Bust-A-Block Movie Reviews
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By Judith Parker Harris
The MONSTER VILLAIN is the action engine in the film Hanna. When CIA director Marissa B. (Cate Blanchette) closed the file on her experimental birthing project years ago, she eradicated all evidence except one, Hanna.
Now sixteen and raised in the wilds of Finland by her ex-CIA father who has taught her extreme self-defense and knowledge of world cultures, inquisitive Hanna wants to merge into civilization, but at what cost?
Marissa, our monster villain, is a force of nature that refuses to let go, refuses to stop until all evidence of her failed program is gone. The only way for Hanna to live in the world is to find Marissa and kill her before she herself is killed. Hanna willingly sounds the alarm and awaits the CIA agents who swarm their cabin ad take Hanna to Marissa. But her father has taught her well and Hanna eludes her captures. Marissa is relentless in her pursuit of Hanna who discovers there is more to life than what her father told her. As Hanna and her father struggle to survive, they discover that while MONSTER VILLAINS make us feel helpless and hopeless, they succumb when their victims become heroic.
Editor’s note: There are rules in writing and structuring movies. One is that the protagonist (who often starts out as the victim) must rise up and kill or destroy the Monster. That’s the only way the audience can be satisfied. The archetypes in this movie are clearly drawn. The monster is pure evil and must die for Hanna to thrive. The father has fallen victim to his own saboteur voices as he single-mindedly dedicated his life to “saving” Hanna from her fate, but in so doing prevented her from experiencing a real life. His fate is sealed in Hanna’s survival.
Who or what represents the monster in your life? What beliefs or attitudes have to die in your life in order for you to move forward into your authentic self and the fulfillment of your purpose?
ARTHUR
By Judith Parker Harris
Oh yes they did, they remade Arthur. Hesitant to give it a go, I was pleasantly surprised and actually enjoyed seeing how throughout the story the LOST LOVE VILLAIN was so pervasive and powerful. To lose the thing you love, to never have the love you need, is the emotional state in which the Lost Love Villain thrives.
Having lost his father when he was three, Arthur was left with an uncaring mother and raised by his nanny, Hobson. This powerful love loss has Arthur suspended in an infantile state and keeps him from learning how to love himself and, therefore, anyone else. He is over powered by the fear that if he grows up and becomes an adult, he will be like his mother who is unable to love anything that can love her back. He chooses to remain stuck in the mentality of a child.
Hobson, Arthur’s nanny, reveals to Arthur that when he was three she was to go to Spain with the love of her life. When Arthur’s father passed, she chose to stay and raise Arthur. Her LOST LOVE VILLAIN kept her from finding another as she hid out in caring for Arthur all those years. She never broke free to find happiness once again. She died never busting through her Lost Love Villain block.
Arthur is still only half a man, weighted down by the expectations of who everyone else thinks he should be. Right before his wedding to the wrong woman begins, Arthur reads a note left by Hobson before she passed. She learned too late the importance of busting through her Lost Love villain but is it too late for Arthur? Or is he just another victim of the Lost Love villain manifested in this film as his mother?
Made In Dagenham
By Judith Parker Harris
For those who believe the womens’ lib movement began in America, see this film! Based upon true events of 1968, a group of plucky British ladies at the Ford Motor factory in Dagenham, England, go on strike demanding the company pay women at the same rate as the men and receive equal pay for equal work. Their stand is met with heavy resistance in the womens’ personal as well as professional lives.
A reluctant Rita is pushed to represent the female factory workers’ demands to Ford executives. Outward appearances indicate a competent, organized working mother of two children with a sluggish husband, all well taken care of. Naturally she would be chosen to speak on behalf of the women.
But her reluctance stems from a block I call the Pirate Villain. (Remember, this is the villain that steals everything from you – even your own self-confidence) She attempts to bust through this block when she confronts her son’s repeated abuse at the hands of his teacher but allows this teacher to belittle and blame her parenting skills, social standing and her lack of education as the real problem with her son.
Shaken to her core by this dressing down she shuns the leadership role but is pushed into it despite her fear. Her first efforts are inelegant, sloppy and without conviction. When she learns that Lisa, wife of a Ford executive, with money, looks and social standing, suffers from the same feelings of not being respected, even treated by her husband like she was an idiot despite her education, the importance of this cause is reaffirmed in Rita.
When Lisa shows Rita their efforts to have the abusive teacher removed from the school are a success, Rita realizes the power in taking a stand.
Rita’s husband, Eddie, changes from an inattentive slug to a man now held hostage to his own pirate villain. He watches Rita speak with sincerity in front of the Ford executives and now wonders if he is good enough for her. He busts through his block and puts his love for her on the line. He wants her, if she will have him.
Connie the older co-worker feels robbed by her Pirate villain. Her husband suffers the effects of war and is losing his mind. He hardly knows his life and is a stranger to his wife. When Rita urges Connie to become more involved in their cause, Connie is certain Rita doesn’t understand just how miserable life is. Rita and the others do not suffer as Connie does. They have all the youth, luck, looks and time to give. Not Connie.
And what of Connie’s husband? In his estimation he alone suffers. Robbed of his life and ability to work, he finds it impossible to bust through his pirate villain block. Unlike Eddie who busts through and moves with wife Rita to a new level of consciousness, Connie’s husband is tragically unable to face his villain.
Rent this movie and be inspired by those who beat their pirate villains and further not only the cause of women, but the cause of themselves.
SEX IN THE CITY 2 – A Course in Villain Busting
By Judith Parker Harris
Was SEX IN THE CITY 2 a Blockbuster? Regarding Box office receipts it was only a minor player, but in terms of BUSTING BLOCKS, it was a Major League winner.
The four ladies we have grown to love over the years represent so many archetypes that we can each live out our fantasies and deal with our villains through them. That is exactly why watching them is addictive. The clothes, the shoes, the breath-taking scenery is nothing compared to living out our fantasies and busting our villains – that’s the real key to why there will be another sequel. We need these girls.
Lets start with Carrie, the woman of so many questions. She definitely falls prey to the Saboteur villain. In this round, she couldn’t help question if marriage had made her "big" romance go cold. When she ran into Aiden, the Saboteur villain threatened her marriage, but truth and love won out.
Samantha, our bad girl/sex goddess was dealing with the Sorceress villain. What if natural foods and a store full of supplements could keep her young? What if she could outrun menopause? But loss of her medicine chest made her get past the "if’s" and begin dealing (at least a little) with age, just as an age-appropriate hunk came into steal her heart and help her deal with what is, what’s present, what’s true in life.
Miranda, the red-headed flame struggled with the mugger/rapist villain. Always more comfortable with her work façade than facing up to her many insecurities personally, she found her husband and child demanding that she quit her job. She raced off to Abu Dhabi with her friends, still not sure of who she really was, but the answer came through sound-headed balance.
Lovely Charlotte, gave us the Pirate/Bandit conflict. Was she enough as a mother? Was she enough as a wife? Was she a monster for ignoring her child’s cries for 5-minutes while she cried herself. A breakdown and a heart-to-heart with Miranda took the pressure of being perfect off of Charlotte’s shoulders and introduced her to just right, leaving the "Not Enough Pirate" villain behind on the sand dunes.
For the critics who felt the movie was complete debauchery, garish, over blown… Get over it! It’s a fantasy, a cartoon. The movie goes too far so we don’t have to feel bad about our own villains. You’re taking yourself and this movie, too seriously.
So many villains, so little time. See this one and work out some of your "stuff."
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