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jmerrington
Reviews
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
A film with major problems.
I can't say I hated this film at all, though I have a lot of pretty major problems with it. Ok, the first: I don't think Briget is a likeable or sympathetic character. Her romance with Mark seems not only contrived but also lacks even the slightest chemistry or realism. Its little more than a ridiculous feminine fantasy lacking anything deeper, like actual emotion for instance. Her boss is a much more realistic and likeable figure - he makes one mistake and has to pay for it over and over again. The fact that he doesn't want to settle down with Briget and get married, etc, makes him evil. Are men then meant to wait their entire lives for the perfect woman and forsake all others? Come on. Secondly, it bothers me that for an English film to be accepted by America (I class this as an English film very loosely) it seems that it has to be concerned only with the dull lovelives of obnoxious upper middle class London media types, who amount to less than 0.1% of the population. As an Englishman I see nothing of the England I know in this film, or in Sliding Doors, Notting Hill, etc. Thirdly, the music is gut-wrenchingly appalling. Having said all this, I still don't hate it.
Taking Off (1971)
Sadly Overlooked
I discovered this by accident, and have to wonder why it has been so ignored these last 22 years. Forman's take on the America of the late sixties is a beautiful mood piece, at times amusing, at times moving, but always acted, directed and written with subtlety and wit. I would reccomend this as a definative film about the culture of the Sixties.