My wife and I took our kids to see "March of the Penguins" tonight and I've gotta tell you, I care a lot more about penguins than I do about humans right now. I hope the sensation wears off soon, as I am already considered by some to be socially retarded.
My 6 year old daughter said it was "...happy and sad and funny..." and she was right. For better or worse, my visits to the video store far outnumber my visits to the movie theater simply because it has become increasingly more difficult to find such well rounded films such as "March of the Penguins" in any God forsaken megaplex these days. I can't tell you how refreshing it was to se such a respectable, bare bones, celebrity free, informative and entertaining piece of art in a corperate 12 screen megaplex in suburban Utah. It was like a single white daisy in the middle of a muddy WWI battlefield, or that plastic bag from that one crappy movie dancing in the wind, or the lovely young lady singing in a tavern in the final scene of "Paths of Glory" and so on into eternity.
I'm not saying it is the greatest film of all time, or even of the year, but I can say that it is a much needed breath of fresh air. It didn't take a superstar cast or million dollar special effects to bring my 4 year old son to tears for the first time in a movie theater, just cold hard facts of life (or wildlife). These were tears of sadness mind you, not boredom which is more commonly the case, like last week when for some unknown and inexcusable reason I was subjected to the God awful train wreck of a mudroll that was "The Wedding Crashers".
I've noticed that I am rambling aimlessly, so I will leave you again with my daughter's spot on, five word review; "Happy and sad and funny". I'll take that over "A non stop tour-de-force" any old day.
2 comments:
Morgan Freeman is a celebrity.
I stand corrected, this film is clearly a run of the mill Morgan Freeman glamour project having little if anything to do with Penguins. My apologies to Professor Bryan J. Bryanson PHD... Genious
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