Film Reviews
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Ladykillers, The (Alexander
MacKendrick, 1953)
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Life is Sweet (Mike Leigh,
1990)
Comedy-drama with Jim Broadbent, Alison Steadman, Claire
Skinner, Jane Horrocks, Timothy Spall & Stephen Rea.
Since beginning to appreciate director Leigh as a tremendously gifted
storyteller, I've no longer felt the need to search his movies for some
overblown message or statement, but rather simply allow myself to enter into
the lives of the intriguing characters he presents to us, walk with them on
their journey, and learn with them as they learn about themselves. Life is
Sweet is generally lighter fare than, say, his much later
Secrets and Lies or
All or Nothing, but it is no less
compelling. The main characters are well-sketched, their humorous
idiosyncracies never quite overstepping the mark into hollow caricature, and
given enough depth and complexity to avoid the impression that Leigh is
patronizing towards them, in a way that a lesser storyteller, such as Willy
Russell, often appears.
Life is Sweet is very funny, very warm, but also very human and poignant,
with a few really gritty moments. Rachel Portman's score veers between the
playful and the melancholy, reflecting, perhaps creating, the tone of the
film.
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Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003)
Romantic comedy with Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson,
Alan Rickman, Martine McCutcheon, Bill Nighy, Colin Firth & Keira Knightley.
There is no denying that Love Actually is a very entertaining film. There
are some very funny moments, often genuinely witty and warm, and the cast, for
the most part, is first-class. The nowadays more mature Grant is no longer the
annoying foppish twit he was earlier in his career, and actually manages to be
quite endearing. Martine McCutcheon -- already known to British audiences as a
TV soap star, and certainly not an actress I would have deliberately chosen to
see -- turns in a serendipitously understated performance. She delivers what
could have been some very tedious comedy episodes (such as the early "Oops, I
just said shit twice," scene) in a surprisingly low-key manner. Also worth
noting is Nighy as an ageing rocker, who has some of the film's funniest
lines.
Curtis brings a number of strands of plot together (the cast is huge, and
many of the different storylines do not interconnect until well into the
film), connecting them up in some very clever ways at times. However, it
doesn't always work. At least two or three of the subplots could have been
dispensed with altogether -- they simply don't engage us or make sense.
There is no doubt the film is an emotional rollercoaster. You'll be
fighting back the tears at times. The most emotional moments, however, arise
from the filmmakers' shameless manipulation of the audience: The most banal
and embarrassingly lazy cliches surface regularly to tug on our heartstrings;
the score periodically swells into patriotic fervour or overblown
sentimentalism to wrench our innermost feelings out of us. The British
journalist Will Self furiously called the opening sequence, during which Hugh
Grant refers to the phone calls from the planes to loved ones on 9/11, "the
most grotesque and sickening manipulation of the cinema audience since Leni
Riefenstahl's [Nazi propaganda film] Triumph of the Will." A bit of wild
overstatement, perhaps, but not totally removed from the truth. Get your
audience thinking back to all those images of people weeping and embracing
after 9/11, and you'll have them eating out of the palm of your hand should
you want to feed them a message of "love, love, love", no matter how trite the
means.
What saves this film is that, apart from the triteness, there are some
genuinely moving moments: The scene in which wrinkled rockstar Nighy confesses
his love for his "chubby employee"; when recently wedded Kiera Knightley
watches her friend's video of the wedding and makes a startling discovery.
There are also some genuinely funny moments, even if Curtis more than
occasionally gives in to the temptation to sink into the predictable. And
finally, there are some very clever moments, when Curtis does actually manage
to defy our expectations and deliver something other than what we wanted or
anticipated. Beneath the banal, there really is some warmth. Go on, suspend
your critical judgment for the evening. I confess, I am not convinced it is
all love. It's just entertainment, actually.
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Lover Come Back (Delbert
Mann, 1960)
Romantic comedy with Rock Hudson, Doris Day & Tony Randall.
This hasn't aged quite as well as its predecessor,
Pillow Talk. The main characters
aren't as sympathetic, and the pace isn't quite as tight. Nevertheless, who
could resist the brilliant trio of stars in Hudson, Day and Randall? They are
given some really excellent material to work with in Stanley Shapiro and Paul
Henning's witty script. The sex-angle is a step up from the previous film,
presumably a tad shocking to audiences at the time. The innuendo is smartly
handled, however.
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