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Touching. Witty. Heartbreaking. Emma Donoghue’s latest is all of those and more. This was such a wonderful read that I found myself savoring it, reading only a chapter or so a night, making it last.
Noah is a retired chemistry professor living in New York. His wife, Joan, passed away nearly a decade ago. Noah is originally from France, and he’s finally planned a trip to his birthplace, Nice. But shortly before his trip, he receives a call from social services: he is the only available relative able to take care of Michael, an eleven-year-old great-nephew he’s never even met. Noah reluctantly agrees to take Michael on his trip. This unlikely pair take on Nice together: looking at France through two very different lenses. But Michael’s tech savvy helps Noah as he attempts to unravel some details about his family’s past, and Noah can’t help but see some of his late troubled nephew in this funny, acerbic boy.
I fell hard for Noah and Michael. Donoghue captures them perfectly. Their wit, their banter, and their various insecurities. This book is alternately hilarious and heart wrenching. It’s beautifully written, touching, and just a lovely read. 4+ stars. Highly recommend!
Noah is a retired chemistry professor living in New York. His wife, Joan, passed away nearly a decade ago. Noah is originally from France, and he’s finally planned a trip to his birthplace, Nice. But shortly before his trip, he receives a call from social services: he is the only available relative able to take care of Michael, an eleven-year-old great-nephew he’s never even met. Noah reluctantly agrees to take Michael on his trip. This unlikely pair take on Nice together: looking at France through two very different lenses. But Michael’s tech savvy helps Noah as he attempts to unravel some details about his family’s past, and Noah can’t help but see some of his late troubled nephew in this funny, acerbic boy.
I fell hard for Noah and Michael. Donoghue captures them perfectly. Their wit, their banter, and their various insecurities. This book is alternately hilarious and heart wrenching. It’s beautifully written, touching, and just a lovely read. 4+ stars. Highly recommend!
Kim Pook (101 KP) rated Case 39 (2010) in Movies
Dec 13, 2020
Emily - a social worker - is assigned to a young girl called lily due to suspected neglect. She goes to the family's House who appear to be very strange, the girl doesn't speak and the father refuses to speak directly to Emily and instead glares at her which she finds very unsettling. She reports this back to her boss who just brushes it off.
The next day Emily is able to speak to lily alone, who tells her that she overheard her parents talking about sending her to hell. Emily makes it her mission to try and save lily from her parents, and gives her her phone number telling her to call if ever she gets scared. Sure enough Lily calls her that evening asking for help before passing out. Emily racess to her house only to find lily's parents doing the most unspeakable thing to her (I won't say what it was but it definitely shocked me to the core). Thankfully lily's parents are arrested and lily is put into Foster care, eventually Emily decides to take lily into her own care until they can find her a permanent Foster family.
Things seem to be going well, until a 10 year old boy kills his parents after receiving a mysterious phone call from Emily's House with a man's voice.......... It isn't long before we discover that something is off with lily and it isn't good. This child is in fact pure evil!
Before this movie I wasn't sure if I could imagine Renee zellwegger in a more serious role than Bridget Jones but I was wrong, she played this role brilliantly and the role of lily was spot on as well, that girl was proper creepy. For a 2009 movie, some scenes did look rather dated. For example the scene at the beach didn't look very believable. The movie was entertaining enough to keep me interested though, right to the end.
The next day Emily is able to speak to lily alone, who tells her that she overheard her parents talking about sending her to hell. Emily makes it her mission to try and save lily from her parents, and gives her her phone number telling her to call if ever she gets scared. Sure enough Lily calls her that evening asking for help before passing out. Emily racess to her house only to find lily's parents doing the most unspeakable thing to her (I won't say what it was but it definitely shocked me to the core). Thankfully lily's parents are arrested and lily is put into Foster care, eventually Emily decides to take lily into her own care until they can find her a permanent Foster family.
Things seem to be going well, until a 10 year old boy kills his parents after receiving a mysterious phone call from Emily's House with a man's voice.......... It isn't long before we discover that something is off with lily and it isn't good. This child is in fact pure evil!
Before this movie I wasn't sure if I could imagine Renee zellwegger in a more serious role than Bridget Jones but I was wrong, she played this role brilliantly and the role of lily was spot on as well, that girl was proper creepy. For a 2009 movie, some scenes did look rather dated. For example the scene at the beach didn't look very believable. The movie was entertaining enough to keep me interested though, right to the end.
Gareth von Kallenbach (977 KP) rated Nerve (2016) in Movies
Aug 6, 2019
I walked into Nerve expecting it to be a teenage version of the morose 2014 horror/thriller 13 Sins. While similar in premise, 13 Sins is dark and sinister, while Nerve is something different all together. Based on the 2012 young adult novel by the same name, Nerve is a story about an unassuming high school senior who decides to challenge her own comfort zone by playing an online reality game of where “watchers” (Like Facebook Followers) offer up various “Dare’s” for players to complete which nets them money. The more “watchers” players gain, the bigger the possible rewards, but at what cost?
Nerve feels like its two movies in one. For the first two acts, Nerve is a young adult/teen film where we follow Vee (Emma Roberts) as she breaks free from her unassertive personality that has her in the background among her friends and afraid to tell her family where she wants to go to college. She is a good kid, but too timid to go after anything she really wants. Instead through the challenges of the game Nerve, she gains confidence in herself as she becomes involved with another Nerve player Ian (Dave Franco). Together, along with a fast paced uplifting soundtrack, we are taken on a fun and entertaining ride where you cannot help but care about these two and wonder what you would do in their situation.
Roberts and Franco are likable in their roles and they lead a stellar young cast who are all realistic in their youthful portrayal. Not too surprising because they are actually young actors, but it is important to note that the cast feels “real,” which helps sell the believability that a game like “Nerve” could actually exist in our world. Especially in a world where we are glued to our phones, tablets and computers in order to be the “star of our own lives” through the instant gratification of social media. Along with the recent emergence of the popularity of augmented reality games like Pokémon Go, it is conceivable that a game like Nerve could exist in our near future.
But this is where the film starts to fall apart. In the third act, the film hastily transitions into a social commentary of the anonymity of the internet, mob think and what we are willing to share online. While I understand this is a message that seem appropriate a story like this, that message would have been better served in a sinister film like the aforementioned, 13 Sins, and not in a movie which up to that point, felt that it was headed towards being an inspiring and uplifting film. It doesn’t help that the resolution of that social commentary was comical in its execution that completely pulls you out of the film. It was an unnecessary turn that wanted us to focus on the game Nerve rather than the characters the story made us care about. It’s a shame really because up until that point, the film Nerve was fun, enjoyable and inspiring, only to fall apart for no real reason other than to make a weak attempt at being something more than a teen movie.
I am sure the young adult/teenage audience this film is marketed towards will enjoy Nerve, but this film is really more of a rental or at most, a matinee.
Nerve feels like its two movies in one. For the first two acts, Nerve is a young adult/teen film where we follow Vee (Emma Roberts) as she breaks free from her unassertive personality that has her in the background among her friends and afraid to tell her family where she wants to go to college. She is a good kid, but too timid to go after anything she really wants. Instead through the challenges of the game Nerve, she gains confidence in herself as she becomes involved with another Nerve player Ian (Dave Franco). Together, along with a fast paced uplifting soundtrack, we are taken on a fun and entertaining ride where you cannot help but care about these two and wonder what you would do in their situation.
Roberts and Franco are likable in their roles and they lead a stellar young cast who are all realistic in their youthful portrayal. Not too surprising because they are actually young actors, but it is important to note that the cast feels “real,” which helps sell the believability that a game like “Nerve” could actually exist in our world. Especially in a world where we are glued to our phones, tablets and computers in order to be the “star of our own lives” through the instant gratification of social media. Along with the recent emergence of the popularity of augmented reality games like Pokémon Go, it is conceivable that a game like Nerve could exist in our near future.
But this is where the film starts to fall apart. In the third act, the film hastily transitions into a social commentary of the anonymity of the internet, mob think and what we are willing to share online. While I understand this is a message that seem appropriate a story like this, that message would have been better served in a sinister film like the aforementioned, 13 Sins, and not in a movie which up to that point, felt that it was headed towards being an inspiring and uplifting film. It doesn’t help that the resolution of that social commentary was comical in its execution that completely pulls you out of the film. It was an unnecessary turn that wanted us to focus on the game Nerve rather than the characters the story made us care about. It’s a shame really because up until that point, the film Nerve was fun, enjoyable and inspiring, only to fall apart for no real reason other than to make a weak attempt at being something more than a teen movie.
I am sure the young adult/teenage audience this film is marketed towards will enjoy Nerve, but this film is really more of a rental or at most, a matinee.
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