Must-See Movies opening soon!

I haven't seen anything new at the theatre recently though I can't wait to see the new Apatow movie -- "Funny People" features a great cast: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Jason Schwartzmann, Jonah Hill and Eric Bana. Eric Bana - is anyone else surprised by this?!? I like him a lot (Bana starred in both "Munich" and "Troy", two movies I enjoyed) however I didn't know he did funny, particularly Apatow-funny.

Speaking of Bana...very excited to see him as the lead in "The Time Traveler's Wife", which opens in mid-August and co-stars the delightful Rachel McAdams ("The Notebook" and "Wedding Crashers" - two movies I highly recommend, although they are very different movies!). This is based on the book by Audrey Niffenberger and, originally, may have been an entirely different star vehicle: film rights were originally purchased by the production company, Plan B Entertainment, which was a joint venture of then-marrieds, Brad Pitt & Jennifer Aniston. At the time they purchased the rights, there was even talk that they would play the leads...however, this was all pre-break up so it's understandable why this version did not happen. Plan B, however, did remain involved and Brad Pitt was an Executive Producer for "The Time Traveler's Wife". When I did double-check my info on IMDB, I was surprised to find out how many great films Plan B has been involved with - "The Departed", "A Mighty Heart" and "Troy - along with some exciting future projects in the works: "Eat, Pray, Love" (another memoir our book club has tackled), "The Senator's Wife" (assuming this is an adaptation of the Sue Miller novel), along with many others in development.

Another must-see opening in early August: "Julie and Julia" starring the incomparable Meryl Streep (has she ever phoned in a performance??) and Amy Adams, who has built up an impressive body of work over the past few years showing her to have quite a range: "Sunshine Cleaning", "Enchanted", "Junebug" and "Doubt" in which she turns in a fantastic performance as a young, naive nun who is put in an impossible situation, wedged between her superior nun (Meryl Streep, again) and a well-liked priest (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), one that truly tests her beliefs & convictions about what is wrong and what is right....and, do we give someone the benefit of the doubt or do we let that doubt eat away at us? Doubt appears to be like a seed that, once planted, grows like a weed, taking on a life of its own.

The film is based upon a memoir by Julie Powell entitled: "Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously". Powell, played by Adams in the film, is a thirtysomething temp in a dead-end job who feels stuck and concocts a year-long project as an inspired solution: over the next 365 days, she will cook all of Julia Child's recipes from Child's classic cookbook and then blog about her efforts. There are successes and great dishes...there are failures, replaced by take-out...laughter, tears, fights...all with Powell's husband, Eric, by her side for this seemingly gargantuan endeavor (played by Chris Messina). Streep, of course, plays the much-revered cooking genius, Julia Child and her story is told to us as well - hard to imagine that this household name did not begin cooking until her thirties!

The icing on the cake (as if Streep & Adams weren't enough!) - "Julie and Julia" is directed by Nora Ephron...who wrote my all-time favorite movie, "When Harry Met Sally" (directed by Rob Reiner) and wrote/directed "You've Got Mail" and "Sleepless in Seattle"...not to mention countless other movies as well as her recent collection of essays, "I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts About Being a Woman". Has anyone had a chance to read this? If so, please share your thoughts!

This seems to be the summer of high-profile book-to-movie adaptations: both "Julie & Julia" and "The Time Traveler's Wife" were books my book club had read. Another adaptation that opened earlier this summer is "My Sister's Keeper", starring Cameron Diaz, Jason Patric and Abigail Breslin. The book it's based on by the same title was written by the wonderful Jodi Picoult, who has written 12-15 novels and has a real knack for character development and showing her audience multiple points of view, rather than just being lodged in the narrator's head. This was another book our book club had read and it was a very moving read - whether you see the movie or read it, be sure to have tissues handy!

So, if you need to escape the heat with a good story on-screen...I don't think you'll go wrong with any/all of these picks! I'll be sure to update you with my reviews once I see them.


"My Sister's Keeper" - In theatres now
"Funny People" - Opens July 31
"Julie & Julia" - Opens August 7
"The Time Traveler's Wife" - Opens August 14