Appreciating great acting

So while I have been sick the past week I have filled my time on the sofa with several movies. Here are my reviews of each one:

The Reader - Kate Winslet is such an amazing actress, she plays a very complex character in this post war/Nazi movie and although I was left with more questions than answers, I was blown away with her performance.

Revolutionary Road-continuing the "I love Kate Winslet" Fest, this is another movie where she plays a complex character who seemingly appears quite boring at the start but becomes increasingly dark and emotionally tortured. This movie is intense but I really enjoyed watching it. It prompted me to think about a lot of things.

The Visitor-Had never heard of this before but it got 8/10 on IMDB so that's usually a good sign. It was screened at Sundance but it's not really an artsy type film. It's about a widower who is kind of lost and just floating along uninspired since his wife died. He goes to his 2nd home, an apartment in NY and finds that it has been "rented" to a young immigrant couple who had no idea they had been scammed. Anyway, it transpires that they all end up living there for a week and he starts to get involved in their lives and kind of gets motivated again, as well as finding a passion for drumming. The drumming scenes are great and very energising, it reminded me of a staff retreat I was at last year where we learned to drum. Anyway, there is a sad side to the story but you leave feeling happy and with a warm heart.

The Fall-this is another one that I had never heard of and sort of went under the radar despite getting rave reviews. It's a fantasy/reality blurr but I just LOVED the little girl actress in it, she was memserising. She didn't even look like she was acting, even though she was. This story is very unique and again, although it is a fantasy type story telling movie, it is very dark and there are lots of underlying things going on. It's complex and I am sure I missed lots of small things but I want to watch it again! Not everyone will appreciate this but I will certainly recommend it highly to many of my friends.

Mr Brooks-This is Kevin Costner and Demi Moore in a suspense action/murder thriller. Not too bad, but far fetched in the plot line with Kevin Costner playing a highly successful and well liked business and family man who has a split personality as a serial killer by night. He kills as he is addicted to it and his alter ego instigates it. Anyways, it was okay and Demi Moore kicked ASS as the detective!

So I guess I am becoming a bit of a film buff. I am okay with that, Just let me know if I become a film snob...I do NOT want to be one of those! I guess seeing as I list "Made of Honor" and "Spaceballs" as some of my favourite movies that I will never be labelled a film snob!