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Reviews
Dan in Real Life (2007)
Blissfully charming, funny & real
There's nothing I don't love about this movie, in fact it's fast become one of my favourites and one that I like to watch regularly. Put simply, it makes me happy.
The feel of the whole movie is utterly charming. It's simple, it's real, with so many subtle nuances that you notice more things every time you watch it. It's funny, touching, uplifting, awkward, excruciating at times - everything real life is.
It's also inspirational in a lot of ways, it paints a picture of a family weekend that's so warm and welcoming and comforting, who wouldn't want that? The characters are all very well cast in my opinion, I ADORE Steve Carell as Dan, he nails it! And Juliette Binoche is gorgeous as Marie. The acting is wonderful throughout, it's easy to immerse yourself in the story, the setting, their lives and just let yourself enjoy your weekend with Dan and his family as he navigates the torture of his situation.
The Great Gatsby (2013)
A feast for the senses!!
This film blew me away - it's truly spectacular! I haven't seen the Redford version and stumbled on this with few expectations but it was wholly enjoyable, indulgent even, and a feast for the eyes and ears from start to finish.
The style in which the film unfolds, from a narrative point of view, is spot on.
The sets and costumes are utterly breathtaking, they whisk you away to the time and place so completely it's almost dizzying! I'm not a huge fan of Leonardo Di Caprio usually but he was amazing as Gatsby, utterly authentic and convincing as are the rest of the cast.
The story was very well told and the juxtaposition of the modern music against the backdrop of the 1920's was surprisingly successful and effective.
Highly recommended!
Wanderlust (2012)
Confused at the negative reviews.....
I have watched this film twice now and off the back of the second viewing thought I would see what others thought of it. I was surprised and increasingly confused as I read one negative review after another. My confusion grew to frustration as I read comments like "the only nudity is old, unattractive people" and "the characters aren't believable". I feel these people have completely missed the point! First of all, if you want to see attractive people naked then may I politely suggest that romantic comedy is the wrong genre for you, I believe you'd get what you want in the 'adult' category - it's certainly bizarre and irrelevant to give this film a negative review because you don't get to see Jennifer Aniston in the buff!
Secondly,regarding the characters and all the oh-so-serious reviewers commenting on the silliness and irreverence of the plot and the character development, this is the sort of film that doesn't need to develop the characters or have a deep plot, it wouldn't work as well if it did actually. It's a light-hearted, fun movie. And it works. In my opinion it actually works beautifully, the whole film has a great vibe to it and certainly had me thinking that I might enjoy a brief dalliance on a commune! It's witty, amusing, warm and titillating at times, not for what it does show but for what it suggests about the lifestyle the couple find themselves in.
Take this film at face value and suspend your disbelief, take off your critic hat and just enjoy!
A Thousand Words (2012)
Unexpected ***Contains spoilers****
I stumbled across this movie on TV quite by accident, but I'm glad I did. I'm not particularly an Eddie Murphy fan (though I did enjoy him in classics like Trading Places) but for me, the message of this film transcended the characters and occasionally flimsy plot.
The premise of the movie is that Murphy, a literary agent, is wasting his words using them to deceive and lead an ultimately selfish life. It later transpires that he clearly has a lot of internal, unresolved anger towards his father who we learn left him and his mother when he was a small boy.
Whilst trying to sign his latest book by a spiritual guru he ends up being cursed by a 'magical tree' who's leaves represent Murphy's words and we discover that they are intrinsically linked. From this point on, for every word that Murphy speaks a leaf falls from the tree and when all have fallen then supposedly he will die. This is the part that I had the most trouble with initially although, as the movie went on, I found that I quite enjoyed the spiritual representation of the tree and nature. There are some particularly beautiful scenes nearer the end of the movie where Murphy is sitting by the tree that are quite visually arresting. Nevertheless it's a somewhat far-fetched premise to get your head around but, since the first part of the movie focuses far more on a comedy element, you tend to just go with it.
We learn that Murphy's mother suffers from dementia and repeatedly mistakes him for her husband (his father) who deserted them. We also learn that his marriage is in some difficulty and that he isn't perhaps the most attentive of fathers. All this builds the picture of a man who clearly has a spiritual lesson to learn, one that suddenly becomes of crucial urgency when he cannot communicate with words.
I found this movie so unexpected, I was expecting a typical Eddie Murphy comedy and what I actually got was a poignant and moving bit of film that really resonated with me. Particularly right at the end when he only has 3 leaves left. You think you know what those 3 words will be for a while - you assume of course that "I love you" is the most important thing you can say and you imagine that the culmination will be him using those words to fix his marriage. In the moments leading up to his last words when I realised the relationship he needed to fix the most was the one with his, now dead, father, I had a bit of a personal epiphany tied up in that message of letting go of anger and the words "I forgive you" transpire to be the most important.
I appreciate that this movie won't appeal to everyone but it is one that I will re-watch in the hope that it will keep me mindful of the importance of using the right words at the right time and before it's too late.