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I gave them the wrong card number, obviously. Just checked bank accounts and A&L account is over the limit.
I'm just too disorganised for my own good.
Tonight I went to see Shopgirl, because it stars two of my favouritest people in the entire world. Claire Danes (*sigh*, I still think of her as a teen in "Romeo+Juliet") and Steve Martin (*chuckles*, he's funnnnny). The first thing that I will say about this film - the music drove me nuts. Irritated me to hell. The main theme is a descending arpeggio played on a viol[a|in]. It repeated so many times and it was done in such a hamfisted way, that instead of being touching, when it really should have been, it was just plain annoying.
The story is a good one, engaging. It is one of love, unrequited, though the unrequited part of the equation is not realised by one of the party. This is explained quite clearly in a very clever few minutes switching between Claire Danes talking with her colleagues about him, and him talking to his therapist about her.
The scene setting and camera work is truly excellent, with some very clever linking of the beginning to the end through the camera, beautiful sets and scenery, and well executed transmissions (wrong word) from one scene to another.
I don't know about the characters. I think I'm going to need to see it again to make up my mind on this. There is never an explanation of exactly why Mirabelle (Claire Danes) is the subject of Ray's (Steve Martin) affection. Yes we all know that love often has no reason, but there's no background to how he even knows she exists, no explanation of why he treats her the way he does. All we know is that one day, it all happens and the two connect. Where's the build up? I found that immensely frustrating.
I recognise that I haven't read the book, so there might be lots there I'm missing. I will have to find it and devour it, but I feel the "love triangle" aspect of the book which I have heard so much about, is completely underplayed. I got the impression from the trailers that there would be conflict and a decision to make, but no. There is no decision in this film, no conflict typically seen in a "love triangle". The only triangular aspect is stopping a relationship with one person, starting up with another which ends, and ending up back with the first.
Casting... Steve Martin... well, I guess it depends what he was trying to achieve. I don't know. If he was trying to achieve a typical 50-something successful business man with lots of money to burn, then he did that well. Going back to the previous mention of motives, I can't figure out a motive for him. I don't understand the character well enough to be able to comment.
Claire Danes... she plays the part of a young woman inexperienced in life, recently moved to the city from Vermont, does it well. She looks stunning in the majority of the film, but saying that there's lots of emotion - lots of crying and spoilt makeup, poor girl, and she gets naked at least once (she has a lovely bum). I got distracted by Claire Danes' bum, which is understandable... she at least is an understandable character and I believe she plays it believably.
I also felt that the seperate strands of the story were given too much slack. Jeremy and Ray's affections I felt should have both been prevalent in her mind at all times, but they were kept as completely seperate storylines. The section in the middle of the film, where withdrawal symptoms of the anti-depressants she's on takes hold and Mirabella loses it is well done, but over far too quickly. We see her suffering, she goes to the docs with him, and voila, life is bacl to normal again.
Overall - well shot, and a very enjoyable storyline, but could really do with the musical director taking lessons in how not to try and jerk tears from your audience in such an obvious way.
I'm just too disorganised for my own good.
Tonight I went to see Shopgirl, because it stars two of my favouritest people in the entire world. Claire Danes (*sigh*, I still think of her as a teen in "Romeo+Juliet") and Steve Martin (*chuckles*, he's funnnnny). The first thing that I will say about this film - the music drove me nuts. Irritated me to hell. The main theme is a descending arpeggio played on a viol[a|in]. It repeated so many times and it was done in such a hamfisted way, that instead of being touching, when it really should have been, it was just plain annoying.
The story is a good one, engaging. It is one of love, unrequited, though the unrequited part of the equation is not realised by one of the party. This is explained quite clearly in a very clever few minutes switching between Claire Danes talking with her colleagues about him, and him talking to his therapist about her.
The scene setting and camera work is truly excellent, with some very clever linking of the beginning to the end through the camera, beautiful sets and scenery, and well executed transmissions (wrong word) from one scene to another.
I don't know about the characters. I think I'm going to need to see it again to make up my mind on this. There is never an explanation of exactly why Mirabelle (Claire Danes) is the subject of Ray's (Steve Martin) affection. Yes we all know that love often has no reason, but there's no background to how he even knows she exists, no explanation of why he treats her the way he does. All we know is that one day, it all happens and the two connect. Where's the build up? I found that immensely frustrating.
I recognise that I haven't read the book, so there might be lots there I'm missing. I will have to find it and devour it, but I feel the "love triangle" aspect of the book which I have heard so much about, is completely underplayed. I got the impression from the trailers that there would be conflict and a decision to make, but no. There is no decision in this film, no conflict typically seen in a "love triangle". The only triangular aspect is stopping a relationship with one person, starting up with another which ends, and ending up back with the first.
Casting... Steve Martin... well, I guess it depends what he was trying to achieve. I don't know. If he was trying to achieve a typical 50-something successful business man with lots of money to burn, then he did that well. Going back to the previous mention of motives, I can't figure out a motive for him. I don't understand the character well enough to be able to comment.
Claire Danes... she plays the part of a young woman inexperienced in life, recently moved to the city from Vermont, does it well. She looks stunning in the majority of the film, but saying that there's lots of emotion - lots of crying and spoilt makeup, poor girl, and she gets naked at least once (she has a lovely bum). I got distracted by Claire Danes' bum, which is understandable... she at least is an understandable character and I believe she plays it believably.
I also felt that the seperate strands of the story were given too much slack. Jeremy and Ray's affections I felt should have both been prevalent in her mind at all times, but they were kept as completely seperate storylines. The section in the middle of the film, where withdrawal symptoms of the anti-depressants she's on takes hold and Mirabella loses it is well done, but over far too quickly. We see her suffering, she goes to the docs with him, and voila, life is bacl to normal again.
Overall - well shot, and a very enjoyable storyline, but could really do with the musical director taking lessons in how not to try and jerk tears from your audience in such an obvious way.
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