Change Your Image
ronnivic
Reviews
Wendy and Lucy (2008)
Very affecting
It is amazing to me that viewers see this film so differently. The surface plot has been related many times here so not much to add there. I found the movie haunting and thought about it for several days. Because there were so few characters, each was very important from the young man in the grocery store with the prominent crucifix and fallow heart to the terrifying visitor in the woods. The mechanic was an observer who felt no real compassion but am sure he felt himself fair. He was a hard man. I found no fault in Wendy. She kept her sanity and her dignity while suffering body blows. She never abased herself, but carried on. There was something about this story that felt like the darker fairy tales I read as a child. There was no sure light at the end of the tunnel yet, when she told Lucy that she would come back, I believed her. Think I will let this move settle, then watch it again. Michelle Williams is lovely and did a beautiful job with this portrait. I'll look for her in other movies.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Haunting and affecting
Have been wanting to see this for months. (Don't go to the theater much anymore.) Have read many of the raves here and concur with them. Don't know that there is much more to say for the excellence of acting, directing, and the pathos of the story = first love, forbidden love, dangerous love. Don't know that Ledger's acting was any better than the rest of the cast's. All were top flight. It was the depth of his character that was so affecting. Who knows what would have become of these two men if they had "ranched up" together. They would have faced long term poverty, social isolation and the cooling of passion that is inevitable with all couples. Happy lives don't make dramatic stories. Can't say this is the best movie I've ever seen, but it is one of the top 30. It is haunting.