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| gromit |
 Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 10:33 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Heaven's Bookstore was a sweet film. Sort of a low-key melodrama. There are two parallel stories, one on Earth and one in Heaven. The story in Heaven is more compelling and better developed. There were some nice touches, like the bookstore building itself, and the way that people travel from Heaven to Earth.
I guess it's reassuring that Heaven is very much like Earth, complete with books, houses, Yamaha pianos. etc. |
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| Marilyn |
| Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:28 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8210
Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 10:09 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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Some films seem to improve with a repeat viewing. I watched two films for the second time on DVD this weekend and felt that their shortcomings were even more apparent.
War Of The Worlds is archetypal Spielberg to the point of parody. The film includes his standard motifs of aliens and a broken family, but even more essentially Speilbergian is the way the film attempts to make bug themes tangible by empathetically exploring its impact on the small and the domestic.
He usually does this in a series of elegantly grafted and discrete vignettes that are all you would expect from a master craftsmen like Spielberg. However, I think the film falls down in not having a coherent idea of what it it’s trying to achieve. Is the story one of a family’s journey real and metaphoric or that of an alien invasion? Unhindered by the expectation of realising H G Wells’ famous novel, he would probably have made the story even more personal. Instead, the two elements, a pair of disparate captives shackled together, stumble forward unconvincingly. Dock yard crane operator and father, Tom Cruise cuts a somewhat peripheral figure engaged on a pointless journey to Boston, whose main purpose seems to string together various set pieces and give a quick tour of the book. There was no clear story or character arc.
The impact of Wells’ War Of The Worlds has been somewhat lessened by a hundred years of science and science fiction writing produced in its wake. Nonetheless, it seemed bizarre that Spielberg would be so wrapped up in his contrived mini-dramas as to almost throwaway the revelatory turning point of the book. Instead, we were givien a supposed emotional climax, the family being reunited, that was almost embarrassingly banal.
The other film that I felt was less good on second viewing was A History Of Violence Aside from the implausibilities, I was left distinctly disastisified by Croneneberg’s unwillingness to tell us who Viggo Mortensen was. Without this, the film became too mythic, a reworking of the standard fantasy of the man with a past that just won’t leave him alone. |
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| Mr. Brownstone |
| Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 10:17 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2450
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I agree with you on History except it's not even a reworking.
In fact, had Cronenberg not been the director of this project, it would be seen as what it is: a pretty much standard film of that genre.
I guess the potential exists that in moments like, "In this family, we don't solve our problems by hitting people!" ten seconds before hitting someone are supposed to be some sort of attempt at satire odf the genre, but it never really comes off that way. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 11:09 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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In the film category of "Women who break the mold and die in the process" Domino joins Boys Don't Cry and Monster.
Except that Domino doesn't attempt to understand the character as much as to fictionize or fabulize her. I'm glad I waited for the dvd, because the special features show the real Domino Harvey at various stages in her life. Probably what Tony Scott used Keira Knightley for was to jack up her image as a model (with that blatant slash/blonde haircut and the black leather).
In reality, she said she never fired a gun as a bounty hunter and a more likely actress to play her would have been the young Mia Farrow. The real Domino never did lap dances to tame fierce criminals........she just smiled.
The film was very watchable with its jazzy/bright pace and the gorgeous Knightley. I just would like to know more about who the real Domino was. |
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| Trish |
| Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 11:57 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2438
Location: Massachusetts
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| actually a younger version of Tilda Swinton would have been "perfection" |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:23 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| Trish.............I can see it physically, but Tilda has a cold, fierceness. I don't think Domino was fierce. And I don't think she flaunted her sexuality like Knightley did. She is an enigma..........a shy, gun lover born to privilege, drawn to society's underbelly. |
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| Trish |
| Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:18 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2438
Location: Massachusetts
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| Its sort of weird that the director (Tony Scott) who supposedly was close friends with her - created such a different character for the film - then - was this character something that the real Domino aspired to be or an idealized, romantic view of herself? because she sure didn't come across as shy or gentle in the film |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 11:20 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Very good question, Trish! (How come nobody else is joining in on this discussion..........)
I'd like a second movie to be made (there's going to be a second movie about Capote).........more true to who she was. I loved that one photo of her with her father before he died. Such a beautiful child. Her father did have a stern look..........I wonder if she had that look sometimes.....She certainly was no carbon copy of her elegant mother.
More info that I've read: Her mother paid for her 4 trips to rehab. She had a meth problem.........and the feds were about to try her for drug dealing. She had 4 people hired to take care of her. What was this all about and why did she die with that many people attending? |
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| Trish |
| Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:40 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2438
Location: Massachusetts
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| If the movie had been a theatrical success - you can bet some E channel docudrama would have been made on her life - I looked on Amazon to see if there was a book on her life - nothing, unfortunately |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:23 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Trish......Just one more thing.........The Smoking Gun says she died of an od of fentanyl.....a pain killer...........and that she had 3 surgical scars on each breast. What do you make of that? Her last photos didn't show breast enhancement.
May she rest in peace. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:49 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:08 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I love Brooks in Pandora's Box, but having seen her in zero else, I often wonder if she's over-rated. Does she show the same complexity/realism in her other work she does in that movie? It's always kind of hard for me to admire a performer very much on the basis of one performance, no matter how good it is. (Is that wrong? An honest question.) |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:57 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: I love Brooks in Pandora's Box, but having seen her in zero else, I often wonder if she's over-rated. Does she show the same complexity/realism in her other work she does in that movie? It's always kind of hard for me to admire a performer very much on the basis of one performance, no matter how good it is. (Is that wrong? An honest question.)
A very good question. Certain performers have been wildly overpraised for breakthrough performances that they never have fully made good on since. One was Julie Christie, who was lauded to the skies in Darling, won an Oscar, and never quite hit another home run. (I was never a Darling fan, so this does not surprise me.)
Emily Watson was treated like the second coming for Breaking the Waves. She's...not.
The opposite sometimes holds true as well. Jean Seberg was given her walking papers by the critics when Saint Joan opened. Breathless, anyone? |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 8:23 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| The French film The Beat that my Heart Skipped (2005) is a rermake of the Harvey Keitel movie Fingers. It is full of action and energy centering around the life of Tom, a shady real estate dealer with dreams of following in the footsteps of his late mother, a concert pianist. His frustrations and hangups are manifested in violent and volatile behavior. I did not enjoy it as much as many others did, perhaps mainly because it appeared pointless. |
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