Hope you have a Nice time here!

29 Apr 2009

~Atonement~





The Plot

The film comprises four parts, corresponding to the four parts of the novel. Some scenes are shown several times from different perspectives.

Briony Tallis is a 13-year-old girl from a wealthy English family, the youngest of three, and an aspiring writer. Her older sister Cecilia is educated at Cambridge University alongside Robbie Turner, the son of their housekeeper, whose school fees are paid by Cecilia's father. Though Robbie is headed for medical school soon, he is spending the summer gardening on the Tallis estate. The ginger-haired Lola Quince, age fifteen, and her younger twin brothers, Jackson and Pierrot, are cousins of Briony and Cecilia who are visiting the family amidst their parents' divorce. Lastly, Leon – Briony and Cecilia's brother – brings home a friend named Paul Marshall, who owns a chocolate factory that is acquiring a contract to produce army rations. The Tallis family is planning a special dinner, to which Leon happily invites Robbie, who accepts, much to Cecilia's annoyance.

Briony has just finished writing a play entitled The Trials of Arabella, which she describes being as about "the complications of love". Her cousins, however, are being unmanageable about staging the play, and she is considerably frustrated. Alone in her bedroom, she witnesses a significant moment of sexual tension between Robbie and her sister by the fountain, when her sister strips down to her underwear and dips into the fountain, to retrieve the lost part of a vase that Robbie has clumsily broken. Because Briony cannot hear what the two are saying, and has witnessed only a fraction of the scene, she misunderstands its dynamics, and the seed of her misplaced distrust in Robbie is sown.

Robbie writes several strained drafts of apology letters to Cecilia, including one, explicit and erotically-charged, that includes the word "cunt": In my dreams I kiss your cunt, your sweet wet cunt. He does not, however, intend to send it and, chuckling to himself, sets it to one side.

On his way to joining the Tallis family celebration, Robbie asks Briony to deliver his letter — only to realise too late that he has mistakenly given her the prurient one. Briony secretly reads the letter and becomes still more suspicious of Robbie's intentions, later convincing Lola that he is a "a sex maniac". She hands the letter, devoid of its envelope, to Cecilia, who is angry and embarrassed that she has read it.

That evening Briony encounters Cecilia and Robbie again, this time in the manqué seclusion of the library, where they are making love against a bookcase. The naïve Briony walks in to find them in the throes of sexual passion and falls under the misguided impression that Robbie is molesting her. At dinner, while Robbie and Cecilia secretly caress hands under the table, Briony is verbally aggressive toward Robbie but is cut short when her mother  tells her to fetch the twins. Briony finds a note on their bed declaring that, in their anguish at their parents' divorce and unhappiness in their new lodgings, they have run off back home.

Immediately the family members split up in search of the twins on the large estate. As Briony goes off alone into the darkness to find them, she stumbles upon a man in a dinner suit raping Lola. On her arrival, the man dashes off into the darkness, and Briony runs to her cousin's aid. Lola, apparently traumatised, claims not to know the identity of her attacker — he covered her eyes —, but Briony is certain that it was Robbie.

Back at the estate, the police have been contacted. Briony insists that she "knows who did it". She tells everyone that it was Robbie, convinced due to the encounters between Robbie and Cecilia that she witnessed earlier in the day. In her testimony to the police, even though in reality she does not recall seeing the rapist's face, she claims that "I saw him; I saw him with my own eyes."

Finally, she shows the shocking letter to her mother, and now everyone believes her story — everyone, that is, except for Cecilia. "I wouldn't necessarily believe everything Briony tells you", she cautions her interviewers. "She's rather fanciful."

Robbie presently returns from his search, the twins safely in tow and wholly oblivious to the rape. He is arrested and sent to prison.

The story moves forward four and a half years, to the opening phases of the Second World War. Robbie, having been convicted but released from prison on condition that he enlist as a private in the British Expeditionary Force, is hiding in a French attic with two fellow soldiers cut off from their units during the German invasion of France. Although, as an ex-prisoner, he is not eligible to be a commissioned officer, his leadership skills and ability to speak French and read a map see him take the lead of his small group. The corporal, who formally outranks him, avoids confusion by addressing him as "guv".

Here the dénouement of the rape accusation is shown in dialogue and flashback. Before his deployment, Robbie was reunited with Cecilia in London, where they renewed their love and he made a promise to return to her. Like Cecilia, the eighteen-year-old Briony (now played by Romola Garai) has joined Cecilia's old nursing corps at St Thomas's in London (and thus given up her place at Cambridge) in an attempt to do "something practical" — although Cecilia accurately suspects that she is really trying to atone for her blunder, "the full extent of which," she has admitted in a letter, "I'm only now beginning to grasp." Her attempts at contacting her sister go unanswered: Cecilia has refused contact, blaming her for Robbie's imprisonment. It turns out, indeed, that Cecilia had broken off contact with all her family, since they all believe in Robbie's guilt.

Briony soon wins a reputation at the hospital for her mystique and reticence, with her fellow nurses gossiping about the chances of her having a secret fiancée. On being pressed on the matter by her closest companion Fiona, she denies the charge and claims further never to have been in love, although she does recall having had one crush: a flashback shows her deliberately jumping into a river in a bid to have Robbie save her. He duly obliges, and is furious. She remembers that, "as soon as I told him I loved him, the feeling sort of disappeared."

With his two companions, the wounded and very ill Robbie finally arrives at the beaches of Dunkirk, where he waits to be evacuated. After being told that all the soldiers are to leave the next day, he falls into a fitful sleep. Shortly thereafter, at the hospital at which she is a probationer nurse, Briony experiences the horror of the evacuation. In one scene, a mortally wounded French soldier (Jérémie Renier of L'Enfant) dies while she attempts to comfort him.

After seeing a newsreel depicting members of the Royal Family visiting Paul Marshall's chocolate factory, Briony attends the wedding of Marshall and her cousin Lola, and has a flashback of the night of the rape: as it turns out, it was Paul, not Robbie, whom she saw, with her own eyes, doing the deed. It is on this day that Briony summons up the courage to visit Cecilia's flat and apologise to her directly, recanting her accusation. Robbie, evacuated from Dunkirk, emerges from Cecilia's bedroom, awakened by the commotion of their argument, and angrily confronts Briony. Cecilia calms him, but the couple demand that Briony immediately tell her family and the authorities the truth, so that his name may be cleared. Robbie insists that she write to him precisely what happened, why she did it and give the details to asolicitor. Cecilia and Robbie appear long to have suspected that a certain servant boy, Danny Hardman, was the culprit, but Briony reveals that she knows it to be Paul Marshall, who, now married to Lola, cannot be implicated in a court of law by his wife. Briony takes the Underground away from her sister and Robbie, finally to tell the truth of the affair.

The film suddenly shifts forward to 1999, when an elderly Briony, interviewed on television (by Anthony Minghella) about her latest novel Atonement, is overcome with emotion and memory. She reveals that she is dying of vascula dementia, and that this novel will be her last, but that it is also her first, as she has been drafting it intermittently since her time at St Thomas's. Briony admits that the story is autobiographical and expresses great remorse at her actions. She admits that the end of the novel is, in fact, a fiction; in reality, both Robbie and Cecilia died before Briony could make amends, Robbie succumbing to septicemia the day before the evacuation at Dunkirk, and Cecilia perishing in the Ballham Tube Station flooding. Briony explains that she has altered the ending to give her sister and Robbie the chance at the happiness they both deserved, and which she took away from them. The film closes with a scene of a simple, seaside bliss between Cecilia and Robbie, together at long last. The scenery of the English cliff-side beach around them echoes that from a postcard that Cecilia gave Robbie on his departure for duty, as a promise that they would be together someday.


* It was hard to understand the movie if you havent read the novel or the synopsis of the movie beforehand. It's because the some scenes are not continuos, so viewer had to view the scene properly and understand that scene at the same time. Otherwise, you wouldn't understand what's the movie is all about. Anyway, I think the film is not bad.

28 Apr 2009

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

Yess!! Finally finish the exam! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! After all these days of revising and months of studying, it's now officially the end of the 2nd semester of the 2008/2009 academic year, which also means that I'm getting closer to the 3rd year. Whoah...it's like I was just started the uni life not long ago, but seems like it's going to end soon!  

We went out to enjoy ourselves after the exams, just like what we had done a couple of times. I actually was not in the mood of enjoying, as I was suffering from headache. Dang headache make me suffered so much during the examination! I actually wanna 'put aeroplane' on them, but didn't do so as this will be our last meeting before we will meet again in this big group during the new semester, which will be in July. So, ended up going with them. XinMi, SheiHan and MingWei went 1st, as they had something to do. And the rest of us, ChiaMin, SzeSze, ZheRong, Lawrence and me went later, as we also had something to do. Lawrence went to check his assignments' result, while I went to my school's office to get some certs' verification. The remaining friends went to International Office to get their offer letter (for student exchange programme, anyway, congrats, guys!). So, we met up at the bus stop to go to Gurney...for KTV! Lawrence and I waited for the others for a looong time as they were stucked in International Office. Haiz...pity me and Lawrence! When we got up the bus, the bus took us round and round and round, before we reached Gurney after some 1 hour bus ride. Man, we were all starved to...nearly fainted! We went to the room, where SheiHan, MingWei and XinMi had already started singing while waiting for us (they came here with car). So, the 1st thing to do is decide where to eat, as all of us haven't eat yet. We concluded that we will have dinner at 5pm after the singing session, so at the meantime we'll share some fried rice. 

Well, in KTV, what to do? Sing loh. But I was not a good singer, so I do listening. Plus my head bang so much when I move around, so I sit still, with my jacket on, as I was freezing. All others started to sing, well, actually it was MingWei, SheiHan and XinMi who was singing, as they are actually quite a good singer. Anyway, ZheRong did sing, and I can't believe Jerung can sing well too! Hahaha...

I had some fried rice when it was served, and then my head started to bang more slowly. Haiz...but better than banging harder. And then, SzeSze and MingWei came in with a birthday cake. It's a belated birthday for me and Lawrence's coming soon birthday in May. I should had gave this a thought as they did the same thing for me last year (well, a lil' bit different as last year was an early celebration), but my head bang so hard that I wouldn't want to think a thing. And I got a birthday gift from them! So this is the thing they need to do! Oh man...thank you so much! Muakzz!! :) So after the cake cutting session and a lil' of photo session, the singing session continue. Did sing a song or two, but can't help it as my head bang harder, you know, like when you push yourselve too hard, there are more pains. Shit, I hate it when this thing happend to me! We hang around at RedBox until 5pm, before we started to leave. Lawrence lost his birthday gift, and went back to find, which he couldn't find it in the room, and ZheRong suggested that it might had been accidently thrown away while the staff clean the room. Hence, he went back to find the staff who cleaned the room, and finally got it back. Man, it was really being thrown away! 

After that, there was a suggestion to have dinner at the famous Gurney Drive. So, while waiting for the stalls to set up, we went window shopping in the Gurney's shopping mall. We had pasembur, fried oysters, fried kuey teow, claypot chicken rice and wanton mee for dinner. Went to wait for bus around 7.45pm, so that we won't missed the bus. Anyway, the bus didnt came until 8.45pm. We chat and took some photos in this hour. It's like we took turn to chat, from 1 person to another person. So, each of us talked and listen to different things, which was fun, though. And when the bus finally came, we rushed to the side of the road. It's like we don't want to miss the bus! Of course, we had waited for sooo long! But the bus stop at a place, and we waited for some time before the bus started to move again. Til this time, all of us had exausted, from our all day long's activities. Woke up early, went to exam, went to do own stuff, singing, dinner, waited for the dang bus...we've all worn out. We need to be recharge!!

*Thanx ya for celebrating birthday with me. Though we only met during the start of our uni life, we had become quite a close friend. I appreciate this relationship with you guys. God let us met by chance, and we should preserve this relationship forever!

25 Apr 2009

Happy Birthday!

It's my birthday today, Happy Birthday to me!

Well, not celebrating today, as I still have exams to go on Monday and Tuesday. Probably will celebrate after that. 

Happy Birthday to me, 
Happy Birthday to me,
HAppy Birthday to me,
HAppy Birthday to me!!

May all my dreams come true!

* Thanks to all my friend who wished me. I'm glad to know you guys, and I hope we can be friends today, tomorrow and the coming days! 

24 Apr 2009

~A Mighty Heart~


The Plot

A Mighty Heart is a detailed account of the search for kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.

Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi by supporters of Omar Sheikh, who claimed responsibility (and was later captured and convicted but is appealing the ruling) for kidnapping and beheading Pearl in 2002. The movie also covers efforts by Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) to track the kidnappers and bring them to justice.

* It's actually from Mariene Pearl's memoir with the same title. She is the widow of slain American journalist, Daniel Pearl. The movie focused on how Mariene cope with the incident, and how those officers trying hard to search for Daniel. Getting info from here and there, asking around...they did everything they can, trying to bring back an innocent guy to his wife. Though we all know that whenever these things happen there won't be a good ending, these people still hopes for miracle, thus do as much as they can. But in the end, it's still a sad thing. *Wish Mariane Pearl and her child stay strong and live happily.*


23 Apr 2009

~Casanova~


The plot

The film opens with a young woman tearfully leaving her son to live with his grandmother. She promises to come back for her boy. Several years later, in 1753, in Venice, Casanova, is notorious for his success and promiscuity with women, his adventures being represented in puppet theatres around the city. The Doge, the ruler of the city, is sympathetic to Casanova, but cannot be too lenient to avoid trouble with the church. He warns Casanova that he must soon marry or he will be exiled from the city.

Casanova is in love with Francesca, who writes illegal feminist books under the name of a man, Bernardo Guardi, and argues for women's rights as Dr. Giordano de Padua. However, her mother  pushes her to marry Paprizzio, a rich man from Genoa whom she has never seen. When Paprizzio arrives in Venice, Casanova lies to him and says that the hotel he booked is closed and he persuades him to stay at his house. Casanova also lies and says that his nom de plume is Bernardo Guardi. While Paprizzio, preparing to visit Francesca, stays at Casanova's house, Casanova visits Francesca, pretending to be Paprizzio.

During the Venetian Carnival, Casanova confesses his true identity to Francesca, which makes her angry. Casanova is arrested by the Venetian Inquisition for crimes against sexual morality, such as debauchery and heresy with a novice. However, he saves Francesca by pretending to be Bernardo Guardi, which impresses her very much. At his trial, Francesca reveals that it is in fact she who is Bernardo Guardi, and both are sentenced to death. Just as Casanova and Francesca are about to be hanged in the Piazza San Marco, they are saved by an announcement that the Pope gave amnesty to all prisoners who were to be executed on that day, as it was the Pope's birthday. It is later discovered that the "Cardinal" who gave the announcement was actually an impostor who happens to be Casanova's stepfather, wedded to his long-lost mother who came back for him just as she promised when Casanova was a child. As they all escape on Paprizzio's boat, Francesca's brother, Giovanni, stays behind to continue Casanova's legendary womanizing.


* Well, who doesn't fall in love with the handsome, sweet talking Casanova? He was a playboy, and we all know playboy won't soo easily, properly and trully fall in love with a women. But he did fall in love, but not into those 'liltle girl waiting to get married' type women. The women he fell in love is the one who can stand up on her own, and say whatever she feels is correct or should be, and she doesn't care how high profile you are, she'll be just herself, she won't wear any 'mask' to protect herself. And I guess Casanova really find her different from other women, thus he doesn't care to lie, to impose and to pretend someone he's not, to protect the women he love. For all those stupid things (well, I think womanizing is not good lah) he'd done, he is after all, a guy who still manage to behave himself properly!

22 Apr 2009

~Burn After Reading~




The Plot

Osborne Cox is a CIA analyst who quits his job at the agency after being demoted because of a drinking problem. He then decides to write a memoir about his life in the CIA. His wife, pediatrician Katie Cox wants to divorce Osborne and, at the counsel of her divorce lawyer she copies many of his personal and financial files off his computer and onto a compact disc. The lawyer's receptionist accidentally leaves the disc at Hardbodies, a health club. After her husband is served with divorce papers, Katie changes the locks to keep him out of their house.

Two employees of the gym, Chad Feldheimer and Linda Litzke obtain the disc from the gym's custodian. Seeing the content of the memoir, they assume that it is highly classified information. Initially Chad and Linda plan to give the disk back to Osborne hoping for a reward, intending to use the money to pay for Linda's cosmetic surgery. However, after a confusing phone conversation and fury on Osborne's part, their original plan descends into a blackmail attempt. Chad meets Osborne, who, aware that the "information" is merely his memoirs, refuses to pay and punches Chad in the nose. Linda decides to take the information to the Russian embassy. At the embassy, she hands the disk over to the Russians, promising that she will give more information afterwards. Because they don't actually have any more information, they decide to break into Osborne's house to steal more.

Katie has been having an affair with Harry Pfarrer, a womanizing Treasury agent. By chance he has recently met Linda online and begun an affair with her as well. Chad stakes out Osborne's house and breaks in when he sees Harry and Katie leave. Harry, however, comes back, finds Chad, and accidentally shoots him in the face. Chad is not carrying ID and the labels are cut out of his clothes; when Harry sees this, he thinks Chad is a spy and disposes of the body. At the CIA headquarters, an official and his director while observing everyone, are perplexed as to what is going on and decide to maintain observation until the situation "makes sense."

A few days later, paranoid since he killed Chad, Harry leaves Osborne's house after a discussion with Katie. On his way out, he tackles a man who has been trailing him for some time, thinking the man works for the CIA or some other government agency. Harry discovers instead that the man works for a divorce firm hired by his wife, who it is later revealed has been cheating on him as well. Harry is devastated and goes to see an agitated Linda, who confides in Harry that her friend Chad is missing; he agrees to try to help.

The next morning, Harry and Linda meet in a park and she provides him with more information about Chad's disappearance. When Harry realizes that Chad is the man he killed, he becomes more paranoid and flees in terror, assuming that Linda is also a spy. Linda then turns to Ted Treffon, the manager of Hardbodies, who has feelings for her. Believing that the Russians have kidnapped Chad, he agrees to look for more information in Osborne's computer. But Osborne, finding that Katie has emptied their bank account, decides to break into his own house with a hatchet to take her jewelry. Finding Ted at his computer, Osborne shoots him. Ted survives and runs out of the house, but Osborne grabs the hatchet and kills him.

The movie ends at CIA headquarters, where the official and his director are trying to sort out what happened: Chad and Ted are dead and Osborne is in a vegetative state after being shot by a CIA operative who had been tasked with observing him. The agent felt he could not stand by while Osborne was killing a man (Ted) in broad daylight. Harry and Linda have been arrested; Harry was caught trying to board a flight to Venezuela, but the director decides to let him go to get him out of their hair. Linda promises to remain silent if the CIA will finance her plastic surgery. The baffled CIA agents agree to her terms.


*Ermm...just don't know how to describe the movie. Kindda stupid, though. A cd was lost, the owner, Osborne Cox (an ex-CIA agent) thought it was his memoir, but the cd pickers thought it was something important, confidential thing about CIA, hence the CIA ask some of the spies to look around Osborne to check what's really inside that cd, but the cd actually was about the owner's personal and financial files, for Osborne's wife to file for divorce. And a paranoid guy who works for the treasury thought he was followed by agents working for the government. The movie is like a puzzle. A piece here and there, but finalise at the end. It's not worth to watch, though Brad Pitt's character is kindda funny, with his yo-yo's expression.

21 Apr 2009

~Movies~

The Other Boleyn Girl

When Catherine of Aragon fails to produce a male heir to the English throne, the Duke of Norfolk and his brother in law, Thomas Boleyn, scheme to install the latter's elder daughter Anne in the court of Henry VIII as the king's mistress and potential mother of his son, thereby furthering their own political ambitions much to the disgust of Thomas' wife and the duke's sister, Elizabeth Boleyn. At first, Anne is reluctant to go along with the idea, fearing that her reputation will be ruined, but in the end goes along to please her father and uncle. The plan backfires when Henry, injured in a hunting accident indirectly caused by Anne, is nursed by her recently married sister Mary and he becomes smitten of her. With great reluctance, Mary and her husband William Carey agree to accept positions at the court, knowing full well what will be expected of her. William is then sent away on an assignment by the king. Separated from her spouse, Mary finds herself falling in love with Henry.

Rebellious Anne secretly marries betrothed nobleman Henry Percy to impress her family and confides in her brother George. Thrilled, George tells Mary about the elopement. Concerned that Anne will disgrace herself by marrying a nobleman without the King's consent, she alerts her father and uncle of the union. They confront Anne, who argues that the marriage has been consummated and what is done before God cannot be undone. Despite her argument, the marriage is annulled and she is exiled to France in disgrace. Feeling that Mary betrayed her only to increase her own status, Anne vows revenge.

The Boleyns' fortunes seem to be secured when Mary becomes pregnant. The two men are thrilled by their success, but Elizabeth warns them, especially Thomas, that all their fortunes will eventually turn on them. However, the men don't believe her.

When Mary nearly suffers a miscarriage, she is confined to bed for the remainder of her pregnancy, and Norfolk recalls Anne to England to keep Henry's attention from wandering to another rival, particularly Jane Seymour. Still deeply hurt by Mary's betrayal, Anne successfully embarks on a campaign to seduce Henry, revealing herself to be more sophisticated and accomplished prior to her exile. By withholding her sexual favors, she ensures the king's continued interest, finally making him promise never to bed his wife or speak to her sister in exchange for her giving him hope of possessing her. Anne exacts this promise just after Mary gives birth to twins, a daughter named Katherine and the much-anticipated son, Henry, making her triumph hollow. Shortly after, Henry banishes Mary from court. She returns home just as her husband, William, dies of the sweating sickness.

The ambitious Anne encourages Henry to break from the Roman Catholic Church when Pope Clement VII refuses to annul his marriage to Catherine. Henry succumbs to Anne's demands, declares himself the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and divorces his wife. The scandal of Anne's brief, secret marriage to Henry Percy threatens her forthcoming marriage to the king until Mary, out of loyalty to her family, returns to court and lies on Anne's behalf, assuring Henry her union with Percy was not consummated.

Despite the success of her plans, Anne's schemes drive Henry to his breaking point mentally and he rapes her. Hurt and confused by the attack, a now-pregnant Anne still goes through with the marriage to please her family and becomes the new Queen of England. Also, Mary and Anne announce a truce and Mary stays by her sister's side at court. She eventually meets William Stafford, a soldier, and the two fall in love and eventually marry.

Despite the birth of a healthy daughter, Elizabeth, Henry is unhappy with Anne's failure to deliver a son and legitimate male heir to the throne. After she miscarries their second child, a boy, a now hysterical Anne asks George to impregnate her. Though he refuses and calms Anne back into reason, his neglected wife Jane witnesses enough of their encounter to become suspicious. Her testimony leads to the arrest, trial, and eventual execution of both George and Anne. Elsewhere, Elizabeth Boleyn denounces both her husband and brother, vowing she will never forgive them for what their greed had done to her children.

Leaving her children in William's care, Mary returns to court to plead for her siblings' lives, but arrives too late to save George, who is executed in front of his horrified father. 

Mary begs Henry to spare her sister, referring to Anne as half of herself. The king softens and tells her he would never harm part of her. Believing that Henry has spared her sister, she leaves to see Anne right before the scheduled execution. The two sisters truly reconcile and embrace. Before she leaves for her execution, Anne makes Mary promise to take care of Elizabeth if anything should happen to her. Mary watches from the crowd as Anne makes a final statement. A letter from Henry is given to Mary, which reveals that he has decided not to intercede the execution and save Anne; it also tells Mary that she was only spared because of his respect for her and warns her never to come to court again, because her family's disgrace could result in danger to her. Horrified, she watches as Anne is beheaded. Mary then fulfills her last promise to her sister and leaves court with the toddler Elizabeth.

The closing captions reveal that Thomas Boleyn, disgraced and alone, died two years after the deaths of Anne and George while Elizabeth Boleyn died a year after her husband. The Duke of Norfolk was later imprisoned while his son and grandson were both executed. True to her word, Elizabeth never saw or spoke to her husband or brother again. Mary returned to William and lived happily with him and the children away from court for the rest of her life. The captions also reveal that perhaps Henry should not have been concerned about leaving England with a strong heir because he, in fact, did. However, it was not the son he desired, but the strong red haired daughter Anne gave him, Elizabeth.

* Well, its totally an 'old' storyline: a male heir is needed for the English throne. And the so-called-high profile-offiecers (the duke and his brother in law), helped out the king to get a heir. These people do kindly wanted to help soo much (of course, they get back something). But end up, a happy family was torn apart, hating each other, and finally, there is no family left. The only thing that the family really 'achieved' was: DISGRACE. Really, if what is potrayed from the movie is what really happened at those old days, I'm glad that I was not born at that time, to witness these things. How can people thought of these things? A father asked his daughters to be the king's mistress so that he can get a heir? At first, it was intended for the still single and available's daughter to be smitten by the king, but the king fell for the married daughter. And things happend between the two sisters, as 1 think of the other 1 had betrayed her and wanted to get revenge. In the end, although she managed to get revenge and got the king, she still doesn't have a long life. I would understand if you ask that women to be his second or third wife so that he can get a heir, at least she still has a status (though not a very good status). I mean, at that period, men do got married to many women, so it's not suprised. At least the babies will have a status. But it's like another way round: get pregnant first, and if got a male heir, then you'll have the status. And then, the problems get bigger as it's not only 1 daughter, is daughters! Oh man! Surely the king was very desperate for wanting a male heir! When 2 daughters are involved, surely things will happen. But after all those unfortunate things happen on Mary, she still stood by her sister's side. What a graceful sister she is!


Jerry Maguire

Jerry Maguire is a 35 year old sports agent working for Sports Management International (SMI). After suffering a nervous breakdown as a result of stress and a guilty conscience, he writes a mission statement about perceived dishonesty in the sports management business and how he believes that it should be operated. He goes to a copy shop early the next morning and distributes copies to all of his fellow employees. His fellow employees are touched by his honesty and greet him with applause the next business day, but the company management orders Maguire fired for his actions.

The management sends Bob Sugar, Maguire's protégé, to fire Maguire. Jerry and Bob then proceed to call all of Jerry's clients to try to convince them to not hire the services of the other. Jerry gets through to Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell, one of his clients who is disgruntled by his contract that he believes to be far inferior than that of his teammates. Tidwell tests Jerry's resolve through a very long telephone conversation, which culminates in the famed "Show Me the Money!" telephone yelling match between Rod and Jerry. Meanwhile, Bob Sugar secures most of Jerry's previous clients as his own. Frank Cushman, a superstar football prospect expected to be drafted #1 in the NFL Draft, also ends up staying on with Jerry after he makes a visit to Cushman's home. Leaving the office, Jerry announces he will start his own sports management agency and asks if anyone is willing to join him to which only 26 year old single mother Dorothy Boyd agrees. Boyd had previously bumped into Maguire in the airport and told him personally how inspiring she found his "memo."

Jerry travels to the NFL Draft with Cushman and convinces Tidwell to come along as well, to give him exposure to representatives of other NFL teams should he later become a free agent. Though Tidwell at first feels neglected compared to the superstar Cushman, Bob Sugar contacts Cushman's dad while Jerry is in the lobby with Tidwell and re-signs Cushman to SMI. Jerry is devastated and turns to his fiancée Avery for support, but she rebukes him and he breaks up with her. He then turns to Dorothy, becoming closer to her young son, Ray, and eventually starts a relationship with her. However, without any commissions coming in to support their business, Dorothy contemplates moving to San Diego as she has a secure job offer there.

Jerry concentrates all his efforts on Tidwell, now his only client, who turns out to be a very difficult client to satisfy. Over the next several months, the two direct harsh criticism towards each other with Rod claiming that Jerry is not trying hard enough to get him a contract while Jerry claims that Rod is not proving himself to deserve the money for which he asks. Eventually, Rod's star starts to rise but the two invariably get into an argument and remain estranged. He ends up later marrying Dorothy in order to provide her medical insurance and share expenses to help them both stay afloat financially and to keep her from moving to San Diego. He is emotionally and physically distant during the marriage, but is clearly invested in becoming a father to Ray. Although Dorothy is totally in love with him, she breaks up with him because she believes he does not love her, and married her out of fear of being alone and because he enjoyed playing father to her son.

Bob Sugar spots Rod just before the game and attempts to steal him, an attempt rebuked by Rod and Jerry, who travels to the Cardinals game. The two reconcile soon after. Rod plays well but appears to receive a serious injury when catching a touchdown. He recovers, however, and dances for the crowd, which cheers wildly for him. After the game, Jerry and Rod get renewed confidence for a lucrative new contract for Rod. After months of harsh words and criticism directed towards one another, the two embrace in front of other athletes and sports agents and show how their relationship has progressed from a strictly business one to a close personal one, which was one of the points Jerry made in his mission statement. Jerry then flies back home to seek out Dorothy and tell her that he loves her and wants her in his life. He also mentions that his business has really picked up.

Rod Tidwell later appears on a sports show for an interview. Unbeknownst to him, Jerry has secured him an $11.2 million contract with the Cardinals that will allow him to finish his pro football career in Arizona. The visibly emotional Tidwell proceeds to thank everyone who helped accomplish this success and extends warm gratitude to Jerry for his help. Jerry, who is also on the set of the show, speaks with several other pro athletes, some of whom have read his earlier mission statement and express their positive opinion of it as well as respect for the work he had done with Tidwell. The film ends with Jerry, Dorothy and Ray walking in the park and stumbling across a Little League baseball game. When the ball lands near them, Ray picks it up and throws it back onto the field; a surprised Jerry then comments on his natural throwing ability, much to Dorothy's dismay.

*Well, the storyline is quite good. Sports agent and atheletes should not only strictly bined with business, but they need to form a close relationship as well. It's a human thing, you know. Besides, it also show how Jerry coped with his failures to get clients, and when he finally concentrates on Rod Tidwell, he needs to find ways to satisfy him, as he is a difficult client. They remain estrange as they criticised toward each other for some times. However, they reconcile soon after. It also shows Jerry's feeling towards Dorothy, where he actually found her to be his friend when he was left alone, by failures, fiancee, etc. He married Dorothy, at first, not for love ( I guess can say it's as his companion), but then finally found out that she is important for him, as she 'complete him'. But actually all this while, though both Dorothy and Jerry was in 'separation period', she still loves him so much, as Jerry 'had her at 'hello''! I think this movie is an all time favourite or should I said well-known. Once you said Jerry Maguire, most of the people sure had seen before (well, not many youngster like me. I got it from my mum, though. The movie was a hit in 1996. I'm still very young!), and they'll like: Ah! Jerry Maguire!