Betty White Delights in the Light, Breezy If You Ask Me

Back when it was on the air, I used to watch The Golden Girls, mostly because I loved sweet, naïve, animal-loving Rose, portrayed by Betty White. I’ve seen her pop up in all sorts of other places since then and shared in the amusement of many mall visitors when the calendar kiosk where I worked last year stocked dozens of calendars bearing her image. It seems she is quite the star. So when my friend lent me her latest book, If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t), I was interested to see what she had to say for herself.

Practically her first assertion is “Writing is my favorite thing.” This particular admission is actually written in longhand, which she integrates into later portions of her book as well. It’s funny to think of a beloved actress claiming such a quiet pursuit as an even deeper passion, but it’s nice to know that she enjoyed herself while penning this memoir. The book is a pretty quick read at about 250 pages, which are grouped into eight sections of loosely related reflections. With 46 chapters, none of them is more than a few pages long. The most extensive chapter is the one dealing with her 2010 appearance on Saturday Night Live, and even that is not quite ten pages long and includes several photos.

Of course, every chapter has at least one accompanying photo, and there’s a blank page following each chapter, plus a separate page for section headings, so what you’re really getting are fewer than 150 pages of actual text. The tone is very conversational; you feel like you are just sitting down for an afternoon with Betty and she is relating some of the stories of her life as they come to her. I haven’t read any of her other books, so I can’t say whether this is the way they all are, but it works pretty well. It just feels a bit like we’re only scratching the surface because she’s barely begun to discuss a topic before she’s moved on to the next one.

The timeliest section is the one that prompted the writing of this book. Hollywood Stories discusses Hot in Cleveland, The Proposal, The Lost Valentine and the immensely popular Snickers Super Bowl commercial that prompted the Facebook campaign that led to her co-hosting of Saturday Night Live. Through all her successes, she maintains a humble attitude, repeatedly saying what a joy it is to be able to do something she loves for a living and to make enough money at it to feed her other passions. She never seems to forget that hers is a life that many would love to have.

She reveals nothing shocking in her recollections. This memoir is as courteous as Donny Osmond’s, and she spends no time spewing venom on anyone. She seems to go out of her way to see the good in people. For instance, in one chapter, she discusses film projects she declined because they contained scenes she found distasteful. However, she also indicates that the writers who penned the offending screenplays are very talented. She comes across as a woman of both integrity and tact.

Perhaps the most interesting revelation for me was that she never wanted to go into show business as a child. Instead, it was always her dream to become a park ranger or a zookeeper. This love of animals permeates the book at all turns, whether she is recalling memorable encounters with creatures like Koko the gorilla and Beethoven the beluga, discussing the idiosyncrasies of her beloved pets or confiding the comfort she has derived on set from fans who bring their dogs to meet her. While she has glowing remarks to make about many colleagues and friends, not to mention her adored late husband, she admits that she has always felt more comfortable in the presence of furry companions.

This is a very lightweight book, but it really is a delight to read. From her self-effacing comments about her struggles with stage fright and connecting faces with names to her fond memories of her parents and her easy-going attitude about approaching 90, If You Ask Me is relentlessly cheerful, almost inevitably provoking a sense of uplift. Betty White is an American icon and a very considerate woman, and if you ask me, her words are well worth reading.

Love Blooms Between Fish and Boy in Ponyo

I’ve been a fan of The Little Mermaid since the Disney version hit theaters when I was in second grade, and I’ve heard many accolades directed at Hayao Miyazaki, the man who helmed such critically acclaimed films as Howl’s Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke. Hence, I was very curious about Ponyo, a Japanese re-imagining of the Hans Christian Andersen tale of a mermaid who dreams of becoming human.

I’ve seen foreign films dubbed into English before, but one thing that makes Ponyo different is the fact that so many of the voice actors are familiar, including Liam Neeson, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Cloris Leachman, Lily Tomlin and Betty White. Meanwhile, the children at the heart of the movie are from famous families; Frankie Jonas is brother to the Jonas Brothers, while Noah Lindsey Cyrus is Miley Cyrus’s sister. Having so many well-known voices in the movie was fun, albeit slightly distracting as I tried to figure out which actor was attached to each of the characters.

One identification that never eluded me was Neeson as Fujimoto, Ponyo’s overprotective father who has the force of the ocean at his command. He is similar in many ways to King Triton, his counterpart in the Disney film, but the character I kept thinking of was Bryan Mills, the distraught, dangerous dad in the 2008 thriller Taken. Like Bryan, he goes to extraordinary extremes to retrieve his daughter after she vanishes, causing me to conclude that whether he is in live-action or animated form, you simply do not mess with Liam Neeson’s daughter. In Ponyo, the whole town must pay the price for Ponyo’s disappearance as he subjects them to horrific flooding while he searches for his little fish-girl, even though she clearly is on land of her own volition.

Ponyo bears only the most basic of similarities to The Little Mermaid. The headstrong daughter of an undersea monarch escapes her humdrum underwater existence after befriending a human boy. The main characters are much younger in this instance, so while there is still an element of romantic love at play here, this is not a movie that’s going to end in a wedding. Sosuke and Ponyo are still just small children, so it’s little wonder that Fujimoto is so concerned, though his determination to punish all of humanity, whom he already loathes for their ecological carelessness, is a tad excessive.

The Little Mermaid’s Prince Eric is one of the more interesting of the traditional Disney princes, but he’s still not exactly a fully realized character. In this film, Sosuke is much more fleshed out than the princess. A lively, compassionate little boy, he delights in visiting the elderly ladies at the nursing home near his school and operating the beacon in his lighthouse to signal to his seafaring father that he is on the lookout for him.

When he and Ponyo first meet, she is still a “goldfish” - though she looks like no goldfish I ever saw. She doesn’t even look like a fish. Rather, she is a strange blob with a humanoid face and four appendages that vaguely resemble human limbs. But Sosuke loves her instantly and scoops her up out of the water to claim for his pet. Ponyo doesn’t mind being snatched up; she returns Sosuke’s affection and quickly develops a taste for human food as she snatches some ham from his sandwich. This simple act is an essential component in her later transformation into a little girl of few words who really, really LOVES ham, as she loudly proclaims on several occasions.

There is an environmentalist thread that runs through this film as Miyazaki uses the wild-looking Fujimoto to express discontent with the excesses of humanity and demonstrate how people might come to pay for disregarding ecological matters. But mostly, this is a story of love, pure and simple. Ponyo and Sosuke are as open-hearted as children can be, embracing each other and everyone around them with expansive enthusiasm and kindness. Among the voice actors, intimidating Neeson, harried Fey and affable White make the biggest impression, with Fey having a particularly hefty role as Sosuke’s devoted but frazzled mother.

Ponyo is beautifully animated, though some of the visual elements of the movie are strange indeed, particularly the various sea creatures who aid or hinder Ponyo in her quest. In addition to looking exceedingly odd, Ponyo sounds quite crazed most of the time, causing me to burst out laughing at nearly all of her dialogue. Equally silly is the bouncy end-credits song that starts in immediately after the movie concludes. Meanwhile, my mom was horrified at the erratic driving habits of Sosuke’s mother, which, like several aspects of the movie, are exaggerated to a rather absurd degree. There’s an element of strangeness to the film that makes it hard for me to embrace completely, but for the most part, I found Ponyo to be a fresh and very sweet twist on an old tale.

The Proposal Shines a Light on Alaskan Wilderness and Family Togetherness

My friend Libbie and I have a mixed track record when it comes to Sandra Bullock movies. On the one hand, Miss Congeniality was one of the first movies we saw together in the theater, and we loved it. On the other, both of us agreed that 2007's Premonition was pretty dismal. Still, the good impressions outweighed the bad as we watched the trailer for The Proposal, and the premise looked cute, so we decided this was probably a cinema-worthy chick flick. I'm glad we followed through on those theater plans.

The Proposal stars Bullock as Margaret Tate, a no-nonsense book editor seemingly cut out of the same cloth as Meryl Streep's Devil Wears Prada tyrant, though she never quite achieves that level of cool collectedness. Still, she rules her office with an iron fist, and nobody has to put up with more grief than her personal assistant, the adorable Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds). There's nothing he won't do in his sycophantic quest to achieve his dream job, and he's about to find out just how far Margaret will push that envelope. When she receives the shocking news that she is on the verge of deportation to Canada, she produces a fiance - Andrew. To satisfy the government, being engaged is not enough; they'll have to actually marry. First, though, they'll have to announce the news to his extended family, who are gathered in Andrew's Alaskan hometown for his grandmother's 90th birthday party.

My favorite Bullock movie is probably While You Were Sleeping, a wonderfully sweet romantic comedy about a woman whose longtime crush is in an accident that knocks him into a coma. She is the first on hand to help him, and by the time he's safely settled in the hospital, staff and family alike assume that she is his fiancee. After a few initial attempts to set the record straight, this lonely woman allows the family to embrace her. The details of the two movies are very different, but in some respects the basic plot is very similar: isolated woman falls in love with the family of a faux fiance. Because while film is about Margaret and Andrew falling for each other away from the stresses of work and the constraints of the boss-employee relationship, their romance blossoms largely because of the nurturing environment of the affectionate Paxton family. And all that fresh Alaska air doesn't hurt either. "How could anybody choose the city over that?" Dad asked me during a scene displaying a vast vista of verdant grass and snow-capped mountains. I don't know. (I do know, however, that I caught my dad not only admiring the landscape but laughing out loud several times, so guys, don't snub this one automatically!)

It's a surprise to us and Margaret alike when a ride through Andrew's hometown reveals that the Paxtons practically own the city. Their name is everywhere, and his parents live in a luxurious estate. His distant father Joe (Craig T. Nelson) has nothing but disdain for his son's chosen career path; he's the only child, so Joe was counting on him to keep up the family business. His mother Grace (Mary Steenburgen) is appropriately named, for she is happy to forgive Andrew for his long absences and only wants to keep the peace between the two most important men in her life. The always-delightful Betty White is the eccentric Paxton family matriarch, a position whose power she wields shrewdly. Grammy is no dummy, but unlike the bigoted neighbor White played in Bringing Down the House, she is genuinely sweet. The previews highlight her punchiest moments, giving the impression that there's more of a bite to her than there really is.

Aside from these three, there are four other significant supporting players. Denis O'Hare is Mr. Gilbertson, a smug immigration officer who distrusts the sincerity of Margaret and Andrew's connection. His is largely a comic role, though he is a central source of conflict as he tails Margaret with relentless Catch Me If You Can-style determination. There's also Gertrude (Malin Akerman), the childhood sweetheart who once turned down Andrew's proposal because, unlike him, she wanted to remain in Alaska, and Kevin, the adorable puppy who apparently has an innate dislike for Margaret. His slapsticky contributions to the movie are funny but seem to be there mainly for the sake of any kids who might be watching.

Finally, there's Ramon, a family friend and jack of all trades. Libbie and I are both fans of The Office, so we were excited to see Oscar Nunez, who portrays soft-spoken, level-headed accountant Oscar, in this film and amused by the many roles the zany character plays in the community. I do think, however, that a comedic bit involving him as a stripper is gratuitously raunchy and goes on much longer than it needs to. Though the movie is clearly geared towards adults and doesn't even have any characters in it who are children, this is one of the only scenes necessitating a PG-13 rating. Another involves Margaret and Andrew accidentally colliding while unclothed, but the circumstances are innocent and the shot is tastefully done. Scattered throughout the movie are a few suggestive comments, but there's surprisingly little profanity.

The Proposal is a tale about the importance of family and respect, and it happens to be set in an absolutely glorious location. Reynolds and Bullock have great chemistry despite the slight age gap; she's 12 years older, but that seems fitting, since she's so much higher up on the totem pole business-wise. He's lovable from the beginning, while it doesn't take long for her character to become sympathetic. Margaret has pushed Andrew around for three years, so it's fun to watch him yank her around a bit once their strange situation gives him the upper hand, but it's also touching to see him staunchly defend her when questions about her arise. Meanwhile, her big end-of-the-movie oration, while strikingly similar to her speech in While You Were Sleeping, shows how much she has matured in just one weekend.

If you like Bullock or Reynolds, you'll probably like it, and if you've also always wanted to visit Alaska, you'll probably love it. For a feel-good, mostly old-fashioned romantic comedy, I propose you check out The Proposal!