Three to see... going good! ~Part 2~

Yes, it's been roughly two hours, give or take a few sips of wine. =+) I forgot to mention in Part 1 that I originally picked the order to watch the movies according to how I thought I'd like them... least favorite to most. So far that has held true... 28 Days is going to have to be really, really good to beat this one.

How many emotions can you go through and at what pace?

The ugly
Going backwards here from the order you are used to?

There is ugly in life. There is hate and lying and crime and death. I happen to like movies that can dip into the realness of it without ripping your heart out (Beaches comes to mind). And this movie had plenty of it. I will be honest and say that there had to be a lot of good (it's coming later in the review) to balance out all the sad. There is a lot.

Novalee (Natalie Portman) is a little dense in the beginning of the movie. Okay, she's a lot dense and is dumped off by her freak of a boyfriend and left in Oklahoma in a Walmart parking lot...pregnant, knowing no one and with no money. She lives in the Walmart for 6 weeks for lack of a better place to go, which is a little far fetched, but you know what they say..."Truth is stranger than fiction," so we'll play along for the sake of the movie.

The bad
Left by her mother at age 5, then again after she sees her on a tv broadcast (with her $500 from the Walmart president), Novalee has a superstition with the number 5. This is the only part of the movie I thought was a bit cheesy. Not because it's a superstition, but more because it really has nothing to do with anything. But I suppose it's at least carried throughout the movie to some extent and I guess it's not too terribly awful to be able to say that that is the worst thing about any movie. I got over it fairly quickly.

The good
What else is not good about this movie? The characters are all a bit strange, or maybe that is normal for Oklahoma... kidding, kidding... but they are all lovable and easy to relate to. Natalie Portman is as great in this role as she is in any... she has a great gift for making her characters real.

The story is one of someone who has been dumped on, partially because of her own naivety, but also from cruelty that life had dealt her, and has risen above it. Novalee comes from helpless, scared girl and transforms into a self-sufficient woman able to take care of herself and those around her.

Ashley Judd plays her fertile friend, Lexi, who befriends her in the hospital and the two venture out into the dating world, good and bad, together. Ashley, while giving the spotlight to another, has many outrageously funny one-liners and manages to make her character jump off the screen without stealing the show.

The hero of a man, Forney, who crashes through a window to deliver Novalee's baby and who wins her heart is played by James Frain. He believes in her even when she can't, and although highly weird, earns the love of Novalee and the viewers as well. I've not seen Frain in any other movies and his character in this one was a ditz of sorts, so either he's a really good actor or the part was right for his inexperience. If you've seen him in something else let me know... I'm curious.

The cast is supplemented by Stockard Channing, the kind yet odd woman who takes Novalee in; Sally Fields in her cameo as the mother; and Joan Cusak who really has no purpose in the movie other than to help prove that what goes around comes around when she plays the talent agent that briefly takes on Novalee's dirtball ex, Willy Jack, as a client as a rising then falling country singer who loses his legs in a train wreck then has his wheel chair stolen... *whew*

I have to say that this is one of the best movies that I've seen, ever. I love rollercoaster movies that have me laughing, then crying, then laughing immediately through my tears. There are parts of the movie that are still disturbing to me, but I am left with an overall sense of rightness. A potluck of emotions. Isn't that what movies are supposed to do?

See you in a couple of hours with part 3....