Normal Life
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Movie Reviews of Normal Life
Movie Review: dynamite story, hitting viewers not unlike a hammer hits a nail on the head
Summary: 4 Stars
Perhaps, in NORMAL LIFE, director John McNaughton never
realized his luck in combining the right timing,
assembling the right actors and actresses and the right
story, all wrapped into one movie, considering his other
boring one, Lansky, that was a sleeper, for example.
NORMAL LIFE is quite skeletal in its complexity (or in
other words, is not unnecessarily convoluted), telling a
dynamite story, hitting viewers not unlike a hammer hits a
nail on the head, such is the shock of seeing the
progression of a upstanding, law-abiding police officer
mutate into a hidious, stickup artist, on the word of a
hot, crazed, libido-filled, drugged, delinquent young
chick, played incredibly well by Ashley Judd, known to not
shy away from controversial, shocking and out-of-the-norm
roles.
A Christian friend of mine, having seen this movie,
admitted having cried from having seen it, in dispair of
the damage borne by the man, in an attempt to preserve
that monogamous relationship with Judd, satisfying her
many wants and needs, to the point of sacrificing his own
line of work, and putting his life on the line in criminal
enterprises for profit. Other people loved this movie,
from its originality, all praised Judd's natural feel in
playing the role that she did, and the maturity of Luke
Perry, who very well conveyed to the audience the anguish
and emotional torture endured from this wild ride of
a relationship.
Of course, NORMAL LIFE's ending, condemns the entire
behavior, as it obviously had to, considering the movie is
taken from a real life story, from almost 40 years ago,
in USA.
Movie Review: Live by the gun...
Summary: 4 Stars
Ashley Judd--Pam--is a certified nutcase, a combination sociopath and manic depressive. Luke Perry--Chris--is a gun-obsessed cop. They meet--NOT cute at all--and get married. He feeds off his need for her. She feeds off every next minute of thrills. No thrills, no connection. No connection, no hope.
She's in despair, she's ecstatic, she's drugged out half the time, she plays with her husband's guns. They have sex and she doesn't feel anything, but shows off her great body a lot. She freaks when she's around other people Chris values (his parents, his friends). He doesn't know what to do with her.
The title is obviously ironic and the violence--brutal and sudden--is not the cookie-cutter variety seen in most Hollywood movies but tragic and senseless and awful. The thing is, what does Pam really want? What does Chris really want?
What do you really want? That's the real question here. And because this movie asks that question in such an upfront way it's a solid piece of work. Most people don't really know what they want; they hang onto little pieces of dreams or illusions, hoping life will bring them more than what they have now.
Here's a film that slams home that question right between the eyes. Do you want a telescope? Do you want a lot of money and a new house? A new motorcycle? OK. You get those.
Then what?
Movie Review: What happens in your life stays in your life
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a very solid "little" film in which Ashley Judd and Luke Perry play Pam and Chris, two very outwardly normal looking people.
But Pam is very much a borderline personality and bipolar to boot. Chris is a young cop who is willing to sacrifice everything due to his codependency with Pam. While Chris is at work, Pam drugs and drinks and plays with Chris' gun collection in her panties, and cuts herself. She can't deal with Chris' normal family and runs away from them whenever she's forced to be social.
Chris is willing to do anything---ANYTHING---to help Pam, and so he ends up with a mountain of debt, no friends, and no job. In desperation, he turns to robbing banks. When Pam finds out, she wants to play too, and that's literally how she sees it---as a game. All they really both want is a house with a white picket fence and the requisite middle-class toys, a normal life, but there's nothing "normal" to build on.
NORMAL LIFE questions modern American values and it questions the viewer. What do you want? How badly do you want it? What are you willing to do to get it? Will you sacrifice?
Movie Review: Normal Life
Summary: 4 Stars
Based on a true story because no fiction writer could make it believeable. Well worth the time.
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