Saturday 14 March 2015
Do I Love, Rosie?
I love book adaptations. Or I love to hate them. I hear
about one in post-production; a massive mainstream blockbuster and I
practically wet my pants I’m that excited. Even the ones I haven’t read, I will
try to read before I see it. The whole way through I naturally compare the film
to the book. Which of course you shouldn’t do, but so what, this is how I
approach the matter.
Most of the time I prefer the book. I will list all the
film’s inadequacies, the plot they omitted, and the inventions and additions in
utter fury, practically compiling a letter to script writer. Ahem Harry Potter.
But this is a very pleasurable kind of fury.
Occasionally I like both the novel and film as separate
entities. Angus Thongs and Perfect (Full Frontal according to the book)
snogging. The Hunger Games. Pride and Prejudice, to name a few. These all stay
faithful to the novel yet deliver something new as well.
Sometimes though I prefer the film. This is rare because I
really like reading! Surely the book, which many people consider to be the
‘original’ source, the stimulus, the inspiration, should naturally be the
springboard because it is so good. Not in this case may I add.
Love, Rosie is fairly nice film. It is sweet, tender-hearted,
funny, and obviously completely unlike reality, but hey what else is new. The
book it is based on is Where Rainbows End by Cecilia Ahern. Now this isn’t the
first time I’ve read one of her novels and felt disappointed. P.S I Love You
again a great chick-flick falls short on the novel. Ahern creates excellent
narratives but doesn’t write them very well.
Where Rainbows End tells the story of Rosie and Alex, best
friends since childhood, confronted by misunderstandings therefore torn apart,
almost brought back together, torn apart again, almost brought back together,
torn apart again…this goes on for forty years. In emails. Forty years of emails
is a long read. I can’t tell you how frustrating this book is. You kind of hope
they get together by the middle as Ahern can’t keep this flimsy ridiculous
structure up for as long as she does! Not only does Rosie have baby Katie aged
18 while Alex disappears to Boston (of all places) they each go through a
couple of marriages each, divorces, children, terrible jobs, deaths, until they
finally…well, the ending happens. By then you just don’t care as they’ve wasted
their whole lives!
Love, Rosie on the other hand condenses these four decades
into one, no more children are born and only two divorces (only). Katie’s
father and Rosie’s first husband is made one character, Alex doesn’t have
children, and Rosie has a lot more successes than she would in reality. But, to
be honest, this is what a film or book audience want, we don’t need to hear
constant whinging about how badly her life has turned out. In the novel you
very quickly feel sorry for her friends because of the amount ear-bending she
does. Therefore Lily Collins’ Rosie is much more likeable even though her life
appears much easier than it should.
If I considered it as a film on its own, without any consideration to the book, I wouldn’t care for it much. Jamie Winstone plays an entirely pointless character, literally only there to advise Rosie. Rosie’s pregnancy and its consequences really don’t appear very important; there is no emphasis on what she’s losing by becoming a young mother. Also, it’s just frustrating that she pretends it hasn’t happened to Alex. He’s meant to be her best friend yet she thinks he shouldn’t know. Rosie’s life seems very easy and the finale comes with her great success. It’s very pleasing for audiences but not particularly believable.
However, I think I’m now just being unnecessarily picky. All
I can say is thank you for giving this dry and exhausting narrative some spark!
Love, Ally.
Wednesday 18 February 2015
What's Your Favourite Word? Comet
Due to having little social life and an unhealthy obsession with films I already knew lots about the film Comet before I watched it. I was researching premieres for the Berlin Film Festival at work and spotting Justin Long’s face immediately made me stop: he’s just such an endearing actor, literally playing a loveable character in every film. My next delighted surprise was seeing Emmy Rossum was starring opposite him, a talent that is underused in my opinion. Finally, the cherry on the cake as they say, was that it was about parallel universes; a relationship that spans six years, jump-starting at various points throughout the film. We see two break ups, two, possibly three unions.
Instantly I thought of the similarities to Nick Payne’s play
Constellations. About to hit Broadway starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson,
the play was a massive success on the West End. Roland and Marianne meet in
multiple universes, we see them finally get together, visit many turns in the
road, break ups – all because of the pivotal theme that we live in a
multiverse. According to this theory there are many other versions of ourselves
carrying out decisions or vice versa which we choose to make or not. There are
other mes out there who could be a ballet dancer (my desire when I was ten) or
even very similar to myself but instead of writing this in bed I could be
writing this on the sofa. I love this play; it’s hopeful yet quite sad, but
also about real love. With only two actors the ability to portray many
dimensions is tricky! Comet appeared to be a film version of this, or at least very
similar, tackling themes of fate, choice and reality.
Comet is a unique romantic film. It’s been pushed as an
indie-rom/com. Thus 500 Days of Summer-esque? I guess, maybe they’re saying that
because of Justin Long’s presence, a regular figure in roms and coms. Like
Constellations the film jumps between moments with a clear
change of transition. However, this struck me more as moments in time not
between parallel universes. We see the couple (Dell and Kimberly) at crucial points
in their relationship which flow, almost hiccup, into each other, repeatedly
and with no structure. This could be timelessly, but I saw it as defined by
time – ‘this is the time we broke up’ ‘this is when we got back together’ –
instead of what is true and what is false. We do get a sense that it isn't
reality; the cinematography is exquisite, sometimes bright and over exposed
with electric green grass, or so soft with pale back light the character’s face
is blurred, which heightens the idea of non-reality. Even so, I would have
liked more ideas of fate and choice, as the focus on time means it all
happened. Only the last scene alters this. An earthquake takes place without
either of them noticing, day turns to night at the click of fingers, two suns
are in the sky. We are obviously in another dimension and this might not be
real. If the whole film had followed this structure (real or not real) it would
have been really interesting!
Apart from that I really liked the film. Moments made me cry, you
just want to shout at the characters DON’T BE SO STUPID as you can see what’s
coming. Dell and Kimberly are perfect together but it takes them a long time to
truly see it. Justin Long just needs to stop mumbling his lines. Then
everything will be great.
Also, my title is a line from the film. No one's favourite word is comet...
Saturday 14 February 2015
Why not?
Writing has always been a hobby of mine. I read blogs,
magazines, news articles, novels even, and think why can’t I do that?
Honestly, why not?
I really find people tend to hold themselves back from
achieving or even enjoying something just because we’re scared of the unknown,
maybe too lazy; today I finally gave up not believing in myself, something I am
very accomplished in, and thought I should just prove myself wrong for once.
I am 23. I live at home with my parents. I haven’t got
enough money to move out yet, or a full-time job. My aim in life is to become a
director, whether for film, tv or theatre, I just want to bring stories to
life, to watch them unfurl. I understand this is a terrifying industry to break
into, the amount of competition is endless, there’s usually one role and
thousands of applicants. You’ve got to stand away from the crowd and have
something special to offer. I’m ashamed to say I turned into Meltdown Marge
yesterday and managed to make an enemy of my mum and my sister by being a brat
and only looking at the negatives. There is so much which I can aim to achieve
and I just need to look at it objectively.
So for one: I love writing. Here we go!
Two: I love baking. That will definitely make an appearance,
although I tend to rely on those wonderful Instragam filters to help my
photography skills. Being a food critic would be the best job wouldn’t it,
being paid to eat good food.
Three: I love films and tv. Another ambition is to become a
film critic, imagine eating food and watching films AT THE SAME TIME.
Four: I love reading. EATING, WATCHING, AND READING AT THE
SAME TIME.
Five: Travel, art, theatre, Harry Potter, the usual things…
I love it all.
So here I am doing something about it! Again why not.
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