tjw-9 Reviews

The Browning Version (1994)

A near miss

[7/10 · 9 March 2010]

The original "Browning Version", with Michael Redgrave, was note-perfect. This remake suffers in comparison. The main problem is that the Britain which was depicted in the original no longer exists. It was a Britain of sublimated emotions and understatement. The Britain of today - in which this version is set - is a much cruder and more obvious sort of place. Unfortunately the film makers tried to blend the two and it doesn't really work.

One example: the scene where the kids play a prank on the school bully. It wasn't in the original and it adds nothing to this version. It just jerks the viewer unpleasantly into the present when the movie should be trying to keep him in the quiet, more subtle and more interesting atmosphere it had succeeded in creating at other times.

On a positive note, the acting is generally very good, especially by Albert Finney as Crocker-Harris. Even though he is brilliant, he is at times misused. At one point, Crocker-Harris is moved to tears by the gift from Taplow, his most enthusiastic student, and the only one it seems who will miss him when he leaves the school. Finney's acting is fine. He plays the emotion well. The trouble is that the viewer is concentrating on evaluating just how well Finney is performing, rather than actually feeling the emotion. The correct way to direct this would have been to intimate briefly that Crocker-Harris is overcome by emotion but then have him turn away and perhaps have the camera pull back, is if it was embarrassed to be a witness to such a thing. In our imaginations we would have created the scene and would not have been kept emotionally distant from it.

This film could have been a masterpiece if all the discordant, modern elements had been discarded and it had concentrated on presenting its theme in a unified, coherent voice.

Masculine Feminine (1966)

Interesting, but not very good

[5/10 · 17 January 2008]

While reading the other comments I learned that Godard is a "love him or hate him" kind of director, and I can see why this is true. If you are a film-school graduate or an aficionado of the bizarre, no doubt you will be in the former category. Almost everyone else is in the latter.

However, I will try to be objective and go down the middle.

Firstly, the cinematography is excellent. The black and white images are crisp and engrossing. The actors are interesting, not because of the quality of their acting, or what they are saying, but because the camera lingers on their features and makes use of the fact that people-watching is an activity of universal fascination. It certainly doesn't hurt that one of the people we get to watch is the adorable Chantal Goya.

I also felt some empathy for the Masculin character. He is such a pathetic twerp, trying to woo Feminin with his silly Marxist drivel, you can't help feeling a little sorry for him. She isn't any more interested in this stuff than we are. I imagine Katie Holmes must feel the same way about Tom Cruise when he drones on and on about Scientology.

On the downside are: the inane, pointless and pretentious dialogue, the juvenile sound effects and the disjointedness of the work as a whole. Imagine a feature-length black and white Monty Python film without any humour. Maybe I exaggerate. There is some humour...but it isn't funny.

In summary, if you turn off the subtitles and turn down the sound, you will enjoy most of the good parts of the film and avoid most of the bad. Of course, you could say the same about a Britney Spears video.

The Trouble with Angels (1966)

A surprisingly moving film

[8/10 · 13 December 2006]

"The Trouble With Angels" starts out as a fairly standard Hayley Mills teen comedy. She and June Harding play the roles of two reluctant students at St. Francis, a Catholic school run by nuns. Rosalind Russell is excellent in the role of Mother Superior as is the rest of the cast.

The story is fairly simple so there isn't much to say about it. The girls are rebellious and play many pranks on the sisters, but gradually, as the movie progresses and the girls reach their final year at St. Francis it transitions gently and believably into a very touching and poignantly bittersweet ending. It never fails to get to me emotionally.

I'm a sucker for a good tear-jerker and in terms of sheer lachrymosity this one rates right up there with "My Dog Skip", "The Return of the King", "The Bishop's Wife", "It's a Wonderful Life", "Born Free" and "The Family Way" and the final episode of "The Flame Trees of Thika" (the last two also starring Hayley Mills). Something about kids and animals and saying goodbye - it always starts the waterworks going for me.

The secret, as always, is to create characters that you really get to know and care about. It also helps to have good music and Jerry Goldsmith wrote a very memorable score for this film.

I highly recommended this movie for kids who haven't yet been jaded by the rubbish that Hollywood produces these days.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

A Elbereth Gilthoniel!

[8/10 · 20 December 2003]

After seeing The Fellowship of the Ring I thought "nice try". I appreciated the effort and integrity with which Peter Jackson had approached Tolkien but I couldn't quite see it as agreeing with my vision of what the movie should be, although I did enjoy it. I am a Tolkien fan and have been decades and collectively we are not an easy bunch to please. Tolkien himself, I think, would not have been very easy to please. I gave The Fellowship of the Ring three stars out of four.

The Two Towers moved more quickly but sacrificed what is to me the essence of the Lord of the Rings: the humanity, if one may call it that, of the hobbits and the quiet contemplation of the natural wonders of Middle Earth - the flowers, the trees, the grass. But I have to admit that a movie which tried to explore those aspects of the novel would have been almost impossible to film. Nonetheless, as with the first movie in the trilogy I did enjoyed watching it. Again, three stars out of four.

And so, to the Return of the King. Like its predecessors it is flawed but - YES! finally the series takes flight. Though using the latest in computer animation this film is a return to the great days of film-making past. The battle sequences are of epic proportions and the acting, particularly of Miranda Otto as Eoywn and Sean Astin as Sam, lifts the movie into another emotional level. The film is not as faithful to the details of the book as the first two parts but it is entirely faithful to the spirit.

Like the winged Nazgul the film soars and carries us with it through excitement, laughter and tears. Without wishing to reveal the ending let me just say that during the penultimate scene, at the Grey Havens, the crowded theatre I was in was hushed: the audience was lost in the movie. The only sound you could hear was an occasional quiet throat-clearing as some person decided that it had suddenly become a necessity. Four stars out of four. It is a masterpiece that will be enjoyed for generations to come.

Many thanks to Peter Jackson and the entire cast and crew who have given us this Christmas present. It was a labour of love for all concerned and it shows. The Academy Award belongs to this film, to Jackson as director, to Howard Shore for a fantastic score and to Sean Astin for turning in one of the most moving portrayals of friendship in film history.

Groundhog Day (1993)

Near classic

[7/10 · 20 December 2003]

Groundhog Day is one of those movies you wish you could remake. This is not a criticism - it is a complement. The movie is based on such a powerful thematic idea - that of reliving a day over and over again until you get it right - that it deservers to become the kind of classic story, like A Christmas Carol, that is remade periodically every few years to see what a different cast and director can make of it.

For instance, the movie is in the comedy/drama/romance genres, but I felt the comedy should have given way a bit more clearly to drama when the emotional turning point is reached; but the point is that I cared enough about the idea to be interested in thinking about improving its execution. I thought about the movie quite a bit, in fact, and that is exceedingly rare for me. I think the theme is good enough for doctoral dissertations and certainly Sunday sermons.

And I keep finding myself humming "The Pennsylvania Polka".