Stepmom (1998)



Jackie and Luke Harrison (Susan Sarandon and Ed Harris) are a divorced couple that are struggling to raise their children, Anna (Jena Malone) and Ben (Liam Aiken), happy with this sudden change of lifestyle.

 

 

This is far from easy, as Luke, an attorney, is living with his new girlfriend Isabel (Julia Roberts), a successful fashion photographer several years his junior. Isabel tries very hard to make Anna and Ben feel comfortable and happy with her, but Anna repeatedly rejects her overtures while Ben, who is generally kind to Isabel, adds extra complication with his mischievous nature. Isabel behaves with contempt tempered by caution around Jackie, believing she overcompensates for her divorce by spoiling her children. Conversely, Jackie, a former publisher turned stay-at-home-mom, gives Isabel a cold reception, seeing her as an overly ambitious career woman. She also continues to harbor malice against Luke (as can be seen in a confrontation about Isabel). After a long string of arguments and hurt feelings between Isabel, Jackie and Anna, Luke proposes to Isabel, making her Anna and Ben's soon-to-be official stepmom. This causes even more friction.

 

 

 

However, Jackie is diagnosed with lymphoma, which is discovered to be terminal. She experiences a range of negative emotions, angry at the woman who she feels played a role in her broken family, and angry at the fact that after all of the sacrifices she made for her family, she will not even get to see her children grow up. Both Jackie and Isabel clash repeatedly, largely over Isabel's parenting. This becomes evident when Ben goes missing on Isabel's watch and Jackie claims that she has never lost him, which she later admits to be untrue. However, they manage to call a shaky truce, as both Jackie and Isabel come to terms with the fact that the latter will soon step into the role of surrogate mother.

 

 

The two women finally bond with each other when Isabel reveals her admiration of Jackie's maternal instincts, while Jackie in turn compliments Isabel's hipness as a means to connect with Anna. Isabel finally lets her guard down when she tearfully tells Jackie her biggest fear is that on Anna's wedding day, all Anna will wish for is her mother's presence. Through her own tears, Jackie says her own fear is that Anna will forget her. Jackie explains to Isabel that, while Jackie will always have their past, Isabel will have their future.

 

 

 

 



 The film ends with the family celebrating Christmas. Jackie, bedridden from her illness, is visited in her room by Ben and Anna. Individually, Jackie tells her children after giving them their presents that even though she will die, she will always be with them as long as they remember her. Later that day, Isabel is taking a family picture of Luke and Jackie with their children. Jackie demonstrates her acceptance of Isabel by inviting to join them in the portrait, stating "let's get [a photo] with the whole family". Isabel does, and as the closing credits begin, both women are shown happily in a photo side by side, finally at peace with one another and future events (Jackie's death and Isabel's marriage with Luke).

 

 

 

I  really like Stepmom even though it is a sad film. Curl up with a warm drink, a blanket and enjoy. xx 

 



 



Jack and Sarah (1996)





Jack (Richard E. Grant) and Sarah (Imogen Stubbs) are expecting a baby together, but a complication during the birth leads to the death of Sarah. Jack, grief-stricken, goes on an alcoholic bender, leaving his daughter to be taken care of by his parents and Sarah's mother, until they decide to take drastic action: they return the baby to Jack whilst he is asleep, leaving him to take care of it. Although he struggles initially, he eventually begins to dote on the child and names her Sarah.

 

 

Despite this, he nevertheless finds it increasingly difficult to juggle bringing up the baby with his high-powered job, and though both sets of the child's grandparents lend a hand (along with William (Ian McKellen), a dried out ex-alcoholic who, once sober, proves to be a remarkably efficient babysitter and housekeeper), he needs more help. Amy (Samantha Mathis), an American waitress he meets in a restaurant who takes a shine to Sarah, takes up the role as nanny, moving in with Jack after one meeting.



Although clashing with William and the grandparents - especially Jack's mother, Margaret (Judi Dench), Jack and Amy gradually grow closer - but Jack's boss has also taken an interest in him.



Jack and Sarah is a wonderfully warm British comdey about loss and love. Enjoy! :) xx 

Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991)

Nina, an interpreter, is beside herself with grief at the recent death of her boyfriend, Jamie, a cellist. When she is on the verge of despair, Jamie reappears as a "ghost" and the couple are reconciled. The screenplay never clarifies whether this occurs in reality, or merely in Nina's imagination. Nina is ecstatic, but Jamie's behaviour – turning up the central heating to stifling levels, moving furniture around and inviting back "ghost friends" to watch videos – gradually infuriates her, and their relationship deteriorates. She meets Mark, a psychologist, to whom she is attracted, but she is unwilling to become involved with him because of Jamie's continued presence. Nina continues to love Jamie but is conflicted by his self-centred behaviour and ultimately wonders out loud, "Was it always like this?" Over Nina’s objections, Jamie decides to leave to allow her to move on. At the end of the film, Jamie watches Nina leave with Mark and one of his fellow ghosts asks, "Well?" and Jamie responds, "I think so. Yes." At this point the central conceit of the movie has become clear: Jamie came back specifically to help Nina get over him by tarnishing her idealized memory of him.

 

 

 

The first time I saw this film was on my 14th birthday, I really enjoyed it even though it is a very sad story and I fell in love with Alan Rickman! :) xx

 

 

 

 

 

Jane Eyre is 165 years old this week!

 



On October 16, 1847 Charlotte Bronte, the oldest surviving daughter of the Reverend Patrick Bronte, published “Jane Eyre.” She was 31-years-old. The novel received many reviews, most praising, some scolding, and the first printing sold out within three months. It has remained in print for the last 165 years and if you haven't read Jane Eyre yet, go and buy a copy now!

Let's all celebrate by rereading this brilliant novel or watching JE06!

Here are some my favourite Jane Eyre quotes:
“Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal — as we are!”

“I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”

"Jane, my little darling (so I will call you, for so you are), you don't know what you are talking about; you misjudge me again: it is not because she is mad I hate her. If you were mad, do you think I should hate you?"

"I do indeed, sir."

"Then you are mistaken, and you know nothing about me, and nothing about the sort of love of which I am capable. Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear. Your mind is my treasure, and if it were broken, it would be my treasure still: if you raved, my arms should confine you, and not a strait waistcoat--your grasp, even in fury, would have a charm for me: if you flew at me as wildly as that woman did this morning, I should receive you in an embrace, at least as fond as it would be restrictive. I should not shrink from you with disgust as I did from her: in your quiet moments you should have no watcher and no nurse but me; and I could hang over you with untiring tenderness, though you gave me no smile in return; and never weary of gazing into your eyes, though they had no longer a ray of recognition for me.”   

“Reader, I married him.".

 

 

 

 



 

165 years of "Jane Eyre" -- amazing and wonderful! Here's to Charlotte, Jane and EFR!

Betty's Cafe Tea Rooms

 

Betty's Cafe, Ilkley



Ilkley is one of four towns in Yorkshire that has a 'Bettys Café Tea Rooms'. (The others are in York, Harrogate and Northallerton.) Betty's is a family business dating back to 1919, when a young Swiss confectioner called Frederick Belmont came to England, intending to open a café on the south coast. The story goes that he took the wrong train and ended up in Yorkshire but, liking it, he decided to stay. There is a mystery over who Betty was, with several possible explanations.

 

Betty's prides itself on its traditional menu and attention to detail. The waitresses all wear uniform with white lace-trimmed aprons. It is THE best place for Afternoon Tea, with a selection of small sandwiches and cakes served on pretty china, and a wide range of unusual and specialist teas to choose from. You can also buy their delicious breads and cakes to take home with you. The Tea Rooms in Ilkley has a very attractive dining room, with the largest marquetry picture ever made - a medieval hunting scene called La Chasse, made in Alsace entirely of unstained wood veneers.

 

 

 

I first went to Betty's Cafe when I was nine years old and I loved it! I've been visiting ever since! I spent my 21st birthday at Betty's Cafe in York with my family in January 2010 where we had sandwiches, tea, champagne. The staff gave me a pink fondant fancy with a candle in it! It was a lovely day!
 Betty's Cafe is one of my favourite places to visit for a cake and a warm drink. I find Betty's very comforting! :)





 

 

 

The only time I drink hot chocolate is when I go to Betty's because it tastes so nice!!

 

 

 

 

 

I really recommend  Betty's Cafe to everyone! It is a cosy and warm place!  :) xx

 

 



 





 

 

 



 



Walt Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991)

 

 

 

Beauty and the Beast is the thirtieth full-length animated feature film in the Disney canon. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film is based on the fairy tale La Belle et la Bête by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, (which was based on a more detailed story of the same name and plot, written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve) and uses some ideas from the 1946 film of the same name. The film centers around a prince who is transformed into a Beast and a young woman named Belle whom he imprisons in his castle. To become a prince again, the Beast must love Belle and win her love in return, or he will remain a Beast forever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love this film! :) xx

 

 

 

 

 



Walt Disney's The Jungle Book (1967)

I've always loved The Jungle Book ever since I was little. I love all the songs and characters!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you a fan of  The Jungle Book too? :) xx