Fight for Your Soul Mate!

Fight for your soul mate!

A movie review of CRAZY, STUPID LOVE

‘A soul mate is someone without whom you cannot live,” some people say. Therefore, after you realize that you have found your soul mate, don’t ever let him or her go. Fight for him or her if you have to do that. Convince him or her that you belong together in order to reach happiness together.

That is the moral message conveyed by a movie entitled CRAZY, STUPID LOVE. This movie is starred by Julianne Moore as Emily, a 44-year old woman who has three children, Hannah (played by Emma Stone) who is going to be a lawyer, Robbie (played by Jonah Bobo), a teenager, and the youngest Molly (played by Joey King). Emily’s husband is Cal, a successful man. Steve Carrel plays well as Cal. And there is another central character, Jacob Palmer played by Ryan Gosling.

Cal met Emily when he was 15 years old and directly perceived that Emily would be his one and only soul mate. Despite his dad’s teasing – to say a girl was his soul mate at a very young age because a teenage boy usually ‘just’ had a crush on a girl and then would date many girls before deciding a girl was a soul mate – Cal married Emily who apparently was two years older. Their first daughter – Hannah – was born when Cal was 17 while Emily 19. Their marriage seemed to run well until one day Emily asked for a divorce after she had sex with another man, one workmate of hers named David Linhagen (played by Kevin Bacon). Emily feeling guilty asked for a divorce although afterwards she explained that she suspected herself to suffer from a mid-life crisis.

Getting married for around 25 years and Cal was the first boy dating her – for both of them their spouse was their first love – obviously made Emily bored. She started to feel that she needed to be alone, not always be together with Cal when doing something. As other people who admit that they suffer from a mid-life crisis, Emily perhaps also was questioning herself whether she was still able to attract men or not. She was ‘satisfied’ when finding that David adored her.

Meanwhile, feeling content with his life, Cal never thought that he needed to stll pay attention to his physical appearance and showed any romanticism he once did when he tried to win Emily’s heart. He even directly lost his spirit to keep Emily as his soul mate. He gave in by directly saying he would sign any document (for divorce) Emily needed and leave the house.

At another side of the story, Robbie – the thirteen year old son of the couple – fell in love with Jessica (played by Analeigh Tipton), his baby sitter and as his dad at a very young age, Robbie was also very sure that Jessica was his soul mate. On the contrary, Jessica secretly had a crush on Cal! ^__^

Another central character is Jacob Palmer. He ‘helped’ Cal to find back his confidence to face women, by trying to ‘change’ Cal to be like himself – a so-called womanizer. However, later on Jacob turned out to envy Cal’s steady life by only having one woman in his life after meeting Hannah, Cal’s the first child. For sure, Cal disapproved Hannah’s relationship with Jacob due to Jacob’s ‘reputation’ as a womanizer and Cal saw his ‘action’ with his very own eyes.

How does the story end?

Watch it! It is very entertaining, trust me. :)

PT28 17.06 23/02/12

People's Power in Sydney White

 
Sydney dengan ketujuh teman anehnya penghuni the Vortex

A review based on a movie entitled SYDNEY WHITE

Sydney White adalah tokoh sentral dalam film yang berjudul sama: SYDNEY WHITE. Amanda Bynes, si pemeran tokoh Viola yang tomboy dalam film SHE’S THE MAN, berperan sebagai Sydney White yang kebetulan juga memiliki karakter yang tak jauh beda dengan Viola. Yang sedikit berbeda adalah, Sydney dikisahkan dibesarkan oleh ayahnya yang bekerja sebagai ‘plumber’ beserta lingkungannya, para pekerja konstruksi yang mayoritas laki-laki, sehingga sangat bisa dimaklumi jika dia memiliki sifat tomboy. Sedangkan dalam film SHE’S THE MAN tidak dijelaskan background apa dan mengapa yang membuat Voila memiliki sifat tomboy.

Dari segi akting, dalam film SYDNEY WHITE ini, tidak banyak perbedaan akting Amanda Bynes dikarenakan dia memerankan tokoh yang mirip dengan tokoh Viola dalam SHE’S THE MAN. Meskipun begitu, kisah yang diusung dalam film Sydney White lumayan menarik: bagaimana para ‘dorks’ alias orang aneh yang tidak mengikuti ‘the mainstream’ jenis-jenis mahasiswa di universitas memiliki power yang luar biasa setelah berkumpul untuk meruntuhkan status quo yang ada.

Alkisah di sebuah universitas yang bernama Southern Atlantic University (SAU), Sydney adalah seorang mahasiswa baru. Di kampus yang sama dulu Sydney's late mom juga menimba ilmu sekaligus mendapatkan teman-teman for life dari bergabung dengan 'a sorority sister group' yang bernama the Kappa Phi Nu sorority. Di surat wasiat yang ditulis oleh ibunya sebelum meninggal, Sydney diharapkan mengikuti jejaknya untuk bergabung dengan Kappa Phi Nu. Di zaman ibunya masih kuliah di SAU, KPN adalah sebuah sorority group dimana para anggotanya diajarkan untuk menyuarakan aspirasi mereka dan mengekspresikan karakter mereka sendiri-sendiri, tanpa merasa perlu 'terancam' untuk menjadi 'berbeda' dari yang lain.

 
Sydney dengan Rachel

Akan tetapi, di bawah kepresidenan Rachel Witchburn, KPN mejadi sebuah kelompok yang berusaha membuat semua anggotanya untuk tunduk di bawah kuasa Rachel dan selalu menjadi apa yang diinginkan Rachel. Salah satunya adalah: anggota KPN tidak boleh gemuk. Bahkan di bawah kepemimpinan Rachel, SAU seperti dikuasai oleh Rachel, misalnya dengan salah satu rencananya untuk menghancurkan "The Vortex" kediaman beberapa mahasiswa yang dianggap 'aneh' di lingkungan kampus karena 'the Vortex' dianggap tak layak berada di lingkungan SAU.

Sydney berhasil menyingkirkan Rachel dari kursi  'Student Body President' setelah mampu mengumpulkan orang-orang 'aneh' alias dorks untuk menerima kenyataan bahwa 'being dork is being different and that is ok' dan memberikan suara mereka kepada Sydney. Mereka dengan suka rela melakukannya karena selama ini mereka cenderung apatis bila ada pemilihan ketua Dewan Mahasiswa.

"Being different -- or dork -- from the mainstream is acceptable." alias "Being minority doesn't necessarily mean you have no choice." Ini adalah pesan menarik yang ingin disampaikan film yang bertema komedi ini.

Sydney White film remaja yang lumayan menghibur dari pada bosen sendirian. :)

PT28 16.48 14/02/12

P.S.:

mumpung masih berdekatan waktunya, aku menunggu people's power untuk menyingkirkan FPI dari bumi pertiwi. (mekso banget yak? hahahaha)