GREAT MOVIES

Thoughtful: very good.

*****A Beautiful Mind

Synopsis: From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash, Jr. experiences it all. A mathematical genius, he made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery once he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. After many years of struggle, he eventually triumphed over this tragedy, and finally, late in life, received the Nobel Prize. 

*****White Oleander

Synopsis: After her seductive and uncompromising mother, Ingrid, kills her own boyfriend for abandoning her, fifteen-year-old Astrid witnesses her mother's arrest. It's an event that will change the course of both their lives. Suddenly, young Astrid is on her own. Shuttled through a series of foster homes, Astrid struggles to master the techniques she needs if she's to survive the unyielding and often harsh world she is thrust into. Astrid tries desperately to forge her own identity within her ever-changing environment. From behind bars, Ingrid's powerful influence is the only constant in Astrid's life--for good, and for bad. In the three years that mark her passage from child to adult, Astrid must learn the value of independence and courage, rage and forgiveness, love and survival, to earn her freedom from the past.

*****Malena

Synopsis: In Sicily during World War II, 13-year-old Renato and his pals become infatuated with Malena, a beautiful young war widow who is the obsession of every man and the envy of every woman. However, when news of the death of Malena’s husband arrives, Malena’s beauty turns into a curse. No longer protected from male advances by her marital status, she becomes fair game. As various men pursue her, their jealous wives begin spreading the word that Malena is a floozy, a rumor that the men are only too eager to believe. After a local lawyer helps her clear her name from a jealous wife’s lawsuit, he demands payment in ways that Malena is not prepared to provide. 

*****The Red Violin

Synopsis: A magical red violin passes around the world from owner to owner. It originates in Italy, where its maker's wife dies in childbirth; next it surfaces in the eighteenth century as the instrument of a child prodigy. In the nineteenth century, we find ourselves in England, where the violin's owner, a composer, is having a passionate affair. Finally, it is taken to 20th century China, where it must be hidden to prevent its destruction by Maoists. 

*****No Man’s Land

Synopsis: Ciki and Nino, a Bosnian and a Serb, are soldiers stranded in No Man's Land - a trench between enemy lines during the Bosnian war. They have no one to trust, no way to escape without getting shot, and a fellow soldier is lying on the trench floor with a spring-loaded bomb set to explode beneath him if he moves. The absurdity of their situation would be comical if it didn't have such dire consequences. With the two men stuck in a bizarre predicament, a frustrated UN sergeant tries to help, despite orders to remain at his post. When a journalist waylays the sergeant while pushing for an exclusive scoop, she affects the unfolding of events and turns a news story into an international circus. With the world's press waiting for an outcome, no one willing to take action (lest they accept responsibility). Ciki and Nino try to keep their humanity amidst the insanity of war. 

Inspirational

*****Billy Elliot

Synopsis: The life of a miner's son in Northern England is forever changed one day when he stumbles upon a ballet class on his way to boxing lessons. Joining the class, but keeping it a secret from his widowed father and overbearing brother, 11-year-old Billy finds himself in love with dance, demonstrating the kind of raw talent seldom seen by the class' exacting instructor, Mrs. Wilkinson. She encourages him to try out for the Royal Ballet School in London, where he can refine his craft while escaping his oppressive surroundings. But when his father and brother find out about the ballet class and forbid him to continue, Billy is torn between his responsibility to his family and that to the gift with which he has been blessed. His overwhelming desire to dance has become much more to him than simply a means of self-expression. It is his passion, and it is his destiny. 

Lighter Romances/Comedies

*****Shakespeare in Love

Synopsis: It is the summer of 1593, and the rising young star of London's theatre scene, Will Shakespeare, faces a scourge like no other: a paralyzing bout of writer's block. While the great Elizabethan age of entertainment unfolds around him, Will is without inspiration on material. What Will needs is a muse--and in an extraordinary moment in which life imitates art, he finds and falls for a woman who draws him into his own dramatic adventure of star-crossed love. It all begins when Lady Viola, desperate to become an actor at a time when women were forbidden from such depravity, disguises herself as a man to audition for Will's play. But the guise slips away as their passion ignites. Now Will's quill again begins to flow, this time turning love into words, as Viola becomes his real-life Juliet and Romeo finds his reason to exist. Yet all is not well in Will's world. For even as the parchment begins to pile up, he's plagued by the fact that Lady Viola must marry the insufferable Lord Wessex. 

****Waking Ned Devine

Synopsis: Who hasn't dreamed of becoming instantly, outrageously rich in the flash of a series of lucky numbers? In a quaint Irish village, old codgers Jackie and Michael learn that someone has won the lottery. They plan on conning the lucky winner out of some cash, but discover he has died of the shock of it. Not to be cheated by death, they decide that Michael should pretend to be the unfortunate Ned and claim the winnings himself. The Lotto man is not easily fobbed off though, and the two must hatch a complex scheme, and involve the entire village, in their attempt to persuade him of 'Ned's' identity.

****Chocolat

Synopsis: Vianne Rocher and her 6-year-old daughter move to a small village in southern France, near Toulouse, and open a chocolate shop across from the church, just as the town is preparing to observe Lent. The parish priest is horrified, especially since Vianne keeps her tempting shop open on Sundays. In time, the arrival of the mother/daughter team and their shop transforms the conservative and religious locals into open-minded, fun-loving people. 

Really cute young teen/children's moves and cartoons

*****Sandlot

Synopsis: The story takes place during the summer of 1962, when a new boy in town joins a baseball team and tries desperately to fit in with the others.