Friday, March 25, 2011

Cinema Betty

The Right Kind of Girl has a dying mother.  Well, then, I have a million Disney/Pixar movies to choose from:
Finding Nemo (2003)

Unlike The Right Kind of Girl, this film has an awesome and involved father but nothing says pulmonary embolism to me quite like a horrific barracuda attack...(So sudden!  So deadly...)  Mama Clown Fish is carried away (enjoyed for dinner) and the little tyke with the gimpy fin (Oh why didn't I do this for Esmeralda?!) must make his way without her.  If, in the world of Nemo 'all drains lead to the ocean', then in the world of Neels, 'all death leads to an RBD'...


A Good Wife has a deathbed promise that ought to be disregarded.  My pick this week has one that was:
Sense and Sensibility (2008)

There are a lot of versions to pick from and while I love the Emma Thompson one, I can hardly stand Kate Winslet as Marianne for love or money (She does a good job being annoyingly stupid but does such a good job of it that I want to drop her down a well...but I always have a hard time stomaching that character, I confess)--though I adore Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon with a scorching desert heat.  But this isn't about that one.  The 2008 mini series is a gem (though it begins rather racily) with a cast that so totally retreats into their characters that I am never tempted to say 'Oh there's so-and-so being a very good such-and-such'.  It ultimately triumphs for me because the Marianne/Colonel/Rake triangle is carried off so well.

9 comments:

  1. I wasn't fond of the Kate Winslet version either - mostly because I felt sorry for Alan Rickman. He deserved a much more interesting and intelligent woman. Marianne was insipid.

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  2. I actually thought Kate Winslet nailed the character even though that did make her a little unpleasant. :-) I loved her curls too. The one I wasn't thrilled with was Emma Thompson. I thought she came across as entirely too old for the part she played.

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  3. Yes, Emma wasn't right for that one. In fact, her age made her seem the more approrpiate choice for Rickman. Having seen "Love Actually", she and Rickman make a great married couple (although he is a being a jackass in the film and you want to slap him). She nailed that one.

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  4. Lets just admit it - that version is great solely because of Alan Rickman but he is so magnificent that you forget everyone else and just love it all.

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  5. I do have a crush on Alan Rickman(sigh - he's one of the main reasons I like the Harry Potter movies)...he's the main reason to watch that version of Sense and Sensibility.

    Like Betty Cyndi said - I also think Kate Winslet nailed the character (I never really cared for her character in the book either), but Emma was too old for the part- not that she wasn't good, she was just a decade too old for it (I looked up her age...she would have been about 35 when she played the part - I admit to being surprised that she's actually a few months older than me).

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  6. Have I missed the Betty at the Cinema where Love Actually is the appropriate movie? I love love love that movie -- we watch it every Christmas. Colin Firth's Jamie with Aurelia -- best romance ever. (In that movie, at least.)

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  7. I agree that Kate Winslet nails it but I don't like the character at all. If you want a slightly more sympathetic portrayal of the same, do try the mini-series. I want to know what you all think.

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  8. If you remember, Emma Thompson wrote the script for that adaptation. She knew she was too old for the role but The Powers That Be would only finance the movie if she acted in it too.

    Betty Magdalen: I adore the Colin Firth segment of Love Actually too. Worth the price of admission for that alone. Mixed bag, I thought the film. (Can anyone say Keira Knightley? Or perhaps better not)

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  9. Betty Miranda -- I certainly love more about the movie than I don't love. Favorites are Colin Firth, Hugh Grant (and I'm not an automatic fan of his), Liam Neeson & Sam (whoa - is that not poignant in light of subsequent real-life events?), and I do like the point of Andrew Lincoln's unrequited love for Keira Knightly even if I can't say I look forward to that bit each year.

    My least favorite of the major story lines is poor Emma Thompson learning how disconnected she is from Alan Rickman. But -- and this is what makes Love Actually a wonderful annual tradition -- there's something good in all the vignettes, and the daughter's face when she announces that she's going to be the "Nativity lobster" is just wonderful.

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