Movies

I saw two movies this weekend. The first one, "Little Miss Sunshine" on DVD and the other, "The Last King of Scotland" at the box office.

I was drawn to "..sunshine" because of Toni Collette who is a great character actress. I've loved her in every movie she's done and I admire the fact that she plays varying roles and those roles are generally complex characters, not always beautiful. I love her transparency and the fact that when I'm watching her I see the character, not Ms. Collette. Other actresses should be so talented. What I liked about this movie is the transformation of a fragmented family into something more whole.

"..Scotland" was such an intense movie, I left the box office shuddering and soothed myself in a nearby bookstore. Something about a bookstore on a rainy Sunday afternoon can be soothing, I think. "..Scotland" is a film based upon true events which is what makes the movie so frightening. I was drawn to the film because I had once met a man, a doctor, whose family had fled Uganda under Amin's reign of terror.

The rumors mills regarding the performance of Forrest Whitaker are absolutely true. His take on "Amin" makes a frightening character at least understandable if not likeable and the movie does what a good historical movie can do - -it allows the viewer to see the clash of the historic components. It is characters such as Amin (and Hitler and so many other leaders) that encourage me to believe that each of us live on a bubble that wobbles between evil and good and that a set of decisions can propel us down a path of either. I think movies such as this are valuable when done well, and this one is done well.