Fun McAvoy Clip ....

http://bit.ly/oAGdRC

Becoming Jane

Okay, I cheated. I whole-heatedly admit it. But I just cannot stand an unhappy ending to a movie I was so thoroughly enjoying. Sometimes my DVDs, they just don't seem to behave like other peoples. Take my Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Did you know my copy plays through the shoot out with the bandits and then mysteriously stops before the heroes head into town? According to my DVD (and my imagination), Butch and the Kid leave Bolivia and go home to live long, natural lives.

It's the same with my copy of Becoming Jane. Tom asks Jane to elope, she meets him downstairs, and they run away, hand in hand to the perfect life together, credits roll by.

Yes, I know I'm cheating but it is the only way for me to enjoy such a picture perfect movie which has such phenomenal portrayals when it doesn't end with a happily ever after.

Anne Hatheway plays Jane Austin, a young woman whose marriage prospects are poor. On the verge of accepting a proposal of convenience and not affection, she meets Tom Lefroy, played by James McAvoy.

Tom Lefroy loves the city and wild life. Where there is drinking under the table, the company of women of ill refute or a boxing match where he is not the last man standing. Tom likes the excitement of the city life. He is unprepared, then when on a mandated country visit, he meets Jane Austin -- strong willed, educated, and a novelist.

It's a match made in heaven, one, according to my DVD, destined for greatness where hero and heroine work out their differences and spend the rest of their lives being happy.

The characters, both primary and secondary, carried this moving film by involving the audience in their experiences. With their joy, their sorrow, their desire, and heartbreak coming through the screen to the viewer.

My only objection to the production would be the many Pride and Prejudice references: the overbearing aunt of the suitor pulling Jane aside; the mother fighting for a marriage of fortune rather than affection. I want to say they seemed placed whereas writers know about personal events working their way into our own fictional worlds. It would be natural then for Jane Austen to pull events from her real life into her greatest work.

As to McAvoy's performance, from falling asleep during the first reading, to watching the carriage pull away with his one true love forever lost to him (yes I peaked) -- he is and always will be, whoever he dares to portray.

Travel Plans ...

Do trips ever go exactly as planned?

I left for a three day trip to LA twelve days ago. I am still here, in a town on the outskirts of the city, in my eighth hotel, sleep deprived and hungry as I wait for my traveling partner to return with the car.

Has it been a good trip? It's been tiring with all the moving and the work and everything we have been doing but over all, yeah, it has been a real, real good trip. The hubby got a ton of work done, I've seen family and friends. I got to catch up with people I haven't seen in years. I got to spend time with my immediate family that turned out to be very special.

And, for the sake of us here, I got to see James McAvoy in San Francisco just two days ago ... First Class had just hit the pay per view at our hotel and I was able to enjoy Mr. McAvoy as Professor X from beginning to end. Good, good movie ... that I am going to have to write up pretty soon.

I didn't plan on getting two weeks behind on Mr. McAvoy. I didn't plan on being away from home and my own work nor experiencing this exciting trip. But things happen, they get out of our control. I will do my best to catch up with our Floyd (James for those who don't know his nickname) ... just as soon as I get home.

The Accents of James McAvoy ...

English in Becoming Jane. American in Wanted and Conspirator. And low and behold, Scottish in the Last King of Scotland.

All of them done flawlessly. Even
Jean Luc Piccard.

Here Mr. McAvoy talks a little about changing voices.





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nyhn1omRoQ

The Swimming Pool ...

I suppose it's not fair to give a movie review to a film I didn't see nor plan to see. I can't say McAvoy did a superb job in The Pool -- which I am sure he did -- nor can I honestly say the story worked or failed -- or that the conclusion was acceptable. All I can say for sure was I DID see the previews and that one scene that freaked me the hell out - and I won't say which one -- I can only recommend you watch this scary slasher piece of celluloid of your own choosing!! :)

Happy Birthday to Us ...

Atonement ... GUEST Lyn Davis

James McAvoy headlines in the film, Atonement, an historical fiction dealing with love, war, betrayal, death and the illusive happily-ever-after.

The award winning and versatile James McAvoy, breathes life into the somber young Robbie Turner. His cherubic pale skin and bright eyes appear innocent and then we catch the glint of desire. Atonement allows him to showcase Robbie Turner’s passion for Cecelia Tallis (Keira Knightly) in their first encounter at the fountain.

That meeting, misinterpreted by the jealous young sister, Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) ignites the reactions that squash every dream Robbie and Cecelia have of a life together.

James McAvoy conveys the honorable qualities and good manners of one intending to study medicine. He remains steadfast even when falsely accused and convicted of rape, so he opts to serve his sentence in the army instead of prison. The war intrudes, but he survives. Hope heightens in the rowdy chaos on the Dunkirk beach the day he and mates are being evacuated.

Director Joe Wright, unfolds Turner’s growing dementia, arising out of the septicemia. The casting of McAvoy fits with the many other “odd” roles he’s played. From the charming, never-give-up, wheelchair-bound hellion in Rory O’Shea was Here or the rakish, Tom Lefroy, in Becoming Jane--bound by constraints of marrying well--or the appealing Mr. Tumnus, in Narnia, who betrays young Lucy, McAvoy provides a tapestry of roles, unique and idiosyncratic. Complex characters. Quirky stories. James McAvoy celebrates the unusual in his roles.

Atonement is no different, though we are fooled into believing the gentle, handsome hero, who ventures to love the daughter of his benefactor, will have a happily-ever-after ending. After all, true love wins out. War cannot squelch passion or desire. The French cinema with its oversized screen on the evacuation day, parades the belief love will win.

The movie flip-flops between romantic encounters of Robbie and Cecelia executed in the sounds of pounding the keys on old manual typewriter and scenes of war and harsh reality. Aspiring novelist Briony finishes her novel Atonement as a mature author, acknowledging her retrospective clashes with the harsh truth of her secret.

The all-grown-up Briony, played by Vanessa Redgrave, reveals the horror of war’s reality, when she discloses Robbie died on the coast of France and Cecelia drowned in a tunnel during an air raid. The travesty constricts our throats and tears tumble at the heartbreak. Love doesn’t win, dreams and hopes are shattered and lives expire too soon.

And then, Briony presents Atonement, the gift of a novel from the one who ruined their lives, written so the deserving can have their happily ever after ending. Briony’s atonement for her failure.

James McAvoy sustains a character that both rips our heart out with the truth and elevates our joy in the fictional version. He dramatizes authentic life and the pleasure of false fantasies within in the same character. Complex and quirky. The kind of character James McAvoy does and does well.

Look for him in an unexpected portrayal of Charles Xavier as a young man in X-men: First Class.