youremythrill Reviews

Wuthering Heights (1970)

Quasimodo roams the moors!

[4/10 · 3 April 2001]

I agree with whomever wrote that they liked the music in this version of Wuthering Heights ... but that's about all I liked.

I'll start with the setting. Wuthering Heights felt more like a grungy farmhouse than the haunting fortress which I remembered from the book. What happened?

On to Anna Calder-Marshall as Cathy. THAT VOICE! Whenever she'd be summoning Heathcliff, that screeching of hers sent shivers (not good ones either) up my spine. No wonder he was always hiding. I think they should dub in the bit from the 1992 version that has the crows fleeing the tree, into the 1970 version when Cathy goes a shriekin' through the moors. Sublime.

Sorry, Dalton fans, he's taking the biggest hit. Timothy Dalton got the wrong script. He was acting out the Quasimodo part in the Hunchback of Notre Dame, I'm sure of it. I remember Heathcliff as being a little rough around the edges, but sheesh, I don't remember him grunting and dragging a foot around! He was like some aloof lout, more in need of orthopedic intervention than Cathy's love. He was not Heathcliff to me, but he made a very attractive Quasimodo.

No version of this movie is on par with the book. It's so tempting to put on film because the characters are so rich and the settings and story so perfectly gloomy ... it just never works.

Wit (2001 TV Movie)

Wow!

[10/10 · 2 April 2001]

This better be eligible for an Academy Award or there'll probably be riots in the streets! I can't laud Emma Thompson's performance enough. What a masterpiece of acting. I hope the seriousness of the subject matter doesn't deter people from seeing this film and Thompson's skill. This proves precisely why she's one of the best (if not THE best) actress working today. With any other actor I'd wonder how she could possibly top this, but I doubt that'll be a problem for her. I just watch her and I'm awed. Amazing.

Spy Kids (2001)

"Mommy, there's no 'excellent' on this survey."

[5/10 · 1 April 2001]

was my seven year old son's response upon receiving his post-viewing survey card. He loved it. Which is good news for the movie since it's aimed at kids. My opinions aren't quite as gushing.

I was roped in by the trailers, its PG rating and the fact that it was NOT animated. The trailers let me down ... surprise. I didn't dislike it, I just didn't like it as much as I hoped I would.

I loved the sets! Very cool. And it was a good story that a 2nd grader had no trouble following. Downside: Antonio Banderas was in it ... that always blows a movie for me. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but as usual, that failed. He just always looks like he's posing to me ... aaaaaak. I asked my son what he thought about the guy who played the dad and his review was, "He was good but his fake mustache looked dumb". I think I muttered something about Zorro under my breath.

The kids playing Carmen and Juni were great. My son was rooting 'em on through their travails. They were likeable and you got the feeling that if any kids could've pulled off this wild scheme, they could.

Overall, it was harmless, my son loved it and I didn't fall asleep. That's about all you can hope for when sharing a movie with a seven year old son, I think. At least until another Babe, Princess Bride or Wizard of Oz comes out.

The Avengers (1998)

Beginning was the end

[5/10 · 1 April 2001]

This one's a shame. I came into it as a fan of Uma Thurman, Ralph Fiennes, Sean Connery and the original television series ... and I like strange movies. I had the most flattering pre-viewing perspective going on, I swear. But I barely made it through that opening scene. It was too odd. I stuck it out (and I'm glad of that), but I can see how zillions others would not.

I think the comments about the how badly the movie was casted was due to the opening scene wherein Ralph Fiennes as John Steed goes through his strange little agent evaluation. It was too much of a shock to this poor woman's system to see Fiennes doing the Jackie Chan thang. I don't think Fiennes can only play elegant, subdued characters (in Strange Days he didn't look so bizarre punching and being punched), but this whole scene was just lame at the gate. I can just see how an opening scene with even a little more subtlety (there could hardly have been less) would've paid-off handsomely.

I was quickly engaged by Steed's and Peel's flirty dialog full of double entendre's and remembered why as a grade school girl, it was the only show that my father and I happily watched together. It also reminded me of those wacky English comedies from the 60's like What's New Pussycat ... just didn't remind me enough though. It was too middle of the road. Just not the right amount of outlandishness. When it WAS tossed-in, I found myself thinking, "What the h*ll is that?" (especially in the case of those Grateful Dead style teddy bears)

I did love the sets and gadgets and Thurman's groovy clothes. Ralph Fiennes was very sexy as the reserved John Steed (Hello! that boot scene!). Uma Thurman also was really neat as the brainy sexpot (I love that look on her face when Connery makes that crack about being wet.) I think Fiennes' and Thurman's chemistry was successfully evident. Sean Connery, however, looked pretty much annoyed.

There just wasn't enough good stuff in the space of 90 minutes to outshine the bad stuff. It's too bad.

The Stunt Man (1980)

I'm gonna get caught gushing!

[9/10 · 30 March 2001]

One of my favorite movies of all time. Must admit that I'm a bit biased since Peter O'Toole's one of my favorite actors of all time. This movie has NEVER gotten the attention that it deserves. Maybe that's, in part, due to the difficulties involved in categorizing it. I don't even know in which section of the video store I'd start looking.

Peter O'Toole is so swell in it. I love that enigmatic character, movie director Eli Cross! Like the movie (and O'Toole, for that matter), he's so hard to cubbyhole. You like him, but you don't trust him. Like Cameron/Lucky (Steve Railsback's escaped convict character) does, you NEED to know exactly where his motives lie ... all in good time. You know Cross'll do whatever's necessary to get "the shot", but he's still got a conscience ... right? Would Cameron have been better off (read safer) just staying in jail ... hmmm?

All the action in the film circles around this question and while the viewer (and Cameron) decide what to make of Eli, it's a fun trip through the world of filmmaking (how realistic a trip, I've no idea). Great performances by O'Toole and Railsback, along with Barbara Hershey, Allen Garfield, Alex Rocco and Sharon Ferrell add so much to the suspense.

See this movie. You can feel how much fun it was for the cast to make. Look at Eli's devilish grin as he tries to soothe Lucky's worries. Try to imagine how many other movies have you sympathizing for an escaped convict. And don't worry if you don't know what to make of mad genius filmmaker Eli Cross because nobody else does either, and if they do, they ain't talkin' ... that might spoil the movie!

Stardust Memories (1980)

Fon-dust Memories

[9/10 · 30 March 2001]

I first saw this film when I was sixteen. I had to drag my mom (a nice, normal kind of mom) out to see it with me. I think she fell asleep, but I was riveted. This movie single-handedly made me into a film lover and a jazz lover ... all in one afternoon. I went back the next day to see the movie again and to hear THAT music again. After the movie I searched high and low for a cassette containing both Body and Soul and Stardust.

I'm not a filmmaker and feel very uncomfortable making any comments on any technical aspects of the film, but I'll make a few non-controversial remarks. I loved the collage quality of whole thing. For me, it never needed it to feel any more bound together than it was. I loved the scenes -- the freakshow, the hypocrisy of fans, the genuine tentativeness that sometimes comes with life (those scenes throwing Sandy together with children and animals), the scene where Sandy and Dorrie are reading the Sunday paper ... the movie just made sense to me. It felt like life itself, god knows, not MY life, but someone's REAL life. Seems strange since there were so many caricatures, but I guess that's how we process people in our minds. We can't possibly have room up there to store all the details of everybody and the less important ones become easily sorted extremes of themselves ... and it WAS about memories. Who remembers all the details about superfluous folk from days gone by? Don't memories take on that dreamy quality after awhile?

No matter what movies come down the road, this will always be one of my favorites because I just love the way it influenced my life.

The End of the Affair (1999)

Both sides of the coin

[8/10 · 29 March 2001]

Warning! This review is unabashedly sentimental.

I first saw this film in the midst of the strongest love affair of my life and thought it was a beautiful love story, with beautiful actors and beautiful music. I loved it because I was in love and it reinforced all those wonderful feelings.

Then, almost masochistically, I rented it after the break-up of that same four year long romance and I loved it then as well for entirely opposing reasons. I could feel the bitterness of how cruel love can be when it's been taken away. Maurice Bendrix (sp?) became my sympathetic friend. I could feel why he pulled his hand away at the table -- too painful and too dangerous. Whereas when I saw it the first time, I just thought, "That cold b*stard! Why does he want to hurt her?" I felt his frustration at trying to slay a beast without a face. He didn't hate anyone or anything except his own awareness of the realities of love.

The book and this successful cinematic adaptation paint the whole picture... 360 degrees. And I think it works from all the different perspectives. Love is the most wonderful emotion but it can also carry as much danger along with it as hate can. And there's no way to completely be in love, your guard let completely down, without risking your neck. If Bendrix could do it all again, would he do anything differently? Would he have stopped himself from falling in love with Sarah? Could he have stopped himself?

I still appreciated many of the same things as I did the first time -- the acting of the leads and the strong supporting cast, the warm beautiful interior shots, the way the plot untwists ... but other things came to forefront on second viewing that slipped by the first time -- Maurice's little flashbacks on the stairway (god, that's just how it is) and the music! It seemed so benignly beautiful the first time I saw it, but it became almost too painfully intrusive the second time.

Maybe I'll watch it again when I get a more neutral perspective on the whole matter. I wonder if we ever have that when it comes to love.

Oscar and Lucinda (1997)

What a beautiful movie.

[8/10 · 29 March 2001]

Watching the film for a second time with a critic's eye did not do one thing to diminish the awe I felt the first time I saw it. I could not find a weakness. It's well-constructed, well-shot and well-acted. The story and characters are interesting. I care about the characters and their conflicts and I want to know what happens to them. What else is there? There's a moral, that's what.

So many people had a problem with the ending. Nobody likes an ending in which such a sympathetic character meets his end, but what other choice was there? Even if it hadn't been an adaptation, could one really imagine Oscar and Lucinda settling down, making a go of the glass factory, raising a flock of kids and sneaking-out on Saturday nights for some cards? No. We all want happy endings, but we all know too well that their existence is a blessing more than a given, and that has everything to do with why we crave them so much.

Oscar and Lucinda are misfits, pure and simple. They're ahead, or behind or beside or below their time. We know by now that people who are on the fringes of society are never treated well by it. I don't think the ending should have come as a surprise to anyone. That's how life was then and how it still is today. "Fit in or you're setting yourself up for sacrifice." We don't like to think of ourselves as the slaughterers of society's squirrely lambs, but if we aren't, who is? I think the ending's so disquieting to so many because nobody wants to think of him/herself as one of the wielders of the axe ... especially when such an innocent, like Oscar, is the victim. It's not a shock that such a misfit dies, the shock is that we killed him, under the guise of society.

The scene in which the husband-nabber, for all practical purposes, rapes Oscar, drives this home starkly and succinctly. One minute she's sympathetically lowing, "Look what they've done to you" and the next she's sealing his miserable fate for her own warped needs. Society's a self-serving hypocrite.

Unfortunately, that hasn't changed much for the better in 150 years. Anyone who calls this a "period piece" is so very wrong. The setting is merely a sly vehicle to slip into the front of our collective psyche those ills of which we already are aware, but which we daily choose to ignore. Any attempt, successful or not to accomplish this should be lauded.

This attempt was successful. I'm not going to go into any specifics about performances or camera angles. That would be an insult. I can think of so few films that teach so important a lesson. The obvious lack of ego shown by any participant is evidence that the perfect cast and crew was assembled and that they got the job done. They already know they did ... they've got the finished film as a beautiful reward for their hard work.

It should be required viewing for all as a beautiful lesson in tolerance. There are Oscars and Lucindas around us everyday. It's up to all of us to create the happy ending that we say we want to see so badly.

Onegin (1999)

When a man loves a bumpkin

[7/10 · 28 March 2001]

I wanted to love the movie so badly but Liv Tyler's performance kept that from happening. She's a beautiful girl, but she had that "deer in the headlights" look through the whole film. Also, she's got the grace and subtlety of a wrecking ball. I know she was supposed to be a country girl, but sheesh! And I can't think of a single language whose accent would produce "oool" for the English "all" ... Inuit maybe? It's hard to believe one critic pronounced her mastery of an aristocratic accent successful; it kept playing a tense game of hide and seek with my ears.

I wondered to myself how many feet of film were wasted in the creation of that ice skating scene? It seems it could've been so much more powerful with almost anyone in FrankenTyler's place. The only thing that redeemed the scene for me was Ralph's genuine look of devastation at its close. It's really hard to feel the potency of Tyler's unaffected gaze by that point when she's got that look on her face through the WHOLE movie! Ralph's pathos-drenched reaction (how DOES he do that?) to her mediocre action pulled it through. But Ralph shouldn't HAVE to work that hard. A more experienced actress would've pulled her own weight. I should probably just be grateful that Ralph DID have to work that hard and that I was lucky enough to get to see the results.

Enough about that poor Tyler girl! I'll just assume her intentions are good and it's all very Dickensian and she's supporting her poor father and her life is not within her control. Let's just hope that a waning of her interest in acting or a would-be suitor comes quickly along to save her from the degradation in which she too often finds herself when appearing in the same movie with someone talented like Ralph. If she'd stick to playing opposite Keanu Reeves or Antonio Banderas, I think everything would work out fine.

I thought Martha Fiennes' directing was very thoughtful and daring, first feature length effort or not. A couple places left me mildly jarred continuity-wise, but that's so insignificant compared to the many very beautiful and effective scenes I can still feel. I agree with someone who mentioned the strength of the opening sleigh scene. As in Dr. Zhivago and Bram Stoker's Dracula, there's just something really powerful about the sight of a snorting horse running at full throttle, transporting our characters to some unknown fate. I liked the staging and shooting (sorry) of the duel scene very much. It must have taken a lot of control not to have Vladimir go plunging slow motion into the icy water surrounding the action. Martha Fiennes must have quite a bit of confidence and restraint not to go that predictable route merely for the sake of the dramatic shot. The whole story oozes restraint (and its inherent frustrations) and she intelligently replied. Some nice symbolic visual gestures as well -- the moth and fly, the coffin in the closing scene, etc. Just gorgeous direction and camera work overall. She did such a good job of using the sets and locations to their best advantage and utility. Nothing seemed superfluous nor ignored. It all seemed so unified in intent.

Ralph's performance was predictably very good, but I think it could have been superb given even a halfway decent female lead against/with which to work (maybe it's my imagination but I swear I saw him inappropriately gritting his teeth and narrowing an eye! I kept waiting for him to burst out, "I just can't work with this stupid, clumsy girl!"). I know there aren't that many "doe-eyed ingenues" for casting purposes these days, but there had to be SOMEONE else available ... ANYONE! The scenes where Ralph shone were those in which Liv Tyler was completely out of range. Did you notice how few shots had them framed together? Whether this was a directorial decision to support the plot or a last ditch effort to de-emphasize the obvious disparity between the two leads' acting talents I'm not sure.

Also, that notary character seemed just way too angry, no? I think a long day of retakes with Liv might have taken its toll. And do you think it was just a coincidence that the poor girl was always lurking from behind columns, trees, reeds, etc.? I think what we were supposed to read as Tatyana's wary curiosity might have as easily been, in reality, a defensive maneuver on Miss Tyler's part when the other actors finally took to tossing catered goods at her out of sheer frustration ... not that an icy glare from Ralph Fiennes wouldn't be enough to send the poor pretty mouse running for the nearest hiding place!

I would love to see it made again with someone else in the Tatyana role. I sound so critical and I don't wish to. I feel frustrated that this project, so important to Ralph and Martha Fiennes that they'd produce it themselves, was kept from being sublime for me by the work of an inexperienced actress. It was like making homemade buckwheat pancakes then topping 'em off with fake maple syrup. Sure they taste good, but you just KNOW how much better they would've tasted with the real stuff. The Fiennes family I'm sure are, justifiably, extremely proud of their collaboration. Just think how young they all are and how many great things they've still got the time to create!

Pushkin's response, perhaps: "Where did my tragedy go? Who would shed a tear over the loss of that stiff? I mean, she's pretty, but ... where's she from anyway?"

P.S. I think we might have the making of yet another great tragedy here: "Onegin: the Casting of Liv Tyler". Imagine the heated discussions! Imagine the family conflict -- the threats of Boxing Days celebrated separately! In one scene, when faced with the thought of Liv Tyler's unwelcome participation, I see Ralph transformed into an unleashed lion! Spit flies from his twisted maw, "She is NOT Tatyana! This is not my vision of Onegin!" he snarls. He rushes Martha and fiercely bats the script from her hand. Loosed pages fly upwards! Then, mirroring the falling pages, we watch as he slowly, silently succumbs to the gravity of the situation, the resignation drifts down upon him like a heavy snow and that look of utter devastation grips his face in its iron mask. He barely gets hold of the arm of a convenient chair and somehow manages to slump into it. His head crashes into now unclenched hands, he's backlit and then alone on the soundstage, there's the silhouette of a broken man now violently sobbing for the dream that WAS and the reality that IS ... curtain falls.