The Book of Stars

Rating:
Summary: Depressing and predictable
Review: The characters are cliched, the plot is obvious but Karl Geary is gorgeous and a fine actor (as usual).

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: The previous review from Studio City describes the film perfectly; except that it's visuals and cinematography compliments the whole emotion of the film. The emotion is visceral and so are the images. A beautiful film to say the least.

Rating:
Summary: A description of magic
Review: This film tracks the two archtypes of female emotion and sexuality, the Madonna and the whore, in the form of two sisters. Mary Stuart Masterson has given up on life and prostitutes herself for drugs and oblivion. Jena Malone is on the cusp of womanhood, but because of lingering cystic fibrosis, she will never grow into adulthood. And in her attempt to save her sister from slow suicide, she imagines a romantic world peopled by magical charaters, some of whom actually enter the sisters' lives, to change them forever. This film is reminiscent of the work of the Polish director, Kieslowski, who attempted to track the invisible hand of fate, as it touched his character's lives. I highly reccomend it to anyone who has lost a loved one or found new meaning in life, while on the brink of destruction.