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gilda26
Reviews
Vivacious Lady (1938)
Disappointing: racist and clichéd
This unfortunately turned out to be a really bad movie. I love the comedies of the 1930s, and I've enjoyed a lot of movies with the same cast and the same director. This one starts out well enough, but about one third into the movie, the lack of a good script starts to manifest itself. The plot is made up of clichés and there are a few blatantly racist scenes (one has the legendary Hattie McDaniel, of "Gone with the wind"-fame just one year later, made to embody the caricature of a cleaning lady).
There are so many good comedies of the 1930s that there is really no need to put up with this one. For a lovely, witty (and also non-dancing) Rogers, turn for example to "Bachelor Mother" (1939) with David Niven, which also has Charles Coburn in it; for James Stewart, (as blue-eyed and young) to the crazy Capra-directed "You can't take it with you" (1938); for George Stevens, why not go directly to his brilliant drama "A place in the sun" (1951) or, if you want to stick with comedy and the same era, to "Woman of the Year" (1942) with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.
In any case, I wouldn't want to watch this one, unless you've made an oath to watch every single movie with Rogers or Stewart in it.
Big River (2005)
Great landscapes, poor writing
I just came back from one of the Berlinale-Screenings of "Big River", and I must admit the 104 minutes seemed a bit long. The story, if one can call it that, is that of a young Japanese tourist, Teppei (Joe Odagiri), a middle-aged Pakistani, Ali (Kavi Raz) and an American girl, Sarah (Chloe Snyder) who meet by chance in the middle of the Arizona desert. Teppei is backpacking, Ali is trying to get his wife back (who has apparently left him for an American) and Sarah just doesn't seem to have anything better to do, so they drive around, hang out and... smoke, most of the time.
The whole thing is fairly reminiscent of Jarmusch's "Stranger than Paradise", not least because of the constellation of characters, the constant boredom and the smoking; the main difference being that Atahashi and his co-author and cameraman Eric van den Brulle opt for wide-angle lenses throughout the film and splendid colour (in contrast to Jarmusch's more sober b/w) to convey a sense of the magnificent scenery - although it does, weirdly, change to a sepia-tinted b/w for a short time. The cinematography - apart from Chloe Snyder, who lightens up the screen - is the one very strong point in the film; at times, an image is so beautiful one wishes it would hold still for some time - e.g. the flashing neon-arrow reflecting in a puddle, before the car drives through. Eric van den Brullen did an excellent job here, especially considering the fact that he had never used 35mm cinema-scope before (according to his own statement).
Unfortunately, neither the cinematography nor Ms. Snyder's beauty and natural charm can make up for the lack of story or meaning. Mr. Funahashi said he wanted to make a film about the prejudices people from different cultures have when they first meet, and how they finally get along well when they get to know each other. He does get this across, but the problem is that we don't really learn a lot about these people, let alone their cultures. In fact, the film itself doesn't go much further than the stereotypes, especially in its depiction of Americans (the aggressive policeman, Sarah's drunken grandfather who lives in a trailer, the "cowboys" in a pub) and of Ali, who seems to think that he owns his wife and is unable to see his own mistakes in their failed marriage.
On the big screen, I think this movie is still very worth seeing; in case you find yourself getting a bit bored during the dialogue scenes, do as the characters do on screen - have a smoke.
Prime (2005)
Charming movie, but skip the last 5 minutes
I very much enjoyed this movie as it is funny and intelligent, and the cast is great - Uma Thurman as radiant as ever (though it's good to see even she can look bad, watch for the dark circles around her eyes in the first scene!), Bryan Greenberg is charming and convincing, and Meryl Streep is fantastic as his overprotective, slightly neurotic mother. The movie is not funny in an obvious way - it's cleverly written and well-observed.
However, I found the last five minutes really disappointing. It felt like Ben Younger, the writer and director, had just chickened out and given in to the Hollywood codex of morals... Sure, this love story is maybe not very likely to last forever, but why not just leave that up to the audience? I think an open ending would have been o.k., certainly nobody expected them to marry and have kids... But to reduce David to an 18-year-old who has to "go see the world" and Rafi to that wise-and-oh-so-in-harmony woman (which she hadn't been throughout the rest of the movie) seemed simply pathetic to me. The whole "it was beautiful but now it's over"-scene, including the flashbacks and the soundtrack "I wish you love" (how reminiscent of "Bodyguard", and that sure wasn't a great movie) just gave me the creeps.
Older women with younger men still seems to be rated "impossible" in Hollywood - think of "Something's Gotta Give", in which Diane Keaton has to leave charming Keanu Reeves (and I normally don't like the guy) for grumpy old Jack Nicholson, for no apparent reason. Still, a charming movie - though it would have been a lot better with a little less "moraline".
(If you liked this movie, go see "In Good Company", that I also really enjoyed.)