Commentaires des utilisateurs

Crush wasn't a terrible movie, but it could have been better. Instead of the great movie it had the potential to be it was a rather average movie. The film is nicely filmed, with lovely scenery and swift cinematography. The performances from the three leads Andie McDowell, Imelda Staunton and Anna Chancellor were believable in their roles, and there is a decent supporting turn from Bill Patterson. The music is lovely too, and the direction from first-time director John McKay is average.

However the film has several failings, namely the weak characterisations despite the actors' stellar performances. The script is implausible at best, and lacked wit. The plot is also predictable and contrived in places, that has been done many times and better, and there are uneven transitions from comedy into tragedy though there are many valiant attempts. There was a scene where Molly says to Kate "I can smell man on you", and I just wondered whether that was rather inappropriate to say that to another woman. There is a lack of chemistry between Kate and Jed, and the conclusion of the film is rather unsatisfying. All in all good, but could have been better. 6/10 Bethany Cox

I really truly enjoyed this movie. (Which is why it surprised me that it got such a low rating from so many users at this site!) I am not saying that it is a cinematic masterpiece but it was a great way to spend a cold, snowy Saturday night. It is funny, poignant, and a great tales of the ups and downs of female friendships lasting through difficult times and the bad things that female friends tend to do to each others! (fess up ladies, we have ALL BEEN THERE!) Bill Paterson shines as the Reverand Gerald Marsden and Andie McDowell proves that she can be a fine actress when the role is right and she puts her mind to it. (And truly, there is the best "wedding escape" that I have ever seen or dreamed up in this film ... more guts than anyone I have ever known!) You will laugh and you will cry --- ignore any marketing campaigns and how this film is being marketing .... it is a hidden gem that should have done TONNES of box office. (now I have to look around to purchase a copy!)

Crush provides a combination of drama, humor and such irony that I find the English establish very well when it concerns matters of the heart. Mostly known for directing John McKay wrote this wonderful screenplay about three forty-something friends in a small town in England. All three professional women down-out of luck with men formed a ritual ladies night gathering with gin, fags and sweets intake included with endless chatter of their dates erroneous behavior or the needs of their libidos. Andie MacDowell once again thrown by the surrounds of the British (which is where I find she exudes the most) is absolutely charming as the head mistress of a prestigious school who becomes involved with a younger man. Small town gossip and the disapproving jealous friends (great supporting cast) conflicts with her relationship. Unfolding a series of brutal unfortunate events and showing us the many difficulties when one is in pursuit of true happiness. Keep in mind the main premise of this film is friendships and the ending shows us exactly that. This is the type of film you either love or hate, which is why I believe a lot of mix reviews and not that greatest success resulted when this film was released. As I'm sure most are just unearthing the film now. I very much enjoyed this film and highly recommend for those in the likes of such films as "Love Actually", and "Three Weddings and a funeral". Not to mention the soundtrack is extraordinary perfectly capturing those crucial moments.

What started as a funny story of three women in their 40's going thru a kind of middle life crisis and their bad relationships with men, then turns serious when an unusual romance blossoms for one of them. The relationship develops unexpectedly well, the characters seem real. The young man who's the love interest delivers some surprising twists and it's all very believable. We actually root for them and their beautiful love story… But just when the film could've built up to some real high class drama (the older woman confronting her fears and other people's prejudices) it whirls downwards into some really deranged nonsense, "pseudo" tragedy and plain silliness. The so well constructed characters and the very good performances get drawn into a not well chewed mess which is irritating to watch. It's a shame really, what had started well and could've turned into a really neat romantic flick, even a little jewel (with a good look on how these two people connect above all their differences and against all social conventions), gets wasted. It's almost as if we were watching two different films. Maybe the script was meant for a short film and didn't add up to the full hour and a half and had to be filled in? Anyway it could've been better written to have a coherent development and ending. What a shame.

"Crush" is a comedy/light-drama which tells of three middle-aged single women best friends in England, one of which, a proper school headmistress (MacDowell), falls in like/love with a young former student half her age. What begins as a straight forward sexually charged Spring-Autumn romance twists and turns unexpectedly and finally sorts itself out to feel good conclusion. "Crush" is an enjoyable, sometimes brash, sometime sentimental romp which will play best with more mature females. (B-)

The tag line for "Crush" is "Three female friends behaving badly". I beg to differ. It's more like three middle-aged women complaining about men. This won't be enjoyable for many men.

But now on to the good things. It's dramatic, it's sad, it's funny and it combines all those elements with beauty. It's primarily about Kate (Andie MacDowell) trying to find love. MacDowell stands out in this film. She does have two best friends played by Imelda Staunton and Anna Chancellor but to me they were just annoying and continuously acted inappropriately.

But then into Kate's life comes Jed (Kenny Doughty). The entire theatre audience sighed as Doughty appeared on the screen. Very handsome, and he had the smouldering stare down pat as he melted our hearts. I had predicted that he would go on to be a star, and that might still happen, but slowly, as he toils around in some small roles.

The film was shot beautifully with the location in England being spectacular. The filmmakers also made a number of beautiful subtle contrasts to the men in Kate's life. These filmmakers definitely know how to make a great film. Too bad they don't know how to write characters very well. Andie MacDowell's Kate is the only great character, unless you count Kenny Doughty's looks.

"Crush" is not for men, and only for fans of Andie MacDowell, Kenny Doughty and technically superb and beautiful film-making.

I think the weighted average for this film is too low. I give it a 7. Very entertaining, although over the top in a few places. My wife says it passes the Danielle Steele test. Superb performances throughout, particularly by Andie MacDowell.

"The Crush" is a pleasant enough 40-something friends romantic chick flick for the first two-thirds or so, as it tries to be a Brit "Sex and the City".

I particularly enjoyed the turn-around of the trophy young hunk whose character is not much fleshed out (come to think of it we didn't see all that much physical flesh of him either and Kenny Doughty is worth seeing more of).

They sure make a lot more deal of young man/older woman than was made of the opposite in either version of "Sabrina" (neither movie do I like) or for that matter with the Douglas/Zeta-Jones or Dion/Svengali nuptials.

Surrounding Andie MacDowell as an ex pat otherwise are welcome familiars from Brit dramas and comedies, such as tart-tongued Anna Chancellor.

The plot twists towards the end feel very deus ex machina. But it wasn't until the credits came up at the end that I realized what might really be wrong. Just as with "Sex and the City," the writer/director is male, here first-timer Scot John McKay, and I think he really wanted to do a script about three gay men, probably about them coming out in relation to their lovers and at work (the characters are a school principal, a cop and a doctor), which would have been a better and more interesting movie. The working title for the film was "The Sad F*cker's Club" which would have made its parallels with the gay "Broken Hearts Club" even more obvious.

(originally written 4/6/2002)

For all its faults, I found more poignancy in this movie than I expected. I admit that I purposely avoided this movie because Andie McDowell was in it -- who is a terribly overrated (though beautiful) actress. I was surprised to discover depth where she has never shown it before -- and very subtly, so much so, that it was unfortunately missed.

I've always enjoyed how many of the English movies I've seen have a tendency to mix comedy, tragedy, and drama in a way that Americans find hard to comprehend. Is not life itself a mix of all these? Do we not have situations so painful that we have to laugh?

I don't want to make this movie more than it was, but I thought it was a sweet, quiet story about a woman who may not have had the chance to find love -- and it comes along unexpectedly, in a very unconventional form. It is rather sad to watch her struggle with her somewhat immature feelings (and as I noted, Andie M. did a superb job) and disbelief over whether she was involved in just a "crush" (ahem, perhaps where the title came from -- surely not, as some reviewer noted, from the fate of one of the characters) or true love. I also enjoyed the genuine concern of her friends -- despite their misguided, and perhaps implausible efforts to dissuade her.

The movie showed how the type of love Kate wanted, may not have been possible in her small community, in the position she held, and with the life she had already created for herself. I thought the writer/director did a fine job of showing her struggle with the implausibility of the relationship she found.

Not the best movie ever made -- but nice to see a film that focuses on friendship, which often gets pushed aside as true love prevails (an implausible plot that movie viewers most want to see -- and who find anything other than true love to be implausible!).

The movie, the acting ,the angst, the love was great up until the tragedy. Then it went downhill. Totally disappointed that the women were able to flick the tragedy aside like an annoying bug. It was almost like the 40 + woman got what she wanted then just washed her hands and most of her mind of an important part of her life because she and her friends are back together again! Her friends actions led to the tragedy but for the incredibly shortest amount of time, 4 months,the three women's friendship is in a dark place. It is not clear that Kate ever knows that it was a Janine plan the caused the tragedy. Me, personally, I don't know if we would EVER be friends again!!!!!The viewer also has to assume that Kate struggled with the fact that her fear of ageism and lack trust caused the tragedy as well. We don't see that .We know Kate's loss must be extremely traumatic but all the viewer see is the three friends back to their old selves, drinking and sharing adventures in the pursuit of love. Kate for a brief moment comments about her life before the tragedy then its back to girlfriend time again. That was sad to see.

For the first forty-five minutes one gets the feeling CRUSH is a comedy with some digs at sex and the single woman. Then, when the heroine (ANDIE MacDOWELL) falls abruptly in love with the organist at a funeral (and has mad sex on a gravestone), the film starts to veer into more serious territory as her two best friends try to dissuade her from thinking of him as anything more than a fling.

She tries, even going so far as to make a trip to Paris, France to enjoy her "freedom" and ends up almost making it with a Frenchman until she decides at a crucial moment to pack her bags and return to the waiting arms of her boy toy organist (KENNY DOUGHTY). It's Doughty who gives the most natural performance as the sad-eyed, sensitive and unpolished guy with the raging hormones. He reminds me of a handsomer but blander version of Johnny Depp.

When another more direct plan to convince their friend that she's making a mistake backfires, the plot veers off into tragedy before gradually resuming a lighter tone as the friends stop bickering and decide to resolve their problems by enjoying a gin and tonic and "fags" (cigarettes in U.S.A.). We're left with the notion that the best way for all three to solve their problematic out of control lives is to simply sit back, and, in the words of Fagin, "shut up and drink yer gin".

At the end, there's a cheated feeling that the story can be summed up as much ado about nothing. Perhaps a more delicate handling of the theme of unconventional behavior (especially from the so reserved British), would have been a better way to go.

The performances are all better than average, which makes it a shame that the film didn't have more of a statement to make.

The bawdy behavior is treated in a casual fashion (the Brits are way ahead of us in matters of sex) and it's all very uneven, never sure of itself and veering off into unpredictable areas instead of telling a story in a concise and believable way. Not recommended.

Rating: 6/10

It took me a while for me to realise this is not a standard romantic comedy. The first half of the film more or less fits the romantic comedy conventions, but then the second half progressively moves away from them.

I liked the way that the movie showed some of the problems that can arise from intergenerational relationships. The characters of the three friends were nicely drawn, each being, not too extremely, contrary to the stereotype of their occupations.

The film did, however, continue the romantic comedy tradition of having a casual disregard for plausibility. Even the most love-struck head of a school is unlikely to give the students the afternoon off. And while I did enjoy the wedding scene, it was beyond the bounds of plausibility. In spite of the serious bits, the film is essentially light and trivial, rather than deep or artistic.

I eventually realised that, in spite of the central role of the romantic interest, the film is actually about the friendship between the three women. And that brings me to the major flaw of the film as a story. Aspiring authors are advised to consider how their protagonists are changed by the events described in the story. If there is no change, you have to wonder what is the point, what was the story trying to say? In ‘Crush', there is no change in the relationships between the friends, or even real change in the women themselves, regardless of the various things that happened. The film started with the friends together, gossiping about their lives, and it ended exactly the same way.

The film was enjoyable enough and easy to watch, which is fine if all you want is a light piece of entertainment.

I was very surprised how much I enjoyed this film. I thought it was funny, sexy, painful, and warm. Andie MacDowell's performance was nuanced and vulnerable. For once, the director of a MacDowell film did not make her beauty another character in the film. The romance between Kate and her young man is lovely to watch and it plays out very well. Her relationship with her friends is both a thorn and a balm in her life. Imelda Stalinson, who has been a MVP in so many British films, does a great job in this. There is some tragedy in this but I think the film is saved in the end by the brilliant acting, clean direction, and witty writing.The film quality is excellent and the music is good, too, though unavailable on sound track.

As a single woman over 40, I found this film extremely insulting and demeaning to single women over 40, not to mention every other woman, of any age. It was a sad, pathetic attempt by a man to write and direct a "chick flick", and it failed miserably. Andy McDowell isn't much of an actress to begin with, but given the non-existent "plot" (I hate to even refer to it as a plot) in this, she didn't have a chance. There was no character development, no reason to feel sympathy/empathy for any of the characters, and no attempt to make the film in any way realistic or believable. And then there's the obligatory male-fantasy of an attractive straight woman suddenly deciding to give lesbianism a try -- PLEASE.

Not only do I wish I could get my money back for the DVD rental, I also want those 112 minutes of my life back. What a ripoff.