Trying to satisfy the most ends up, as is usually the case, not satisfying anyone. The blatant attempt to be cute turns out out to be rather nauseating. Not a single moment of truth, not a single moment of beauty. It is quite simply atrocious. It also felt endless and I'm not giving it a 1 because there are some spot on musical moments within the otherwise opportunistic score. I like(d) Richard Curtis but he is taking his formula of odd ball characters to a place where no human being (the thinking kind) ever ventures. A French farce with typically scatological British touches. And Philip Seymour Hoffman? What's with this guy? Very good actor but his dishevelment is starting to get on my nerves. Even as Truman Capote I felt he needed a shower. Emma Thompson has a grand cameo but, quite frankly, it belonged to a completely different film. None of it ringed true and if I sound angry it may be because I am. I left my house, I drove under the rain, had to park, paid outrageous fees for parking, tickets, a drink and then I had to sit through this mess of a thing. There is a moment on the last third when the characters, hit by a Titanic style emergency, have to transmit their boat's location and you wait with unbearable impatience for the inevitable crowd of boats coming to their rescue. Oh dear, Oh dear. Kenneth Brannagh comes to elevate, slightly, the boring proceedings with a fine tuned cartoonish villain. Lost at sea, that's how I felt and as you may very well imagine, I didn't like it one bit.
Reviews
3 Reviews
I've Loved You So Long
(2008)
Quietly Exploding
15 October 2008
Looking at Kristen Scott Thomas I thought of Julie Christie, Ingrid Bergman, Helen Mirren, Liv Ullman and a number of other actresses that managed to be transparent on the screen. Transparent in the best sense of the word, meaning we could actually see the invisible. Two sisters, a husband, two adopted Asian girls and a past, a recent past an overwhelming past painted black but with a white coat of compassion. Fame novelist turned film director Philip Claudel's debut is surprising to say the least.His assured hand and sensibility makes me want to see his next opus with a certain amount of trepidation. Scott Thomas's performance is among the very best I've seen all year.
The Substitute
(1993 TV Movie)
Somewhere Between Good And Evil
18 January 2008
Warning: Spoilers
This surprising film made for Paramount television includes some startling cinematic strokes and a phenomenal performance by Amanda Donohoe. She plays not just a good teacher but a great one. Capable to inspire her students injecting in their souls a sense of being. Discovering that her husband is cheating on her with one of her students, something inside her snaps. She kills her husband and his lover, burns the house down and disappears. We find her some time later in another school becoming a substitute teacher with a brand new identity. That's all I'm going to say, those are the first few minutes of the movie. Her new identity is not going to cover completely her self loathing. Amanda Donohoe never look so beautiful, so strong or so vulnerable. We are aware of her internal struggle between the goodness that she always nurtured and the evil that made a home inside her. The film has extraordinary moment of lyrical beauty. Some extraordinary faces and sequences filled with a strange, uncomfortable tension. Some other moments seem shot by someone else. Stiff and unconvincing. But what's good is really terrific and makes the film a worthy case for re-evaluation/ 8 out of 10
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