A Single Man

Film Review

I utterly love this film. I saw it on Valentine's Day this year and have watched it several times since, it is officially in my top 3 films of all time. So if you didn't like this one, this little review will disappoint because I cannot think of a single thing I did not like about it. So what did I like? Well first up, it's the best film featuring gay characters I have ever seen. I am so tired of "gay films" where people's sexuality is the issue, this film isnt like that. George and Jim just happen to be gay, their story, their emotions, their trials, their relationship could happen to anyone, gay or straight and that's what makes it so good, it's a film about a gay man not a gay film about a man. The story was just so simple and I enjoyed the fact that it didn't focus on anything other than acting and brilliant writing. There are so many wonderful exchanges, I love the line that Kenny has about the sleeping bag - "Are you going camping sir?"

I loved the relationship between George and Jim, every flashback made me sadder that Jim was dead. The scene where they are sitting reading books and listening to music was beyond romantic - that is honestly my perfect evening, hot guy, good music, page turner of a book and a nice roaring fire - and the first meeting was lovely, why don't I ever meet sailors in bars?

I won't say too much about George and Charley just yet, but wow, what a relationship. Ten minutes on screen and I believed every word, every look, every beat.

Poor George. I loved the fact that Kenny saved him, but it seems that George was fated to die. He spends all day preparing to kill himself and then right at the last minute he makes that new connection with someone, there might actually be life after Jim! I was watching it with my friend Lisa tonight - very Charley - and she kept saying is he going to get it on with Kenny, but I didnt really think thats what he was looking for. Kenny offered it to him on a plate but he didnt want sex, he wanted the connection, the new connection with someone, he wanted that little bit of hope in his life and Kenny gave him that. He saw a future, somewhere for him to go, that's why he calls himself stupid, because he is a young boy and it's a foolish future but it's a future that saves him.

Shout outs must also go to the beautiful music - check out the track "Becoming George" - and the performances. Colin Firth utterly robbed of an Oscar, the scene where he hangs up the phone breaks my heart every time, then to be able to pull of the shower and sleeping bag comedy, a tour de force performance that was snubbed, at least us brits know when someone deserves a Bafta. Nicholas Hoult was a revelation, he looked so beautiful but exuded this strange warmth and optimism. The way in which he saves George and he is so insecure yet so confident at the same time. I hope he keeps making brave film choices as I'm desperate to see him in more stuff like this.

And then there's Julianne...

JULIANNE'S PERFORMANCE

It was stunning. I honestly felt that I knew Charley like a real person. I loved how flawed she was, when she can't help ruining a perfect moment with George by making a cruel comment about Jim. Her deep routed jealousy that her love for George was never enough for him, you felt that every second she spent with him was truely special. I think we all feel like that sometimes, when you have such strong feelings for someone that you know, deep down that will always be unrequited but there is always that little, tiny "maybe". You love every single second you spend with them and I felt that Charley was like that. Behind all her make-up and expensive clothes, she was a really sad character, he husband had left her, her son doesn't care and all she has left is George, a man she loves and can never have, imagine how desperately lonely she must be if that is the only person she has to cling onto, a man who breaks her heart everytime she sees him. When the film ended, I thought of Charley. She'll never get the letter, she'll never know for sure how much she meant to George, she can try and convince herself in her grief but she can never truely know. She has nobody now, she really is alone. I like to think she goes back to London and starts again but I get the feeling she's drink herself into oblivion.

Wow, I'm writing about her like she is a real person. Ah the power of Julianne. I cannot stop thinking about when she is dancing and having a good laugh, how special a moment that would have been for her. Julianne's performance was remarkable, how many different emotions are bottled up in that character. The cruel jibe at Jim and that awkward, awkward kiss are the only times she loses control. She has her very brief moment of happiness but she herself knows that sadness lies ahead. She thinks George will find someone else, but when he dies, it becomes much worse.

I really cannot stop thinking about the film. Just how quiet and simple the film really is. it's all about happiness and finding those connections in life. Not all the connections are romantic or sexual, as I said I don't think George wanted to be sexual with Kenny, he just needed someone. Those connections are important and I guess you don't really think about them at the time. I think you have mates, aquaintances and then you have people you connect with and I think they are the important people. Now I think about it, there are people you have unhealthy connections with as well, you know it's a bad idea because you'll have your heart broken over and over but it might actually be harder to disconnect and not have your special moments together - or more likely youll be the only one that find it special haha - like George and Charley dancing to Green Onions. I feel I should end on a positive, not as Charley who is sad and lonely but Charley dancing away to Green Onions and laughing about insulting a lesbian. I'm so glad I have these positive connections in my life. I'm not the sort of person who has a massive group of mates who all know each other like I did when I was at high school. I have a lot of good friends and a lot of people I've "connected" with, I often wonder if I should tell them about how cool I think it is but then I think, nah, it's just for me and it makes me smile and hey, they might be thinking the exact same thing on the friend/connection front.

Thanks Julianne. And by the way, imagine how amazing dinner with Julianne would be!!

if you havent watched A Single Man then GO NOW and watch it. I already know this post will not have done it justice. A stunning film.

Film 2: Evolution

Well here we go! Film number two and it's another "comedy" role for Julianne. I'm on my summer holidays so my brain is going a bit mushy so forgive me for starting with two light hearted Julianne roles. I chose this because I was unsure and my friend Emma - she teaches people how to act and has fairly similar hair to Julianne, maybe that's why I like her - suggested Evolution. I remember this film because I saw it when I started working in the Odeon cinema when I was just a youngster. Loved the X-Files so was happy to see a bit of Duchovny but hey, lets not kid ourselves, I'm here for Julianne. This is going to be a live blog and then I'll round things up at the end. Come on Julianne, hurry up and appear!

What happened to Orlando Jones? He's pretty funny in this! Mulder is good banter too.

Just IMDB'd and apparantly it was Julianne's idea for her character to be clumsy, they so should have made more of it. Still waiting for the great lady to appear...

I forgot 24 legend CHARLES LOGAN was the owner of the country club!

"And the CDC..."

Julianne is here and she falls flat on her face! She looks so lovely. When Mulder gets his backside out, I love the little look on Julianne's face, brilliant!

Love Julianne's delivery of "a humerous ice queen in need of a good humping"

Loving clumsy Julianne, 50 minutes in for the brilliant door slam!

"Play that funky music white boy!"

There really isn't enough Julianne in this film for my liking, god help me when I get to Eagle Eye or - shudder - Pippa Lee.

I love it when Julianne swears - "This is bullshit!"

"I would have rocked your world!" Go Julianne!



FILM REVIEW

So Evolution is over. You know what, for a lazy Tuesday afternoon when I'm wearing orange bemuda shorts, it was perfect. I was able to remove my brain and really enjoy it. Apparantly it was originally a dramatic script and was turned into a comedy and it worked. I loved the banter between the three male leads. Duchovny was great riffing on his popular Fox Mulder character and Orlando Jones was a good wacky sidekick. Yeah it's stupid but so many funny little moments, Harry with the alien up his jacksee, the shoplifting idiot and Charles Logan being dragged into a river. I also really enjoyed the two fat guy idiots, okay I know it's easy comedy and I shouldnt be laughing and finding them funny as they are cliched "fat idiots" but I did! They even stick in a little advert for Head and Shoulders to riff on their blatant product placement.

JULIANNE REVIEW

So to Julianne, she really made me smile this afternoon. There is just something so charming and effortless about her in this film. I loved her clumsy stuff, walking into the door is just brilliant, loved it! Liked her concerned voice when Harry was on the hospital bed, it worked and was funny because she was so aware they were all taking the utter mick out of something that was supposed to be serious.

It will be so much easier to write about Julianne in her dramatic roles but there is just something so endearing about her when she does these little comedy roles just like in Laws of Attraction. She comes across as so likeable and believable but underneath there is always a little bit more. With Audrey it was the fact she had given up on love and that made her sad and with Allison it was the fact she had become so serious and had no love or adventure in her life. As she goes on, she lightens up due to Ira's obvious attraction to her and starts to get caught up in the excitement of it all. I think that is really hard to capture in a film where you would not expect much top quality acting, but that's what Julianne is all about. I think the idea of losing that fun and excitement in life - like Allison - is all too real. These days it's so easy to get caught up in work and mortgages and paying bills that you feel old far too soon. I sometimes forget it wasnt that long ago that I was with mates from university doing really stupid things, now, I have to behave because I need to plan ahead and make sure I have enough petrol money for the week before payday. I went to my sister's engagement party the other week and got really, really drunk and had a bloody great time. My friend Steven and I got drunk on Rose wine and watched that new Tom Cruise film the other night, we were so drunk it was good! I should do that more often, never too old!

Wow, I've been writing about petrol money and party time drinking when I should have been writing about a film where the alien threat is defeated by Head n Shoulders shampoo, how the hell did I get so off track... oh yeah, Julianne, because she is brilliant, even when fighting giant aliens...

Thanks for making me smile on a lazy Tuesday afternoon Julianne!

You should revisit Evolution.

Julianne is All Right

Hello

I'm working up to film number two. It's so difficult trying to pick - I said "Safe" in my last post but I think it depends what sort of mood I'm in - I have all my Julianne films on the top shelf omy TV holder thing. I was thinking about different types of film, I mean I know there are some stinkers in there - even though Julianne WILL be wonderful in them - but the difference between films like "The Hours" which would require an emotional investment from the viewer and films like say "Evolution" which you can half watch and still guiltily enjoy. I wonder what it is like for someone acting in those films, would something like a lighthearted romantic comedy be easier to make than something like the harrowing "Blindness"? Or is acting just acting? That's what I'm pondering today.

Also, loving the praise that Julianne is getting for "The Kids Are All Right", surely, surely this is her Oscar year. Would love to see her and Benning both win - one of them supporting. It's embarasssing the people who do have Oscars when Julianne doesn't. I wish I could see Kids... sooner but sadly because I live in the UK I need to wait until October, why do they do that!?!

I do like when Julianne arrives at the cinema - I always call it "Julianne Day". Then I need to recruit one of my friends to be my Julianne buddy. Last time it was "Shelter" and I went with my friend Linsey, the trains broke down that day so we had to get a crowded bus into town that took the longest route ever and I was just thinking, its for Julianne, it's worth it. We had a lovely lunch before the film though and then Linsey actually really enjoyed Shelter, mainly I think because I get a little bit jumpy at films like that so look a little foolish!

"The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" was a struggle to recruit a "Julianne Buddy" for but my friend Steven came along to witness the film's four minutes of Julianne. The rest of the film wasn't the best was it? So thankfully he brought two plastic wine glasses and two bottles of Rose wine, that was a fun experience! We often talk of Pippa Lee. It was a friday night and there was a guy there on his own and I invented this story in my head that he was a massive Julianne fan too and was there to see her.

Wonder if I was right, are you reading this blog Pippa Lee Guy??

The Laws of Attraction

Film Review

So, The Laws of Attraction is a little romantic comedy from 2004. It doesn't redefine the genre or change anyone's life but it is certainly entertaining. Brosnan and Moore play off each other well and engage in some fun banter. It's certainly good to see two actors in their 40s rather than teenagers declaring their undying love for each other. You can tell that both the leads are having a lot of fun with the silly comedy and verbal sparring and there are some interesting moments where they get to do a tiny bit of proper acting. The plot is very predictable but that's actually part of the film's charm, We know these two characters are going to end up together at the end, but it's fun to watch them finally get there. A film that isn't going to win any awards but a fun little 90 minute film that will give you a laugh.

Julianne Review

I just love Julianne in this film, she is so famous for her dramatic roles that it's great to see her having fun and mucking around. She reminds me of Diane Keaton with her flakey behaviour. She works so well with Pierce Brosnan, I really want to see them do soemthing else together. I really enjoyed drunk Julianne. She handles the physical comedy well and she is in top form when talking to herself, either stuck in a toilet cubicle panicking or complaining about it being "Tuesday". I think you really appreciate her performance when you think about her more dramatic roles and how likeable she appears in this film.

Favourite Julianne Moment

As much as I love when she is complaining about the fact it's Tuesday, I have to choose a tiny little moment when she is in the caravan. Her character Audrey complains about being the gangly daughter of a beautiful mother. Even with a comedy character, Julianne is able to make Audrey real, she had a childhood and she has insecurities just like we all do and that makes her relationship with Brosnan's Daniel all the more believable.


What were your thought on The Laws of Attraction??

Next Up: SAFE