Reviews
The Tree of Life (2011)
Fields of Wonder
This film must be seen. Do not let any of the brain dead hordes out there dissuade you.
Saying too much would spoil it for you. I think everyone who sees it will have their own personal experience, and for most it will be full of wonder. It is worth seeing if only for the amazing use of perspective. As with many of the highest pinnacles of art (this is certainly one) it does not force ideas down your throat or offer simple answers.
I feel it guides the viewer towards the right questions instead, a much harder and subtler task which Terrence Malick does marvelously.
Just Go.
The Shipping News (2001)
A thing of beauty
I wondered how Lasse Hallstrom would be able to translate the emotional complexity of The Shipping News from print to screen: the result is wonderful. Kevin Spacey offers a superbly restrained Quoyle, Julianne Moore IS Wavey Prowse. The film is not a simple transcription, which would be impossible, but the product leaves me with the impression of having told the story faithfully, and expanded some of it's depth at the same time. Only some of E. Annie Proulx deeply black humour is perhaps missed in places but replaced with a depth of feeling that shows the director understood and more importantly, cared about the story which must rank amongst the finest works in the english language. Do not miss this movie. The world would be inestimably poorer without such works.
Hamlet (1996)
A Hamlet to rip your heart out
Branagh has wisely included the whole text: do not be put off by the four hour length, you will not notice it fly by. The "sweet prince" is explained as I have never understood him before: faulted yes, but one of us, illuminating so much of human experience.
If you only ever watch one film in your life, make it this one. See it and you will be changed, and will understand.
Macbeth (1997)
Fair effort, let down by Connery
I had high hopes for this production, being one of my favourite works.
Indeed, a lot of it is reasonable: Helen Baxendale is not a bad Lady Macbeth, but lacks the devilry which the original character is infused with. Many of the minor characters do well, and the Scottish settings are superb.
The big disappointment to me is Jason Connery in the title role: he seems to be reading his lines off a cue card with the wrong glasses - surely for the first time, as well. He can do so much better. Any production when compared to the sublime Ian McKellen (Macbeth 1979)who to my mind gave the gold standard performance, is going to struggle to be appreciated, but I actually fell asleep and had to rewind this one before I could get through it - hardly a great sign.
Honestly, one to Avoid.