Saturday, July 14, 2012

Alan Rickman Reel: Truly, Madly, Deeply

My household are big fans of Alan Rickman. As such, we've decided to review his films from start to finish. 
Using IMDb, that puts us starting with Die Hard (DIE HARD!!!!) and continuing with...


We should just do Ghost.




sgwordy: This was another movie we couldn't find. Scouring the internets (well, Netflix, Hulu, and iTunes) left us with only a few clips on youtube. I think people's favorite clips were the very serious ones because I didn't see much of the advertised humor. I would guess this film is pretty intense.

Dr Musacha:Yeah, the clips were very dramatic but it seemed like real drama. Not melodrama. That scene with the poem made me genuinely sad for both of them and I hadn't seen very much of them at all. It's amazing that short clips can be so affecting.

sgwordy: Agreed. I was very easily able to slip into the emotion of the scenes even though they were short. You know you're into something if you start to feel embarrassed about being there.When they were sharing how much they loved each other (title scene so kind of important) I started to feel really intrusive.

Beings that this is a serious film I feel a bit schmucky for making fun but, seriously, that mustache? Gotta go! What do you think?

Dr Musacha: Awful! He should have been wearing a denim jacket and standing in front of a bitchin' Camero.

sgwordy laughs

Dr. Musacha: His worst look so far. Agreed?

sgwordy: Definitely. It's the only thing that made that haircut not the worst thing about this look. Do you think you'd care to watch the entire film?

Dr. Musacha: Yes! In fact, I'm a little bummed that Netflix doesn't have it.

sgwordy: Wow, you surprise me. This isn't really your type of film.

Dr. Musacha: Drama has to be really well done for me before I'm interested in seeing it and certainly before I would like it and this seems to be a film that I would like because the drama is so well done.

It must be noted that Rickman flashed two more talents in this film: Another foreign language (Spanish) and singing. What did you think of Rickman's singing voice?

sgwordy: Absolutely loved it. Felt a bit sorry for Stevenson because she did not sound great next to his talents. Hopefully we'll get to see the whole thing someday but until then we'll let everyone enjoy his singing while we move on to his next film.




Summary:
Rate the movie on a scale of 1 to 10:
Dr Musacha –7
sgwordy –5 (hard to know from the youtube clips)

Was Rickman the best thing about this movie?
Dr Musacha – Yes, from the clips, definitely.
sgwordy – Yes, he wins all the singing contests.

In the context of his body of work, on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate Rickman as Rickman?
Dr Musacha –8
sgwordy – 8

Favorite Rickman quote from this movie?
Dr Musacha: Sun ain't gonna shine anymore. (Rickman sings like an angel.)
sgwordy: I still go to meetings.

3 comments:

  1. On reading title of this post: "Oh, finally!"
    On reading post: "Oh, argh!"

    I think you were both very generous considering you were working with youtube clips instead of the full context and everything that lets attachment to characters build naturally and convincingly.

    Ref: looks - it is worth noting that this is British film, i.e. without Hollywood budget, but more importantly, without Hollywood styling. All three of the main characters in the film (widow, deceased, love interest) could really have done with some "What Not to Wear" advice. But I guess that was also part of the point - they were all ordinary folk, no hereditary or financial privileges.

    The emotion gets pretty raw, the theme being grief from both sides of the grave. To me, that was the strength of the film. It was a bit squirmy, as Rachel mentions, but the talent of the leads was such that I totally believed them whereas it would have been ridonkulous with lesser actors.

    I watched this, then made Mr. Apprentice Writer watch with me. He was affected but didn't really want to admit that to me (fearing, no doubt, I'd keep repeating the exercise) but "admitted" after that the could see why I wanted him to see it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. On reading title of this post: "Oh, finally!"
    On reading post: "Oh, argh!"

    I think you were both very generous considering you were working with youtube clips instead of the full context and everything that lets attachment to characters build naturally and convincingly.

    Ref: looks - it is worth noting that this is British film, i.e. without Hollywood budget, but more importantly, without Hollywood styling. All three of the main characters in the film (widow, deceased, love interest) could really have done with some "What Not to Wear" advice. But I guess that was also part of the point - they were all ordinary folk, no hereditary or financial privileges.

    The emotion gets pretty raw, the theme being grief from both sides of the grave. To me, that was the strength of the film. It was a bit squirmy, as Rachel mentions, but the talent of the leads was such that I totally believed them whereas it would have been ridonkulous with lesser actors.

    I watched this, then made Mr. Apprentice Writer watch with me. He was affected but didn't really want to admit that to me (fearing, no doubt, I'd keep repeating the exercise) but "admitted" after that the could see why I wanted him to see it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey M, yeah we were pretty bummed to have yet another of his films not be easily available. It's not exactly easy to review a movie when you only see 15-20min of it. Oh well... maybe someday.

    ReplyDelete