Change Your Image
christovaughan
Reviews
Life or Something Like It (2002)
Good film, should have ended better
This is a fun film, and is headed toward a logical surprise ending that I have to think someone somewhere forced a new ending on it. This is not really a spoiler, because it didn't end this way, but here's the way it should have ended:
They make such a big deal through the whole film about Lanie's fake blond hair, and when she is told she is going to die and discovers more about her real self, she starts primping and washing it less. Near the end she has discovered how to be happy with her real self, except that she still has the threat of death hanging over her head. The logical conclusion of the film is that she dyes her hair to bring it back to her natural color. She fulfils the prophecy ("In three days you will die/dye") and becomes a fuller, more real person. Instead they have a cop-out ending.
Shine (1996)
Abuse does not cause schizophrenia--let's all repeat--Abuse does NOT . . .
This is a nice story, but it is very troubling how the movie suggests that David's mental state, which is obviously schizophrenia, is somehow cause by his father's abuse. Schizophrenia is an organic brain illness. No one know exactly what causes it, but it is not caused by parental abuse. It seems that nearly every summary of the movie states outright that David's father creates David's "nervous breakdown." This belief takes us right back to Freudian psychology of the 1950s, when the belief was that schizophrenia was a reaction to "refrigerator mothers." The movie "A Beautiful Mind" was more realistic in depicting how schizophrenia strikes seemingly out of nowhere and is a diabolically difficult disease to ameliorate in any way. It is a disservice to all of us to suggest otherwise. Again, it's enjoyable to be swept along in the story, but if you take away the premise about the cause and cure of Helfgott's illness, the movie feels a little hollow.