Mao’s Last Dancer is the story of Li Cun Xin, a Chinese boy who grew up in a poor family in Shandong province. When he was 11, he was picked by Chinese State Official to train as a ballet dancer in the Beijing Dance Academy. He went through rigorous training and often cried himself to sleep at night. When the Houston Ballet director, Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood) came to visit China, he was enthralled by Li’s strength and flexibility but also on how he seemed to be the only dancer who conveyed any emotion when he was on stage. Soon after, Li was whisked away to  Houston as a temporary guest dancer for the Houston Ballet. During his stay, he fell in love with a beautiful dancer called Elizabeth (Amanda Schull) realised that he didn’t want to come home to China. He felt more ‘free’ in America, which allows him to be a better dancer.

Although there was no point during the movie that I felt bored, I must say that I was thoroughly disappointed with the ending and there were certain scenes where I felt like I was being forced to feel sympathy for the character. I didn’t expect a corny film from director Bruce Beresford and scripwriter Jan Sardi, who wrote ‘Shine’. Finally, I have to give my thumbs up to Chi Chao, who played the adult Li Cun Xin. He’s a brilliant dancer (who also went to Beijing Dance Company) and a natural actor.

Before I watched this delightful movie, I had no idea who Julia Child was. After I left the cinema, I went straight to the bookshop to find out if they have Julia Child’s cookbook on sale. Luckily, I didn’t end up buying the gigantic cookbook because I don’t think I’d ever cook anything from it. The recipes are just too complicated.

Nevertheless, few movies make me feel as good as this one. The acting performances are solid. Who could say anything negative about Meryl Streep’s acting?  Or Amy Adams, who’s in the fast track to becoming one of Hollywood’s most beloved starlets? She’s not only pleasing to watch, but she actually can act.

Amy Adams stars as Julie Powell, who decided that she wanted to spend an entire year replicating all the dishes in Julia Child’s ‘Mastering The Art of French Cooking’ cookbook – and blogging about it. Meryl Streep stars as Julia Child, who was just an ordinary housewife who loved to eat good food until she enrolled at the ‘Le Cordon Bleu’ cooking school in Paris and discovered that she had the potential to be an amazing cook. The movie went back and forth between the two characters and it kept me entertained for more than two hours.

Julie & Julia is directed and written by Nora Ephron, who was the mastermind behind two of my favourite movies of all time, ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ (that movie is just perfect) and ‘You’ve Got Mail’ (I’ve seen this movie more than twenty times). This movie captured the same ‘feel good’ characteristic of its predecessors but it also has more than that. It has cooking in its centre. If there’s anything I enjoy almost as much as watching a good movie…it would be food. And watching all the beautiful, mouthwatering food laid out in front of me, it’s just pure bliss. I challenge you to watch this movie and not feel  like you wanted to buy Julia Child’s cookbook straight after you get out of the cinema.

I’ve heard so many good things about ’500 Days of Summer’ before I went to see it last week. It was the first movie I saw after a long hiatus (long = a couple of months) and I wanted to pick the ‘right’ movie to lead me back into the groove.

The main reason I picked this movie was the fact that it’s supposed to be one of the best romantic comedies out there. And after what’s happened the last couple of months, I wanted something that is light and optimistic, but without too much froth. This movie seemed to be exactly what I wanted. Oh, and of course there’s Zooey. How could you not love Zooey?

Anyway, this movie DID turn out to be perfect (almost..). It was very well acted, it wasn’t too long and it was as realistic as one could expect for a romantic comedy.  It’s a story of boy meets girl, where the girl was acting more like boys normally would. Am I confusing you? Probably. Well, in this movie, Zooey Deschanel starred as Summer Finn, who was Tom Hansen’s (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) object of affection. He was adamant that she’s the one he’s meant to be with.  Nevertheless, no matter how hard Tom tried to pursue her, she wouldn’t really commit to him. Every time he got too close, she pulled back. And in the end, well…you’d have to watch the movie to see the ending, wouldn’t you? Although I must say that I really loved the ending.

The movie has a great soundtrack (another HUGE  plus) and it doesn’t fall into the cliched traps of most romantic comedies out there (another thumbs up). So if you only want to watch one romantic comedy this year…let it be this one. There really isn’t going to be anything else better than this. Trust me.