Match Point

—1. Overview
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters (Scarlett Johansson)
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads

The man who said 'I'd rather be lucky than good’ saw deeply into life. On the screen in front of us a lone tennis ball goes from one side of the court to another. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. The ball keeps going and the unseen Irish voice keeps speaking. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control. Back and forth. Back and forth. There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net, the ball pauses above the net, and for a split second it can either go forward or fall back. The ball begins to come back down. With a little luck, it goes forward and you win…or maybe it doesn’t, and you lose. The voice stops and the ball drops.

Meet Chris Wilton, ex-tennis star, current tennis instructor, and main character of Woody Allen’s newest cinematic installment, Match Point. He is young, he is handsome, and he is talented. But most of all, he believes in luck.

All of us are familiar with the idea of luck. We use the word all the time.

“Good Luck!� Goodbye wave. Shout down the street. Off to a test/an interview/a new job/an opening performance.

“Looks like someone got lucky last night??!� Wink, wink. Roommate one. Nod, nod. Roommate two.

“You know, you are lucky to be alive.� White coat doctor leans over hospital gown patient. Bright lights shine. Blood seeps through bandages.

“You luuucky bastard…� Average guy points to supermodel girl walking in bar door. Eyebrows raise. That’s your fiancée? Quiet whistle to the left. Pat on the shoulder from the right.

“Talk…about…lucky.� A man’s wife returns home barely five minutes after his mistress leaves…a driver slows down from twice the speed limit right before he passes cops on both sides of the highway….

“I can’t believe how lucky I am.� Ralph Lauren man looks across Martha’s Vineyard lawn at Calvin Klein kids, Estée Lauder wife, and company Mercedes.

“Just…my…luck!� Chance meeting of a man, his mistress, and his brother-in-law in hotel lobby… Already late for the airport. Flat tire. No spare

Luck—referred to often, but barely contemplated for more than the second it takes to utter it. It is that extra help that goes beyond what we can do. It is that unexpected escape that defies negative odds. It is that undeserved pardon that eliminates consequences we had coming straight at us. It is that circumstance, possession, or way of life we did not earn and certainly do not deserve. And sometimes, luck is that little thing that just throws things off without even bothering to consult us.

For Chris Wilton, this is what he sees as the defining factor in his life. Luck that he lands the job he did. Luck that Tom Hewett is his first pupil. Luck that both he and Tom like opera. Luck that Tom has a beautiful sister. Bad luck that Tom also has a sexy fiancée (Nola). Bad luck that Chris is already married when Nola is no longer Tom’s fiancée.

Watching Chris’ life unfold, however, it is difficult to believe that luck is all this life is about. He may have had some luck getting his job and meeting the Hewetts, but if he did not have his background, if he had not made an effort, if he had not made a move, he would not have become as much a part of the family as he did. And when it comes to Nola and the mess that ensues there, as she herself puts it, Chris sure plays an aggressive (and very intentional) game.

As life takes a turn for the worse, it can be almost comforting to believe in luck. It provides a reason to feel sorry for yourself. After all, you didn’t exactly ask for this. It tells you that you have no reason to feel guilty. It’s not like you had a choice when it came to what has lead you down this road. And for Chris, that is exactly the way life is.

The problem is, that just is not realistic. Chris may say bad luck. All we can think is—he could’ve just let it go. He may say worse luck. All we can say is—he statistically had it coming. He may say good luck. But all we can see are the actions and guilt his “luck� will forever keep hidden and growing inside of him. He claims no choice, but then makes one, and all the audience I was a part of could do was groan and curse, not his luck, not chance, but every action he took that just made you want to pull him off the screen and tell him how stupid he was being.

As a story, Match Point reminds me of this years’ earlier Derailed, both stories about men seemingly compelled to do reckless things to get themselves out of a bad situation. The difference is, Derailed’s main character has something stronger than coincidence pulling him down, genuinely wants to make things right, and actually thinks of others’ well-beings. Chris on the other hand? I don’t think he ever thinks about anyone else’s well-being. And let’s just say when he tells Nola he’s going to do the right thing, right is about the furthest adjective I’d use to describe his actions.

Like almost every Woody Allen movie, Match Point is definitely an interesting meditation on the meaning of life and why it turns out like it does. He once again gives his characters depth that pushes us to look at ourselves and question how we view life. At times the story can seems a bit contrived, some action or scene leaving you looking for a bit more motivation to explain its reasoning. It does have a few scenes that border on overstatement. But overall, Match Point is a well done movie that truly gets you thinking about life and respectfully leaves you to work out the answers for yourself.

As I think about life, I know that actions make a difference. I also can’t deny that there are things beyond our control that sometimes seem to make that final difference. This world is a world of choice. But, as Match Point hints, it is also a world affected by something more. Sometimes that something more gets us to the right place to do what we need to do. Other times it gives us that extra help when we’ve done all we can do. And, as the similarly contemplative Run Lola Run points out, something bigger than us allows us to escape the negative more often than we may realize.

Chris Wilton may call these out-of-our-hands events luck. But as I look at the world around me, I cannot believe that they are just luck. I cannot believe that everything that happens just happens. In a world that is defined by our actions but not entirely, I know that getting more than we have earned and getting out of what we do deserve are blessings that we should not just shrug off as chance.

There is a hand in this world that is bigger than ours. I think it is God, unfortunately sometimes Satan. But unlike the hand of luck Chris saw as his boon and his savior, the hand of the God that I believe in sacrificed too much to merely change the surface and leave us suffering inside. The hand of God I know is ready and able to give us more than we ever deserve, to give to us a promise that just because we cannot control of everything, we do not have to live in fear.

— Overview

PostSecret

Sometimes secrets are hard to keep. Other times secrets are hard to tell. Sometimes they are a fun surprise. Other times they are the key to complete destruction. Sometimes they are funnier than any joke we’ve ever heard. Other times they are just as hard to hear as the worst diagnosis our doctor could ever give. But no matter what, no matter who we are, and no matter where we live, we all have secrets.

In his ingenious book released in 2005, Frank Warren shares the secrets of people all over the world, secrets they have never told anyone, and secrets that are now laid bare for everyone to read. They range from funny—“When I’m mad at my husband…I put boogers in his soup,� to blatantly truthful—“I waste office supplies because I hate my boss,� startling—“he’s been in prison for two years because of what I did. 9 more to go,� and very often heartbreaking—“Sometimes I wish that I was blind just so I wouldn’t have to look at myself everyday in the mirror.�

More than just words on paper, each secret is revealed on a homemade postcard sent to Warren. Each card is unique, filled with drawings, colors, photographs, or magazine cutouts. One is written on a Starbucks coffee cup. Another on a parking ticket. It is as if a piece of a person has actually been pasted on each postcard and sent out for the entire world to see.

The project started when Warren began handing out and leaving postcards with instructions to write down a secret in a creative way, a secret that no one else knew, and mail it back to PostSecret. For Warren, it began as project of healing for himself. But as is so evident in the book, the project turned into an act of healing for so many people who sent in cards.

“After I created my postcard, I didn’t want to be the person with the secret any longer,� writes a person from Texas. “I ripped up my postcard and I decided to start making changes in my life.�

Although I do not yet have a coffee table to call my own, “PostSecret� has become my favorite coffee table book. It is beautiful and it is intriguing. It is like no other landscape or painting book I’ve ever browsed through on a coffee table. And although it certainly is not as innocuous as “The Ultimate Picasso� or “National Geographic’s Greatest Photographs,� it is a book that will impact every person who reads it.

I want this book on my coffee table because it is real. I want to share it with others because it helps us to know we are not alone. I want people to look at it because it is filled with a sense of freedom and of finally being able to let go. I want "PostSecret" on my coffee table because it truly is book of courage, understanding, and healing. And if I could give anything to everyone I meet, that would be it.

As Warren says: “We all have secrets: fears, regrets, hopes, beliefs, fantasies, betrayals, humiliations. We may not always recognize them but they are a part of us…I believe that each one of us has the ability to discover, share, and grow our own dark secrets into something meaningful and beautiful.�

Beautiful, depressing, funny, heartbreaking, liberating, madding, thought provoking, and hopeful all at the same time, “PostSecret� is nothing short of trip through an emotional scrambler and into the depths of the human heart that is sure to be one of the most powerful books you will ever read.

PostSecret also exists as a traveling art exhibit and on the website www.postsecret.blogspot.com. New postcards keep arriving in Warren’s mailbox every day.

A Million Little Pieces

Oprah’s staff cried when they read it. The Smoking Gun launched an investigation before her book club could finish it. Late night hosts and early morning anchors began flipping through it as soon as it made its “smoking� debut. And if they had not already, people all over the world ran to the shelves to buy it.

Meet the new addiction memoir of our time—James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces.�

Grabbing you with both hands on its very first page, “A Million Little Pieces� is an emotional rollercoaster ride unlike any other recently published book. It is a portrait of people at their worst. It is a tale of friendship at its best. It is an uncensored look at humanity and a reminder of perhaps one of its most real states. And told in a voice that makes us feel like we are inside Frey’s own head, it becomes a reality check that cannot help but reach inside us all and make us take a closer look at our own lives.

While “A Million Little Pieces� is certainly no grammatical work of genius, its unique voice reinforces what is an already captivating story and makes the book worth every minute spent reading it. For the most part, the story never lets you go and rarely drags. Even without its sometimes teeth clenching events, it characters and the depth to which Frey allows readers to know them keep you reading just to know how they are doing.

But even with its strengths, even with its widespread praise, “A Million Little Pieces� was not able to avoid a question knocking at its door as soon as its sales began to rocket—Is it too good to be true? Or rather, is it too bad to be true? Some of the horrors a bit exaggerated, a few events described not quite as they occurred, a few characters slightly altered?

In all reality, the “smoking� claims are not that surprising. Frey’s plot points do work out a bit too well for a true story. Some of his trials do seem to defy a realistic ability to pull through. And some of his dramatic “escapes� are a bit unbelievable. But, still the story is the same.

James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces� may not be the fully non-fictional tale of addiction and recovery it first presented itself to be. But nonetheless, the story and the powerful way it is told have not changed. It still speaks to us about facing our own failures and dealing with trials that seem too large to overcome. It still leaves us with beautiful pictures of true friendships and actual reasons to believe in hope. And even if “A Million Little Pieces� is not completely true, it is still a story told by a man who has overcome, a story that challenges us to not merely acknowledge our failures but to also know that they need not control us, that we can decide whether they will control us or not, and that we can choose to let something better carry us through this life instead.

Tristan & Isolde

—1. Overview
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters (Kevin Reynolds)
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads

If you haven’t noticed, life is full of expectations. Whoever we are and whatever we do, there are things we all feel we are supposed to do, supposed to do if we expect to be seen as any sort of functional member of society, supposed to do if we are to be a good person, supposed to do if we are to be happy. Just certain things that we are supposed to do.

But then there are also things we just do. Actions we take not because of duty, expectation, or a need to uphold some sense of honor. Decisions we make, not because we should, not because we are expected to, but because something else inside of us compels us.

As you might have guessed, Tristan & Isolde is a love story. It is a story about a British warrior who falls in love with an Irish princess. It is a story about a love than cannot be, a love that is denied by a feud between countries, and even after the countries “unite,� a love that is forbidden by commitments each has to the same leader.

Its trailers suggest that Tristan & Isolde will be a Romeo-and-Juliet story. More than just a story about an irresistible pull of romantic love, however, Tristan & Isolde steps far beyond the couple focused story of Romeo & Juliet and reveals that love is more than an undeniable attraction. It shows us that true love extends beyond romance and more often means sacrificing for others instead of simply satisfying our own desires.

From the beginning, the love that is portrayed in Tristan & Isolde is noticeably different from what we see in the standard romance. First off, although there is the obligatory magnetic realization of love/sex scene, we see love much before romance even enters the picture. Isolde and Tristan only meet because Isolde finds him near death, and, although she is almost certain he is her enemy, takes it upon herself to save him.

The second indication that the love to be portrayed in Tristan & Isolde is about more than sexual magnetism is that Isolde gives up the relationship when she knows that Tristan’s life is in danger. Her tears tell us that she does not want to let Tristan go. But in her release of him, we see that her love for him has put his life over her own happiness.

As the story goes on, Tristan and Isolde do meet again. The problem is, now Isolde is to marry the man who has raised Tristan as his son. Tristan and Isolde still love each other, and as the story continues, we witness that struggle to live up to their duties while, at the same time, living with contradictory desires. We see that the pull of romantic connection is strong. We also feel the reality of expectation and obligation that both must face. But in the end, as desire and duty come clashing together, we see how a greater love triumphs over both.

When Tristan and Isolde first reunite with the knowledge that their love again cannot be, Isolde asks Tristan: “If we lived in a place without duty, would you be with me?�

His response, “That place does not exist.�

But as the movie comes to its end, that is exactly the place I see. It is world ruled by love, not by self-seeking desire, not by guilt and expectation driven duty, but instead by care, compassion, and the willing sacrifice of oneself for the good of others. It is a world freed and uplifted by a love that clearly shows itself to be infinitely more meaningful and powerful that either duty or romance alone could ever be.

As we live our lives, it easy to think of them as choice between no more than two ways of living. On one side, our lives can be based on a checklist, a checklist of wrong, a checklist of right, and a myriad of ideas about duty and expectations that we better live up to. On the other, we can look at life as a path to fulfillment, success, happiness, and hopefully a sense of purpose and belonging.

But as Tristan & Isolde shows us, there is a third option that cannot be denied. That option: a life of love. A life where actions are not just obligations, but gifts of love. A life where connections are not just self-seeking attractions, but relationships of care and concern that desire to see the best for another person or group of people.

When I went to see Tristan & Isolde, I expected a good romance, but not a lot more. What it sent me away with, however, surprised me.

If you are in the mood for a love story, Tristan & Isolde does have you covered. How about that step-above love story that actually seems realistic? You won’t be disappointed. A story about a land divided and oppressed and a people struggling for unity and freedom? Just as powerful as the love story. A setting so beautiful that it makes you want to jump on a plane and go there? Almost every scene. And, heaven forbid, performances that actually live up to the depth of emotion and story that the movie seeks to achieve? Who knew Peter Parker’s buddy/arch-nemesis could act so well!

Far from just a romantic story that would never happen in real life, the story of Tristan & Isolde invites us into the lives of not only a couple, but an entire country seeking to live amid circumstances of hardship and division, duty and honor, and a simple desire to know that life is truly about something more.

We are all familiar with duty and expectation. We all know the feelings of desire and longing for something more. The question is, are we willing to seek that something more? Are we willing to believe that there is something deeper? Are we willing to believe in a love that changes lives for the better? Are we willing to let that love change ours?

— Overview

Brokeback Mountain

—1. Overview (multimedia)
—2. Overview Basic (dial up speed)
—3. Reviews and Blogs
—4. Cast and Crew
—5. Photo Pages
—6. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—7. Posters (Heath Ledger)
—8. Production Notes (pdf)
—9. Spiritual Connections
—10. Presentation Downloads

For the past week, I have been trying to write a review of Brokeback Mountain. I’ve started it several times; I just hadn’t been able figure out exactly what I thought about. Each thought kept running into the movie’s tagline, its previews, its press releases, its nominations, its awards, and its many four star praises from almost every respected critic who had seen it. Everything about the movie said I should have liked it, should have appreciated its artistry and been drawn into its story, but the things is, I didn’t and as much as I tried to figure it out, I wasn’t exactly sure why.

So, the question was, why didn’t I like it? The easiest answer—it had so much hype, so much buzz, and so many preconceived notions about how “good� it was going to be, there was no way it could’ve lived up to what I expected. Decent answer. I always tend to like movies I’ve heard next to nothing about more than highly praised and publicized ones. On a strictly artistic level, yes, it was well done. But it was not that well done. It would not have gotten my nomination for Best Picture. The acting was good, but none of the actors, save Michelle Williams, were able to make me totally forget they were acting. And the music? Not bad. But even a day later, I don’t think I could have told you what it sounded like.

As I have figured out on many occasions, however, the easy answer usually isn’t the whole story. It wasn’t a bad movie. It was certainly better directed and acted than many of the mindless popcorn flicks that have filled our theaters for the past year. So as I sat and thought about it, I knew that my disappointment had to run deeper. I knew that my problem with the movie had to be the story, a story that so many have praised, a story that so many have applauded, and a story that I could not buy.

But I felt bad for not also being able to praise the story. Was I a bigot? Was I just too intolerant to accept a story about romance slightly different from that which I have experienced in my own life? By not liking the movie, was I just slapping one of my closest friends and his boyfriend in the face, turning my back on them, and essential telling them I couldn’t condone a movie like that?

But then I realized, when I went into the movie, I had fully expected to like it. I wanted to see it. I wanted to watch a story about love. And I fully expected the story to make me believe in love. When it came down to it, it became clear to me that the true reason why I did not like Brokeback Mountain is that I barely saw any love in it at all.

Cowboys Jack Swift and Ennis Del Mar are certainly attracted to each other. As someone who likes men, I can’t see why not. They seem happy when they are with each other. They like the sex. Their separation causes them pain and their union fills each other with excitement and arousal. But when it came down to it, all I could see in their pain and excitement was a desire to fill a hole in each of themselves. And, in a relationship where all I saw was two separate men seeking their own separate satisfaction, I could not see any love. I may be wrong, but as far as I can remember, not a single person even says I love you throughout the entire movie.

But more than anything else, the thing that hit me most, the element that ruined any hope of me seeing Brokeback Mountain as a love story and simply cemented it as a story of brokenness, is that both Jack and Ennis are in the exact same place at the end of the story as they were at the beginning.

Many reviewers have commented on Ang Lee’s choice to cast Jack and Ennis young, a risky move, but one that most felt was an excellent choice. As I look back on the movie, however, the casting only reinforces its sadness. The movie takes place over a course of 20 years, yet neither Heath Ledger’s Ennis or Jake Gyllenhaal’s Jack appear to age a day. Around them life moves on. Eventually Ennis’ ex-wife remarries and actually seems to be happy. His oldest daughter grows from a newborn to a 19-year-old, planning her wedding, certain of her fiancée’s love for her, and eagerly looking to the future. Yet Ennis is just as lonely and sad as when the movie started.

As much as Brokeback Mountain is a story about a forbidden relationship, the bigger story that I saw was a story about a search for happiness, for value, and for a place in this world.

At the beginning of the story, neither Jack nor Ennis have any of those things. Jack has been raised to look down upon himself as man and thus on his position of value and purpose in this world. Ennis just can’t seem to connect with anyone. All he knows is distance, hardship, and loss. Neither is happy, both have lived too much of life alone, and it is in this state that they meet.

Many of us know how they feel. I know it well. That feeling of emptiness and loneliness. An ache that goes so deep, that just cries out for something to make me happy, something that will make me feel like I, Elisabeth, am a person of value. And, believe me, I have considered many things to try to just find a moment of happiness. Drugs, alcohol, even a night of sex just so I can tell myself that someone wanted to be with me. That voice inside my head that tells me, if only I had this or that, and then torments me when feel like I might have found it; even if it isn’t ideal, it was good in the moment; how could I ever presume I will find anything like it again? How can I let it go?

When I finally came to think about why I didn’t like the movie, I was surprised by how much I identified with Jack and Ennis. I might not be a cowboy, I might not be gay, but I do know what it is like to long for happiness, to search for anything that will help me to feel it, to fear letting go of anything that could be the key to it, maybe, possibly, if I just hold onto it long enough…

Throughout Brokeback Mountain Jack and Ennis search for that same happiness. They seek it in ideals by marrying their wives and starting families. They keep trying to hold onto that glimpse of it in each other. But in the end, neither one does the trick. Some may say if they had gotten together, Jack and Ennis would’ve been happy…but all I can think about is how much they held each other back. Rather then binding them together in love, all their relationship seemed to do was bind them to lives of unhappiness.

Aching for happiness is not fun. Trying to figure out how to find happiness, even just a functional state of satisfaction and purpose, is not easy. Like Jack and Ennis, I have struggled with those brief tastes of that happiness, tastes I want to go back to, tastes that can grab a hold of me and freeze me where I am in fear that I have found my only option for happiness and better not let it go. But I have also been fortunate enough to come out on the other side. To deal with the pain of letting go, of realizing that one certain person, one specific job, or one distinct life path will never result in my happiness.

While I still don’t claim to know exactly what happiness is, my gut feeling is that it is about something bigger, about knowing that I am a part of something bigger, that value is about something bigger, and that happiness need not depend on my circumstances. I struggle with my belief in that bigger something, in God, in that unconditional love that is so hard to comprehend in world so messed up. Yet even amidst this struggle, this pursuit of happiness and this search for value, I cannot help but believe that even though relationships and circumstances will be a part of our lives, the only way we will ever be able to fully experience love and value in this life is if we are able to first find freedom in a value and purpose that is bigger than just the here and now.

— Overview (multimedia)
— Reviews and Blogs