Memorial Movie Day weekend....

I am a movie buff. During the winter I primarily watch TV. In the summer I read, watch movies and do crafts with the girls. The last truly "great" movies I remember seeing were "Pride and Prejudice", "The Last King of Scotland" and "Atonement".

On Saturday the girls rented "Hotel for Dogs". I won't comment much on that movie as it was a typical corny, fun kids movie. My girls loved it though and watched it twice. My husband and I later watched "Wanted" a thriller with Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy (who I love from Atonement), which for a thriller actually had an interesting plot.

I love dramas, and WWII dramas in particular. Last night after the girls went to bed I rented "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas". The film is centered around a German boy who idolizes his father, a high ranking Nazi officer. The boy's father is promoted and newly stationed at at a concentration camp. The boy and his family move to new home that looks more like a business office than a home.

At first the boy is homesick and dislikes his new living quarters. Through his window he notices a "farm" with strange farmers wearing striped pajamas. His mother is appalled he can see the "farm" and is very firm that he is only to play in the front of the home, not the back, which is locked and gated.

Where his sister and father take what they are being told on faith and pride in the Nazi party, the boy and his mother question what they is being told against what they are observing. This is ironically aligned to the relationship the family has with the maternal grandparents - the grandfather who openly supports the Nazi movement and his grandmother who, not quietly enough, does not.

The boy finally escapes to the woods behind the house and develops a friendship across a barbed wire, electric gate with a small boy his age. The friendship results in horrific consequences based on the best of intentions.

The other great movie I had the pleasure of viewing was "The Reader" with Kate Winslet, set in post WWII Europe. Kate's character is an odd, introverted, structured, regimented individual who befriends a teenage boy. The movies touches a plethora of controversial issues, including pedophilia, illiteracy, and war crimes. This film repetitively captures how any decisions and actions, no matter how insignificant at the time made, could have a significant impact in the future.

If you like dramas, I highly recommend both of these films.