I am NOT a critic. I'm merely an observer. (Books, movies, plays, musicals etc.)

( source ) Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a 27-year-old grieving after the loss of her father (Anthony Hopkins), a genius mathematician whose mind gradually deteriorated from mental illness. With her sister, Claire (Hope Davis), urging Catherine to leave their family home, and an ambitious student (Jake Gyllen haal) searching through her father's notes, Catherine struggles to keep her composure and her sanity in this drama adapted from the stage play by David Auburn. -WWW Initial release :  30 September 2005 ( USA ) Director :  John Madden Story by :  David Auburn   (This was presented first in the year 2000(May- Off Broadway- New Brunswick, New Jersey/ October-Great White Way or Broadway).  It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play) Nominations :  Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture – Drama 2006 · Gwyneth Paltrow/ Golden Lion 2005 · John Madden/ Grand Jury Prize 2005 · J...

2 James Marden flicks I've seen the same day(8 February 2016) It's the Lunar New Year and you would think I would watch something Asian, but no.  I watched two James Marden movies and I must say that I am convinced that the guy is a chameleon. I've seen the first one by "accident".  I was channel surfing because I was stumped then I saw that THE BEST OF ME(2014) was playing on Star Movies.  I wanted to watch this the year it was released, but I was too busy.  When I was freer, it was not playing anymore. :-(  I was not fortunate to read the novel by Nicholas Sparks, but since I knew it was something from him, I tried to guess who was going to die.  Later I learned through Wikipedia that there's an alternate ending for those people who hate tragedies. It's an "ideal" ending, but even if it's sad, I think the original ending is still better.   The story is very moving and worth every minute(probably every second) of my time. A...

When movies are based on books, I feel sad for the screenwriter because most of the time the people who read the book would say, "I like the book better."  I myself am very, very guilty of this, but when I put myself in the writer for the screen adaptation's shoes, I understand that not all the elements could be included.  There are a few screenplays that are even better than the book and there's this very rare case when book and the movie are on equal footing. This is one of them. Zodiac is very faithful to the book.  Yes, it is still very impossible to include everything, but all the important elements of the book are included here.  The events were checked by the screenwriter, meaning, it is also as accurate as accurate could be. With a great story, powerhouse cast, great screenplay and magnificent direction, how could this movie go wrong? What am I saying? There are movies with the same elements, but still don't go well with their box office resul...