Too much of everything

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Deep, moody film, unsettling, with an overdose of despondency. Ideal fare for those who wish to wallow in their own terminally depressive states. Me, I'm just a perv, I was checking up on STRIPTEASE on Wikipedia, when I Googled I got a link to the best striptease movies ever, so last week I watched CLOSER, this week, POWDER BLUE. I was thrilled to hear that Jessica Biel was in it, as a stripper, mind you, hell, she made me look at (I still can only shake my head) that show with the reverend, I'm not going to even mention its name, but really, me watch the Religious Right's flagship TV show? I just hovered around the TV and watched when she and her kid sister was on. This, of course, is way at the other end of the spectrum. Too dark, too melancholy, too depressing, but the sight of Jessica on stage is worth my every effort. So, it's a long way from the old days of a politically-correct holy-righteous TV show to this mixture of lust and redemption. Still, when I think of her, I'd always remember SUMMER CATCH, again, not my kind of movie, too much damned baseball, but what a dreamgirl. Show me all the nudity in the world, if it doesn't come along with the soulful eyes, what's the point? And Jessica has them. Lovely eyes you can gaze into, and see love. A thing of beauty, as that other reviewer said.Of course, the people who watched that unmentioned TV show wouldn't watch POWDER BLUE, unless on the sly, what with the straying-from-the-flock menfolk...Getting back to the movie itself, it is not exactly guaranteed to put you in a fun frame of mind. An ex-priest who lost his young wife and wishes to be put out of his misery, but who doesn't want to pull the trigger himself, entices all and sundry, including a transsexual prostitute, with the lure of big money, into doing the deed. He meets Sandy (Lisa Kudrow, downbeat from FRIENDS), a waitress, and life seems to begin to have meaning again. A stripper with a cocaine habit and a kid in a coma, is confronted by her long-lost, morose and dying Dad, even as she finds love with a mortician, a geeky misfit who shares her love for animals. Whole lot of drug use, origin of movie title, obviously.I have to stipulate, my DVD is just a plain version, no subtitles, and there are a lot of places where subtitles would have really helped. Watching for a second tine now, I catch on to stuff I missed the first time round. The blue snow bit I find to be overly-dramatic. After all, it hardly ever even rains in California, and here you have this blue ice...? Heaps of it?If it wasn't for Jessica, I wouldn't have been remotely interested in this. Yes, there are powerful emotions here, but, no, the story itself is not the kind of thing I want to watch. Not that there aren't cute romantic moments, like the trolley cart scene.P.S. Hell, that was Patrick Swayze???? Went through the entire movie without realizing.

The film 'Crash' was a hit, as it used multiple characters' individual narratives to intertwine a story which all ties up together. Here, 'Powder Blue' attempts to do the same - with mixed results.First of all, I didn't like it. But it is quite a long film and I persevered. Now, looking back on it, I'm glad I did. It's not as good as Crash and it is kind of overloaded with sentimentality - every scene seems to be trying to get you to cry for each and every character. Perhaps it was nice to see some Hollywood characters feeling as down and miserable as the rest of us? Either way, the performances are pretty good - naturally from Forest Whittaker and Ray Liotta, but also from Jessica Biel (who comes in for more than her fair share of acting criticism these days).It is certainly a slow-burner. Not much happens during the beginning and it takes a while to get going. So, although it doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel in terms of film-making, it's not a bad little piece, but I feel it's one of those films that you have to be well in the mood for to really appreciate. It should probably come with a warning not to watch it if you don't want to be depressed or brought down by one tale of woe after the next.

Any movie featuring Forest Whitaker at least wants to be a powerful drama. This one is no exception. But Whitaker is not the only high talent name starring. Ray Liotta and Jessica Biel contribute their considerable skills. And Eddie Redmayne, who I have never heard of, turns in an equally fine performance.Supporting are Kris Kristofferson, Patrick Swayze, and Lisa Kudrow, each of whom likewise display their fine acting ability.This movie is a powerful drama. The various starring and supporting characters are each well developed. The actors effectively portray their character's individual situations and communicate their motivation, their desperation. The viewer can not help, not just to empathize with them, but to invest emotionally in them. They each have the best of intentions, in the most dire of circumstances. How the main four characters lives eventually intersect is emotionally draining.This film is not light entertainment, but it is well worth watching. And like "Crash" it is a movie that I would watch again, knowing how it comes out, as soon as I have recharged my energy.

Ironically I rec'd this movie from Netflix on a weekend I was seriously wanting to end it all & had a plan. Being the chicken-sh*t that I am, I didn't execute (obviously). This movie didn't give me the will to live but it made me want to keep going a little longer. My situation is bad, but not as bad as it could be. All of the characters portrayed had their struggles but made it through via communications that wouldn't have happened otherwise. . Anything can happen in Hollywood so the rest of us shouldn't give up so soon - yeah, right!! The 2 most poignant points for me were when Johnny asked Qwerty to go to Paris after her trauma - life goes on when other aspects don't. The shopping cart scene was too cool too! ;-) We should be so lucky to have some one who's willing to stay close during hard times. The other point is, I guess, there's hope,somewhere, somehow!! Charlie saw the light, so to speak, amidst his struggle with mortality. The potential homicidal,scenes were particularly hard to watch. Not because I wanted to do it (I still do) but that it would affect people who might actually give a scant or separate interest. Thanks Tim Linh Bui & producers who made this movie happen. The noose remains loose!