Location: Cinemark Theater in Stroud Mall
Time: 11:35am
Party: 3 (my mom, sister & I)
Directors: Lasse Hallström (in addition to movies like Cider House Rules and Chocoloat, he also did a bunch of ABBA videos... wow!... definitely explains why this movie is so colorful) and Joe Johnston (of "Captain America" fame- the first movie specificially)
Writer: Ashleigh Powell (screenwriter)
Composers: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (of course for the original Nutcracker ballet) and James Newton Howard (for everything else... he's composed so many movies I love, it's hard to figure which ones to list- just check out his imdb profile :P)
Notable Cast:
Clara- Mackenzie Foy (who I hadn't seen since she played Renesme in "Breaking Dawn")
Fritz, Clara's little brother- Tom Sweet
Louise, Clara's older sister- Ellie Bamber (only credit I recognize- she was one of the Bennett sisters in "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies")
Mr. Stahlbaum, Clara's father- Matthew Macfayden (one of those actors who looks familiar but I really hadn't seen his role. Interestingly, he played Mr. Darcy to Keira's Elizabeth Bennett back in 2005- one of many version I never saw)
Drosselmeyer, Clara's godfather- Morgan Freeman
Nutcracker Soldier Philip- Jayden Fowora-Knight (his only other credit is "Ready Player One")
Sugar Plum Fairy from the Land of Sweets- Keira Knightley
Mother Ginger from the
Hawthorne from the Realm of Flowers- Eugenio Derbez
Shiver from the Realm of Snowflakes- Richard E. Grant
Ballerina Princess- Misty Copeland
Duration: 99 minutes (+7 trailers... it's always 7 at this theater...)
Write-up:
Introduction:
It was my sister's birthday on the 7th and seeing this movie was part of a weekend celebrating her birthday (the previous night, we had an amazing dinner at the Frogtown Chophouse in Swiftwater).
One funny thing I realized when sitting down to see this movie... it's been so overwhelming with all the political ads... I realized that as soon as they go away, a million Christmas commercials were waiting in the wings to take their place. I mean, I love Christmas, don't get me wrong... but I don't want to see any trace of it before December 1. Christmas is a special time of year, but it becomes less special when it's overwhelmed by two solid months of commercialism. I may not be in love with Thanksgiving, but I feel for it being overlooked in favor of all the Christmas stuff. Maybe it's the OCD in me that wants everything to be in their place, in order. It also goes back to college where I was so stooped in studying for finals to make sure I aced my classes (and 4 out of 5 times, I did) that I couldn't afford myself to get excited about Christmas until winter break.
This is also funny because I realized this in theater and not even a second later, they had a commercial for Hallmark movie channel doing a Christmas movie-thon. I swear, I shielded my face like a vampire trying to hide from the sun :P
And of course... it's funny because The Nutcracker is technically a Christmas movie... and I honestly didn't mind making a concession for that.
Trailers:
It's always 7... and the theme continues... oddly enough, a bunch of these movies looked like ones I wanted to see. But I highly doubt I'd get myself to a theater to see them all. Only one is an absolute definite and it'll be the next one.
A Dog's Way Home- I haven't seen "A Dog's Purpose" but I heard it was a bit of a tearjerker. Almost any time there's a movie centering around a dog, it's a tearjerker cuz they often die in the end. I refuse to see "Old Yeller" out of principle for that reason alone. This movie is about a dog named Bella and her owner, how he's gone all the time and she misses him. Then she somehow runs away, gets lost and [spoiler alert] she comes back at the end. They showed the whole movie practically in 2 minutes. But I was happy that they did get together in the end.
Fantastic Beasts: The Trials of Grindewalld- definitely seeing this one. I have no idea how many times I'd seen this trailer, but I feel like I get more out of it each time. I absorb more of what's going on. But I couldn't repeat everything if you asked me to :P I'd be here forever.
Instant Family- there's been a lot of promo for this Mark Wahlberg/Rose Byrne movie where they want a foster kid and the one they want has two siblings so they get three kids. It looks like a sweet movie. They had a new scene where one kid says "thanks Daddy" and the mom goes after her asking if she wants help with anything cuz she wants some of that action and the kid's like "No." So cute.
The Kid Who Would be King- instead of a Kid being in King Arthur's Court, the world of Camelot comes into reality. A bullied kid in a private school finds Excalibur, pulls it from the stone and it brings all kinds of havoc into reality that he and his classmates have to defend their world. It looks like fun, but part of me also thinks the movie might wind up being crap and they glossed up the trailer and edited it to make it look amazing.
The Grinch- there's definitely been a lot of lead up to this and I want to see it eventually. Maybe not buy a movie ticket. Benedict Cumberbatch will be great in this role, although they might have made it a little too comical. Then again, they can't do any worse than Jim Carrey in the live action version. I'd barely seen any of it and I could really do without it. Whoever thought live action Dr. Seuss movies were a good idea should be work in show business cuz it's practically nightmare fuel, seeing the actors' faces in these beloved children's book characters. Not to mention all the idiotic rude humor involved.
Wreck-It Ralph Breaks the Internet- this one looks like a lot of fun. And this trailer finally gave me an idea of what the movie's about. Vanellope's video game, Sugar Rush broke down and she's worried about not having a place in the world. "If I'm not a racer, then what I am?" so she and Ralph go into the Internet to find a part to fix her game. The scene with her and all the Disney princesses looks like so much fun. I just hope we get more out of it than just 5 minutes.
Aladdin- I cannot wait to get more than just this same teaser trailer they showed during a football game a few weeks ago. We just have Iago flying over the desert and Agrabah, the Cave of Wonders opening up and Aladdin reaching for the lamp. The big question mark for me is the Genie. Who's going to play him? Will it be an attempt to pay homage to Robin Williams' version or will it be something different? Robin Williams totally made that movie, which, fun fact, was the first movie I ever saw in a theater. My dad took me to see it. I don't remember much about it other than being really worried during the scene where Jafar throws Aladdin into the ocean to drown. Cannot wait to see and review that one, all while recollecting the original. We got way back ;)
...Somehow the previews always have a way of making me forget what I came to see... it still isn't fair that they show the concession stand ad AT THE END... it makes you hungry and thirsty and chances are, you can't get out in time to get anything. Also, I can't remember the last time I had theater popcorn.
The Main Event:
early Oscar buzz
I can't give everything away, obviously, but for starters, this movie was AMAZING. For sure, it's going to win some Oscars, most likely for Art Direction/Production Design and Visual Effects. I'd like it to be nominated and win for costumes too. Just looking at the makeup job on Mother Ginger, that's another possibility as well.
Originals and Adaptations
As everyone knows, The Nutcracker is a story that's been around for a long time. "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" was written by E.T.A. Hoffmann in 1816. Alexander Dumas (of "Three Muskteers" and "Count of Monte Cristo" fame) adapted it, the main difference changing the heroine's name from Marie to Clara. And Dumas' version was the version Tchaikovsky adapted into the well-known 1892 Russian ballet.
A couple of years ago, my favorite figure skater, Evgeni Plushenko orchestrated his own Nutcracker show. After he withdrew from the Sochi Olympics for back issues and had surgery (he broke a screw supporting a plastic disc in his back), sometime later, he had a dream about doing an ice show for the Snow Queen... of course, changing the gender of the character so he could play the main role. I'd seen various scenes on YouTube, but never the entire show... the people in Russia and Japan were so lucky to see it. (It looks AMAZING!!) In 2015, he did it again, but this time, he did his own Nutcracker. I'm not entirely sure what character he played. It wasn't the main role. But it started with at Christmas with a big tree and Clara gets a Nutcracker for Christmas. Then I think she goes to sleep and dreams about being in the realm where he comes to life. And there were multiple realms. The whole show was on YouTube and it lasted at least 2 hours. My attention wasn't held the entire time, admittedly, but the production looked amazing. He'd been busy with his new skating school (I'd only seen a handful of his students compete so far... ok, just two), but last I heard, he's been working with his 5 year old son, Sasha to learn skating and he's working on his next show- Swan Lake.
The Task at Hand
Now for THIS version... and they did a really good job making this old story brand new again.
First of all, you get swept into the fantasy of it within the first couple minutes. There's an owl flying over London at Christmas time and it's snowing... enough said. Breathtaking!
Clara's family is still dealing with their mother's death. Clara's coping by doing little science experiments in the attic and not hanging around with people. Something her father wants to change as he gathers the siblings to go to a local Christmas party. Conversely, Clara's under the impression that he cares more about keeping up appearances than their mom. Right off the bat, this movie has this theme about family. Which is a pretty big deal around Christmas time. And it's kinda rough when it's the first Christmas without someone you're close with. And also when family members are fighting.
Just before they go to the party, their dad gives them all gifts their mom left to them. Clara's sister got one of their mom's dresses, I forget what her brother got, but Clara got a metallic egg with a keyhole, but no key. Then she deduces who created the egg in the first place.
So they go to the party and it's at the house of Morgan Freeman's character. I'm not sure how he and her mother came to know each other, but Clara refers to him as her godfather. So he did at least look after her mom when she was a kid. She shows him the egg he made and wonders if he has the key. More on this later...
Clara and her father have one last fight and everything comes out. All her father asked of her was to not to disappear, to spend time with other people (I thought her being in the crowd during the ballet performance counted!) and to dance with him. But she doesn't want to dance and they don't leave each other on the best terms.
I thought the next scene was really cool. The godfather announces it's time for everyone to get their gifts. So all of them have a piece of string with their names on them and they followed them throughout the house (the house is huge, btw, and you see little hints of wht Clara will see in the four realms if you pay attention) to find them. Obviously, Clara's leads to the key... but in the process, the movie borrows from Narnia and she goes through a hallway in the house that takes her into fantasy land.
And it goes without saying... unfortunately (and this really annoyed me, what can I say, I get impatient about these things)... that it's not as simple as Clara getting the key and opening the egg... a mouse steals the key. And she comes upon the Nutcracker shortly after. Apparently, her mom discovered these realms when she was younger and by assocation, Clara is being treated like royalty. Does she abuse her power? Maybe, a little bit... in the beginning. She and the Nutcracker try, and fail, to get the key back from the Mouse King (which is a bunch of mice coming together to form a huge monster mice). So they have to retreat to the castle where they meet the leaders of three of the Realms.
The story is that Mother Ginger, of the Fourth Realm, threatened to take over all the realms, so she was banished. And everyone else in the kingdom is forbidden to travel there. And Clara is treated to a ballet that teaches her the history of all the realms. Which is where Misty Copeland comes in and does what she does so well. (She's also a big reason why you should stick around to watch the end credits).
The production on stage is small when you compare it to the four realms, but they use all that space to full advantage, including various intricate set pieces and the floor that lights up with various shapes and colors.
By the end of the movie, I said "all of those people who said Misty couldn't be a great ballerina because she was too old (she didn't start training until she was 13) or she's of color... look at her now!" I mean, they have to be eating their words. She's out of this world. And I'm not just saying that cuz she has a Prince connection- according to Wikipedia, she was in his "Crimson & Clover" video and was at his Welcome 2 America tour (had I gotten tickets to shows at the Meadowlands or MSG, I could have seen both of them in person-- still regretting it cuz that was my one chance to see him, the one time he came close to me from 2007 to 2016). But before I knew who she was, I saw her name in print in an article about him. And I saw them together on the Geoge Lopez show- he performed "The Beautiful Ones" and she was dancing on the piano... their stage chemistry worked really well with that song. Funny thing- I watched this performance for the first time since it aired in 2011 and I wondered out loud if that was her... and sure enough, it was.
She was also a guest judge on "So You Think You Can Dance" and she gave really good critiques without being overly harsh.
Anyway, the story progresses when Clara gets an army to get the key back and she does eventually find what's inside the egg. It initially came with a note that read "everything you need is inside." It doesn't seem like it's worth this trouble at first, but it serves a couple of purposes that does make it so.
Kinda like the egg- in this movie, not everything is what it appears to be and that goes on to affect the plot and some of the characters. It's a good twist, but at the same time, it was something I kinda saw coming.
There isn't a lot of focus on the other realms and we see the other realms briefly in a montage where Clara visits them all and is showered with gifts. We spend the most time in the kingdom with the Nutcracker, the Sugar Plum Fairy and Mother Ginger. Definitely a great cast. Keira Knightley is almost unrecognizable as the Sugar Plum Fairy. I wondered if that was her voice cuz it sounds way too high to sound like it came from her. If it was, I wondered if her voice was sore after filming or it took a while for her to remember how to speak normally. Mother Ginger looked very familiar, so I guess it wasn't surprising to find out it was Helen Mirren. She's really good in anything she does. And both of these women kick butt in the movie.
And of course there's bound to be a little talk about someone of color playing the Nutcracker. There's been so much talk about making movies more diverse, but a lot of time it feels forced. Just having a token person of color so Hollywood isn't accused over being racist or whitewashing everything seems a bit much... my opinion is that a cast shouldn't be diverse for the sake of it. It should be because the actors are right for the parts. And in the case of "This is Us," writing good roles for people of color is a move in the right direction.
In the case of this Nutcracker, Jayden is really good job of it. The character is a soldier so he's made to follow orders. But the nutcracker himself is a character that's always there for Clara to support her and be her friend and this is where he shines. The two of them have really good chemistry on screen.
Even though things stop after Clara's disappointed with the contents of the egg and the villain gets the upper hand, the gloominess doesn't last long. There's a lot of action in the third act. And Clara finally returns home and make things right with her dad...
between the warm & fuzzies, the Christmas stuff and the music... it's another tearjerker of a movie, but they're very happy tears. We had to cheer at the end and everyone else in theater eventaully joined in. (It was an empty theater at first, but by curtains, it got a decent amount of people. A lot of families with kids too. I was half afraid they'd talk through the whole movie or someone would be kicking my seat the whole time... neither came to pass, so it was a good experience overall)
Grade: A
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