A fiance’s relentless pursuit of the truth to find out what happened to his fiance after being court- marshaled and sent to the battle field to die – a touching French love story that unfolds as the woman peeled layers and layers of stories from each witness who saw the events from all different perspectives. Along the way, several intriguing stories crossed the path like a grieving widow turning into a serial killer to revenge on her man’s death.

Did her man die or not? She finally found his grave site. Did she give up?

No, she was rewarded at the end seeing her man, memory loss due to the shell shock, in a calm and vastly different environment. He was adopted unknowingly to him by a woman who lost her son to the battle when her son’s tag was swapped.

The movie was long, 2 hrs and 15 mins, but the ending was well worth the wait. I was surprised to see Jodie Foster in this movie playing a widow speaking fluent French.

It was a very long engagement for the couple indeed – from being the childhood sweethearts to his departing for war and re-uniting with and then re-acquainting him all over again. Now that’s love!

A young girl of 10 years old had a crush with a young man, who was in love with her elder sister and vice versa. However, she bore false witness against this young man and accused him of the rape of another girl. As a result, this man was imprisoned and later sent to fight the Nazi during World War II. He and his elder sister never got re-united. The novel, as told through this successful novel writer, re-wrote to make them re-united and happy ever after. This was the atonement, the least she could do to make up for her wrong doing because of her jealousy and foolishness.

The movie was beautifully and brilliantly directed and the country scenes of England were breath-taking. The pace was a little slow and jumped back and forth in time, but it was necessary to develop the characters and seeing the perspectives from both of the sisters. I like the movie. Often we don’t see the consequences of our actions. The consequences are at times very different from what we expected. Being prudence is the moral calling of the story and seizing the moment (so you won’t regret what you could have missed) is another. The two seem to be opposing at times – another paradox of life.

Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) was the early black mob figure in the 70’s that took advantage of the soldiers of Vietnam War to transport opium and the corrupt police department in New York City. Richie (Russel Crowe) was the incorruptible cop in New Jersey that chased after the new mob figure relentlessly and finally got the case cracked wide open and implicated nearly three quarters of the police department, thanks to Frank’s help. Richie even represented him as the attorney during the trial.

Frank Lucas started out as a helper/body-guard to a well-respected black mobster. Upon the death of the his boss, the streets turned into chaos with every crime figure carving out his territory. Frank, with his good marketing skill, came up with the “branded” “Blue Magic,” pure heroin, shipped directly from Southeast Asia courtesy of the military. When he got so big and the heroin shipment gets more risky due to the end of the Vietnam war, he caught the eyes of the good cop, Richie, who eventually brought him down, overcoming the negative resistance from the dirty cops of New York city.

This movie depicts several conflicts during that era: black/white, black/Italian mobsters, drug industry/police, American/Vietnam, Husband/wife, good cops/bad cops. I don’t think you can find a better movie script with a real-life story to back it up that makes it so believable.

Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, as nemesis to camaraderie, performed so well in this movie. They should work together more often.

The Lake House is another spin on “Back to the Future” except the time lag is only two years and it’s a love story between a career-minded, love-seeking woman doctor (who has a on-again/off-again lawyer boyfriend, Morgan) and a lonely architect man with family issues. The vehicle of communication is the good old mail box of the Lake House, architected by Alex’s father. It’s a beautiful house with glasses all over.

Sandra Bullock (Kate) and Keanu Reeves (Alex Wyler) made this love story come alive. The two-year time lag makes the love story quite possible. Of course, nothing makes the story more interesting by allowing Kate to rescue Alex and change the future. I watched this entire movie on my iPhone during babysitting. I guess this movie succeeded in keeping my eyes glued on the tiny screen for a very long time.