Movie Multiple Choice

1. Where did the movie "Sunshine" get its name?
(a) The word sunshine has eight letters, and this movie felt like it was eight hours long.
(b) There are about eight hours of sunshine in an average day, which is about how long this movie felt like.
(c) The family in the movie had the name Sonnenschein, which is German for sunshine.
(d) All of the above.

Answer: (d) All of the above.
I love Ralph Fiennes. Really, I do. The prospect of seeing him play three roles—three generations in the same family—was exciting. The story, of a Jewish family trying to assimilate in Nazi-occupied Hungary was compelling. The problem was that it seemed to play out in real time. L-O-N-G. It should have been a miniseries.

2. Why is the movie "Trainspotting" unwatchable?
(a) There are too many scenes showing diarrhea in realistic detail.
(b) There are too many scenes of people shooting up.
(c) The characters are all repulsive, and there's no real plot to speak of.
(d) All of the above.

Answer: (d) All of the above.
We tried. We really did. This movie was so irredeemably upsetting and gross that we just couldn't take it. At the moment when I was pretty sure that the junkie's baby was going to be found dead, I flicked it off and gave up for good.

3. In the documentary "Word Wars," what did the four main characters have in common?
(a) They all lead thoroughly dysfunctional lives.
(b) They are all really weird.
(c) They are all on their way to the National Scrabble Championship.
(d) All of the above.

Answer: (d) All of the above.

• Meet Joe, the guy who reads flash cards in the car on the way to and from work (he took a night watchman job so he can study words all night). He does tai-chi and blames his poor game performance on a missed acupuncture appointment. But ... he does have a job and a family, which says a lot in this crowd.
• Meet G.I. Joel, so called because of his Gastro-Intestinal reflux problem. He chugs Maalox and spits mucous into a cup during games. He has no source of income other than the occasional Scrabble game prize money.
• Meet Matt, the surly stand-up comic and one-time writer for Conan. He pops handfuls of questionable "brain-enhancing" supplements and thinks he could eventually make it to the big time in comedy.
• Meet Marlon, the inner-city, dreadlocks-sporting, spliff-smoking guy who oversleeps and shows up to a game when it's halfway over—and still wins. We learn that MARLON is an anagram for NORMAL, and indeed, Marlon is the closest we get to normal in this movie... which is not saying much indeed.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie but found the personalities more than a little disturbing. Their obsession and lack of anything else meaningful in their lives haunted me. It reminded me of "Spellbound," which followed four kids through their obsessive preparations to the National Spelling Bee. I liked that movie better, but this one is worth watching too—just for the glimpse of that kind of life. And some of the words played and scores achieved were almost exhilarating!

Comments

[Kirsty]

Haven't seen the other two, but I love Trainspotting. The grim-ness of it is half of the appeal. The toilet scene is so gross it's funny - and the accents are wonderful.

[Mark]

"Word Wars" really disappointed me. I was expecting another "Spellbound" that we could watch with the nine-year-old (who ended up getting into watching spelling bees because of that movie), but the players spotlighted were so immature and - especially in the case of Marlon - profane that we had to turn it off. By the end, we didn't want any of them to win. I doubt Marlon will by asked to speak to school students ever again!

We have Wordplay waiting to be watched right now. We're counting on Will Shortz to come through with a good family movie.