500 Days of Julie & Julia

during pantang, you have to stay all day in your room.

when i was in pantang with first son khaleef, i had no notebook, no internet, no tv for the first 2 weeks as i experienced a hardcore pantang at tokcik's place in taiping. then i spent the rest of my pantang days at yong's house (which was the best of times!) where i kept watching will smith's 'hitch' and tom hanks' 'the terminal' over and over because those are the only 2 yg best.

fast-forward to the present : 30 days of pantang already - and tons of downloaded movies covered (thanks to my younger sisters syida and azi). romance, adventure, citer tembak-tembak, family drama, chick-flick, gory and horror - it'll take quite a few entries this month to cover the reviews of the movies i've seen during the pantang.

so to start, here's the cutest romantic flick ever, and a tale of two women and the food in their lives!

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'this is not a love story. it's a story about love.'

brad pitt and angelina jolie in mr. and mrs. smith made up one of the sexiest couples ever graced the movie world, so does antonio banderas and catherine zeta jones in zorro, or even the avatar couple. but go watch '500 days of summer' and you'll meet the cutest, most adorable couple ever!

the cute guy who's the youngest 'alien' in '3rd rock from the sun' and this cute chick who acts alongside jim carey in 'yes man'.

it's a totally 'boy-meets-girl' tale - 500 days of his relationship with a girl named summer. i enjoy the constant back and forth in time of the stories told, guided by the 'number' at the beginning of each change of scenes : "day 1", then "day 432", then moved back to "day 15" - so on and so forth.

and oh my, this is how i want a guy to 'court' me - malu-malu in my presence, sleepless nights, constantly annoying his best friends with endless stories about this girl that he likes, smiling to himself just thinking about her - all that jazz. (honey, you macam tu tak?)

he even confides in his spunky younger sister!

i love his relationship with his sister. someone he talks to about girls, someone even the bro's best friends would call when the brother is suffering from extreme heartbreak, someone he hangs out with playing x-box. i don't have a brother - so if i had, that's the kind of brother-sister relationship that i want!

this movie also reminds some of us about how things are, and how things were. dulu - make jokes and she laughs. holding hands at ikea. liking every little things about her like her 'love-shaped birthmark on her neck' -

however, before you knew it, things sort of changed - make jokes and she ignores you. wanna hold hands but she draws away from you. hating every little things that use to make you love her, like her 'stupid spider-shaped smudge on her neck' -

see?

whether you believe in true love, soulmate and fate; or whether you believe in going with the flow, making things happen and trying to work out a relationship - this movie is for you.

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big mistake watching julie and julia during my pantang. BIG mistake.

cakes and cream, stuffed chicken with cheese and eggs, beef stew with braised carrots and sauted mushrooms plus all sorts of cooking jargons - braised, boil. fried and baked - and constant reference to butter. agh.

this movie deeply touches me - my inner blogger, and the undiscovered cook in me. it's about two ladies from a different place in time, but similar in some ways - both want something out of life, and found food. and cookings. julia child in the past, and julie powell in the present.

my friend aisha wrote a wonderful review with a bit more description on the synopsis, so you could check out her thoughts by clicking here.

i could really relate to julie's predicament as she starts blogging. and it's funny when she wonders whether anyone reads her writings. or when she waits for comments that never came. or when it did come, it didn't count because it's from her mother. and when comments finally came, she excitedly told her husband, "i got 5 comments today and i don't know any of them!"

i could really, really relate to that!

looking at both of them, i yearn for julia child's playfulness. i admire her relationship with her ever-supportive husband. her determination to learn new things and be all she can be!

i also admire julie powell's determination to cook all sorts (which i can never do - i only cook stuff that uses ingredients i'm familiar with!)

watch the movie, and eventually you will see a little of yourself here and there in the endearing characters of julia child and julie powell.

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ok more movie reviews to come soon. may is movie marathon month, people!