Bruce Almighty (Jim Carrey)

It was over twelve years since we first saw ‘Bruce Almighty’, and although we remembered the gist of the plot, we had forgotten most of the detail and humour. So we decided it would make a light evening’s viewing…

Jim Carrey stars as Bruce, a TV reporter who is sent to all kinds of strange locations. He is excellent at interviewing, and making stories out of bizarre situations. But what he really wants is to be a news anchor. He has a beautiful and loving girlfriend (Jennifer Aniston) but they have been having some arguments… and he feels that everything is going wrong.

One day it seems that life is going from bad to worse, and Bruce complains loudly to God. He doesn’t expect a literal answer, but God turns up, in the form of Morgan Freeman. What’s more, God says that he wants a break, so Bruce can take over, since he is convinced he can do the job better.

It’s a surreal and unusual storyline, but it works extremely well. Jim Carrey’s timing is superb, and, accepting the premise of the plot, he is entirely believable as an ambitious, somewhat selfish young man suddenly endowed with the powers to do just about anything.

There’s a lot of humour in the film, much of it involving Bruce and Grace’s dog and its eventual house-training. And, it has to be said, a fair bit of schadenfreude. But it’s also quite thought-provoking. Bruce discovers that answering everyone’s prayers positively can lead to a great deal of discontent. He learns that the world operates according to laws that shouldn’t be broken. And he realises that the one thing that cannot be commanded is love.

The rating is 12, which seems about right; there’s some profanity, though it’s not extreme. There are some passionate scenes of intimacy, although mostly implied rather than with any overt detail. There’s a lot of discussion of sexuality too, and some quite intense scenes. However as it all involves adults, it’s unlikely to be of any interest to children or younger teenagers. I don’t think I’d show it to anyone aged under about fifteen.

Overall, we enjoyed this film very much. Some people might find it rather blasphemous, but it’s done in such a positive way, and with Bruce realising how difficult it is to be God even in one small town, that I thought it well worth seeing. Certainly it’s different from the average rom-com.

Recommended.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's DVD Reviews

Falling in Love (Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro)

In between seeing new films we have been given, we’re watching some we liked and enjoyed about nine or ten years ago. One of these is ‘Falling in Love’, which we first saw in September 2010. I remembered finding it somewhat bittersweet, but had no real memory of the storyline; my husband didn’t remember it at all.

Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro star as Molly and Frank, two happily married people who happen to live not far away from each other. Molly is married to a doctor, and there’s evidently some tension in their relationship; but they seem mostly to be happy. Frank is married to Ann, and they also seem to be well-suited, on the whole, with two delightful sons.

Frank and Molly bump into each other while doing some last-minute Christmas shopping in a bookshop. They drop some gift-wrapped parcels and manage to get two of them mixed, leading to some surprises on Christmas morning. The film follows them separately in their different lives. They both come across as likeable people of integrity; there’s a rather sad subplot involving Molly’s elderly father.

A few months later they happen to be on the same train… and they start chatting. Neither is considering any form of relationship outside of their marriages, but there’s evidently an attraction. At first it seems as if this will be satisfied in a platonic friendship, but as they meet more often it gradually becomes clear that there’s more involved in their mutual feelings.

It’s the two main actors who make this into an excellent film. There’s not a whole lot of plot, and the coincidences are a tad unbelievable. But Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro have excellent on-screen chemistry. Both are somewhat quiet, neither has any intention of cheating on their spouses. But their sense of kinship comes across powerfully, and the growing physical attraction too, something that - it would appear - cannot be ignored.

The first time I saw the film, I hoped that it would go one way, and it didn’t. This time I remembered the outcome, though not exactly why it happened. Either possible ending would have led to heartbreak one way or another, and while I would have preferred my choice, what happened in the film worked extremely well - and showed clearly what difficult choices sometimes have to be made.

We found it poignant, even sad, but it was so well done, with such brilliant acting that we both found it almost mesmerising and were totally drawn into the story as we watched.

Definitely recommended. The rating is PG, which I suppose is about right since the bad language is mostly anatomical, and the one scene of intimacy doesn’t show any detail. But the subject matter isn’t really appropriate to children, and I doubt if anyone under the age of about fifteen or sixteen would find it interesting.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's DVD Reviews

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (Sidney Poitier)

It was nine years ago that we first saw the film ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’, so it was more than time to watch it again. My husband had entirely forgotten what it was about; I recalled the general theme, but not much more. It was made in 1967 and is thus extremely dated, but still, on the whole, well made and thought-provoking.

Spencer Tracey - who died soon after the film was completed - is excellent as the upright, principled and somewhat irascible Matt. He and his wife Christina (Katharine Hepburn) are a fairly well-off late middle-aged white couple living in San Francisco, in the United States. Christina is the owner of an art gallery, and Matt the editor of a prestigious newspaper.

They have brought up their daughter Joey (Katharine Houghton) to be inclusive, accepting and generously liberal. Racism is clearly still somewhat in evidence in the United States in this era, but Matt has written articles against it. They see themselves as modern, liberal and intelligent adults.

Joey has been on holiday in Hawaii, and has arrived back with a young man, John Prentice (Sidney Poitier) whom she has fallen in love with. He is a highly educated doctor who has worked all around the world. However he is rather older than she is… and he’s also black. For all their liberal principles, this is quite a shock to Joey’s parents.

There’s not a great deal of plot in this film, which takes place in the course of just one day. I imagine it was quite eye-opening fifty years ago, inviting viewers to examine their own hearts, to see whether their beliefs and principles would extend to their own children marrying someone with a different coloured skin. However there is a great deal of discussion and debate, as Joey and John try to convince her parents that they won’t have serious problems if they get married. And they plan to do that soon.

There’s some humour in the situations, some irony, and much that was very serious back in the 1960s in the United States. The person who objects most to the proposed union is the family’s housekeeper and cook Tillie (Isabel Sanford) who is the most racist of all and believes that John is an imposter.  This is nicely balanced by the family friend Monsignor Ryan (Cecil Kellaway) who is wise, and thoughtful, and also - in places - very amusing.

When John’s parents arrive (apparently booking flights at the last moment was much easier than it is nowadays) they find themselves entirely in agreement with Joey’s parents, in another gentle irony.

Inevitably the style of the film is dated, but that isn’t a problem, even if some of the backdrops look rather fake. Harder to accept was that while three of the main characters are ideally suited to their roles, and extremely good, Joey is rather fluffy and unrealistic, making us feel that John could do better for himself! And while the black/white issue is, for the most part, no longer relevant, there are plenty of other modern equivalents, where parents might have idealistic views, but less inclined to approve when one of the parties concerned is their own child.

We had to suspend belief a little at the way everything happened, just in conversation and discussion. At times, towards the end, the film felt a bit like a play with different scenes involving groups of actors talking, and poor Tillie waiting to serve the dinner... but overall we liked the film very much and would recommend it to anyone.

Rated PG, which I imagine is for the racial slurs (though only one instance of the word now considered very bad) and other mild bad language. But it’s unlikely to be of any interest to children anyway.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's DVD Reviews