I was really rooting for Colin Firth and Natalie Portman. Icing on the cake was Christian Bale for best supporting actor.

Great night at the Oscars. Colin Firths’ acceptance speech was the best one all night.

“I’m afraid I have to warn you that I’m experiencing stirrings somewhere in the upper abdominals which are threatening to form themselves into dance moves. Joyous as they may be for me, it would be extremely problematic if they make it to my legs before I get offstage.”

Lots of crazy outfits.

Some say Nicole Kidman’s dress was great. I say she looks like she’s wearing a napkin.

I think Gwenyth Paltrow thought she had to dress up as an Oscar.

Jennifer Hudson just looked fabulous.

Cate Blanchett’s dress is just bloody awful. The top looks like someone drew on it with a highlighter.

Anne Hathaway was annoying as ever, but James Franco glaring at her and rolling his eyes kind of made up for it.

That and my DVR’s fast forward ability. As is tradition, I seem to watch the Oscar winning movies after the Academy Awards and this year is no exception. I’m dying to watch The King’s Speech, but most of the others I think I will pass on, especially The Social Network, bleck. Inception looks pretty good too.

And I thought The Ugly Truth was bad! I’m so disappointed in this movie. I wanted to see it because it has Denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) from Grey’s Anatomy. You remember him? He was adorable on that show. He’s fairly adorable in this movie, but the content of the story was cringe worthy. Once again, no chemistry between the two lead actors. Uma Thurman is one of the most unattractive women in movies, and this was no exception. Also, Colin Firth (I love him!) was in this movie, but he played a bit of an ass. I just can’t believe Colin to ever be the one not chosen in a romantic comedy. They should have picked someone else.

The main plot of the story is that the main character, Emma (played by Uma) is a relationship expert and has her own radio show. Patrick (Jeffrey Morgan)’s fiancee Sophia calls Emma’s show, and gets relationship advice. Emma advises her to call off the wedding, thus breaking Patrick’s heart. To get back at her, Patrick turns to his tech savvy neighbor, who hacks into the city’s database and makes it so that Patrick is married to Emma. How on earth this benefits Patrick, I still don’t get.
So then of course she turns up to the courthouse to get her marriage license and can’t because she’s already married. Cue predictable meltdown here. Then she finds Patrick, and he pretends not to know what it’s all about. He also acts incredibly weird, and ends up wooing her. He acts like he just won a trip to disney world, not just met the woman who ruined his life. There should have been more conflict between the two main characters. There are no real angry remarks, he never shows that he hated her guts. It’s basically a sappy story of him falling for her (she’s an uptight bitch pretty much the entire movie, so it’s pretty unbelievable) and she falls for him. The story just isn’t good. I’m disappointed once again by the romantic comedy genre. Come on people, I know you can do better than this!

I was bored at home, so I decided to pursue the Netflix instant play movies. I came across the movie, Then She Found Me, starring Helen Hunt. I was amazed I didn’t hear about this movie before. I loved this movie so much because it felt very real, in that movie sort of way.
It all starts with a schoolteacher named April, a woman who seems to have the very worst of luck. Her husband leaves her, about 10 seconds after sleeping with her one last time. She tells someone, “At least it can’t get any worse than this” and the next day her adopted mother passes away. The poor woman is on the verge of a breakdown, when she’s contacted by a man with a letter asking her if she’d like to know who her birth mother is.
The birth mother is a famous talk show host, played by the adorable Bette Midler. She is very intense, and seems very self absorbed. She seems like the kind of woman who would only drink out of logo water bottles, or only eat green m&ms. In short, she’s high maintenance. But she’s also sweet, and genuinely wants to get to know the daughter she gave up.
During all these crazy, life altering changes, April meets Frank, played by Colin Firth (who I adore!). He is a single dad, whose son is in April’s class. He’s frazzled, and doing his best to raise his kids alone. April and Frank are instantly connected, and it seems to overwhelm her, especially since it’s so soon after her husband leaves her.
Also, mixed in with all the drama, April is obsessed with having a baby. She’s 40, and hasn’t been able to get pregnant. She’s very stubbornly against adoption, which is ironic since she herself was adopted. I won’t give away anything else because I think it would ruin the movie. It’s a great watch, with very real moments, some sad, some happy. Of course it wouldn’t be a movie I loved if the ending didn’t leave you with the warm fuzzies, so never fear, the sad parts don’t stick.
I’ve always been a big Helen Hunt fan, and I read that she actually directed this movie too. I hope she makes others, because I really loved this film.
Here’s a little trailer, which actually says more than my brief review even did.