Unhook the Stars (1996)

Maborosi It is a miserable, cold and rain evening here in Wisconsin. A good time to make a journal entry. First Maborosi, this film got rave reviews from critics and RT viewers alike. I must have missed something because the film seemed slow and boring. There were a few quiet tender moments I enjoyed, but overall the film lingered on pictorial scenes too long. Sometimes I felt like I was watching a slide show of still shots. Also there was so little dialogue. Through the cinematography viewers experienced the lead character's introspective struggle to understanding her husband's death, but I think more dialogue would have helped drive the story. Maborosi was a disappointment because I had enjoyed another film, After Life, by the same director, Kore-eda Hirokazu's. It is one of my favorites. He has another out in the theaters now, Nobody Knows. I hope it is more similar to After Life. Unhook the Stars Another disappointment, how can it be? With Gena Rowlands and Marisa Tomei in the same film? Again, there were some nice scenes with Rowlands and her neighbor, an adorable little boy who she begins babysitting. This movie is about change. The story starts with the two leading ladies dealing with relational conflicts in their lives and supposedly through their friendship they are able to resolve their conflicts and live happily ever after. The filmmakers never reveals how these characters grow, change and mature. A emotional soundtrack song plays through a scene and pesto everyone has a different attribute and outlook on life. I did not buy it. One of my favorite movie themes is when a story follows a person as they experience radical change in their lives that alters their life views such as in American History X or (the slightly lighter) Under the Tuscan Sun. I felt Unhook the Star cheated me. And last complaint, Marisa Tomei, who I usually enjoy, was grating and abrasive as the feisty, hard-working, separated wife.