Love is Strange and The One I Love

[WhizzerMarvin TrinaJasonMendel]

Caught both of these two films this weekend, and enjoyed each of them, despite their flaws.

Love is Strange had one of the best trailers all summer, and going into the theater I thought, "I'm going to LOVE this!" Maybe my expectations were impossible to live up to, but I still found much to appreciate. The performances were impeccable, especially Lithgow, Molina and Tomei.

It moved at a deliberate pace and had a slice of life feel to it. A sort of Boyhood meets Scenes From a Marriage. The scoring was gorgeous- mostly Chopin- and the piano melodies would glide by over montages of New York or someone painting or preparing food.

The hardships they faced were met with quiet agony, and it was so unrelenting, that I feared there wouldn't be any catharsis for the characters (or the audience). The last 20-25 minutes made up for it though, and I think many on this board will be interested and moved by the subject matter.

The One I Love also had a fantastic score and two strong performances, but the intriguing premise immediately had me thinking, this is either going to be really cool or get really messy. Well, it went more towards messy than cool, but I wasn't bored and it made for some fun conversation afterward trying to figure things out with my friend.

As "original" as I think it was trying to be, the plot twists had a been there, done that quality to them. I just finished reading House of Leaves (F*CKing awesome book!) so the deal with the guest house took on some of those qualities. It also shared a lot in common with Coherence from earlier this year.

Plus.....



SPOILER****************************************


There is a moment straight out of Under the Dome that actually made my friend and I say "Under the Dome" out loud and made us laugh. It was just too much.

Plus the ultimate twist at the end with the bacon was really obvious to both of us...


END SPOILER*************************************




I went because of Elizabeth Moss, and on that front I couldn't have been happier, so if you're a fan of hers I think it's worth checking out.