Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Featured Sleeper Movie

Life or Something Like It is a fun movie, but it has a great point, too.  All the materialism that was built up in the 1980's championed by Ronald Reagan and Madonna did considerable damage--to individuals, to families, to society in general.  This movie makes the point that materialism isn't all it's cracked up to be.


Angelina Jolie stars in this great film (don't get too freaked out that she has platinum blond hair in the movie) along with Edward Burns.  Jolie is a reporter (Lanie Kerrigan) who dreams of climbing the ladder of success all the way to the top (in this case a prestigious network job).  Burns (Pete Scanlon) plays a cameraman who places time with his son above work--I know, a little hard for some people to accept.  While on a job to do a story on a self-proclaimed prophet, Jack (Tony Shalhoub), Jack predicts a football score but, towards the end of the interview also says that Lanie has one week to live.


As events unfold, Lanie begins to see things from an entirely different perspective, with the help of Pete.  That is, until she gets a call to go to New York to interview the famous Deborah Connors, played by Stockard Channing.  Pete, who allowed himself to get close to Lanie when he thought she had changed, now sees her reverting to her old self.


The movie is not only funny and entertaining (Prophet Jack adds a lot to the movie) but delivers an important and valuable lesson.