windspray

I seldom write a poor review of a movie, but I had to comment on this one. I really felt cheated by the writer and director of this film, Richard Curtis, who previously has done such intelligent and splendid work. This was just ridiculous...and cheap!! First, the storyline of the Hugh Grant piece was a clear rip off of the American President, a film that was so charmingly and intelligently written and casted several years ago. The plot was just dumbed down and changed to an English prime minister and his tea lady. I was appalled by the casting of Billy Bob as the American President.

The storyline involving the little boy who lost his mother and is in love with a girl at school was downright creepy. No sense at all that the boy had lost his mother... and the Claudia Schiffer look a like at the end...pleeeeeease!! Or maybe it was the real Claudia. I wasn't interested enough to stick around for the credits.

Another creepy storyline...the best man who videotapes his friend's wedding obviously obsessed with the groom's wife. Some best friend. If this is love than the writer has a very disturbed view about what love actually is. I won't tell you what the best friend does after this.

The fat jokes in the movie. Again, very thoughtless and cheap and seemed to pervade the movie thus clearly not supporting the tagline "love actually is all around."

I could go on and on but let's not. I guess when you are Richard Curtis you can do what you want without really possessing a cohesive, quality piece of work.

Give me Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman any day. Colin Firth...why do you agree to do such drivel?? Hugh Grant, I really do not care for you in any regard, but you saved the film mainly because you took poor material and made it funny and endearing. I have new found respect for you as an actor. Enough said.

This is by far the most disturbing film I have ever seen made all the more chilling by Mr. Walken's performance. Quite frankly nothing that Mr. Walken did before (yes, even the Deer Hunter) or up to the present has come close to this performance (and believe me I have waded through more cheesy Walken films than I care to recall). Equal to Mr. Walken's performance was the acting of a whole line up of great character actors who portrayed really weak and pathetic individuals to a tee. Although, I saw this film at least a decade ago, I can still see that horrific scene in the woods with Christopher Walken and Chris Penn. And forget about Walken's scenes with the lovely Mary Stuart Masterson. I have no idea how that young woman got through those scenes with him because certainly to have to play a role like she did would be much more disturbing than just viewing the scene. I get chills thinking about this movie and it will be a very long time before I could ever think about watching it again.

There was just something about this movie that I really loved as the main character was so contrary to my self. The idea of this young woman with two young daughters leaving London for India in search of a better existence... not knowing from day to day where their next meal would come from or whether they would have money for rent. Incredibly courageous and stupid all at the same time. At first I was extremely annoyed with Julia, the mother, wondering when it would all go horribly wrong. It almost did in one unbearable scene involving the eldest daughter. I didn't understand alot of the things that Julia did since it placed her children at so much risk. But ultimately I believe Julia truly wanted something better for herself and her daughters. And that is always a risky venture.