Despite my initial apprehension about the ever-present quality of Bill Nighy's monotone acting style, this TV drama was something a little bit special. Many things have also been written about the decline of the British Rom-Com into meaningless commercialisation and it would seem that Richard Curtis is the main exponent of this love-or-hate genre. Despite this, and regardless of individual taste, this semi-comic drama really blew me away. Curtis returns to arguably his strongest field, in Comic Relief-related, charity-based entertainment. This drama didn't so much force a sense of guilt upon the viewer (like many charity marketing programmes) as create a real sense of hope and a determination to get things right this time around.
Parallels can be immediately seen between The Girl in the Cafe and Sophia Coppola's Lost in Translation. For example, the beauty of the location of Reykjavic recalls the strange beauty of Japan in Coppola's film. Most importantly, both films are intensely moving dramas about people finding themselves after periods lost in a haze of pointlessness. And this is perhaps where the poverty message intermeshes with the main masterplot. Amidst all the years of relative inaction, the daring move to make the world at least a slightly better place relates on an extremely personal level.
For the filmic and narrative qualities of The Girl in the Cafe alone, the film is good, if a little derivative. But more important is the message it conveys. Please: let's make poverty history.
Parallels can be immediately seen between The Girl in the Cafe and Sophia Coppola's Lost in Translation. For example, the beauty of the location of Reykjavic recalls the strange beauty of Japan in Coppola's film. Most importantly, both films are intensely moving dramas about people finding themselves after periods lost in a haze of pointlessness. And this is perhaps where the poverty message intermeshes with the main masterplot. Amidst all the years of relative inaction, the daring move to make the world at least a slightly better place relates on an extremely personal level.
For the filmic and narrative qualities of The Girl in the Cafe alone, the film is good, if a little derivative. But more important is the message it conveys. Please: let's make poverty history.