PMS - Saving Mr. Banks

If I was Catholic I would probably need to say a few Hail Marys for what I am about to do.

Yes, that's right, I'm going to say something good about Tom Hanks. This is bad because everyone praises Tom Hanks. He's like a popular version of Gandhi.

Now I'm not the kind of person who wants to be contrary just to be contrary, but at the same time I try to be a little original now and then.

Still, Tom Hanks did something special in Saving Mr. Banks. Twice.

He was great on the whole in the role of Walt Disney, but there were two scenes where he turns on the charm to try and persuade Emma Thomson's character about selling the rights to Mary Poppins.

What I thought was amazing is that Tom Hanks was already playing this pleasant, friendly, warm person, but then he just flips a switch. Suddenly he attains this charm and charisma that makes you want to have his baby, even if you don't have a uterus.

How did he do that? Both times the thought popped into my head - "This is what Disney must have been like."

Wow.

Perfect Movie Scenes - Fringe (I know, not a movie)

Still have no idea what this means

My daughter and I have been Netflix binging on Fringe lately. A couple episodes ago there was a scene that I thought was worth mentioning on PMS.

Here's the set up:

SPOILER ALERT. Peter is the name of one of the main characters. 

Okay, that's not much of a spoiler, but here is the real spoiler. SPOILER ALERT. As you watch the seasons you find that Peter was kidnapped as a boy from a "father" from an alternate universe. This alternate father lost his own Peter (sounds funny, but not meant to be funny) to a disease and then he crossed over to the alternate universe to save Peter from the same disease and then ends up taking him back.

The PMS is what comes when the alternate father brings Peter home. In the world alternate to the one Peter came from, he meets his alternate mother. She has just burried her Peter (sounds hilarious, but again, not meant to be hilarious) but here he is again, seemingly there for her to love and cherish like nothing happened.

The look of longing in her eyes is amazing. I'm not sure something like that has ever been done better. The mother looks like she wants to inhale the boy.

As this moment was approaching, I remember thinking that the actor playing the mother would really have to bring it, and I was prepared to be disappointed. I wasn't.

This had more to do with acting than writing. It was a really good moment in the story, one that I rewound and watched again. A mother reunited with a son she just buried.

Nailed it.

Perfect Movie Scenes - Blade Runner

Such a cool looking movie. Blade Runner was based off one of my all-time favorite books, a little somethin somethin called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

This is just my opinion, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who would say the title is too long, but Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (DADOES) is possibly the greatest book title of all time. Some of the other competing titles? Much Ado about Nothing, To Kill a Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451, and how about another Phillip K. Dick book Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.

It isn't make-up. He actually
looked like that.

DADOES was definitely too long a title for the semi-literate crowd of Hollywood, so Blade Runner became the working title that worked itself into the actual title of the movie, which is just fine because the story in the movie has only a cursory resemblance to the story you read in the book. What Stanley Kubrick (the director) got right was the feel of the book, and that was more than enough.

Perfect Movie Scenes - Deep Impact

Deep Impact is a show I like to pull out every once in a while and watch again. It has a few deeply emotional moments that really shine for me, though the moment that should have been the best didn't quite achieve its zenith, and that is because of a brief lapse in the writing.

The movie features a bunch of great actors: Elijah Wood before he became a hobbit; Morgan Freeman as the President of the United States (sidenote: in my opinion, the best job an actor has ever submitted as president); Vanessa Redgrave; Robert Duvall;  Leelee Sobieski; Maximillian Schell; and last but certainly not least, Tea Leoni.

 Yes, I know, not from Deep Impact, but this is
a good picture of Tea's legs

I mean, look at those legs. I'm glad I'm typing this because I'm speechless. Tea was perfect in this movie as Jenny Lerner, a driven, talented reporter who makes the best of an opportunity when it falls in her lap. At the same time, as the movie delves into Jenny's backstory you also start to see a vulnerability lurking behind her eyes, which traces back to a troubled childhood and a father who likely cheated on the mother. Jenny loves her parents and spends much of the movie playing referee for two adults who should be the ones imparting strength to her.

Perfect movie scenes and writing

When I am writing a book, one of the things I want most to create is a perfect moment. Do you know what I mean? They're not easy. It's a single-shot type thing with a good deal of buildup, but they're total head shots if you get them right.

Take Minority Report, for instance. That's a pretty good movie. Not a classic by any means. There are plenty of sci fi shows that are better, but Minority Report has a perfect moment. I would argue that a number of sci fi movies that are, on the whole better, don't have perfect moments. Perfect moments are rare.


For one, the damn movie has Max von Sydow in it. Beside the point, sure, but how cool is that?

The perfect moment in Minority Report comes towards the end when Anderton (Tom Cruise), is in the hotel room. It's the moment when he stumbles upon the supposed fact that the guy he is searching for is the same perp that kidnapped his son. There is more than just writing involved in this. The expression on Anderton's face says it all. He has spent the last hour of the movie declaring over and over that he is not a killer, that this particular vision of the "precogs" is wrong. The perfect moment is when he realizes with clarity that he will kill the guy when he walks through the door.