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Reviews
The Age of Adaline (2015)
The actors can hold up the material so far. Also, the main male character is creepy.
This is a standard love story drama. It could have been so much more, but the actors could only take what they're given so far.
The writers/etc could have turned the age element of the movie into something truly unique, and explored the interesting angles it offers (is it possible to have many 'true loves'? How would a wizened woman of many years express herself whilst encased in the body of a late twenties young woman? How would she act in critical situations which faze less experienced people? How would she keep up with the times? What jobs or knowledge would she focus on? How would she nurture the legacy she leaves behind in the form of her sons and daughters?).
Instead, the movie went for the superficial, flimsy, easy options (examples: she's great at navigating traffic because she's had decades to learn the city's shortcuts, she wears a lot of old-cut clothing), and turned the main protagonist into a ditsy ditherer at key moments that needed a more delicate and refined touch (her attitude when being chatted up at parties, her car breaking down, meeting her lover's family for the first time). Even the jobs she has and the skills she's acquired are just sort of padding and not really explored despite being a key choice she's made.
Basically, the whole movie focuses on the love story between this protagonist and her new boyfriend despite already having a potentially very interesting female lead character that could have been developed so much more elegantly; a new boyfriend might be a part of that, that makes sense... but it took up far too much of the film's focus when there were other topics that needed some development too. It felt like a feast of potentially interesting avenues were hinted at in the writing, and yet the main route taken was the typical stereotype love story. Why bother kicking off the story with such an interesting twist if it just becomes part of the backdrop and doesn't influence the characters' behaviour?
That leads me onto a final point which made me increasingly uncomfortable when watching the film – the way the male lead character pressures and pushes the lead protagonist into going out with him is a bit unnerving. He publicly pressures her into having a photo taken in front of her colleagues when she's clearly unsettled by it, and then offers her a way out: go on a date with him. Hm. They part ways. Then later on he finds out her address (via her workplace?!) which she wanted to keep private, and just pops up to stalk her a bit more. The first half of their dynamic is her pushing him away, placating him, etc. and him being far too full on – it's not romantic, it's really creepy to see, and it's another point where I think a woman of over 100 wouldn't behave in the "no doesn't really mean no" ditsy schoolgirl manner, which quite frankly was a bit weird. It made me uncomfortable watching it when supposedly the movie's main intention was to make me think this new relationship was "cute". It wasn't. It was just stalker-ish!
Y Llyfrgell (2016)
Enjoyable, unique story with superb acting
I saw this at the start of an international film festival programme, and booked it after watching the trailer and becoming intrigued about how the story unfolded. I don't want to share too much because part of the pleasure of watching it was not knowing very much about the key plot lines - suffice to say that it's about a handful of people working in the National Library of Wales, and the work/archive of one of Wales' greatest writers after she's died - and the demons and lives affected by it after she's gone. It's a very unique little story, with excellent acting (the story is mostly on the shoulders of one female lead actor, with great support from the surrounding actors). Our showing had the director introduce it beforehand, where he tried to get the audience to pronounce the Welsh title, and said he has a background in TV production. You can tell because the movie's pacing is particularly good - basically it's a mix of being a thriller as the story unfolds, into more of a focus on drama as we get to care about the characters towards the end. There are also a fair few dark comedy moments in it. My partner remarked after the viewing that it reminded him of a few of the darker nordic movies he's watched before, but I'm struggling to come up with names to give examples here. Anyway, an excellent movie, really glad we added it into our film festival plans!