Tag: Rupert Evans

No Way. No way at all. This can’t be the theme of every big movie I watch since I’ve had a kid.

But it feels like it is true. Every film is about a guy trying to protect his family and his daughter while everything crumbles apart. Why do films just want to make me feel sad, those bastard films?

American Pastoral of course based on a book that people love, but I never heard of it before it became a movie because I suck. The films with this theme seem to come out every other week, specifically targeting to try and make me cry and think about potentially painful events in the future.

Oh no, what does this dinner scene mean? Where is the daughter? DOES SOMETHING BAD HAPPEN?

It begins from the point of view from some old people at a reunion and the narrator (David Strathairn) finding out that his old hero “Swede” (Ewan McGregor) had just died. He always looked up to Swede, an athletic star, went to the war in WW2, married a beauty queen (Jennifer Connelly) and became a success in the community. He took over his father’s (Peter Riegert) glove factory in Newark, New Jersey, but still chose to live in the country side for his wife to become a small time rancher. That is where they would raise their little daughter and have the best of lives.

After the narrator moved away though, that is when things started to turn and Swede’s life began to crumble. And the whole thing centers around his daughter, Merry (Dakota Fanning), a simple girl with a big heart.

A big heart and a big stutter. Her psychologist (Molly Parker) believes the stutter is a way of forcing herself to have a disability, as her parents are perfect and she could never live up to them. Molly has a big heart though, such a big heart that she just wants to love everything and have peace. This love is so strong that eventually in her teenage years she now seems to hate everything. It is Vietnam and no one seems to care about the lives being lost. They need a revolution and her parents are just living their lives like people aren’t dying all over the world, what the fuck!

She wants anarchy, she wants protests, then people will be safe. That is what her New York City friends are teaching her. Eventually a terrorist attack on a post office in their small town puts their already hectic life into pieces. As explosions tend to do.

Also featuring Rupert Evans as the Swede’s brother, Uzo Aduba as the main assistant at the glove factory, Valorie Curry as a mysterious NYC friend, and Mark Hidreth as an FBI agent on the case.

You can cut the teenage angst here with a knife, and honestly, the teenager would probably like that.

American Pastoral in its heart has a deep and moving story and at points a slightly scary one as well. I had no idea where it was going, except that it would end with heartbreak and fill me will feels.

Despite that, it also felt almost superficial. The cameras were strong and the sets well created, it also felt fake. Despite good acting, the story felt disjointed. The events were important, but they felt like they were lacking some sort of real cohesion to tell the full story.

McGregor did a fine job as a first time director that is for sure. He took what I have been told is a great book and turned it into a probably faithful adaptation. But despite not reading the book it is extremely apparent that it is a situation where the book has to be leagues better because of how much depth is missing from the film. It is obvious that depth is out there somewhere and just not showing itself on the screen.
A decent film, but one that just feels a bit lacking.

I am horrified by this film and yet, underwhelmed.

The Boy? Didn’t I already review this one? About the kid who lived with his dad at a motel stop in the mountains who then was all evil and stuff?

Oh, right right right, that was an indie horror movie, so very few people saw it. So it doesn’t matter that two films came out so close together with the same exact name, because the second one was in a lot of theaters and is thus now more well known. The first The Boy I heard wanted to do sequels too. That could be even more potentially confusing if those sequels become popular.

The good news is that the actual movies have virtually nothing in common.

It’s okay when they beat their kids in this film. It is just a doll!

Greta (Lauren Cohan) needs to get away from her life, so she accepts a job as a nanny in Merrie Old England. She has some stuff she wants to just get away from, and moving to another country for a few months might do the job.

When she gets to the place, she finds it to basically be a mansion and surprised that the tenants are an old couple (Diana Hardcastle, Jim Norton). Like really old. So the fact that they have a kid that needs a nanny seems surprising.

Of course, more surprising is that this kid is actually a porcelain doll. But they say he is unique and have a list of strict rules despite his non-aliveness. And also they are totally leaving like, right away for a vacation. If she has more questions, they have a delivery man, Malcolm (Rupert Evans), who is around from time to time. But as long as she sticks to the rules then everything should be fine.

And you know the doll starts moving around and doing things. Also things go missing. Also Greta gets scared.

Featuring James Russell and Ben Robson as well.

Please don’t make love to the doll. I don’t care what the rules say!

I actually went into The Boy knowing nothing at all. No idea it was about a doll that might be alive. I just assumed a creepy little boy being driven by Satan, like most films about kids. But then hey, a doll. Sure. Doll films haven’t had a good track record recently. After all, did you watch Annabelle? I know you didn’t.

The Boy somehow manages to be a horror film that doesn’t want to do a lot of scary scenes. Outside of the last 20 minutes, it feels like a strange drama. We get the doll being in different places! And items getting moved around. And doors getting locked. But never when our leads are watching him, so it is just odd and never scary.

The ending does a nice job of explaining all of the events of the film, but it doesn’t mean the explanation is worth the first hour or so. It is dull and a bit boring. I am glad that it makes sense, it just isn’t an exciting explanation. It unfortunately doesn’t fully explain why everything happened in the film, which is my biggest question after watching it. Instead we get an open ending to a story that should easily have finished already.

The Boy isn’t great, it is barely a horror, and you instead should watch basically anything else.