How did I end up in this state you may ask? The answer: I went and saw Penelope tonight. Now most of you are probably wondering why I would do such a thing. I, disliker of all things chick flick (with a few exceptions), willingly went to this movie. It was my suggestion. Here's why...
That's right. Once again, James McAvoy makes me do silly things. I'd prefer it if James would make me do naughty, naughty things, but his wife would probably have issues with that scenario. Penelope tells the story of a family curse that makes the next daughter born have a pig nose. Thanks to her already quirky beauty, Christina Ricci makes that nose look darn cute, but it's actually supposed to be a bit more disturbing. The only way to lift the curse is if one of her kind loves her for who she is till death do they part.
Armed with that sort of info, her mother hires a matchmaker to help the family find "one of her kind." Penelope is just a step above a teen age fairy tale. It actually would make a good mother/daughter film. There's no violence, virtually no bad language and just a bit of snogging at the very end. It has moments of funny and extra props go to the art department for the design of Penelope's world. Her room is great...part real, part fairy tale. As mentioned, Ricci's quirkiness helps her inhabit this weird sort of world with ease. McAvoy is solid as always, bringing a gentle sweetness to his part without becoming too much. Penelope is a nice, light film with enough laughs and good acting to pull through some of the weak and obvious spots in the script.
To continue on the subject of movies, I read today that HP/Deathly Hallows will be made into two movies. While it will be tough to wait between films, I know I couldn't figure out how they were going to condense the book. There just isn't anything that you can cut out. David Yates, who directed Order and is currently filming Half Blood Prince, will be doing the final two films. They will be shot at the same time, but their releases will be a few months apart. Right now, it's looking like Nov. 2010 and May 2011. In other David Yates news, his amazing BBC mini-series State Of Play has finally come out on DVD and I strongly recommend watching it.
And to wrap it up, I finally got around to watching 3:10 to Yuma. I'm not much of a Western movie fan so I wasn't rushing to see this one. It wasn't too bad. As I was viewing it, I instantly thought "this is a guy's chick flick." You know who all the characters are, you know how it's going to end, you know who is going to turn out to have a heart, you know the guy who usually is incompetent will do something heroic then promptly die...you get the picture. I did enjoy watching Bale and Crowe and the cinematography was really well done.
Well, next week is vacation and the NCAA tourney so I'll try and update here and there. I definitely won't be driving too many places during my break. Seriously, $3.45 for a gallon? Ouch.
1 comment:
you are SUCH a girl.....
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