10 items or Less

[Kesava Mallela]

This Indie movie has a budget thats comparable to a single song from Sivaji (yeah, inspite of the Rupee-Dollar conversion) and yet it creates a pleasant experience that feels like an afternoon spent with supercool Morgan Freeman. (That is of course NOT to say that Sivaji gobbles up the money with no definitively useful output. Creating new physics, be it new ways of shooting a gun, changing the color of skin etc etc, are audacious undertakings and they require massive funding as witnessed in the budgets of NASA or the Defense Dept.)

Morgan Freeman plays a Hollywood star who hadn't acted in a movie for four years. Freeman goes to a supermarket on the fringes of LA to research for a new role (store manager) he has been offered. He meets Paz Vega (the hot one from Spanglish) who works in the 10 items or less lane. The movie is about how Freeman and Vega spend the rest of the day together knowing that they wouldn't see each other again.

Mr.Freeman casts the profession of movie actor in a respectable light and Ms.Vega does it for non-English speaking immigrants. Above all these, the movie is just a pleasure to spend time with two interesting people whose relation remains platonic.

Recommended!

~ Kesava