What is the use of speaking of a romantic drama when there is hardly any romance and the drama is not detectable in the script but in the character of the ever worst casted actor in a romantic role: i.e. Van Johnson. Enjoy the repeating entree of Elisabeth Taylor. She suffers from playing in a worn-out movie (Richard Brooks, eat your hat) and has to deal with an actor who is depressed all along with an up-tight hair-do. Hopefully this movie is the last of its kind. Scene after scene put in front of a camera without any expressions of feeling. You never will be dragged into it. Within a few years (after release) the french cinema (Truffaut, Malle etc) will lead the way to a new kind of filmmaking. And in that wake Brooks resurrected as director and writer with movies like Key Largo, Elmer Gantry etc. Luckely Scott Fitzgerald did not live long enough to see "his" film.
Reviews
7 Reviews
Junebug
(2005)
the family as a portrait in dark-brown color's
13 March 2009
Do we judge the "other". May we ? Can there be a objective impression of a family so drawn into closeness that is almost breathtaking? If we judge it is not the director's fault. He just rolls the camera and let us think we are watching a run of the mill family in NC. Do we recognize the drama? Is there a drama ? What will we call it? If we judge family life it is drawn from our own experience; or what we have seen from others friends etc. Let me end with saying that reality is often not what it seems to be. But by understanding we are able to come a bit closer to the vicissitudes of life.
Good day and good luck.
Good day and good luck.
Alpha Male
(I) (2006)
it is not always easy to grow up as a family member, especially if you are a kid.
25 October 2007
Warning: Spoilers
There is no guide book. you have to make up for yourself what is it all about. how do you guess the director's meaning with the place of the children in the plot. What are they going through, how is their behavior be interpreted ? So make it up take their place, live their lives; be their mentor if you like. It is difficult in the beginning; not the jumps in time, they are easy to understand. It is the behavior of all the members, especially the mother. Sometimes she looks like a lookalike of Merel Streep. But when you arrive in their heads; of the brother en sister you will be amazed what you will experience. Moving en very heartwarming indeed. Perhaps 8 out of ten is a bit low on the scale.
A Walk to Remember
(2002)
boy meets girl etc.
21 April 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Boy meets girl or better girl meets boy. Boy hesitates, then surrenders. Girl loves boy but refuses sex. Boy gets more attracted to her (obviously). Girl -suffering from Leukomenia- tells boy. Tears, Wedding, girl dies (not shown), life goes on. Additionally a movie for all new (and old) born Christians, and for all ages. Boring ? No. Middle of the road movie ? No Surprising script ? No. Inelligent dialog ? No. What is it then that moves me so on seeing it? That is the boy; Shane West. In him all life is reflecting. I recognize all his moods en become him and fall in love with the girl Mandy Moore. She is not my type in the beginning, but she is not his either. That is the twist in your feeling; that you fall in love with her by his facial expression. It's a miracle. A middle of the road movie (see above) turns into the real thing! (But Daryl Hannah as the mother? Kill Bill 3)
Smoke
(1995)
a true humanistic movie
22 January 2006
This is a movie about storytelling. Stories that go up in smoke, but not to say weightless. Re the story of sir Walter Raleigh to queen Bess about the weighing of smoke. Everyone tells a story in this film; some true, some false, but always leading towards a direction in life, some good some bad. Joan Didion once wrote:"We tell ourselves stories in order to stay alive". And that is just what happens to everybody in the film. Life is meaningless until we give it meaning by telling stories. Rashid tells a false one, one with a twist. Auggie tells one with his photographs. Paul put his in a novel and makes one up from a story from Auggie. In the end we see that it is a true story. see the movie with care and attention and you will be enchanted.
Claire Dolan
(1998)
a film about life's deficiency.
16 December 2005
It's a movie about the impossibility to be near to someone. It is also about the emptiness of (modern) life, the mechanical way sex has entered our world and the human deficiency. Claire is victim of a obviously broken family and a lonely mother (no one at the funeral except the daughter) and she (Claire) is likely to repeat this way of life. The last frame , alone, in a dark room softly singing for her fetus. (it's heartbreaking) Probably did she lend the money for her mother from a member of the soprano family. The sex with well to do "gentlemen" is depressing to see. It lingers in your mind. The taxi driver is a nice guy but has not the stamina to do the right thing en can't cope with what he suspects Claire is doing. Also a deficiency and he has to hire a call girl to understand. It is a pessimistic view the director made us aware of in his film. But what a masterly filmed movie. every still is right at the point en he shocks you, see the way the money collector disposes of the cat! And what a nice family man he is. It is all very depressing and very of our time and very very good indeed.
Happiness
(1998)
a comedy of errors
18 August 2005
This is not a movie which fits a category. I guess these can turn out the best there are. "Hapiness" is of course a "gasser" to speak a word of Dean Martin. Because none of the characters are in fact able to reach that state. (whatever that state of mind will be) But anyone of them is trying to cope with life and to fulfill the wish of your constitution: the pursuit of happiness. They are confronted over again with the vicissitudes of modern life en fail to overcome them. But by doing so and Bi giving us a glance in the mirror they maintain a strong will for the better of for the worse. a example of the last is the tragedy of the psychiatrist and his love for boys. Well is it love. In that sense he is a bit a sideliner and with him changes the movie in color en becomes harsh. You can sympathize with the teacher en laugh about Vlad, your heart may beat for Seymour; but can you feel also pity for the psychiatrist ?? The movie is so good that it succeeds in this effort. How is the English expression ? tongue in cheek humor ? Well it is full of it. Watch it several times it gets never boring.
Tell Your Friends