Pirate Radio

Pirate Radio (AKA The Boat That Rocked)
April 1, 2009
Universal etc.
Comedy, Musical, Historical
DVD
C+

I'm ambivalent about this movie, so let's get the negatives out of the way first.  This is the fictional, if inspired by true events, story of, yes, a pirate radio station in the days when the BBC did not like to play rock or pop.  Specifically, it's 1966-67, and as such I recognize that it's a period piece and this was not the most feminist of times or places.  That said, I feel that the way that sex and women are presented is excessively retrograde.  The next British movie I'll review, In the Loop, is not really feminist either, but it does treat the women as people with believable motivations, and there is nothing as creepy as the scene where a man tries to trick his partner into deflowering another man.  (Perhaps he's also trying to trick the other man, since it seems unlikely they would've gotten away with it, but this makes the scene no less creepy.)  Considering that writer-director Richard Curtis did The Tall Guy about twenty years earlier, it's fair to expect better than this.

The movie was released in a longer version (with the "boat" title) on the date I've listed, and perhaps there are fewer dangling threads in that.  To take a minor example, what the heck does Thick Kevin do on the boat?  Everyone else has a clear job but he just hangs out.  To take a more significant example, how does Philip Seymour Hoffman, as the "spirit of rock" character the Count, manage to survive after the boat sinks, while the Swedish crew disappears without comment?

The soundtrack and costumes are good at least (although the former is sometimes anachronistic), and there are some enjoyable performances, most notably Bill Nighy as Quentin, whose every line delivery and movement is perfect.  I might've rated this higher at the time, although what bothers me about it now bothered me then.

There are some Harry Potter connections here, with ex-spouses Kenneth "Lockhart" Branagh and Emma "Trelawney" Thompson playing respectively the main villain and the mother of the character closest to being the film's main character.  David Sterne was a Ministry Wizard in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and is Marianne's Captain here.  Rhys Ifans, who's Gavin, would be Xenophilius Lovegood in Deathly Hallows, Part I, while Nighy would be Minister Rufus Scrimgeour.

Tom Brooke played a Production Assistant in Bridget Jones 2 but is more memorable here as Thick Kevin.  Kirsty Mather, who's John's Boat Girl, had recently been a Hen in Mamma Mia!  Chris O'Dowd, who's sweet and goofy as Simon (the most-betrayed-by-a-woman character) would be the love interest Rhodes in Bridesmaids.

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
November 19, 2004
Universal/ Miramax
Comedy, Drama, Romance
DVD
C

The faults of Bridget Jones 1-- notably the manipulative soundtrack and directing choices-- are even stronger here in the three-years-later-made but set-the-following-year sequel.  (And Bridget is now born in '72, which makes her a year younger than last time.)  Renée Zellweger as Jones is back, as are her two men, Colin Firth as Mark Darcy and Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver.  And so are a whole bunch of mostly under-used perfomers, among them Jim Broadbent and Gemma Jones as Bridget's parents; James Callis, Shirley Henderson, and Sally Phillips as Bridget's friends; James Faulkner and Celia Imrie as Geoffrey and Una Alconbury; Neil Pearson as Richard Finch (Bridget's boss at Sit Up, Britain); Donald Douglas as Admiral (formerly just Mr.) Darcy; and Dominic McHale as Bernard.  I was pleased that Phillips as Shazzer (looking quite fetching, especially in a Beatles cap) has more to do this time, but at that, even she disappears for chunks of the movie at a time.

What we're left with is a mix of unfunny slapstick and uneven drama.  Although the film is ostensibly (and Austensibly, this time influenced by Persuasion) about what happens after Happily Ever After, it's never really that convincing that Bridget and Mark are happy together.  So it's hard to care when they have a pregnancy scare or break up.  And when Daniel returns, it seems she may as well get off (and go off) with him instead.  I almost went with a C- on this, but I don't think it's bad, just disappointing.  And at that, it's sort of nice to see everyone again, although I wish they'd been given more to work with.  (I've read but don't own the book this is based on, although at the time of my reading blog I thought I did.)

Ray Donn was a Limo Driver in Bride & Prejudice, is a customer here, and would be a Policeman in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Campbell Graham returns as Hamish and would be a Ministry Wizard in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,  while Sam Beazley is Very Old Man here and would be Everard in Order of the Phoenix, and Jessica Stevenson is Magda here and would be the voice of Mafalda Hopkirk in Phoenix.  Tom Brooke, who plays a Production Assistant, would be Thick Kevin in Pirate Radio.

Bridget Jones's Diary

Bridget Jones's Diary
April 13, 2001
Miramax/Univeral/etc.
Comedy, Romance
DVD
B-

My review of the book is here:  http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2013/10/bridget-joness-diary.html.  And, yes, I'm giving the movie the same grade, a B-.  Due to the time it took for adaptation, and the decision to put Bridget in her "32nd year" (actually, she turns 33 later that year), she is in this incarnation very close to the age I was at the time I first saw the movie.  (Well, first and second, since I went with two different sets of friends.)  So I am to some degree looking back at pre-middle-age and shaking my head.  That desperation to please is not exactly something I relate to anymore.  And even at the time, well, Helen Fielding's heroine was more of a screw-up than anyone I knew.  She's based on Lizzie Bennet, but Lizzie never fell off an exercise bike.

Renée Zellweger makes an appealing lead, yes, despite being the wrong weight and nationality.  She brings out Bridget's vulnerability, and the movie is much sweeter than the book.  To balance this, much of the entertaining cynicism, including against the Smug Marrieds, is lost.  I also found the soundtrack and some of the directing choices (as in the street-fighting scene) overly manipulative.  Like Bridget, the movie tries too hard to please, and ends up pleasing less than if it had relaxed more.

There's no question that you have to watch this one for the cast.  (And I had to pare down my tags due to space limitations.)  Whether it's spotting not only Salman Rushdie but J. K. Rowling at the literary party (Jo is in plaid and has no lines but it is unmistakably her, at a time when her face was not yet as internationally famous as it'd become), or savoring the Austensibly perfectly cast Colin Firth as a modern Mr. Darcy and the no-Edward-Ferrars Hugh Grant as his charming cad rival, there's always someone to watch in addition to Zellweger.  I would've liked more of Bridget's best friends:  James Callis as Tom, Shirley Henderson as Jude, and Sally Phillips as Shazza.  But they Zellweger, Firth, and Grant would return for the sequel, Edge of Reason, as would Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent as Bridget's parents, and James Faulkner and Celia Imrie as Uncle Geoffrey and Aunt Una Alconbury.  Ms. Rowling aside, there are obviously some Harry Potter connections as well as Jane Austen connections, with the future Moaning Myrtle crying in the bathroom being the most notable.

Campbell Graham would also play Hamish in the sequel, as well as a Ministry Wizard in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  Ray Donn, who's a Journalist here, would be a customer in the sequel, as well as a Limo Driver in Bride & Prejudice.  Donald Douglas, who plays Mark's father Mr. Darcy, would be promoted to Admiral Darcy for the sequel.  Neil Pearson would return as Bridget's boss at Sit Up Britain, Richard Finch, while Dominic McHale would be back as Bernard.  Crispin Bonham-Carter (distant cousin of Helena) isn't in any my other movies, but TV's Mr. Bingley can be spotted as one of the delighted office workers in the scene where Bridget tells off Daniel.

Fielding, Richard Curtis (who also wrote The Tall Guy), and Andrew Davies (of Firth's P & P) would all co-write the BJD sequel, but Sharon Maguire (the sort of inspiration for Shazzer) would be replaced as director.

The Tall Guy

The Tall Guy
Sept. 21, 1990
Working Title Films
Comedy, romance
DVD
B

This is another decade-straddler, released in '90, listed as '89 in IMDB, and in fact copyright '88.  Similarly, it's a very British movie with a very American star, Jeff Goldblum.  He's paired with then almost 30-year-old Emma Thompson, in her first film, although she'd done some stage and TV work.  The director Mel Smith (who'd made Morons from Outer Space a few years before) and writer Richard Curtis (whose later films I have mixed feelings about) both have uncredited cameos.  And Rowan Atkinson, who is cruelly parodying himself, had worked with Curtis on Black Adder.  (Much of the cast here had small roles on that TV series.)  So there's an endearing semi-newbies-larking-about feel to the movie, even a quarter century later.

As in Morons, the closing credits show comedy highlights edited jerkily to a pop song, in this case Madness's "It Must Be Love," which earlier appears in a sort of music-video, where much of the cast (including Goldblum's underwear) sing along.  There are in fact two great sequences in this film, surrounded by some pretty good stuff: the room-wrecking sex scene and the five minutes of the stage-musical version of The Elephant Man, known as Elephant.  (It's never clear if this includes an exclamation point.)  As funny as what happens onstage is, the best part is Thompson's trying-to-be-supportive-but-terribly-appalled reaction, as Goldblum's "nymphomaniac" live-in landlady (platonic with him) eats the cheesiness up.

Getting back to that sex scene, when I first saw this movie with a roomful of friends about twenty years ago, we all laughed uproariously at it, then rewound and laughed hard a second time.  It is also sexy of course, but then I have crushes on both Goldblum and Thompson.  The thing is, they both look far from their best here.  Her hair is too short, his too long; and their clothes are unflattering.  But somehow that adds to the charm of the movie, that it's deliberately unglamorous.  And they both have amazing eyes and smiles, especially when they look at each other, so who cares really?  He's playing a struggling actor named Dexter King (working for "Ron Anderson," Curtis was being semi-autobiographical), and she's a deadpan nurse named Kate Lemon.  The plot is slight but it's more of a character comedy, and the characters are definitely interesting, including the supporting cast.

Two decades ago, I'd have rated this higher, a B+ or maybe even an A-, but I have seen it several times and, as with Morons, much of the novelty has worn off.  It's the kind of movie I wouldn't want to oversell, since it is just a little gem, relatively obscure in Thompson's and of course Goldblum's ouevre.  But as "un film de Mel Smith," it's très bon.

Robin Driscoll, who was Space Pilot in Morons, is one of the Actors in Agent's Office here.  Another future Harry-Potterite, then 25ish Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy), makes his big-screen debut here, as Doctor #2.

It must be love, love, love.