CopyPaste: My Online Scrapbook (blog formerly known as 'Helpless Attempt to be a Writer')

please note that what the author knows of haiku is only "a poem consisted of 3 lines, originally comes from Japan". sorry for the abysmal-ity of it.

Reading is not done
Still more to tackle
Oscar Night, what will they wear

Mother is worried
Trying to regain contact
And control of weight

Want to be done with
Whatever is bothering
If particular named

Love, is
Whatever not
The truth

Clutter cleaned
Bed made
Why is it still night

Save, this little lost girl
Live the easy life
That she made hard

Friends, are there
But never there
How could they care

Age adding
Thought kept bursting
She is too old

Others questions,
Answered with snide
Mind, lost

Obsessed with words
Fluidity
Is a dream

They will hear it
If they have found
The door that locked it

Find the methods
To lead life
Of contempt

Liked
And not liked
Ah, the choices

Words to write
To pass time
Think of else

Don’t think
Do it
I am

Hear no smile
They are gone
Back home

Siapa yang pernah ke Utrechtsestraat (naik trem 4 dari CS, trus bisa turun di stop-an pertama pas setelah Rembrandtplein, trus susurin aja jalan itu, itulah Utrechtsestraat) pasti pernah ngeliat ada this massive yet still independent looking record store, Concerto. Bisa bilang kalo itu toko CD yang paling lengkap dan paling cool di Amsterdam. Kayaknya cuman itu toko CD pertama yang tak masukin punya koleksi Dave Matthews Band lengkap. Koleksinya bahkan lebih lengkap dari FAME deh..

Kalo misalnya mo nyari CD dari band yg 'aneh2' dan biasanya enggak bisa ditemuin di (Not So)Free Record Shop atau other CD stores, recommended deh pergi ke Concerto. It's kinda like Championship Vinyl, Concerto has all the coolness of Championship Vinyl, but without its loser-y shop assistants.

Anyway, kemaren Sabtu sekitar jam 2-an kesana. Mereka kan nerima CD bekas juga untuk dijual dan ada beberapa CD di rumah yang mau dijual (Salah beli maaaaaaaaannn!!! Robbie Williams 'Swing When You're Winning'? What the HELL am I thinking? Swing is cool, Robbie Williams is not; so never mix the two). Plus, kayaknya udah harus mulai de-clutter barang2 deh (sambil hoping bisa lulus dan pulang tepat waktu).

Oke, sampe sana, ternyata apes banget deh! Inkoop-nya CD cuman dari hari Senin sampe Sabtu, jam 10.00-12.00, dan itu udah jam 2-an lebih tanpa CD pula. Ya sudahlah... harus menunggu sampe Senin datang. Tapi mumpung disana, muter2 dulu deh. Udah lama kayaknya aku jauh2 dari toko CD, karena keseringan salah beli atau terlalu bereksperimental, akhir2nya malah ngerasa buang duit. Plus, the latest copy of Vogue, Allure, or In Style is more tempting.

Tapi rupanya... Concerto jadi kayak pabrik coklatnya Wille Wonka deh. Mereka lagi banyak banget diskon2an dan itu bukan cuman buat yg enggak mutu... tapi..:

1. Dusty in Memphis, Dusty Sings Blues Classics dijual sekitar 7 euroan
2. Dionne Warwick Sings Bacharach SongBook for 7 euroan juga
3. Shirley Bassey The Remix Album untuk 8 euroooo!!
Trus ada double-CD Divas in Jazz yang cover almost all diva jazz dijual sekitar 7 euroan. Ouch...

Moving on to the next block (Concerto terdiri dari 4 bangunan yang dijebol jadi satu. Tapi each genre itu punya pintu masuk sendiri), the most dreaded of all: pop/rock/contemporary, well the normal white music lah, with bands, that sort of stuff (R&B/Dance/Hip-hop ada di blok sebelahnya lagi). Belum2, langsung disambut dengan rak yang isinya diskon2an semua...Blondie, The Clash yang London Calling pada dijual 7/8 euro.

Tapi wait... di meja sebelahnya, tergeletak.. Flaming Lips yg Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots for mere 7.99 eurooooooo!!! Then I start to panic, desperately gasping for air. Untungnya di sebelah meja ada pegangan tangga, bersandar sebentar disitu sambil clutching my chest heavily. Oke oke... mari kita cari sesuatu yang bisa menenangkan (read: something to make fun of). Entah kenapa, kok lagi enggak mood ya nyari sesuatu yg bisa di-make fun of dan akhrinya berjalan terus ke arah M, for (John) Mayer. Phiiuhh.. untungnya mereka lagi enggak punya CD-nya dia yg "Heavier Things", tapi malah yang "Any Given Thursday", tapi in 24,99; males banget deh. Mending nanti aja nunggu kalo udah ada di Indonesia.

Little that I know that far greater danger is lurking around ('Psycho'-ish tune)...

Just as I was moving from M, to N (for Stevie Nicks), tiba2 entah kenapa kepala serasa tertuntun untuk melihat ke rak di dinding dan...*gasp* ada THE RAMONES yang The Ramones, dijual 6.99 (atau 7.99 ya?)!!!! NO, NO, dan NOOOOOOO.....

Dan as if hatiku belum cukup tersiksa, ketika mata mengarah ke bawah, ada Nico dan New York Dolls sitting comfortably back to back, cozying up in their cool little corner. Oh, be still my heart, although I think I just heard something snap (maybe my artery?).

I knew that it's a sign for me to go out of the store if I want to stay alive for the next couple of minutes. I need to remind myself over and over.. you need to sell, not to buy, need to sell, not to buy, sell, buy. While trying to remember how to breathe, I finally gather up my strenght, and bade my new cool friends goodbye.

Mam: "halloo mbaaaaaakkk..."
Aku: "hallooooo mamaaa.... assalamu'alaikum wr.wb."
Mam: "apa kabaar??? lagi ngerjain apaa?? sibuk kan ama tesisnya?"
Aku: "iya iya iya kok... mama lagi ngapain?""
Mam: "yaa biasa..lagi mau kerja, tapi nanya dulu kabarmu gimana, baik kan?"
Aku: "iya.. baik kok.."
Mam: "eh.. kita kemaren nonton film kesenenganmu lhoo di tivi, katanya rani sih itu kesenenganmu"
Aku: "oohh.. apa?"
Mam: "my best friend's wedding"

For the record, i did like the movie. At first, it was more the story and the fact that I had a crush on my best friend and I would imagine going through the same thing. Growing up, I just like it for silly good-time movie AND the great songs of Burt Bacharach. Well, that and the fact the director is the guy who made "Muriel's Wedding", my all-time favorite movie.

Aku: "ohhh...."
Mam: "eh.. itu yang jadi cowoknya siapa sih? kalo yang ceweknya kan dua-duanya sering liat"
Aku: "eh... mama tau cameron diaz?"
Mam: "ya taulahhh... kan sering liat di tivi."
Aku: "hmm.. filmnya yang mana ya? kok kayaknya enggak ada filmnya cameron diaz yg bakal diliat ama mama. klo julia roberts kan mama pasti tau dari pretty woman."

Come on, which mom of ours yang enggak nonton "Pretty Woman"? Richard Gere, the over-the-top unrealistic Cinderella story that was longed for by every housewives/wives in routine married lives? It's an adult (women) fairytale which makes my mom encounter with Julia Roberts seem perfectly understandable. Tapi, Cameron Diaz?

Trus aku ke imdb.com, nyari Cameron Diaz dan nyari kira2 film Cameron Diaz apa yang pernah diliat oleh my mom. Pastinya, harus terkenal, mass consumption (klo gitu kayaknya enggak bakal tau deh..), film gede, pokoknya yang identik Cameron Diaz banget.

Results:
1. The Mask: hmm.. ada kemungkinan. Tapi kayaknya waktu itu Cameron Diaz enggak gitu keliatan sebagai Cameron Diaz dan mom kayaknya can't stand Jim Carrey or slapstick humor.

2. There's Something about Mary: My mom and Farrelly Brothers movie? Not an option..

3. A Life Less Ordinary, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Being John Malkovich, Any Given Sunday, Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her: hmm.. with this amount of movie, it's quite logical that she has seen Cameron somewhere, but this is just not her type of movie.

4. Charlie's Angels: likely likely, tapi emang udah pernah ditayangin di tivi? My mom is not the kind as well to go to theater.

5. Shrek: My mom and cartoon? I love the movie, but I wouldn't think she particularly sit and watch cartoon. Moreover, Cameron appears in voice and to get through to my mom, she need to see her, quite often.

6. Gangs of NY: She would need to go to theater, and that's seem impossible.

Finally, tired of guesssing, I ask her directly.

Aku: "emang mama tau cameron diaz darimana sih? katanya filmnya sering muncul di tivi?"
Mam: "itu lhoo.. film yg dia ama keanu reeves....."

AHA!!! Suddenly it all makes sense. This is how my mom's mind works: my mom sees Cameron Diaz only when she enters the world of Keanu Reeves. Thanks to a 8 hours train ride from Jakarta to Yogya, she gets to sit in front of an entertainment in train television featuring "Speed", enjoying Keanu Reeves from every flattering angle, and since then cheer silently if there's a Keanu Reeves movie playing on tv. I know that she has seen 'Little Buddha' in particular because of Keanu Reeves and it makes perfect sense when she finally choose to sit in front of tv enjoying "Feeling Minnesota".

(continuing)
Mam: "...yang ceritanya si ceweknya itu mo nikah ama satu cowok, tapi trus kakaknya dateng, nah itu si Keanu, ceweknya itu jadi naksir ama Keanu, trus kabur bareng..."

"...Except she'd always harbored the secret dream that someday, somebody would tell her that she was beautiful, that there would be a man who'd slide her hair out of its ponytail, slip her glasses off her face and look at her like she was Helen of Troy."

(quoted from Jennifer Weiner's "In Her Shoes")

Abis liat miniseri-nya "Helen of Troy" di TV, brushing up a bit on my knowledge of Trojan war. Waktu itu di American Book Center sempet nemu 'Iliad' for EUR. 2.50 and thinking "Ah.. what the hell" and bought it. Baru sekitar 3-4 bulan kemudian tak baca. Pertamanya sih sempet langsung mbaca, cuman langsung menyerah abis 3 halaman. Karena dlm 3 halaman itu aja, Agamemnon udah disebut banyak nama yang berbeda2, jadi bingung. Setelah nyari character list di internet dan mbaca thoroughly, barulah ngerti artinya buku itu. Lumayanlah, udah sampe chapter ketiga atau keempat gitu. Karena sibuk lagi ama project Applied Research waktu itu, jadi terpaksa berenti.

Anyway...karena Iliad bercerita tentang taun kesepuluh perang Troya dimulai dari Achilles ngambek sama Agamemnon, aku jadi rada bingung pas nonton film itu. Lho...Paris/Alexandros sempet dibuang pas bayi? Helen sempet diculik lebih dulu sebelum menikah? Helen anaknya Zeus? Clymnaestra itu kakaknya Helen? Agamemnon sempet mbunuh anaknya? Ternyata, ya, ya, ya, ya, dan ya.

Ada alasan lain sih kenapa aku mulai mbaca 'Iliad', gara2nya pernah sempet ngikutin discussion board-nya IMDB ttg 'Troy', filmnya Wolfgang Petersen (sutradara 'Das Boot'), yang baru akan dirilis summer ini. Ceritanya waktu itu mereka pada rame ndiskusiin siapa yg bakal dipilih jadi Helen. Semuanya pada ngasih nama2 terkenal, sementara Petersen lebih milih bekerja dengan nameless, unknown actress biar image-nya para audience tetep tertuju ke Helen instead of other characters that the actress have played.

Anyway.. on Helen, aku masih fascinated by the tale of Trojan War. Siapa yg enggak sih tapinya?

Pertama, ada story of betrayal. Nah.. udah intriguing. Terus, the queen turns out to be someone with ethereal sense of beauty yang cerita kelahirannya sendiri cukup menarik (ibunya Helen, Leda, diperkosa oleh Zeus. A beautiful princess with important parent). Abis gitu, ada cerita perang yang muncul and not just some war but a 10-years-long war. And then, there's the Trojan Horse, and also the warriors (Achilles, Odysseus/Ulysses), and also the thousand ships sent to destroy Troy.

Seperti dibilang di trailernya 'Troy'; "If love is worth fighting for, it has known no greater battle than this."

Helen's beauty has been quoted as: "the face that launches a thousand ships".

Hmm.. tapi yang bener2 mbuat aku enggak habis pikir itu gimana bisa sih Paris dan Helen kok bisa sooo selfish ngebiarin others fight for their love and wage a 10 years battle for Troy? Atau mungkin ini karena ambisinya Agamemnon yang pengen menguasai Troy ya?

And you know what makes Odyssey, Achilles, dan other tribe leader went to war? An oath. They went to war for 10 years for an oath. Well, maybe that and the war prize I guess (lovely, fair maidens!!). Besok malem ada lanjutannya, jadi penasaran. Episode kemaren malem berakhir dengan Iphigenia (anaknya Agamemnon) dibunuh di altar sebagai persembahan untuk Artemis biar anginnya bisa bertiup ke arah Troy. So.. can't wait to see how the aftermath is/the conflict resolved.

Yah.. setidaknya pemanasan dululah sebelum the real 'Troy' enter the cinema.

Tadi abis chatting sama my good ol' Mom. Asalnya cuman mo bentar aja chattingnya, biar enggak ngeganggu ngerjain tesis, tapi tak paksa2 juga biar ngobrol lebih lama. Lah masak... mo ol aja butuh 15 menit, ol-nya sendiri cuman 5 menit, heheheheh....

Anyway anyway..karena tak paksa2 ngobrol lebih lama (anaknya tinggal jauh masak cuman mo ngobrol 5 menit aja? Duh ibu satu ini...), mama jadi curiga

Mam: "Hayoooo... mo cerita apa???"
Aku: "Ya.. enggak cerita apa2 kok, ngobrol aja biasa. Masak udah mo cepet2 offline?"

Hmm.. mendengar my mom urgence(?) kok kayaknya jadi serasa berada kembali di masa2 saat aku masih sweet, innocent, brainless, thesis-less young girl yg kerjaannya cuman ngomongin this boy and that boy ya...

Dan tiba-tiba, aduh ada anak yg tadi ketemu di musholla!!! Aku enggak tau siapa namanya, tapi sering liat juga. Cute, in a sense of 'cute' yang cute. Sayangnya baru taun kedua, huhuhuhuhu...

He's not even my type; tampangnya tuh yang kayaknya semua orang bakal bilang cute deh, selera umum banget. Tapi entah kenapa kok tiba2 dia jadi look so interesting and tempting yah? Padahal biasanya aku rada males ama mass consumption.

Aku: "Eh eh Ma, ada adek kelas keren yang mo pulang"
Mam: "Bule? Indo?"
Aku: (groan) "INDOOOO.."
Mam: "Kmu kenal anaknya?"
Aku: "Waduh.. gk kenal namanya sih. Tapi kayaknya dia dari Semarang deh.."
Mam: "Oh.. orang Jawa?"
Aku: "Well..likely kali yaa..Ngiranya dulu sih anak sekolah di Haarlem, eh taunya kok ada juga disini.."
Mam: "Huihihihiihihi.."

I'm craning my neck to get a good look at him before he leaves (kok jadi kedengeran kayak cheesy teen novels/cheesy Harlequin novels yah?), trus sambil membayangkan gimana ya klo misalnya kita dulu satu sma, see all the girls swooning over him, melihat dia ke musholla, di tangga musholla (kok my romantic encounter selalu berhubungan dengan musholla yah?), melihat dia ama temen2nya di kantin. He'll always be the quiet one, pretended to not be interested in girls, tapi dalam hati sebenernya ada one lucky deserving girl yang diem2 juga naksir dia.

Then, it hit me. It's not him that I want (although I won't say 'no' if you give me him), but the idea of him as an element of my sweet, innocent, simple, brainless, thesis-less world that I so long for at this moment. Dunia dimana aku bisa giggle carelessly, laugh as many times as I want sampe temen2 bilang "awas lho.. nanti hatinya mati", where girls would go in groups and gossip their heart out. Ah.. younger days..

At this point of my life, I would think that everything would go downhill and turn into some sort of rutinity.

Well, I guess one last look to younger days won't hurt. So I'm craning my neck again to get a glimpse at that guy... LHO KOK UDAH ILANG?

AARRGGHHH... this is soooo typical of how youth flashes by. It just come, teases you right up, and when you finally enjoy it, it's gone before you know it. GGGRRRRR...

Hhmm.. kemaren pas ke tempat Prasma, disuruh mbaca naskah film buatan temennya Prasma (enggak pernah kenal personally, cuman tau banyak ceritanya ttg anak itu). Masih belum dikasih judul sih naskahnya.. dan ketika ditanya ama Nina ttg pendapatku, cuman bisa bilang: hmm.. belum tau.

Walopun ada beberapa hal yang keinget selama mbaca itu:
1) Topiknya romantik-komedi, and it did make me laugh for some of it phrases.
2) Aku amazed ketika tau dari Prasma klo temennya mbikin naskah itu selama sekitar 2-3 minggu. D'oh! Nooo...! 3 weeks? How is that possible???

Katanya Prasma lagi sih, dia emang sering banget bikin naskah2 kayak gitu trus disebarin ke PH2.

3) Ceritanya rada mirip ama 'Kissing Jessica Stein'

Besoknya trus si penulis naskah online dan minta tolong Prasma untuk ngasih judul. Aku ngusulin judulnya 'Suami Kedua' aja, karena it is related to one of his phrases.

Ceritanya, si hero dan hero(ine) merasa mereka tuh sama2 ngeklik pas ke toko buku, yang satu seneng toko buku dan yang satu seneng buku lama. Salah satu tokohnya beli buku bekas yang di dalemnya ada pesan tersembunyinya. Intinya pesan itu: jadikanlah buku ini sebagai pasangan keduamu setelah aku. Si pecinta buku bekas pengen beli buku itu. Nah trus the other character make a little joke ttg gimana si pecinta buku mo menjadi suami kedua buku itu dari si pemilik pertama. Ceritanya naskah itu sih gimana mereka mo mencoba jadi pasangan.

Katanya Prasma sih, "Eh dia mempertimbangkan lhoo.. 'Suami Kedua' sebagai judul" sambil membaca wawancara Newsweek tentang Irshad Manji.
Me: "Oh yaaa... I'm flattered!"

Kemaren malem abis nonton 'Finding Forrester' untuk pertama kalinya dan berkesimpulan:

1) Tokoh William Forrester kok mirip banget ama hidupnya J.D. Salinger yaa?? J.D Salinger itu penulis novel cult "The Catcher in the Rye" yang hmm.. influential dan notorius. Pembunuhnya John Lennon katanya abis mbaca buku ini sebelum nembak John Lennon, tokoh conspiracy theorist-nya Mel Gibson di 'Conspiracy Theory' juga membawa-bawa buku ini kemana-mana, dan tokohnya Jack Gyllenhall di 'The Good Girl' malah menamakan dirinya Holden (tokoh utama buku ini).

Salinger, setelah kesuksesan 'Catcher...', juga hidup menyendiri, menolak semua tawaran wawancara, dan tidak pernah mengijinkan bukunya diadaptasi untuk film (wow! this guy got integrity!). Tapi klo tokoh Forrester hanya nerbitin 'Avalon Landing', Salinger pernah menerbitkan 'Franny and Zoeey', 'Seymour: An Introduction', 'Nine Stories', dan 'Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenter'. Tapi emang, 'Catcher...'lah yang membuat Salinger jadi terkenal dan dubbed as genius. Mungkin udah sekitar 35 tahunan enggak ada karya barunya Salinger.

2) Hmm.. sayang banget, karyanya Jamal yang terakhir enggak dibacain secara lengkap dan ditampilin di film. Jadi penasaran, emang si Jamal tuh se-prodigy apa sih pas dia nulis cerita itu. Tapi kemampuannya ngapalin puisi2 yg dibacain ama gurunya (Crawford) emang outstanding. Shaw, Kipling, Byron, etc... puisinya mereka kan enggak cuman 1 atau 2. Jadi inget, di rumah ada 'The Complete Works of Emily Dickinson' ama 'The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath' (belinya 0.50 euro per buku pas mediatheek ngejual buku2 yg udah jarang dipinjem) tapi sampe sekarang cuman dibaca sekali2. Paling enggak pernah bisa ngerti yang namanya puisi. Mungkin terlalu alegoris/asosiatif dengan kehidupannya si poet, makanya klo enggak kenal poet-nya jadi enggak ngerti kali yaa.... Tapi Dickinson kayaknya poet yg cukup berkualitas, mksdnya enggak 'fake'. Salinger pernah menyebut Dickinson sebagai poet favoritnya Franny di 'Franny and Zooey'. Dan kayaknya sih..topik puisinya Dickinson cukup netral.

3) Jadi pengen punya guru yang bisa ngajarin untuk menulis deh...

Men that I Considered Sexy and Attractive Although They Clearly are Not:

1. Kelsey Grammer (Dr. Frasier Crane/Frasier)
2. Jon Stewart (The Daily Show)
3. John Mahoney (Frasier's Dad/Frasier)
4. Bill Murray (especially as Bob Harris in Lost in Translation)
hmm... sapa lagi yaa.. kayaknya ada yang kurang...OH IYA! *shit, kok bisa lupa sih..*
5. Nick Hornby (the author of Fever Pitch, High Fidelity, About a Boy, and How to be Good)

mengutip katanya William Forrester (Sean Connery) di Finding Forrester: "Women will sleep with you even if you write a bad book." (pas Jamal nanya: "Women will sleep with you if you write a book?").

Lost in Translation (2003)
Review

I was so amazed back then when I saw Sofia Coppola's first feature film, "The Virgin Suicides". Styled as period piece fake-umentary about the live (and death) of 5 beautiful blonde Lisbon girls; it manages to create the right tragic atmosphere, yet it maintains a certain tone of beauty with its sun-dippled shots. Perhaps the beautiful cinematography was meant to remind us of the Lisbon girls.

The movie itself was based from a book by Jeffrey Eugenides (Sofia's favorite writer) with the same title. Needless to say; Sofia 'introduced' me to the amazing writing of Jeffrey Eugenides. His latest book, Middlesex, won last year (or was it 2002?) Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Impeccable taste, Ms Coppola! (or should I say Mrs Jonze?)

Which is why I was THRILLED when 'Lost in Translation', her sophomoric effort, came out. Featuring the new It Girl; Scarlett Johansson and the comedy veteran Bill Murray, it tells a story of two people being lost and found themselves (and each other) halfway across the world.

Johansson plays Charlotte, the 20-something just married, just graduated from Yale with a Philosophy degree, who is stranded and alone in Tokyo. Her photographer husband (Giovanni Ribisi) is away most of the time for work. During these times, she met Bob Harris (Murray), the has-been-famous actor going to Tokyo to endorse a whisky advertisement. They met and both felt lost; they have fun together and the inevitable happens, they fell in love.

(Oh come on guys, don't says 'eugh' or 'how cliché' just yet)

The plot above is just a summary of what's mainly going on, the real work and not so cliché factor is on Coppola's subtlety in developing Charlotte and Bob Harris' relationship and feelings toward each other. They never exchanged words about it, but you just know strongly that it's there.

Probably the one thing that I really like about this movie is Johansson's character, Charlotte, which Coppola made from scratch (hats off to that). She is so real, believable, and (I believe) that she is the embodiment of what many young women went through in life, especially in their 20s. So many of us went through this horrible phase of insecurity about what we should do with our lives, and so we went through this soul searching journey of finding something that is actually not lost in the first place. Our soul is always there, but what we find is actually the assurance that yes, we will be okay later on in our lives; yes, we will land that job; yes, our lives will not be a huge mess; and yes, we will find happiness and peace.

I laugh when Charlotte said that she writes, but she doesn’t like what she writes; she takes pictures and that all girls went through the photography phase, but her pictures are mediocre. I am myself currently still in my writing phase and have just start my photography phase. See what I mean with Charlotte being real and believable? What Bob Harris said next was: “Oh, you’ll be fine. Just keep on writing. You’ll end up fine.”

At that time, I feel that I have the assurance that I was looking for (well, maybe a bit, after all this is a movie); that maybe few years from now, life is not as grim as we look at it right now; maybe what we thought as serious matters and caused us to be insecure is actually not that serious; and again, maybe that we are already okay to begin with so there is no need for that insecurities.

I feel that Sofia Coppola has not only created Charlotte’s character, but also contributed some of herself in it. I remember reading an article about how she was panned by harsh critics over her acting in The Godfather III; that she was the anchor weighing her dad’s reputation and the cause of the movie failure. And I remember reading another article about Nicolas Cage, when being asked about what Sofia is up to, he said that we should wait, she will be back, she has great potential, and (at that time) she will be a great designer. So there, she also has that time when she doesn’t know who or what she wants to be, but in the end she found her true talent and makes beautiful films, which script she wrote herself -- from scratch. If this is her sophomoric effort, I certainly would like to see more of her films. So as Bob Harris said, maybe we should just keep doing what we like to do.

The trailer of the movie said that sometimes you need to go halfway around the world to come full circle. By the end of the movie, I feel that I have closed several small circles of insecurities.

P.S: Check out the ending scene; so sweet and my eyes did a get misty from it. But I think it’s a “love it or hate it” type of thing.

PP.S: Thanks for Prasma for downloading and having me in your room! :D

It may seem inappropriate to write a review in here; it's hardly the location, I guess. But then, this is a bulletin board, and you can just ignore them if you don't want to read the posting. Plus, at least this is a variation from all of those lists that you need to answer. I've made the title very clear, as to make it easier if you opt not to read. Besides, hey.. we add each other as friends, and as my friend: you are obliged to hear my ranting on and on and on
about movies, hehehehe....

I went to see this movie since I haven't watched a movie in Pathé for quite a long time and I really miss going there. The last movie that I've watched in theatre is 'Dogville', a pretty good one actually since this is the movie where
I convert to like Nicole Kidman. I even watch that movie in a small, inexpensive cinema, WITH break in between, grrrrr...

I watch my movie now based on expiry date and I went to see this one since I feel that its expiry date is getting closer. Plus, the always reliable The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk) gives this movie a 4-star and a good friend recommends
it greatly. So, off I went, although with a bit of unsure feeling; I watch the trailer and it doesn't say anything about the quality that I can expect. Plus, my last movie that includes battleship at sea proves to be a bit... well, fatal.

The movie starts at 18.50 and I was 10 minutes late, and when I walk in the actors are doing the usual activity that people do when they sail the ship offshore. Sorry... but I'm not that familiar at all with nautical adventures here,
but with open mind (I guess), I try to enjoy the film.

Not even 5 minutes later, suddenly the ship under Russel Crowe's command, HMS Surprise, was being heavily attacked by, what later known as, the French fleet: Acheron. That attack left Surprise beyond repair, but Captain Jack Aubrey
(Crowe) managed to convince the crew member to chase and attack back the much bigger, much faster, and better gunned Acheron.

This movie is set during the Napoleonic Wars, justifying the reason of the chase -- thus, their reason to chase Acheron is not one of those cheesy “let’s-get-our-dignity-back” motives, but to go into battle as it has been commanded and requested from your country. See, I am not a big fan of war; but this movie is not a story of people going to war, but to fight courageously in a genuine battle. ‘Battle’ and not ‘war’.

Another thing that I like about the movie is that they don’t have one of those cheesy, sentimental moments of inspirational talk about fighting and doing your best a la Braveheart (I bet it’s the most overrated movie of all time).
This is one movie that shows us that inspiration, encouragement, or values of heroism are shown through well-thought action; that it’s what you do that counts. There are some touching moments, but none of them are fabricated, we are
just simply shown to the harsh reality of our choices’ consequences and how little boys grow up to be men through life’s experiences.

I enjoyed every scene of this movie immensely; one that sticks out in particular was when Surprise was being chased by Acheron for the second time and Aubrey need to come up with a plan to fool them, while buying Surprise some
time. They made a sort of miniature ship; and float it. But, the miniature ship has to have its lantern lit and the sail opened to make it look like the real ship. So Aubrey asks one of his Midshipmen (see… I’m learning) to ‘command’
the miniature ship and have the lantern lit on time and then to float it, while Acheron is still shooting cannonballs to their direction. Once the lantern lit, the miniature ship drifting away, and the boy being pulled back to the ship; Aubrey told him, “Now tell me if that wasn’t fun?” And the boy just grins proudly, still in awe.

Now, I’m in the wrong gender, the wrong age, the wrong time, God knows the wrong dimension, and certainly on the wrong location to relate myself to him; but I have that same exact grin as the boy has stuck on my face! I enjoyed the movie THAT much.

To list yet another thing that I just love about this movie, there are no women character in sight, (well maybe there is if you count the Brazilian ah-hum.. whores that showed up for only around 2 minutes of the total 138 minutes and don’t say a word); in this politically correct world, this is one movie that makes me want to belong to the boys club. The movie is quite fast-paced, the soundtrack is great – you even get to see Russel Crowe played the violin in a very authentic way—, the battle scene is just grand.

All in all, this is one movie that I don’t have to think about to say that it’s simply just fab.