Donna Freitas: November 2006 Archives

Nine chapters into NBC's new drama "Heroes" and I'm utterly hooked. "Heroes" is reminiscent of X-Men, revolving around individuals all over the world who discover that they have special and occasionally frightening powers.

The last several episodes revolved around a rather cryptic yet humorous command: "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World," a task taken up by several heroes together including Hiro (the utterly adorable boy from Japan who can bend time and space), Peter (who can take on the powers of whatever hero is nearby), and Isaac (who paints the future) . Claire Bennet, the cheerleader in question, holds the power of regeneration, even after death.

In fact, we've seen Claire quite literally "rise from the dead" several times now. Given Claire's particular power, it's rather unclear how anyone might have threatened her life in the first place. But the "Homecoming" episode marked the moment these heroes long feared, with the evil Sylar (who we have yet to meet face to face) setting his sights on killing Claire after the homecoming game.

Though there were certainly efforts all around by the heroes, ultimately Claire did a pretty good job holding her own in the salvation department. So at least for now, they saved the cheerleader. But here's what I want to know next: Will her life perpetually be in danger, or was this a one-time threat? How exactly will Claire save the world? And will "Heroes" follow in Buffy's footsteps, giving audiences a smart, courageous girl "chosen one"--another girl savior? Of all the heroes, is Claire somehow the most important of all?

If you haven't tried "Heroes" yet, you should. The series will surely appeal to X-Men and Buffy fans alike. Even "Gilmore Girls" devotees should tune in since Peter Petrelli is played by none other than Milo Ventimiglia, who played Rory's bad-boy boyfriend Jess for several seasons.

Advertise any film as a mixture of romance, science, and fantasy, and I'll come running, no further questions. And so it was with 'The Fountain,' directed by Darren Aronofsky ('Pi, 'Requiem for a Dream'), starring Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman (both favorites of mine). This movie weaves three stories together: One "reality-based," a second that might be labeled (loosely) as historical fiction, and a third that seems something of a "new age fantasy." I saw the film during the very first showing on its opening day, November 22nd.

Though unclear at first, eventually viewers find out that the primary story revolves around the "real life" dimension of a husband (Tommy) and wife (Isabel) who are madly in love, yet face the tragic certainty of the wife's death from brain cancer. Tommy is coincidentally a gifted cancer researcher and is pushing himself to the brink of madness to discover a cure for the tumors riddling Isabel's body--before her time on earth is up. Note the emphasis on "time on earth," which is essential here.

For Isabel, the line between life and death, present and past, reality and fiction, earth and heaven is very thin and certainly traversable if one is willing to believe the journey possible. Much of the movie involves Isabel begging her husband to stop his race for a cure and spend their last remaining but potentially magical days together. Most important of all, she wants him to read her novel, and ultimately write its last chapter after her death.

Isabel's novel, titled 'The Fountain,' is the vehicle that moves the story between Tomas, the Spanish conquistador who quests to find the fountain of youth for his Queen, Tom the astronaut who journeys into space (seemingly via Buddhist meditation) to find a dying star and, presumably, spiritual enlightenment, and her real-life scientist-husband Tommy, who seeks to overcome "the disease of death" through his research.

Each story is about a kind of eternal life, and each centers around the Tree of Life spoken of in Genesis 3:22: "And he said: Behold Adam is become as one of us, knowing good and evil: now therefore lest perhaps he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever." Each character--Tomas, Tom, Tommy, and even Isabel herself, quests toward their own idea of immortality through a different and ultimately spiritual path.

The most beguiling view of all is perhaps that of Isabel, who believes that if a tree is planted over her body in the ground, she will not only become part of this tree but also of all the life the tree will touch--her essence ultimately soaring through the sky with the birds. (But the beautiful-sounding tree growing from the nourishing body is made utterly disturbing when we see a tree literally grow from the body of the conquistador after he drinks the sap from the Tree of Life at the Fountain of Youth.)

Is 'The Fountain' a beautiful story of love and life conquering death? Of a way to find life through death? Or just a terribly weird and hokey new age film that is, at times, unbelievably difficult to follow? I still can't decide.

One thing I know: Unlike most movies of this sort, I won't see it again. Once was enough.

As with every other year, Thanksgiving Day signaled the go ahead for radio stations to begin playing endless Christmas music, and the arrival of midnight sparked shoppers to begin the now-traditional mad-dash of buying for the holidays. But the lead-up to this gift-giving season has been a bit unusual for the widely-known charitable Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, which delivers toys to needy children during the holiday season. The typically benign and beloved organization has been the center of an intense religious controversy over Jesus.

A Bible-quoting, foot-tall Jesus doll, that is.

A Los Angeles-based toy company, one2believe, offered to donate 4,000 of the battery-operated "Messengers of Faith" dolls, which its website assures will offer children "key selections from John, Mark, Psalms, Luke and Exodus … all recorded in an easy-to-memorize format so that parents, pastors and educators alike can use Messengers of Faith to teach children these vital lessons from the Bible in a fun, entertaining way!" (The equivalent Mary, David, Moses, and Esther dolls were not offered as part of the donation--Jesus was the doll of choice for the Toys for Tots drive. But of course you can order them!)

One2believe's mission is explicitly Bible-based, and its website states the following on its homepage: "The spiritual development of our children depends largely on how well they grasp and understand the Bible stories. Just as in the days of the Judges in Israel we believe that teaching Bible stories to a child is the precursor to a relationship with God. In fact, we believe this so strongly that we have gone to great effort and expense to develop a number of resources and tools for parents and Christian educators so they can effectively teach the Bible stories to their children and students."

These resources and tools include the Jesus dolls--toys that the Marines organization initially rejected for Toys for Tots because of their obvious religious associations. This rejection caused big headlines and a widespread backlash against the organization.

The Associated Press reported the initial story, explaining that: "The charity balked because of the dolls' religious nature. Toys are donated to kids based on financial need and 'we don't know anything about their background, their religious affiliations,' said Bill Grein, vice president of Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, in Quantico, Va. As a government entity, Marines 'don't profess one religion over another,' Grein said Tuesday. 'We can't take a chance on sending a talking Jesus doll to a Jewish family or a Muslim family.'"

Yet just days later Toys for Tots reversed the decision, according to The Washington Post in an article, "Reversing Course, Marines to Accept Jesus Doll Gifts." The change in attitude about the dolls seems largely due to family requests to receive the dolls for their children.

The article says that "When the decision to reject the toys got out, the toy company began receiving hundreds of phone calls and e-mails from organizations and people who would like to receive the dolls. 'The phones are ringing off the hook. There is a new e-mail every few seconds. It is unbelievable,' said Michael La Roe, director of business development for the company. 'We had someone write in from Okinawa, Japan. The word is spreading all over the country and, in some cases, all over the world.'"

So the talking Jesus doll saga seems finally resolved, but one thing that remains unclear to Toys for Tots: How to accomodate so many requests, and get enough of these dolls into the hands of families who want them this Christmas.

Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray probes the moral core of "Left Behind: Eternal Forces," the video game version of the popular apocalyptic book series by Tim F. LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. (See fellow blogger Paul O'Donnell's post about the game's pre-2005-Christmas debut for more information.)

Bray's interest was apparently sparked by Rob Corddry's satirical "report" inspired by the game, "This Week in God: God Kills Pt. 1," which aired a few months ago on "The Daily Show" (do watch it--it's very, very funny). Though "Eternal Forces" is a Christian video game (set in New York city--that city of hedonistic evil--18 months post-rapture), players contend with a surprising amount of violence in their attempts to stay alive amid the reigning chaos, according to Bray. Most shocking of all, players can take lives as they protect their own. You can fight evil forces with prayer, which "really enters in this whole new dimension called 'spiritual warfare,' said Troy Lyndon , CEO of Left Behind Games. "You can actually play the entire game without firing a shot.'" But Bray reports that you can also:

[C]reate a band of soldiers who'll protect Tribulation Force territory from Carpathian incursions. But they're supposed to use minimal force. Every time they kill, even if it's justified, it weakens their moral fiber. Force them to kill too often, and they'll fall away from the faith and move to the Dark Side.

The game's ambivalent attitude to violence comes naturally to Lyndon, whose son has served tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. "The more I've talked to my son, the more passionate it's made me about understanding the realities of war," said Lyndon. "When our kids are coming back from overseas, their hearts are affected. Their hearts are harder.... It's a horrible thing."

Lyndon agrees that something had to be done to put the Taliban and Saddam Hussein out of business, but he doesn't like the way the conflict has morphed into an endless cycle of atrocities. "I don't know what the answer is," he said. And Lyndon has injected that same moral ambiguity into the game."

Moral ambiguity is apparently what sets "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" apart from other, non-Christian video games for Bray: "It's easy to jeer at a group of Christians seeking to make their mark in an industry that so often celebrates amoral savagery. Yet you can't help respecting the effort that went into Left Behind: Eternal Forces. Like Ned Flanders, the absurdly pious neighbor on "The Simpsons," the game is odd and sometimes annoying, but with a good heart."

Though watch Rob Corddry's report and, in addition to a laugh, you might instead find yourself rather disturbed, despite all the satire.

The HBO documentary "Thin" aired last night, telling the story of four women struggling with anorexia and bulimia. A film directed by Laura Greenfield (also the author of "Girl Culture"), "Thin" introduces viewers to Shelly, a nurse who has been in and out of clinics many times; Polly, a photographer also with many prior experiences as an in-patient; Brittany, the youngest, at 15; and Alisa, a mother of two--all of whom are so broken by their struggle with eating disorders that the audience will sense they are at the point of life and death. In fact, Alisa says flat out that being thin is more important than anything else in her life, including her children, and Brittany's fear of becoming "fat" is so utterly potent that she regularly expresses the wish to die in lieu of gaining any weight.

These are four women who have lost all faith in themselves. It's awful to encounter the severity of their brokenness.

"Thin" is ultra-heavy on the drama, the intense emotion, the "I'm being watched by cameras" over-reactions by the women featured. (Though, granted, living with an eating disorder is dramatic by nature.) Regardless of this, for those unfamiliar with eating disorders, "Thin" is sure to prove eye-opening about the sad realities of the distorted body images so many women live with, which drive them to desperate measures in their eating, exercising, and purging. Ideally, this set of viewers will decide to look beyond the documentary's melodrama to see the story that needs to be heard, and the terrible reality of women crushed by societal pressures to fit a certain body type.

For those who know eating disorders all too well, however, I am not sure that watching "Thin" is a good idea. Yes, it could serve as a cautionary tale, a "this could happen to you" warning to get off a destructive path if you are already headed down this particular road. But "Thin" lacks hope overall--it sends a message, and perhaps truthfully so, that it is almost impossible to conquer an eating disorder, that next to no one recovers fully to live a normal life, and that once broken, the bodies of these women are broken forever.

If you still have hope for yourself or your child, if you still have faith that it is possible to conquer this struggle, you might consider skipping "Thin" when it re-airs or comes out on DVD. It could shatter your faith in the possibility of recovery. It is really the story of four women at the end of their ropes--and it does little to show that any of them find a way out of this deepest of dark places.

To HBO's and the director's credit, the official site for "Thin" has links on its page for "Recognizing and Dealing with Eating Disorders" and resource listings for "Getting Help and Learning More," which include hotlines and help centers for parents and specifically Dads as well.

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