Laurel Canyon (2003)

Undescribable Perfection

Better Late Then Never

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This movie has given me a new understanding and appreciation of a word I first learned in high school chemistry class: sublimation. That was when I learned that a solid could transform directly to a gas withoout becoming a liquid. But this movie introduced another meaning, and served it on a platter in the last scene.

the virtue of movie - the cast. Frances Mc Dormand,Christian Bale, Natascha McElhone. ball of situations, crumbs of humor, slices of Californian life style and music industry. heart - self definition out of others but as product of them. axis - character of Chistian Bale - scale of facts, words and strange world who gives measure of life. story is not original but solution is special. the pool is, in this case, not only a scene but one character, refuge, root, piece of unfinished relationship and kind of solitude. a good film but in strange form. ball of neurosis and fragile escapes, love as mist and place of the other in your existence, its end is just beginning. That is all !

This is a really interesting movie; not quite sure why or how it hasn't received more kudos that it has. The plot is not for the faint hearted when it comes to issues of sexuality and nor is the language. But if one is of a mature age and attitude; this is well worth watching. This is an ensemble performance so I wont single out any single actor for particular comment; the sound track is integral to the film and while present, does not overwhelm. One of the interesting aspects of this film is how it deals with age. Ultimately this film is about reality and ambiguity of relationships and the importance of honest and as such it about life. Highly recommended.

A Hollywood touchy-feely movie that has all the subtlety of a lead rock. It doesn't take much to soon figure where this movie is taking the audience. The sexual threesomes or foursomes or twosomes or whatever soon dominate the story as the audience is asked to accept a whole range of implausibilities in order for the story to work. The mother, the son, the girl-friend, the musician, all clichés, all unbelievable, all annoying, most of all the son, played by Christian Bale, in a glaring example of miscasting that is egregious, even for a Hollywood movie, which is saying a lot. The setting itself is contrived, as if Laurel Canyon is some kind of stage, a place that's so special. C'mon! It's L.A. Nothing special about that. It's not even Hollywood. Nothing in this movie works accept the final scene where the two main male characters get into a fight. Only then does the movie come to life. This movie is further proof that Hollywood should stay away from the touchy-feely stuff and stick to what it does best - producing c-g action pictures with cartoon-like characters. After all, isn't that what the public wants?