Phil_M_A_Kerr

I'm going through a micro romance phase, having recently watched Anyone But You and now It Ends With Us. I should add that I watched these two on my laptop. In between these two movies I saw Black Bag on the big screen. Was Black Bag a romance too? Not really although some might argue that it was. I digress.

IEWU got a fair chunk of publicity upon its release & subsequently as well for its behind-the-scenes drama.

I haven't read the book.

My initial thoughts were that this movie is aimed at a female audience, yes, but it is also interesting for male audience members.

Adapting books for the screen is problematic when the book can take, e.g., 12 hours to get through, whereas the film version must condense things into roughly 2 hours. You're going to miss a lot of descriptive detail. That being said we must remember that a picture is worth a thousand words.

As a movie it has a "slight" narrative. Nothing wrong with this because real life is like this. I read a review of someone here on IMDB who had experienced a physically brutal home life. Said person found no fault with the depictions in the film, saying they were highly impactful. It goes to show how an individual's life experiences can make for huge differences in opinion about works of art.

Aesthetically, it's a pleasant movie to look at and the performances from the cast are committed.

Does it seem like an overblown tele-movie (the kids these days would call it a Netflix movie, perhaps)? It has that vibe. However, the production values are notably higher than your average midday movie. You could say that any big screen movie watered down would be considered tele-movie fodder. So what's my point? I don't think I have any particularly enlightening thing to say of the movie. Overall I found it sad.

Many have criticised the movie for downplaying the violence as depicted in the source material book of the same name. But you can't aim a movie for box office success & fill it with buckets of tension & queasiness. That's not how the business works. It's worth a look, though, for trying to tackle a problem that, with inflation & cost of living pressure consistently building, might only become worse.

Only last month I watched Soderbergh & Koepp's bare bones supernatural effort, Presence. That was a rewarding experience but I walked away thinking that, well, perhaps they should have handed the reins to an up-and-coming horror director such as Damien Leone (Terrifier movies) or even James Wan or Osgood Perkins. Poltergeist (1982) was Steven Spielberg's movie but Tobe Hooper was given the reins, known for his now legendary and frightful Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). There was conjecture as to how much Spielberg was looking over Hooper's shoulder, yes, but you get the feeling that the latter's impact on the film caused the nightmares for a generation of young teens back then.

Black Bag, however, is definitely where Soderbergh is the suited director. The smart dress sense of the good looking ensemble cast, the notable cars, swish homes, clever & succinct dialogue, topical plot points, techno wizardry vs old-fashioned charm, & of course that double bass and snare brushes; Soderbergh in his element.

I scoffed down a whole bag of mixed lollies knowing I had to keep up with the dialogue-driven plot. I should have had a choc top as well because it was still just a smidge too fast for me at the crucial moments. Although I'm happy to say that upon reflection there's some good food for thought.

I'd probably watch it again just to make sure that Koepp had actually left enough crumbs for us to follow. [edit: I did watch it again & enjoyed it again too sans bag of lollies. However, it's lacking just a couple of breadcrumbs throughout to better suggest the film's conclusion. That's what my simple mind sought, anyway.] It's a killer cast, snazzy looking, and very snappy if you're a fan of verbal sparring so a second viewing would hardly be a chore.

Big cinema is struggling these days so it's great to see seasoned directors still putting up their signature styles on the big screen.

Don't mind watching a rom-com every now and then.

Both Powell & Sweeney have acting chops. It's fair to say though that this movie was promoted via their good looks more than anything outright funny. I go for rom-coms with more despair like There's Something About Mary or Meet The Parents. I knew this was more of a postcard rom-com but I was actually surprised & had to remind myself that our two leads have plenty of charisma & screen presence. In terms of the production as a whole I was thinking back on the quarter of a century old Mission Impossible 2 (MI:2), another genre movie set in & around Sydney Harbour. Utilising the city's renowned elements as backdrops throughout are good selling points. Having a deeper understanding of the region, however, can help the setting enrich the depth of the story. Both MI:2 and ABY were unable to capitalise on this in the way that one of my rom-coms of despair, Two Hands, did. But TH was a local production so it has the edge there.

There's little to dislike here if you set your expectations appropriately, for the supporting cast are solid & the scenery is very pretty.

It's based on a Shakespeare work but this isn't a dialogue-driven tale. Um, Much Ado About Nothing, I think was the play in question? The premise of that play does work as a comedic structure by itself, i.e., sans prose, but it's also pleasing to hear/see some of The Bard's quips sprinkled throughout.

SPVTW and ESOTSM are more successful "despair" rom-coms but this one is fine as an easygoing, picture postcard chuckle with handsome leads with the dramatic chops to draw from as required.