The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife is based 2003 novel by Audrey Niffenegger. It is an unconventional love story that centers on a man with a strange genetic disorder that causes him to unpredictably time travel, and his wife, an artist who has to cope with his frequent absences and dangerous experiences.

The novel tells the story of Henry DeTamble (born 1963), a librarian in Chicago, and his wife, Clare Abshire (born 1971), an artist from a wealthy family who makes paper sculptures. Henry has a rare genetic disorder, which comes to be known as Chrono-Displacement during his lifetime that causes him to involuntarily travel through time.

When 20-year-old Clare meets 28-year-old Henry at the Newberry Library in 1991, he has never seen her before, although she has known him most of her life. Clare's past is still in Henry's future. Henry begins to experience the events in Clare's childhood at the same time that he experiences life with the adult Clare in the present. In the novel, the future cannot be changed, and many tragic events are foreshadowed in the past.

Starring: Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana, Ron Livingston, Jane McLean

Release Date: August 14th, 2009 (wide)

Book Rating




"A powerfully original love story." -- People

"Tremendous grace and imagination . . . A love story without softness or flinchiing." -- The Washington Post Book World

"[A] time-travel love story par excellence. . . . [A] soaring celebration of thhe victory of love over time." -- Chicago Tribune

Spirited . . . Niffenegger plays ingeniously in her temporal hall of mirrors." -- The New Yorker

The Informers

Bret Easton Ellis (“Less Than Zero” and “American Psycho”) adapts his own acclaimed novel for the screen, returning to the Los Angeles of the early 1980’s with a multi-strand narrative that deftly balances a vast array of characters who represent both the top of the heap (a Hollywood dream merchant, a dissolute rock star, an aging newscaster) and the bottom (a voyeuristic doorman, an amoral ex-con).

Connecting all his intertwining strands are the quintessential Ellis protagonists—a group of beautiful, blonde young men and women who sleep all day and party all night, doing drugs—and one another—with abandon, never realizing that they are dancing on the edge of a volcano.

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Winona Ryder, Jon Foster and Amber Heard.


ps: The movie will not contain any vampires or zombies. In some countries, such as France, the book was even released under the title 'Zombies', this makes the omission extremely surprising.

The BOOK

The Informers is a collection of linked short stories by Bret Easton Ellis first published in 1994. It displays attributes similar to Ellis' novels Less Than Zero and The Rules of Attraction with the story set in California

“Coolly ferocious. . . . Truly unsettling.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Skillfully accomplishes its goal of depicting a modern moral wasteland. . . . Arguably Ellis's best.” —The Boston Globe

“Sparkles with a disturbing mix of humor and ultraviolence.” —Detroit Free Press

“Ellis . . . has a keen eye for dialogue, a sharp eye for the moral bankruptcy of modern life, and a vivid imagination.” —San Franciscop Chronicle

“Bret Easton Ellis. . . is an extremely traditional and very serious American novelist. He is the model of literary filial piety, counting among his parents Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nathanael West, and Joan Didion.”—The Washington Post

Book Rating

The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code is based on the bestselling 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Because of some controversial interpretations and factual inaccuracies of Christian history in both the book and movie, they were criticized by the Roman Catholic Church.

Some bishops urged members to boycott the film. However, in its opening weekend, the film earned over US$224 million worldwide. It is the second highest grossing movie of 2006 worldwide—having reached US$758,239,851 as of November 2, 2006, making it both Tom Hanks' and Ron Howard's most successful film

Plot:
Famed symbologist Professor Robert Langdon is called to the Louvre museum one night where a curator has been murdered, leaving behind a mysterious trail of symbols and clues. With his own survival at stake, Langdon, aided by the police cryptologist Sophie Neveu, unveils a series of stunning secrets hidden in the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, all leading to a covert society dedicated to guarding an ancient secret that has remained hidden for 2000 years. The pair set off on a thrilling quest through Paris, London and Scotland, collecting clues as they desperately attempt to crack the code and reveal secrets that will shake the very foundations of mankind.

Directed by Ron Howard, the movie stars Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou (Amelie).

Movie Rating:




Book Rating:
As most book-to-movie adaptations, it loses some of it grandeur. The twists are less sharp and it's a bit more predictable. The movie is pretty faithful to the book. However, in trying to place all of the book's riddles in the movie, the characters had less time to "de-code" them. Therefore, they seemed like all-knowing geniuses that casually figured out the most complex mystery in no time. The result? It gets confusing and tedious. The story is just as flawed and as poorly-researched in the movie as in the novel.

The Lovely Bone

COMING TO CINEMA
December 11th, 2009 (wide)

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Author) tells about 14-year-old Susie Salmon ("like the fish") who is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer--the man she knew as her neighbor, Mr. Harvey. From heaven, Susie keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case.
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The novel draws from the author's personal experiences from when she was raped during her freshman year at Syracuse University.
In Lucky, Sebold's 1997 memoir of the event and its aftermath, she describes how it transformed her life, especially after learning that the rapist's previous victim had died. After later seeing the rapist on the street, she reported him to the police and eventually testified against him. He was convicted and received the maximum sentence. She began the novel in the early 1990s as an outgrowth of those events. However, she fiercely resists suggestions that it had anything to do with the aftermath of the rape.

Book Rating

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

COMING SOON TO CINEMA - April 2009
Starring: Jon Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sienna Miller, Nick Nolte

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is a 1988 novel by American author Michael Chabon. The story is a coming-of-age tale set during the early 1980s in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was Chabon's first novel, which he began writing when he was a twenty-one-year-old undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh


PLOT:
Narrator Art Bechstein is recently graduated from college, a likeable, educated but unmotivated guy who takes a job at a dreary bookstore and waits to see what the summer after his graduation has in store for him.

Going back to the school library to finish some work necessary to get his degree, he catches the eye of Phlox, an oddly-named girl with overdone makeup and dress but who has a certain attractive charm. He also soon meets Arthus Lecomte, a young gay man who wants to be a foreign diplomat, and who has a knack for getting house-sitting jobs. Soon he is in a convertible with Arthur and the cheerful Mohammed, driving too fast in a small convertible that Art is careful not to fall out of, on their way to a party that effectively kicks off the action of the novel.

The entire novel takes place in the course of the summer after Art's graduation, and there is a sense that the events of those few months will define Art as a person - his relationship with his gangster father, his ambiguous sexuality, and his relationship with the troubled and fascinating character Cleveland are all put to the test

Book Rating:

The Soloist

COMING SOON TO CINEMA
Release Date: April 24th, 2009 (wide)

PLOT: Based on the true story of Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a musical prodigy who developed schizophrenia during his second year at Juilliard School. Ayers becomes homeless in the streets of downtown Los Angeles, playing the violin and the cello. Robert Downey Jr. portrays Steve Lopez, a Los Angeles Times columnist who discovers Ayers and writes about him in the newspaper. As Lopez endeavours to help the homeless man find his way back, a unique friendship is formed, one that transforms both their lives.

Book Review

Nathaniel Ayers was a prodigy, an African American musician who was accepted to Juliard to play and to study classical bass. During his second year at that school he developed schizophrenia and was quickly unable to function in such a demanding environment. He was forced to drop out. Before long he was broke and homeless, living on the streets. But despite the adversity in his life, his musical talent did not abandon him. Neither did his passion for classical music.

Thirty years later reporter Steve Lopez walked by him as Ayers was standing in Los Angeles’ Skid Row playing a two-string violin. Intrigued by the possibilities of a good story, Ayers wrote about this strange “Violin Man” and was shocked by the reaction these articles received. But as time passed, Ayers became less of a curiosity and more of a friend. Though still inflicted with his illness and exhibiting many of its more pronounced and erratic symptoms, Lopez takes a real interest in his new friend and helps him find permanent lodging, reconnects him to his family and even connects him to the classical music scene in L.A