Movie Review: The Prestige

Title: The Prestige
Author: Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson, Hugh Jackman, Michael Cane
Release Date: 2006
Genre: drama, mystery, sci-fi
My Rating: ****
Official Rating: PG-13 for violence and disturbing images
Age Group: 14+

Summary
Every magic act has three parts: the pledge (where something apparently ordinary is shown), the turn (when something extraordinary happens), and the prestige (when the ordinary thing is brought back). Or so Cutter claims.
Two young magicians, Robert Angier (the showman) and Alfred Borden (the gifted illusionist) are friends and partners on stage, working under the main magician. One night, something goes horribly wrong, and the two men are forever set against each other.
One rises to success and fame, then the other. They are constantly fighting to find out each other's secrets. Sometimes, it seems as though they will go to any ends to find out the methods of those three parts.
But what happens when you find out that they've both been living their acts? That the story itself has a pledge, a turn, and a prestige?

Word of Warning

Allow me to begin by explaining that while many of these things are present in the movie and the story, they are not present. It's incredibly hard to explain, but some of the more difficult things are not what they appear (this is a movie about magic shows, after all). This does not detract from the bad things that do happen, but it does make some things that seemed horrible much less serious. Little more can be said without risking majorly spoiling the movie, and that's something I absolutely do not want to do with this one.

•  People drink. There are a few scenes where characters are drunk, all portrayed in a negative light.
• Multiple people drown during magic tricks, apparently gone wrong.
• A young girl's future is threatened.
• A husband kisses his wife's calf during a trick, discretely but noticeably.
• Husband and wife kiss passionately, fall onto bed, scene cuts.
• A bird is killed during a magic trick, its crushed body is shown.
• A man tries to drown himself, does not carry through. A woman hangs herself, we see her limp body hanging by a rope around her neck.
• Someone mutters "Oh my God" but it sounds more like a prayer and less like a disrespectful use of His name.
• Man is shot in the hand, screams in pain, fingers are missing in a later view. Another man is shot in the arm, while quite a few are shot in the abdomen later on (and die).
• Women in magic shows wear provocative clothing complete with short skirts, tight waists, and very low necklines (think circus performer).
• A man falls, breaking his leg (we hear the crunch)
• Implication that a man is cheating on his wife. This is later confirmed, sort of. We get a scene of a couple in bed together fully clothed, nothing happens and the scene is quick, only meant to share information and nothing more.
• Man is captured, nailed into a coffin, and buried alive but given the opportunity of escape via blackmailing his partner.
• Various things (objects, animals, people) are "electrocuted".
• A man is sentenced to death and hung. We see the floor fall out, his body drops, no movement, his neck apparently broken.
• Man chops off fingers with a chisel.

My Thoughts
At the end of the movie, I stared at the screen for a good ten minutes, shocked. Calculating what I had just seen. Processing, going over the story again, seeing the pledge, the turn, and the prestige. Heartbroken. Impressed. In awe.
It's a movie that is incredible the first time, and I suspect absolutely brilliant the second time. It's the kind of movie that can, and should be watched at least twice.
It was well done. How could it not be, with such a director working with that cast?
But it was more than well done. This is one of the few movies out there today, created in the last ten years, that is genuinely a work of art.

Book Review: Violet and the Pearl of the Orient

Title: Violet and the Pearl of the Orient
Author: Harriet Whitehorn
Illustrated by: Becka Moor
Release Date: 2014
Genre: friendship, mystery, British literature
My Rating: **
Official Rating: Childrens to middle grade fiction
Age Group: 8+

Summary
Violet Remy-Robinson and her best friend Rose have a good life. They like to play in the garden (Violet is a very good climber), visit the eccentric neighbor lady Dee Dee (she's from America), care for their cats, and they go to a nice school.
Then the Du Plicitous family moves in. Isabella is rude, and so are her parents. Dee Dee starts having trouble with them as her new landlords. Then one day Dee Dee's most valuable possession, the Pearl of the Orient, goes missing. Violet and Rose don't think the whole thing is being handled properly, and they set out to solve the mystery themselves. Now if they could just get someone to take them seriously....

Word of Warning

• The Du Plicitous family is very very rude. 
• Violet and Rose hatch several plans to escape from school. Eventually they do (but there are consequences).
• Violet's parents like a good cocktail, or so we're told. There are several other drinks mentioned as well, and Violet is given a small amount in her own glass. Still, there is no drunkenness or anything I'd be worried about.
• Violet disobeys her mother and climbs a tree she was told not to climb.

My Thoughts
I picked it up looking for a book to bring home to my younger sister--and because of the illustrations. They're fun, but my favorite part was how they interacted with the text. They didn't just give more detail to the text, making it easier to picture. They were part of the text, and often it was necessary to look at them closely in order to understand the story. It was fun.
The reason there are no more stars than there are is because nothing about this book stood out to me. It was good, and I will be gifting it after all, but it didn't do anything (aside from the pictures) to stand out above any other mystery novel written for this age group.
Still, it's a fun and fast read, and it has enough British English vocabulary in it to keep an American on her toes. Plus, the eccentric American woman was too funny.

Book Review: The Club of Queer Trades

Title: The Club of Queer Trades
Author: G. K. Chesterton
Release Date: 1905 (pre-conversion)

Genre: mystery, adventure, humor, morals
My Rating: ***
Official Rating: fiction (adult)
Age Group: 12+
Students' Rating: "confusing but funny"

Summary
A collection of G. K. Chesterton's writings about Basil Grant, this novel is more episodic than the classic novel we are used to. It revolves around men belonging to the Club of Queer Trades, where one must create an entirely new way of earning an honest living in a way that has never been done before. Basil Grant, likely a precursor to Fr. Brown, left his job as judge long ago, apparently having gone crazy. Now, he wanders about England with his brother Rupert (a mockery of Sherlock Holmes) solving apparent mysteries that, well, aren't nearly as mysterious and criminal as they appear.
 
Word of Warning

• Mention of opium
• Mention of adventures that involve going to different countries and killing animals for sport
• Fist fights
• Apparent danger, prisoners
• Some slightly immoral businesses. Not immoral along the lines of inappropriate, but immoral as in not morally right.
• There are lots of things that simply have to be interpreted a different way for them to be understood as not crimes but merely interesting ways of living.
• Basil is a mystic and stargazer (among other random things)
• Characters smoke

My Thoughts
Think the beginnings of Fr. Brown and Manalive. It's got enough misunderstandings, moral and philosophical murmurings, quirky characters, ramblings, bashing of others' ideas and authors (Darwinism, Doyle, etc), and Chestertonian-ness to be amusing and full of insights. These are fun little capers that are just quirky enough to keep you smiling and reading. Sure, there's a lot going on, and it's not the best of Chesterton's writings, and it doesn't hold together well. But it's still a fun read that can be thought provoking.
At the very least, it's very, very interesting to watch what new methods of work/income GKC can come up with. There really is no end to this guy's imagination.

Series Review: Trixie Belden

Title: Trixie Belden (series)
Author: Julie Campbell (first 6) (involved in Ginny Gordon and Cherry Ames), then  Kathryn Kenny (a name taken on by an unknown number of authors)
Release Date: 1948-1986
Genre: friendship, family, mystery, drama, adventure
My Rating: ***** (possibly biased by my young tween self who was obsessed with the series)
Official Rating: children's fiction
Age Group: 10+ (mostly dependent upon reading level)

Summary
Sleepyside is a nice little town, home of Beatrix (Trixie, please!) Belden, her two older brothers Brian and Martin (Mart), and their youngest brother Bobby. Their lives are simple. Not much happens. They help out around the house, go to school, etc.
Then one summer Madeline (Honey) Wheeler's family moves in up the hill. No doubt about it, they're rich. She has a governess, the house is huge. Horses, house staff, you get the idea. Money.
Honey is lonely. Trixie's brothers are away assisting at a boys' summer camp. The two meet and hit it off, even though they're complete opposites. Honey likes Trixie's tomboyish love of adventure and danger. Trixie finds Honey's girlishness new (albeit really hard to understand)--but mostly she just likes the companionship and the horses. Who doesn't like horses?

The two girls meet a runaway boy, and everything just picks up from there.
The friends from a club called the Bobwhites of the Glen and they try to help people in need. The club consists of: Brian Belden, Mart Belden, Trixie Belden, Honey Wheeler, Jim Frayne, Dan Mangan, and Diana Lynch (the last two usually not present in the books).

Friendship. Mysteries. Adventure. Travel. Fun.
What more could one possibly want to read about? Especially as a young reader just jumping into chapter books.

Word of Warning
 Please note that while I am not reviewing specific books (for the most part), I am commenting on trends the series carries. I will also do my best to comment on any problems that really stand out, even if they were only in one book.

• Jim Frayne's stepfather beat, starved, and didn't care for him. Basically, Jonsey was abusive. We don't get much detail on this, and he's relatively mentally untouched (it's a 1940's children's book), but it is still a reality that is faced.
• Dan Mangan was part of a gang at one point (it doesn't appear he did anything too horrible, but this makes him untrustworthy).
• Some suspense. In a few books, characters are kidnapped. I remember only three or four times where the lives of the characters were in question. All the other times, the kidnapping did not lead the reader to expect death.
• Bad guys.
• No murders as far as I can remember.
• As the books rise in number, they become a bit more intense. All dealt with in a good, rather old-fashioned way, but more intense. An accidental poisoning, near drowning, an accidentally abandoned child, car crash victim with amnesia, etc.
• Also as the books rise in number, they sort of peter out. I'd say they are at their best in the late teens and early twenties. The rest are worth reading, but aren't nearly as good.
• Book 32, The Mystery of the Whispering Witch was very frustrating. For the most part, the books stay on the straight and narrow, and so do the characters. This one went over the edge. It is implied that a house is haunted, and a rather horrible story is told of a woman who was once burned to death inside of it after being accused of witchcraft. Trixie very stubbornly refuses to believe in such things (a much-appreciated element of the book), but right near the end seems to question her firm beliefs.
• Frustrations:
• Bobby's language. This is more of a rather annoying element than an actual problem. The kid is supposed to be 6 years old, but he talks like a 3 year old. As the oldest of 8, this always really bothered me because I knew he wasn't talking right.
• Continuity. As the books continued to change hands, major plot threads would get lost and important facts would be changed. Strawberry the horse would change from male to female and back again (in different books, obviously). Honey's hair color would shift, Jim's eye color, character's attractions and relationships, etc. I always thought if you're going to enter a series, know the series. I was a fan and I knew it better than the authors and editors. This drove other fans crazy as well.

The Good

• It's fun. Lots of adventure, relatively good plots (at least, not identical like the Hardy Boys* plots).
• Vocabulary. I know this isn't about education, but man the vocab in these books is great. Mart is a walking dictionary, and we learn many of the words he uses from the confusion of his friends. Others can be looked up if one so desires. I hadn't considered this when first reading these years ago, but now I see great value to what's going on here.
• Good characters. These characters come from all different backgrounds, but they join together and want to do good for others.
• Great friendships. They aren't without their struggles and complications, but they're solid.
• Great families. No, they're not torn by divorce or death or anything else. They're supportive. They're there and they care. It's very refreshing.
• Good guys. I know this sounds strange, but in contemporary books it is getting harder and harder to find good guy characters. But take a few steps back on the timeline, and we have the Belden boys and Jim Frayne (every girl who read these had a literary crush on him). Brian is responsible. Mart is a little annoying but very funny. Both brothers care deeply about their sister and her friends and do their best to protect them. Jim is stubborn and does the right thing all the time (mostly). He's respectful and loves his sister dearly, as well as her best friend, and does his best to make sure they go unharmed.
• Good ages. I remember reading Nancy Drew and quickly losing interest. She was nearly 8 years older than me! And when you're 10 or 12, that's a really big deal. Trixie, on the other hand, was so much closer and easy to relate to. And if you didn't relate to tomboy Trixie, perhaps Honey or Diana. 
• Mistakes. The kids mess up. They make bad decisions, they're not always nice to each other or others, and they get into all sorts of "scrapes." And then they dig themselves out with help from each other, family, other friends, authorities, etc. Basically, all is not well all the time--and far from it!

 *I'm not bashing the Hardy Boys series. On the contrary. Even though nearly every plot was identical, I loved those books too.

My Thoughts

They were great. With the help of very wonderful family members, I managed to get my hands on every single book, all the way from 1 to 39--and that is not an easy thing to do. I knew those things inside out. I had my favorites (still do) and my complaints. I read them to my sister because she was too young to read herself. I could draw a map of Sleepyside. I could tell you Trixie's cousins' names and where they lived, and all about the Bigfoot story. I knew the names of the minor characters and all the criminals.

Basically, I was hooked. I might propose that aside from The Boxcar Children books, this series was really what launched me into the great world of literature.

Why though? Because the characters were fun and easy to relate to. Because the adventures were great. Because it wasn't too hard to read but it didn't feel like I was being written down to. Because I shipped Jim and Trixie and wanted to find out how that turned out (spoiler: it's never addressed). Because even the romance was something a 12 year old girl not interested in romance could get behind.
Because they were good. And they're still good. Now my second sister is involved, and some of my summer students have mentioned interest (poor things. I immediately offered my thoughts, little-known trivia, and the entire series for their borrowing pleasure).
They're old but they don't get old. They're decent literature that's readable. Sadly, that can be very hard to get.

But Trixie Belden joins those childhood loves, joining the ranks of Boxcar Children, Hardy Boys, Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie, American Girl books (Sisters In Time were better), and Caddie Woodlawn.
And yes, some day I will try to get reviews of those up here too. Until then, know that they are strongly endorsed by myself and other readers of this household.


Further Reading
A very interesting article on the books: Schoolgirl Shamus that already-established fans might find enjoyable.
A blog that summarizes each book, comments on the historical/cultural aspects of them (because yes, words change meaning, societal movements come and go, etc): Brian's Jalopy

Movie Review: I Confess

Title: I Confess
Author: Alfred Hitchcock (Warner Brothers)
Genre: Mystery
My Rating: *****
Brother's Rating: *****
Official Rating: PG
Age Group: 14+
Summary: A man is murdered, and someone has to pay. But what about the soul of the man who committed the murder? Fleeing to the confessional, the murderer confesses his deed to a young priest, Fr. Michael Logan. But when things get hot, and the murderer feels he may be found out, he gets nervous. Can Fr. Logan reveal what he heard in the confessional? What if he himself is suspected, and all those he cares for are hurt?

Word of Warning:

• Note this is all in black and white.
• A dead man is seen, stretched across the floor with a bit of blood on his head.
• A man confesses to a murder. He claims the murder was an accident, that he was only intending to steal, and he is told to return the money. It is unclear as to what he does with the money. During the robbery he wears a cassock as a disguise/safety.
• A man briefly mentions that he might be hanged for murder.
• A woman (who is married) is in love with a priest, who is well aware of this. Her husband also knows, and she never lead him to believe she loved him.
• There are at least three kisses, most rather passionate. One is between a married woman and a man who is not her husband (the man returns her kiss and is unaware that she is married), the rest are between a couple who are courting.
• A man makes what is referred to as a "remark" (we are unaware as to the content of it), later referred to as "an insinuation" about a wife and Michael spending the night in a gazebo together (they were escaping a storm; nothing happened). Michael shoves the man for insulting the lady's honor.
• A man blackmails a young wife and, in doing so, a priest as well.
• A wife is so angered by how her words have been taken that she suggests she should have lied to the crime investigators when they questioned her.
• A wife is accused of "a continuous illicit--" but the sentence is never finished. Later, it is clarified simply using the term "affair" in relation to a married woman and a priest.
• A woman is shot by her husband and killed (no blood or gore). A man is shot but we do not see him (we hear he's been shot and see chefs bending down to help him).
• The man who attempted theft (and committed murder) was driven by his sadness at watching his wife work hard for their living.

Good Points
Because this movie depends entirely on these. And rightly so. Because they're amazing.

• Fr. Logan refuses to reveal anything that relates to the confession he heard. This leads to him being suspected as a murderer, his trial, and the public turning against him (shouting "take off that collar!"). Still, he remains strong and does not speak.
• Fr. Logan is kind to Ruth (the woman in love with him) but gently discourages her feelings toward him, wanting her to move on and see reality. He does his very best to protect her honor, reputation, and keep her from emotional heartbreak.
• Ruth, for her part, is in love with Fr. Logan but knows there is nothing she can do about it and does not try. She stays away from him for years to protect both of them. She never leads her husband to believe she loves him and has apparently told him of her love for Fr. Logan. She does her best to protect him as he is indicated in the murder, revealing information that may hurt her marriage in order to protect Fr. Logan.
• Ruth's husband is utterly amazing. He knows his wife is in love with Fr. Logan, and he hears the entire story of their courtship and the night in the gazebo. Still, he refuses to leave her even after she suggests this is what a husband would do if his wife were in love with another man. He supports her through difficult times, even after her revelation detailing her relationship with Fr. Logan.
• The actor for Fr. Logan is spectacular. At this point, words utterly fail.
• The portrayal of the priests is nearly flawless. As my brother pointed out, often in movies the priest will genuflect the wrong way, or make some other small mistake that would annoy Catholic viewers. No such mistakes were noticed in this movie.

My Thoughts
Honestly, if I could give this movie more than five stars, I would, but unfortunately our system only goes up to five.
I've seen this movie many times now, and it never fails to move me. Fr. Logan's bravery and determination to hold to his vows, the husband's support of his wife, and Ruth's attempt to save Fr. Logan by revealing all, they're so touching one is almost moved to trembling. Even the murderer's motivation is moving.
The story itself has an interesting premise. A priest knows of a murder because he's heard the confession of the murderer. He's framed for the murder and can't talk his way out because everything he knows concerning the murder was learned in confession. There are martyrs who died protecting that sacred seal of confession. Here, we see a slightly less tragic, but still incredibly gripping retelling of that same idea.
It's thrilling. Full of mystery, containing a passionate romance, and having all that edge-of-your-seat excitement one desires. To top it off, the hero is a priest.
What more could you possibly want?

Book Review: Scat

Title: Scat
Author: Carl Hiaasen
Genre: Adventure, Mystery
My Rating: ****
Official Rating: Teen Fiction
Age Group: 14+ (could possibly be 12+)

Summary: Nick has a very big problem: his biology teacher (the one nobody likes) has gone missing. Now, few of his classmates actually care (aside from his close friend Marta and a girl named Libby), but Nick, being a nice boy, really does care. Since she went missing the day of a wildfire, which happened in a swamp where Nick had hoped to see a panther, he decides to start there.
That's when things kind of explode. Nick gets involved with a strange man named Twilly, learns the truth about his biology teacher, finds out a very unexpected truth about the bad-boy Smoke (Duane Jr.), and gets his wish. He gets to see a panther.
Two, actually. One is a cub.
In the process, an evil business man tries to work behind the law and Nick's dad encounters difficulties in Iraq.
The biggest question is, how in the world is the author going to tie all of this together, and off, by the end of the book?


Word of Warning:

• A business man ignores laws and drills for oil where it is illegal to do so.
• A kid is arrested and admits to lighting at least two fires.
• A man loses his arm (but not "on page").
• Nick breaks his arm, is attacked by a panther, and falls out of a tree and blacks out.
• Guns are fired (not at people).
• The story eventually ends up circling around an endangered species and people's treatment of this delicate issue.
• Kids continually do things their parents would not want them to do.
• People are very rude and disrespectful toward each other.
• The words d**n and a** are used more than once.

My Thoughts:
Within the genre, the problems above really aren't a huge problem. The voice of the narration was fantastic and I am beginning to see that this is simply Hiaasen and his amazing-ness. Even the plot of saving the panthers was, for the most part, realistic and not over done (as much of the save-the-animals stuff can be). It's impressive how Hiaasen manages to whip up so many different story-lines and actually work them together. The characters are fantastic and while the dialogue can be choppy, it's far too funny to really get frustrated with.
I would reread this over, and over, and over again. It's just too good not to.