June 26, 2009, - 12:01 pm
Weekend Box Office: Powerful “Stoning of Soraya M.”, Annoying Cougar Flick “Cheri”
By Debbie Schlussel
You’ve already read my review of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” a/k/a “Transformers 2” (in which Israel is erased off the map). I did not see “My Sister’s Keeper,” though if I do, I’ll post the review later over the weekend. Here’s what I did see:
* “The Stoning of Soraya M.“: This movie is not only powerful, it’s important. It is extremely moving, too.
Cyrus Nowrasteh, the secular Muslim behind “The Path to 9/11” ABC miniseries, made this film of the true story of an Iranian woman who is stoned to death, after her rich husband and the town’s Islamic cleric trump up fake adultery charges against her. All of this is done because Soraya’s husband wants to divorce her (without paying her any support money or alimony), so he can marry a young girl with whom he’s been apparently having an affair.
This movie is just the way I like it. It pulls no punches. It’s very clear about the role Islam plays in brutality and fabricated “justice.” And it spares us none of the up-close graphic violence and blood of an Islamic stoning, which goes on in countries all over the world today . . . Islamic countries. (It’s violence and blood that is necessary to see, but not for the faint of heart and definitely NOT for kids.)
Shohreh Agdashloo–best known for playing the wife in a Turkish Muslim terrorist couple on the show “24”–is the star of this vehicle. She plays Soraya’s courageous aunt, who talks to a reporter (Jim Caviezel) and gets the story out. Caviezel’s reporter is a French Iranian whose car breaks down, and he is stranded in the small town until it is fixed. He tape records Agdashloo’s retelling of what happened just the day before.
The stoning incident also shows how wantonly life is taken away under sharia (Islamic law) and how cavalierly the killing–the murder–is treated. After Soraya has her show trial (which she wasn’t allowed nor was she allowed to testify), Soraya’s stoning happens with a fervor. The townfolk celebrate it and laugh before, during, and after. During the stoning, a clown troop–complete with Iranian clown midget–come to entertain the town kids. When they learn there’s a stoning going on, they eagerly entertain. That night, the whole town engages in feast and drink in celebration.
Very sickening, and, sadly, extremely true. If you love freedom as I do and despise jihad, this movie is a must see. I absolutely loved it. And it has no qualms about exposing Islam for what it is–a violent cult.
One other thing: Some western greeniac idiots who support the faux-democratic uprising in Iran are trying to use this movie as a vehicle for their unworthy cause. They are fools if they think that the Muslim green activists on the streets of Iran are any less for these Islamic stonings of women than Ahmadinejad and his supporters are. Mousavi supported there-establishment of Islamic rule and, thus, the stonings in 1979, and he supports it now. Wake the heck up.
FOUR REAGANS
* “Cheri“: This is the “cougar” vehicle that’s been much discussed in showbiz media outlets. It features Michelle Pfeiffer as a wealthy, aging prostitute in 1920s France, who falls in love with a much younger boy, “Cheri” (British actor, Rupert Friend), and lives with him from his late teens through his mid-20s.
I don’t much care for movies in which women try to act like men (in pining for younger lovers), and the “men” are so gay-looking and effeminate that it simply isn’t believable. Rupert Friend looks so much like a girl it’s off-putting. A scene in which he dons a pearl necklace made me wanna hurl.
But this movie isn’t for me or most of this site’s audience. It’s for middle-aged and post-middle-aged women who like to look at nice clothes (the costumes were incredible), nice scenery, and beautiful flowers.
For the rest of us, it’s an annoying chick flick. As chick flicks go, it could have been far worse. But it’s mostly skipworthy. I mean, after all, it’s about the lives of prostitutes and one who becomes heartbroken. So what? Who cares? Not me.
The one good thing about the movie: it shows that a life of prostitution may bring a ton of easy money, but it also brings a more heavy truckload of tragedy and heartbreak.
HALF A MARX
Debbie –
This is OT and please delete it if you prefer, but I read this over at
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article3354149.ece
via legalinsurrection and I’d like to hear your opinion of this stupidity.
Jewish School Held “Racist” For Preferring Jews
A court in Great Britain has found that a religious Jewish school engaged in racial discrimination by applying the traditional definition of who is a Jew as part of its admissions policy.
Traditionally, whether one is Jewish is determined by maternal lineage. If one’s mother is Jewish, one is Jewish. When the mother is a convert to Judaism, Orthodox Jews consider the child Jewish only if the conversion was in accordance with Orthodox conversion practices. Among non-Orthodox Jews, at least in the United States, the test is completely muddled, and among progressive Reform congregations, the standards for conversion are quite lenient.
kaporet on June 26, 2009 at 1:57 pm