Imagine Me and You (Piper Perabo)

(Amazon UK link)

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

Mrs Dalloway (Vanessa Redgrave)

(Amazon UK link)

We have had this DVD sitting in our unwatched DVD drawer for some years now. It was originally a freebie issued with a newspaper, and we acquired it from a relative. I’m not really a fan of Virginia Woolf’s novels, but we’re trying to watch a film once a week, so we finally decided to watch ‘Mrs Dalloway’ last night.

It’s a 1920s drama starring Vanessa Redgrave as Clarissa Dalloway, a middle-aged socialite who is giving a party. The whole film takes place over the course of a day, although there are many flashbacks to her youth. She is from a privileged, moneyed class, married to a politician - and while she is a little stressed over the details of her party, all the work is evidently done by her household staff.

There’s not a great deal of plot. I gather that the novel is mostly stream-of-consciousness style narrated by Clarissa, and that’s the general effect of the film. We see most events from her perspective, and sometimes hear her thoughts, given separately from the action or spoken words. There’s an entirely separate subplot featuring a young war veteran who is having horrible flashbacks and hallucinations, and his wife; they are, perhaps, shown as a stark contrast to the lavish lifestyle of Clarissa and her friends.

The novel was probably considered very risqué when it was first published. The young Clarissa, in flashback, has a brief romantic encounter with her close friend Sarah. But she is also very attracted to a young and somewhat demanding man called Peter. She ends up marrying a safer, more caring man and is reasonably happy; however an encounter with Peter on her party day starts her wondering what might have happened if she had made different choices.

The film is beautifully made, and very well-casted; Vanessa Redgrave, as ever, is perfect in her role. The younger Clarissa and friends are similar enough to their middle-aged selves that there was no problem remembering who was whom. I was a tad confused by the two time-frames for the first few minutes, but it soon became clear what was going on.

However, it’s not a film that caught my emotions, particularly. I could see that it was a high quality film, with great attention to period detail. As a piece of social history, it's excellent. And yet, I didn’t particularly enjoy it. That’s partly because the plot concerning the war veteran was quite disturbing, and partly, I suppose, because the Dalloways' lifestyle is so far removed from anything I’ve experienced.

I’m intrigued enough that I may decide to read the book at some point, but I doubt if I’ll want to see the film again. It made a pleasant enough evening’s viewing; the rating of PG (PG-13 in the US) seems about right, although I cannot imagine it would appeal to anyone under the age of about sixteen.

The film doesn't seem to be easily available any more; second-hand editions on Amazon are very expensive. But if you can find this at a charity shop, or similar, it's worth seeing once.    

Review copyright 2018 Sue's DVD Reviews