Maverick1962

I was looking for Gene Hackman movies I've missed as I think he's one of the greatest actors of my lifetime and I found this title I was unfamiliar with. Occasionally I find a movie that completely surprises me with how much I love it.

Full Moon In Blue Water is one of those movie gems I found to be compelling, charming, funny, beautifully written and acted.

Hackman is the laid back owner of a small town bar he runs with the help of Elias Koteas, a somewhat dim jobbing labourer who sweeps up for him and helps to look after his wheelchair bound father-in-law played to perfection by the grumpy Burgess Meredith, who amusingly suffers a bit with memory loss.

Hackman still grieves for his missing wife who mysteriously disappeared some years before and he spends a lot of time playing old home movies of her. He has a female neighbour friend who seems to hold a torch for him played by the lovely Teri Garr. She can't make it plainer that she's in love with the guy but he's still obsessed with his wife. This movie has many funny moments played by these wonderful actors and I can't recommend it too highly if you like old fashioned, well written comedy plots. It was particularly poignant as we very recently lost Hackman and Garr who play off each other so perfectly here, even when they are shouting and swearing at each other, but it's never nasty. Lovely film.

I watched Shardlake for two reasons, firstly because Sean Bean was listed and secondly because I like historical dramas. Both disappointed. Sean was only in two of the four episodes and then for only about five minutes in each one. Secondly, this is not history as I was taught it in school in the 1950's with people of all colours populating Britain in this period in Britain's history. Who are these producers greenlighting this deception? Clearly not historians. They need to know it ruins these productions for many viewers and is a lie to younger people who might think that's how it was.

Most of the high scores here seem to stem from book readers who know the author. As I don't, it's just a tv drama but distorted for various reasons. I understand why, keeping to their diverse casting, why they chose to have someone with a disability, as Shardlake had a deformed back, but Arthur Hughes can also only use one arm. Surely this makes his detective implausible as he's required to wield a sword. Would Cromwell (Sean Bean) really have sent out a one armed man for this job?

It's like Wicked Little Letters, set in the 1920's with it's multicultural casting but at least that movie was meant to be funny. For people trying to claim that other races were in Britain at the time of Thomas Cromwell, I was born in the 1940's and never saw another skin colour until the 1960's and then, few and far between. I don't mean this to be offensive but just accurate.

I don't really know why this film was made because it was never going to make any money, less than a million dollars on Box Office Mojo. Having said that, it's quite well written and even better acted.

Jason Segel is Dane, the unfortunate couple's best friend, who moves in to support Casey Affleck's Matt, after his wife, Dakota Johnson, is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The movie jumps backwards and forwards, I think to break up the linear narrative of watching a woman slowly die. This feature allows scenes of humour to be inserted, otherwise the whole movie would be beyond glum. The three leads are all excellent and wasted really as their efforts would have suited a less disaster prone story.

Jason Segel as the friend, was a surprise to me with his very good performance, Casey Affleck is hard to beat for nuanced everyman roles and if you thought Dakota Johnson would be unsuitable after that Fifty Shades of crap she did, then you might be surprised how good she is here.

I can't really recommend it though for entertainment as it's pretty dour and somewhat whitewashed. Death is rarely this clean and neat.