OK. The internet has crashed on me twice while I was working on this review. So please forgive any spelling or other errors as I am going crazy trying to get this posted.
At the beginning of Love Story, I wasn't sure I felt the repartee between Ali MacGraw ("Glam") and Ryan O'Neal ("Waste Land"). Then a young Tommy Lee Jones ("No Country for Old Men") popped up out of nowhere. Then there was some hockey. Then the banter got better. The passage of time was handled pretty well. And by the end of the film, I was crying like a baby. So take that as you want it.
Iron Man was a pretty good comic book movie. Robert Downey Jr. ("Charlie Bartlett") is perfect (as always) as Tony Stark. He and Gwyneth Paltrow ("The Good Night") have excellent chemistry. Jeff Bridges ("Surf's Up") is kind of thrown away in the you-can-see-it-coming-a-mile-away bad guy role. The suit was amazing, and I think director Jon Favreau ("Zathura") handled it with the right light touch. I will see the sequel. Cause you know it's coming.
The Orphanage is a gloriously atmospheric ghost story. I wasn't scared, but definitely enthralled the plot follows a young boy who disappears in an old house his parents were planning to turn into a school for special needs kids. But his mother also has some past connections to the place and it doesn't really go exactly where you think it will. Compared a lot to Pan's Labyrinth, it's different, and yet, has a similar fairy-tale quality.
Sicko really made me think about America's health care system. Director Michael Moore ("Fahrenheit 9/11") sort of toned down his brazenness and tried to let the subject speak for itself. Of course, he doesn't quite manage it, but then, he wouldn't be Moore if he didn't get all up in your face. Good food or thought.
Fanny and Alexander - Wow. Ingmar Bergman ("Saraband") really is one depressing SOB. Yes, I know, you'd think I'd realize that by now, but I'm a little slow on the uptake. I really did love this movie. It's breathtaking in its cinematography and the despair it explores. I saw the theatrical version and there's a part of me that wants to see the original, longer, television version. The rest of me is still fighting to urge to slit my wrists. The story follows two children, Fanny and Alexander (though the focus is more on Alexander) and their extended family. The children deal with the death of their father and their mother's remarriage to a very stern priest, played perfectly by Jan Malmsjo ("Goodnight, Irene"). He will, most likely, haunt my dreams for life. See this as soon as you feel happy enough.