December 28, 2007

Juno and The Golden Compass

As I am now back from Christmas with the family I thought I'd post my thoughts on a couple of films I saw over the last week. First, as to Juno, believe the hype. Don't believe the premise - I never for a second bought that the wise-cracking lead was actually 16 - but put that aside and watch a really good film. The script is sharp, and it pulls off being funny, sweet and moving. And both the music and direction are great. While she was quite good I'm a little surprised at all the awards Ellen Page is winning. If she's winning honors ahead of Marion Cotillard (and she is) well that's ... odd. But she's good - and the supporting cast is even better, my favorites being Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons and Jason Bateman. All in all I recommend it, and I can certainly see why it's showing up on a lot of 10 best lists.

As to The Golden Compass, I enjoyed it, even if they messed with the book a great deal. It's still a nice diversion, and it's well played and looks great. The two main highlights are the perfectly cast Nicole Kidman and Ms. Kidman's wardrobe. But it has several other positive qualities and is a fun adventure film, appropriate for kids and adults alike. It's too heavy on exposition and doesn't explain "dust" effectively despite several discussions of it, but those are relatively minor flaws. I didn't like it as much as Juno, but I still liked it.

Posted by armand at December 28, 2007 11:22 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Movies


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