Change Your Image
rein-murray
Reviews
The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)
Pacing issues and bad accents galore
I love horror. I love suspense. I love romance. I love British tv and American tv. This was a failed mish-mash of all of the above.
I went into this knowing it wouldn't be like Hill House - I'd read a few actors would be returning in totally different roles, in a different setting, and thought I'd love it just because it was the same creator and he'd make me feel the way Hill House did. Scared and thrilled and intrigued and a little heartbroken. I was wrong.
Bly Manor starts off slow. It's slow in the middle. In the end, it rushes to wrap up all the context it forgot to put in before, and it's somehow, astoundingly, still slow. There was one episode that I felt that was done truly well, that made me feel an emotional connection to the character, and that was Hannah's episode. The rest of the episodes were as forgettable as the characters themselves. Except for Hannah's episode, and maybe the episode of Dani's past, which at least attempt to "show not tell," the show forces its characters to monologue their hopes and dreams and tragedies in incredibly boring detail. It's painful to watch and painful to listen to.
Speaking of painful to listen to, the American actors have an incredibly poor showing of British accents, especially the Lady of Bly. I was shocked at my favorite actor in Hill House being the weakest link in a parade of weak acting. The flashback historical scene was one of the poorest displays of acting, directing and writing in the whole show in my opinion. Boring exposition personified.
The plot itself is so loosely tied together it barely resembles a plot at all. The suspense is never built up, the narration is overwrought and the villain is as hollow and empty as the story. I saw that none of the same writers were on this as Hill House, and it shows.
My one positive is that the British actors killed it. The little girl was charming despite the script forcing some annoying catchphrases on her. The little boy hit a pretty good balance between sweet and creepy. Peter and Owen and Hannah all shone in their roles.
I won't say this show isn't worth a watch, but watch with your expectations firmly under wraps.
The Great Gatsby (2013)
Gatsby As You've Never Seen It Before-- A Must See!
A remake of a remake of a remake of a novel that pretty much every high school in America includes in its curriculum is not an easy legacy, but I think Baz Luhrmann does a fantastic job of tackling the material. His somewhat flashy, story-driven methods give the novel life in a way that's never been seen before. I'm not going to compare it to the other remakes, because that feels redundant and pointless, but insofar as the book goes, it was a great adaptation. The director stuck close to the author's intent and really got the audience invested in these characters. The cast gave a great performance, with Mulligan and Clarke going above and beyond. Maguire, as usual, is unintentionally comedic in some of his expressions, but as someone who is not a fan, I thought he did pretty well. The sets, costumes, music...everything was flashy and exuberant and perfectly matched the mood of the movie.
I know a lot of people are complaining about the soundtrack, but that was one of my favorite things about the film. Luhrmann didn't even try to stay period appropriate, because The Great Gatsby is a novel that transcends the time it was placed in. By using contemporary artists, he was able to effectively position the film in the audience's mind as something they could relate to. To borrow and roughly paraphrase a quote from the book/movie, the soundtrack invited them within, even as they were without. I'll admit, he made a few missteps where the music just flat-out took the viewer out of the movie entirely (a certain Jay-Z number comes to mind), but overall, it was a brilliant directing choice.
I'll also say that the movie ran a bit long, with certain parts feeling overdone and unnecessary. I watched it in 3D, which I would not recommend unless you really, really love 3D. The movie is visually stunning and does not need the added dimension; in fact, I'd go so far as to say it hurts the tone of the film. That said, it was a great film and I would definitely recommend it.