Movie and Book Review: Week 3

No spoilers! These posts are written to help those who are debating whether or not to read/watch these titles, not to spoil them. 

Movie: The Way Way Back - PG 13

This movie made me cringe. The main character, Duncan, is so painfully awkward that there times when I wished I could just close my eyes. Painful as it was, I appreciated this movie's realism and consistency of characters. I believed them. It's one of my husband's favorites so if you're willing to shed a few tears, check this one out.

Summary: Shy and unpopular 14-year-old Duncan is joining his insecure mom and her loud new boyfriend (Steve Carell) on a beach vacation. His soon-to-be-step-dad, doesn't think much of Duncan and expects him to improve himself on this trip. While there, Duncan finds an outgoing group of misfit adults who love his overly literal mentality and recruit him to help them work a water park. Along the way, he learns who he really is and the family is forced to face some unpleasant realities.

First lines: Trent (mom's boyfriend) to Duncan: On a scale of 1 to 10, how do you think you are?
...Duncan: A 6
...Trent: I think you're a 3. You know why I think you're a 3? You know what would make me say that?
Duncan: No.
...Trent: Well, since I've been dating your mom, I don't see you putting yourself out there bud, meeting kids you own age. And from what your mom tells me, you just seem content to hang around her apartment. Is that a fair assessment? Are you just happy to not do anything, cause damn, to me that is a 3....So what do you say, let's try to get that score up huh? Aim higher than a 3?


Book: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 

I am haunted by this book. Not by the typical terrors, being ghostly creatures and the like, but by how honestly it spoke of human nature. It is the longest book that I have ever read and I have no doubt that I will read it again. And maybe I'll read it again after that. It's my opinion that an author's goal should be to make the reader grow to love at least one of the characters, thereby making the book a much more personal experience. This book not only made me love one character, but I grew to care about every. single. one. The way this book is written is to be completely objective. It shares the rationales behind each character's actions as well as other characters' thoughts about that action. It brought me to understand characters with an unexpected depth, which also opened me up to stronger emotional reactions to their choices. Vices make their appearance frequently as do their opposing virtues and honest consequences are revealed.

If it weren't so long, I'd want this book in schools. It shares the southern side of the Civil War story from the viewpoint of an entire community which goes from riches to rags as a result of the war and the following Reconstruction. As a nation, I feel that we have closed ourselves off to this side of the story and as a born Virginian who (dare I say it) had family members fight for the confederacy, I appreciated this view being shared. As I felt the devotion with which slaves and owners were bound, my eyes opened to what slavery really meant for the south and I realized how one-sided we view it today. I began to understand what brought men to form the Ku Klux Klan (NOT why it still exists in towns like the one I grew up in which I think is a disgrace), as well as how poorly Blacks were reintegrated into society. There are several things about society today that I found unstated reasons for in this text and because of that, I encourage every one to read it.

Summary: Scarlett O'Hara, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy plantation owner, must become much more than that when her beloved Georgia is destroyed in Sherman's March. Only her fire for life and selfish nature keep her alive, but at the expense of everything else she holds dear. 

First line: Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.