This film really is one of those which deserves several viewings in order to be better appreciated ! From what I have read here, there seem to be a lot of negative comments about the film and I think this stems from an initial superficial viewing of the work which may leave a bad overall impression in one's mind. However I always try to view films thinking "now what will they say about this in thirty years' time ' " so to speak and I think that in that context the film will have acquired some historical value and stamp which seems to be lacking at present. I have already seen this phenomenon with certain films from the seventies and early eighties which are now considered with far more respect and awe than at the time they actually came out.
I would not go so far as to say that the film is some great work of art and do have criticisms with regard to it, but several viewings of the work have brought me to re-assessing my initial reaction. The first thing we may say is that the sound track is MAGNIFICENT but I would hasten to add that it is a COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME buying the CD soundtrack as half the damned tracks are MISSING from the CD ! Why no-one complains about this sort of thing I will never understand ! A CD entitled sound track should contain all the music from the film, it's not as if we were talking about extracts only ........
The beginning of the film does start out chatty, too fast, over noisy,flippant, and rather shallow, however when the film settles down to "crusing speed",there are some genuinely romantic moments and my favorite passage of all is when our two protagonists are staying with the party of elderly people in a luxury motel and dancing to the beautiful music of Ruben Gonzales ( Siboney / Melodia del Río ), and of course they end up underwater in the swimming pool ! That is superb ! Other nice moments are when they are shopping in the K-Mart together, a very funny time in the gay night-club ( hilarious ) the scene where they are both talking together in the bushes just before Afleck goes off to his wedding in the hurricane and of course the bit at the end where Bullock finally meets up and is accepted by her little son. I could not remain untouched by these scenes.
To go back to the dance scene with Ruben Gonzales, Bullock gives advice to Affleck about how to cope with his wife and married life in general. I was most touched by this scene ( the music surely helped me along ) and found the dialogue to be most "authentic".
The bad weather during the "wedding" scene causes some anguish but is well filmed, notably the slow-motion hailstones and normally you will notice that in films, weddings are filmed in sunny weather ( and funerals in the rain ) as sun is supposed to be a sign of optimism and rain, sadness ( but this can of course depend on the country where you live ). To see a wedding, or to be more precise, wedding preparations, in the rain and wind, then is surprising to say the least.
In conclusion, then, the film without being a major work of art, has far more to commend it than to condemn it despite the initial twenty minutes or so being totally uninteresting and flippant. I think it WILL stand up to the test of time and will be far more appreciated in due course than at present.
I would not go so far as to say that the film is some great work of art and do have criticisms with regard to it, but several viewings of the work have brought me to re-assessing my initial reaction. The first thing we may say is that the sound track is MAGNIFICENT but I would hasten to add that it is a COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME buying the CD soundtrack as half the damned tracks are MISSING from the CD ! Why no-one complains about this sort of thing I will never understand ! A CD entitled sound track should contain all the music from the film, it's not as if we were talking about extracts only ........
The beginning of the film does start out chatty, too fast, over noisy,flippant, and rather shallow, however when the film settles down to "crusing speed",there are some genuinely romantic moments and my favorite passage of all is when our two protagonists are staying with the party of elderly people in a luxury motel and dancing to the beautiful music of Ruben Gonzales ( Siboney / Melodia del Río ), and of course they end up underwater in the swimming pool ! That is superb ! Other nice moments are when they are shopping in the K-Mart together, a very funny time in the gay night-club ( hilarious ) the scene where they are both talking together in the bushes just before Afleck goes off to his wedding in the hurricane and of course the bit at the end where Bullock finally meets up and is accepted by her little son. I could not remain untouched by these scenes.
To go back to the dance scene with Ruben Gonzales, Bullock gives advice to Affleck about how to cope with his wife and married life in general. I was most touched by this scene ( the music surely helped me along ) and found the dialogue to be most "authentic".
The bad weather during the "wedding" scene causes some anguish but is well filmed, notably the slow-motion hailstones and normally you will notice that in films, weddings are filmed in sunny weather ( and funerals in the rain ) as sun is supposed to be a sign of optimism and rain, sadness ( but this can of course depend on the country where you live ). To see a wedding, or to be more precise, wedding preparations, in the rain and wind, then is surprising to say the least.
In conclusion, then, the film without being a major work of art, has far more to commend it than to condemn it despite the initial twenty minutes or so being totally uninteresting and flippant. I think it WILL stand up to the test of time and will be far more appreciated in due course than at present.