6th HOF-Blue Car
 

Nominated By: Quill

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Blue Car (2002)
by Karen Moncrieff

Synopsis: Meg is a gifted but emotionally scarred 18-year-old. Meg finds solace in writing poetry. Mr. Auster, her English teacher, recognizes her talent and steps into the role of mentor and father figure, encouraging her to enter a national poetry contest for which he is a judge. As tension at home escalates and Meg struggles to find a way to get to the poetry finals in Florida, Auster's role in her life becomes increasingly complex.

The acting in this movie is brilliant from all involved. The subject matter is dark and well-executed. It reminds people that not all evil is committed by monsters. I was moved and hope that others will be, too.

At first glance, I thought this was the most out of nowhere nomination. I know absolutely nothing about it, and I plan on keeping it that way until I watch it. I plan on watching this movie first.

Re: 6th HOF-Blue Car
 

Never heard of Blue Car and am intrigued.

Re: 6th HOF-Blue Car
 

Watched this tonight. Very solid film. I don't think it will challenge anyone very much. Everything is kind of surface level. It is tragic but in a very non-threatening way. I am glad I watched this, I thought the main character was very engaging. Not a lot to say it is just one of those movies that I liked while watching but probably won't think about much again.

Re: 6th HOF-Blue Car
 

I just finished this one up. I too feel it was a little out of nowhere. It's hard for me to think that someone would love this film to see it as a candidate to a HOF. With that being said, I actually thought the film was enjoyable. It was heartbreaking to see the journey that the lead character had been put through but I think that the end of the film offers a new perspective into how her life could go, so in that way it was pretty thought provoking. One of those films that I probably enjoyed watching more for it being an interesting watch than one that is technically and physically well made. Glad I saw that one as I had not heard of this before.

I just watched it and I'm completely with Sean and Raul. It's a nice, simple movie that's done well. You can't help but feel something for the main character, especially as her's are real life types of issues. I really don't have anything negative to say about the film, except that I didn't find it to be memorable. I think it's a movie for young adults, ideally young adults who can relate to it in some way. I'm going to give Blue Car , which is slightly generous for what I got out of it, but I think anything less may be unfair.

This is what I wrote about Blue Car in my logbook thread.

http://www.movieforums.com/community...96#post1254796

This is kind of a hard movie for me to rate because I liked some things about it, but I didn't like other things about it.

I'm sorry about all the spoilers, but it's hard to explain my thoughts about this movie without giving away some important plot points. :shrug:

I liked the basic story about a teacher helping his student with her writing because he thought she had talent. He even encouraged her to enter her writing in a competition. For most of the movie, I thought it was a great relationship. He became almost a father-figure for her, when her own father wasn't part of her life.

I was also back and forth about the main character, Megan. At first, I didn't like her because she seemed like a self-centered teenager. She didn't want to help her mother by taking care of her younger sister, and she was even rude and nasty to her mother about it.



At least the movie ended on a bit of a high note. I liked Meg's final poem. It was very powerful.

Re: 6th HOF-Blue Car
 

The father and mother have a confrontation at one of the places you mentioned in spoilers, but your point is taken. I didn't wish to know more about the younger sister as I did want to know why this family is so broken. I would have liked to see more of the father. Especially when you consider how short this movie is. I could have used more.

Yeah, it seems to be a movie with a lot of potential that just didn't live up to its potential. It went in the wrong direction when the relationship between the teacher and student changed. IMO, that was the best part of the movie, and then they ruined it. They should have focused a bit more on the girl's family life too.

Re: 6th HOF-Blue Car
 

I don't think it ever changed really. I felt like it was leading that way the entire time. So that didn't really ruin it for me.

Just finished this movie. Really didn't care for it, I felt everything about it was subpar - the script, acting, directing, even the score/soundtrack. I also wasn't very engaged at all and found it a bit dull to be honest. I, like gb, didn't like Meg much either, although not because she was self-centered - most teenagers are. I just thought she was kind of a boring person. And of course, the teacher ended up being no good.



Sorry Quill. :(

I didn't see that coming at all. Maybe because I had one-on-one relationships with some of my teachers, but nothing that ever went beyond the normal student/teacher relationship.

Re: 6th HOF-Blue Car
 

I wasn't surprised it went the route it did with the teacher at all. They showed him in family situations a couple times without showing the wife. I knew something was up.

No worries, Swan.

I chose this movie because I don't think many people have seen it and because it just came out of the blue and made me love it. This was a new favorite for me.

As I mentioned when I commented on the movie in the Movie Tab, this hits some pretty personal triggers for me. I do feel a strong connection to Meg (though I took the over-caring response when it fell to me to care for my siblings, I can understand her anger and aversion to being forced into a surrogate parent role)

Personally, I found the family plot pretty well fleshed out. I feel Meg's anger at her mother for not really being there and her mother's regret for not being able to do it all. The father didn't need to be any more present than he was in this movie. After all, he left and the hole that he leaves should be felt to the viewer.

I just finished watching this one.

I have some mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, there's nothing special about this film. The subject has been done before time and time again. There's nothing new here.

That said, what it does it does well. I thought that the performances were universally strong and while I can't relate to the struggles of its characters, I still felt strongly for each of them. Mr. Auster included.

I felt like Blue Car has the opposite problem as The Man From Earth. While the latter suffers from a mediocre cast that isn't good enough for its premise, Blue Car suffers from a mediocre premise that isn't good enough for its cast. But as someone who places a great deal of importance on performances and on the emotional response they illicit from me, I rank Blue Car considerably higher.

+

Recently I watched a movie called Wit starring Emma Thompson and directed by Mike Nichols. It's about a woman with cancer undergoing her final chemotherapy treatments. Basically she is dying and it is about her last few weeks as the disease takes everything she has left. I have no idea how good a movie it is (it's only a TV movie I think) but I was in tears through much of it and rated it ... because my mother has been fighting cancer for seven years and is now going through what Thompson depicted so brilliantly.

The reason I bring this up is because I feel like Blue Car was done well enough that if you connected with the main character then I would imagine it would be a very moving experience watching it. Personally it probably didn't do a good enough job to pull me into the main character's world but if I was already there I could imagine loving it.

Sometimes that's what makes movies great - how they connect to our own personal experiences or deal with our pre-existing issues. To be honest, I didn't love Blue Car but I feel that it provides enough to make other people love it and that makes it a success.

My wife and I saw the play several years ago and it was excellent. It starred that blonde lady from Who's the Boss.

Re: 6th HOF-Blue Car
 

I personally disliked this film. I found it forced and lacking in "naturality", the main character life sucks, yes, we get that. Anyway, I found this and foreign correspondent the only two films so far that I did not get into.

Well, at least Blue Mar is my hope for K-On! not finishing last. :D

Re: 6th HOF-Blue Car
 

Blue Car (2002)

Yeah... Blue Car's formula has been used a billion times. Nothing really new. The direction was swift but equally nicely slow moving and calm, and the performances were all good, but it could've been used somewhere else, it almost felt like a slight waste.

I didn't get into the main character Meg, at all. I wished the film focused more on the interesting supporting characters. Meg felt kind of one-dimensional to me. Other than her typical teenager emotions and desire to become better nothin else of her was explored.

Nothing in my write-up adds to what other members have said, they all echo my thoughts. Would've treasured Blue Car if I had a talent in literature and was a teenage girl. If I was, I'd have loved this film and wouldn't be here writing mediocre short reviews. Mediocre...sadly mostly what the film felt like to me.

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