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Reviews
Love Actually (2003)
Love it but it could have been better
I first saw this in the theatre, and loved it. Then I watched it at home and watched all the extra features. This is when I started to realize all the places it could have been made better.
There are several story lines that could have been dropped and several expanded with the deleted scenes, but I won't go into that here.
But the particular sequence that I thought could have been better was when Emma Thompson is called to the school because of her son's story about - flatulence! It was very funny, but could have been so much better. Instead of going along with the principal, she should have burst out laughing and pretended to be hugely relieved that she had been called in to admire his work instead of to censure him. Then she should have openly taken him out to lunch to reward him.
Then there is the Colin Firth segment - also very enjoyable. But how much better it might have been if the homely overweight sister had been his housekeeper, with whom he fell in love. And the scene where he meets the wrong sister (now played by the gorgeous actress) would be played exactly the same way - with him recoiling in horror. This would make love really blind, and take the sting out of the fat jokes.
Nevertheless, it's one of my favourite holiday classics.
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Mostly enjoyable - needs a different ending
I really enjoyed most of this movie - the funeral was devastating. And unlike many, I really do enjoy the standard Hugh Grant (which, in fairness, was not yet "standard" when this movie was new).
BUT (and I'm agreeing with everyone else here) Carrie, the Andie MacDowell character, has nothing going for her. She is not appealing in any way, and she's a slag.
Additionally, the wedding to Duckface is totally unmotivated, and only contrived so that he can leave her at the altar without us hating him.
Here is how it should have gone. The fourth wedding should have been between Charles and Carrie - once she's divorced, there is no impediment after all. Carrie - true to character - will be getting it on with someone else by the night before the wedding. Meanwhile, Charles discovers that he is really in love with Fiona (wasn't that the point of the movie? it's what I expected to happen). The deaf character discovers both these facts and the wedding can now be played as originally scripted.
The Old Curiosity Shop (2007)
Disappointing
I was very disappointed.
Mind you, I didn't like the book very much either - the ending is so pointless. But the book did have a lot of charming elements. The best of these was the relationship that developed between Dick Swiveller (excellently portrayed by Geoff Breton in the tiny remnant of his role) and the "Marchioness" (played by Charlene McKenna). In the book, (if I recall correctly after 35+ years) Dick Swiveller falls ill and the Marchioness finds him in his lodging and nurses him back to health. They are able to save young Kit Nubbles from transportation to penal servitude in Australia at the last possible moment. None of that here.
Also charming was the interlude with Mrs. Jarley (here played excellently by Zoë Wanamaker), again cut to the bone. I found it impossible to care about Nell and her grandfather in either medium - the grandfather is too irresponsible and self-absorbed and Nell is too insipid.
*******SPOILERS FOLLOW********
Hard to imagine all those respectable Victorians grieving for her. I'm (almost) with Oscar Wilde on this one - "One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing." (OK, I shed a tear.) I find the malice of Quilp and the whole chase almost entirely unmotivated, although I agree that Toby Jones did a great job with him.
I don't get all the stuff about spoilers - I mean the book has been out for nearly 170 years - there's no secret here!!