mambogod

A peaceful tale in that oft-called-upon cinema scenario: the love life of the talk-radio vet.

As is often the case in romantic comedies, the ending is never in doubt, only the means of getting there. Here, there are quite enough episodes to make for pleasing viewing, and the whole thing is rather touching (the, er, "touching" aspects of the "phone" scene excepted) especially with Garafaro's very classy performance (as ever). She must feel a bit typecast though - I wonder whether she will ever be cast as anything other than a bit of a clever-clogs.

I was quite lulled.

By the way, look out for the coffee shop scene towards the end, where there is a very bold, static single shot of Garafaro and Chaplin lasting 26 seconds without any dialogue or movement whatsoever. Perfect!

After all the anticlimactic hype about Blair Witch, here's a top-drawer exercise in film making which I find very hard to fault. In fact, the only thing which upset my enjoyment was the person sitting next to me in the cinema, who on several occasions screamed very loudly.

Anyway, putting my neighbour's reaction down as both a critical "thumbs up" on her part and a new form of personal surround-sound for me, there is little more to say than to recommend it. Great plot, well filmed, apposite music, solid acting - enthralling and a genuinely spooky "chiller" to boot. And where did they get the child actor from? amazing stuff from him - I just hope he recovers from the experience!

Mercifully, Louis Malle didn't go for the final cliche of wallowing in his subject matter for three and a half hours, but most of the other "predictables" are well in evidence in this sorry tale (both in plot and directorial terms).

Obsession of any kind, including love, makes you do very silly things. Not a new message to me. But rather a depressing one in this treatment.

There's a directorial/writer's arrogance in the message here, i.e. that frankly the viewer has no IDEA what true emotion is unless they get themselves into this kind of a mess, and that we're all just a bit superficial for not understanding Jezza Irons' compulsions. It's reflected in the script, lots of references to him discovering new feelings etc. (implied: that surely the viewer can never know... ah how romantic).

Fortuitously Binoche is evidently up for it from the start, so Irons isn't left as a middle-aged stalker, another possible outcome - would we be encouraged by the director to be so sympathetic in that scenario? I think not.

She doesn't mess around, clearly yearning to be inseminated from the first scene she's in. Resultant dialogue (where it exists at all) suffers, e.g. how to get together? (phone):-

him: (sotto voce) "I have to see you"

her: (matter of fact) "of course"

cripes! there's a surprise. resultant scene of them crashing around apartment with oh so serious faces and no kit on.

Anyway, I am awaiting Binoche's first sci-fi role where her wierd half-french half-london accent may be of some use as some kind of sterile alien... actually her awkward physical style and haircut could come in useful there too.

Final suggestion: cut out the scenes with Miranda Richardson and clip them together to make an Oscar-winning short feature for her...

and bin the rest, pronto.