Two Movies...

I actually had the chance to view two different movies today...

• The first of these was one called "The Family Man" starring Nicholas Cage. I saw this when it originally was released in 2001 but never saw it on DVD anywhere until poking around WalMart's $5.00 DVD bin last night. Cage is a single high roller investment bank president in NYC who through magical means gets a chance to live life like it would have been if he had made one decision a little differently. Now, he's married to his longtime girlfriend, has two kids, drives a mini-van and sells tires for a living. Needless to say, it takes Cage quite a bit of the movie to figure out that there is more to life than dollar signs.
  
• The second was a highly-rated theatrical release from last year that has made its way here only last weekend - Atonement. I have to be totally honest here - this was a very emotionally difficult movie to watch. I actually left the theater holding back tears, it was that good though. Starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy as young lovers just before WW II, the real star is the young actresses who play Knightley's character's sister. During the movie, she ends up making an accusation that permanently changes her life along with Knightly's and McAvoy's characters. I won't say too much more.
  

A few observations from the movies...

• What kind of person would we have become if we had chosen "the road less travelled" borrowing a line from the movie? In Nicholas Cage's role, he actually found new strength in being a husband and father struggling to make ends meet financially. The attempts to change sometimes meets with something not quite what we intended (events in the movie Buttherfly Effect for example). Personally, I can look back in to probably the worst day in my life and see how much strength I have gotten since then. I can see myself going back and undoing the events of that day only to return and find myself a wimp.
  
• Atonement gave me different mesages though. One, don't forget the commandment that says not to "bear false witness". As mentioned above, that false testimony changed three lives forever. Two, it sometimes takes a lot of effort in forgiveness and atonement. It's only a start when one says "I'm sorry" and the other says "I forgive you". It can take a lot more effort to make sure what happened doesn't happen again or to make sure that things are right. Three, don't wait forever to make things right. In the movie, while events turn tragic for some of the main characters, this child waits until it's almost too late to make things right again.
  

These two movies, "The Family Man" and "Atonement" are both very good movies in their own way. "The Family Man" can be found somewhere on DVD and is recommended for the whole family. "Atonement" is in theaters now. It's "R" rating is deserved and I don't think it's a movie you should take the kids too.