Saturday, November 5, 2011

The Girl in the Cafe

  • He's a shy civil servant (Bill Nighy, Love Actually) working for the British delegation to the 2005 G8 Summit. She's an alluring young woman (Kelly McDonald, Finding Neverland) he meets at a cafe - and invites her to the Summit on a whim. Together, this unlikely couple might just change history.Running Time: 100 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR Age: 0263592822
"All readers of any age need instruction and support that helps them become more independent and self-reflective in their work." â€" Gail Boushey and Joan Moser
 
In The CAFE Book, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser present a practical, simple way to integrate assessment into daily reading and classroom discussion. The CAFE system, based on research into the habits of proficient readers, is an acronym for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanding vocabulary. The system includ! es goal-setting with students in individual conferences, posting of goals on a whole-class board, developing small-group instruction based on clusters of students with similar goals, and targeting whole-class instruction based on emerging student needs.
 
Gail and Joan developed the CAFE system to support teachers as they:
·         organize assessment data so it truly informs instruction;
·         track each child's strengths and goals, thereby maximizing time with him or her;
·         create flexible groups of students, all focused on a specific reading strategy; and
·         help students remember and retrieve the reading strategies they learned.
 
The CAFE system does not require expensive materials, complicated training, or complete changes to current classroom literacy approaches. Rather, it provides a structure for conferring with ! students, a language for talking about reading development, an! d a syst em for tracking growth and fostering student independence. The CAFE system’s built-in flexibility allows teachers to tailor the system to reflect the needs of their students and their state’s standards. And it’s a perfect complement to The Daily Five, “The Sisters” influential first book, which lays out a structure for keeping all students engaged in productive literacy work for every hour of every classroom day.
  • Includes nearly 250 recipes plus 150 sub-recipes, more than 100 photographs, and approximately 75 illustrations
  • Breaks the café down into its five key components -- the bakery, the pastry shop, the savory kitchen, beverages, and the retail shelf -- with expert advice and contemporary recipes for each area
  • Author Francisco Migoya is an assistant professor at The Culinary Institute of America, where he teaches the Café Operations class for the Baking and Pastry Arts program

Wi! th information on all aspects of the café business-finances, human resources, food production, recipe/menu development, and even décor-The Modern Café offers both inspiration and instruction for anyone who wants to operate a successful café.

"The Modern Café is an impressive volume in both breadth and dept h that elevates standard café fare to something worthy of the term cuisine. Francisco Migoya generously shares his years of experience and research, offering a fresh, contemporary approach to casual dining. His technical skill and eye for detail are inspiring, resulting in respectful yet inventive interpretations of the classics. Migoya has given all of us professional cooks, pastry and savory alike, another invaluable resource. " â€"Michael Laiskonis, Executive Pastry Chef, Le Bernardin

 "What a high level of professionalism in a book full of originality and creativity! Francisco Migoya has created a new work with technolog! y, sensitivity, and passionâ€"an invaluable contribution to th! e world of gastronomy. Enjoy it!" â€"Oriol Balaguer, Pastry Chef and Owner, Oriol Balaguer Boutiques

"Francisco Migoya's The Modern Cafe is a beautiful book that will be used as a practical guide and inspiration for professionals and home cooks alike. " â€"Grant Achatz, Chef and Owner, Alinea

 "This book is just amazingâ€"there is so much information, detail, and inspiration. You can really see Francisco's passion for pastry. This is an outstanding follow up to his first book, Frozen Desserts." â€"Patrick Coston, Pastry Chef and Chocolatier

A professional guide to every aspect of the launch and management of a modern, upscale café.

The Modern Café is the first comprehensive, must-have reference for the aspiring restaurateur or café owner who wants to make sure he gets every detail right.

This exquisitely illustrated volume is packed with professional guidance and master recipes for breakfast pastries, arti! sanal sandwiches, truffles and treats, and much more. Additionally, an entire chapter is devoted to the retail shelf, a key contributor to any café's financial health.

Recipe Excerpts from The Modern Cafe


Pan-Fried Baby Artichokes with Lemon Aïoli

Financiers

Elderflower Ganache Pops

Do you love teaching but feel exhausted from the energ! y you expend cajoling, disciplining, and directing students on! a daily basis? If so, you'll want to meet Â"The Sisters”, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. Based on literacy learning and motivation research, they created a structure called The Daily Five which has been practiced and refined in their own classrooms for ten years, and shared with thousands of teachers throughout the United States. The Daily Five is a series of literacy tasks (reading to self, reading with someone, writing, word work, and listening to reading) which students complete daily while the teacher meets with small groups or confers with individuals.

This book not only explains the philosophy behind the structure, but shows you how to carefully and systematically train your students to participate in each of the five components.

Explicit modeling practice, reflecting and refining take place during the launching phase, preparing the foundation for a year of meaningful content instruction tailored to meet the needs of each child.

The Daily Five is more than! a management system or a curriculum framework; it is a structure that will help students develop the habits that lead to a lifetime of independent literacy.

In Philly's upscale West Side, Philly Grounds is the place to be and meet. Barista Claire, played by JLH, serves up wisdom along woith the coffee and scones. The clientele comes to her with advise on love, life and careers. The place has a dark side also as witnessed when tragedy strikes. Stars Jennifer Love Hewit- Jaime Kennedy- Alexa Vega- and Madeline CarrollEttie Brookbank is the heart and soul of Cook's Basin, a sleepy offshore community comprising a cluster of dazzling blue bays. But for all the idyllic surroundings, Ettie can't help wondering where her dreams have disappeared to. Until fate offers her a lifeline - in the shape of a lopsided little café on the water's edge. When Bertie, its cantankerous septuagenarian owner, offers her 'the Briny' for a knockdown price, it's an opportunity too good to m! iss. But it's a mammoth task - and she'll need a partner. Ente! r Kate J ackson, the enigmatic new resident of the haunted house on Oyster Bay. Kate is also clearly at a crossroads - running from a life in the city that has left her lonely and lost. Could a ramshackle cafe and its endearingly eccentric customers deliver the new start both women so desperately crave? The Briny Cafe by Susan Duncan Sample Chapter(function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();Ettie Brookbank is the heart and soul of Cook's Basin, a sleepy offshore community comprising a cluster of dazzling blue bays. But for all the idyllic surroundings, Ettie can't help wondering where her dreams have disappeared to. Until fate offers her a lifeline - in the shape of a lopsided little café on the water's edge. When Bertie, its cantankerous septuagenar! ian owner, offers her 'the Briny' for a knockdown price, it's an opportunity too good to miss. But it's a mammoth task - and she'll need a partner. Enter Kate Jackson, the enigmatic new resident of the haunted house on Oyster Bay. Kate is also clearly at a crossroads - running from a life in the city that has left her lonely and lost. Could a ramshackle cafe and its endearingly eccentric customers deliver the new start both women so desperately crave? The Briny Cafe by Susan Duncan Sample Chapter(function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();

Restaurants, bars, and cafés are some of the most competitive businesses in the world. Getting the marketing and branding right is essential for surviv! al. This book provides a catalog of creative ideas for getting! restaur ant graphics right. It offers designers hundreds of inspiring and innovative graphic options for identity, signage, installations, promotions, swag, menus, and more. As with the other books in the 1000 series this book offers designers the ultimate resource to jump-start their creativity for their restaurant industry clients.

The design of coffee shops is increasingly on the move. Where cafs have traditionally been viewed as places principally to enjoy a coffee, they have evolved to show a broad range of multifunctional purposes and amenities: They can, for instance, exist as cozy lunch-time meeting spots before abruptly transforming into vibrant late-night bars after sundown. Caf! Best of Coffee Shop Design shows the wide scope of different caf concepts, including coffee bars as integral parts of cutting-edge multipurpose buildings, flagship stores and traditional shops with a contemporary twist. The 40 projects featured comprise an extensive variety of designs and! styles, ranging from minimalist, strict and reduced, to opulent and extravagant.The French cafe epitomises the French art of living. Through its timeless glass doors float the aromas of strong coffee and black-tobacco, hot milk and fresh croissants. The cafe, open early until late, is both focus and microcosm of society. Friends talk; lovers linger; the white saucers pile up as the world goes by; a lone customer comes in to read the newspapers or for a petit verre at the bar. The French cafe is a refuge, a place to meet, to sit inside or out, somewhere to see and be seen. For anyone interested in French life and culture, here is a an intimate look at a great institution, from the grand establishments dating from the all rural bistro from the workers' local cafes to the legendary Parisian cafes where the poets, painters and philosophers gathered. From Directoire decoration to Starck style, this book reveals the rich variety and extraordinary inventiveness of cafe design. Ma! rie-France Boyer is a freelance journalist, and represents in ! Paris th e magazine "The World of Interiors". Her last book wass "Cabin Fever: Sheds and Shelters, Huts and Hideaways" (1993), also published by Thames and Hudson. Eric Morin is a Paris-based photographer who contributes to many magazines on interior design including "The World of Interiors".A Hollywood actress known for her beauty flees to a secluded mountain cabin in North Carolina after being severely scarred in a car accident. There she finds unexpected love and a new life with a man who lost his family in 9-11.He's a shy civil servant (Bill Nighy, Love Actually) working for the British delegation to the 2005 G8 Summit. She's an alluring young woman (Kelly McDonald, Finding Neverland) he meets at a cafe - and invites her to the Summit on a whim. Together, this unlikely couple might just change history.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurette

As a pop star on the comeback trail, Bill Nighy handily stole Love Actual! ly away from his more famous co-stars. In BBC/HBO co-production The Girl in the Café, he takes the lead--and runs with it. Written by Richard Curtis (Notting Hill), the offbeat political-romance concerns Lawrence, a 57-year-old Londoner with a successful governmental career and nonexistent social life. One day he stops in a café and meets the mysterious, considerably younger Gina (Kelly Macdonald, Trainspotting). To their mutual amazement, they hit it off and agree to meet again (and yet again). Then he invites her to accompany him to the G8 Summit in Reykjavík, where she upends his carefully ordered world in ways both wonderful and terrible. Suddenly this "man who has nothing in his life but his work" must find a way to make room for something "tender and true." With Corin Redgrave as the Prime Minister. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Carter's Garden Party 3 Piece Canvas Wall Art , Lilac, 12 X 12"

  • Each frame measures 12" x 12" x 1.5"
  • Adult installation is easy with the included saw tooth hanger
  • Canvas stretched over a wooden frame is lightweight and easy to mount on the wall
  • Wall art is the perfect finishing touch for your nursery decor
GARDEN PARTY - DVD MovieIntermingling lives in modern Los Angeles: a musician-drifter (Erik Smith) without a place to crash, a runaway teen (Willa Holland) making bank by posing for Internet cheesecake, a gay Nebraskan (Alexander Cendese) trying to make friends, a real-estate agent (Vinessa Shaw) with a pot-pushing habit... these and others are the satellites circling the general sense of decadence in Jason Freeland's low-key comedy-drama. The film carries a vague echo of Alan Rudolph's Welcome to L.A. in its jaundiced view of the city of angels, but on a much less sophisticated level; the storytelling could use a blood tr! ansfusion, and the young characters are stamped from a cookie-cutter. Individual actors try their best, and the always-underused Shaw gets some nice moments going with Richard Gunn, a client with kink. The standout, in a much smaller role, is Ross Patterson, doing an obnoxious talent scout routine (your movie's in trouble, however, when an irritating supporting player is much more fun than the main characters). The final misstep is the title, borrowed from the great Ricky Nelson song about phonies on the loose--a bit of overstatement the film didn't need. --Robert HortonThis is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing ! commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We ! apprecia te your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.Virginia Woolf once described Katherine Mansfield as "of the cat kind, alien, composed, always solitary & observant." All of these qualities are on display in Mansfield's writing, as well; hers are lonely tales of missed connections, inchoate longings, and complicated emotions within the context of a rigidly defined social setting. Born in New Zealand, Mansfield set many of her stories there, even though she emigrated to England in 1908 at age 19, never to return. Her characters are almost invariably middle-class, the daughters, sweethearts, wives, and widows of office clerks, military men, businessmen. In "At the Bay," for example, Mansfield focuses on the Burnell family as they take their summer vacation at the beach. Not content to follow just one character through the story, she drifts in and out of the consciousness of half a dozen, from the family c! at to Stanley and Linda Burnell, their children, Linda's sister, Beryl and their in-laws, the Trouts. Dipping into Linda's thoughts, for example, we learn that she loves her husband--"not the Stanley whom everyone saw, not the everyday one; but a timid, sensitive, innocent Stanley who knelt down every night to say his prayers and who longed to be good." Unfortunately for Linda, "she saw her Stanley so seldom." Mansfield then swoops into the mind of Stanley's brother-in-law, Jonathan Trout, who is discontented with his life but knows he hasn't the will to change it, and then on to Beryl, whose longing for "someone who will find the Beryl they none of them know" leads her into a rash action.

In the title story, Mansfield concentrates on young Laura Sheridan on the afternoon of her family's garden party. The story follows the family through the preparations--flags to identify the different sandwiches, the delivery of cream puffs, the setting up of a ! marquee on the lawn. This perfect idyll is broken, however, b! y news o f a fatal accident down the lane. A young workman has been killed, leaving a wife and five children. Into Laura's perfect Eden, death comes whispering and her reaction to it is both subtle and surprising. In fact, many of Mansfield's stories feature young women on the brink of adulthood--facing, for the first time, the realities of their constricted lives. Love is a trap; childbearing is another; death can be "simply marvellous." Mansfield died in 1923 of tuberculosis, leaving behind a body of work that is as bold, unconventional, and modern as she was. The Garden Party and Other Stories is a fitting epitaph. --Alix Wilber

Carter's Garden Party- CANVAS WALL ART-3 PC.

Each piece of the Garden Party Canvas Wall Art measures 12" x 12". They are made of stretched canvas on a wood frame, and come ready to hang.


New Disney Interactive High School Musical 3 Senior Year Playstation 2 Play As Familiar Characters

  • Disney High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Playstation 2).
  • Dance to favorite High School Musical songs from all three films.
  • Play as familiar characters including Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan, Chad, and Taylor, or create and customize a unique Wildcat.
  • Engage in competitive multiplayer dance-offs for a fun dance party experience.
  • Product images may differ from actual product appearance. Microsoft CD's are non-returnable if opened.
This must-have junior novel with an 8-page full-color insert retells the story of the much-anticipated theatrical release of High School Musical 3, which finds high school seniors Troy and Gabriella facing the prospect of being separated from one another as they head off to different colleges. Joined by the rest of the Wildcats, they stage an elaborate spring musical reflecting their experiences, hop! es, and fears about the future. High School Musical 3 will be released in theaters in Fall 2008.High School Musical 3: Senior Year DANCE lets your experience the energy, the fun, and the music from all three High School Musical movies. ? Dance to the beat of "High School Musical" songs, explore movie locations, and play alongside familiar High School Musical characters.? Plus new songs from High School Musical 3: Senior Year will keep the Wildcat fun moving. Earn points by learning dance moves from High School Musical characters to unlock songs, clothing and characters; Interact with scenes by activating special effects.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Big Lebowski The Dude Black & White Photo Mens T-shirt S

  • Officially Licensed
  • Easy Care, Machine Wash.
  • Standard Mens Sizing
  • 100 % Cotton
  • Preshrunk
Big Lebowski The Dude Photo Menâ?TMs Tee

Angel: The Complete Series (Collector's Set)

  • Condition: New
  • Format: DVD
  • Box set; Color; DVD; NTSC
  • ANGEL SEASON 1 (6 DISCS)
  • ANGEL SEASON 2 (6 DISCS)
  • ANGEL SEASON 3 (6 DISCS)
  • ANGEL SEASON 4 (6 DISCS)
  • ANGEL SEASON 5 (6 DISCS)
Angel - Season One

He's hunky, he's brooding, he's a do-gooder, and he was Buffy's first boyfriend. Angel, the tortured vampire destined to walk the earth with a soul, got his own series after three seasons on Buffy the Vampire Slayerand did what any new star might do: he moved to L.A. (the City of Angels--get it?) and set up shop. Angel (co-created by Buffy mastermind Joss Whedon) finds the titular vampire (David Boreanaz) as a kind of supernatural private investigator, fighting evil one case at a time and, like his ex-girlfriend, keeping the world from getting destroyed by vengeful demons and such. This first season features guest a! ppearances by various Buffy characters, including werewolf boy Oz (Seth Green), rogue slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku), deliciously evil vamp Darla (Julie Benz), and Buffy herself (Sarah Michelle Gellar), all of whom helped get the show off and running in style.

Angel - Season Two

The second season of Angel, saw the cult vampire show finally stand on its own from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, assembling all the members of the show's core cast, transferring the action to a fashionably run-down L.A. hotel, and bringing in a few Buffy characters from Angel's history to further establish the moody vampire's own mythology. Moving their Angel Investigations to posher digs, Angel (David Boreanaz), Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), and Wesley (Alexis Denisof) were soon joined by street fighter (J. August Richards)â€"-and by street fighter, of course we mean demon street fighter. But just as this group was solidifying, up popped Angel's old love, Darla (the fantastic Julie Benz), ! freshly arrived in L.A. from a hell dimension… just in time ! to be tu rned into a vampire again by her old cohort, Drusilla (Juliet Landau), and lure Angel into abandoning his newly formed team.

Angel - Season Three

In the third season of Angel, the titular vampire with a soul was forced to stand alone thanks to the (temporary) death of his beloved Buffy and her show's move to a new network, with no crossover between the two allowed. He returns from seeking peace in a demon-haunted monastery to find the L.A. Angel Investigations team fighting supernatural crime in his absence. Fred is still haunted by the nightmare dimension from which they rescued her; Cordelia's visions get ever more painful and debilitating. The schemes of the evil law firm Wolfram and Hart become every more imaginative and dragon lady Lilah Morgan becomes even more of an enemy when lusting after Angel. Unbelievably, Darla, Angel's vampire sire and lover, turns up, pregnant with his child and is tortured by inexplicable motherly feelings as well as a raging th! irst for human blood.

Angel - Season Four

As the fourth season of Angel, starts, everything is still as we left it: Angel has been sunk to the bottom of the sea in an iron box by his inexplicable and vindictive son Connor and Cordelia has been summoned to higher realms to await orders. Gunn and Fred are left in the Hyperion Hotel, unsure about what has happened to their friends, and Lilah is working hard to seduce Wesley to the dark side. In the first few episodes, some of this is resolved but it's almost immediately replaced by far worse crises: prophesies of doom accumulate more rapidly even than usual in this wonderfully gloomy show and a horned rock-like beast rains fire on Los Angeles. This last year is Angel’s most tightly dramatic season yet--with a story arc of surprising intensity punctuated by the show's usual wit and sexiness.

Angel - Season Five

Lives were upended--and some co-opted--in the fifth and final season of Angel, as the de! nizens of Angel Investigations found themselves taking on one ! of their scariest endeavors ever: corporate life. After making a literal deal with the devil (or something distinctly devil-like), Angel (David Boreanaz) moved his team from their crumbling hotel to the high-rise digs of law-firm-from-hell Wolfram & Hart, his reasoning being they could better fight the forces of evil from the inside, and with more resources to boot. Clever maneuvering or easy rationalization? Not a few members of Angel's team accused him of selling out (as did a number of viewers), but as with most of the show's previous four seasons, Angel somehow took a dubious premise and mined it for gold. And with one core cast member gone (Charisma Carpenter, whose Cordelia was immersed in a deep coma), it seemed as if the show, from within and without, would suddenly fall apart--that is, until Angel's longtime nemesis Spike (James Marsters) showed up, fresh from his sacrificial roasting at the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Let the vampire games begin!

Kidoozie My First Beauty Bag

  • A little girl's first beauty bag
  • Soft, trendy, travel bag includes fun play accessories
  • Includes motorized hair dryer, hand held mirror, 3 curlers, hair brush and curling iron
  • Motorized hair dryer makes noise just like a real one
  • Cute storage case
Queen Latifah heads an "excellent ensemble" cast in this "warm, funny, empowering" (New York Post) comedy from the producers of Barbershop and the producer of Bringing Down the House! Co-starring Alicia Silverstone, Andie MacDowell, Alfre Woodard, Mena Suvari and Djimon Hounsou - and featuring Kevin Bacon in a hilarious performance - Beauty Shop "will slap a smile on your face and keep it there" (Premiere)! When Jorge (Bacon), the egotistical boss at a posh salon, pushes his star stylist, Gina(Latifah), a hair too far, Gina leaves and opens a beauty shop of her own. Inheriting an opinionated group of stylists, a co! lorful clientele and a sexy upstairs neighbor, Gina proves that you can't keep a good woman down - and you can't keep a shopful of outrageous women from speaking their minds!With Queen Latifah holding court over a cast of sassy females, Beauty Shop continues the Barbershop franchise in entertaining style. Reprising her role from Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Latifah plays Gina the big-booty stylist, now on her own (she's a widow) and moving from Chicago to Atlanta, where she gets sick of her flamboyantly bitchy boss (played by... Kevin Bacon?), inherits her two best clients (Andie MacDowell and Mena Suvari) and her popular formula for "hair crack" conditioner, and opens her own styling shop with a $30,000 loan and a rainbow coalition of hairdressers played by Golden Brooks, Sherri Shepherd, Alfre Woodard and Alicia Silverstone. While it lacks the frank, sharply observant racial humor of Barbershop, this easygoing comedy moves along at an agreea! ble pace, with a supporting cast of beauty-shop customers (and! a love interest, played by Djimon Hounsou) who play off Queen Latifah's effortless appeal with energy to spare. Sure it's conventional, and most of the characters are thinly developed, but Beauty Shop is a fun place to visit for 105 hassle-free minutes. --Jeff ShannonThe Beauty Shop is UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT and the new owner’s name is "BIG MAMA LUCILLE." ‘Big Mama’ is actually not so big because she’s a sassy, sexy and flirtatious midget with all the elements that a beauty shop owner could ever ask for. Her shop is loaded with gossip, craziness and cat-fights…not to mention the outrageous characters that work for her. The daily issues that arise in the shop range from adultery and bad hygiene to dirty talk and bachelorette parties. As usual, in this Beauty Shop there’s hysterical laughter, dynamic singing and surprises galore. This is not a gospel stage play, but rather a side-splitting, comedic production; an evening of non-stop laughter and just like t! he original, "BEAUTY SHOP" is total entertainment.World renowned writer Shelly Garrett presents her collection of classic hits. With Robert Terry as "Chris" and Retha Jones of B.E.T.'s "Comic View" as "Terri Fuller." Beauty shop is the highest Grossing stage play in American history, grossing over 150 Million at the box office.Help mom and dad around the house with these fun building toys! This sturdy canvas kids tool belt from International Playthings features two easy to use pockets on the front that holds a Pretend play hammer, pliers, adjustable wrench and screwdriver with two bits! Also included is an electronic beeper for the busy builder!

Enchanted (Widescreen Edition)

  • A fairy tale comes to life in this thoroughly original, new Disney Classic. Drawing inspiration from itsic heritage, Disney creates an inspired story unlike any you've experienced before. Filled with excitement, fun, and incredible music from the legendary Alan Menken, ENCHANTED is the ultimate fish-out-of-water adventure. For princess-to-be Giselle, life is a fairy tale -- until she's ba
Movie DVDLife is idyllic in the fairytale world where conflict is minimal and breaking into song solves every problem, but what happens when a princess from the fairy world gets magically transported into the real world? Enchanted begins in the animated fairytale world of Andalasia where Princess Giselle (Amy Adams) is destined to marry Prince Edward (James Marsden) and live happily ever after. Problem is, Edward's step-mother Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) doesn't want to give up the throne and will! do anything to get Giselle out of Edward's life. Queen Narissa's solution is to push Giselle into a well that magically lands Giselle smack in the middle of the real world--the center of Time Square in New York City, to be exact. This launches the live-action portion of the film where Giselle immediately realizes that things are frighteningly different in this new world and that she is ill-prepared for the callous ways of the people who inhabit it. Giselle finds herself alone on a stormy night in the wrong end of town, but a chance encounter with Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and his princess-loving daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey) leads to a warm, safe place to spend the night and the beginnings of a complicated, yet compelling relationship. As Giselle begins to question the fairy-tale truths she's always inherently believed, Robert's outlook on life and love also begins to change significantly. Parallels to the classic Disney fairytales, Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty abound in the form of a King! 's and Q ueen's ball, small animals and rodents who clean house when called, the threat of poisoned apples, characters impulsively breaking into song, and the power of the kiss of true love and the absurd juxtaposition of fairytale idealism and stark reality is hilariously funny. Features music by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz of Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame fame, Wicked's Broadway Elpheba Idina Menzel as Nancy, and even a brief appearance by former Princess voice talent Judy Kuhn (Pocahontas). Enchanted is one of the best, most entertaining Disney films of the year. (Ages 6 and older with parental guidance due to some scary images and mild innuendo) --Tami Horiuchi

Beyond Enchanted


Disney Princesses on DVD

Paperback

Soundtrack

Stills from Enchanted (click for larger image)

! < p>






Grace Is Gone

  • Though 2007 saw a flood of Iraq-related films, GRACE IS GONE takes a different approach from many of the others. Unlike REDACTED and LIONS FOR LAMBS, this directorial debut from screenwriter James C. Strouse (LONESOME JIM) doesn't focus on the conflict itself. Instead, the drama looks at how the death of a female soldier affects her family at home. John Cusack (1408) is Stanley Phillips, a hus
In one of his most acclaimed performances, John Cusack makes an astonishing transformation as Stanley Philips, a sad, disconnected man unable to tell his young daughters their mother, a soldier, has died in Iraq. Instead, he takes the girls on a road trip, where their innocent charm helps him rediscover a healing joy he thought he'd lost forever.Unlike previous Iraq War films, the poignant directorial debut from writer James C. Strouse (Lonesome Jim) uses the conflict as starting point rather th! an subject. Early in the proceedings, Stanley (John Cusack) finds out his wife has been killed in the line of duty. The bespectacled disciplinarian decides not to tell his daughters right away. In his younger days, Stanley tried to serve his country, but poor eyesight dashed that dream, and now he's a superstore manager. The sort of middle-American conservative rarely seen at the art house, Stanley believes in his president. That doesn't alleviate his pain. Putting on a brave face, he asks his oblivious girls for their greatest wish. Eight-year-old Dawn (Gracie Bednarczyk) exclaims, "Enchanted Gardens!" With that, they hop in their SUV and drive from Minnesota to the Florida theme park. Twelve-year-old Heidi (Shélan O'Keefe) knows something is wrong--her dad isn't the spontaneous type--but she doesn't know what it is. En route, they visit Stanley's brother, John (Alessandro Nivola), who offers some insight into their bottled-up father. By the end of the trip, Stanley figur! es out how to break the news, in the process becoming a real p! arent. A fter winning the Audience Award at Sundance, Clint Eastwood, Cusack's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil director, gave the soundtrack a jazz-oriented overhaul. In tone, it's almost too refined for the blue-collar world Strouse depicts, but never distracting. More importantly, Grace Is Gone features Cusack’s finest performance to date. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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