This weekend I took some much needed downtime and recharged watching two movies: Orphan and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
ORPHAN
I rented Orphan from Netflix. It had looked interesting when it first hit theaters, and it got decent stars/reviews on Netflix so I went for it.
I didn’t have high expectations for it, though. It certainly looked like it had room to turn into a complete disaster.
To my surprise, it only held one scene where I was like, “Really? That’s how he’d act? It doesn’t ring true to his character but let’s see where this goes. I’m too far in now to turn back…”
The scene I’m talking about was when the father, John Coleman (played by Peter Sarsgaard), broke down late in the movie to his adopted daughter, Esther. But after that the movie picked back up on pace. (It could’ve swerved completely out of control at that point. Luckily it didn’t.)
Especially since that was the only glaring near miss the movie had for me. Otherwise, I thought the acting was excellent. Vera Farmiga (who played the mom, Kate Colemna) always delivers a great performance, and except for that one scene Sarsgaard was on target too.
But it was the kids, Esther (played by Isabelle Fuhrman), Daniel Coleman (played by Jimmy Bennett) and Max Coleman (played by cutie patootie Aryana Engineer), who stood out. So young, yet they portrayed BIG feelings and emotions.
Also unexpectedly enjoyable (and just plain unexpected) was the storyline, which threw in a bit of a twist they set up perfectly, didn’t hide, and which I never saw coming. I like when that happens. It’s rare, and the writers pulled it off brilliantly.
It’s not a totally “fresh” movie. There was a lot that has been seen and done before in other movies, but all in all I really enjoyed it. That was a pleasant surprise.
BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA
This was another pleasant surprise, particularly because animal movies kill me. I don’t know what it is, but even when nothing bad’s happening to the animals in the movie I want to cry. That’s why I rarely watch them.
Even if didn’t have my little tearing up problem, I for sure didn’t want to see anything called “Beverly Hills Chihuahua.” Stupid!
Well, that’ll teach me to judge a movie by its title. The joke was on me because it was cute!
Wayne DVRd it for some reason. I guess he got to watching before he left for work Friday and thought it was cute. I ended up watching it with him Saturday morning and was all set to heckle the hell out of him. I don’t think it even took two minutes for the dog stars to enchant me.
I love Drew Barrymore and she once again brought to life a fantastic character. (She played the voice of Chloe, an all white chihuahua.) Through her Chloe grew from a spoiled, pampered pooch to a pup with poise and panache.
Papi (voiced by George Lopez), the landscaper’s chihuahua who’s in love with Chloe, had me doubled over with his one liners. Go Papi! I haven’t been smitten with a character like that since Robert Benigni’s Guido charmed me in Life is Beautiful. (But **SPOILER ALERT** – unike Guido, Papi doesn’t die at the end!)
Delgado (voiced by Andy Garcia), the ex-police dog German Shepherd who becomes Chloe’s protector when she gets lost in Mexico, had me cheering, laughing and crying as his sad tale of how he came to lose his scent –and then find it again–unfolded.
It was a fun movie. A true Disney type movie. The kind I grew up on. One full of heart, heroes, and hope. It was just the thing a weary soul needed for a recharge movie watching weekend.
Have you seen any movies lately that you unexpectedly enjoyed?
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Tags: Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Netflix, Orphan