Very good observations from reviewers here so far. Views on ending unanimous. However, might I suggest that the plot holes leading to the conclusion of the film were deliberate? How about the whole thing being a parody? The film, using as an example one family, home of the brave, to epitomise Americans as many in the world, and some within their world, see them. White, blonde kids with blonde stay at home mom - she knew all along what was going on too of course - Evangelically religious, atmosphere and home decor dark and dull, muted. Proud bearers of arms - responsible with regard to gun safety of course, but only able to offer "thoughts and prayers" as their own children are shot down in their schools or choosing to ignore the fact that a serial killer has been loose in their community for years. So they are, to perhaps understand the ambiguities of the events leading to and including the ending of this finely crafted film a bit better, willing witnesses to and participants in mayhem and murder, both at home and on the world stage - and exist purely to protect The Great American Way.
Reviews
8 Reviews
Spinning Man
(2018)
Maybe the Book?
7 April 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Post-modern speculation throughout, encapsulated in the most boring parts of the study of philosophy. Which makes history so much clearer. The cop follows history, searching for truth and insisting on facts. Up to a point, that is. Did he try to protect Evan in the end, by giving him a false version of the girl's autopsy which might, at that stage, have been inconclusive? Likewise his wife, trying to cover for him for years, despite her well founded suspicions. Did they let Evan go, just for the moment. Two views that open up new possibilities. What was with the van, all locked up on the wharf? The cop looked across the water from the van and saw a house with a direct view of it, the place where Joyce was working during the season. Presumably Evan's house across the water. Mouse on the wheel and Evan ain't out of the woods yet.
Red Eye
(2005)
Fun little drama, cleverly cliched by Wes Craven
3 April 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Red Eye has recently come to Netflix, no doubt to honour Cillian Murphy's recent Oscar success. I love those movies from the early 2000s and this one does not disappoint. Without recognising either actor initially, I was entertained by the characterisations. One look at Jack, and it started to fall into place. Those slightly protruding pale blue eyes that never blink, and the pudding bowl haircut - Nureyev... yes, he's a Russian! The boys on the boat confirm that. Just another little cliche that Wes Craven slips in for the amusement of perhaps only some of us. Unaware that Rachel McAdams was the Alpha Mean Girl, I would never have believed that here, apart from the voice in hindsight. As a good customer service person she was frustratingly passive, despite many obvious opportunities to deal with the situation. But the plot was entertaining and the quality of the acting and script was really very good. By the way, someone mentioned a "boomer" in one of the other reviews - that word did not exist in 2005. Teen or adult, I wouldn't have bothered to watch it then actually, but as life gets busier these movies appeal and the quality here transcedes the concept.
Detective Forst
(2024– )
The cast weren't really there.
15 January 2024
Detective Forst started eerily well with the spectacular wild scenery., supposedly in the Tatra Mountains. Then the usual graphic scene of introductory violence. Interesting use of altitude changes as setup for each scene. But the problem started for me when I realised that the actors weren't really there. Neither a hair was ruffled nor a flake of snow touched the obviously warm and dry cheeks of the gathering that discovered the first body on the wild and blizzardy mountain side. Outdoor sound effects were realistic, but clear dialogue showed no battle with the elements. They were obviously filming indoors, with that scenery just just running in the background. Filmed cheaply, doubt whether I'll bother to proceed.
Greenland
(2020)
One star for the special effects, one star for Scott Glen.
13 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Entitled rather unattractive looking family with nerdy kid - you almost wish they got immolated like all the friends and neighbours they fled from and left behind. Demanding entry to everything, at the expense of thousands of others in the same situation. Military just lets them through, no questions asked. Really annoying. Does this selfish trio epitomise the modern American family unit? Hope Scott Glen was well paid for his semi-cameo role. No wonder he refused to go with them. He would probably have had to sacrifice his life for them in some way if he had. Like everyone else had to do for this entitled family. Special effects were secondary. Sorry all the projectiles missed this family.
The Night Manager
(2016–2025)
The Night Manager - transposed to film
9 July 2022
I was disappointed by the film version of The Night Manager. Having listened to the unabridged audiobook recently, there was a vast chasm created between the point of the book and the film. Le Carre went to great pains to include and yet disguise his own experiences within the secret service, but this nuance was missed in the film. Don't get me wrong - the film was excellent, well acted and a complete drama in itself. But certain salient points were sadly missing for me.
Firstly, the casting - excellent job, but not nearly punchy enough. The night manager himself - pretty good, for what he had to work with.
The problem lay with Dickie Roper, the typical Public School bully - well played again for the demands of the film role, but a superficially boyishly likeable yet inherently evil character would have better suited an actor like Hugh Grant, had the film followed the book. Grant would be more than capable of playing meatier roles, using a persona that is always lurking under the surface of his work so far. Jeds? Statuesque and beautiful as depicted in the novel, but not depicted as the troubled middle class woman who had worked in Europe as an escort before meeting Dickie and his crew, and who no doubt had brought a drug habit and other peccadillos along with her. Otherwise, why would Dickie have kept her around? This was also well implied in the book, but not the film - probably due to potential family viewing and puritannical American funding. Also, to make Dickie more convincingly evil, it was implied in the novel that he had predilections that Jed was forced to participate in, wherever their travels took them, and there was no sign of anything like that in the film. The relationship of Jed and Dickie in the film therefore appeared to be rather bland and pointless. Dickie certainly had a hand in the murder of Hamid's mistress in Egypt, which brough in the night manager, and the methods employed were far more brutal than depicted in the film. Otherwise, why would the night manager have become so motivated to pursue him?
The other actors were pretty OK and as characters were true to the novel. The little boy was excellent, as was the cuckolded wife of one of Dickie's "advisers", and the thugs who looked after Dickie.
What a shame that the film had to settle for an American-style happy ending, that went completely off the track of what Le Carre was trying to say in all of his novels. The good and evil of corruption. As well made and well acted as the film was, it missed the point of Le Carre's novel and made it just another bland American style thriller. As an aside, the Cousins always stuffed it up in his books.
Firstly, the casting - excellent job, but not nearly punchy enough. The night manager himself - pretty good, for what he had to work with.
The problem lay with Dickie Roper, the typical Public School bully - well played again for the demands of the film role, but a superficially boyishly likeable yet inherently evil character would have better suited an actor like Hugh Grant, had the film followed the book. Grant would be more than capable of playing meatier roles, using a persona that is always lurking under the surface of his work so far. Jeds? Statuesque and beautiful as depicted in the novel, but not depicted as the troubled middle class woman who had worked in Europe as an escort before meeting Dickie and his crew, and who no doubt had brought a drug habit and other peccadillos along with her. Otherwise, why would Dickie have kept her around? This was also well implied in the book, but not the film - probably due to potential family viewing and puritannical American funding. Also, to make Dickie more convincingly evil, it was implied in the novel that he had predilections that Jed was forced to participate in, wherever their travels took them, and there was no sign of anything like that in the film. The relationship of Jed and Dickie in the film therefore appeared to be rather bland and pointless. Dickie certainly had a hand in the murder of Hamid's mistress in Egypt, which brough in the night manager, and the methods employed were far more brutal than depicted in the film. Otherwise, why would the night manager have become so motivated to pursue him?
The other actors were pretty OK and as characters were true to the novel. The little boy was excellent, as was the cuckolded wife of one of Dickie's "advisers", and the thugs who looked after Dickie.
What a shame that the film had to settle for an American-style happy ending, that went completely off the track of what Le Carre was trying to say in all of his novels. The good and evil of corruption. As well made and well acted as the film was, it missed the point of Le Carre's novel and made it just another bland American style thriller. As an aside, the Cousins always stuffed it up in his books.
The Next Step
(2013– )
Boring gymnastic routines posing as dance, boring music sand horrible outfits
4 July 2022
OK this is a show for kids. American kids who have grown up with Dance Moms, and whose own moms have obviously grown up with So You Think You Can Dance. So, since when has the floor routine of competitive gymnastics invaded dance and dance become a competitive sport? Repetitive and horrible to watch, away from the mat and the glitz and glitter of another Eastern European Olympic team win. The music? Congrats to the runners up of The Voice. And those outfits the kids turn up in? Tommy Hilfiger for Nerds Gone Wild. But apart from that seasick-making scenario, obviously presented in America between ads for junk food, the kids are GREAT! Their acting is straight, fhey are natural and the show would not be able to move along without them. I feel sorry for them though, having to wear those terrible outfits and pose with all those tooth rotting sugary cordials in "the juice bar" every time they are allowed to sit down. Let's hope they chose their own outfits for a joke. Or is this what American kids like to wear these days? A poor preview of all those adults seen waddling in and out of news videos. It is just disappointing that what should be pure and beautiful art forms are being forced through a sausage machine and Americanised for the consumption of totally undiscerning audiences. People will grow up being unable to recognise wood from plastic, and the real art forms will lose what remains of their funding and disappear. Or be outsourced to you know where.
Wish You Were Here
(I) (2012)
Wary of Australian drama - but a new look at this 2012 re-issue - WITH SPOILERS
1 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
As more Australian actors and film-makers migrate to the USA, the home of good film plots, the better Australian drama will be.
I do not need to summarise the perceived plot of this movie, as it wastes space, as do most of the emotive, character-driven, plotless, loss and grief dramas we have to endure in Australia. Acting studios here also never seemed to have got out of the '70s. Pity Australian actors training and working here - having to scream, sob and grovel on the floor a la Tommy Wiseau of 'The Room' fame, or be hacked to pieces after having to strip naked and indulge in some illicit and lurid sex and drug scene a la 'Wolf Creek' or that steamy string of giant pig and crocodile sagas. You only have to see the predilections of some of our middle-aged producers to get the picture - or turn it off or walk out.
So I set to watch this now 10 year old film on TV with some trepidation, perhaps only willing to give it a try because of Teresa Palmer, who is achieving success overseas. Joel Edgerton I didn't know much about. Both these actors came up trumps in the end. Joel did the best and most authentic bogan I've seen in an Australian so far, when he took on that gang, and he looked the part all the way through. Teresa looked suitably sneaky.
My overall reaction to this film may be a little different to most. Here are a few points to ponder:
Weren't these folks, in their mid-thirties or thereabouts, a little old for this kind of doof doof ecstasy holiday? My teenagers had the same holidays (without the fatality) - when they were teenagers. I know the majority of arrests for ice crimes, etc, at home seem to be for that older age-group these days - but were the writers aware of this demographic, or was it co-incidental, in needing to use these particular actors?
There were hints and clues and ideas through the second half of the movie that seemed to have been forgotten or abandoned in the film-making process but leave niggling questions:
How involved was Steph really, who was a bit of a drifter, and had the odd shifty look about her?
What was the thing about the second-glance and close-up of the mail that was collected from Jeremy's flat - was an odd name spotted? Did that tie in with the name on the Post Restantante package that the Feds busted in Customs at the end, but seemed to want to throw in the too-hard basked with just a throw-away line?
And Jeremy's parents - too good to be true Mum and Dad, but the camera kept zooming in to those elephant ornaments on their coffee table - just after the Customs bust. Were they in on it? That unexplained letter zoomed in on as mentioned above - was it a bill of lading from Customs for Jeremy to collect the goodies when he returned, or were his parents expected to do it for him and hide the stuff in the elephants? Jeremy didn't live with them, so there is an unfollowed question there. And how did Jeremy's friends get into his flat and collect his mail when they hardly knew him? He didn't tell them to do that because he knew he wouldn't be coming back! Unless Steph was meant to do it for him, and keep the letter.
A good British crime drama would have incorporated those elements mentioned above, to make a far more satisfying, albeit inconclusive ending. Alice and Dave made a last visit to Jeremy's parents - supposedly to finally tell them what happened to him, no doubt as a street mugging or something. But it would have tied up all the lose ends, in view of the Customs bust sub-plot and all the other random clues, if that visit had been made by the Feds, and just left at that.
Australian film-makers need to swallow their pride, and study plotting harder, to achieve logical conclusions, and make a good drama that people will pay to watch outside of a festival or Government grant.
I do not need to summarise the perceived plot of this movie, as it wastes space, as do most of the emotive, character-driven, plotless, loss and grief dramas we have to endure in Australia. Acting studios here also never seemed to have got out of the '70s. Pity Australian actors training and working here - having to scream, sob and grovel on the floor a la Tommy Wiseau of 'The Room' fame, or be hacked to pieces after having to strip naked and indulge in some illicit and lurid sex and drug scene a la 'Wolf Creek' or that steamy string of giant pig and crocodile sagas. You only have to see the predilections of some of our middle-aged producers to get the picture - or turn it off or walk out.
So I set to watch this now 10 year old film on TV with some trepidation, perhaps only willing to give it a try because of Teresa Palmer, who is achieving success overseas. Joel Edgerton I didn't know much about. Both these actors came up trumps in the end. Joel did the best and most authentic bogan I've seen in an Australian so far, when he took on that gang, and he looked the part all the way through. Teresa looked suitably sneaky.
My overall reaction to this film may be a little different to most. Here are a few points to ponder:
Weren't these folks, in their mid-thirties or thereabouts, a little old for this kind of doof doof ecstasy holiday? My teenagers had the same holidays (without the fatality) - when they were teenagers. I know the majority of arrests for ice crimes, etc, at home seem to be for that older age-group these days - but were the writers aware of this demographic, or was it co-incidental, in needing to use these particular actors?
There were hints and clues and ideas through the second half of the movie that seemed to have been forgotten or abandoned in the film-making process but leave niggling questions:
How involved was Steph really, who was a bit of a drifter, and had the odd shifty look about her?
What was the thing about the second-glance and close-up of the mail that was collected from Jeremy's flat - was an odd name spotted? Did that tie in with the name on the Post Restantante package that the Feds busted in Customs at the end, but seemed to want to throw in the too-hard basked with just a throw-away line?
And Jeremy's parents - too good to be true Mum and Dad, but the camera kept zooming in to those elephant ornaments on their coffee table - just after the Customs bust. Were they in on it? That unexplained letter zoomed in on as mentioned above - was it a bill of lading from Customs for Jeremy to collect the goodies when he returned, or were his parents expected to do it for him and hide the stuff in the elephants? Jeremy didn't live with them, so there is an unfollowed question there. And how did Jeremy's friends get into his flat and collect his mail when they hardly knew him? He didn't tell them to do that because he knew he wouldn't be coming back! Unless Steph was meant to do it for him, and keep the letter.
A good British crime drama would have incorporated those elements mentioned above, to make a far more satisfying, albeit inconclusive ending. Alice and Dave made a last visit to Jeremy's parents - supposedly to finally tell them what happened to him, no doubt as a street mugging or something. But it would have tied up all the lose ends, in view of the Customs bust sub-plot and all the other random clues, if that visit had been made by the Feds, and just left at that.
Australian film-makers need to swallow their pride, and study plotting harder, to achieve logical conclusions, and make a good drama that people will pay to watch outside of a festival or Government grant.
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