Carrie

I have read the Stephen King novel Carrie and seen the 1976 film version, starring Sissy Spacek. I'm also not a fan of remakes... so I don't really know why I watched the 2013 version.

Possibly because it stars Chloë Grace Moretz who I thought was brilliant in Kick Ass. Possibly because I thought they might have been able to do something a bit special with modern CGI. I don't know; it was a bit of an impulse.

Anyway, I thought it was quite good. It's a long time since I saw the original film. This one seemed to be pretty much the same, but updated to include 21st century bullying techniques. The other children were much meaner than I remembered. Also, I thought that Carrie's mother was a lot creepier in the original.

Julianne Moore gives a good performance, but I didn't like this version of the character. Maybe just my preference, or dodgy memory. But I seem to think that the mother wasn't physically scary or abusive before; it was all psychological oppression based on her own fear of sin as she understood it.

The main bitchy girl played by Portia Doubleday really is horrible. I didn't think the conspiracy was played up that well though, and the nice kids were just a bit lame. In the novel were all the teachers that dumb, apart from the gym teacher? I don't remember.

Overall, it's OK.

The Hunters

There seem to be several films called The Hunters; this is about the 1996 Swedish thriller directed by Kjell Sundvall.

I picked up this film largely on the strength of my admiration for Rolf Lassgård's iconic portrayal of the characters Kurt Wallander and Sebastian Bergman.

The plot is interesting and the film is well directed, but I found myself a bit disappointed. I think the first half builds up the tension well, but when the going gets tough, only Lassgard gets going. As much as the lead performance grows, the others diminish and the contrast just leaps out at you.

Lassgard is great as the troubled Erik, but all the other policemen are lame and wooden. The hunting party are supposed to be tough and ruthless, maybe with a touch of self-doubt: but most of the time we get either psychopath or blubbing baby. And don't get me started on Leif. He was good in the first half and then just became more and more hammy.

Enjoyable enough; could have been a lot better.

Philomena

As soon as I started watching Philomena and the journalist was introduced as Martin Sixsmith I thought "I remember him from BBC News".

I had no idea that he'd gone off to work for the Labour government in 1997 or that he'd been forced out. But that recognition immediately made me think of the film as depicting a real story. More so that others which start with "Based on real events".

Truth is stranger than fiction (as they say) so I think you need to know in advance that this is something that actually happened. Some of the facts do seem unbelievable when you watch it. I think if it had been a fictional film I might well be writing "Nice film, but a bit far-fetched."

Of course, the film does take some liberties. Checking up on Sixsmith you can see that he wrote several other books and did some radio series after leaving the government; whereas the film suggests that he went straight into working with Philomena Lee. There are also bound to be plenty of people who have a vested interest in debunking the core criticisms of representatives the Catholic Church. You have to decide for yourself which evidence stands up to scrutiny.

Aside from the reason for their collaboration, there is a great deal of interesting interplay between Sixsmith and Lee. They are such different characters that the scope for humour and sometimes profound insight is huge. Whilst you almost expect Judi Dench to simply be brilliant because she is an actor of such stature, I think Steve Coogan's performance here is great too. He's often typecast as a comedy actor, but even his comedy characters have tragic elements that give them more depth than those of actors who are simply clowns.

Overall I really enjoyed this. It is a story that needed to be told.

Gravity

Having enjoyed watching Gravity I find myself wondering why I don't remember much about it, a few hours later. It is the sort of film that has a huge visual impact, plenty of shocking scenes and emotional highs and lows... which only work once.

As soon as you know what happens, there's no point in watching it again. In fact I'm afraid to watch it again because those big wow moments just wont be as good next time and that will taint my memory of it.

Why is that? Probably because the story is wafer thin. There is so little room for manoeuvre because there are only a couple of significant characters. We find out some details of their lives, but not much. I think the makers believed that the stunning effects would be enough; but it's not for me.

Thanks

Originally I was only going to do this blog for 6 months. It was a deal between me and someone who was helping me after my wife died. He said it would help me; and it has.

I'm not sure how much I enjoy writing it. It's hard to write about films without giving away the plots. But I do really love films. Many different kinds of films (not all of them, of course). And I do enjoy thinking about them afterwards and reflecting on how they affected me.

Mostly I still watch films alone, but there are a couple of small groups that I belong to now. We only meet once a month or so, but it's another different angle.

So thanks to all the people who have shown an interest. I've had nearly 1000 views now. When I started I thought I might get a few hundred at most. And I've made a massive £0.58 from the advertising...

Maybe I'll try and keep going for a year? I don't know. I think I'll keep going until I start repeating myself too often. Cheers.

The Secret in Their Eyes

I often sit down to watch a film with a bottle of red wine and a bar of dark chocolate, hoping that it will be something special. Usually I'm disappointed. Sometimes I am blown away by a truly brilliant film.

The Secret in Their Eyes is a brilliant film. Well deserving its Best Film Not-In-English Oscar.

There are so many subtle things going on at the same time. Watching the subtitles and the actors at the same time is quite an effort at times, but worth it. Both the leads  Ricardo Darín and Soledad Villamil are superb; conveying enough to be totally believable without giving the game away too early.

And the film works well because there is so much for us to learn that we can't even imagine at the start. Who is the main character? An author? Oh, maybe, maybe not. Who is this woman he's meeting? How does he know her? And so on. The more we learn the more questions remain unanswered.

Director Juan José Campanella shows us a bit of the story, lets us make assumptions, doesn't correct us straight away... shows us more, lets the penny drop, carries on. You think you have worked it out. Then you are not so sure again.

The story doesn't really twist, it just develops in subtly unpredictable ways. I love that. Nothing feels contrived. You see things and think "Oh, yes, that makes sense."

Lovely film. It was a nice bottle of wine too... and I forgot to eat the chocolate.