R.'s equivalent of the Oscars) winning Czech / Slovak co-production that played recently at Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center as part of the 2016 Czech That Film Tour organized annually by the Czech Ministry of Culture and the Czech Diplomatic Mission to the United States.  A few months previous, the film played here as part of 2016 Chicago European Film Festival held also at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

The film, set presumably in the Moravian country-side is about a country nurse in her late-40s-50s named Vlasta (played by Alena Mihulová [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*).  Her age is important here because it means that she would have received her training still basically during the Communist Era which came to an end with the Velvet Revolution in 1989 (25-26 years ago). 

As such, each day, if _not necessarily cheerfully_ then _certainly selflessly_, she would pin her hair back into a functional characteristically Communist-Era bun, pick-up her two rather sizable though not impossibly heavy bags filled with standard issue / practical medical gear and medicines, and set-off by foot / by bus to do her rounds through the various towns and villages that were in the district where she lived, dispensing _largely soulless_ if certainly _practical / efficient_ medical care to the various elderly / shut-ins that she had been assigned to.   She did this without complaining, sincerely believing that even if her patients were generally somewhere between depressed and cranky and rarely particularly grateful, that her service was still important.  Why?  Not because she expected any particular recompense for it (be it in this world or the next) but because it was simply the right thing to do / her job. 

At home, she was in what most of us Viewers would call a largely loveless (but _not_ hostile) marriage to Lad'a (played by Boleslav Polívka [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDb]*).  Neither of them "stewed" with any kind of great resentment, they didn't argue, they - he, already retired, she approaching it someday - just "didn't have a whole lot to say."

Together they had a grown daughter Marcela (played by Sára Venclovská [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDb]*) who had moved out some time ago "for the city" and who "didn't come around much ..."  Again, both Vlasta and Lad'a had did their duty to society by having gotten married, creating and raising reasonably well a reasonably good daughter and (all of them) having stayed all their lives basically out of trouble.

HONESTLY FOLKS, they (all) lived basically what would have been the PAST-COMMUNIST ERA socialist ideal.  And none of them were in any way "bad people" ... just kinda ... well ... soulless ... could one say? ... "walking dead" ... _not_ EVIL "walking dead" ... just "kinda nothing going on walking dead" ... until one finally ... hopefully, eventually ... died."

Into this "every day is really like every other day" existence, (NEW) LIFE does (slowly) (re-)enter.

It first comes into the story fairly early.  Vlasta is surprised that after successfully (again, she's done this many times before) fooling the dog in the front yard of a random shut-in that she would visit on her rounds (she diverted the dog apparently with a small piece of sausage...) there was another person the house there with said shut-in, some sort of a massage therapist or perhaps more precisely some sort of a new age-y "healer" named Hanáčková (played wonderfully by Tatiana Vilhelmová [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDb]*) who was "warming" the back of said shut-in with her hands, giving him some sort of an "aura rubdown" transferring "heat" from her hands to his back without even actually touching him.

Vlasta kinda rolls her eyes, responding cheerfully: "O Mr [Slezák, or otherwise random Czech/Slovak name] if your back was cold, you could have just used the electric blanket that I left you," to which the healer responded: "Oh yes the one that put a burn on his back ..." showing him a fairly large rectangular burn on his back, which he had received from said electric blanket a day or two earlier when he apparently fell asleep on the electric blanket and then could not get off of it quickly enough when it began to burn him. "Well how much 'energy' can you transfer to him with your hands anyway?" Vlasta asks as she diligently sets-up the shut-in's various medicines, lined up in an array shot glasses, for the coming days.  The healer, now irritated, tosses a bent metal fork toward her, "Try doing that yourself dear."  Vlasta tries bending the fork back into its regular shape finds, wow, that's pretty impressive.

Okay, that was an odd encounter.  But any rural area in the world has its "kooks."  When her job is done, Vlasta picks up her rather but not impossibly heavy bags and heads out the door (past the dog who was apparently diverted by something else by this point) and to her next shut in ...

A couple of days later ... Vlasta finds her rather stable, not much happening world, ruffled a little more ... by the bus that she was taking having to wait on some random country road while workmen suspended their work to get out of the way to let it pass.  What were they working on?  Putting in an "underpass" FOR FROGS.  "For frogs?" Vlasta asks. "Yes m'am, the EU gave our district x-amount of Euros to put in an underpass for frogs," the forman responds."Here?" "Yes m'am, here."  "Why?"  "I have no idea m'am, but they say that frogs pass over this road at night and it's not good for the frogs and not good for the motorists.  So the EU gave us money for an 'underpass' -- a pipe -- for the frogs."  "Will it work?" "Will the frogs actually use such an underpass" "Don't know, don't care m'am ... besides your bus is about to leave."

A few days later, she finds that the underpass for the frogs was not a bad idea as after hitching a ride on a motor-scooter (she missed the last bus because a particularly cranky shut-in that afternoon, her now holding her two rather but not impossibly heavy bags in her hands while sitting on said motorscotter) the motorcyclist crashes as a result of slipping on one of those frogs crossing the road at night ...

She wakes up in the hospital later that evening, fortunately her accident was not too bad, BUT the MRI that they took at the hospital revealed something else ... she had cancer in her abdomen.  She didn't know, how could she not know, she was even a nurse after all?  Apparently she didn't.  And more to the point, the doctor tells her that there really isn't all that much that they could do for with regard to the cancer ...

The rest of the movie follows ;-)

Now to the film-makers' credit (and as a Czech, I do believe that this was _typically_ Czech) the film:

(1) doesn't make "alternative medicine" as something of a "miracle cure for her" and

(2) Vlasta doesn't _simply_ go to the New Agey healer and later to an old "neo-pagan" Slovakian bába (witch ;-) played wonderfully by Zuzana Kronerová [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDb]*)  who serves as the healer's "mentor."  SHE ALSO TALKS (with new eyes / ears) with another Slovakian -- a Catholic Priest (played by František Harnúšek [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDb]*).  The film-makers wanted to underline that when one starts talking of "alternative medicine," to be fair, one has to talk about everything _including_ traditional Catholic / Christian prayer.

And yes ... somewhat of a spoiler alert ... NONE OF THIS REALLY MAKES HER (PHYSICALLY) BETTER ... BUT ... by the end of the film, she's ... CLEARLY a HAPPIER / MORE ALIVE PERSON _even though_ SHE'S DYING ;-)

Great story / film, giving one much to think about.  Indeed, "One does not live by bread alone" (Matt 4:4 ;-)


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

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3 Idiots [2009]

MPAA (UR would be PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (4+ Stars)

IMDb listing
FilmiBeat.com listing**

FilmiBeat.com (T. Adarsh) review**
IndiaGlitz.com review**

Hindustan Times (M. Shekhar) review**
Times of India (G. Malani) review**

AccessBollywood.com (K. Gibson) review
The Hollywood Reporter (L. Tsering) review
The Village Voice (D. Chute) review
Variety (D. Elley) review


3 Idiots [2009] [IMDb] [FiBt] (directed and story/screenplay cowritten by Rajkumar Hirani [IMDb] [FiBt] along with Abhijat Joshi [IMDb], produced / screenplay assistance by Vidhu Vinod Chopra [IMDb] [FiBt] based on the novel Five Point Someone: What not to do at IIT (2004) [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Chetan Bhagat [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn]) a WILDLY POPULAR (in India and clearly / especially among India's student population), critically acclaimed (above), multiple award winning (including three 2010 FilmFare awards, India's closest equivalent to the Oscars, for "Best Film," "Best Actor in a Leading Role" and "Best Director") "COMING OF AGE" DRAMEDY serves as the 6th stop of my 2016 Indian Film Tour.

Recommended by an Indian Reader of my blog _as soon as_ I began my "film tour" and certainly with a compelling title ;-), having seen the film now, I would suggest that THIS FILM SHOULD BE REQUIRED VIEWING FOR ANY AMERICAN / WESTERNER WITH AN INDIAN FRIEND OR TWO ;-)  The film is available in the U.S. on DVD / for Streaming via various services for a reasonable price.

The film tells the story of three engineering students -- Farhan Quereshi (played by Madhavan [IMDb] [FiBt]), Raju Rastogi (played by Sharman Joshi [IMDb] [FiBt]) and Rancho Shamaldas Chanchad (played by Aamir Khan  [IMDb] [FiBt]) -- who had studied at a fictionalized IIT (called here the Imperial College of Engineering or ICE ;-).  Actually, the film begins 10 years later, after all three had long passed through its halls, on an "agreed-upon date" (sort of... ;-) when they and another student Chatur Ramaningam (played by Omi Vaidya [IMDb] [FiBt]) were to meet and compare how they "actually did in life"  But as they meet on that day "10 years later" ... the rest of the story is told in extended flash-backs recalling their lives as students at the venerable I.C.E. ...

Farhan was from a middle class family, studying engineering only because his dad absolutely insisted on it.  He would have much preferred being a wildlife photographer (something _totally_ "impractical").

Raju came from _a really poor family_ introduced to us Viewers by Farhan's voice-over as having been "lifted straight out of a 1950s-era Indian tragedy" and thus is _always portrayed_ onscreen with the film switching from color to high contrast black and white for the duration of their presence in the scene ;-).   His dad, a former postal-worker, is always shown in an all-but-catatonic state lying in bed _awaiting death_ from one or another (often new) unspecified illness.  His mother would then complain about the high cost of absolutely everything, even the most basic of commodities, to whoever would listen to her (including initially to Raju's friends who honestly had not spent much time previously thinking about the just price for such things as butter or shoelaces...)  And every home visit by Raju would end with his mother reminding him that the family's fortune _absolutely depended_ on his finishing his engineering degree so that his older sister, ever shown weeping quietly in a corner, could _finally_ have a dowry and thus be able to be married(off) ;-).  No pressure at all ;-)

'Rancho' seemed to be a prodigy of sorts from the countryside who learned his science / engineering skills by simply taking apart and tinkering with absolutely everything.

Finally Chatur was a Ugandan-born (of Indian immigrants) student, whose Hindi thus was not necessarily as good as the others' but who made up for it through sheer rote effort / determination - reading about and memorizing just about everything that needed to be known about any subject at hand.  


A few days after the three arrived to begin their freshman year at the ICE, they along with their classmates were assembled by the head of the school, a Professor Viru (nicknamed "Virus") Shahastrabuddhe (played by Boman Irani [IMDb] [FiBt]).  Holding a stuffed koel bird (an type of cuckoo bird) in his hands as a prop, the Profesor recounted to his incoming students the story of this type of bird:  It turns out that the koel bird would put its eggs into other birds' nests, these eggs would hatch first and then the koel hatchlings would push all the other eggs out of the nest, breaking them, and thus fully taking their place.  The point?   Pointing to a large / imposing pile of cardboard boxes behind him _filled_ with completed applications to the engineering school, he reminded them: "Each year this school gets 400,000 applications and we only accept 200 students.  YOU ARE STANDING ON A LOT OF BROKEN EGGS."  And over the subsequent years, he _repeatedly_ drilled the students with similar stories: "In life you have to run fast or else you're going to be trampled,"  "Who was the first man to walk on the moon?  Neil Armstrong, of course.  Who was the second?  (Buzz Aldrin, but...) no one cares.  In life, you must be first or it does not matter."

So one gets the sense that the fictionalized "ICE" was A REAL PRESSURE COOKER and almost like a cross between Marvel Comics' X-men-like School for TRULY EXCEPTIONAL (200 out of 400,000...) STUDENTS and "Trump University" where the ONLY POSSIBLE THING THAT MATTERED was BEING #1 AT THE END.  

But then what were the "superpowers" of the students lucky enough to have made it to this _truly_ elite school:

Fernan was there only because his dad really, really wanted him be there (his superpower being exceptional FOCUS / OBEDIENCE to be able to HEROICALLY REDIRECT his fundamental passion / talents (for "photographing wildlife" ;-) into _studying engineering_.

Raju's "superpower" was EXCEPTIONAL LOYALTY and RESPONSE TO DUTY TO FAMILY regardless of what he might have wanted (did he even know?  Did anyone, even he himself, even ask?).

Rancho's "superpower" was perhaps the most fitting to that actually needed to succeed in an Engineering school, an EXCEPTIONAL INTEREST IN UNDERSTANDING HOW THINGS WORK and HOW TO MAKE THEM WORK BETTER ... an EXCEPTIONAL TINKERER ;-).  

And Chatur's "superpower" was to lookup, read and MEMORIZE EVERYTHING KNOWN about any given subject, hence beome a _walking encyclopedia_ of  (already...) "received knowledge."  He also proved to be remarkably adept at "internal shapeshifting" ... BECOMING ANYTHING REQUIRED by "the Boss" AT HAND.  Hence, he proved to be a remarkably good "test taker" in school, and quintessential "Yes Man" afterwards.  But as for independent thought ...?  Well?
 

So then out of this brew of exceptional "survivors" and occasional _truly adept_ students came the central drama of the story as they all struggled with the questions: What's actually success?  What actually matters?

Is it being #1 in the class, landing a good job, marrying a "good spouse" (what actually makes for "a good spouse" ... Prof. Virus' daughter Pia (played by Kareena Kapoor [IMDb] [FiBt]) struggled concurrently with that question and its attendant pressures), or simply FINDING A WAY TO BE HAPPY ...?

This becomes A LOVELY STORY "OF NERDS, BY NERDS and FOR NERDS" (and I _do_ count myself as one of them ... as I _too_ was an (chemical) engineering student as well, before I entered into the Seminary ;-).

It's a MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE asking young people: "What difference does it make if you even become #1 but ARE NOT HAPPY?" (cf. in the Christian tradition: Matt 16,26)

And yet, in a country WITH A BILLION PEOPLE like _INDIA_ there are A LOT OF PEOPLE RIGHT BEHIND YOU READY TO CLAW THEIR WAY INTO YOUR PLACE if you hesitate.

So this becomes a _brilliant story / film_ FOR ALL YOUNGER PEOPLE trying to discern their direction in life and then for ANYONE who's ever had an Indian friend of T.A. in school.  Chances are that the drama that plays out in this film was part of their lives as well.

Excellent, simply excellent film / story!


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