ARTHUR NEWMAN

Colin Firth, Emily Blunt

Anne Heche

"If you Don't have a Life, Get someone Else's"

SM Cinemas

I found myself at the mall to do some errands. I wanted to catch Clooney and Bullock as the unfortunate astronauts on a mission that goes wrong but unfortunately I missed the appropriate showing time, so I settled for Firth and Blunt.  

That's Colin Firth who stars as a down on his luck sales agent who decides to fake his death so he could start a new life as Arthur Newman. His dream is to resume his golf career so he intends to pursue a job as an  instructor at a golf club in another state.  Along the way, he meets Mike (Emily Blunt) herself a lost soul and they connect on more levels than one.  

This is their story.

I reckon it is quite easy for someone to just vanish into thin air without anyone missing them and assume a new identity in a huge country like the US.  In Wallace Avery's case, I found it quite sad that he didn't have a solid support system like a loving family to provide him with whatever he felt was missing in his life.  But as we see in the film, he doesn't have a warm personality. He is divorced and estranged from his family while his current girlfriend played by Anne Heche seems to be neglected and largely ignored.

The loneliness is all the more highlighted when one lonely soul meets another lonely soul. In this case, Arthur meets Mike who is I'd say more troubled than lonely.  Somehow, together they click and make the most of the time together (read: have sex a lot) even though they clearly know zilch about each other lives. 

As the film moves on and the notion of second chances peeks in, surely redemption and finding one's self cannot be far behind and right on cue they appear towards the ending. I know it's predictable but somehow watching good actors like Colin Firth and Emily Blunt bring to life such sad characters somehow made the film easier to bear.