Joely-Richardson Movie Reviews
Lush modernisation of classic
I can't believe it
Very engaging
-"My lady"...say it again, Sean!!!
Lady ChatterleyLovely Joley Richardson plays Lady Constance Chatterley, in the title role, as a sexually and socially repressed young English woman in the early 1920's. She is married to Sir Clifford Chatterley, played by Michael Wilby,as a titled, WW1 British officer, whose war injuries have paralized him from the waist down.
We watch as Constance accepts her fate at first, and loyally looks after her demanding,upper-class husband. The isolation and Sir Clifford's constant need for care take its' toll, and soon Lady Chatterley's mental and physical health is in question. A nurse-companion, Mrs. Bolton, is hired from the local colliery town of Tevershall, thus relieving Connie of her duties, giving her more time to visit with her family members and,to go for long walks in the near-by woods. Soon, her wanderings cross paths with Sir Clifford's reclusive,irrasible,lowly bred game keeper, Oliver Mellors.
Actor Sean Bean, with his rakish and sensual "bad boy" good looks, plays Mellors with great intensity and honest passion. He is perfectly cast as the angry, down trodden man who finds new life and "the only freedom" he has ever known,in the love he shares with the independant, and equally passionate Lady Chatterley.
This adaptation follows the literary novel closely. (Please read the book, if you haven't already, as some of the warmly passionate and meaningful scenes have been left out for the sake of censorship and the movies length). The video "fleshes out" (pardon the pun!)the novel that features lots of dialogue in the book. The comparisons between priviliged and idealic country life, and the "blackened" buildings that serve as social "traps", rather than homes to the low-born class,gives one pause for thought, even 80 years later.Even Sir Clifford is able to gain our sympathies now and then,as he tries to control what little of his life he can, but in the end, he needs to rely on others.It was interesting to see the stories characters juxtaposed in front of the cathedral windows, or in the front doorway at Wragby Hall;a subtle way of letting the viewer know "who is in control now!".
I highly recommend this video. Although this (surprisingly) un-rated BBC production aired on British TV (....and we think the Brits are "stuffy", not a chance!!!), it is not for the prudes or immature viewers among us! It is an honest and moving portrait of a love that conquers all!
The story of a young and sexually repressed woman
Lush modernisation of classic
I can't believe it
Very engaging
Very Funny!!
Goodman Sells A Spectacular Performance!
John Goodman's best role!!My Thoughts : "King Ralph" is one of the funniest films I have ever seen, and it is John Goodman's best role without a doubt. He was absolutely perfect for the role, simply because he got to play a character that was so much like himself. All of his "unconventional" methods of being king, will have you laughing for the entire film. Peter O' Toole was also oustanding as Goodman's private secretary. He tries his hardest to teach Ralph the "propper" way of being king, and must fight Ralph every step of the way. The fact that Goodman and O' Toole are such opposites, is what makes them play so well off of each other. John Hurt and Camille Coduri give nice supporting performances as well.
Overall : "King Ralph" offers outstanding performances, and non-stop laughs. I highly recommend this film to anyone who is a fan of John Goodman, or comedies in general. You will not be dissapointed!!
Grade : A
HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
- Ryan Deffley
Very Funny!!
Goodman Sells A Spectacular Performance!
John Goodman's best role!!My Thoughts : "King Ralph" is one of the funniest films I have ever seen, and it is John Goodman's best role without a doubt. He was absolutely perfect for the role, simply because he got to play a character that was so much like himself. All of his "unconventional" methods of being king, will have you laughing for the entire film. Peter O' Toole was also oustanding as Goodman's private secretary. He tries his hardest to teach Ralph the "propper" way of being king, and must fight Ralph every step of the way. The fact that Goodman and O' Toole are such opposites, is what makes them play so well off of each other. John Hurt and Camille Coduri give nice supporting performances as well.
Overall : "King Ralph" offers outstanding performances, and non-stop laughs. I highly recommend this film to anyone who is a fan of John Goodman, or comedies in general. You will not be dissapointed!!
Grade : A
HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
- Ryan Deffley
Drama and possitive roll models
Hollow Reed
An intelligent look at a cliched situationIt would have been very easy to turn this film into another cliche. The fact that it isn't one is, in fact, almost unbelievable. The script is largely to thank for this, avoiding stereotyping as far as possible (some degree is inevitable) and not dividing characters into "goodies" and "baddies". Sure, you'd have to be dead not to love Martin Donovan's character (he sports a very convincing British accent for the role), but even the horrible, child-battering, evil boyfriend (Ian Hart) has various aspects to his character, which allow one to to swallow the fact that the mother (a brilliantly restrained performance from Joely Richardson) is willing to give him a second chance.
Maybe the most refreshing aspect about the film is that it does not for a moment try to preach. It is far from politically correct and shows that gay men can be childish and insufferable, as much as they can be normal run-of-the-mill type fellows. We are spared the "gym queen health freak" image as well as the camp image of gays by Donovan and Jason Flemyng (although the latter does get to show off a rather cute butt). The child, played by remarkable youngster Sam Bould, is neither cute and precocious, nor too obviously traumatised; another saving grace.
The film is about various things: child abuse, divorce, sexual fulfilment, sexual identity (both straight and gay), relationships, commitment; the list is long. It is complex, intelligent and features one of the most convincing trial scenes I have ever seen on film. A superb achievement by director Angela Pope and her (perhaps surprisingly) largely female supporting crew.
A gentle, pleasing romantic comedy, Return to Me marks the directorial debut of Bonnie Hunt, an acclaimed actress known most famously for her role as Renee Zellweger's sister in Jerry Maguire. A shining, happy bright spot in whatever role she's in, Hunt has also invested the film with her trademark brand of humor: dry but sincere, sarcastic but not caustic, and with a deep current of humanity and romance. In the midst of all the permutations that fate surrounds them with, Driver and Duchovny make a pleasantly low-key couple; the triumph of the film is that despite all the contrived angst, the romance is never overly saccharine. They provide a quiet center in a film that has a fair amount of chaos in it, particularly due to Driver's extended family of Irish and Italian relatives (which occasionally tips the film into cutesy territory) and most hilariously to Driver's best friend, played by director Hunt . As a harried mother with innumerable kids and a likable oaf of a husband (James Belushi), Hunt again steals scenes effortlessly; Belushi is a comic revelation, better than he's been in years. You'll have the pleasant memories of both of these couples--one falling in love, one together for years--with you a long while after seeing this film. --Mark Englehart
Ya Gotta Have HeartThis is a poignant, romantic comedy that works off the premise that the love of a good heart gone astray will triumph over all obstacles, and find its way back to where it belongs. And yet, in spite of its kitschy premise, this movie works.
David Duchovny (X-Files) plays Chicago architect Bob Rueland, whose zoo-director wife, Elizabeth (Joely Richardson), was killed in a car crash. (Good! The establishing scenes at the beginning, that present the wife as beyond saintly, are the worst part of the film. Diabetics are warned that the first ten minutes may be dangerous to their health.) Minnie Driver is young, aspiring artist Grace Briggs, who will die, if she doesn't get a heart transplant. She gets Bob's late wife's heart.
Bob grieves. His friends (most notably David Alan Grier, as zoo vet Charlie Johnson) grieve. His dog grieves. Even the ape at the zoo grieves.
Meanwhile, Grace may have a heart, but she doesn't have a life. She waits tables for her Irish uncle, Marty O'Reilly (Carroll O'Connor), and his old friend, Angelo Pardipillo (Robert Loggia), at the Irish-Italian restaurant they own together. Grace's extended family tries to set her up, e.g., with a man who tends to lapse back into his former vocation as a priest.
Meanwhile, Bob's friend Charlie sets him up with obnoxious blind dates that make grieving look like fun.
Eventually, the stars cross paths, and -- some complications notwithstanding -- their lives are made new.
But you know what? This movie is so much better than its synopsis. That's because its real star is Bonnie Hunt, the ubiquitous character actress who directed, co-wrote, and (if memory serves) co-produced the movie. (Though it doesn't say so at amazon.com's IMDB, I could have sworn Hunt's credits included producer, when I saw this as an in-flight movie.) Except for the first few minutes, Hunt often comes dangerously close to cloying sentimentality, without crossing the line.
And while the chemistry between the stars is good, David Duchovny and Minnie Driver are no Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Recognizing this, Hunt exquisitely cast a bevy of supporting roles that carry the movie, from David Alan Grier's skirt-chasing veterinarian, Charlie Johnson, to Chicago's own James Belushi, as working-class husband Joe Dayton (whose wife, Megan, is played by Hunt) to the old men of the restaurant (O'Connor, Loggia, Eddie Jones). She even gets dramatic mileage out of the animals. And any moviemaker who can come up with a good, sizeable role for Carroll O'Connor has something on the ball, in my book [this review was originally published in 2000, before O'Connor's death]. The highest compliment I can pay Bonnie Hunt the director, is that she doesn't waste a single scene or role.
The other thing Hunt does well is to present two kinds of romance. There's the falling-in-love kind we expect from this sort of movie, as well as another kind you almost never see in pictures: the wry, wisecracking fell-in-love, stayed-in-love romance of Belushi and Hunt's Joe and Megan Dayton, who by now have a mess of kids.
Hunt and her collaborator, Don Lake, came up with some good lines, and can be forgiven for taking the shtick from Norman Jewison's Moonstruck of using a Dean Martin song ("Return to Me") as a running, romantic theme.
Return to Me is a good choice for the date who's coming over to the house for the first time, or the "date" whose name has shared space on mailboxes with yours for many years.
Worth a Return Trip
CharmingThe DVD itself is a little boring, but that is made up by the wonderful film.
A gentle, pleasing romantic comedy, Return to Me marks the directorial debut of Bonnie Hunt, an acclaimed actress known most famously for her role as Renee Zellweger's sister in Jerry Maguire. A shining, happy bright spot in whatever role she's in, Hunt has also invested the film with her trademark brand of humor: dry but sincere, sarcastic but not caustic, and with a deep current of humanity and romance. In the midst of all the permutations that fate surrounds them with, Driver and Duchovny make a pleasantly low-key couple; the triumph of the film is that despite all the contrived angst, the romance is never overly saccharine. They provide a quiet center in a film that has a fair amount of chaos in it, particularly due to Driver's extended family of Irish and Italian relatives (which occasionally tips the film into cutesy territory) and most hilariously to Driver's best friend, played by director Hunt . As a harried mother with innumerable kids and a likable oaf of a husband (James Belushi), Hunt again steals scenes effortlessly; Belushi is a comic revelation, better than he's been in years. You'll have the pleasant memories of both of these couples--one falling in love, one together for years--with you a long while after seeing this film. --Mark Englehart
Ya Gotta Have HeartThis is a poignant, romantic comedy that works off the premise that the love of a good heart gone astray will triumph over all obstacles, and find its way back to where it belongs. And yet, in spite of its kitschy premise, this movie works.
David Duchovny (X-Files) plays Chicago architect Bob Rueland, whose zoo-director wife, Elizabeth (Joely Richardson), was killed in a car crash. (Good! The establishing scenes at the beginning, that present the wife as beyond saintly, are the worst part of the film. Diabetics are warned that the first ten minutes may be dangerous to their health.) Minnie Driver is young, aspiring artist Grace Briggs, who will die, if she doesn't get a heart transplant. She gets Bob's late wife's heart.
Bob grieves. His friends (most notably David Alan Grier, as zoo vet Charlie Johnson) grieve. His dog grieves. Even the ape at the zoo grieves.
Meanwhile, Grace may have a heart, but she doesn't have a life. She waits tables for her Irish uncle, Marty O'Reilly (Carroll O'Connor), and his old friend, Angelo Pardipillo (Robert Loggia), at the Irish-Italian restaurant they own together. Grace's extended family tries to set her up, e.g., with a man who tends to lapse back into his former vocation as a priest.
Meanwhile, Bob's friend Charlie sets him up with obnoxious blind dates that make grieving look like fun.
Eventually, the stars cross paths, and -- some complications notwithstanding -- their lives are made new.
But you know what? This movie is so much better than its synopsis. That's because its real star is Bonnie Hunt, the ubiquitous character actress who directed, co-wrote, and (if memory serves) co-produced the movie. (Though it doesn't say so at amazon.com's IMDB, I could have sworn Hunt's credits included producer, when I saw this as an in-flight movie.) Except for the first few minutes, Hunt often comes dangerously close to cloying sentimentality, without crossing the line.
And while the chemistry between the stars is good, David Duchovny and Minnie Driver are no Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Recognizing this, Hunt exquisitely cast a bevy of supporting roles that carry the movie, from David Alan Grier's skirt-chasing veterinarian, Charlie Johnson, to Chicago's own James Belushi, as working-class husband Joe Dayton (whose wife, Megan, is played by Hunt) to the old men of the restaurant (O'Connor, Loggia, Eddie Jones). She even gets dramatic mileage out of the animals. And any moviemaker who can come up with a good, sizeable role for Carroll O'Connor has something on the ball, in my book [this review was originally published in 2000, before O'Connor's death]. The highest compliment I can pay Bonnie Hunt the director, is that she doesn't waste a single scene or role.
The other thing Hunt does well is to present two kinds of romance. There's the falling-in-love kind we expect from this sort of movie, as well as another kind you almost never see in pictures: the wry, wisecracking fell-in-love, stayed-in-love romance of Belushi and Hunt's Joe and Megan Dayton, who by now have a mess of kids.
Hunt and her collaborator, Don Lake, came up with some good lines, and can be forgiven for taking the shtick from Norman Jewison's Moonstruck of using a Dean Martin song ("Return to Me") as a running, romantic theme.
Return to Me is a good choice for the date who's coming over to the house for the first time, or the "date" whose name has shared space on mailboxes with yours for many years.
Worth a Return Trip
CharmingThe DVD itself is a little boring, but that is made up by the wonderful film.
Drowning by Numbers
Interesting, but not for everyoneVERDICT: Peter Greenaway is certainly one of the more decadent filmmakers and he spares no expense in getting even the smallest of things to work. More concerned with 'art' than narrative, Greenaway always comes up with very interesting characters and somehow creates films that seem to defy critique (because of this, he is not for everyone.) His masterpiece, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, And Her Lover, is a better place to start if you haven't seen any of his films, but Drowning by Numbers isn't bad either ( I found it to be more entertaining than Cook/Thief/Wife/Lover.)
This film is shot and designed beautifully with meticulous sets that take the viewer someplace else -- where this 'someplace else' is exactly, I can't really say. The film is also quite funny (the closer you pay attention, the more humorous it is.) On top of this is a great score by composer Michael Nyman.
If you are a Greenaway fan, pick this one up. If you haven't seen any Greenaway films you probably shouldn't buy this; rent it first instead (or perhaps Cook/Thief/Wife/Lover.) But Greenaway is someone every serious cinephile should explore, and if you come out a fan, your exploration will be worthwhile and Greenaway's vision hard to equal.
Watch it 100 times
Drowning by Numbers
Interesting, but not for everyoneVERDICT: Peter Greenaway is certainly one of the more decadent filmmakers and he spares no expense in getting even the smallest of things to work. More concerned with 'art' than narrative, Greenaway always comes up with very interesting characters and somehow creates films that seem to defy critique (because of this, he is not for everyone.) His masterpiece, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, And Her Lover, is a better place to start if you haven't seen any of his films, but Drowning by Numbers isn't bad either ( I found it to be more entertaining than Cook/Thief/Wife/Lover.)
This film is shot and designed beautifully with meticulous sets that take the viewer someplace else -- where this 'someplace else' is exactly, I can't really say. The film is also quite funny (the closer you pay attention, the more humorous it is.) On top of this is a great score by composer Michael Nyman.
If you are a Greenaway fan, pick this one up. If you haven't seen any Greenaway films you probably shouldn't buy this; rent it first instead (or perhaps Cook/Thief/Wife/Lover.) But Greenaway is someone every serious cinephile should explore, and if you come out a fan, your exploration will be worthwhile and Greenaway's vision hard to equal.
Watch it 100 times