Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I watched movies again this year for Comfy, Cozy Cinema

For our last movie we watched The Storied Life of AJ Fikry (2022).

The movie is based on the book of the same name by Gabrielle Zevin.

The story follows AJ Fikry (Kunal Nayyar), the owner of a small bookstore who lost his wife years earlier. He now lives a lonely existence and drinks himself into a stupor at least once a week. He’s also quite grumpy to everyone around him.

A book seller named Amelia and played by Lucy Hale, stops to sell him books and he brushes her off, overcome with depression.

Later that night he drinks himself into a stupor while looking at a collectible Edgar Allan Poe pamphlet/book that he hopes to one day sell to keep himself afloat.

When he wakes up in the morning the book is gone so he runs to the police station where he meets Chief Lambaisse (David Arquette). He has a panic attack in the police station and is sent to the hospital where the doctor suggests he exercise more. He does start running again, which he used to do before.

After awhile it is determined that the book cannot be found and AJ is distraught but moves on with his life. One day he comes home from a run and finds a toddler in his shop with a note pinned to her shirt, asking for him to take care of her.

Later the child’s mother is found dead, so AJ adopts her and his life begins to change.

The movie will eventually come full circle in many ways and the mystery of where the little girl, Maya, came from weaves in and out of the plot.

The movie also starts Scott Foley and Christina Hendricks.

I didn’t find this movie comfy or cozy in some parts, but in others it was those things because it showed friendships being formed, romantic love blooming, and new love coming alive for a man who felt his life had ended and he had no future.

The acting was outstanding and there was a ton of deep thinking produced by almost every scene.

Disclaimer: there were a few difficult subjects in this movie and I am only sharing this just to give a heads up to anyone who is uncomfortable with subjects like infidelity, miscarriages, suicide and cancer deaths (none of these are focused on extensively or in great detail). This movie was much less cozy to me than other movies we’ve watched in the past and I share that just so my blog readers are not totally blindsided.

I found a few facts and trivia I enjoyed reading about the movie, but did not find as many as I did for other movies. Maybe because this was a quieter movie that wasn’t a huge “blockbuster”? I’m not sure.

• Kunal Nayyar also played Raj Koothrappali in The Big Bang Theory where he and Howard Wolowitz discuss the correct pronunciation of “Halley’s comet”, which is talked about in this movie. (Source IMdb)

• This was David Arquette and Scott Foley’s second time working with each other. They previously worked together on Scream 3 (2000).(Source IMdb)
• This story is called by some a modern retelling of the classic “Silas Marner” by George Eliot.

Erin expresses the message and feel of this movie in a much better way than I am able to so please check out her post here:.

This brings us to the end of our Comfy, Cozy Cinema. I hope you all had fun following us along!

You can find my impressions of the other movies here: https://lisahoweler.com/movie-reviews-impressions/