Once (Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová)

(Amazon UK link)

We wanted a reasonably short DVD to watch, and the film ‘Once’ is just 83 minutes. We hadn’t seen it since 2014 and couldn’t remember it at all, but coincidentally had seen a trailer for it on a different DVD that we re-watched recently. So we knew it involved music and a possible romance, but not much more.

It opens with a guitarist busking in a street in Dublin. Glen Hansard plays the main protagonist, although we never learn his name. He’s being approached by someone who looks a tad dodgy, and they have an exchange with such strong Irish accents that we couldn’t understand a single word… other than a repeated strong expletive. There’s a dramatic chase, with yet more incomprehensible dialogue other than swearing.

This turns out to be the prologue for the film, and involves the only conflict of the entire film. The guitarist is singing when a Czech immigrant girl (whose name we also never learn - played by Markéta Irglová) stops to chat. They don’t exactly have any rapport, but when she learns that he’s a vacuum cleaner repairman during the day, she asks if he would look at her broken vacuum cleaner.

The girl is also a musician - a pianist - and agrees to accompany the guy in making an album, which he hopes will make him rich and famous. And that’s basically the whole story. There are moments of mild humour - when she treats her vacuum cleaner as if it were a dog, or when he asks if she composed some Mendelssohn music she was playing - but they are rather outnumbered by tedium.

The film is supposedly a ‘modern’ musical, but the camera work is shaky in the extreme, making me feel seasick in a couple of places. And the musical interludes are far too lengthy - the music is perhaps the best part of the film, although it was hard to tell the difference between some of the songs. But the two main characters are talented musicians. However the dialogue is, for the most part, trite and says very little. Much of it could have been cut. And though the music was well done, I didn’t much like the style, particularly the high notes of some of the songs, and the accompanying images are unoriginal and repetitive.

It’s not often that I keep glancing at the clock during a film; it felt like a very long 83 minutes, and very little actually happens. It wasn’t dreadful - other than the irritating use of the same expletive over and over - but I never could quite believe in either of the two characters when they were together. They went well musically, but although they converse naturally as friends, their personal ‘romantic’ chemistry is non-existent - I had no idea whether or not they would eventually get together.

There are some mildly interesting scenes in their homes - the guy works with his father, the girl has a mother and young daughter - but nothing that really builds character, and nothing unexpected. It’s not that I like conflict, exactly, but with no real story, and no problems occurring (other than in the prologue - and that one is quickly sorted) we didn’t feel particularly interested.

One of the reviews on the back of the DVD says that it’s worth watching ‘twice’.; I suppose that’s meant to be a kind of joke related to the title of the film - but perhaps it’s also prophetic. Having now seen it twice, we have no plans to see it again.

Really not recommended. 

Then again, it’s been very highly rated by others, so maybe we were missing something…

Review copyright 2022 Sue's DVD Reviews

Evening (Vanessa Redgrave, Claire Danes)

(Amazon UK link)

We’re mostly re-watching films that we haven’t seen for eight or nine years, most of which we have almost entirely forgotten. One of the DVDs I moved to our ‘watch soon’ drawer is ‘Evening’. Neither of us had any memory of having seen it before, although we saw it in October 2014. So we decided to watch it last night. During the film some parts did come back to us, including the inevitable final outcome.

Vanessa Redgrave is perfect as Ann, the central character, drifting in and out of consciousness as she lies, dying, in her bedroom. We don’t learn what’s wrong with her, and it doesn’t much matter. She looks suitably old and frail, visited by her adult daughters Constance (Natasha Richardson) and Nina (Toni Collette). It wasn’t until we saw the ‘extras’ that we discovered that Natasha Richardson is Vanessa Redgrave’s daughter in real life.

As Ann thinks about her life, which she feels hasn’t been all that worthwhile, she recalls vividly a weekend about fifty years earlier when she was chief bridesmaid at her friend Lila’s wedding. The young Ann is played by Claire Danes, and Lila by Mamie Gummer. Lila is from a wealthy family, and Ann apparently hasn’t visited their huge house before. She arrives with Lila’s younger brother Buddy (Hugh Dancy) whom she clearly knows well, and who shows her around. Buddy, we quickly learn, is not happy - he drinks far too much and tries to turn everything into a joke.

Then there’s Harris (Patrick Wilson) who grew up as the son of one of the family servants. But Buddy treated him like a brother, and Harris has long left home and is qualified as a doctor. Lila was in love with Harris as a teenager, and Buddy thinks she still is… so he pleads with Ann to stop her getting married to someone whom she likes and respects very much, but isn’t in love with.

I found the storyline a bit confusing at first, switching as it does between the present Ann on her deathbed and the young, vivacious Ann who’s a little awkward as a person, but a beautiful singer. I couldn’t remember whether the wedding went ahead or not, or what happened with Harris, or Buddy, though there are hints quite early in the book suggesting that not everything is going to turn out well during the wedding weekend.

By the time I’d been watching for about ten minutes, I was completely hooked by this film which is beautifully made. It could have been morose or depressing, but instead it’s encouraging and ultimately quite uplifting. There’s a little bit of low-key humour - the elderly Ann, a couple of times, sees her staid night-nurse (Eileen Atkins) as someone angelic - or perhaps a fairy - although even these scenes are laced with poignancy.

The sisters Constance and Nina seem to squabble unpleasantly in a way I found unbelievable when we first saw this. But now, realising that it stemmed partly from their grief, and partly their unusual and sometimes stressful upbringing (as well as quite stark personality differences) it felt realistic, albeit sad; yet even these acrimonious interchanges are alternated with evidence of deep connection between the two.

Meryl Streep makes a brief appearance towards the end, as the adult Lila - and, as I had recalled, Streep is the actual mother of Mamie Gummer who plays young Lila, so that worked exceptionally well.  Lila and Ann share a moving scene that mirrors a similar one from the morning of Lila’s wedding day.

All in all, we thought it a lovely film despite the subject matter, and appreciated the extras - a few deleted scenes that were well worth seeing, and a good ‘making of’ documentary that wasn’t too long.

The rating is 12 (PG-13 in the US) which seems about right; there’s nothing explicit and only one instance of ‘strong’ language, but there are a couple of quite disturbing scenes and the subject matter isn’t appropriate for children.

Highly recommended.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's DVD Reviews

Marley and Me (Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson)

(Amazon UK link)

We’re enjoying a spate of re-watching DVDs we last saw six or seven years ago, some of which we had entirely forgotten. Last night we decided on the 2008 film ‘Marley and Me’, which promised to be ‘warm, funny and deeply moving’ according to the front of the box. We first saw this in 2014, and while I had a memory of a rather sad ending, neither of us had any recall of the story, or the characters.

The film features a young married couple called John (Owen Wilson) and Jenny Grogan (Jennifer Aniston). The chemistry between them is excellent, starting with a few shots right after their wedding, where we learn that Jenny is an organised, scheduled kind of person who sees her future life in a series of steps. John, by contrast, is quite laid back. Both of them work as writers for different newspapers, although it’s quickly evident that Jenny is being featured rather more than John is.

But John’s time comes when he’s offered a temporary slot with a personal column, and discovers he has quite a gift for this kind of thing. He’s a bit concerned that Jenny is getting broody… so he decides to buy her a dog for her birthday. Marley is a delightful, loving puppy… but very mischievous. He chews everything he finds, knocks people over, and is generally rambunctious and exhausting. And he keeps growing…

The story follows the Grogan family over the next twelve years or so, with some heartbreak, some major stresses and a great deal of happiness as the longed-for babies arrive and start to grow up. Marley is protective and loving of the children, but continues causing havoc wherever he goes. There are many amusing scenes which made us  laugh aloud: in particular one where he tries to jump out of a car window and almost succeeds…

But although there’s a lot of slapstick, there’s also some poignancy. Marley shows himself to be aware of people being upset, and despite his many faults - his family consider him the worst dog in the world - he’s very loving. We’re not ‘dog people’ but we found some parts quite moving, particularly the end. It’s foreshadowed a few times, and beautifully done, but could be upsetting to sensitive folk.

The rating is PG which is a tad surprising as there are quite a few innuendoes, a dog humping furniture, and a couple of scenes where, while nothing explicit is shown, it’s clear what is going on. There’s also a brief scene describing some violence relating to a neighbour, with a petrified, sobbing teenager; I’m not sure why that scene is in the film as it doesn’t seem to have any significance other than to prod John to consider moving.

The language is relatively mild although there are some profanities; but the scene at the end could be very upsetting to children with pets. I wouldn’t personally recommend this to anyone below the age of about twelve, and even then it would depend on the teenager in question.

However, from our point of view it was a great film, well made with a clever script and great acting. We very much appreciated the fact that John and Jenny were committed to each other long-term, despite several arguments and stressful periods in their marriage. It’s a positive message, one that is all too often absent in modern films.

There are a lot of extras on our DVD; we didn’t watch all of them, but were very interested to learn that there were 22 different dogs who played Marley, and to see some of the performances from the perspective of the dog trainers. Some of the deleted scenes added to the story, too and we weren’t entirely sure why they weren’t included, other than to cut the running time.

Definitely recommended for adults and teens if you like a somewhat different kind of character-based film, which was apparently based on a real life reporter and his dog, and if you don’t mind some very poignant scenes as well as the humour.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's DVD Reviews

Gambit (Colin Firth)

(Amazon UK link)

We wanted something light-weight to watch, preferably amusing, and without any deep emotional pulling of heartstrings. Too much trauma is going on in the real world at present and we needed a couple of hours of escapism. Looking through our shelves, I pulled out ‘Gambit’, a film we saw back in 2014 but had entirely forgotten. With an all-star cast and a blurb suggesting it was essentially a comedy, it seemed like a good choice.

Colin Firth is the main character in this 2012 film set mostly in the UK. He is superbly cast as Harry Deane, an art curator who works for an arrogant, rude multi-millionaire called Lionel - also perfectly played by Alan Rickman. Harry is friendly with The Major (Tom Courtenay) who is an excellent artist, and who has made copies of some well-known paintings that are almost indistinguishable from the originals.

So Harry has come up with a cunning plan to fool his boss into paying millions for a copy of a painting he has been looking at. He plots a careful strategy involving a cowgirl called PJ Puznowski (Cameron Diaz) and everything seems to be going as he expected… until we realised that the first part of the film, much of it narrated by The Major, is his imagination.

The story then moves to reality.  It contrasts rather dramatically with the planned smooth-running heist and is all the more amusing due to knowing what Harry had hoped for. He is punched in the face several times by different people, finds PJ much louder and more outspoken than he had expected, and ends up spending significant amounts of money that he can’t afford. He also has an unpleasant time when he’s locked in a hotel laundry room…

Stanley Tucci has a part too, as another art curator, and there are some amusing scenes with a group of Japanese men with whom Lionel wants to do business. We very much liked scenes in the Savoy Hotel (the real hotel in London was, apparently used) involving two increasingly bemused but very professional staff on the desk, dealing competently with the most unlikely of circumstances.

The script and timing are excellent. Colin Firth plays everything straight faced, even when innuendoes abound at times, in his somewhat typical role as a slightly anxious but very intelligent man. Alan Rickman is utterly obnoxious, oozing charm when he wants to, convinced he is attractive to PJ (and perhaps he is…). Cameron Diaz could have been born to the part too - her Texan accent sounds flawless to me, and her chemistry with both the main male roles is entirely believable.

It’s a ridiculous story, of course, with extra humour from incidents including asides, misunderstandings, the loss of some trousers, and a rather unusual security system for Lionel’s paintings. And the ending - which, along with the rest of the story, we had entirely forgotten - was just perfect.

‘Gambit’ is rated 12A (PG-13 in the US), perhaps because of the number of times poor Harry is punched, and some relatively mild bad language, mostly in the context of name-calling. There’s some flesh displayed too, but nothing explicit, and while there are many innuendoes, there are no bedroom scenes at all.

There’s an interesting ‘extra’ on our DVD about the making of the film, though it’s mostly about the choice of cast, and why they got involved in the film.

Definitely recommended if you want a light-hearted but reasonably intelligent comedy with a well-known cast.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's DVD Reviews

Life as we know it (Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel)

(Amazon UK link)

I don’t remember where ‘Life as we know it’ was recommended to me; perhaps Amazon thought I would like it based on films I have previously enjoyed. Anyway, I had it on my wishlist, and was given it for Christmas last year. We watched with no idea what to expect, although the style of the DVD cover suggested a light rom-com. I don’t usually read the blurb so as not to spoil any surprises.

We found the start of the film a bit confusing, with several young people all speaking very rapidly with strong American accents. Gradually we worked out that there were four main characters: a couple with a baby called Sophie, and their two closest friends who are the baby’s godparents. The only problem is that the godparents - Holly (Katherine Heigl) and Messer (Josh Duhamel) really, really don’t like each other.

Something unexpected and terrible happens, which results in Holly and Messer having to share looking after Sophie, who is just past her first birthday. They both love her, but have no idea how to look after a baby: there are some mildly amusing scenes as they attempt to feed her, change nappies, and so on. It’s quite cute, mainly because Sophie is an absolute delight. Unfortunately there are no extras to this, other than some deleted scenes, as we would have liked a documentary explaining how this worked so very well. However, according to IMDb, baby Sophie was played by triplet sisters, Alexis, Brooke and Brynn Clagett.

The plot is somewhat predictable - gradually the two become more adept at looking after Sophie, excited by her reaching various milestones, and gradually they realise that actually they do rather like each other. There are stresses as they try to juggle their careers and private lives, and some quite amusing scenes involving a social worker Janine (Sarah Burns) who tries to figure out whether or not they should have the care of Sophie - and who is clearly rooting for them, reassuring them that many cases are much more difficult, and that her role is to ensure whatever is best for Sophie.

Overall we thought it well done, made special by the baby. The script works at a good pace, and although there are some irritating parts (from the one-night stands through to trying to feed a year-old toddler blended fruit rather than regular food) it’s mostly a mixture of poignancy and fun. It’s not particularly deep or thought-provoking, and I couldn’t keep track of  everyone’s names (other than Sophie’s) - but it made a good evening’s light viewing. Some of the comic timing was excellent.

The deleted scenes were worth watching - there are quite a few of them, and while a couple are somewhat gross, others add rather nicely to the film; it’s probably right that they weren’t included, but they rounded it out well after seeing the whole.

I expect we’ll watch this again in another five or six years, by which time we’ll have forgotten pretty much everything about it.

The rating is 12 which I think is about right; the intimacies are implied rather than explicit, and there’s not too much bad language. But the theme wouldn’t be of much interest to anyone below the age of about sixteen.

Recommended in a low key way if you want something light with a touch of poignancy.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's DVD Reviews