I hadn’t read the book prior to seeing the movie, so I can’t compare them. Honestly, I expected it to be deadly bad. And I was really surprised. The story is beautiful, filled with both humor and drama. It’s not the “Troya” kind of film, the battle scenes are somehow poor (maybe due to a bad production?) yet Aranda gives them a personal touch. Aranda surprises again with his ability to investigate love, passion and human feelings. I loved the fact that Tirant is not the typical hero. Shame that the actor is sometimes empty…specially in comparison to the women of the film. Sure that Esther Nubiola is a discovery, we can read everything from her eyes and she’s the perfect image for sensuality. Leonor Watling and Ingrid Rubio bring brightness to the movie, as well as Victoria Abril,able to catch the eye of the camera even from the back. A special congratulations to Giancarlo Gianini, this guy is always perfect whatever he does. Amazing dresses,by Ivonne Blake and beautiful music, with those breathtaking child chorus. The only shame, that Vicente Aranda didn’t have the right producers and sometimes you can feel it through the movie.

I saw this film on March 28th, 2007 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

The “Jane” is Jane Austen and this is a fictional depiction of her young adult life before her novel writing career. I suppose half of the tale is based on fact such as she rejected a marriage proposal, and half the tale is made up to create engaging story-telling. But that’s not important.

The essence of the story is the mores of proper English society around 1800. Woman had their place. And that place was to give oneself to an arranged marriage and become a dutiful wife and mother. It was even more important to be in these roles if you were a daughter of a minister of modest means who had lots of children to care for. Jane was one of those children.

But Jane has spunk and smarts and a stubbornness to live her own life as she sees fit. Anne Hathaway plays young Jane convincingly and Anne’s good looks are played down as much as possible. It’s Jane’s inner self that makes her attractive and not her exterior appearance.

And she is so attractive that she has three suitors; the rich and dull one, the poor and roguish one, and a secret and nefarious one. This circumstance allows us to see England from the various social strata, which is fun and informative.

Jane, 200 years ahead of her time, shows beauty and grace and charm and spirit, and will not buckle to her day’s lot in life. We should all have such courage “… to follow our bliss” knowing we have but one life to live.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Firefly was easily the best sci fi show Fox developed aside from the X-Files. It had science fiction staples spaceships, laser pistols, and tech, but also a nice retro quality of frontier western speech, horses, and guns. The humor alone made this one of the best shows on television. The Joss Whedon ability to spin a familiar plot convention/line in a surprising direction and the top notch cast of talented and charismatic actors help make this cancelled science fiction Fox casualty a cult favorite and upcoming movie. While the discussion about why it was cancelled and who was to blame is up for debate, no one can argue 200,000 in DVD secondary market sales to date. Clearly, Firefly was a show that deserved a chance to shine and with it’s incarnation next year as a film, will allow this phoenix to rise again.

I would like to believe that there are more closet gays than gays who are open about their sexuality but I do not have the statistics to prove it. Whether you are open, or not, or about to open, this film will somehow touch you. I like this film so much that I can relate to it. The love story of straight-acting David that has been told so many times but presented in a realistic way is enough to catch my attention. A gay who is in love secretly with his best friend for so many years is nothing but ordinary plot because that is always the case when a straight-acting gay fall for a straight guy. I knew beforehand that the ending of the story would not be a happy one because normally in real life a straight guy would not return the affection of a gay even if that gay is his best friend for so many years. Oh yes! This is the truth! The ending of the love story of David is so credible that makes me watch this film again to remind me that this kind of love does exist, and once you came out of the closet, you are taking a big risk. The acting of David as portrayed by Steve John Shepherd is superb! No doubt, he is so convincing as a straight-acting gay. In fact, I fell for him after watching the film.

I watched this movie expecting something formulaic and contrived, the trailers seemed to bait you using voyeuristic clips with dramatic lighting and contrasting images, but it turns out this is a true story and the writer cleverly manages to play with your feelings to get you to dislike the main character. I fell into this trap and actually found Stuart really annoying to begin with but by the end of this movie his life story unravels and you realise how easy it is to judge people on face value. It’s a remarkable and sad story that has elements we must all connect with, either through guilt or empathy, I was absorbed. Alexander Masters manages to show us a real life story that mocks all the the trivial, money-spinning, pathetic and ridiculous books that publishers churn out from the likes of tit-models like Jordan or Robbie Williams.