My New Year's Resolution, if I had one, was to see less shite films. This was partly due to the fact that I no longer have a critic's pass for the local multi-fleapit-plex (you don't mind watching films like Wanted and Max Payne when you don't have to pay for them); and partly because I just want to see better movies.
With this in mind, despite pressure from my peers, when given the choice between The Spirit and The Reader , there really was no choice at all...
I haven't yet got round to compiling my Top Ten Actresses (I doubt it'll be as much fun as my Top Ten Most Annoying Actresses), but the top of that list has never been in doubt, and I don't mind spoilering it here. There's no one quite like Kate Winslet; unmissable in any film she appears in, she can even make me not just tolerate but thoroughly enjoy a Jim Carrey film. Should Louise ever kick me to the kerb, I might well go knocking on Kate's door: she must be fed up of that chump Mendes by now. I mean, what does he have that I don't? (Apart from talent, looks, money and all that superficial stuff.)
Anyway, The Reader...
I've not read the book, and I suppose I really ought to have, but this is a film that will stay with me for a long time. It's one of those big stories that deals with love, guilt, responsibility, forgiveness and redemption (yes, yes, like Spider-Man) asking serious questions with no easy answers.
Michael Berg, a young man in 50's Germany meets and falls for an older woman, Hannah Schmitz (Winslet). A passionate affair ensues but the woman always seems detached, never revealing much about herself or her true feelings... and then she disappears. Years later, while studying to become a lawyer, Berg observes a war crimes trial in which his first love is charged with leading an SS guard unit. Berg has information that might help Hannah's case... but is he prepared to use it... and would she even want him to?
It's a film that blows apart black and white notions of morality and good / evil, and one that delivers a considerable emotional punch in its final half hour. Kate is astonishing. Even in the early seduction and affair scenes, she has carries darkness in her eyes and a weight on her shoulders that rarely lifts. Her final scenes as an old woman still coming to terms with her crimes are heartbreaking, yet also - through the lifeline Ralph Fiennes' Berg offers her - wonderfully uplifting.
Go on, try and convince me I should have gone to see The Spirit instead... I dare you! Bah, Frank Miller, what happened to you?
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15 rants and reactions:
I rate "our" Kate big time though haven't seen as many of her films as I would like to. She made Titanic tolerable for me... that and the fact that DiCaprio dies.
If Kate Winslet was one of the femme fatales flaunting her goods in The Spirit though, think your choice might've been different...
The Reader following Burn After Reading; reading must be the new watching, well until Watchmen comes out.
I bet you a sherbet you can't get a mention of Spider-man into every blog post for the next month.
I see Chris Menges ('Kes') was Director of Photography, which is a recommendation in itself.
I really liked the look of this film and, as you know, I worship the very blog you write on, so I shall make sure I get round to seeing it soon as ;o)
Another friend has also raved about 'Slumdog Millionaire' - I will attempt to squeeze both in while they are showing. 'Dean Spanley' was the last cinema film I saw and most enjoyable/unusual it was too.
sounds like a good watch..*hop..no my list*
I don't know which blog..but I've read a bad review about The Spirit so I think you chose right.
Ralph Fiennes plays an old woman? Doesn't that ruin the mood a bit?
Steve - any film where DiCaprio dies is worth watching.
Tone - I intended to take you up on your challenge (or your way to kill my readership completely), then I blew it on the first post.
BT - do you read all the credits?
Penelope - I do hope that was sarcasm; there's no room for worship here.
Laura - Slumdog is on my list too, I've always liked Danny Boyle.
Arjan - I've read many bad reviews of The Spirit... not read any good ones.
Kelvin - point taken, edits made. ;-)
I'm not sure I was trying to make a point; perhaps what this film really needs is some crossdressing?
Oh, and according to the Grauniad, Danny Boyle is producing a Judge Dredd film. Er...
No, my original choice of word order was bad. I couldn't even fix it with commas.
A Danny Boyle Judge Dredd? It can't be any worse than the Sly Stallone one.
It's a long way down on my list (my aunt made That Face when she was telling me she'd been to see it, and the undeniably lovely Kate is eclipsed by my HORROR of Ralph "There's a carrot up my bum" Fiennes) but your positive review has moved it up a few places. I still want to see "Australia" (sorry, but The Jackman does for me what La Winslet does for you), "The Spirit", and "Slumdog Millionaire" because I love the book ("Q & A" by Vikas Swarup) so much I've trebled the sales in our neck of the woods! Plus I have yet to see a bad review of it...
Still, one should probably not turn up on someone else's blog, a writer's blog no less, and slyly* correct his sentence structure, no matter how light-hearted it may be. Bad form on my part.
*with apologies to Stephen King.
Actually K, I welcome it.
And I'd be the first to do it on anyone else's blog. ;)
Lucy - I need to know more about That Face and what in particular caused such a reaction.
It was the lemon-sucking face (pursed lips, wincing eyes), which from my aunt usually means Stephane Grappelli. Or the Queen Mother. Or Ralph Fiennes, more particularly Ralph Fiennes feigning sex. In fact, I have no idea if Ralph Fiennes gets it on in a biblical way with La Winslet during the course of the film, so I was just assuming...
I can put your mind at rest that there are no scenes of RF's pasty white arse on display; all the shagging takes place between Kate and the lad who plays Fiennes-as-a-boy.
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