My Week with Marylin (2011)

Another film that is based on a book. It seems that awful lot of period films are based on a book. There isn't that much of plot in this movie, the title pretty much tells it all. Our main character is the youngest (if I remember well) son and also the black sheep of a wealthy British family. His dream is to become a famous director (if I remember well, to be honest it was quite a long time ago that I saw this, as part of the challenge I failed miserably...). He manages to get a job as the second director-assistant or something like that in Marylin Monroe's next movie (one of the last ones) that she happens to shoot in England. She grows to like him, and, I think needless to say, he totally falls in love with her. They spend a week together and pretty much this is what the movie is about. It  focuses on Marylin's growing addiction and her constant need for attention.

Now I must say that first I was kind of disappointed in Michelle Williams' acting but then I thought about it and realised that in each and every movie I'd seen with or about Marylin Monroe she behaved like that. So I think Michelle Williams did a great job with the role after all. I found the character a little bit annoying but it's not her fault. As I saw this quite a while ago, I don't really remember what kind of feelings it evoked but I think it wasn't a bad movie. There were some parts I skipped but then again, there are a really few movies which I can watch without any skipping so that doesn't mean that I didn't like it. I remember liking the music a lot.

(Excuse the style, I didn't really know what to write about this but didn't want to leave out either. Here's this kind of half-assed post as a result.)

An Ideal Husband (1999)

The film is the adaptation of Oscar Wild's play with the same title. From some aspects it resembles to "The Importance of Being Earnest" but, I must say, it's nowhere as entertaining. It has a similar main character as "Earnest", a young(ish) gentleman with significant wealth who does not care about anything else but parties, ladies and idling around whole day. About the plot I don't want to write anything as it would spoil it for everyone.

I usually like Oscar Wild's works, his style, humour and wittiness, so I thought I would really like this film. I was wrong. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. The wittiness of the dialogues was there but the plot, well, was kind of lacking. It wasn't bad but it was uneventful. Maybe my expectations were too high.

I liked it, though, that there were a few references to Wild himself and his works, mainly "The Importance of Being Earnest." There was a scene that took place in a theatre while that play was performed, and there was also a character named Bunbury.

Bottom line: it wasn't bad but I expected more.

Ballet Shoes (2007)

The film is based on Noel Steatfield's novel with the same title. Its story begins in the 1910s when a whimsical paleontologist is presented with an orphaned great-granddaughter whom he is more or less forced to adopt. Years pass by and he returns from each and every of his lengthy journeys with an orphaned baby girl. This is how the family of Sylvia (the great-granddaughter), her Nanny and the three girls, Pauline, Petrova and Posy is put together. The film focuses on the three girls' training in a dance acadamy and their struggles to reach their dreams. I guess it's the dance acadamy part where the somewhat misleading title comes from.

This film was rather easy to watch. It didn't have any serious message to convey or anything but I quite liked it. It was entertaining and cute. A good choice if you just want to have a little bit of distraction. It didn't really had roles that required amazing acting talents. Luckily for Emma Watson. But I will leave evaluating the actors' performances at that.

Miss Potter (2006)

The film is based on the life of Beatrix Potter, the writer and illustrator of the most successful children books of all time. It begins with her, after a long search, finding a publisher at last, and shows the years of her life during which she became a well-known author with occasional flasbacks to her childhood.

I'm a fan of Renée Zellweger so I had been meaning to watch this movie for a long time. Ever since it came out, actually, and I'm glad that I eventually got around to doing so, as I loved it to bits and bites. I think it goes without saying that Reneé Zellweger was absolutely brilliant. Also, it was a pleasant surprise that Ewan McGregor had a role in it, he's one of my favourite actors, too. So I think we can say that the cast was very fortunately chosen.

The story was sweet, even with the sadder moments, and had the cutest love story. I don't usually find love stories cute but I can't describe this one otherwise. Another thing that must be mentioned is the scenery. Parts of the story take place in the countryside and the scenery is simply breathtakingly beautiful. The visual effects with her drawings were pretty cool, too. They were simple and cute.

This movie is absolutely worth a watch. It is one of those stories that put a smile on your face that stays there for quite a while.

(On a side note, I don't like the poster at all. It is way too cold and makes it seem like the movie is about a witch or something. I get that the clouds and the shimmer refer to her imagination but still, I would have chosen green as a ruling colour.)

Atonement (2007)

The story takes place in the 1930s and during the first years of the Second World War. The wealthy Tallis family live their somewhat dull lives on their countryside estate. One day the 13 years old younger daughter, with rather vivid imagination, witnesses a string of events that she thinks she understands and makes accusations, which has serious consequences and changes the whole family's life forever. 

It is difficult to write about this film as I haven't decided fully what my opinion about it is. Its way of telling the story is interesting. At the beginning we see the events through the eyes of Birony, the younger daughter and the way she interprets them. Then suddenly there is a jump back in time (a small one) and we see what actually happened. In the first part of the film these jumps are pretty frequent. I liked this and, if you think of it, there aren't many more options to tell such a story. 

The use of music was interesting as well. I don't remember if there were scenes with actual music in them (it doesn't mean that there weren't, of course), only that strange rapid clicking sound that made those scenes even heavier than those with complete silence. The role of music in movies is usually quite different, it serves to make the events lighter, and well, easier to cope with, so to say, for the viewer. The effect here was pretty much the opposite, I guess it was intentional. 

I think this lack of music might have had something to do with it, but I found some scenes a bit boring and too life-like. If that makes sense. All in all, it wasn't a bad movie, I think it is worth a watch, but don't expect anything happy, bright and sunshiny.

Movies of the Summer

I was thinking and I could recall a few films that I watched during the summer. So I'll just list them here with a few words long opinion.

Long time no see...

I haven't written here for quite a long time, whole summer, actually, but I'm trying to fix that and make posting on here a regular habit again. Not that I have tons of readers but I like to have a place where I can keep track of at least some of the stuff I read or watch. So for this post I decided to just list all the books I read and all the movies, series I watched during the summer with a really brief opinion. All that I can remember, that is.

Wild Target

I've been meaning to write about this movie and the book in the next post for quite a while now but never got around to doing it. Until now. If I were to describe Wild Target really briefly (which was originally the purpose of this blog) I'd say: witty writing, funny story, great acting and awesome music. One of the best comedies I've seen recently. I must admit that one of the reasons why I watched it was the fact that Rupert Grint was in it. A few days before I watched it Harry Potter was on TV and it reminded me a movie with him I wanted to check out. I didn't really remember the story, the title or anything really, only that I had found the trailer funny. (To be honest I also wanted to see him in a film other than HP as among the three main actors there I consider him the only one with any kind of acting talent.)  So that was the "behind story" why I chose it.  I searched for the title and the film itself and was glad to find other familiar and liked actors and actresses playing in it. I liked it so much that I had to burn it out on CD and make my mother watch it. Luckily, she shared my opinion.