Change Your Image
DarthAbspie
Reading; acting; reading about acting; writing fanfiction and original creations; doodling on scraps of paper; creating alternate theories on life, the universe and everything; boys AND girls; film; rock, classical and folk music; Dream Theater; Shakespeare.
Books:-
Lord of the Rings, Lemony Snicket, the Discworld, Agatha Christie, Malorie Blackman, Douglas Adams, Dickens, Harry Potter, and most other various ones. Love du Maurier, by the way. Very good.
Films:-
Too many to count, dear lord. Have a deep affection for Doctor Who, the TV series, and am in fact a member of several forums on the subject. Tend to go for fantasy and thought-provokers. Don't get me started on the film version of Lemony Snicket.
Dislikes:-
Idiots, bigots, rabbits, llamas, and physics. Ugh.
Hopes to:-
Act. Spends much of her time doing it too.
---
'A sceptic is only accepting of septic scepticality, except when the sceptic is accepted.'
Ye Olde Escher Erdbeeren - heute die erdbeeren, morgen die welt...
Reviews
Secret Smile (2005)
Gripping piece - better acting.
Miranda Cotton meets a guy; takes him home, bit of hanky-panky, they start to see each other. Just like any other relationship. But when she catches him reading her diary, she starts to get a bit worried, and asks him to leave.
To her shock and terror, in a few months he has proposed to her sister.
This piece really gripped me from start to finish. I curled up with a blanket and watched it - as a Doctor Who fan for many years, it's important to me that my Doctor is a good actor, and although I'd seen Tennant's acting before and loved it, I wanted to have a final test. I was certainly impressed. Secret Smile had a solid enough storyline that really terrified me in places, but it really was all down to the fabulous casting. Kate Ashfield (Miranda) had you on her side all the way through, conveying well what the emotions were - and Susannah Wise (Miranda's best friend, Laura) and her 'husband', James Daffern, despite having minor roles, impressed me beyond many of the other supporting cast.
There was not a truly weak performance in the cast. If I had to pick a low point it would probably be Claire Goose, but I think that was just down to a bad character as opposed to the acting; the book's Kerry is considerably different, somehow, and I didn't find myself connecting with this one so powerfully.
David Tennant was, however, the true highlight - he managed to convey Brendan's truly sadistic side with just a look - and yet still managed to have me feeling sorry for him when Miranda turned him away. 'That line' as it has become known - I won't write it, but suffice to say it's when he was thinking about her lips - was delivered with such a venom, that it physically made me shudder. A wonderful performance with immense presence. Also, kudos to Robert Lowe for a moving piece as Troy Cotton, even if his character was unbelievable.
Altogether, 10/10 for acting, 7/10 for plot. Definitely worth a watch - I videoed it, and really enjoyed it.
Corpse Bride (2005)
A film to die for!
This. Is. One. Of. The. Best. Films. Ever.
Now we've got rid of the excessive punctuation, I, as a long term Burton fan, have been anticipating this eagerly since June. And I was not disappointed.
An original plot line, something Hollywood is sorely lacking, excellent animation and brilliant vocal talents all combine to make this a truly brilliant film. At just the right length of 76 minutes, this could have been dragged out, but would have quickly become boring.
Johnny Depp, famous for his quirky roles, does a very convincing English accent, and Helena Bonham Carter is perfect in the airy, melancholy role of the Corpse Bride. Emily Watson is sweet as Victoria, and Joanna Lumely, Albert Finney, Richard E Grant, Christopher Lee and Tracey Ullman are perfect supporting cast, to name but a few.
The score by Danny Elfman is a wonderful undertone and as for the images - well, it's safe to say they breathe 'new life' into the dead.
This is a must for any Burton fan and a definite one to watch for others.
Troy (2004)
Epic Classic that deserves all due credit.
I didn't bother to watch this in the cinema or to buy it; I was informed by friends that it was a waste of time, that the acting was wooden, it was jumping on the LOTR bandwagon.
But having watched it last night, well! This is truly an epic and deserves all the awards it got.
The Director Wolfgang Petersen has taken Homer's Iliad and turned it into something the whole family can enjoy. Now, I myself have read and adored both the Odyessy and Iliad, and that is one of the reasons I was so sceptical about watching Troy - I thought it would be one of the Hollywood adaptations in an attempt to cash in - and it probably was! But damn, did they do a good job!
Brad Pitt does an excellent performance as Achilles, showing the emotions and turning the legend into a real person with real emotions. His love scenes are not overplayed, and his battle scenes - well, Mr Pitt, your training certainly paid off this time!
The real performer in this is Eric Bana. I'd not seen him in anything before, but his emotional levels that he brought to the role of Hector had me thinking that I'd follow him to death, damn it! As with Pitt, he does some wonderful acting with Saffron Burrows, who plays Andromache, his wife - perhaps not the perfect appearance, but an excellent performance - and his moments on the battlefield are awe-inspiring.
Orlando Bloom does a far better job than I'd anticipated. His Paris is not the snivelling coward nor terrible cruelty, but I'd rather hoped to see some more emotion - some of his performance just doesn't quite hit it, though you are left shaking your fist at him when it ends. Perhaps it is the script writer's fault, however, that rather than being guided by the gods - which admittedly would not have fitted with the film - he suddenly becomes a hero.
SPOILERS AHEAD: Without a doubt the best sequence in this starts when Hector kills Patroclus, and ends when Achilles gives his body back to Priam. The performances from every single actor had me in tears. When Hector and Achilles come face to face, you are torn between who to support - Achilles in his grief, or Hector in his courage? Peter O Toole shows off his talent in this one scene, and as for the scene where Achilles cries over Hector's body - wow! I was gob-smacked by this surprising show of talent from Pitt.
END OF SPOILER.
All the performances are decent and this is a film I would definitely recommend - over and over again.