Miranda

A lonely librarian Frank(John Simm) who loves dreaming his life away suddenly meets the beautiful and mysterious Miranda(Christina Ricci) and immediately falls in love with her. As the two of them become closer, Frank starts finding out that Miranda isn't who he thought she was and that she leads a dangerous life with many different identities. I tried to like this movie because Christina Ricci is my favorite actress in the whole world but I just couldn't get into it. I really liked the first half hour or so of this movie but then the story started becoming boring and somewhat complicated. It seemed that this movie couldn't decide if it wanted to be a thriller, a romantic drama or a comedy. Everything was just kind of mixed together. I would give Miranda 6/10.

"Miranda" has nice performances, well-composed and lighted shots, snappy editing, whimsical and funny moments... so then why does it ultimately fail to make a lasting impression? Perhaps because there is so little connection to the "real world", as evidenced by the way that not a single character in this piece behaves in the manner a real person would. The entire film is an artificial construct, an abstract meditation on human nature that sadly fails to reference anything recognizable in most peoples' lives. The result is a film that bores, but occasionally rewards.

That said, the writing is clever and even rises to the inspired once or twice. Likewise, the visual sophistication of what and how things appear in-frame, the camera movements and the just-right switching between shots and angles points to something far beyond competency. Let's just say that "Miranda" was an artfully realized misfire, a "nice try" for all those involved. Let's hope they all move on to find something that suits their particular muses better.

Cristina Ricci not only warms the cold still nights where most of this movie's action takes place, she captivates our souls. Her eyes are mirrors of our inner desires. This film uses this to perfection. John Simm and John Hurt are well cast supporting players, owning their roles. Kyle McLachlan returns to his David Lynch quirkiness, after the shallow Sex and the City detour.

The camera worker bathes her in dark pools of light, approaching her from odd angles, as if she was a sleeping lover watched , or an object of art. Yet she breathes, and lives, and smokes, and smiles radiantly. Few actresses are both sun and moon.

When the nights are not still, rain motifs evoke the sad grasp of the dreariness of existence lived without heartfelt joy, whether the dangerous life of the con artist, or the drab librarian. Both are trapped. Only free will gives us freedom. But choice means pain and sacrifice.

The romance and thriller aspects of the plot clank against each other, and there may be one to many coincidence. None of this seriously harms the overall quality of the film.

Difficult to box this one which is, I think, why the reviews have been not entirely favourable. I had very low expectations after reading other reviews on this film but was very pleasantly surprised and would thoroughly recommend it. I very rarely watch a film twice but liked this so much that I sat through it (and enjoyed it) again with a friend.

This is beautifully shot and doesn't feel independent brit flicky at all - very slick and stylish. I think everyone turned in a really good performance and although the script was quirky I found it very believable. This does manage to get a little bit of everything in it - romance, comedy, thrills and although it doesn't sit fully in any genre I actually liked it for that. I think if you can watch this with a completely open mind and no pre-conceived ideas about what genre of film you're about to watch then you'll definitely enjoy it. Kyle McLachlan was deliciously pervy in it and Christina Ricci seemed to switch seamlessly between vamp and vulnerable. Def have a look.

A quite underrated movie that's very well acted and shot. It's got good romance, decent humour, madness, spiced up with a good bit of sickness. I think the story is a pretty nice and interesting one and especially Rod made me laugh all the time. Kyle McLachlan fits his role perfectly, that sick psychopathic dude. Of course this movie misses the realism, but take it as an entertaining and twisted crime comedy flick with a tawdrily ending (no clues here!). During the scenes at the beginning where Ricci starts falling in love she's really, really charming and quite sexy as well. Her "other self" is more the opposite. Good acting there. John Hurt was nice too, but I don't really like him since his role in Rob Roy ;-)

This movie deserves more than just a poor 5.9 rating. I won't rate the individual aspects of this one with numbers since I've mentioned some of that stuff above already (mostly positive), however my overall rating is: 7.2/10.

Great entertainment! Worth watching!