Two DVDs

I have been watching a couple of good stories on DVD this weekend. The Illusionist, and A Good Year. Both of them are love stories, my favorite category.

A good Year with Russell Crowe is a great post card from Provence,France. There is not much of a climax to this movie. Russell Crowe, the star of Gladiator, plays a stock broker who inherits his uncle's villa in France. He his merciless with business but has to reconsider his life and his history when this property becomes his. There is a romantic interest in a strong willed woman that he met as a young boy. The french beauty, played by Marion Cotillard, wraps his heart and he has second thoughts of selling the villa. Its good movie overall.

Chance encounters in youth are also a factor in the second movie, The Illusionist.

The Illusionist, is a period drama set in Europe during the horses and carriage era. Edward Norton Paul Giametti star in this twisted tale of jealously and love. The illusionist, played by Edward Norton, meets a traveling magician in his youth. He learns some of the trade. His father, a furniture maker, and he an apprentice, provides furniture pieces for the wealthy families in Prague. On one such job he meets a girl of the wealthy family. Later, the illlusionist grows up and so does she. He travels throughout Europe doing stage shows while she is courted by the crown prince. The plot thickens when she and the crown prince attended one of the stage shows and she is volunteered as the subject by her crown prince boyfriend. The illusionist and the girl recall their childhood attraction and the show continues. The crown prince is jealous and his spys reveal their secret meetings. There are some interesting plot twists in this movie. It is filmed primarily in a dark setting so you need get well rested before you pop this into your DVD player.

: ) Pat