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Flash Movie Review: Joy
WHEN I SEE A COUPLE WITH a new baby, I have no idea if the baby was conceived by them, adopted, birthed by a surrogate, or assisted by in vitro fertilization. It does not matter to me; I could not care in the least. The fact that a person wants to have and raise a child is a monumental commitment, a sacrifice in some way and comes with having an abundance of love. I do not know if it is odd or not, but growing up, I do not think anyone in my classes was anything but naturally conceived by their parents. Granted, I was not privy of any conversations and back then, people may have not wanted to share this information with outsiders. Regarding surrogates and IVF, I do not know if there were even options back then because I had never heard of such things. The only example I can recall was when I was six or seven years old, and I was told a family member was going to be a mother. The fact that I had recently seen her, I was stunned to hear the news and commented that she did not look any larger to me. Relatives had to explain to me what was adoption. After they felt like I understood what they were saying to me, I asked when the baby was arriving. THROUGH THE YEARS, I HAVE WITNESSED such a variety of different behaviors from adults when it came to either having children or their children having children; the actions run the gamut of sad to exuberant. One couple I know disowned their son because he was going to marry a woman who had diabetes. The couple was against it because they did not want their grandchild becoming a diabetic. I was flabbergasted. On the other hand, I knew a couple that desperately wanted to have a child but for whatever reason, they would not consider adoption since they could not conceive. They tried for years but to no avail. I am embarrassed to say this, but I felt it was a good thing, because they did not have the personality or internal makeup to be a parent, in my opinion. One of the reasons I say this is because I believe when one is selfish and a narcissist, they cannot be a good parent. However, I know none of this is my business; whatever a couple needs to do or not do regarding children is up to them, not me nor anyone else. When I was little, I remember hearing about baby Louise; but I had no idea so many people had an opinion about what it took for her to get born, since I have now seen what was taking place back then, in this biographical drama based on a true story. A YOUNG NURSE, SCIENTIST AND SURGEON agree to work tougher to help couples who wish to have a child. They were not prepared for the amount of resistance coming from so many different factions of society. With Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit, Lost Girls) as Jean Purdy, James Norton (Little Women, Mr. Jones) as Bob Edwards, Bill Nighy (The First Omen, The Beautiful Game) as Patrick Steptoe, Rish Shah (India Sweets and Spices, Sitting in Bars with Cake) as Arun, and Adrian Lukis (The Boys in the Boat, Judy) as Professor Mason; this movie succeeded due to the cast, especially Thomasin and Adrian, and the incredible true story. I thought the pacing worked well with the mix of scenes. There was drama, tension, excitement, and sadness all mixed within the script, though I do not know how much of it was true. But it did not matter, I felt the writers presented a heartfelt story that was captivating and touching. And the result was they and everyone else involved created a movie that provided the back story to a medical miracle that is now available to thousands today.
3 ½ stars
Flash Movie Review: Locked In
I KNEW HIM BEFORE AND AFTER. We were acquaintances; he was a friend of a friend of mine. He had few filters, so he shared more information about his life than most people cared to hear. However, because he was fun and engaging, many folks just went along with whatever he was saying. I am not a mind reader or psychic, but after hearing about several of his dating exploits, I had a sense he was not as interested in the person as he was in what they did for a living. The more time I spent with him socially, the more I felt I was correct about my feelings. He was looking for someone with a large bank account who could take care of him. It was not my place to judge him; if there was someone out there who wanted to take care of him, then I had no issues with it. When he talked about a recent date he was on, he did not mention some key words like fun, enjoyed, kind. He would make mention of their fancy watch or expensive car or large residence. For me, these were not important things that I cared about when dating a person. These types of comments were mentioned over and over during his “before” years. THE “AFTER” YEARS WERE THE ONES where he found what he was looking for in a date and they settled down to form a couple. The person he found came from money, something about a family company in business for a few generations. If you care to know; yes, they had an expensive watch, a fancy car and a huge home. They had traveled all over the world and as far as I could tell they loved him. My friend’s friend started coming to our social events dressed in the latest fashions, talked about the places the two of them traveled, flying to New York City for the weekend to see a Broadway show, the expensive restaurants they had visited; you get the idea. This is why I refer to him as “before and after” because there was such a drastic change in him once he found and dated someone who could provide him with all the things he had been searching for. I could not tell you if love was involved on his part; I have only heard him express his love for inanimate objects. Through my life experiences, I have never met anyone else like him except possibly one of the main characters in this dramatic, mystery thriller. LINA, PLAYED BY ROSE WILLIAMS (MRS. Harris Goes to Paris, A Quiet Passion), was grateful for the kindness her mother’s friend showed her by taking her in after her mother’s death. The kindness began to wear thin once Lina found the woman’s son attractive. With Famke Janssen (X-Men franchise, Redeeming Love) as Katherine, Alex Hassell (The Tragedy of Macbeth, Violent Night) as Doctor Lawrence, Finn Cole (F9: The Fast Sage, Peaky Blinders-TV) as Jamie and Anna Friel (Limitless, Land of the Lost) as Nurse Mackenzie; this film had the trappings of a good suspense story, but the script kept getting in the way. The characters were never fully developed, and the dialog lacked authenticity. I was drawn by the scenes with Nurse Mackenzie, but there were not enough of those good scenes to make up for poorly done ones. The twists and turns offered seemed more done to provide a shock value than giving them some added weight to make sense. I enjoyed the look of the movie and the settings, but again, I did not feel a connection to the characters. This film was more like a jigsaw puzzle, where the writers took bits and pieces of other films and recreated them for this one without giving much thought to the fact, they made no sense.
1 ¾ stars
moviejoltz 