The Hunger Games Movie

So I went to see Hunger Games on opening night, and thought I'd write a little post about my thoughts.

First up, I loved it. I thought it was really well done and a good adaptation of the book. The didn't ruin anything, in fact, a few elements were enhanced from my reading and if I were to re-read them, I think my imaginings will be richer for it.

I feel like putting a big 'however' on it though... I had read these books, and if you liked the books I'm sure you'll like the movie. But if you haven't, I'm not sure you'll quite understand what the fuss is about. There didn't seem to be enough of the 'why' of the motivation and reasons behind everything that happened to satisfy someone who doesn't know the story. This point is illustrated by my own movie-going group, of the 6 of, 2 hadn't read it. It was only those two that didn't seem to be impressed at all.

Watching, I knew why things were the way they were in this society much better than the movie told me. I knew Katniss' motivation and emotional state enough to read it on her face much better than someone who hadn't read them.

This leaves me with the same plea that I usually say about film adaptations: read the book first. This time, it's not just because the books are better than the movie (they almost always are) but because you will get so much more out of the movie having read the books. It's almost as if this movie were made just for people who read the books. I kind of understand why it might be getting some bad reviews, but I don't agree with them.

I loved it, and I can't wait for number 2!

4 Gold Stars

Immortals

A bit of background before you think I’m crazy for being desperate for rushing out to see Immortals.

Years ago I saw the movie ‘The Cell’ and thought it was really interesting. True, the acting wasn’t the best, and J-Lo and Vince Vaughn of all people? But that aside, the ideas behind it and the imagery in its finishing were fascinating.

Several years passed and my brother sent me a message saying ‘If you liked Pan’s Labyrinth, then you’ll probably like The Fall.’ As it happened, Pan’s Labyrinth was my favourite at the time, so I thought I’d check out ‘The Fall’. I’m not sure how he heard about it, because very few people I speak to, if any, have heard of it (It was never released in Australia either to the cinema or on DVD). When I saw it, I knew I had found gold. The Fall became (and remains) my all-time-favourite-movie (if you force me to pick just one).

A short time later I saw on IMDB that Tarsem Singh was working on something new. Sorry, to clarify: he directed both The Cell and The Fall but up until then hadn’t directed any other films. So news of a new one, and one based on Greek Mythology no less, was extremely exciting.

So, I have been waiting almost 3 years to actually see this from when I first heard of it. Unfortunately my excitement started waning when I saw the preview. It appeared he’d gone blockbuster/action. Still, I wanted to see it.

So, this week was the time! It had arrived here was an opportunity…

It was as I feared. “The producers of 300” (apparently a drawcard) had decided they wanted to make the same movie over again, but borrow some of Tarsem’s visionary genius to paint on top of it. Over the top action sequences that not only tried to glorify the blood that was literally free flowing like exploded water balloons, but attempted to make it somehow artistically beautiful as well. Semi-naked buff bodies filling up rooms like a ball pit, and a script that was predictable and unfulfilling.

It was ridiculous. Did I enjoy it? Yes, but I was still disappointed.  It was magnificently ridiculous and beautiful. I hope that sometime in the future Tarsem can find it in himself to make genuinely brilliant film like The Fall again, but if his next venture is anything to go by, it looks like a exponential decline.

I feel I need to mention how uncomfortably loud the cinema was, and how pointless and annoying the 3D aspect was. For an industry that wants to encourage movie patronage, they seem to be going out of their way to turn people off the cinema experience. I for one was just reminded how much I prefer to watch movies at home where I can control the volume and am not forced to pay extra to wear a 2^nd pair of glasses while watching a movie. (yes, I mean forced. I searched for a non-3D session in VMax and found I would have to drive for an hour and a half to see the one session a day in which that option was available.)

In summary, it’s possibly worth watching for the Tarsem shell they’ve encased it in, but do not be fooled that you will be seeing anything new, and know exactly what you’re signing up to.

11-11-11

Another 2 sentence review.


Once again my penchant for religious thrillers got me into trouble, with another horrible offering from people involved with the Saw films.
Can someone inform Hollywood that there is more to being scared than creepy things appearing suddenly in frame accompanied by loud noises; and inform the writer/director that the twist left me limp?

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

I thought I'd do another 2 sentence review. Keep in mind I liked the first Transformers movie...



Because I'm not a heterosexual American male who is turned on by women, cars, guns, explosions, and the misguided sense of American patriotism when it's actually the whole world at stake, there was little left in this ridiculously long movie to enjoy.
'Over the top' is a massive understatement.

Bless The Child

Another 2 Sentence Review!



Sometimes my love of religious thrillers has a darker side.
By 'darker side' I mean I end up watching terribly scripted, over-acted, ridiculous movies.

But if you watch that trailer, you have effectively seen the whole film. Including the comical exploding car that fell off a bridge...

Hanna

Hanna appeared to be an interesting movie for its Genre, and I do like me some Cate Blanchette.

So, what did I think now that I’ve seen it?

Well, it’s an over the top action movie with some rather odd quiet moments in between. In other words, it was good fun!

One thing that I found a bit off putting was the bizarre trance music that was thrust upon us suddenly at the beginning of the first real action sequence. It didn’t seem to fit in with what the movie was going for, and kept distracting me and making me laugh at the ridiculousness of how every action movie seems to need either dance/trance or heavy metal music when people are beating each other up and shooting at each other. When the credits rolled, I saw that the music had been done by the Chemical Brothers, and then it all seemed to make sense. I still think there was a major disjunct between the tone of the movie and the music, but at least I understood how the producers could have let the music get so self involved.

Oh, one other thing that was distractingly ‘arty’ and over-done was the lighting design. I didn’t realise that secret military bases had a ‘disco’ setting. Nor that the same setting would also be applied in an abandoned theme park, only with coloured globes… Let’s just say it’s a good thing that none of these characters were epileptic, as the fights might have been over much sooner if they ended up convulsing on the ground.

But, overall, it’s entertaining. As we learned years ago with Serenity, movies about teenage girls who can kick butt just seem to work. (Please note: Serenity is infinitely better than Hanna)

Your Highness

When I saw the trailer for Your Highness, I thought, ‘That looks pretty funny! It’s about time that there was a fanstay/comedy that actually had a semi-decent budget and cast.

Now I’ve had a chance to see it, I can tell you this: it is very funny*

*I need to qualify that. It is hilarious, if you like inappropriate and crude humour. Not the kind of movie you would sit and watch with your parents. (especially if your parents are the reserved type, who much prefer good clean fun).

But, if you are not easily offended, and want an action, adventure, fantasy, comedy (not for kids), then Your Highness could be your cup of tea. Oh and there’s LOTS of swearing…

It’s the type of film I found myself asking ‘why did Natalie Portman agree to this?’ and then answering my own question: ‘because she would have just finished working on Black Swan and ANYONE would want a silly laugh after that!’

Let’s just say, it makes you rethink what a warrior’s trophy from a kill might be.

Super 8

Welcome to my inaugural “2 Sentence Review”. This type of review has come about because I (completely independently) came up with the idea to write Haiku Reviews, only to discover that I was not the first to have such a thought and so my brilliance would get lost amongst the myriad of other such review blogs. Then, watching Super 8, a new thought occurred to me. How about I sum up my thoughts in two sentences?

I haven’t had the heart to check the net to see if anyone else has done this, and frankly, I don’t care. My blog will not be dedicated to the 2 sentence reviews, they’ll just be there when I can succinctly sum up my thoughts. (Hooray! I hear my readers cheer… Lord knows I can waffle on…)

So, all introductions aside, on with the show:

Super 8

First it was boring.

Then it was silly (maybe if I was a kid again?).

The Fifth Element

Last night I took a trip down memory lane and watched The Fifth Element for the first time in what I thought was over a year, but then when I looked at my list, it is actually 19 days short of a year (yes, I’m that kind of nerd that has kept a record of every movie he’s watched since the beginning of 2003 when the idea occurred to me). It seems I watch it once a year just to remind myself of how fun it really is.

Anyway, loser-ish-ness aside, I thought I would write a bit of review of it because I love it so much.

Something that I noticed last night, that seems to have gone unnoticed by me in previous viewings, was that the costumes were done by Jean-Paul Gaultier. Then it hit me: This movie is so camp! It’s a great futuristic, sci-fi adventure that sees a scantily-clad Milla Jovovich running around and kicking butt in order to save the world. In other words: Too much fun!

There are some brilliantly edited sequences that are incredibly entertaining. To a certain degree, it pokes fun that the whole ‘stop the death of every living thing’ type of film, where Bruce Willis’ character is even asked specifically to “save the world.” Then to have the entire climax to the film be narrated ‘live on air’ by the ridiculously over the top Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) just leaves you smiling.

For a film that was made in 1997, it has held up against all the new developments in CGI etc. and is as entertaining now as it was at the time. Although now we can look back and laugh at Luke Perry’s top-billing casting for his 3 mins of screen time.

I even said last night that this is one that I need to replace with a blu-ray edition. It’s one I watch often enough to warrant a second buying, and the edition I own just won’t cut it anymore.

I know this review has said next to nothing, but really, if you haven’t seen it, you should. And if you have seen it, don’t you think it’s time to watch it again?

Sucker Punch

I was so excited to see Sucker Punch, I was hanging out for it ever since I saw the trailer. I had loved Watchmen. And 300 was well done for what it was. So girls-kicking-butt-to-escape-asylum seemed like it would be too much fun.

It was so over the top and ridiculous that it just seemed to be doing things because it could: Sense and Reason be damned! And sometimes that type of thing can be great, so maybe it just caught me on an off day when a little more substance wouldn’t have gone astray.

There were three main things that irked me with this movie:

1) More than half the movie was in slow motion. Or that’s what it felt like anyway. And it’s not even slow motion that lets you savour the exciting near-misses, or gravity-defying jumps. Yes, I can see she is walking into the asylum. Yes, I can see she is glancing at that person. I don’t really need it spelt out to me like I have never seen a movie before or have no notion of narrative. This technique was used in a really classy way in Watchmen, and the other films Zack Snyder directed. But it’s almost as if he had run out of ideas and because it worked before, he’d just use it again and again. The first half-an-hour (and then some) felt like a glorified music video.

2) I lost all sense of reality. I know this was the point of the movie, but it went like this: Story begins in real world. Then girl gets taken to mental hospital by evil step-dad. Then after getting a glimpse at the real state of things, we’re thrust into a fantasy version of the asylum where it is set up like a club with performing girls. We can only assume that the guy who runs the place (in the real version) pimps out the patients. Ok, I get that and I get that a club scenario is a much sexier way to describe that situation. Then within that make-believe world, the girls dance, and when they dance they enter an epic-fantasy-war-zone of various descriptions. In this imaginary world they manage to achieve the steps they need to in order to escape. And they emerge from the ‘dance’ with the outcome reflecting what happened in that over-the-top battle. And again, I accept that within the premise of the movie. What annoyed me was, we didn’t ever come back to the ‘real world’ until right near the end when everything was going wrong, and throughout it all I couldn’t work out a reasonable real-life comparison to the imaginary events that we were being shown. Sure, I could see how they fit into the “club” scenario, but not an actual mental hospital. Not to mention that the main character is still wearing her “dance costume” when we are well and truly back in the real world which left me thinking, wait, what the hell is going on here?

3) I’ll keep this one short just to avoid spoilers and because I’m starting to feel like I’ve spent long enough talking about this movie. The ending was weak, predictable, and entirely underwhelming.

So, if you’re interested in seeing a movie that apparently is more about girls in sexy outfits kicking butt in an extremely un-realistic way than it is about anything understandable or relatable, then Sucker Punch is for you.

Who knows, when I’m in the mood I might find myself watching it again, desperately trying to make sense of it. At least then I’ll know what I’m getting myself in for.

Troll 2

Last night, the movie Toll 2 was introduced to me.

This train wreck of a film is so much better when you read the Trivia behind it. But I’ll summarise the best bits here:

It came about because many of the writer’s friends became vegetarians at the same time –hence the evil, murderous, vegetarian goblins.

It has no relation to the original Toll film whatsoever, it simply hoped to ride on the minor success of it.

It has no Tolls in it at all.

The entire cast turned up thinking they would be extras and all got leading rolls – hence the appalling acting. (but really, the performances make the film the gem that it is.)

I could go on, but you can read the rest of them at IMDB.

I just have to say, that this is hands down the funniest film that I have ever seen that wasn’t intended to be a comedy at all. It was describe to me beforehand as not so much a B-grade film, as an F-grade… F for fail. And to expand on that, it is an Epic Fail!

It’s definitely one to watch with a group of friends, you’ll all be laughing yourselves silly by the opening credits!

I want to say more, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise of just how shockingly bad this movie is. But having said that, well worth watching! I can see myself enjoying this again and again… naturally with sufficient time elapsing in between: time to recover.

Another Year

I had been told that the film Another Year was “really good, but a bit sad” and the trailer for it had made it seem really interesting, I went and saw it.

It was exactly like I was expecting, only better!

I really enjoy watching Jim Broadbent and so was looking forward to his performance (which was great), but it was Ruth Sheen’s portrayal of Gerri that really had me engaged. She had a measured, genuine air that I found really lovely.

I had it in my head (though I’m not sure where it came from) that this movie was about people dying. I was wrong, there was a death, but it was of a character we hadn’t been introduced to. So, when it was described as “a bit sad” that referred more to the character of Mary.

Mary (played brilliantly by Lesley Manville) is a single woman who is getting on in years and although she tried to cover it with a bubbly personality, is desperately lonely. So much so, she seems to have no idea where to direct her affections.

Another Year was directed by Mike Leigh. Just now, I was looking at IMDB and saw that he also directed Happy-Go-Lucky and it was a bit of an ‘Ah-ha!’ moment. Happy-Go-Lucky was a bit different, but captured the same sentiment, in my opinion. Basically, that life is there, it can be great and satisfying but then there is always some sort of unhappiness affecting someone in what can be the most profound way. I don’t know if this summing up is doing either of these films justice, but it’s the best I can do at this hour in the morning. J

All I can say is, Another Year is well worth watching and (to amend the earlier quote) is brilliant, but a bit sad.

The Adjustment Bureau

The was not the movie I was expecting. The original trailer I saw made it out to be a non-stop action, heavily FX-ed sci-fi adventure. But, having said that, I would have been happy to watch such a movie. It had still made me excited to see it.

It was not that movie, however, and felt a lot more grounded and worth watching.

I felt like a bit of an idiot at the end when the credits started rolling and I was informed that it was based on a book by Philip K. Dick. “Oh…” I said to myself, “that’s why I liked it so much.” It’s moments like that that I think that I should have researched the movie a bit more before watching it. I generally really enjoy movies that are based on books by Philip K. Dick. Admittedly, I’ve never read any of his books which, I’m sure, is a huge oversight, but in my own defence, I find that there is too much YA fiction to read so I have to make do with movie adaptations of adult novels.

Anyway, back to the movie of the hour.

Firstly, a good third of the film passes before anything sci-fi/fantasy-ish happens, by which time you have a great sense of ‘real life’ as it has been constructed. Then, enter the mysterious agents of “The Adjustment Bureau.”

Even at this point, I was still expecting it to be typical Hollywood and get carried away with itself, but the whole thing was pleasantly restrained. I was engaged and lapping up the theory of how tiny events can change what happens in the future eagerly. How the Adjustment Bureau are there to keep people “on plan” by making you get a text at this time, or spill your coffee at that time etc.

Honestly, the resolution was a little weak, but without destroying the mystery of the Bureau, it’s probably the best that could happen.

It was a great movie!

This trailer gives a bit of a better sense of what the movie is actually like:

The Troll Hunter [Trolljegeren]

The opening minutes of this film had me concerned: text describing how the ‘footage’ was obtained, then how it was examined and found to be “genuine”. It then begins with student reporters tracking down a story about some bear shootings and all the footage is done with a hand-held camera.

‘Oh no,’ I thought, ‘could this be a Norwegian ‘Blair Witch’?’

Maybe, in it’s original appearance, but it is so much more than whiny teenagers getting lost and freaked out in the woods.

The bear shootings, we soon find out, are all part of a “larger” problem: Trolls. These university reporters eventually find their way to a strange man who is very evasive at first, but then concedes to have them tag along as long as they do exactly what he says, when he says. It turns out that he is a Troll Hunter (hence the title) that is hired by the government to control the troll population of Norway.

What does all this add up to?

FUN!

I loved the whole thing! Such unpretentious fantasy is so refreshing! I’m rather concerned that Hollywood will find this one and remove its charm in the process of remaking it for an “American Audience”.

Troll Lore is worked in well, including the usual “you can’t believe what you hear in fairytales” that seems to make an appearance in all modern retellings of anything originating in folklore.

The CGI is convincing as well, particularly considering the ‘poor’ quality of the hand-held footage. You could almost believe what you were seeing, which works in a strange positive way for Tourism Norway. I know I want to go to see the trolls, if not the amazing scenery.

Love it!

Fantastic Mr. Fox

I was sceptical about ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’. The trailer didn’t interest me, during all its publicity at the time of its cinema release I cringed at every film poster, film tie-in novel, and sticker book merchandise that I saw everywhere. I love Roald Dahl but I was so put off by the look of this film that I avoided it like the plague. Which is why, I have only just now seen it when I found myself thinking, ‘why not? Everyone says it’s good, what have I got to lose?’

Boy had I got it wrong!

This film cracked me up on so many different levels! It was brilliant! The stop motion animation was incredible, and the voices were superb.

First of all, while this was filmed in stop-motion it had a lot of the humour that is usually found in cartoons. And to see it in another medium was great! Brief sight gags, nonsense dialogue and awkward pauses while characters look at each other all worked perfectly to bring to life the type of fun that reading a Roald Dahl novel is like. It’s too Funny!

The casting was great too! While I’m not a George Clooney fan, his voice suited Mr Fox ‘fantastically’! But all of them were flawlessly suited to each of the characters and there were a nice mix of easily recognisable actors and those who I didn’t know about. Some characters (eg. Kylie voiced by Wallace Wolodarsky) had me laughing loudly with almost everything they said.

In all my ‘judging before knowing anything about it’ and ‘avoiding for the sake of avoiding’ it wasn’t until I had sat through all the delicious nonsense, enjoyed myself thoroughly and decided that this was definitely one to watch again in the near future, when the credits began to roll and I discovered that it was a Wes Anderson film. This discovery both explained much of the nonsense (in its delivery, Roald Dahl must be given credit for the majority of it) and was a bit of a final ‘why was I avoiding this movie’ moment. I love his other films and probably would have seen it sooner had I paid any attention to the fact that he was the director.

What this entire review boils down to is: if you haven’t seen this film, you must. And if you have, you probably need to watch it again for good measure. I know I will be!

For Colored Girls

Anyone can tell simply by the title of this film that I am not the target audience. I’m neither coloured, nor female. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t be moved by it, or find it powerful.

This is very much an issues film. The synopsis on IMDB says: “Each of the women portray one of the characters represented in the collection of twenty poems, revealing different issues that impact women in general and women of color in particular.”

So be warned, it is confronting.

Throughout the film, there are monologues that, if you weren’t expecting them, might be construed as arty and overdone. I didn’t find them that way, but I could see how some people might. These monologues reminded me of Slam Poetry I’ve heard (such as this one) but slightly different, more personal rather than general perhaps. So it did not surprise me when I discovered that the movie began as play, which began as a collection of 20 poems.

The play's full title was: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf

Now I’ll get to the actors. Wow! Some of these performances blew me away!

Kimberly Elise and Anika Noni Rose in particular impressed me. Their conviction was superb!

A year or so ago I was saying to one of my friends that what I wanted from Whoopi Goldberg was for her to make a comeback of sorts and do a serious, indie film where she could show off how well she can actually act rather than another comedy where talent can easily go unnoticed. Well, I don’t know how indie this film was, but it certainly was everything else I wanted from her.

Even Janet Jackson portrayed her character perfectly. It’s too easy to associate her with the superficial pop music industry and sometimes we forget that she has considerable talent. I’m mainly referring to her acting here, being a film review, but if you look amongst her music too, you’ll find talent there too.

Without listing them all, it needs to be said that the whole cast did an excellent job.

So while this movie might not be everyone’s cup of tea (as they say), I found it heartfelt and compelling. And if you’re willing to be confronted with issues such as rape, abuse, murder, abortion, and relationships among many others, For Colored Girls is fantastic. And even though I’m not included in the demographic under discussion, I did feel a sense of empowerment and community that awareness can bring.

9

When I first heard about the movie ‘9’ I thought that it looked pretty cool. It looked like another kid’s movie that might be a bit different from the others out there, but essentially, a kid’s movie. I finally got around to watching it last night and I really, really enjoyed it!

It was not the childish fun and games I had thought it to be. From the very beginning I was enthralled by the animation. Its detail and complexity were stunning, managing to be dark, sinister and beautiful all at once. If nothing else, this film would keep you entertained visually from start to finish.

While I must admit, that the story line itself was fairly standard for children’s movies, the themes in it were more grown up. It brought to mind films like The Matrix and Terminator with the battle between human and machines being the driving force. In some regards, this one is even bleaker, as it begins after the death of the last human and even the machines have begun to fall silent.

The other aspect that made me feel it was slightly more mature than what first I perceived it to be, were the monsters ‘The Machine’ built for itself. One in particular was so delightfully creepy, it gave me shivers as I sat, slightly freaked out and disturbed, watching it. Even the ‘good guys’ (hessian or leather dolls held together with their own, unique fastening) had a fascinating warped quality to them. I don’t want to attribute it all to him, because he was only one of the producers and there were so many more people involved, but you could easily see patches of Tim Burton’s influence through the film.

If you like animated films, or even if you don’t but you like things that are slightly different or unusual, the go check out 9. There more than enough in it to enjoy.

The Rite

I love me a religious thriller. Just love them. I don’t know what it is about them, but I just do. I was trying to work out what about them I enjoyed so much and I think what it boils down to is that (as far as story telling goes) the Catholic mythology is so well established and well known, that it is easy to get involved.

I was very excited by the preview of this movie: It had Anthony Hopkins who can be a very compelling actor and … it was a religious thriller.

I was hoping it would be new and exciting. One that broke the mould like The Exorcism of Emily Rose did. But it didn’t.

This does not mean I did not enjoy it. It was a fun watch and Anthony Hopkins played the fringe exorcist priest brilliantly. Even when he himself got possessed and the young doubting priest had to save the day, there were some interesting effects and it all panned out as you would expect.

I guess one thing I did like was how subtle it was compared to some other religious thrillers. The fear we feel as an audience isn’t relational to the number of explosions, CGI demons and girls crawling on walls. It was nice that the few effects they did use were confined to the possessed in a bodily sort of way. It was nice that rooms weren’t being engulfed in flames every other scene.

So while it didn’t break the mould as far as doing something new with the genre, it did break out of the recent trend to be showy and over the top.

If you like this genre, The Rite is worth watching.

Monsters

I went into this movie expecting something entirely different to what I got, and that doesn't mean I was disappointed.

The trailer led me to believe this was the next big action monster movie with lots of strange creatures and army troops fighting them. Almost as if this was a sequel to Cloverfield.

In reality, this was a thoughtful film, that was more about relationships than anything else. On top of exploring the complicated relationships of and between the two main characters, questions are raised about the relationship between humans and this "creatures". The everyday citizens of Mexico that this pair come across on their journey home are all grieving the loss of someone or something and even go so far as to say that the creatures won't bother you if you don't bother them and it's only when the Americans fly over and bomb them that the attacks happen and people lose their lives.

For a film called "Monsters" there are surprisingly few of them in it. Other than a seemingly constant news feed on every TV we pass playing what appears to be the same footage of a recent attack, we don't have an encounter with one at all for at least 45 minutes to an hour. I think if I had been expecting this lack of "action" then I would have enjoyed it much more as it too me 3/4 of the movie to work out that it wasn't the next Cloverfield, or Alien, I couldn't help feeling a little miffed. That said, the approach to the concept of how people would cope with the idea/presence of these creatures was well executed and By then end I had decided I loved the movie. This is very much the 'monster' movie for those who don't really enjoy mindless shooting at giant aliens. All in all it was a very refreshing addition the the monster movie genre.

Particularly when you think about how low budget this film was (comparatively) only spending around $200,000, shot with a crew of 2 entirely on location. It certainly didn't have that feel to it.

Both of the main actors, Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy, appear the be entirely new to the world of movies (according to their IMDb page at least) and both did a great job. I would be happy to see either of them again.

in summary, I give it 4 out of 5 and recommend it to anyone who likes the sound of an interesting, well thought out monster movie.

A Home at the End of the World

I watched this movie with no expectations. All I knew about it was that it had Colin Farrell in it and it was based on a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Michael Cunningham. I had not read the book, did not know the story line and, in effect, had never heard of it before...

And I was hugely delighted by it! I really enjoyed its subtle tone, presenting the story in a way that did not force an opinion on you.

Farrell's acting also took me by surprise. I had not considered him particularly skilled, but I must confess I don't think I have seen many of his other films. However, the fragile innocence of 'Bobby' was remarkable. I really felt moved by his care-free attitude masking a lurking depression and need to be loved. This was all captured beautifully by Farrell.

Robin Wright Penn, similarly, superbly portrays the plight of a 20-something looking for a life that suits her, with all the joy, sex, doubt, and sadness that comes with being in love with her gay best friend.

Without giving too much away, one thing that I am unresolved about within myself, is the way that the sadder events are handled. There is a lot of tragedy in the life of these characters. However, we are exposed to it all through a gentle filter, I felt like I should be crying from all the dramatic turns in the story, but on the movie went, as on life goes. I was moved, but not to tears as I expect I would have been if these elements were forced upon the audience in a more heavy-handed way. I am unsure how I feel about this because I feel like I should have been more upset and empathise with the characters more, but at the same time I thought it was admirable that I could watch a movie that dealt with some of the sorer points of life without leaving me feeling wrecked with grief and despair at the world.

I highly recommend this film to people, and look forward to the day it becomes part of my personal movie collection.