It has been quite a while...This post is just me holding my nose and diving in again. Last week was particularly awful, but not anything I would want to write about in a blog. Anyway, I am back. I think.
To offset my malaise, I watched a lot of Animal Planet--tried to avoid raging about issues on C-SPAN--and read my eyes out.
A movie I watched which was much better than expected was Return to Me, with David Duchovny and Minnie Driver. Plot: Beloved wife dies, woman gets heart as transplant, husband unwittingly falls for woman with wife's heart. EW!
Yes, it was something of a tear jerker, but it had unexpected quirky bits that kept it from being merely sentimental twaddle. (OMG--I loved the old card players.) DD is always a draw, since I was addicted to the XFiles series. (Though his movies nearly always disappoint.) Minnie Driver managed to do something with a role that raised obvious questions. And the chemistry seemed to be there.
That chemistry is not just a matter of acting. (Maybe romantic comdies should be rated on the basis of how much chemistry is there--like a romantic comedy chemistry thermometer.)
So often I think after a romantic comedy "Would those two have REALLY gone for each other in real life???" and more often than not, "No!" is my answer. (Or even "Hell No!") Too often, actually, even while watching, I know that they don't have that essential spark--the spark with the power to confound all logic and amaze people who can see no rational basis for how a couple can possibly hang together. The glue, that is, that makes union possible. And without it, improbable, in a romantic comedy.
I had more trouble seeing DD working in a hard hat than making out with Minnie Driver.
I would rate it a 3 handkerchief movie, with a lot of wry smiles along the way.
2 comments:
I had similar feelings about that movie... there were parts I liked, parts I loathed, but I was generally charmed despite myself. (and Carol O'Connor seemed to be having so much fun...)
None of the MD stuff made me weepy (I thought they went a little overboard with the blue lips, to be honest, although it is probably an accurate representation), but when DD's character came home after his wife had been killed and had to face the dog -- well, that was pretty rough.
I bought DD in the hardhat because of the TRUCK. My uncle has a job similar to the one he was supposed to have in the movie, and the truck was spot on.
I'm sorry your last week was so horrible. I hope this one will be much better for you!
You know me, a sucker for dogs everytime. I felt so sorry for that pooch. Oh, and DD, too, of course. That was wretched. Awful. And convincing.
It was not anything specific about the MD stuff which bugged me (boy, was she gray)--just that whenever they bring in the imminent death of the main character (I checked the billing) I brace myself for being emotionally manipulated.
True, the truck was good. I'm not sure if I can put my finger on why I was not convinced by DD under that hat. My usual reservations about his tongue-in-cheek acting?
The week is half over and is not going too well, but it can only get better.
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