This has got to be by far one of the most touching, intelligent, sensitive and emotionally mature and rewarding films out there on first love. What is also truly impressive is that it deals with this topic while also touching on inter-racial love, racism, African colonialism, and Jean-Paul Sarte without ever once becoming condescending or maudlin. It is a film that not only respects the feelings of the two fully-inhabited main character but by doing so, makes the viewer all the more involved in their world and feelings for each other. The director and the script both assume that the viewer is intelligent and the viewer is accordingly rewarded.
Noah Taylor and Thandie Newton are truly exceptional and highly intelligent actors and watching both their bodies of work like "Shine", "Max", "Beseiged" and "Crash has truly been a pleasure. I do hope the best is yet to come from these fine actors and I'm sure their futures are bright.
Much has been made of Nicole Kidman in this film but really she's only a secondary character as well as the young Naomi Watts. I wish Hollywood would stop looking at this film as a Nicole Kidman vehicle when truly Taylor and Newton deserve the attention for this early work.
This movie is also beautifully shot, especially the scenes when Danny rows his boat over the river by moonlight or watching the two of them skim rocks over the water surface or Danny at the end, reading Thandie's letter on the windy rocks and the sky suddenly clearing up on him. At the very end Danny come to the very mature realization on the transcendent nature of true love, something which I don't think he understood in "The Year My Voice Broke".
I actually went out and got this film on DVD and never tire of watching it from time to time, a sign of great film. It really reminds you of what it was once like when those first feelings of romantic love started to appear in your life, all the promise, the novelty and the authenticity as well as the insecurities. So it's not really just a "teen" movie, I think just about anyone who has had these experiences can appreciate this gem of a film.
Do yourself a favour and try finding a copy, you won't regret it.
Noah Taylor and Thandie Newton are truly exceptional and highly intelligent actors and watching both their bodies of work like "Shine", "Max", "Beseiged" and "Crash has truly been a pleasure. I do hope the best is yet to come from these fine actors and I'm sure their futures are bright.
Much has been made of Nicole Kidman in this film but really she's only a secondary character as well as the young Naomi Watts. I wish Hollywood would stop looking at this film as a Nicole Kidman vehicle when truly Taylor and Newton deserve the attention for this early work.
This movie is also beautifully shot, especially the scenes when Danny rows his boat over the river by moonlight or watching the two of them skim rocks over the water surface or Danny at the end, reading Thandie's letter on the windy rocks and the sky suddenly clearing up on him. At the very end Danny come to the very mature realization on the transcendent nature of true love, something which I don't think he understood in "The Year My Voice Broke".
I actually went out and got this film on DVD and never tire of watching it from time to time, a sign of great film. It really reminds you of what it was once like when those first feelings of romantic love started to appear in your life, all the promise, the novelty and the authenticity as well as the insecurities. So it's not really just a "teen" movie, I think just about anyone who has had these experiences can appreciate this gem of a film.
Do yourself a favour and try finding a copy, you won't regret it.