Stephen Frears has made some exceptionally good movies. This is not one of those movies. Unless you want to look at pretty art nouveau set designs, revel in the pain of a relationship that is even worse than yours (bitter people of the world unite!), or marvel at pretty Rupert Friend convincing play a torn-up "man with no character" (ummm, I think that's a compliment), you'd probably prefer staying away from this. Kikimonster out-and-out hated it. I wouldn't go that far, but it seemed like this was ruined early in its design. My top complaint is that the bouncy, sprightly score (which was far too intrusive) was entirely inappropriate to at least 2/3rds of the film and made it something of a muddled mess. Or a worse muddled mess. Given the talent involved, both in front of and behind the camera, I was expecting a good deal more from this film.
Posted by armand at July 28, 2009 10:23 PM | TrackBack | Posted to MoviesHere, I'll give it two compliments: I always love Kathy Bates and she was amusing in this movie. Secondly, the costumes were great. Other than that, ugh.
Posted by: kikimonster at July 29, 2009 08:27 AM | PERMALINKI don't know if the costumes were uniformly great, but that hat she wore for the first dinner in Biarritz - that was a knock-out. Well actually most of Lea/Michelle's clothes were pretty great, true.
Posted by: Armand at July 29, 2009 10:24 AM | PERMALINKWell of course I was speaking of Lea's costumes. I really didn't enjoy seeing Kathy Bates' bosom up around her neck!
Posted by: kikimonster at July 29, 2009 02:02 PM | PERMALINK