Up

2009, PG, ***1/2

This is one of the top 10 movies of 2009, so far. I think it has a great message, even though some parts might be dreary. It’s about ups and downs of life, but most of all finishing your goal, no matter what.

Edward Asner is the voice of 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen. He looses his wife to old age, and soon after sets out to fulfill their lifelong dream (of their “grape soda” adventure club) to see the wilds of South America, by tying thousands of balloons to his home, before his house is demolished due to eminent domain.

Right after lifting off, however, he learns he isn't alone on his journey, since Russell (Jordan Nagai), a wilderness explorer (boy scouts) 70 years his junior, has inadvertently become a stowaway on the trip. Together they have one heck of a journey, site seeing various landscapes along the way, running into interesting animals, talking dogs (watch out for squirrels!) and bumping into Carl’s lifelong hero, Charles Muntz, voice of the great Christopher Plummer.

Make sure you check this one out in theatres, it’s another fantastic Pixar animation. It’s one the whole family can enjoy!

Marley & Me

2008, ***1/2, PG

Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston star in this film about life with the family dog, a rambunctious yellow lab pup, they name Marley. As many of us know mans best friend is really more than a friend, he’s family.

This film is a comedy, and a tearjerker, especially when you know how difficult it can be grow up with an animal, (which feels like forever) and then they are gone in a flash.

The movie covers a lot of ground; a marriage, starting a family, job issues, centered on the growth of the family and hard times, funny and sad, with the family dog.

I believe this movie was well done, but I did find it difficult towards the end. Pet lovers will understand. It is worth a watch.

Reservation Road

2007, ****, Drama

Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly, and Mira Sorvino star in this drama about a fatal hit and run accident. Phoenix and Connelly portray husband and wife and Ruffalo is Sorvino's ex-husband. The two sets of parents are connected in more ways than they care to know. After an evening of the Red Sox game, Ruffalo and his son are on their way home, speeding along Reservation Road, through a woods filled area, the inevitable happens when one is speeding in a rush; Ruffalo hits someone, and brushes is off to his son, and tells him he "hit a log."

After 10 years, since "Inventing the Abbotts," Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly join together once again on screen. This time it will be for a drama that will leave you feeling distraught as well as feeling some forgiveness for those in the story that have committed a crime.

Ethan Learner (Phoenix, "Walk the Line," "We Own the Night") and his wife Grace (Connelly, "Dark Water," "Requiem of a Dream") are on their way a back home from their son's outdoor orchestra concert. Both children are in the back seat. They stop at a gas station. Their son goes off into the woods to let some fireflies go he collected. With in a minute or two he is struck by an SUV.

As you can imagine most parents would be extremely distraught, need counseling, and grieve in their own way until the pain subsided a bit. But, in this flick Phoenix takes matters into his own hands, because he believes time is passing and the police have moved on. He is right. He begins to take photos of damaged SUV's in the area. He begins to suspect the one person helping him on the case (Ruffalo).

This film is an excellent drama. It is well acted by all involved in the project. It shows that two wrongs don't make a right. It shows how we all should forgive. And it shows that sooner or later the culprit will come around, and pay their time. Losing a child is an extremely difficult thing.