Happy go lucky
Starring: Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman
Directed by: Mike Leigh
Sally Hawkins plays Poppy, the lead character of Mike Leigh’s new film “Happy go lucky”. Poppy is naturally, irrepressibly and occasionally annoyingly happy – all the time. Her bike gets stolen, and she smiles, someone is rude to her and she laughs, comes up with a joke. Living in London’s East End it’s difficult to maintain this personality quirk, but she does. Her motivations for what is clearly a choice on how to behave in her world are unclear, but the effects are not. People respond to her in extremely different ways – if they know her its with affection at her comments and jokes, if they don’t, they usually avoid eye contact and interaction – an interesting but sad observation on our society and how the more connected to each other we have become the more insular we want to be.
It’s quite a change from a typical Mike Leigh film – the world Poppy is from is quite a rough, depressed area still, typical East London, typical Mike Leigh, but the main characters aren’t. Poppy considers herself a very lucky girl, even though by ‘societies standards’ – 30 years old, unmarried, not on ‘the property ladder’ – she may not be considered as such.
A lot of the film takes place in small confined areas, her flat, her flatmates car, or during her driving lessons, which consume a considerable amount of the film. The driving lessons are a particularly tense time and the enclosed area and tight shots heighten the tensions which are simmering over between Poppy and her potentially psychotic, stalking driving instructor. He finds Poppy, as most strangers seem to, annoying, childish, vacuous, and doesn’t hesitate to tell her so. The conflict between their personalities leads to an altercation between the two, and one sees Poppy’s not as vacuous as she initially appears.
Poppy’s constant happiness can be grating at first, but one warms to her during the course of the film. Not a ‘feel good’ film as such, more a study on how one person’s decision to live their life in a certain way can affect not only her life, but those around her.
Zoe – You can’t make everyone happy Poppy.
Poppy – Yeah, but there’s no harm in trying is there?
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
YOU DONT MESS WITH THE ZOHAN
YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN
Starring: Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Rob Schneider
Written by: Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel, Judd Apatow
Directed by: Dennis Dugan
“You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” is the latest from Adam Sandler and stars Adam as the title character ‘The Zohan’. ‘The Zohan’ is a Mossan agent, a one man fighting machine, with unbelievable skills and talents, an Israeli anti terrorist machine, who has single handedly captured the most feared Palestinian of all ‘The Phantom’, (John Turturro) only to find out he has been swapped for two Israelis captives, and needs to be recaptured. All the Zohan wants in life is to leave Israel, move to New York and cut hair – to make people ‘silky smooth’, but unsurprisingly is laughed at by the few people he confides this secret in.
The first 30mins or so of the film showcases The Zohan’s incredible skills and his final battle with nemesis ‘The Phantom’, where he fakes his own death and holes up in the cargo of a plane bound for New York.
In New York, he gets laughed out of every salon he enters, looking for a job, so in desperation, he starts working for a Palestinian hairdresser, with obvious hesitance on his side, although not hers as he tells her he’s half Australian, half Mount Everest, and learns his trade there whilst also servicing the elderly lady customers in ways they weren’t expecting. He brings new life to a salon going out of business and as a result of this is recognised by some Palestinians who want to capture him and bring glory to themselves and shame to the Phantom, as everyone believes the Phantom killed the Zohan.
The film is typical Adam Sandler, so you get what you expect. The first half or so was crude as anticipated, but surprisingly funny. The latter half of the film dissolved into Adam’s personal attempt to sort out world peace, and fell rather flat on its face.
Not a must see film, probably one for the Sandler fans – it does exactly what it says on the tin.
Starring: Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Rob Schneider
Written by: Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel, Judd Apatow
Directed by: Dennis Dugan
“You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” is the latest from Adam Sandler and stars Adam as the title character ‘The Zohan’. ‘The Zohan’ is a Mossan agent, a one man fighting machine, with unbelievable skills and talents, an Israeli anti terrorist machine, who has single handedly captured the most feared Palestinian of all ‘The Phantom’, (John Turturro) only to find out he has been swapped for two Israelis captives, and needs to be recaptured. All the Zohan wants in life is to leave Israel, move to New York and cut hair – to make people ‘silky smooth’, but unsurprisingly is laughed at by the few people he confides this secret in.
The first 30mins or so of the film showcases The Zohan’s incredible skills and his final battle with nemesis ‘The Phantom’, where he fakes his own death and holes up in the cargo of a plane bound for New York.
In New York, he gets laughed out of every salon he enters, looking for a job, so in desperation, he starts working for a Palestinian hairdresser, with obvious hesitance on his side, although not hers as he tells her he’s half Australian, half Mount Everest, and learns his trade there whilst also servicing the elderly lady customers in ways they weren’t expecting. He brings new life to a salon going out of business and as a result of this is recognised by some Palestinians who want to capture him and bring glory to themselves and shame to the Phantom, as everyone believes the Phantom killed the Zohan.
The film is typical Adam Sandler, so you get what you expect. The first half or so was crude as anticipated, but surprisingly funny. The latter half of the film dissolved into Adam’s personal attempt to sort out world peace, and fell rather flat on its face.
Not a must see film, probably one for the Sandler fans – it does exactly what it says on the tin.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Iron Man
IRON MAN
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges
Director: Jon Favereau
Written by: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway.
Another Marvel comic arriving on the big screen, Iron Man, brought bang up to date, tells the tale of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr), a genius weapons inventor/industrialist, who when showcasing the ultimate weapon – Jericho - to the US army in Afghanistan, gets taken hostage by the terrorist group The Ten Rings, and forced to build a Jericho for them.
Hooked up to a car battery as an emergency preventative from shrapnel entering his heart, an injury sustained during the kidnapping, Tony, with help from another hostage instead creates the Ark reactor, a new type of power generator, which replaces the battery and proves this previously untested theory possible. Following on from this he designs and builds Iron Man, a suit he uses to gain escape from the terrorists.
On returning to America, after three months in captivity, he renounces weapons building in a public press conference, much to the chagrin of his mentor Obediah (Jeff Bridges), Tony’s late father’s best friend and Tony’s business partner since the death of his father. Obediah brushes off this momentary lapse of sanity to the press and tries to talk ‘sense’ into Tony.
Having seen the devastation his inventions have created, Tony continues to develop a new and improved Iron Man in secret, and upon discovering that someone has double dealt Stark Industry weapons to the terrorists, goes on a jaunt to Afghanistan to put this to rights. Unfortunately, this is not in line with Obediah’s plans, who was the one who ordered the hit on Tony in the first place, is trying to force him out of his own company and brings his true motives to light.
Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), is Stark’s long suffering assistant, harbouring a secret crush on her lady killer boss. She does whatever Tony needs, including sometimes ‘taking out the trash’ a reference to one of the many ladies Tony has brought home for the night. Their relationship never gets more romantic then an almost-kiss, and paves the way for some interesting action if there is to be a sequel.
Iron Man doesn’t have as much action as was expected, although there is enough and very well executed CGI at that. However it focuses on showing the kind of character Tony was before being taken hostage, wealthy, spoilt, child prodigy, with little regard for others, and who he becomes after his traumatic experience, although as the last scene shows – he doesn’t change every facet of his personality! The movie has a very ‘go America – fighting the good fight’ feel to it, as can only be expected by this type of superhero movie, one supposes. Robert Downey Jr. is excellent as Tony and has good back up with Jeff Bridges playing the corrupt Obediah, and evidentally loving every minute of playing the two faced baddie. Gwyneth Paltrow moves away from her usually emotionally deep roles, to play Pepper and does a good job also – though the role is hardly a challenging one.
Iron Man does exactly what it says on the tin – it’s a entertaining couple of hours, and everyone gets what they expected, action, drama and a little (almost) romance.
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges
Director: Jon Favereau
Written by: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway.
Another Marvel comic arriving on the big screen, Iron Man, brought bang up to date, tells the tale of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr), a genius weapons inventor/industrialist, who when showcasing the ultimate weapon – Jericho - to the US army in Afghanistan, gets taken hostage by the terrorist group The Ten Rings, and forced to build a Jericho for them.
Hooked up to a car battery as an emergency preventative from shrapnel entering his heart, an injury sustained during the kidnapping, Tony, with help from another hostage instead creates the Ark reactor, a new type of power generator, which replaces the battery and proves this previously untested theory possible. Following on from this he designs and builds Iron Man, a suit he uses to gain escape from the terrorists.
On returning to America, after three months in captivity, he renounces weapons building in a public press conference, much to the chagrin of his mentor Obediah (Jeff Bridges), Tony’s late father’s best friend and Tony’s business partner since the death of his father. Obediah brushes off this momentary lapse of sanity to the press and tries to talk ‘sense’ into Tony.
Having seen the devastation his inventions have created, Tony continues to develop a new and improved Iron Man in secret, and upon discovering that someone has double dealt Stark Industry weapons to the terrorists, goes on a jaunt to Afghanistan to put this to rights. Unfortunately, this is not in line with Obediah’s plans, who was the one who ordered the hit on Tony in the first place, is trying to force him out of his own company and brings his true motives to light.
Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), is Stark’s long suffering assistant, harbouring a secret crush on her lady killer boss. She does whatever Tony needs, including sometimes ‘taking out the trash’ a reference to one of the many ladies Tony has brought home for the night. Their relationship never gets more romantic then an almost-kiss, and paves the way for some interesting action if there is to be a sequel.
Iron Man doesn’t have as much action as was expected, although there is enough and very well executed CGI at that. However it focuses on showing the kind of character Tony was before being taken hostage, wealthy, spoilt, child prodigy, with little regard for others, and who he becomes after his traumatic experience, although as the last scene shows – he doesn’t change every facet of his personality! The movie has a very ‘go America – fighting the good fight’ feel to it, as can only be expected by this type of superhero movie, one supposes. Robert Downey Jr. is excellent as Tony and has good back up with Jeff Bridges playing the corrupt Obediah, and evidentally loving every minute of playing the two faced baddie. Gwyneth Paltrow moves away from her usually emotionally deep roles, to play Pepper and does a good job also – though the role is hardly a challenging one.
Iron Man does exactly what it says on the tin – it’s a entertaining couple of hours, and everyone gets what they expected, action, drama and a little (almost) romance.
Smart People
SMART PEOPLE
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Thomas Hayden Church, Ellen Page, Sarah Jessica Parker
Directed By: Noam Murro
Written By: Mark Poirer
Smart People stars Dennis Quaid as Laurence Wetherhold, a tenured professor at Carnegie Mellon, a prestigious university in Pennsylvania. He has two children, the poetry writing, misunderstood James, (Ashton Holmes) and Vanessa, (Ellen Page) his 17 year old extremely intelligent and emotionally stunted daughter. Given her father’s behaviour, her high levels of intelligence, her father’s expectations of her, and the fact that her mother died an unspecified number of years ago, her emotional ineptitude is perhaps unsurprising.
Thomas Hayden Church plays Chuck, Laurence’s adopted brother, a point Laurence makes sure to stress every time the relationship is mentioned. Chuck comes into the family because Laurence had an accident and cannot drive due to a trauma related seizure and Vanessa is too busy getting the perfect score on her S.A.T.’s to ‘be his chauffeur for six months’.
Chuck is the antithesis of Laurence and promotes everything Laurence is against.He moves from job to job, and borrows money from Laurence every time he sees him. He gets Vanessa stoned and takes her drinking, in an attempt to humanize her, to show her that there’s more to life then being ‘smart’. Unfortunately Chuck’s attempts to be friends with his niece, lead her to believe he is interested in her romantically and she almost ruins the budding friendship by making a move on him.
This is a character driven story and details the realisation that Laurence has regarding his own character and shortcomings and how it has affected his family and his relationships with people, within the family, as well as his colleagues and students, who dislike him to a person. While he has no ‘epiphany’ as he tells girlfriend Janet, (Sarah Jessica Parker), he does attempt to make amends to his behaviour and tries to become a better person.
Janet is a former student of his, who was put off studying English as a result of his teaching methods, and switched to Biology instead, leading her to become head of the ER and the person who treats Laurence on his initial entry to hospital. She then proceeds to date him, despite the best efforts of Vanessa to destroy the relationship. Although Laurence is quite capable of destroying it by himself, and almost does when Janet realises he is not prepared to make any changes to himself, and is just taking her for granted.
Smart People is sharp and funny, well written and well cast. Ellen Page is in danger of becoming type-cast as the intellectual sarcastic teenager, but it is a role she plays to perfection. Thomas Hayden Church is excellent as the ne’er do well, black sheep brother bringing plenty of light relief to the film, and most of the laughs.
Dennis Quaid plays the jaded, pompous, arrogant Laurence, who realises the error of his ways, almost too late, with conviction. He also realises that he can’t change everything all at once and makes a slow but steady journey back to being a functioning human being. Smart People is slow in places but a worthwhile watch.
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Thomas Hayden Church, Ellen Page, Sarah Jessica Parker
Directed By: Noam Murro
Written By: Mark Poirer
Smart People stars Dennis Quaid as Laurence Wetherhold, a tenured professor at Carnegie Mellon, a prestigious university in Pennsylvania. He has two children, the poetry writing, misunderstood James, (Ashton Holmes) and Vanessa, (Ellen Page) his 17 year old extremely intelligent and emotionally stunted daughter. Given her father’s behaviour, her high levels of intelligence, her father’s expectations of her, and the fact that her mother died an unspecified number of years ago, her emotional ineptitude is perhaps unsurprising.
Thomas Hayden Church plays Chuck, Laurence’s adopted brother, a point Laurence makes sure to stress every time the relationship is mentioned. Chuck comes into the family because Laurence had an accident and cannot drive due to a trauma related seizure and Vanessa is too busy getting the perfect score on her S.A.T.’s to ‘be his chauffeur for six months’.
Chuck is the antithesis of Laurence and promotes everything Laurence is against.He moves from job to job, and borrows money from Laurence every time he sees him. He gets Vanessa stoned and takes her drinking, in an attempt to humanize her, to show her that there’s more to life then being ‘smart’. Unfortunately Chuck’s attempts to be friends with his niece, lead her to believe he is interested in her romantically and she almost ruins the budding friendship by making a move on him.
This is a character driven story and details the realisation that Laurence has regarding his own character and shortcomings and how it has affected his family and his relationships with people, within the family, as well as his colleagues and students, who dislike him to a person. While he has no ‘epiphany’ as he tells girlfriend Janet, (Sarah Jessica Parker), he does attempt to make amends to his behaviour and tries to become a better person.
Janet is a former student of his, who was put off studying English as a result of his teaching methods, and switched to Biology instead, leading her to become head of the ER and the person who treats Laurence on his initial entry to hospital. She then proceeds to date him, despite the best efforts of Vanessa to destroy the relationship. Although Laurence is quite capable of destroying it by himself, and almost does when Janet realises he is not prepared to make any changes to himself, and is just taking her for granted.
Smart People is sharp and funny, well written and well cast. Ellen Page is in danger of becoming type-cast as the intellectual sarcastic teenager, but it is a role she plays to perfection. Thomas Hayden Church is excellent as the ne’er do well, black sheep brother bringing plenty of light relief to the film, and most of the laughs.
Dennis Quaid plays the jaded, pompous, arrogant Laurence, who realises the error of his ways, almost too late, with conviction. He also realises that he can’t change everything all at once and makes a slow but steady journey back to being a functioning human being. Smart People is slow in places but a worthwhile watch.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Margot at the Wedding
Margot at the Wedding
Starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nicole Kidman, Jack Black
Written by: Noah Baumbach
Directed by: Noah Baumbach
Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is getting married to Malcolm (Jack Black) and her estranged sister Margot (Nicole Kidman) is coming to the wedding and bringing her son Claud. The reasons for the estrangement are not made clear till almost the end of the film, but its obvious from the outset that Margot is a very difficult woman. She tells her son everything, even though hes only about 13 and what she tells him is completely inappropriate, such as letting him know his aunt is pregnant before shes even told her husband to be.
We soon find out that Margot has run away from her husband, and left him and her elder son. Claud is unaware of this, as is Margot's sister. This is shown through phonecalls to him where she tells him 'its happening and youll just have to get used to it.' She had left a letter for him instead of telling him to his face. He seems to be a kind, loving and supportive husband but Margot cannot seem to accept his love and wittingly or not ruins every chance she has at happiness.
From the first meeting with Malcolm, Margot's disapproval is obvious. He's an unemployed musician/artist and he is living with Pauline in the house her parents gave her, obviously another bone of contention for Margot. She feels that he is not good enough for Pauline and will only bring her down. Her feelings are so strong that the wedding is even being threatened by her actions.
Immediately the sisters fall back into their childhood patterns of interaction. The impatience and irritation flares up instantly although they haven't seen each other in a number of years. Margot is an interefering woman, causing problems with the neighbours and insisting a gay couple have their son tested for autism, even though there's apparently nothing wrong with him.
The movie is tortuous in moments, the awkardness that Margot brings to almost every situation is heightened by the obvious irritation she instills in everyone even though the try really hard with her, and she does not try with anyone.
Following on from his Oscar winning movie 'The Squid and the Whale', Noah Baumbach has another biting satirical look at family life and the pain we cause each other. It is a slow moving film and may not appeal to all, being sorely realistic at times.
Starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nicole Kidman, Jack Black
Written by: Noah Baumbach
Directed by: Noah Baumbach
Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is getting married to Malcolm (Jack Black) and her estranged sister Margot (Nicole Kidman) is coming to the wedding and bringing her son Claud. The reasons for the estrangement are not made clear till almost the end of the film, but its obvious from the outset that Margot is a very difficult woman. She tells her son everything, even though hes only about 13 and what she tells him is completely inappropriate, such as letting him know his aunt is pregnant before shes even told her husband to be.
We soon find out that Margot has run away from her husband, and left him and her elder son. Claud is unaware of this, as is Margot's sister. This is shown through phonecalls to him where she tells him 'its happening and youll just have to get used to it.' She had left a letter for him instead of telling him to his face. He seems to be a kind, loving and supportive husband but Margot cannot seem to accept his love and wittingly or not ruins every chance she has at happiness.
From the first meeting with Malcolm, Margot's disapproval is obvious. He's an unemployed musician/artist and he is living with Pauline in the house her parents gave her, obviously another bone of contention for Margot. She feels that he is not good enough for Pauline and will only bring her down. Her feelings are so strong that the wedding is even being threatened by her actions.
Immediately the sisters fall back into their childhood patterns of interaction. The impatience and irritation flares up instantly although they haven't seen each other in a number of years. Margot is an interefering woman, causing problems with the neighbours and insisting a gay couple have their son tested for autism, even though there's apparently nothing wrong with him.
The movie is tortuous in moments, the awkardness that Margot brings to almost every situation is heightened by the obvious irritation she instills in everyone even though the try really hard with her, and she does not try with anyone.
Following on from his Oscar winning movie 'The Squid and the Whale', Noah Baumbach has another biting satirical look at family life and the pain we cause each other. It is a slow moving film and may not appeal to all, being sorely realistic at times.
Monday, April 7, 2008
The Other Boleyn Girl
Starring: Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana, Kristen Scott Thomas
Written by:Peter Morgan (Screenplay), Phillipa Gregory (book)
Directed by:Justin Chadwick
Natalie Portman stars as Anne Boleyn, the ill-fated second wife of Henry VIII. The story begins with her conniving father (Jim Sturgess)turning down a marriage match with a merchants son for her, a child of approximately six, because 'she can do much better'. This sets the tone for the whole of the film, the slyness and ambition of primarily the father and the repurcussions that his children have to bear as a result of his actions.
Fast forward some years and Henry VIII (Eric Bana) and his queen Catherine (Ana Torent), have just lost another infant, born stillborn. The marriage is strained, and Anne's uncle,Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk (David Morrissey), being a close friend of the king, realises that he may look for solace elsewhere. He visits Anne's father,Thomas, discussing the need for a Howard girl to be placed in prime position. Thomas suggests Anne. Anne is approached, and after initial horror at the proposition agrees with the proposal.
Anne's mother (Kirsten Scott Thomas) is disgusted by this and makes her feelings well known, particularly when Anne's attempts fail, and her newly married sister Mary (Scarlett Johanssen), is drafted in instead. The King is smitten by Mary and the whole family is summoned to court as a result. Mary falls for Henry and seemingly he for her, and she quickly becomes pregnant. Everything is going swimmingly for the Boleyns, until Mary suffers a scare in her pregnancy and has to become bed bound. The family know he will soon want another mistress and Anne is called out of exile in France, where she was sent after marrying a noble without permission, to try and entice the King once more.
Anne sees Mary's actions as the ultimate betrayal, and conspires to ruin her happiness. She comes back from France a changed woman, leading the King on, but outwardly seeming to reject him, in honour of her sister, which he can't stand and falls for. She conspires to become Queen and persuades him to break with Rome and divorce his wife and marry her instead.
She gets what she wants, but its a slippery downhill slope towards a beheading. She doesnt provide the son she promised Henry and is hated by the public, and court alike.
Natalie Portman performs well in the role, as the conniving, conspiring, ambitious Anne and while one should have no sympathy for her, given that she betrays her sister more than once and anyone else who stands in her way, somehow one still does, particularly when she seems to be losing her mind upon becoming Queen. One can see the influence of her equally conniving father and uncle, who use her as they need her, then banish her to France when she fails to get them what they want.
Scarlett Johanssen is in a much smaller, less challenging role, the antidote to Anne's badness is Mary's goodness, although one wishes she would get some back bone! But this is the character rather then the actresses failing.
Eric Bana plays the weak willed, easily led King Henry with ease. The role required quite a bit of storming around and smouldering looks, which he manages with aplomb!
The film is well shot with plenty of historical accuracy, magnifecent sets and costumes, and while it drags slightly towards the end it is an entertaining watch and not a bad way to spend a rainy sunday night!
Written by:Peter Morgan (Screenplay), Phillipa Gregory (book)
Directed by:Justin Chadwick
Natalie Portman stars as Anne Boleyn, the ill-fated second wife of Henry VIII. The story begins with her conniving father (Jim Sturgess)turning down a marriage match with a merchants son for her, a child of approximately six, because 'she can do much better'. This sets the tone for the whole of the film, the slyness and ambition of primarily the father and the repurcussions that his children have to bear as a result of his actions.
Fast forward some years and Henry VIII (Eric Bana) and his queen Catherine (Ana Torent), have just lost another infant, born stillborn. The marriage is strained, and Anne's uncle,Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk (David Morrissey), being a close friend of the king, realises that he may look for solace elsewhere. He visits Anne's father,Thomas, discussing the need for a Howard girl to be placed in prime position. Thomas suggests Anne. Anne is approached, and after initial horror at the proposition agrees with the proposal.
Anne's mother (Kirsten Scott Thomas) is disgusted by this and makes her feelings well known, particularly when Anne's attempts fail, and her newly married sister Mary (Scarlett Johanssen), is drafted in instead. The King is smitten by Mary and the whole family is summoned to court as a result. Mary falls for Henry and seemingly he for her, and she quickly becomes pregnant. Everything is going swimmingly for the Boleyns, until Mary suffers a scare in her pregnancy and has to become bed bound. The family know he will soon want another mistress and Anne is called out of exile in France, where she was sent after marrying a noble without permission, to try and entice the King once more.
Anne sees Mary's actions as the ultimate betrayal, and conspires to ruin her happiness. She comes back from France a changed woman, leading the King on, but outwardly seeming to reject him, in honour of her sister, which he can't stand and falls for. She conspires to become Queen and persuades him to break with Rome and divorce his wife and marry her instead.
She gets what she wants, but its a slippery downhill slope towards a beheading. She doesnt provide the son she promised Henry and is hated by the public, and court alike.
Natalie Portman performs well in the role, as the conniving, conspiring, ambitious Anne and while one should have no sympathy for her, given that she betrays her sister more than once and anyone else who stands in her way, somehow one still does, particularly when she seems to be losing her mind upon becoming Queen. One can see the influence of her equally conniving father and uncle, who use her as they need her, then banish her to France when she fails to get them what they want.
Scarlett Johanssen is in a much smaller, less challenging role, the antidote to Anne's badness is Mary's goodness, although one wishes she would get some back bone! But this is the character rather then the actresses failing.
Eric Bana plays the weak willed, easily led King Henry with ease. The role required quite a bit of storming around and smouldering looks, which he manages with aplomb!
The film is well shot with plenty of historical accuracy, magnifecent sets and costumes, and while it drags slightly towards the end it is an entertaining watch and not a bad way to spend a rainy sunday night!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The Jane Austen Book Club
Starring: Amy Brenneman, Maria Bello, Kathy Baker, Emily Blunt, Maggie Grace, Hugh Dancy, Kevin Zegers
Written By: Robin Swicord
Directed By: Robin Swicord
Based on the best selling novel by Karen Joy Fowler, The Jane Austen Book Club tells the tale of five women and one man who form a book club with each member choosing one of Austen’s books to review every month.
The club is originally formed to help Jocelyn, a dog breeder, get over the death of her pride and joy breeding dog. However almost immediately the focus changes to Sylvia (Amy Brenneman) whose husband leaves her for another woman after twenty years of marriage. Prudie (Emily Blunt) is a French teacher who has never been to France, and whose marriage is on the rocks, the most recent traumatic event being her husband cancelling a planned trip to Paris for a basketball game. Allegra (Maggie Grace) is Sylvia’s beautiful, spoilt, daredevil, lesbian daughter who routinely ends up in hospital after one of her adventures. Bernadette is the oldest in the group, with six marriages under her belt and looking ‘for just one more’. Grigg is the lone male in the group, asked to attend by Jocelyn to get Sylvia’s mind off her current troubles, but who is obviously smitten by Jocelyn.
The groups personal lives reflect the various books themes and issues with everyone having a problem similar to one of the books they are reading. There is Jocelyn, never married, fighting her attraction to the younger Grigg, and selflessly pushing him onto her friend Sylvia. Grigg thinks that he’s being directed to the much younger Allegra, and is suitably confused when he finds out she is gay. Prudie is contemplating starting an affair with an 18 year old student and almost does until reading ‘Persuasion’ shows her how a couple who have fallen out of love can try to work at the marriage and succeed. Allegra falls in and out of love quickly, moving in with the girl she met while in hospital with a broken arm after a month, and dumping her with out a second thought after finding some stories she wrote, depicting events told to her by Allegra. This is much to the chagrin of her mother Sylvia, who sees this behaviour as a mirror of her husband’s and unacceptable. Bernadette is the most stable of the characters, in her private life anyway, and mentors the various women through their problems, particularly Prudie during her period of contemplation over whether to start an affair or not.
The supporting men in the cast also get in on the club with cheating husband Daniel (Jimmy Smits) reading one of the novels and realising what he has been missing by leaving his wife. Although seeing his wife being taken out to lunch by the attractive and much younger Griggs prompts him to act in the first place!
This is a light entertaining film with just enough moments of drama and tension taking place without ruining the over all comedic value of the film. As the women and Grigg proceed through their various romantic problems one grows to like and respect them all, even the extremely uptight, and often repellent Prudie. As in Austen happy endings abound in this film with true love winning over all.
This is an excellent cast of lesser known actors, generally from TV shoes such as Judging Amy and Kane, or smaller roles in films, Kathy Baker, from Cold Mountain, but they work very well together and bring a real charm to the film. An excellent cast, a well written script and a charming story all make a film worth going to see.
Written By: Robin Swicord
Directed By: Robin Swicord
Based on the best selling novel by Karen Joy Fowler, The Jane Austen Book Club tells the tale of five women and one man who form a book club with each member choosing one of Austen’s books to review every month.
The club is originally formed to help Jocelyn, a dog breeder, get over the death of her pride and joy breeding dog. However almost immediately the focus changes to Sylvia (Amy Brenneman) whose husband leaves her for another woman after twenty years of marriage. Prudie (Emily Blunt) is a French teacher who has never been to France, and whose marriage is on the rocks, the most recent traumatic event being her husband cancelling a planned trip to Paris for a basketball game. Allegra (Maggie Grace) is Sylvia’s beautiful, spoilt, daredevil, lesbian daughter who routinely ends up in hospital after one of her adventures. Bernadette is the oldest in the group, with six marriages under her belt and looking ‘for just one more’. Grigg is the lone male in the group, asked to attend by Jocelyn to get Sylvia’s mind off her current troubles, but who is obviously smitten by Jocelyn.
The groups personal lives reflect the various books themes and issues with everyone having a problem similar to one of the books they are reading. There is Jocelyn, never married, fighting her attraction to the younger Grigg, and selflessly pushing him onto her friend Sylvia. Grigg thinks that he’s being directed to the much younger Allegra, and is suitably confused when he finds out she is gay. Prudie is contemplating starting an affair with an 18 year old student and almost does until reading ‘Persuasion’ shows her how a couple who have fallen out of love can try to work at the marriage and succeed. Allegra falls in and out of love quickly, moving in with the girl she met while in hospital with a broken arm after a month, and dumping her with out a second thought after finding some stories she wrote, depicting events told to her by Allegra. This is much to the chagrin of her mother Sylvia, who sees this behaviour as a mirror of her husband’s and unacceptable. Bernadette is the most stable of the characters, in her private life anyway, and mentors the various women through their problems, particularly Prudie during her period of contemplation over whether to start an affair or not.
The supporting men in the cast also get in on the club with cheating husband Daniel (Jimmy Smits) reading one of the novels and realising what he has been missing by leaving his wife. Although seeing his wife being taken out to lunch by the attractive and much younger Griggs prompts him to act in the first place!
This is a light entertaining film with just enough moments of drama and tension taking place without ruining the over all comedic value of the film. As the women and Grigg proceed through their various romantic problems one grows to like and respect them all, even the extremely uptight, and often repellent Prudie. As in Austen happy endings abound in this film with true love winning over all.
This is an excellent cast of lesser known actors, generally from TV shoes such as Judging Amy and Kane, or smaller roles in films, Kathy Baker, from Cold Mountain, but they work very well together and bring a real charm to the film. An excellent cast, a well written script and a charming story all make a film worth going to see.
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