In general, I read reviews before putting DVDs on my wishlist. There are many which look appealing at first glance, or which Amazon recommends to me, which I realise I would not like at all once I have read a few reviews. I look at the negative ones primarily. Sometimes a poor review can actually convince me that I would like a film. And in most cases I’ve chosen appropriately.
However, sometimes I browse the DVD shelves of a charity shop or church fair. Then I pick out a few that look interesting, based on the look of the cover, the actors listed on the front, and the blurb on the back. The results are typically somewhat mixed. Last week we watched the excellent film ‘Doubt’, for instance, which I had bought under these circumstances. It was well worth seeing.
Another DVD I picked up at the same church book stall is ‘Imagine me and you’. It was billed as ‘the best British rom-com since Notting Hill’. Made in 2005, it does not have any names I recognised on the front. However it features photos two young women and two young men. The blurb tells me that a newly married couple are settling down when the wife meets someone who turns her life upside down. The story, we’re told, is poignant and hilarious (words that don’t usually go together, in my view).
It starts well. Rachel (Piper Perabo) is about to get married to her best friend and lover Hector (Matthew Goode), whose name is bizarrely abbreviated to ‘Heck’. Heck’s best man Cooper (Darren Boyd) is evidently a promiscuous womaniser, and has no desire to settle down. Cooper is rather attracted to Lucy (Lena Headey) who is employed as the florist for the wedding. She is also, a little confusingly, involved in the wedding party - meeting people, having a drink, even dancing.
Rachel and Heck think Cooper and Lucy would make a nice couple; Rachel feels a strong kinship with Lucy as soon as she meets her and hopes they can be friends. Then they learn something about Lucy that turns everything upside down… that part of the blurb, at least, is correct.
There are some amusing moments in the film. Rachel’s young sister H (Boo Jackson) is full of intelligent questions, albeit rather caricatured ones, and some of the responses or interactions following are quite humorous. Rachel’s parents, too, have an exaggerated love-hate relationship. Her mother Tessa (Celia Imrie - one of the few names I recognised) is excellent. Rachel’s father Ned (Anthony Head) makes a good straight man, clearly fond of his daughters and letting his wife’s constant criticisms go over his head. Tessa and Ned’s relationship provides one of the poignant parts of the film, too.
However, although the film is well made and the actors excellent, on the whole, I really didn’t like the storyline. I found it disturbing - not for what might seem obvious reasons, if you have seen it, but because of the idea that ‘falling in love’ in an instant can - and should - trump years of growing love and closeness. It also suggests that promises and commitments mean nothing, if one partner decides that somebody else is more attractive.
So although it’s a well-made film, I really wouldn’t recommend it. Particularly, for reasons which I won't give as they would be spoilers, I don't recommend it to fundamentalists of any religion. If you want to know why, a quick glance at Amazon reviews (or elsewhere) would tell you.
The rating is 12A in the UK, which I think is about right, though I might have opted for 15; I doubt it would be of much interest to younger teens anyway. There’s some ‘strong’ language, though not a great deal, and plenty of discussion about sex, but nothing shown beyond some kissing. I don’t recall anything remotely violent. However the US censors, perhaps due to the occasional ‘strong’ language, or possibly the nature of the story, have rated this as R.
I'm pretty sure I won't be watching this again - but at least it only cost me a euro!
Review copyright 2018 Sue's DVD Reviews
I had not previously heard of the film ‘Doubt’, which I spotted in a box of second-hand DVDs next to a church book sale. Since it featured Meryl Streep, and indeed three other well-known actors, I thought it was probably well worth the euro it cost me. A few days later we decided to see it.
I knew from the blurb on the back of the box that there was a disturbing theme to the story, and I began to regret having picked the DVD up at first. But it didn’t take long to get into the story. Meryl Streep is a nun, Sister Aloysius, who is headmistress of a Catholic school in New York in the early 1960s. As in every part I have seen her, Streep is superb, becoming the character in a way that most actors cannot do. Sister Aloysius is rigid in her outlook, quick to pass judgement, stern in her punishments of every infraction amongst the children.
One of the staff, Sister James (Amy Adams), is young and enthusiastic, and wants to inspire the children in her class rather than rule them by coercion. However she is quite concerned about Desmond (Joseph Foster), the only black child in the school, who is also an altar boy at the connected church. Desmond is quite a loner, and it seems that the priest, Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), is taking rather too much interest in him…
Sister James reports her concerns to Sister Aloysius. Then much of the film involves verbal battles between her and Father Flynn, who comes across as a caring, gentle person on the whole. We hear parts of some of his sermons, which are quite thought-provoking. Indeed, the contrast between this gentle priest and the rigid nun is quite marked. Their dialogues are extremely well done, the timing perfect, and the on-screen chemistry, albeit of a rather different variety from many movies, works superbly.
There is also an extremely moving scene involving Desmond’s mother, beautifully portrayed by Viola Davis. She and Sister Aloysius have a lengthy dialogue about Desmond; it’s a pivotal scene, and I found myself drawn into it, suddenly realising that the situation being discussed was far less cut-and-dried than it might appear.
As well as these interactions the film covers quite a bit of the life of the school, too. There’s some music sung by choirboys and girls too - the school is a mixed one. A particularly poignant moment includes the singing of ‘Deus Caritas…’ - of which the translated words are, ‘Where there is love and care, there God is’. All in all, we thought it beautifully made, and were totally caught up in the story.
Never at any point is it determined whether or not Sister Aloysius’s convictions about Father Flynn are true or not. In one of the extras, we learned that this story was based on play which involved just the four main characters. As Meryl Streep points out in an interview, live theatre often leaves questions and storylines open for the viewers’ own interpretations. This is less common in films, and this one was quite controversial in following the storyline of the play, and leaving the main plot unresolved.
Made in 2008, allegations such as those in this film were all too common, even though the story was set forty or more years earlier. I found it a very powerful film, leaving open many questions, not just whether or not the priest was innocent of the allegations made.
It’s rated 15 in the UK, which I think is about right given the nature of the story, although there is nothing overt that could cause the censors to give it a strict rating. There is no nudity or anything explicit, almost no bad language, and only mild violence.
Perhaps this is why the US rating, which is often higher than that in the UK, is a milder PG-13. I would not want a young child to see this, but reasonably mature teenagers might find it thought-provoking. I would recommend it highly to anyone wanting a well-made film with a somewhat unusual storyline.
Review copyright 2018 Sue's DVD Reviews
