Book and Movie Review: The Soloist and Lit

Movie Review: The Soloist
Just saw this movie over the weekend and it was definitely worth renting. Jaime Foxx plays Nathaniel Ayers, a gifted musician who is schizophrenic and whose mental illness has led to his homelessness on the the streets of L.A. Robert Downy Jr. plays Steve Lopez, an award winning L.A. Times journalist who is looking for a story and seems to wander right into the path of Ayers...the two become friends and the movie is about the articles Lopez writes about Ayers and the relationship that develops between them.

The movie is a bit slow at times and I find the mental illness a bit hard to watch as it unfolds, but it is a good story. There were some really interesting "extras" on the DVD as well-- a short clip on homelessness in L.A. and how big of a problem it is, and some interviews with the real Ayers and Lopez.

Here is a link to one of Lopez' actual columns about Ayers- he is a very good writer and I am grateful to have discovered him through the movie.

Book Review: Lit, By Mary Karr

Just finished this book last week and I was sad to be done with it. Mary Karr is an exceptional memoirist. Her stories seem to transcend the "reality t.v." feel of some memoirs. At times I felt like I was reading a novel instead of an actual non-fiction account of one woman's life. I'm pretty sure this is her third memoir. Her first, The Liars Club, is about her very difficult childhood. Her second, Cherry, is about her teenage years and this third is about her college years, an unsuccessful marriage and her journey into becoming a mother which forced her to deal with issues connected to her own mother. She turns into an alcoholic along the way and eventually turns to God for answers..."Jesus with skin" as one of her AA mentors refers to the new supports systems in her life-- the people who help her battle her alcoholism and walk alongside her during some tough times. I love that phrasing, "Jesus with skin" and think we all need that type of help in our lives! A good read, especially if you like memoirs.

Movie Review: Motherhood

If you are a mom, you must see this movie. I thought it was hilarious!

Uma Thurman plays the role of Eliza, a stay at home mom in NYC who was once an up and coming fiction writer and would like to retain and regain a piece of that former self in her current mothering role.

(**By the way, I thought the movie was SO funny that I'm going to give a copy away to one lucky person who leaves a comment on this post...see my notes at the end!)

I thought Thurman did a fantastic job conveying the frantic, tiring, frenzy that mommy life can be. Perhaps I connected so well with the film because in many ways it felt autobiographical for me...a woman who feels like she is struggling to find the space and time, in the midst of hundreds of menial daily tasks, to hold onto some version of herself that would like to be moving forward as a writer...who is so grateful for the opportunity to be a mother, but who struggles with the sacrifices that are often made in creativity and personal growth.

In one of the interviews included in the "extras" on the DVD Thurman talks about her desire to do this movie because of the nature of these issues being so universal to the mothering experience-- how when you are at home with small children, completely immersed in taking care of them, you feel like you have fallen down a rabbit hole of sorts...and that you eventually come out of it asking where you have been and what just happened?!

That completely resonates with me! I feel a bit disconnected from the world, from life, from trends, from fashions, from the life I formerly knew. I have often said to Scott that I feel as if I've been sucked into a whirlwind, blown out to sea, and while I don't know when the wind is going to set me down, I do know that when it does I'm not going to be the same person I was before, and that I may look a little worse for the wear!

All that said, the majority of the reviews I read were not very favorable...I was really surprised! People said it did not depict modern parenthood, that Uma was merely a nutcase throughout the entire movie, that the movie was a bunch of whining about the life of motherhood and not a realistic statement.

REALLY?!! People, either you do not have children, or my own life really is much more harried, frantic and crazy than all of the other parents/mothers in the world, because I thought it was one of the funniest, wittiest and real portrayals of motherhood I've seen since becoming a mother! That said, it was perhaps a little satirical at times, but that's part of the fun of the movie!

 Perhaps the experience is not as universal as the writer/director thought it would be... and if it is not, well, then she at least has one other crazy here on her boat who has had a similar experience and understands where she is coming from.

Check it out and let me know what you think!


(***I'm going to send a free copy of this movie to one lucky commenter!! Leave a comment below (before midnight on Friday), either about the movie if you've seen it, or about your feelings on parenthood...anything you want to say! I'll randomly draw one name on Saturday morning and send you copy of the movie! FYI: If you publish your comment "anonymously", please include your name in your post so that I know who you are! Also, if you get a message that says "request could not be processed after you hit "publish post", just hit "publish post" again and it usually goes through.)