I wanted to write down a few thoughts about some plays and films I've seen recently but hadn't had time before I went away for work. Well I'm back so here goes...Films first:
Alice in Wonderland Love Tim Burton's slightly dark, slightly sinister and nightmarish style and it works so well with the characters Lewis Carroll created. The quirky dialogue tickled my sense of humour, I even got a fit of the giggles at one point. Not sure the 3D added anything to the experience although I did see it at a normal cinema rather than the IMAX so maybe on the big screen it has more impact. Came out of the cinema with a smile on my face.
The Hurt Locker Not one for war films usually, I wanted to see what all the Oscar fuss was about. It's shot in a reportage style and follows a team of bomb disposal experts in Iraq in what turns out to be pretty much a snap shot within their tour of duty. It refreshingly doesn't attempt to judge the conflict and the reasons for it, choosing to concentrate on the men and their daily job. It is immediately gripping and engaging but I could help feeling that after about an hour or so I had got the fact that it is an extremely dangerous and tense way to earn a salary, to the point where I started thinking 'enough now, please'. I'm glad it beat Avatar to the Oscar but it wouldn't have been my choice.
The Blind Side Went to see this at a free screening otherwise I'm not sure I'd have spent my money. Again I was curious to see why Sandra Bullock won the Oscar and having seen the film, I'm still curious. It's not that she is bad, far from it but I think it is the subject matter of the film rather than any particular strength in the performance which floated the academy's boat. Putting all that to one side I laughed, I cried; it is an entertaining, if slightly long film. However it is only the fact that it is based on a true story and has photo's of the real people under the credits which saves it from straying into cheesyness.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Having put last year's Let the Right One In up in my top five
films of 2009 I was looking forward to another Swedish cinematic offering. I went in knowing little else about it apart from the fact that it was a thriller and had the critics in a bit of a lather. It is a well constructed murder mystery that doesn't stretch feasibility too far. And, it is satisfying with all the threads of the story and character's back stories cleverly and neatly tied up by the end. Interesting characters too, well acted and all set against a sometimes bleak, sometimes sinister landscape. Tick, tick, tick.