27 Dresses

Friday, February 29, 2008
By Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times

HOLLYWOOD -- Katherine Heigl is always the bridesmaid and never the bride in this garden-variety wedding-themed rom-com -- except here never means later, as it should alarm nobody to learn. In this, and in every other way I can think of, "27 Dresses" adheres steadfastly to formula, setting up its complications like bowling pins and resolving them to the utmost satisfaction of everyone involved, no hard feelings, no regrets, absolutely no surprises.

This, presumably, is what we flock to romantic comedies for (if it can be called flocking) -- some kind of ritualistic reassurance that no matter how grim a person's romantic prospects, love eventually does come to those who wait. As long as they wait in spacious, professionally decorated New York apartments and are attractive enough that it takes the dazzling brunt of a knockout Swede in a microscopic dress to make them look like average Janes by comparison.
As coincidence would have it, Heigl's character happens to be named Jane, and she lives in a lovely one-bedroom with enough closet space to house a small museum collection of taffeta and tulle atrocities. (No wonder she's in love with her boss -- he must pay her a fortune for manning his schedule and picking up his dry cleaning.) Her boss, the droopy-eyed George (Edward Burns), has no idea how she feels, but before she can work up the nerve to tell him, he falls instantly in love with her younger sister Tess (Malin Akerman), who wouldn't you know it happens to be a knockout Swede in a microscopic dress.

Once the George and Tess romance is set in motion, the kind and dutiful Jane has no option but to take charge of their upcoming wedding and plan the whole thing herself, because she has been established as the kind of girl who takes care of everyone but herself and who double-books weddings and spends Saturday nights shuttling back and forth between them. The two dozen or so dear friends for whom she ostensibly has done the same are only ever seen in fleeting moments -- maybe this is why she hangs on to the dresses; it's all she has to remember them by. Jane's only real friend is Casey (Judy Greer), a morose churl whose active sex-and-drinking life apparently leave her unable to talk above an exhausted drawl or walk in a straight line.

It may be that paradoxes such as these are meant to prime us for the even greater contradictions to come, but it's more likely that they are by now so entrenched in the genre that they have become functionally invisible to the naked eye. With their strict adherence to a particular kind of formula, studio romantic comedies serve as reassurance delivery systems rather than actual stories, and criticizing them feels a little like taking a Big Mac to task for the quality of the meat. The meat isn't the point. The point is the familiarity and the homogeny and the taste-masking sauces and the sugar in the bun.

"27 Dresses," which was directed by Anne Fletcher and written by Aline Brosh McKenna, who also wrote "The Devil Wears Prada," falls somewhere in the middle of the dozens of hard-to-recall pictures it somehow nevertheless recalls. Its premise not only hinges on a pun, play on words or cliche, it clings to it for dear life. In this case, it's the bridesmaid adage, which though it remains tacit for most of the film, haunts it like a poltergeist. She reads bridal magazines to relax, she keeps a Filofax full of clippings and wedding contacts, her favorite writer is a newspaper journalist who writes wedding announcements. She is single-mindedly wedding-mad in that way that looks cute in romantic comedies but would not go un-medicated in real life.

The journalist is Kevin Doyle (James Marsden), whom she meets cute at (where else?) a wedding and who unbeknownst to Jane starts working on a story about her bridesmaid compulsion. No sooner has he pitched her to his editor than he starts to develop feelings. But Jane's gut tells her that they are a mismatch (she loves weddings, he hates them, let's call the whole thing off), and she remains unreceptive to his charms until they find themselves stranded in a bar upstate, having been caught in the rain, not quite drinking pina coladas but almost.

"27 Dresses" perks up when Jane and Kevin get to spend some time together; there's genuine annoyance between them so you can feel the spark. The rest of the relationships feel symbolic at best, with every character reduced to a defining trait and limited to his or her talking points. Heigl and Marsden are likable and it's not hard to root for them over a pairing with Burns, whose eco-adventurer-mogul character is as exciting as ski socks. Greer, however, is baffling as the village slut and Akerman gets put through the ringer as the ditzy, self-involved, selfish younger sister who we're supposed to like, then hate, then like again.

Of course, this is hard to do, considering that she exists solely as a foil for Jane, whose climactic decision turns out to be a stunningly hostile act of public humiliation that, were this any kind of real film, would have the effect of changing the way we feel about her as a character. Instead, "27 Dresses" dutifully privileges its formulaic plot over its stick-figure characters, slapping a happy ending on a setup that, say, "Happiness" director Todd Solondz could have gone to town on.

Still, there's something undeniably interesting about how formula has superseded logic, significance or character in so much studio product that certain types of genre stories have become closed circuits, infinite loops. Do we need to keep hearing the same comforting story over and over again like toddlers, or does somebody just think we do? It doesn't matter. A movie like "27 Dresses" has its pleasures, but to enjoy them it's best to approach it with the eyes -- and experience, emotional maturity level and love of repetition -- of a child.

from: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/movie/comedy/2008/02/29/145074/27%2DDresses.htm

Feeling:

I have seen this movie last few week. I was looking forward to see it. The first reason is because the box office is really good in America. The second reason is that I love the main actress-Katherine Heigl. She is in a series called Grey's Anatomy. I love her in Grey's Anatomy. Therefore, I was expecting this movie very much. However, after I saw it, I feel a little disappointed. The story is not that interesting. By the way, the main actor is very handsome, he plays in the movie "Enchanted" as a price.

The main actress in this movie is such a poor girl, but in the end she live happily after. I think she is so stupid in the beginning. She did everything for the man she love, but he didn't see what she has done and take it for granted. This prove a proverb "Love is blind."I wish I can be awake in love.

homework about election

Today, when I looked at the news about the president election, I found out that most of the news is talking about the outcome of the election. However, there are some commentaries are about how Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would have been beaten. Due to the media, it is the President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) that has to be blame. Because of his bad governance, people were disappointed about DPP and that’s why DPP lose both the legislators and the president elections.

I personally feel positive about this outcome, because DPP made Taiwan’s economy worse and worse. And I have to clarify that I’m not deep “blue” or “green.” I just think another transition of power probably would be good for Taiwan. According to the debates of the two candidates, I can feel the sincerity of candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), and I hope he will keep his word. I think Taiwan’s economy will be better than before, and the dealings between China and Taiwan will be more convenient in the future.

If candidate Frank Hsieh(謝長廷) won this competition, I think it won’t be good for Taiwan. I feel he is controlled by President Chen Shui-bian, so he won’t change much when he holds the reins of government. I think the people realized that, and they want Taiwan to be better. Therefore, they give candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) a chance to change this bad situation. I hope he won’t belie the people’s expectation.

Anjuna: Hippie paradise lost

By Soutik Biswas
BBC News, Anjuna, Goa

Anjuna's beaches are most popular with foreigners Enlarge Image

A sense of unease can be felt on India's most famous beach village after news washed up that a teenage British girl was raped and left to die in the sea last month.

Two local men have been arrested in connection with Scarlett Keeling's death in Anjuna in Goa.

Anjuna, famous for its grubby shacks, crescent-shaped beaches, crowded flea markets, drug-fuelled parties and ayurveda spas is in the news again - for all the wrong reasons.

Turnout at the once-a-week 3,000-shop, 38-year-old flea market selling anything from tribal jewellery to thongs has been thin. Shacks selling food and alcohol have fewer guests and revellers. Even the live bands with names like Kundalini Airport and Bindoo Babas have been turning down the volume when night falls.

'Mind altering qualities'

"Scarlett's killing has affected tourism here, for sure. Suddenly things are very quiet," says 61-year-old Manohar Singh, who was born in India, brought up in Zanzibar and holds a British passport.

Anjuna was discovered by hippie travellers in the 1960s, a time when there was "much interest in the mind-altering qualities of India," according to Arun Saldhana, who teaches geography at the University of Minnesota and has written a book on the place.

"It was defined by its psychedelic culture and family-run guest houses, a freak and backpackers hangout, rather than the [many] charter tourist hangouts [of Goa]," he says.

Suddenly things are very quiet in Anjuna Manohar Singh

The 13-sq km beach village hemmed in by lush hills is where, according to another old-timer, foreign tourists went to "escape India".

Resting in a village in Anjuna during a visit in the mid-1960s, Graham Greene "found it possible to forget the poverty of Bombay (now called Mumbai), 400 miles away, the mutilated beggars, the lepers... "

Anjuna's palm-lined beaches gave birth to a homegrown electronic dance music, called the Goa trance, before house and techno music grew roots in the early 1990's.

Distortions

The place was seen by many as a secluded, whites-only haven for hippies, who according to Arun Saldhana, could "freely indulge in drugs, nude sun bathing and all night full moon parties".

The early 1980s were possibly the high point in the beach's chequered history - hippies, punks, artists, Rastafarians, devotees of new-age gurus all hung out here, swapping drugs, music and sexual partners.

The Anjuna subculture saw tourists bending rules and bribing local officials.

Beach shack owner Francis Fernandes remembers the hippies taking over parts of the beaches and putting up 'Indians are not allowed' signs to keep away the locals.

The beach was discovered by hippies in the sixties

"Once some foreigners began a beach rave party on a Good Friday without any permission. We stormed the party and smashed it up," he says. A third of Goa's residents are Catholic Christians.

British novelist Deborah Moggach even spoke about what she called the "touristic caste system" in Anjuna, alluding to the Indian caste system.

"The Brahmins (uppermost in India's caste hierarchy) are the old hippies... They whizz around on old Enfields - how superior people look on motorbikes!" she wrote.

"They have long ropes of hair, washboard stomachs and low slung sarongs... At the lowest rank are package deal tourists".

Rising abuse

Four decades after the foreigners arrived, Anjuna's hippy reputation appears to be backfiring.

Its only hospital, a 20-bed private operation, treats an increasing number of drug overdose cases. Seventeen of the 74 foreigners who have died in Goa in the past two years were in Anjuna, and 11 of them are suspected to be have died of drug abuse.

The crowds have thinned since the murder of UK teenager Scarlett Keeling

"Drug abuse cases have risen here since I came here seven years ago," says Dr Pravin Tippat, who works at the hospital.

Anjuna even has a detox and rehab clinic, run by a NGO, which reports high drug and alcohol abuse in the area.

"We get foreigners every month coming to help for drug abuse. People are taking all kinds of drugs," says Pamela D' Costa, who works there.

Though the police talk about record drug seizures, successfully banning nude sun bathing and cleaning up the place, it has not really been successful.

It is still easy to get drugs.

At the almost completely foreigners-only beach where Scarlett was murdered, women sunbath topless on deckchairs with cows and stray dogs for company.

Victim of success

In the end, Anjuna appears to have become a victim of its own warped success - foreign tourists, scorned by many Goans as "white trash", have lifted living standards of the locals, but material progress has come at a high cost.

Leading Indian designer and Goa resident Wendell Rodricks describes Anjuna as a "dark spot".

Grubby shacks dot the beach

"I don't go there. It is a place that is hung over from the 1960's, but sadly with more potent drugs than hashish," he says.

"The government should restore the reputation of the village and the dignity of its residents."

Clearly, the more innocent days of hippie lifestyle - full-moon parties, psychedelic drugs, growing vegetables - which launched Anjuna as a favourite destination are over.

These days, as a British writer said recently, the "place gives me the creeps with its Western-driven drugs culture."

from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7300309.stm

Feeling:

I think the suspect is one of the tourists, because they took drugs. Therefore, their mind was out of control. They had more possibilities to do something wrong out of mind. Due to the article, even the local residents stay away from this area. The tourists themselves are more likely to commit this crime.

I also think that this incident will let the authorities to face up to the problems of drug abusing. The vision of this place comes into my head of the movie THE BEACH starring by Leonardo DiCaprio years ago. Their life is debauched:party everyday, getting drugs easily.....etc. I think the government has been aware of this problem for a long long time. However, they haven't done anything with great exertion. What they have done is nothing, connived, and indulged drug addict.

I hope this news will make them solve the existing problem in Anjuna. And I wish Anjuna will become a real paradise for the tourists.

U.S. tells China to use restraint in Tibet protests

Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:37am EDT
(Adds White House, details, quotes)

By Sue Pleming and Paul Eckert

WASHINGTON, March 14 (Reuters) - The United States told China on Friday to act with restraint when dealing with protesters in Tibet and again asked Beijing to talk to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

U.S. ambassador to China, Clark Randt, used a meeting with senior Chinese officials in Beijing to formally voice U.S. concern over violence in Tibet's capital Lhasa, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"He took the opportunity, because of what was going on in Lhasa, to urge restraint on the part of the Chinese officials and Chinese security forces and not resort to use of force in dealing with the protesters," McCormack told reporters.

Peaceful street marches by Tibetan Buddhist monks in past days grew into the biggest demonstrations the remote Himalayan region has seen in nearly two decades, with anti-riot police patrolling the streets months before the Beijing Olympics.

U.S.-based broadcaster Radio Free Asia reported on Friday that at least two people were killed when Chinese police fired on rioting Tibetan protesters in Lhasa.

"We believe Beijing needs to respect Tibetan culture. They they need to respect multi-ethnicity in their society. We regret the tensions between ethnic groups and Beijing," White House spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters. "The president has said consistently that Beijing needs to have a dialogue with the Dalai Lama."

RELIGIOUS REPRESSION INCREASED

The U.S. embassy in Beijing issued a message urging Americans to postpone travel to Tibet and if they were already in Lhasa to seek safety in hotels and elsewhere.

"All care must be taken to avoid unnecessary movement within the city until the situation is under control," said McCormack, adding there were no reports of U.S. casualties.

Asked whether human rights issues changed Washington's view of China hosting the Olympic Games, McCormack said the United States saw the games as a sporting event.

"We believe, and have urged China both in public and in private to use the opportunity to put China's best face forward to the international community, not only during but in the run-up and after the Olympics," said McCormack.

Human rights groups have urged the United States to increase pressure on China over its human rights record in the run-up to the Olympic Games.

The State Department's annual report on human rights worldwide, which was released on Tuesday, called China's 2007 human rights record poor, but the host of this summer's Olympics escaped being listed among the world's worst offenders as it had been in previous years.

"The government's human rights record in Tibetan areas of China remained poor, and the level of repression of religious freedom increased," said the Tibet entry in the report.

"Authorities continued to commit serious human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, and house arrest and surveillance of dissidents," it said. (Editing by Alan Elsner)

from: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN14398845

Feeling:
I think China should face to the human rights' problem now. Because they host the Olympics, they are a model of all over the world. They shouldn't repress the Tibetan with violence. They should talked to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to discuss how to solve this problem.

And I think the U.S. should force China to deal with the still-existing problem now. This not just a sport event anymore. Because people all over the world will pay more attention with the host of the Olympics. Therefore, China has to face the problem.

I think if China still ignore the problems inside their society, people all over the world would question China's ability to host the Olympics.