Princess-Alice Reviews

Music from Another Room (1998)

Sweet Movie... horrid sound track

[7/10 · 30 December 2001]

I watched "Music from another Room" on cable last night, having never heard of it before, and thus having no expectations. I was met with an almost tragic example of what could have been a really good, (if somewhat cliched), film, marred by being packaged for a teen audience.

The story is about a young man who meets a woman in who's birth he had assisted some 20 years earlier. This woman is the normal center of her bizarre family. The interplay between the family members, and other supporting cast, is quirky and original, and there is some dialogue dealing with love and death that is truly moving. The cast and writers do an impressive job of bringing out the personalities of a number of characters with minimal screen time, and manage to be both funny and touching. This should have been a sweet, worth while romantic comedy.

However, the whole experience was tainted for me by the rediculously prominent use of the oh-so-annoying song "Truly Madly Deeply". No, it wasn't just played quietly in the background, it completely underscored all of the romantic scenes between the two leads, and was played during the credits, it was very upsetting! Granted, the whole boy-band phenomenon was just beginning to come to the forefront of American music in 1998, but that doesn't make it any less bad. I found myself feeling really sorry for the cast and film makers, because the choice to use this song totally undermined all their good work, turning a potentially good film into a teen-flick, (that probably went over the heads of most of the young people to whom they were trying to sell it).

With marketing choices like that, it's no wonder this movie bombed... too bad!

Reds (1981)

Every movie lover should see this film!

[10/10 · 26 June 2001]

Warren Beatty's Reds follows only Gone With The Wind in my list of favourite films. This movie is both a love story, and a documentary. It educates the viewer not just on John Reed and his comrades, but on WWI era society in general.

This brilliant script, (which, like the writings of Jack Reed expresses his political feelings with the same poetic eloquence as his love poems to his wife Louise), is interspersed with commentary from Jack's contemporaries, who tell the history from their own unique perspectives. As the truth of what was going on in that community is such an illusive thing, the only way to tell this story accurately was to show the often completely opposite view points of what was going on as told by the people for whom this history is a first hand memory.

The acting in Reds is breath taking. Every member of this, extremely large, cast committed fully to their characters. One feels a true connection to even those characters who lurked in the background with only occasional lines. The most notable performances were by Beatty himself, (who's embodiment of Jack Reed was incredible), Diane Keaton, (who portrayed all the facets of Louise's personality with stunning realism), Jack Nickelson, (who delivers O'Neil's quick witted dialogue with an almost frightening cynicism), and Maureen Stapelton, (who conveyed an amazing strength as Emma Goldman). While these actors were the most prominently featured, all the actors delivered noteworthy performances as far as I'm concerned.

The political history covered in this movie is nothing if not vast. This is proof of Beatty's most impressive knowledge of history. This is a film I would recommend be shown in schools, as one the most in depth study of American communism on screen to date.

Reds is truly an inspiration, and should be seen by every actor, director, writer, liberal, film maker, history buff & movie lover! You will not be disappointed!