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nlloyd50
Reviews
Dolittle (2020)
Fun and entertaining
I'm a little surprised to see that, as of now (a week after it was released), the rating is only 5.6. I would like to think that over time it'll drift up over 6 where it belongs. Maybe it's just some early expectations not met?
I saw this in the theater with my 11 and 14 year olds and we were all delighted. That's the word for it - delight. I didn't notice Downey's accent issues other are reporting. I was more taken in by his charisma and ability to keep the film entertaining and fun.
The supplemental characters are also well struck, the visuals are good and the editing all works nicely. I just watched, or tried to watch, another film that I was expecting all this from - "The Sorceror's Apprentice" - where it should have worked (especially with low expectations) but didn't. In that film it starts out with terrible editing and really struck me as a TV show (and not a particularly one), and I (and my kids) couldn't get past the first 20 minutes or so. We actually just switched off to a TV show.
Perhaps unsung here are Banderas as well as the whole scene he is in which really delivers a lot of old-school sense of adventure (like Sinbad). In addition, I don't want to do spoilers, but I'll just say my kids really liked the creature that comes up later in the show and its whole scene!
This flick is certainly no Jumanji but a fabulous one to take the family to in the middle of winter and enjoy on the big screen.
The Accidental Tourist (1988)
Misunderstood
I don't often comment on here, but I felt this film deserved a few. I don't think it's quite as great as those saying it's "the best movie of the 80's," yet I find myself lingering on it well after watching. The characters are so well drawn. These are real people who are weak and normal in as much as they are also quirky and original. The story is one of real tragedy on an everyday level.
If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it.
***spoilers alert - this is all about the ending***
I believe that the film is not, as one reviewer pointed out, a commentary against commitment. I too felt that way after watching it. But then I slept on it, and when I woke up I had a revelation about what is really going on. This movie is actually all about how the marriage is worth saving. The marriage is the most important thing in the movie, despite there seeming to be so much time spent away from it, and it really is the real main character.
By following Macon so closely through the film, we are strapped to his viewpoint. What it means is that in the end we must then take a step back and figure things out for ourselves. The ending is actually bittersweet. His wife really does need him. He is, in fact, wrong.
When he drops off the suitcase, he *thinks* it's a symbol of leaving a certain life behind him - that he has finally changed. But really, he is only going back to the way he was - only now the woman in his life is not his wife. He gets in the cab which, in fact, turns around and goes back the way he came. And who is back there? Muriel.
I'm not going to go over this with a comb or spell it out. I'll just say that I was really impressed - It's a sad ending because the death of a child is the number one cause for divorce. This movie shows us how that can happen - how two people can let something get between them. It goes so far as to show how they were in a position for it to happen before that event even took place.
Hable con ella (2002)
A fine, disturbing work of art about selfish "love."
I had a hard time getting around this movie right after seeing it. Something was not quite right, something disturbing. But after sleeping on it I think I have it figured out.
I know people read these to find out if a movie is good or not. It is good. It's an effective piece of art which has an interesting and original inner voice. It's thought-provoking.
But it doesn't leave you with anything to hang your hat on. You are not going to come out relating to the characters or situations. Not right away, not until you've digested the whole and figured out what part of it is universal to you.
*spoilers galore*
The key to Marco & Benigno's relationship is that they both don't listen to women - the title of the film can throw you off this trail a bit. They don't listen - and they don't want to.
Marco didn't want to know that this woman wasn't really in love with him. After all, he swept in when she was on the rebound and he "knows desperate women" by his own admission - or does he not really know them, rather, always swoops in like this? That would explain a lot - he has a hard time with normal relationships. He likes a girl on the rebound, or desperate for some reason. He doesn't really want to cope with real love, he just want s his own thing. -
He is selfish. This is not the way one loves. Love is something that is not for you, it is for the one you love.
Does he then gain anything from his friend's problems & suicide? I don't know. But I think in the end that he doesn't. Maybe this is why it is a disturbing film. He is back to crying at this experimental dance. He has already gone back to traveling around on his own instead of leading a life with people. He is back to getting involved with a girl who has problems (girl coming out of a coma counts, I'd say).
Meanwhile, his friend Benigno is the ultimate in "doesn't listen." He idolized this girl from afar, then found the perfect relationship when she couldn't communicate at all. But she was (communicating) - she was saying *nothing* at all, and he was projecting for her. He knew that, in fact, but that didn't matter to him.
Finally, he rapes her under the pretense that she has actually been communicating with him, in the way he wants. Rape is, of course, the ultimate in selfish love. It is an act which defines how "selfish love" is really an oxymoron - it's not love at all. He feels his half of the relationship is enough to make a whole. This is the ultimate loner, I'd say. And we know he never learns, never grows, nothing. He ends up committing suicide. The ultimate in despair.
One might say that Benigno was "good" b/c he had cared for this girl all this time. But that is not what "good" is. He is not caring for her out of dedication to his profession. He is not caring for her out of love. He is doing it b/c he needs it for his own selfish purposes - that is how he feels love. I suppose b/c that is what he had with his mother.
So there is a reason, seemingly - his mother. That would be too easy, though, to just let him slide b/c of that. And to do so, one would have to project something not in the film - we never actually know what the relationship was with this mother.
So then, it's not black & white, but still definite, I think, all reasons aside, in that he is not "good." In fact, I think he has severe problems.
And Marco relates to him...
Perhaps it's hopeful in that ultimately it lays the blame on the characters themselves and doesn't say this is some bigger, unresolveable problem. But from what I saw, it's still pretty depressing.