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Reviews
Resurrection Mary (2005)
Best of the fest.
I saw "Resurrection Mary" at The Chicago Horror Film Fest. It was the best feature of the weekend. It reminded me of the kind of show that Alfred Hitchcook use to make. The movie began with a short sparse wedding scene wherein the main characters were introduced. Soon thereafter the story got going and kept me spellbound until the end.
The movie is based on the legend of the ghost that haunts Resurrection Cemetery and Archer Av. in Chicago. As the legend goes, a beautiful young girl,engaged to be married, becomes involved in a dalliance at a dance hall with someone other than her fiancée.When this suitor is done with her, he leaves her in the way that all men leave women who give up their love too easily, ashamed and heartbroken. She is killed on her way home that night by a hit and run driver. By dying before making amends for her transgression, Mary becomes an agent for the devil, reborn with a new purpose. She appears at certain places finding and ferrying souls to the devil, souls who like her's, "have sin still clinging to them."
Decades later Shawn, an emotionally conflicted young man, encounters Mary at the same dance hall where years earlier Mary's lapse in judgement condemned her to a perpetual partnering with the devil. In a torrid public bathroom scene, an engaged Shawn, the male lead in the movie, acting on lustful impulse,instigates a replay of the passionate embrace of years earlier,this time with an ironic twist.It's Shawn who betrays his betrothal and is left to pay Mary the price of this "one night stand". Shawn discovers through Mary that guilt,denial and regret are the wages of sin.
This movie explores issues of sin and it's physical and emotional consequence as well as moral restitution and redemption. It occurred to me that the moral of "Resurrection Mary" is delineated concisely in a 5 word dialogue between the main characters at the end of the movie. They are the 5 words, when uttered by the truly contrite, have the power to absolve the soul of sin and guilt and set a spirit free.
The movie is worth a look whenever it is released.
Children on Their Birthdays (2002)
See this movie.
I saw this movie along with 900 other moviegoers who attended the Midwest Premier. Nearly everyone gave the show...
Two Thumbs Up!
I, like most, described "Children on their Birthdays" with the words entertaining, moving, uplifting and meaningful! The wonderful scenes of Americana in 1947 were enhanced by a wonderful soundtrack reflecting the period and by an equally meaningful message.
"Children on their Birthdays" examines the when, where and how ordinary people make moral restitution for some of the foolish things they do. The movie hints that the surest way to moral redemption is through unconditional acts of love and kindness. "COTB" makes the point that one is never too young or too old to learn how to do this. I came away from "COTB" reminded that in every life friendship and sacrifice go hand in hand and, that forgiveness and redemption do too.
I've seen "Children on their Birthdays" more than once. Each time the cliche that "no good deed goes unpunished" comes to mind as the antithesis of this movie's message. Instead of this too readily acceptable cynical cliche, "COTB" postulates that the road to the real rewards in life is paved with acts of kindness . If nothing else, going to see "COTB" will serve as a gentle antidote for the the pervasive cynicism affecting everyone nowadays as we anxiously await the unfolding of current events.