Review: Veronika Decides To Die (2009)

Every so often you stumble across a movie that turns out to be far better than you anticipated. Veronika Decides To Die is one of those. Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (The last time I saw her, she was stabbing long-teethed sun-haters for a living) and Jonathan Tucker and David Thewlis and a few others I didn’t really recognize. Both Sarah and Jonathan surprised me with very good acting, further emphasized by the mesmerizing filmography, similar in style to the brilliant Blindness (2008) and the belgium movie Blind (2007).

The movie starts without much introduction in Sarah’s home, her attempting suicide. For a moment it leaves you wondering why she tries, but the movie gives you an answer to that question soon enough, albeit without all too many words. Overall I must say the movie managed to answer all question that would come up at one point or another, which is very nice for a change.

I enjoyed the movie from beginning to end. The story was inspirational, the acting superb and the filmography breath-taking. There’s an underlaying message in this movie that I think everyone should be reminded of every now and then. Check out the movie, you won’t regret it.

Score: 8.0

IMDb | RottenTomatoes

Review: Up In The Air (2009)

A week or two ago I watched Up In The Air, a new movie starring George Clooney and a few others I haven’t heard of before (I sucketh with names). I knew little about this movie but figured it would be pretty clooney-esque, so I was readying myself for an evening of kinda-good-but-not-really-memorable funtainment. Turns out I was wrong.

Up In the Air is about Ryan Bingman (Clooney) who travels all over the country (by airplane, in case you didn’t figure that out by now to fire people. Companies that need to fire a bunch of people but don’t have the, ehm, cojones, to do it themselves, so they hire Ryan to do it for them.

Ryan lives a life most of us would find repulsive. He spends most of his days in airports, airplanes or hotels and loves every bit of it. He loves the structure and repetition in his life, like how people always great him the same way when checking in. While it sounds weird and shallow, it seems to make him happy.

When at one point Ryan is called in, things change a tad, though. Anna Kendrick (Natalie Keener), has been awfully creative while he was out doing his thing, convincing his boss of a ‘revolutionary’ way to optimize the company and –what else– reduce costs drastically; Fire people using long-distance, using webcams. Ouch.

Ryan obviously thinks this new method is anything but good, and ends up taking Anna along to let her experience what the business is all about. To her surprise it’s a whole lot more personal than she originally thought.

The movie had a similar mood to it as 500 days of summer. It was somewhat slow-paced but never made me feel bored. I enjoyed Clooney in this indie-like movie, and made me appreciate him more than I did before. Overall, I highly recommend you watch this movie, it’s entertaining, touching and helps you ask the right questions about what is important in your life.

Score: 8.5

IMDb | RottenTomatoes