Sunday, February 6, 2011

Childhood sweethearts

Oh, first... the movie I quoted in the last post was "The Apartment." It's a fun film with a young Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine; it's often described as a classic so I finally watched it with Miss CB last night. So lovely!

But today Miss CB and I saw "Tamara Drewe" at the local cinema. I'm telling you, never before has a film had such a powerfully depressive effect on the two of us. First of all, that music you hear at the beginning of the trailer - those xylophone-like tones - are repeated throughout the entire film ad nauseum. And the trailer lies, as does the title, because Tamara Drewe is NOT the protagonist. No she's not. She's the sexiest looking woman in the film, and she sleeps with the most men in the film, but that's about it. That sums up her character. She's this fabulous journalist who comes back to the little village where she grew up, and where she lost her virginity, and then she sleeps with a famous drummer and a famous writer (who's married to the only fully rounded character in the film, and who should really be the protagonist, but isn't quite, probably because her boobs are a bit saggy and she's a fully rounded character). And then, suddenly, out of the blue, Tamara turns around and chooses the guy who helped her lose her virginity all those years ago. How lovely.

Tonight, we watched "Sweet Home Alabama" because it just happened to start at the same time as we collapsed on the sofa after dinner. Here's another young woman who returns to her childhood home after having found fame and fortune in the big city. She also has a guy there who she grew up with, and yes they were lovers from way back, and there's fun and love and lots of character development. I know, I know, I know, it's a silly Hollywood romantic comedy, but shoot me if I don't prefer that every single time to a pretentious, fake, non-rom-com, protagonist-less British film about a bunch of wanky writers who can't control their sexual urges.

Ahem.

I like to look up films at rottentomatoes to see what the critics thought, and to my utter disbelief it looks like I'm in the minority here. Look at Tamara Drewe vs. Alabama. I wonder if it's because there are usually many more male film critics? Or maybe I'm just shallow. Either way, it took me three hours to shake myself out of my bad mood after watching TD, and that's just not a good cinematic experience, whatever the critics say.

5 comments:

trash said...

You know why it left you in a bad mood don't you? It is based on a Thomas Hardy novel and if anything is guaranteed to leave one depressed and annoyed it is Hardy.

FYI it was filmed around here. Dorset is v. pretty in the Summer, no?

Duyvken said...

LOL, you are such a delight E. I adore your Tamara Drewe re Sweet Home Alabama work. Haven't seen either yet but will rectify that as soon as I can :-)

Mary said...

First of all ..Anna from Sweden has posted! Yes she has!

Second of all ..have you seen black swan? Like you with tamara drewe I seem to be in the minority...the critics love it and whilst I am in awe of ms.portmam's performance there were just too many scenes that i couldn't watch.

The Coffee Lady said...

The bloke in Sweet Home Alabama is incredibly good looking. Was that an influence?

Julia said...

I can't read anything by Thomas Hardy without sinking into depression either so can absolutely understand re Tamara Drew. He was relentless.

Sweet Home I must check out, fluff is fully necessary at times!