Change Your Image
katinka1969
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
North Country (2005)
Hollywood schmaltz blights an important message
Overall I found that this film was a bit too Hollywood for my liking, especially the about-turn in the father's regard for his daughter. Plus Charlize Theron, though a terrific actress, looked way too beautiful, luminous, clear-skinned etc. to convincingly play an overwrought mother of two who'd been regularly beaten by her ex-husband.
Having said this, I think the reviewers who slam it as being out of date, irrelevant etc. are missing an important point. Films about subjects such as this are in my view essential to remind us of just how far we've come in terms of equality in the workplace and in life generally. The 80s is still a relatively recent decade, which makes it even more horrifying that this type of abuse was at best ignored, at worst encouraged. Add to that the fact that all of the episodes in this film happened in real life, and there were apparently scores of others that could not be included, given the constraints of a two hour film. It is very easy to forget that many of the rights and privileges we enjoy today were hard-won, often by horribly oppressed people who had little more than sheer determination driving them to take on the seemingly untouchable powers-that-be.
Love Actually (2003)
The only film that's ever made me feel angry
As a fan of Richard Curtis's previous material, in particular Blackadder, Four Weddings, Bridget Jones etc. I was sorry to miss Love Actually at the cinema, and finally got around to watching it on DVD months later. However, the film was so appallingly bad it's taken me some time to find the words to review it. I admit that I was immediately biased against it after the opening scene with the incredibly tasteless remark about September 11, however I was prepared to overlook this as an unfortunate lack of judgement and have faith that the rest of the film would make up for it. Sadly things just got steadily worse.
So many story lines, so little substance, and so much complete tripe: the honourable British PM falling in love with his Eliza Doolittle clone of a tea lady, while standing up to the oafish American president (a dig at Blair and Bush that didn't work at all); Martine McCutcheon, in the role of said tea lady drove me to distraction (OK we get it tough girls from South London say "f*ck" a lot it really ain't that funny); the storyline with Liam Neeson and that scarily annoying kid was teeth-grindingly horrid; the porn stars smiling away and having a wonderful time at work was just plain offensive; and by the time the dorky guy brought back the stereotypically hot chicks from the US, I just wanted to yell at the screen in frustration. And in response to those who defend the film on the basis of "it's fantasy, it's not meant to be realistic, you're missing the point etc." - I beg to say it is you who is missing the point - some of the most brilliant films in the history of cinema have been unrealistic, however the problem with the contrived crap in Love Actually was the fact that it was unfunny and most of the plot lines totally pointless.
Frustratingly, the few stories that had potential here were cut short: Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman's characters' marriage problems could have been expanded upon, giving the viewer more of a chance to identify and sympathise with them; it may have been interesting to have some explanation of Laura Linney's character's relationship with her mentally ill brother and the rest of her family; some background on Colin Firth's character and the Portuguese girl may have helped to explain how they came to be so attracted to each other - as it was their relationship didn't seem believable in the least. The only mild saving grace was Bill Nighy's ageing rocker doing his Christmas No. 1 however it was nowhere near enough to redeem the film from the rest of the drivel.
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
A crowd-pleaser
As a devotee of both the book and the BBC adaptation of P&P, I approached this film with a certain amount of trepidation but also kept an open mind, given the good reviews of it. Alas, I found it to be a real disappointment - while the story obviously needed to be condensed in order to fit it into two hours, I felt that it was so rushed that there was very little plot development, and we were allowed virtually no time to identify and sympathise with any of the characters. What really ruined the film for me however were firstly the lack of any subtlety in the story whatsoever; secondly, the modernisation of parts of the dialogue; thirdly, the whole film had something of a "Mills & Boon" feel to it, not Austen at all. I imagine that these aspects were intended to make the film appeal to a broader audience, and it has undoubtedly done the trick. The casting certainly could have been better as well, most were adequate at best but what on earth were they thinking in the cases of Darcy, Bingley and Wickham?! Appalling on all three counts! Fair dues however must be given to Tom Hollander who was brilliant as Mr Collins, and Keira Knightley who in spite of being too thin and conventionally beautiful for the role of Lizzy, did actually do a very good job and made the character her own. Not nearly enough to redeem the film in my eyes though.