Another Day

A comment i keep seeing about this movie is that the plot at times does not make sense. I have the answer as to why.

The movie was written by my aunt and uncle, Don MacLeod and Helen Frost. When my aunt and uncle write, they write their movies in a format appropriate for release on the big screen. TV movies require huge amounts of plot to be cut out for the allotted time period. As such, important details were cut out of the movie itself which sometimes made the plot a little hard to follow. If you read the original script written by them, the plot makes complete sense, but for the sake of time compression, key events and plot happenings had to be taken out.

We watched this movie twice and were not wiser for it. And each time we not only asked ourselves 'what is happening?' but 'why are we watching this movie?'.

Yet we all wanted to get to the end so we'd seen it, so we really knew there was no more to it than that. So we could know that this was a terribly constructed screenplay with enormous gaps, all too slow a tempo, no golden thread, and a whole lot of confusion as icing on this not too palatable cake.

So we did all get to the end - twice - and now we know. Approach this movie with a barge pole.

This is quite unlike any TV movie I have seen in a long time. From the outset, the sense of impending doom is omnipresebt, signified by the lead character's retrospective, all-knowing narration which sets the story up for the viewer as a tale of two parts and two people, united by a common theme - love. Shannen Doherty gives a powerful performance, as well as her co-stars. The problem I had with this movie was the fact it felt restricted by its TV movie conventions, even though it tried in vain to emulate a Sundance-style independent drama. I was impressed by its intentions but less so by the intrusive music which often spoiled the sense of eerie mysticism that was conveyed so well through the fluid cinematography.

As a fan of 'Charmed', I was looking forward to this movie of 2001. Having seen Shannen Doherty in other TV films, I think she can hold the lead role in a film as well as she does her character in the 'Charmed' TV series. But sadly, this particular movie was not worth the wait.

There were too many slow-moving elegiac scenes of rivers and skies, and not enough momentum in the story. I feel I wasted 2 hours of my life watching this film, when in fact the movie could easily have been cut by half an hour. A bit of tightening of the script, cutting irrelevant scenes, and building up the back-story of the characters, all might have done the trick. As it was, the script was poor, the tone of the film was wishy-washy, the plot lacked structure, and the characters had no depth. Shannen Doherty was totally wasted.

I love Julian McMahon, but he was also wasted as an actor; though he did look delicious, which at least gave the film a little enjoyment! The movie was clearly just a vehicle for the two actors, fresh from 'Charmed'. But the script/director/production relied upon that factor to keep the viewers entranced. In fact viewers need a little more 'oomph' to a film, to keep us truly interested in the plot, than just a pretty couple wandering about in lovely scenery .

Only if you want to see McMahon & Doherty at the height of their 'Charmed' fame - for a pretty-pretty sight! - should you bother with this sadly disappointing film.

~ by SceneByScene ~

Another Day - this movie requires you to watch it another day to understand it. I thoroughly enjoy watching Shannen Doherty and I was quite interesting in seeing how well Julian McMahon and Shannen appeared together following the roles they played in Charmed. I can certainly PRAISE the acting skills throughout the film, even the directing - but the plot...what happened? I am at a loss for words because I am still confused. I have to stay loyal to the actors who really did a good job considering the madness of the plot. I also have to recommend you watch it because despite the plot-madness I would still watch it over and over again.