BEFORE: Tom Courtenay carries over again from "The Aeronauts", and this film is on the last Academy screener that I borrowed from the office, my stack just ran out. It was a great stack, mostly films from 2019 but also this one from 2015 - everything from "Little Women" and "Midsommer" to "Ford v Ferrari", "Richard Jewell", "Uncut Gems" and "Ad Astra". Most of these films were available on Demand, but for $5.99 or $6.99 each, so I figure I saved about $50 or $60 by borrowing this stack, and I sure did pick the right ones, because it kept my chain alive through part of March, all of April, and now the start of May. I still don't know when I can get back to that office and borrow more, so for the near future I'm going to have to choose my films carefully, try to limit iTunes rentals to the ones that are $2.99 or $3.99, and hope that "Knives Out" premieres on cable in late May or early June. Here's hoping.
THE PLOT: A married couple preparing to celebrate their wedding anniversary receives shattering news that promises to forever change the course of their lives.
AFTER: I feel a little odd dipping into the romance chain for a couple of films that are really helping me make the connection to Mother's Day - this film and the next two are at least relationship-based, and those films usually belong in February. But these are desperate times, and I've got SO many romance films that next year's February line-up is already over-stocked, so I can take away two or three and still be reasonably sure that I'll have a full month's worth. Besides, I've decided to not hold back on the two films (out of five that seem the most romance-y, which are "The Wings of the Dove" and the 1992 version of "Wuthering Heights". In both cases, they're the middle film out of three with the same actor/actress, so I can cut them without interrupting the flow, and while they don't connect to each other, they both link to other romances on my list, so they should fit in somewhere next February if I want them to. I had so many extra connections this February that I was able to re-arrange them on the fly if I didn't like the order, I had flexibility galore.
Today's film only has two headliners, so a case like that makes my decisions very clear, unless I've got an abundance of Charlotte Rampling films, then one actor's going to be the lead-in and the other's going to be the lead-out. Easy peasy - if needed I could go up and down my list and find more films like that, this would help identify these little pivot points that would help me make my connections between THIS block of three films with one common actor and THAT block of four with another common actor. For now I'd rather just find short paths between the holidays and hope that when I put them all together, they'll add up to a complete year, that worked well for me in 2019 and could work again. Figuring out a path from July 4 to some kind of back-to-school chain (assuming that kids go back to school this fall, there seems to be some uncertainty about that...) could be a real hassle, but if I drop a documentary chain in there somewhere it could shorten the distance I have to travel on both ends. Still too early to do that - but I'm good right now until July 4, and that helps me sleep easier.
Once again I find there's no way to talk about today's film without divulging the plot details, so it's time for another SPOILER ALERT - though the main plot point here is revealed very early on, then there's still 90 minutes of movie to deal with the effects of that revelation. Which seems kind of odd, because not very much happens for most of the film, the big reveal comes right at the beginning, and then it's just talky-talky-talky from then on. I guess it's a think-piece, but a very dry one, maybe some would say there's a lot going on under the surface, but I'm not really sold on that idea. It felt more like the film banked everything on the very early reveal, and then was just killing time until the end credits. More or less - some would probably say there's really more going on, but I wasn't feeling that.
Here's the big plot point - as married couple Geoff and Kate are getting ready for their approaching anniversary, the husband gets a letter in the mail, in German, and the news is that someone finally found the body of his ex-girlfriend, who died over 45 years ago. The details get parceled out to us over time, like Geoff and his German almost-wife were on a mountain-climbing exhibition, and she fell into a deep ravine. Then we see very slowly how this discovery affects the couple, how the past can come back and have an impact on the present. Geoff starts smoking again, Kate finds out that he's inquired about making a trip to Switzerland to pay his respects, and eventually when Kate finds Geoff's mementos from his past, she notices her own resemblance to the German girl. Their names are also similar - Kate/Katya, so naturally she begins to question her whole relationship, and how much of her husband's love for her is real, whether his second marriage was an attempt to replace or copy the first. That's it, that's the whole movie.
I just don't think there's a lot here - I would guess that Kate's making a mountain out of a molehill, but perhaps that's just my personal opinion. I may have a unique perspective here, being married twice and personally I think if someone gets out of a relationship and looks for another, they would naturally try to do things better or at least differently in the future. The two women I've married could not be more different in most respects, and just after I separated from my first wife I happened to have a date with a woman with the same first name as my ex, and right off the bat I knew that wasn't going to work. I mean, how would I even differentiate them in conversation, start using their last initials or something?
Maybe things are different for Geoff, because his first serious lover died, and just maybe he was trying to recapture some of those good vibes, and found himself drawn to a woman with a similar name and a slight resemblance. But all that means is that he has a preference for a certain type of partner, and that's not a crime. At least it shouldn't negate 45 years of a relationship to Kate, but I guess Kate doesn't see it that way. I would venture to guess that Kate's marriage to Geoff is her first serious relationship while it's Geoff's second, and that's a discrepancy between two people that never quite goes away, it's always going to be there, but the trick is not letting that get under your skin and bring you down.
Maybe still waters run deep, as they say, but other times you may just be looking at a puddle. Sorry.
Also starring Charlotte Rampling (last seen in "The Sense of an Ending"), Geraldine James (last seen in "Alice Through the Looking Glass"), Dolly Wells (last seen in "Home Again"), Max Rudd, David Sibley (last seen in "Gandhi"), Sam Alexander, Richard Cunningham (last seen in "The Man Who Knew Infinity"), Kevin Matadeen (last seen in "Angel Has Fallen"), Hannah Chalmers.
(Hah, Geraldine James played a pilot in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" and Richard Cunningham was in that film too, so that will make four films this week with five "Star Wars" actors - Nick Nolte, Felicity Jones, Geraldine James, Richard Cunningham and tomorrow, it's Keira Knightley. Who says I don't know how to celebrate May 4? And after a little bit more digging, every film so far this week has a "Star Wars" connection, even "The Dresser", where Ralph G. Morse had an uncredited role as "Man at Station", and according to the IMDB, he also played a stormtrooper in "Return of the Jedi". The score for "The Dresser" was also performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, famous of course for their work on the "Star Wars" soundtracks.)
RATING: 4 out of 10 songs from 1967
No comments:
Post a Comment