The Remains Of The Day

I’m an Emma Thompson-fan, an Anthony Hopkins-fan and Hugh Grant and so on. Plenty of people, therefor, to make this film worth while, right?

I know it has won prizes and people were full of it. I just couldn’t find it. The story keeps dragging on for over two hours.
When I was in my early teens I would have loved this film. I hated the Hollywood-formula where they would always, always live ‘happily ever after’. I loved Welcome To The Dollhouse for that very reason. In the end, nothing had happened to make Dawn Wiener’s life even remotedly better.

The same here, really. Two people from a house staff who only seem to look at the quality of work they both deliver within that house, have to appear as if they do so without any emotion.
Except that’s not the case. Anthony Hopkins, who plays Mr Stevens, the head of the household, makes sure his father, William Stevens, gets hired by his employer. With this step, he is no longer objective.
Emma Thompson, playing Miss Kenton, notices immediately. And this is where they are of for a wrong start.
Mr Stevens doesn’t actually allow anyone to even doubt his father being unable to fullfill his duties. It is not until his father’s ill health simply collapses, that he is forced to see that. And still then, both Mr Stevens and his father, don’t actually agree on the possibility that the job is over.

The affections Mr Stevens has for Miss Kenton are so well hidden that a few of the scenes that do make it clear, also point to the fact that Mr Stevens is not worthy of her feelings for him: someone who tries to hide it that well, for the sake of the job that needs to be done and so on, is far too much in love with that job, to ever feel any duty towards his subject of affection.

Of course, this is entirely my opinion on such matters, not especially on the film. I did think the film to be too long. For that time it was perhaps normal, nowadays it tends to get a bit long, that many speeches during dinners and people agreeing, disagreeing and noticing the staff won’t open their mouths as that’s simply not their job.

It’s also nice to see Christopher Reeve walking and being his lovely self here!

 

Notting Hill

An utterly sweet, but quite unrealistic depicting about the love between a super moviestar Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) and a travelbook salesman William Thacker (Hugh Grant).
After meeting for the first time in his travelbookshop, there’s initially no spark at all between Anna and William. He likes the fact that there is a moviestar in his bookshop, yes, and he does like her appearances, but other than that, no. She is really only there to buy a book.
Then they meet again in the streets. Given that this is after William accidentally empties a cup of fresh squeezed orange juice on her white top, this isn’t the friendliest of meetings. It becomes more unlikely when she agrees to go to his house to clean herself up. And from there it takes more unlike turns. Aside all those unlikely turns, it actually is a very sweet and cute film.
The circle of friends and family that William has around him is so charming, so cute and so funny (Emma Chambers as William’s younger sister is a true gem!) that you completely forget that you don’t ever get to meet any of Anna’s friends or family. They aren’t introduced to any of them, nor does his family. It’s just her and her diva behaviour that, at some point, drifts them apart until she realises she cannot behave like that around someone she actually likes. That life isn’t a filmscript where someone can just yell ‘cut!’ if it’s not going by plan.

The music to go along with the film is as nice and smooth as the rest of the film.

It’s a proper watch, just don’t mind the unlikelihood of any of it happening for real, and you’ll be fine 🙂

 

Did You Hear About The Morgans?

This film, starring Hugh Grant, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sam Elliott, Mary Steenburgen, Elisabeth Moss and various others, has a cast that I’d normally expect more from. Not all of them, I’ll admit. And I don’t expect any acting from Sarah Jessica Parker, which is exactly what happens. She’s just a spoilt brat having to move due to unforeseen circumstances, and just like her character from Sex and the City, she’s not actually capable of adjusting to the new situation.
Hugh Grant is the one who knows how to make both their lines work. He’s not that good either, but his way of acting is more like he’s realised he went to the wrong party and now he’s gotta deal with it. Which is a description of him in most of his films really. He can do that and he does the job well.
Sam Elliott is typecasted so obviously that he really barely needs any other dressup. Mary Steenburgen as his sidekick works perfectly.

So, that’s about the actors. Now the story: the Morgans, an estranged couple, find themselves being a witness of a murder on one night, where Mr Morgan has desperately tried to get Mrs Morgan to have dinner with him again. Due to the fact that the murderer has seen the Morgans being a witness of his crime, he tries to kill the Morgans. Since the killer turns out to be a high profile criminal, the Morgans are offered a place in a witness protection program. Mrs Morgan doesn’t want this to be a shared accommodation, but there’s no choice there.

Actually Sarah Jessica Parker’s attitude is the most annoying one in this film. She walks around like she ended up on the wrong set, including the ‘you cheated on me!’ drama. Though at first you sympathise with that, in the end it turns out she’s been no better herself, and you end up hating her even more because she’s such a hypocrit.

I’m sure there’s worse films than this one, it’s just not that far behind.