Month: December 2017

The Pullman family walks together in confronting a school bully. (l to r) Owen Wilson, Gidget, Jacob Tremblay, Izabela Vidovic and Julia Roberts.

WONDER

Film Review by Marlene Ardoin

Even though “Wonder” takes place during the Halloween season, I found it to be the perfect holiday season film.

Only the hardest heart will remain unmoved by this story. The silent tears spontaneously started about mid-way for me, not because of the degree of bullying meanness, but because of the humor, kindness and open-heartedness that evolves in its storytelling.

Jacob Tremblay plays August “Auggie” Pullman, Isabel (Julia Roberts) and Nate’s (Owen Wilson) son who was born with Treacher Collins syndrome.

After I was exposed to Auggie’s humor, intelligence, and humility, he starts to look like the normal kid, and the bullies start to look like grotesque, fractured souls.

Bullying is one of the unfortunate side products of a competitive system. The losers need to feel superior to someone, and that someone is usually the kid or individual who looks different.

However, standing out from the crowd is what makes one a winner in real life. Who wants to be like everybody else?

Mandy Patinkin as Mr. Tushman, could easily play one of the benevolent Harry Potter wizardry professors.

Mr. Tushman is the dean who confronts the parents of the main bully, Julian (Bryce Gheisar).

Patinkin models how school officials should respond to bullying in the school setting.

Unfortunately, bullying happens everywhere, at school, at work, at home and even in government.

Please see this movie. It could save your job, your family, your community or your children.

The film, “Wonder,” teaches the power of kindness.

Mandy Patinkin Bio:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandy_Patinkin

Bullying:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/bullying

Auggie sits with his friends at school.

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12/11/2017 # Wonder

Judi Dench as Queen Victoria and Ali Fazal as Abdul Karim

VICTORIA & ABDUL

Film Review by Marlene Ardoin

The true story of Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim is used to illustrate every facet of ageism, racism and sexism as it existed in Victorian England.

In 1887, Karim meets Queen Victoria when she is 68 years old, and has been queen for fifty years. She was tired, bored and ready to die.

As I see it, Karim was not about to let that happen, not on his watch. It was a time when sexual liaisons were popular, but I do not think that this was what was happening.

Her eldest son, and heir apparent, Edward VII, was a notorious womanizer, and probably assumed this of his mother.

What attracted Queen Victoria to Abdul Karim, was his positivity, devotion and kindness to her. Karim was the son that she wished she had.

Reading the history of this era, I discover that there was bad blood between Victoria and her son, Edward VII.

Two weeks after Edward was reprimanded by his father for being a womanizer, the Queen’s beloved husband, Albert, dies. This is not something a wife or mother forgets.

After her husband Albert’s death, with whom she bore nine children, Queen Victoria expressed her deep grief by wearing black for the rest of her life.

With Karim by her side, Queen Victoria gets a second wind, and becomes a popular, benevolent mother figure to her subjects and to Karim for another 14 years.

The argument of which culture was the more civilized of the two, English or Muslim, is another part of this film.

Edward VII is anxious to take over the throne. Here’s where the ageism part comes in.

Edward tries everything under the sun to make that happen, short of taking a gun to her head.

After thirteen years of service, Karim takes a year off to return to India. When he returns, he finds Queen Victoria is markedly aged and feeble. She dies three months later.

The kind and considerate queen did make provisions for Karim. She arranged for him to be given property and a pension in India, which director Stephen Frears and writer Lee Hall did not mentioned in the film.

Karim’s estate was in Agra, where his family resided until the Indian independence.

Karim died eight years after the queen, he did not have any children.

While this film was being made, there were protesters in Agra. They tried to stop the resurrection of the statue of Queen Victoria, which was taken down after the independence revolution.

This is a fascinating story and I am so glad I was able to catch it.

Judi Dench deserves to get a best actress nomination for her role in “Victoria & Abdul.”

Queen Victoria Bio:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria

Abdul Karim (the Munshi) Bio:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Karim_(the_Munshi)

Edward VII’s Bio:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VII

Right wing group stalls shoot of Ali Fazal’s ‘Victoria and Abdul’ in Agra over Queen Victoria’s statue:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Right-wing-group-stalls-shoot-of-Ali-Fazals-Victoria-and-Abdul-in-Agra-over-Queen-Victorias-statue/articleshow/55497083.cms

Queen Victoria and the Munshi in 1893.

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12/3/2017 # Victoria & Abdul