Every Cloud, eh?

As the saying goes every cloud has a sliver lining, with that in mind and fingers crossed the trepidatious  cinephile sat down to view Silver Linings Playbook. And it was by no means an easy feat considering this one bloggers hatred of a certain middle of the road, punch face, smarmy Bradley Cooper. But let’s cast that loathing aside in an Oprah-esque fashion and get down to brass tacks.

Silver Linings Playbook, adapted from the book of the same name, is a story about finding love when you least expect it or maybe it’s about achieving your authentic life fulfilment or some other self-help book nonsense. On paper it sounds like the biggest saccharine sweet thing going but translated to screen it’s a pretty enjoyable way to spend two odd hours of your time. David 0. Russell handles the script brilliantly, submitting enough honest laughs to keep the pace light hearted but then allowing the actors to hit home with the dramatic sub plots. A wealth of topics is covered in Silver Linings and it’s directed perfectly.

Great acting performances from the leads help cement the loopy storyline. Oh yeah and that’s right hell has just frozen over, Bradley Cooper was actually quite good. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he had a rubbish bag on for half the movie or maybe Jennifer Lawrence is such a talent ( and a girl crush ) that I was blind to his uber punchable face.

Okay so it gets a little too cutesy and quirky for its own good sometimes but it treads the line quite nicely. Romantic, enjoyable and even with the topics of bipolar disorder, death, adultery and O.C.D being in the mix, it’s an altogether heart warmer.

 

P.S. watch out for this one come awards season!

 

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Open letter to Bill Condon.

 

 

 

 

Dear Bill,

I am writing this letter on behalf of my sanity. Having only watched The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 2 last night I was wondering if you could clear up some questions for me? Firstly why is the title of this movie so obnoxiously long, no really, couldn’t you have shortened it just a little bit, maybe taken off the pretentious “The Twilight Saga” part? Secondly who was responsible for the script? Was the lack of dialogue used to mask the horrible inadequacies of the cast or did you get a 10 year old to write it? Since we are on the lines of a 10 year old penning this tale who’s idea was the twist in the battle field scene? No please tell me, because I swear that’s how I used to write my way out of a corner in every short story I wrote in English class when I was 10.

Who did the special effects? Not only are the laughable and altogether quite poor, you seem to have made some bad calls as to where it should be used. C.G.I.ed baby, yeah don’t worry that won’t age badly at all. The fact that it looks past it’s sell by date already is nothing to do with it, right? Was it really that hard to just get a different baby for each time the demon spawn grew?

Does Robert Pattinson always have a bad smell under his nose or is that “acting”? Does Kirsten Stewart have only one emotion and if she where to try and show a different one she would explode?  Why does your makeup artist have a knack for taking perfectly attractive people and making then look like wig wearing corpses, something along the lines of Bruce Jenner? Oh and why is there never any blood or fangs? Really, REALLY??? It’s a movie about vampires, that’s like making a film with Matthew McConaughey and leaving out the no shirt wearing parts.

Well Mr.Condon you should be ashamed. It was never going to be an easy task but you seem to have handled it with a heavy hand. Maybe Catherine Hardwicke had the right idea at the time and got out after her beautifully shot Twilight but you Bill seem to have stuck around. Oh but your opening titles were nice, that’s a job done good I suppose.

Regards,

Ciara XXX

The lights are on but nobody's home

Thank god Cillian Murphy is a good actor or Red Lights would have been an altogether unbearable experience. The story of a team of academic debunkers who work in exposing frauds of the physic variety starring Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro and the aforementioned Mr.Murphy has all the makings of a great psychological thriller but falls flat about half way through its running time.

 

 

The subject matter of this film, that maybe there is no thing as physic ability, is a thought provoking concept. The controversial topic is interesting but the director Rodrigo Cortés, on top form with recent Buried, seems to not want to take a decisive stand point on the subject. Leaving the film with no real direction and seemingly no sense of purpose, it over stays it’s welcome.

The first half of Red Lights burns with anticipation as to its inevitable outcome but with a twist in the last five minutes like the ones that put M. Night Shyamalan’s career in its decline, leaves the viewer reeling with the crassness of it all.  De Niro and Weaver get barely enough screen time to work with the dire script and Murphy is left manning the helm of this sinking ship of a movie. He holds it together just about but the main thought after viewing is why did all these top notch actors sign up to such drivel?  A promising premise, a wealth of talent and a subject matter full of exploration and debate gets fed into the food processor of Hollywood and comes out looking like straight to T.V. unintelligent mush. Red Lights indicate stop

 

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