Sunday, June 22, 2008

Life's Support

Author: Deepak
Location: Appleton

"Life's Support"

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Produced by Paul Haggis
Screenplay by Dan Futterman
Music by James Horner

Principal Cast:

Haley Joel Osment as Jude Zimmers
Joan Allen as Martha Zimmers
Jake Gyllenhaal as Harvey Samuel Olis
Anna Paquin as Aileen Kasporwicz
Edward Norton as Nathan Zimmers

Tagline: "Lost his loved ones. Now he's losing himself"

Synopsis: With news from Minneapolis that his uncle met with an accident and is in a coma, 16 year old Jude (Osment), his mother, Martha (Allen) and his girlfriend, Aileen (Paquin) leave for Minneapolis to be with his uncle, Nathan (Norton), until he gets better. Three straight days of living in the hospital had everyone exhausted especially Jude. to add to his misery, rumours had it that his uncle had already died and every started crying loudly until a doctor asked them where their faith was. The doctors announced that there was no hope and that one of the family members had to remove his life support. As no one wanted too, Jude was forced into doing it. He signed a few papers, he hugged his uncle, removed the life support and watched his uncle die in his arms. That day marked the beginning of Jude's mental turmoil. He couldnt sleep, he couldn't sleep. So he resorted to smoking, drinking and sex with prostitutes and made a new friend, Harvey (Gyllenhaal) who was always with him. Despite the way Jude used to treat her, Aillen never left his side nor did his mother. One day, while going for a midnight drive in the woods with Harvey, Jude fell asleep at the wheel of Harvey's car and drove right into a tree, killing Harvey and injuring himself. Out of fear, he ran and kept running till he reached home and didn't tell anyone about it. The memory of him uncle dying in his arms and of his best friend dying next to him and his guilt, most of all kept torturing him. He confined himself to his room and never came out. he started hitting himself and became insane. due to pepeated beating to the head, he went into a coma. Aileen and Mrs. Zimmers began fighting to keep him alive. Just to keep him alive. This is a life-changing story of how guilt destroyed this boy's life.

What the press would say:

If this movie doesn't make you cry, then you aren't human. Oscar-nominee M. Night Shyamalan directs the all-star cast to perfection in one of the best movies of this year. This movie is about a boy, Jude, who's tortured by guilt.The death of his uncle, Nathan, in his hands and the self-imposed guilt of killing his friend Harvey brought about this torture . he only has his mother Martha and his girlfriend Aileen by his side. Haley Joel Osment gives a performance as Jude better than that he gave in Sixth Sense, which won him an Oscar nomination. Oscar winner at the age of 11, Anna paquin who plays Jude's girlfriend brings tears to our eyes when she acts because it is that good. Also, Jake Gyllenhaal gives a perfromance at par with that of his Oscar nominated performance in Brokeback Mountain, as the playboy friend of Jude, Harvey Olis. But it was Oscar nominee Joan Allen who stole the spotlight with her performance as the heart-broken and hurting mother of Jude. Her performance was heart-touching and tearjerking, to say the least, and I felt like hugging her during her dramatic scenes. It's a movie with a lot of dramatic turns. The movie's cast and directing gives us the assurance that it will bag all the gold it is nominated in especially Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress either for Joan Allen or Anna Paquin.

Nominations:
Best Picture - Paul Haggis
Best Director - M. Night Shyamalan
Best Original Screenplay - Dan Futterman
Best Actor - Haley Joel Osment
Best Supporting Actor - Jake Gyllenhaal
Best Supporting Actress - Anna Paquin
Best Supporting Actress - Joan Allen
Best Original Score - James Horner
Best Film Editing
Best Sound Editing

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