now I’m a hamburger

Tags

family, Germany, Hamburg, miscellaneous, random, thoughts, travel

I’ll be heading off to Germany again later today. This time Hamburg is my destination. When my aunt got sick last year, and I had to discover Berlin alone, we arranged to meet up again this spring. So now I am half packed and nearly ready to go.

Hamburg is a beautiful city and I’m looking forward to visiting a few museums, wandering around town and taking a stroll along the Elbe. An other great attraction of Hamburg is that my little nephew lives there, well so does my brother and his wife. And since it’s my baby brothers birthday on Monday I decided to stay a few days longer and celebrate him growing old. This means I get to tickle, cuddle and chase around his one-and-a-half-year-old son for a couple of days and I am looking forward to his little boy hugs.

Of course my suitcase is filled with goodies for both young and old a collection of my brothers favorite biscuits, polos (peppermint sweets) for my niece, gifts in all shapes and sizes and even some homemade jam for my aunt. But the biggest space is taken up by an undelivered Christmas parcel. For some reason the oh so efficient German post declared my brother “unable to find” and sent the big bulky package back to me. At least it came back and now we’ll just celebrate Christmas in February, slightly better than July anyway.

So while I am getting ready to become a Hamburger for a few days I am enjoying the relish (intentional pun) of preparing for a trip, hoping a few days away will recharge my batteries.

 

Film Review: Mama

Tags

Andrés Muschietti, drama, entertainment, Guillermo del Toro, horror, horror movie, Jessica Chastain, mama, mama review, movie reviews, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, two little girls

Film Review Mama

Guillermo del Toro latest offering Mama is a supernatural horror movie about a mothers love. When businessman Jeffrey (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) kills his wife he flees with his two small daughters Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lilly (Isabelle Nelisse). When their father disappears the two little girls are left alone in a run down cabin deep in the woods, well nearly alone.

Five years later the children are found living of berries and insects, completely feral and obsessed with an invisible presence they call “Mama”.  When a child psychiatrist takes an interest in the unusual case Victoria and Lilly are sent to live with their uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his goth-rock-chick girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain).

While Annabel is struggling to come to terms with being a “mother” strange happenings around the home become more and more frequent. “Mama’ seems to have moved in with the girls, confusing Victoria and pulling the two sisters apart.

In 2008 Argentinean director Andrés Muschietti made a terrifying short about two girls trying to flee from their demonic mother. In Mama he expands the theme but sadly cannot hold the tension.  It is the age-old problem of how much to show the viewer. While Muschietti does make his audience uneasy in the earlier parts of the movie, when they finally see Mama it all falls apart. The free floating, puppet like figure is too puppet-like to instil actual fear and the battle of the mum’s just feels to forced.

Jessica Chastain does lend a bit of gravitas to the Annabel, however she never does seem to really exude the rock-chick vibe. Overall all characters seem quite one dimensional, their relationships sallow and even the “heart-string” moments are a little to bland.

The much-hyped Mama is another horror film that just doesn’t quite pull it off. A few scary moments, a couple of creepy corridor shots and the odd paranormal activity and a few interesting ideas does not a good film make and even less one that warms a true horror fans heart.