We'll Take Manhattan

never heard of these people! so i decided to watch and find out.

first i could not understand some of the dialog due to that inner city British accent - sorry. then the editing jumped around so. the story line is disjointed early on so you cannot get to know these characters. it was as if the director was in a fuss to get to the NYC scenes.

the NYC part of the film is much more interesting and in that the characters shine. unfortunately they must have hired a 10 year old to do the 'tourist' snap shots of the city as those photos were just awful an added nothing to the story. we know they are in 'the big city'.

the two strong willed leads and the insecure model slowly become a bit unbelievable and then the shows over!

will not watch again.

It was the early 1960s and British fashion photography was somewhat stuck in a rut. Models all did a version of the same poses and photographers used medium format, i.e. 2 1/4" square, cameras. Then along came the new kid with a vastly different style and a Pentax 35mm camera.

Along with him came a very young girl from an agrarian family, pretty and tall but with no experience. Her name is Jean Shrimpton and she is played here by Karen Gillan. While Gillan doesn't that much look like a young Shrimpton she is lovely in her own right and a fine actress.

There is an assignment to be shot in Manhattan. The young photographer is brash and difficult but has a vision he won't abandon even with the prospect of being fired. His vision works and changes the fashion approach thereafter. Shrimpto became a supermodel.

I really enjoyed this, I will watch it again. I was already a big Karen Gillan fan, she can play almost anything. On Amazon Sreaming movies.

I enjoyed the movie despite it's foibles hence the rating, but apart from Karen Gillan as Jean Shrimpton who was fabulous, the acting was pretty poor. Bailey's over the top Cockney accent was excruciating and Francis Barber seemed to keep forgetting her posh accent. Putting that aside the story (true in part), scenery and costumes were lovely. The best bit was seeing shots of the original photographs at the end. Although it didn't exactly pay homage to him, David Bailey certainly was an amazing talent.

I love photography, and whilst I knew I wasn't going to be watching a masterpiece, I did hope for something at least interesting and re waking about the legend and his muse. Instead I was offered what I assume we're anecdotes from Bailey's memoir that barely get fleshed out and then moved on to the next obvious bit of storytelling. The acting was pretty average and overall I felt somewhat cheated. Bailey being one of the best fashion photographers in British history, I had hoped for a deeper look at this man. Instead I watched the end credits and wondered if the swinging 60's was actually all hype.

Not bothered about other reviews being on the negative side, I thoroughly enjoyed We'll Take Manhattan. I originally saw it in 2012, and have recently downloaded it from itunes and watched it twice. I thought Aneurin Barnard was cheeky and irreverant as David Bailey, Karen Gillan was funny and lovable as Jean Shrimpton and Helen McCrory was a scream as Lady Clare Rendlesham. I particularly enjoyed the clashes between Bailey and Rendlesham in New York. Karen Gillan wasn't a perfect Jean Shrimpton lookalike, but it would have been hard to find someone with her unique looks.