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Reviews
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: The Seed of Cunning (2005)
A glaring weakness (WITH SPOILER)
This is indeed an excellent series, with compelling characters (except for the original Helen), superb acting and usually very good plots. This episode does, however, have a glaring weakness, one that I don't think can be attributed to Elizabeth George, because the credits imply that she was responsible only the characters. SPOILER: At the end, Tommy is defeated by the cynical, ruthless politicians who bribe and murder to further their goal of giving a contract to an American company. Tommy had the condemning evidence against them, but it was stolen, and he gives up. But the now-destroyed evidence (an audited budget that showed the cost to be much higher than claimed) could easily have been reproduced: all Tommy needed to do was contact the Opposition, tell them what he saw and urge them to have another audit conducted. The scandal would've been perfect for the Opposition. My guess as to why the writer didn't take that rather obvious option is that he was happy with a cynical ending, especially since the main villain was the stereotypically evil American businessman (all of whom would happily murder just to get a few more dollars).
The Sound of Music Live (2015)
not so fabulous
In his "absolutely fabulous" ten-star review, David Kravitz said that "never once" did he yearn for Julie Andrews or Christopher Plummer. I didn't yearn for them once either; I yearned for them (especially Andrews) from beginning to end. Not that this was a bad production— far from it—but it paled before the 1965 film. By coincidence, I had watched the DVD of the film just a few days before seeing the new BBC production, so I had a dramatic contrast of the two productions. Much of the superiority of the film was due to it being a film and being 30 minutes longer. One can't justifiably downgrade the stage play for lacking the magnificent Austrian scenery or the expensive 20th Century Fox sets (e.g., the beautiful ball room), or the wonderful photography, from the jaw-dropping opening sequence to the romantic "Something Good" number and the Vermeer-like quality in "Climb Every Mountain." And in fact this stage production was better than the one I saw years ago in L.A. starring Florence Henderson. But although one can't blame the BBC production for lacking what only a film can provide, those and other factors make the film a much better audience experience than the stage show—better writing, improved sequence of songs, more dramatic scenes and sufficient length to bring the audience into greater identification with the characters, e.g., the romance between Maria and the Captain made more sense in the film than in the stage play, where it sort of came out of the blue, and the "I Have Confidence" number (new for the film) provided much deeper appreciation of Maria's character. Likewise, with the omissions in the film, e.g., the relatively mediocre songs that were cut, the better timing for the first singing of "My Favorite Things" rather than the ludicrous song-and-dance duet with Maria and the Mother Abbess. What made the film so superior was the acting, and this despite the excessive cutesiness of Plummer and the film children. Julie Andrews brought real depth to Maria, whereas Kara Tointon's Maria was relatively workman-like and lacking much emotion (and lacking anything but a run-of-the-mill voice). Julian Ovenden certainly has a better voice than Plummer but lacked the stature of Plummer and came across as rather boring. Likewise, Eleanor Parker and Richard Hayden, because of both a better script and their own acting, made those characters much more than the perfunctory throw-ins in the BBC production. If the BBC production had been my introduction to "The Sound of Music," I'm sure I would have become a fan of the show. But the film was (and still is) transporting.
American Experience: Walt Disney - Part 1 (2015)
Dishonest on one issue
This biographical study of Disney certainly captured the man as a brilliant innovator and dedicated producer of wonderful things. But it was not honest in its treatment of the strikes that almost brought down his studio. It suggested that the strikes were merely the honest reactions to a company that callously underpaid its employees and wanted power over them and that Disney, along with other studio owners blamed their troubles on Communists ("imaginary antagonists"). The viewer is left with the belief that Communists didn't have the slightest influence in Hollywood, when in fact there is significant evidence from Soviet archives (released after the fall of the USSR) that many union leaders (including Herbert Sorrell, who led the strike against Disney) were Party members and that the strikes were financed by the Kremlin. Even if the show's producers didn't accept these claims, it was unconscionable not to even to mention the possibility.
Death in Paradise (2011)
How to Ruin a Series
The first two seasons were excellent, led by Ben Miller's DI Poole. With a clever London detective in conflict with the laid-back Caribbean, this series relied more on characterization than plot, and the result was wit and charm. It was original, with intriguing interplay among the characters and a most welcome alternative to the current spate of dark, British mysteries. Then, upon Miller's voluntary departure, the producers—for some unknown reason—replaced him with Kris Marshall as DI Goodman. Exit the wit and charm. Enter an uninteresting, clumsy doofus who, unfortunately, looks the part. Exit also my desire to continue watching this series.
The Castle (1997)
Underneath the humor, an important moral meaning
This film is designated by IMDb.com as a comedy, and it is very funny. It's also often described as a film about the importance of having a benevolent family, and it is that also. But what makes it so unusual and so emotionally powerful is its theme (from which the title is derived): A man's home is his castle. It's about the injustice of eminent domain, more prevalent in the USA than in Australia. The reasons that the Kerrigan family gives for fighting "compulsory acquisition" of their home mirrors what has happened for many decades in the US, most notably in the notorious 2005 Kelo case, which the Supreme Court decided 5-4 against the homeowners. Home (and business) owners who fight eminent domain are not interested in compensation; they love their homes and what those homes mean, and they don't want to move. "The Castle" dramatizes those values and dramatizes the fight in any nation of individuals against the premise that one's property belongs to the state and can be taken from them to serve the "public good." "The Castle" is a hilarious, cleverly written and well-acted film that does what so few films even try to do: it inspires.
The Count of Monte-Cristo (1975)
The most dramatic version ever
This 1975 TV version is superb and so much better than the insipid Robert Donat version from 1934 and the boring 1998 version starring an incredibly miscast Gerard Depardieu. Richard Chamberlain is the quintessential Edmund Dantes--heroic, romantic, obsessed; and Trevor Howard a very moving Abbe Faria. This is not an action-filled costume drama, but a properly larger-than-life version made by people who understood Romantic film. Ironically, what made it so good were the very things that characteristically cause Hollywood to ruin such stories: the changes made from the original novel (including some plot changes necessitated partly by condensing a 700-page novel into 2 hours). In this case, the writers added some wonderfully dramatic scenes and dialog not found in the book (Dumas often described rather than dramatized) and a conclusion that lacked Dumas' compromise with forgiveness and was actually more consistent with his theme of "the futility of revenge."
The Dales (2011)
Brilliant. Takes you right into the Dales
My wife and I visited the Yorkshire Dales for the first time in 1982, motivated to see the world that James Herriot wrote about. It quickly became our favorite place in the world—we've been back ten times, the most recent being to celebrate our 50th anniversary. Over the years, we've seen many travelogues and some documentaries about the Dales, but none came near to capturing its unique spirit. So, we were not expecting much from this series. Boy, were we wrong. This is a fascinating, informative, funny, entertaining, and even emotionally powerful series. For the most part, the people that narrator/interview Ade Edmondson introduces us to are benevolent, purposeful, hard-working and love where they live. Best of all, this 12-part series follows most of them over a whole summer (in 2011, I think); when Edmondson says in an early episode, "We'll see what happens to him later on in the series," the viewer can't wait to find out. We learned new things about places we'd been to many times (e.g., Bolton Castle) and discovered new places worth visiting. Above all, we got a deeper appreciation and greater insight into what makes the Dales unique. As to Edmondson himself, he was until recently mainly a comic actor, but he resists any temptation to be too funny, adding occasional and low-key quips at the appropriate time. And he clearly enjoys following the stories of the Dales people and, above all, very obviously loves the Dales. To see a series that makes us feel almost as though we're there again was a delightful surprise. We were tearful when it ended, and we hope that the second series of 12 (which apparently aired in the UK in 2012) is even half as good.
Midnight in Paris (2011)
over-rated fluff
I went to "Midnight in Paris" full of warnings that I'd like the scenes of Paris but the film wasn't much. The warnings were basically correct. Although inoffensive and even occasionally humorous (e.g., the Hemingway parody), the film was just too silly and unbelievable to be a paean to a great city. The moral of the story is hardly original or profound: don't live in the past, and the time-travel gimmick was cute but more cleverly done in Back to the Future. Worst of all, Allen confuses characterization with caricature, from the protagonist's uncaring fiancée and her right-wing father and money-consumed mother to the comic-book pseudo-intellectual ex-boyfriend. As to the Woody Allen main character: he was so naïve that no one could possibly believe he was an experienced and successful Hollywood writer—he seemed more like the editor of his high school newspaper. Why any women (let alone two perfectly normal Parisian women—the only appealing characters in the whole film) were attracted to him was a mystery, as was why he and his fiancée ever got beyond a first date, having so little in common. As I was walking home from the theater, I was trying to figure out why even the many scenes of Paris didn't particularly affect me emotionally. After all, it's a city I love, my favorite in the world and one I've visited many times. Then it dawned on me that the Paris I love could not be the same Paris loved by that doofus of a main character. The only remaining mystery is why the critics have lavished praise on this very mediocre film, one that they'd probably trash were it not a Woody Allen film. My only answer is that they are somehow relieved that the Woody Allen who has produced so many pretentiously "intellectual" films is reduced to turning out routine Hollywood fluff.
Golden Dawn (1930)
Bizarre movie but beautiful music
True, as a film, this is ludicrous, with "native African" Noah Beery speaking in a combination of U.S. Southern Black ("I'se gwine...")and cowboy dialects ("I'm a gonna pump ya plum full of lead")and some horrendous choreography. But there is some beautiful music from perhaps the greatest composer of Viennese operetta: Emmerich Kalman. This movie is based on Kalman's operetta "Golden Dawn," which premiered in New York in 1927. Especially noteworthy are two Kalman songs: "Just We Two" and a lovely ballad "You Are the One." To fully enjoy the music, one must,of course, ignore the fact that the lilting Viennese melodies and sometimes-Hungarian harmonies seem just a bit out of place in Africa.