ladwash

romantic comedies; I don't like 'm. Why not? Well, because the films are hardly ever original, terribly predictable, have overly clear symbolism and most of the time young actors, who don't care too much about their acting skills, as long their name is on the screen. 'Return to me' is a romantic comedy, and as with most romantic comedies, it's not a comedy. It's more to be taken as 'a sad start working towards a happy ending'. Veterinarian Elizabeth (Joely Richardson) and architect Bob (David Duchovny) are a happy couple. After an accident, Bob loses his wife. Almost at the same moment, waitress Grace (Minnie Driver) has a heart transplant. Somewhat a year after Bob and Grace meet and fall in love. Until they find out whose heart is beating in Graces' chest...

Well, this film has indeed above named elements; it's storming when the happy couple has the accident, there are a lot of coincidences, and the happy ending shows up in what other country then romantic Italy. And ofcourse a nun on a bike and jokes about a gorilla are always funny. On the other side, perhaps without those elements it would never have been a romantic comedy. Director Bonnie Hunt is linear in telling the tale (?..) and doesn't fall into the trap of silly, unconvincing dialogues or into exaggerated tearjerking (since when is that a verb?). She knows to avoid that through the characters, they don't accept the story right away and are actually a bit surprised by it. The actors are doing ok, Duchovny, basically known of his role in the X-files hasn't had much success as film actor and Driver, 'girl-next-door', 'till now mostly seen in films as the love interest, are together convincing as a nice, somewhat dull couple. Entertaining about the film is not so much the love story, but the other subplots. Grace best friend Megan (played by the director herself) and her chaotic household of five children and husband (James Belushi) and Grace caring Irish grandfather (Caroll O'Connor, better known as Archie Bunker, yes it's him!) and his Italo-American friends. well, there is actually not much to say about this film, in spite of its' dim romantic storyline, the film is well made. Absolutely nothing special, but not bad. WITHIN it's genre I'd give it *** out of *****.

I was told by different persons to see this film. In all my naivety I listened. It's a film of two stories; in one Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) gets fired, meets a man, goes home and finds her boyfriend shagging another. She gets a haircut, moves in with her best friend, starts up her company and meets man again. plot 2: Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) gets fired, misses the underground, comes home later, doesn't find boyfriend with another, so stays with him and continues boring life, until she finds out he's having this affair. It's an interesting idea; the question 'what if', life could be completely different, because of one decision, or simply because of sliding doors closing in front of you. The story is told by parallel editing, the scenes are alternating, which makes it hard to identify with any of the characters, the scenes are too short. And besides that, the actors are not helping much, especially Gwyneth Paltrows' performance (and some dialogues) is very flat, with her perfect British accent. The interesting part about the film is the ending; where the the two stories become one and we are again at one of the first scenes. Much better and original is 'Lola rennt' (in english probably: 'run, lola, run', in Dutch: 'Viola holt'), where the director plays five times with the idea 'what happens if'. Everytime the story goes wrong,

it starts again. Lola rennt has the originality it needs and above all: it's irony, something that is lacking in SD. ** out of *****

There are books and films. Two different ways of telling a story. Sometimes films are based on books. In that case one does good by not concentrating on the book and see the film as an independent work of art. Barthes already proclaimed 'the death of the writer', the discourse is not a message of the writer. But sometimes it's impossible to ignore the writers' work and his message. This is the case with one of this centuries' most important writers, Primo Levi. He didn't just write books, but was able to put in words his very own experiences in the German Lagers and this way put it in a much broader sense, he wrote history.

Many years before, Rosi had succesfully filmed 'christ stopped at Eboli', which was also based on an autobiography (Carlo Levi, not related to Primo) of the fascist period. Rosi did well not to choose Primo Levi's 'if this is a man' (se questo e un uomo), which describes the unimaginable experiences of Levi in the German Lager, he chose what could be called its' 'sequel'. 'the truce' ('la tregua') in which Levi describes his journey home from the camp in Poland to Turin, Italy, which took him an absurd nine months.The film starts when killingfactory Auschwitz-Birkenau is liberated by the Russians and the survivors are freed and put in trains, not to go home directly, but to be send to other camps. From there the journey continues, by train, by foot, meeting various characters. Levi, played by John Torturro, is a silent man who now and then expresses wise words or memorable sentences, but somehow never really makes you think. It's a man we follow, but doesn't touch us, let alone move us. This is not Turturro's fault, he gives a fairly good performance, but Rosi wants too much tell an important story, forgetting the ones who ARE the story; namely the characters. None of them is very well worked out. Take the Greek Nahum, in the book a surpising, colourful person, here just one-dimensional. Symbolism is overly present; Levi who doesn't want to throw away his campjacket, 'to remember' is credible, but the survivors are faced with german prisoners twice and it's given an unconvincing weight, as one German throws himself on his knees, when he sees Levi and his yellow star of David, far too grotesque. Another unconvincing role is given to the music, it's overly present, even a violin is stolen (where Rosi had this idea from is very unclear??) for no good reason. Music should be on the background.

I am sure Rosi had good intentions, but sometimes it's better to read and reread a book and try to reach as many people as possible in that way.

**out of ***** If this is a man (se questo e un uomo)-primo Levi The truce (La tregua) - Primo levi The saved and the drowned (I sommersi e i salvati)-Primo levi