back to work tomorrow; transient sunshine
Jan. 18th, 2005 01:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fflo3-day weekends make it especially hard for me to go to bed on time & get up for work.
With all the praises sung of it by my fellow workers and others, it's perhaps not surprising that my viewing of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind tonight was a let-down. I'm especially disappointed to have to report my disappointment to folks who enjoyed it so much, you know? Maybe my mood isn't right for it, but I kinda don't think I'da been bowled over in any mood.
I mean, it's ambitious and all, structurally, but I knew that going in. I do follow the shenanigans, but, well, for one thing, I never really feel that those two characters are in love. Or not in any kind of love I'd want to fight for (and I fight for love, believe you me). That's vague and subjective, I know, but there it is. (Of course everything's subjective, I feel compelled to add.) And no, my problem with their "great" love is not cuz it starts out with the sour end of things. I didn't buy the beautiful beginnings, and for that matter I didn't like either of the two characters. Then there's the gimmicky factor. The movie seems enamored of itself---there's THAT love.... Surprisingly I wasn't annoyed by Jim Carrey's presence(/face), and I did find a few bits engaging, and I like Mark Ruffalo, but in the end I'm gonna have to give it a pass.
Maybe part of my problem is that, well... Well, you know what? If somebody wants to erase a relationship, she can. All by her lonesome. Don't need no Lacuna. People do it all the time.
And there's the disconnect about how the process is supposedly unknown to our protagonist, but then he---half-heartedly set up as a cautious character, I gather to make his attraction to her be about her free-spiritedness---this guy needs only to be told "trust me" and "it's no more brain damage than a night of hard-drinking," and that's it. Yeah, I'm quibbling. It's late & I'm burnt & in no shape to get at my problems with the movie, let alone articulate them well (and thus get at them for real). But if it'd worked for me I wouldn't be quibbling. I'm sparing you a lot of it, honest. I fear I'll spark cries of outrage if I suggest that the movie doesn't seem to me, ultimately, to have a heart. Not that all movies need one, but one on this theme certainly does.
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disclaimerwill, if you see this before I get in, will you break it to RLZ? I feel as if I'll have let you two down.
With all the praises sung of it by my fellow workers and others, it's perhaps not surprising that my viewing of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind tonight was a let-down. I'm especially disappointed to have to report my disappointment to folks who enjoyed it so much, you know? Maybe my mood isn't right for it, but I kinda don't think I'da been bowled over in any mood.
I mean, it's ambitious and all, structurally, but I knew that going in. I do follow the shenanigans, but, well, for one thing, I never really feel that those two characters are in love. Or not in any kind of love I'd want to fight for (and I fight for love, believe you me). That's vague and subjective, I know, but there it is. (Of course everything's subjective, I feel compelled to add.) And no, my problem with their "great" love is not cuz it starts out with the sour end of things. I didn't buy the beautiful beginnings, and for that matter I didn't like either of the two characters. Then there's the gimmicky factor. The movie seems enamored of itself---there's THAT love.... Surprisingly I wasn't annoyed by Jim Carrey's presence(/face), and I did find a few bits engaging, and I like Mark Ruffalo, but in the end I'm gonna have to give it a pass.
Maybe part of my problem is that, well... Well, you know what? If somebody wants to erase a relationship, she can. All by her lonesome. Don't need no Lacuna. People do it all the time.
And there's the disconnect about how the process is supposedly unknown to our protagonist, but then he---half-heartedly set up as a cautious character, I gather to make his attraction to her be about her free-spiritedness---this guy needs only to be told "trust me" and "it's no more brain damage than a night of hard-drinking," and that's it. Yeah, I'm quibbling. It's late & I'm burnt & in no shape to get at my problems with the movie, let alone articulate them well (and thus get at them for real). But if it'd worked for me I wouldn't be quibbling. I'm sparing you a lot of it, honest. I fear I'll spark cries of outrage if I suggest that the movie doesn't seem to me, ultimately, to have a heart. Not that all movies need one, but one on this theme certainly does.
disclaimerwill, if you see this before I get in, will you break it to RLZ? I feel as if I'll have let you two down.
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no subject
Date: Jan. 18th, 2005 03:16 pm (UTC)"13 Going on 30"
Sure, it's a commercial film, but the director is Gary Winick. He did alot of independent film before that, like "Tadpole," and Personal Velocity: Three Portraits.
It has fun, it has heart, and it has Jennifer Garner.
no subject
Date: Jan. 18th, 2005 03:33 pm (UTC)I'm pretty sure I saw Tadpole. Is that the one with the teenager who sleeps with his mother's pal, played by that woman who was Lilith on Cheers?
no subject
Date: Jan. 18th, 2005 08:40 pm (UTC)