Author Archives: bluemuffin

The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars written by John Green was published in 2012. It is his sixth novel and hopefully there will be many more to come. It is a joy to read his intelligent writing and dive into the different worlds created by him.

The Fault in Our Stars is not an original love story. Hazel is a cancer patient and her life feels quite empty until Augustus, a boy with incredible charm, appears into her life. These two teenagers have something in common; cancer. She feels a special connection to him since they both have pretty visible faults in their bodies. Augustus has his other leg amputated and Hazel needs to have an oxygen machine to help her breath no matter where she goes. Cancer darkens every step Hazel takes, but now she has something new to live for. Something that feels more permanent than she is used to.

Hazel has a really deep view of life. She thinks everything has a purpose in this universe and the title of this novel is probably inspired by her thoughts. The story is written from Hazel’s perspective. It is easy to see that she has gone through a lot more than an average sixteen-year-old has. Since she knows almost for sure that she will never grow old with Augustus she tries to live the life to the fullest with him.

This is a really touching novel. It takes you into the world of cancer. The story is realistic and makes you appreciate your own health a lot more. The story shows how unfair the world can be. From the very first page of this novel I truly loved it. This is one of those books you just want to keep reading and never stop. It just takes you with it. It was nice to read this book in English. It is hard to translate everything like the author has meant it to be. From the bottom of my heart I would recommend this to anyone who wants to see life differently. This book gives you a whole new perspective to life.

1 Comment

Filed under Novels

Enchanted

Enchanted is a romantic fantasy movie (2007) with a twist of comedy. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures with Barry Sonnenfeld and Josephson Entertaiment. In Enchanted a real world and an animated one are brilliantly mixed together. Might sound like a chaos, but what a great chaos it is! Director Kevin Lima has managed to include something for everyone in just 107 minutes. Not to mention the wonderful actors, who have made this beautiful love story come true. Leading actors of the film are Amy Adams (Giselle), Idina Menzel (Nancy Tremaine), James Marsden (Prince Edward), Patrick Dempsey (Robert Philip) and Rachel Covey (Morgan Philip).

Like in almost every love story there is some kind of trouble before ending up being together. Giselle and Prince Edward are in love. They are just about to get married, but on the way to the altar Giselle meets an old lady who changes the plan. The old lady pushes Giselle to a magical wishing well and she somehow ends up standing in middle of the Times Square in New York. Soon she notices that her and our world are totally different. People are rude and not really sympathetic at all. But Giselle is just about to change Robert Philip´s life besides her own. Philip is in a cab telling her daughter Morgan that he is going to propose his girlfriend Nancy when everything changes. They meet Giselle and Rachel ends up getting a different stepmother than was expected at first. Giselle manages to fill the missing gap in the Philip´s family life. Morgan gets to know how it feels to be able to shop with a mother and Robert gets some light into his busy life as a lawyer.

Humor is sprinkled all over the place. Giselle is destroying all the fabrics in the Philip´s family apartment and making new dresses for herself. She cleans the whole apartment with some help of little animals and this obviously is almost maddening to Robert. Like in every Disney movie there is lots of singing and it´s something Giselle loves to do too. With this kind of action she gets a lot of attention even in New York. Giselle´s actress Amy Adams sings with her stunning voice and it gives you little chills. Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz have done an awesome job with the songs of Enchanted.

Enchanted reminds me of some previous stories Disney has produced. Snow White and Cinderella, to be more precise. Like in Snow White in Enchanted there is also lots of little animals as Giselle´s friends and helpers. She even managed to see one of the dwarfs from the Snow White. It is also easy to find connection between Cinderella and Enchanted. In the end of the Enchanted Giselle loses her glass shoe. There is the same idea behind losing the shoe as there is in Cinderella. Prince is meant to find his princess with the help of that shoe and this is what happens in the Enchanted as well. Some references to Little Red Riding Hood are also noticeable.

Overall I truly enjoyed watching Enchanted and I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes watching magical stories. I don´t usually even like to watch this kind of movies, but this movie made me change my mind. The great camerawork and the special effects make sure that you won´t get bored during the movie. On the other hand as a child I would have been little disappointed about the fact that the animated world suddenly changes into a real world. Lots of children prefer animated movies over acted ones.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Films / theatre