Sideways - Of Men and their Wine

I have seen Sideways before, more than once. The movie has, like aging wine, opened itself for new meaning and interpretation with each viewing. It has remained one of my personal favorite films depicting the quirkiness of human nature, the sadness and longings of the human heart and the celebration of life even in its failure. Truly a slice of life in itself. Directed by one of America's most consistent filmmakers, Alexander Payne, Sideways takes a road trip in Southern California's wine country and makes the life of wine an allegory to aging and discovering oneself on life's long and often twisted road. Unlike wine which only grows richer with age, life hands out a lot of wild cards.

Miles (Paul Giamatti in the role of a lifetime), a middle school English teacher and writer waiting to be published, picks up his best friend since college, Jack (Thomas Haden Church) for a week in wine country. Jack gets married the following week and this is their last getaway. Lots of wine and golf is on the menu but Jack is looking for a detour in one last fling before the shackles of matrimony bind him. He hits it soon enough with a pourer in a wine tasting room, Stephanie (Sandra Oh). To arrange a double date, they find Stephanie's friend Maya (Virginia Madsen), a waitress at a restaurant that Miles frequents. He has liked her from afar, her knowledge and passion of wine finds a kinship with him. While Jack gets going with Stephanie weaving lies of love and relationship in the process and playing daddy to her little child, Miles is hesitant, shy and unable to bridge the distance with a wise, openly warm and lovely Maya. Except for their shared love and knowledge of wine.

There is a scene in Sideways which I have carried with me through the years and even on my recent viewing realized that its charm has not diminished in any measure. On a double date while Jack and Stephanie indulge in the pleasures of the flesh in Stephanie's trailer home, Maya and Miles open a bottle of wine and talk. They talk of Mile's love for Pinot. He starts to describe Pinot and after a while he is talking about himself and the understanding is so lovingly reflected in Maya's eyes. The growth, complexity and maturity of wine has a lot to do with life. 'A bottle of wine opened today will taste different than it will taste on any other day'. Kind of like life itself.

Sideways is about middle aged people for whom life is passing by too quickly. You either grab every moment you can seize to live before its all up, like Jack does. Its interesting to see a man so easily cheat on the girl he is to marry in less than a week, weave a fantasy life with a pourer from Buelton, with whom he may share nothing in common and be absolutely guilt free. And yet he is not unlikeable.  Selfish yes, but I somehow understood him. And then there is Miles, our center of the movie, disillusioned, cynical, battling depression and divorce, downing alchohol and zanax, edging towards steady decline. 'I am so insignificant, I cant even kill myself', he says. The man with the resigned, world weary eyes. He finds a surprising steady hand in Maya, of the kind, understanding eyes. These are flesh and blood people, not just characters populating the screen. That is so rare. The performances are tremendous and real, all across the board. It was in fact, a criminal act leaving Paul Giamatti out of the Oscar race for this one.

Alexander Payne, who had made 'Election' and 'About Schmidt' before and 'The Descendants' since, is arguably the best maker of character studies of these American men who have seen better days and lost that zing for living. His characters are seldom successful, happy and have it all figured out. He has an affinity and understanding for the average middle aged American male and humanizes them in these lovable human comedies he creates. They are funny and yet sad and so lifelike. A filmmaker with the rare ability to pause and truly take in human nature. A word, if you are watching 'Sideways', look deeply for the pauses and reflections of the characters, study the silences and see how true they ring.

Originally released in 2004
Available on DVD
Academy Award winner for Best Adapted Screenplay
My Rating: 5/5

Kahaani - What a Story!

Hindi films in the past have not been known for its mysteries. Blatantly making half baked copies from Hollywood cinema or sometimes looking to East Asian countries for inspiration, original plots have not been explored for decades in this terrain till a movie like 'Kahaani' arrives to change all that and how. Sujoy Ghosh, who debuted with the thoroughly enjoyable 'Jhankaar Beats' before meandering to commercially viable fluff, has regained his soul to craft a gripping story of a heavily pregnant woman landing in the city of Joy, Kolkata, in search of her missing husband. And in that lies a tale.

A chillingly crafted sequence of a biochemical gas attack in the busy Kolkata Metro sets off a chain of events when 2 years later Vidya Vekatesan Bagchi (Vidya Balan in her usual fine form) emerges from the Kolkata airport, to hail a cab to the police station and file a missing person report of her husband, Arnab Bagchi. Having come on an assignment for the National Data Centre(NDC) from their London home, he has disappeared into thin air such that the rundown guest house he stayed in has no evidence of his stay and neither does NDC own up to any employee of that name. However, the lone photograph of Arnab's that Vidya carries, points to a strong resemblance with a former NDC employee, Milan Dhamji. The case starts getting murky when the HR lady at NDC who points to the resemblance, is bumped off and the Intelligence Bureau get involved. From here, its a joyride of twists and turns with moles in government agencies, contract killings, dual identities, suspect motives. Nothing is as it seems as we race with Vidya on her dangerous mission.

Amidst the chills the plot keeps throwing at us, what stands out are the performances of an extremely competent cast, for most of whom Hindi movies is virgin territory. Predominantly Bengali actors rule as they get the nuances of their characters pat with the language, the expressions, the mannerisms. Parambrata Chattopadhyay's Rana as the mild mannered, infatuated rookie sub inspector is the perfect foil to Vidya's fearless, headstrong woman on a quest act. Together they ignite the search with equal amounts of urgency and sweet relief. Nawazuddin Siddiqui's short tempered, foul mouthed bureau officer Khan who regards a couple of human lives lost as collateral damage in the the larger scheme, is pitch perfect. Especially worthy of mention is the seemingly bumbling, mild insurance agent Bob Biswas (Saswata Chatterjee) who greets with a smile and moonlights as a contract killer. Positively chilling! Apart from these supporting acts, the police officer at the local station who says 'in Kolkata Vidya, Bidya all is same' loving pointing the inability of bengalis to pronounce the alphabet V, the zero star hotel owner, the little boy who runs with hot water at the beck of the hotel guests are all memorable.

But carrying the movie on her very pregnant gait, is Vidya Balan, a consistently fine performer who improves with each role. The recent National award winner, the last legitimate film awards in India, brings to her character a mix of dogged determination, vulnerability, strength and motherhood all culminating to a fascinating climax where the layers are peeled and Durga (the Hindu Bengali mother Goddess) is revealed. Take a bow, Vidya. She safely joins the annals of fine female performers like Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Tabu and their likes. The other hero of the movie has to be Kolkata, the city that is captured in all its hues. The goodness of the locals to the spine chilling of the bylanes and dilapidating buildings, the lit Howrah bridge, kumartuli idol makers and the joyous burst of the celebration of Durga Puja all come alive under the extremely able cinematography of Setu. Sharp editing by Namarata Rao keeps the movie running at nail biting pace.

And 'the mother of stories' indeed has a fine tale to tell. Scripted meticulously by Advaita Kala and Sujoy Ghosh, the movie is akin to reading a layered mystery where the audience is always running to catch up to the author's game and when the explosive climax occurs, the steps are traced back and we are all too happy to have been outsmarted. 'Kahaani' is the finest original thriller/mystery to have come out of the Hindi film industry since the black and white/ early color era of chills that Hindi cinema had mastered with 'Woh Kaun Thi', 'Teesri Manzil', 'Bees Saal Baad' and 'Mera Saaya' to name a few. After decades we are back in business with Kahaani. This atmospheric mystery indeed stands tall in the tale it renders.  

Originally Released in 2012
Running in theatres
In Hindi with English subtitles
My rating:4.5/5

Beautiful Boy - The Process of grief and questions

What could possibly be worse than the death of a child? Maybe the fact that the child killed a roomful of innocent people before taking his own life. That is the premise of Shawn Ku's 'Beautiful Boy', an earnest yet visceral look at parents left reeling under the weight of unimaginable tragedy, trying to make sense of it. In the suburbs of LA, resides the family of Bill (Michael Sheen) and Kate (Maria Bello), empty nesters whose only son Sammy (Kyle Gallner) is a freshman at a university. The couple lead separate lives, never sharing meals, sleeping in separate bedrooms, almost at the verge of divorce. Kate wants a try at a happy family by planning a vacation for them, a feeling not too enthusiastically shared by her husband, who scouts apartment listings in private.

Their son Sammy, only shown momentarily, makes a phone call to them. It is obvious he is troubled and possibly feeling alienated at school. Kate picks up something to be amiss in Sammy's tone, but as parents usually get too absorbed in their own lives, she lets it drop. The next morning as they watch panic stricken on TV about a deadly shooting in their son's university, police officers arrive at their door to inform not only of their son's death but of the reality that it was he who had opened fire that killed seventeen people before turning the gun on himself. From hereon, begins a journey of no return for parents who must live with not just the weight of this entire tragedy, but the question of having gone wrong in their parenting.

Grieving a dead child is terrible in itself without the burden of guilt and the outrage of the public, it's many questions. The looks of people who wonder how terrible as parents could they have been to have nurtured a monster. It is an extremely hard subject to pull off. It hits home especially in the aftermath of the many campus massacres in recent times. This is entirely from the parents perspective. Escaping from the media onslaught, they take refuge with Kate's brother (Alan Tudyk) and his family. While Kate tries to escape the questions her mind surely forms, Bill faces them headlong. In the film's crucial scene, they have escaped society for a little while hiding in a motel, trying to forget momentarily a pain that will inevitably be carried around a lifetime. They get drunk, make love and find a long lost connection, only to have reality shatter it. Accusations are hurled, on parenting, its absence, a failed marriage.

'Beautiful Boy' worked for me on so many levels. It takes an almost forbidden topic and treats it with utmost sensitivity, yet does not shirk the questions. The realistic screenplay and the director's brave vision is aided by the pitch perfect acts of Michael sheen and Maria Bello. Sheen, as the father wondering too late, understanding the unforgivable nature of his son's crime and noticing painfully how the world is suddenly turning hostile, is brilliant in a largely internalized performance. Maria Bello is equally so as the  disciplinarian mother who meant well, tried to push her shy, withdrawn kid out of his shell and now grappling with thoughts of whether she shouldn't have. In this duel between a mother defensive of her parenting and dead child and a father who questions, fireworks occur. And yet they are the only two people who can understand each other and be supportive in a world sure to go hostile.

Shawn Ku, for whom this was the first directorial feature, happens to have taken both from the Virginia Tech massacre and a friend's death leaving behind grieving parents, to come out with a tale palpable in its grief and doubts. The beauty is that he resists the temptation to focus on the event itself and it's ensuing drama and instead taps into the lifetime of pain that the parents now face.

Originally Released in 2010
Available on DVD
My Rating: 4/5

The Iron Lady - A Shorthand portrayal of a political giant

Politics never has and never will be my strong point. I acknowledge this at the very onset of this review since the focus here will be a formidable and controversial leader in British politics. My interest lies solely in the ability of the motion picture to effectively paint a portrayal of the iron lady aka Margaret Thatcher, to understand her, witness her rise in the corridors of politics, study her eleven years of reign and then the fall. And I have to admit, the biopic barely delivers in this category. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, 'The Iron Lady' however gets one major detail correct in its casting of the incredibly talented Meryl Streep. And in that lies its deliverance.

Starting with Thatcher as an octogenarian(Streep in heavy prosthetics), we witness a woman in the throes of dementia, carrying on a conversation about the price of milk with her deceased husband Denis (Jim Broadbent). She hallucinates him and maybe only the disposal of his items still kept around the house, will pull him out the recesses of her mind. As the present slips between reality and the imaginary, Thatcher's mind takes her into the past chapters of an important life. The humble beginnings of a grocer's daughter in Grantham shows a girl with steely ambition when she is the only pair of heels in a roomful of men's shoes at her father's town meetings. That indeed forms her surroundings through her career, the lone pair of heels in rooms full of men's shoes.

Her entry to Oxford and then the times of her emerging voice in politics are glossed over. An elderly lady of unsound mind peers unsurely into her past, skimming over her entry to 10 Downing street in 1979 and the important events that framed her 11 years of prime ministership. Her imagination of her deceased husband seems clearer to her than those years of power and battle. Unfortunately, such seems the case for the audience as well. Instead of a woman sticking to her convictions in the face of severe opposition, turning the economy of a flailing country, bringing about the privatization of various sectors, winning back the Falkland Islands from Argentina's invasion, Lloyd seems more content to portray an old ill woman wondering through the rooms of her house trying to chase away the illusion of her dead husband. Matters of consequence are skimmed over and it is almost as if her dementia takes center stage.

Lloyd's saving grace is the inimitable actor that is Meryl Streep who can, in face of little argument, be called the greatest living actor of our times. We are aware of her chameleon like quality to disappear into any character, real or fictional and adapt to any physicality and voice modulation. Every one of those skills are honed to perfection for us to witness here. Margaret Thatcher was one of the premier public personalities of the not too distant eighties and she was splashed all over the television and radio.To effectively impersonate her would have been a herculean task for anyone but Streep. The sadness is when that great a performance is not matched by the content. A nod to the ever dependable Jim Broadbent in his wonderfully reliable portrayal of Denis.

Phyllida Lloyd whose previous outing as screen director was the subpar money spinner 'Mamma Mia', had claimed in an interview that this movie was not so much about a leader, as it was of somebody once important who had since faded into oblivion. The tragedy of old age was what she had intended to capture. A good thought that and a wonderful concept if that was the story we had come to witness. When you show us a life as important as Margaret Thatcher, you owe it to the world to portray the strength. Hate her some did, love her some did. But even divided in feelings, her life had mattered and a lot of what we saw of her life on that screen did not.

Surely for a woman who was labelled 'The Iron Lady' and in her times 'the most important person of Europe', it is not the tragic reality of old age that would do justice but the memory of a woman who thought ahead and put those thoughts into fearless action. At the end, I couldnt dismiss the movie for the central performance is too important to shrug off. It is the route the movie takes which finally fails.

Released in 2012
Running in Theatres
My Rating: 3/5

La Vie en Rose - Little Sparrow of France

Edith Piaf has been the beautiful voice of France through the last century and her magic continues to enthrall the world long since her demise in 1963. 'La Vie en Rose' titled after her famous love ballad, which till this day is synonymous with the romance of Paris, is a biopic based on the personal, often tragic life of this great songstress. Directed and co-written by Olivier Dahan and portrayed with tremendous gusto and heart by Marion Cotillard (winner of the AcademyAward for Best actress), this movie flits its way through the corridors of time, moving back and forth through Edith's tumultuous life.

Born into poverty, abandoned by her mother, a street singer and her father, a circus performer, her formative years were spent in her grandmother's brothel. One of the prostitutes Titine (Emmanuelle Seigner) adopts her and nurses Edith through blindness due to Keratitis. Miraculously cured by a visit to St. Therese's shrine, Edith is then snatched away from Titine and goes to live with her father. The beauty in her voice becomes apparent when she is asked to perform an act with her father on the streets. Years later, she is discovered singing on the streets by a nightclub owner Louis Leplee (Gerard Depardieu) who gives her the name of Piaf, the little sparrow. At 4ft 8inches, the name became her frame.

We see the rise of that amazingly clear full throated voice, her training of the finer nuances of singing and becoming a national treasure even as her personal life is marred by the tragic loss of her one true love, middleweight boxing champion Marcel Cerdan (Jean Pierre Martins), followed by an accident which renders her with arthritic pains, leading to morphine addiction. Even as her body fails and ages prematurely, the voice remains intact leading her to fame in America. Olivier Dahan wisely doesn't stick to a chronological rendition but flirts with events in no particular order. Piaf's rise, the tragic loss of her love, the addiction and its consequences, to her eventual demise and her final performance, at Paris's Olympia, of the great 'Non je ne regrette rien' are woven skillfully into the tapestry of a turbulent life led. The film embodies the chaos in her life by wildly flitting through these chapters.

What words do I have for Marion Cotillard's performance that have not been said before? She disappears so effectively into Edith Piaf's skin that I could trace no sign of Cotillard herself in the movie. Her resemblance to the singer is uncanny and one can imagine the rumbustious nature of Piaf from Cotillard's  take on her. The Oscar was the jewel in her performance's crown. The playback was Piaf's own voice (though some of the earlier numbers were performed by other singers), which the actress effortlessly lip syncs to. Some great names, familiar to a larger audience outside France, playing supporting roles are the very talented Gerard Depardieu (Les Miserables, Green card) and the beautiful, enigmatic Emmanuelle Seigner, who has been the great filmmaker Roman Polanski's wife and muse (Frantic, Bitter Moon).

Dahan skillfully handles the screenplay and Cotillard's performance. Especially effective are the handling of sequences such as the news of Marcel's death, the latter portions of Piaf's life and on her death bed when she has strong recollections of a buried past before the fame. When she sits as a prematurely old woman, knitting a sweater on a wonderful sunny day, on a beach giving an interview, her answer to the advice she would give to a woman, a girl, a child is 'love'. That might be the key scene of the movie as it carries the essence of a life forever in the quest of love.

Biopics have been done to death. The story mostly is the same. Overcoming of odds to become a star and then the downfall and maybe a final comeback, that is the thread common to most movies under this category. I avoid biopics for this very reason. But, Edith Piaf's voice is too great an attraction for me not to want to understand her story. The force of Marion Cotillard's rendition of Piaf combined with an exciting, at times even confusing screenplay, successfully takes us into the heart of a little woman with one of the strongest, purest voices and provides a glimpse of the love and sorrow that she so mesmerizingly poured out into making the songs that she did. I still have the melody of 'La Vie en Rose' on a constant hum in my head and my heart.

Originally released in 2007
Available on DVD
In French with English subtitles
Academy Award winner for Best Actress in a Leading Role
My Rating: 4/5

Taxi Driver - Study of Alienation

Martin Scorsese has been around a long time giving us some unforgettable movies through the decades.  Being a huge admirer of his work, this last decade has seemed to me to be his weakest link. The past month, on revisiting some of his path breaking earlier works, I was yet again mesmerized by his keen observation of the human psyche and how the troubled and often violent characters populating his stories were astutely depicted with no glorification to their circumstances. They came 'as is' and entering their heads was Scorsese's greatest strength.

Collaborating with Paul Schrader and Robert DeNiro, he achieved his milestones in two movies, 'Taxi Driver' and 'Raging Bull'. They both decorate the annals of cinematic achievements. Revisiting them, I debated arduously on which to review. 'Taxi Driver' won for the reason that it was unlike anything I had witnessed before, this chilling character study of a man crippled by his loneliness and social ineptness descending into madness, his delusions leading to a horrifying bloodbath. Travis Bickle (DeNiro) is an ex-Vietnam Marine taken to driving a taxicab entire nights on the streets of New York, to escape his insomnia. He sees the filth on the streets, the overflowing garbage, the pimps, prostitutes and such creatures of the night all around. The cab's backseat is the scene to many a rendezvous for sex and worse. He hopes that one day a "real rain would come and wash the scum off the streets". An ominous thought!

A constant monologue carries on in Travis's head and we are privy to it. We see him as the desperately lonely man, alienated by a society he is unable to form a connect with. The few people shown to have a conversation with him are put on their guards, knowing something is just not right. Scorsese, intriguingly never bothers us with his history, the past that he comes from. In an angelic looking political campaign worker Betsy (Cybill Shephard), he sees a purity that, to his eye, is untouched by the filth of the city. Managing to hook a date with her, he takes her to watch a pornographic movie in the seedy parts of the city he is acquainted with. He doesn't know any better. Obviously, she walks out on him. His anger irrationally gets targeted at Palantine (Leonard Harris), the politician Betsy campaigns for and sees as the savior.

He also encounters a 12 year old child prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster) who, he assumes in his warped senses, needs rescuing from her pimp, Sport (Harvey Keitel). It all ends in a spine chilling climax open to much debate. Travis has delusions of being God's lone man on a mission to cleanse the streets filled with scum, of being that biblical rain washing it all away.

The 70s was for America, turbulent times in modern history with the Vietnam war, the changing climate in politics and the sexual revolution gathering force. Cinema mirrored these themes and the cynicism of the times reflected in many a directors work. Martin Scorsese became a name to reckon with in this era, first with 'Mean Streets' and more significantly with 'Taxi Driver', which was one of the pioneers in the changing landscape of cinema. A lot of Scorsese's works dealt with the outsiders in American society often arrested in its underbelly. Another underlying similarity in his characters is the Freudian    Madonna/ whore complex they portray in their treatment of women. Scorsese went on to make greats like 'Raging Bull', 'Goodfellas' (another favorite), 'Casino' among others.

The script by Schrader is deeply moody, an internal scouting of the psyche of violence even as the viewers take an unsettling ride through the dimly lit, haze filled streets of New York and see through Travis Bickle's eyes, the grim filthiness of the lanes he carries his fares through, his complete social isolation and then his journey into being the vigilante, the cleaner of the degenerate streets.  The entire movie is from Travis's point of view and we somewhat understand, if not empathize with this lonely man. Bernard Herrmann's melancholy yet ominous music, his last masterpiece (he died soon after the completion of the film's soundtrack), has the smooth jazz of saxophone at the onset giving way to the trumpet blaring over drum beats, as Travis descends into psychosis.

With all the brilliance of the material, the thread holding it together is DeNiro's tour de force. Barring Raging Bull, this is possibly his finest work. He walks a fine line in not completely alienating the audience, given the unlikeable nature of the character. Watch him practicing with his guns in front of the mirror, mouthing the famous 'You talkin' to me.....well, I'm the only one here' monologue and the hallmark of a great actor is established.  Jodie Foster is memorable as the child prostitute as is Cybill Shephard. Watch for the two bit characters played by Martin Scorsese himself.

The degeneration of modern urban society seen through the eyes of one of its alienated inmates remains relevant over three decades into its release. Descending into Travis Bickle's warped world, hearing the thoughts he pens into his diary, his desperation for social acceptance and the confession to his absolute loneliness, it is hard not to understand to some degree what can push a man over. We needn't sympathize with Travis, but we all understand loneliness and have kept it's company at some point. Its the constant companionship of it that could eventually turn horrific.

Originally released in 1976
Available on DVD
My Rating: 4.5/5

The Lion King (In 3D) - The King Roars Again

As the screen lit up to the magical glow of the rising sun and the display of the wonderful animal forms over the vast African savannah responding to the majestic beauty of Elton John's unforgettable 'The circle of Life', my heart felt overwhelmed at being able to catch the classic 1994 Disney original 'The Lion King' in theatres 17 years later. When I heard that Disney was planning on milking its biggest cash cow one more time in 3D, all I could feel was the sheer joy of introducing my daughter to the magical tale of Simba on the big screen. Though 3D is a definite gimmick in earning some extra money with little effort, the tale itself is so rich and powerfully filled with life lessons, that every generation deserves a fresh viewing.

At its original release, it was hailed a landmark film that allowed Disney to turn a corner from animating beloved fairy tales of yore to come up with an original story that had all the essential morals of valor, determination, responsibility and did not shirk from the darker subjects of death, evil, guilt. Added to it a dose of essential humor, the voices of memorable characters helmed by Hollywood heavyweights sprinkling that extra zing, Sir Elton John and Tim Rice's award winning lifting soundtrack(Hakuna Matata, Can you feel the love, The circle of life) that never ages and a formula for the future of animation movies was successfully laid out, that carries to this day. Agreed that the times of hand drawn animation seen here have since made way to CGI, but 'The Lion King' was the new dawn of family entertainment spawning a succession of wonderful animated tales of which, in my opinion, it still remains king.

Indeed, the tale of loss of innocence in the face of guilt and wickedness, and the eventual finding of courage and responsibility to step up and take charge is a great teacher of character building that parents will want to imbibe in their little ones. Playful and trusting Simba, voiced by Jonathan Taylor Thomas as a cub and Matthew Broderick later, loses his father and guide King Mufasa (royal voiced James Earl Jones) in a cunning setup by his devious Uncle Scar (unforgettable Jeremy Irons), who has his eye on the throne of Pride Lands. Blaming him for the accident, Scar induces shame and guilt in the cub, making him leave his land forever.

Befriended by the delightful duo of warthog Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella) and Meerkat Timon (Nathan Lane), Simba whiles away his years with the now famous 'Hakuna Matata' philosophy, even as his kingdom is in shambles under the torturous rule of Scar aided by a pack of hyenas (a devilishly funny Whoopi Goldberg among others). Finally, destiny beckons Simba to his rightful place in the Circle of Life. Loosely adapted from Shakespeare's Hamlet with deep biblical undertones, this is a powerfully relevant tale through the ages. On board the film was a total of 29 writers penning this classic. A special nod to the inspiring musical score by Hans Zimmer, which adds to the entire experience because lets face it, what would a motion picture be without music to enhance our senses.

Watching it in 3D did not add novelty to the experience. As I had mentioned, the 3D is a gimmick to sell tickets to a generation fed on it. It works perfectly well in 2D even though for a movie with hand drawn animation, the 3D conversion does not distract from the viewing experience and indeed adds to some of the wide angle shots. As the 2D version is running simultaneously, the audience can take its pick. To be able to experience 'The Lion King' in the theatres, 3D or not, is the real treat here and one that shouldn't be missed.

As we came out of the screening, my five year old had all the right questions and it has been a pleasure to explain to her virtues and character traits we all want instilled in our beloved futures. For this reason, it has resonated with millions and will continue to do so. The king roars on the big screen for just two weeks and I happily paid my obeisance.

Originally released in 1994
Playing in Theatres in 3D for a limited time
My Rating: 4.5/5