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QmunkE
Reviews
Elephant (2003)
Thought-provoking in parts but self-indulgent
Having pretty much no idea what I was sitting down to see, other than it was not going to have a happy ending, it quickly became apparent what I was about to watch. Nobody uses Moonlight Sonata without something pretty terrible about to happen (about half way through the lifeguard's introductory scene I was expecting the end scene of the film, and as it turned out I was pretty close). And it was a decent film, which got the five of us who hadn't seen it talking about it (none of us are really great fans of this sort of film).
However, it's got some real issues. The photographer's opening scene has an entirely unnecessary shot of him walking away to nowhere in particular that just eats up some screen time - and it's not the only scene like this. And yes, I know it's all intentional and people read all sorts of stuff into the camera positioning and lighting and whatever, but when it comes down to it, stuff like this doesn't advance the plot. It doesn't effectively build suspense. It doesn't give us a window into the characters minds, unlike the scene with the piano. It's the director being given free reign to indulge his "art". A post in the forums comments about the film length being a requirement of entry into some film festivals, and how the film could have easily been shorter. I'm not one for film as an art form - for me it's a storytelling medium. This story didn't need 70-odd minutes - there wasn't enough material to justify it.
Hogfather (2006)
Fair, but somewhat disappointing
I'm a big fan of the Discworld, and have been hoping for a film/TV series for many years now. I've not managed to see the animated versions of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters, so when I heard Hogfather was coming to town (ho ho ho) I was excited, but cautiously so.
Having now seen the finished article, I have to say I have some reservations. The casting seemed slightly off to me in places - Michelle Dockery and David Jason were great, as was Tony Robinson, whose brilliant narration of the audio versions somewhat gave me unreasonable expectations of the performances in this. Ian Richardson was a fair choice for Death. But the wizards, with the exception of Ponder, were all wrong. They didn't give the impression of lazy, but powerful men - they all seemed doddering old fools. And where was the librarian? (The lack of final closing scene in the bathroom was disappointing). Chickenwire is meant to be a street tough who regresses as his fears take over, which didn't really come across. Nobby is supposed to be inhumanly ugly. What happened to the Death of Rats and why did Quoth live in Death's house? As for Teatime's accent...
Having listened to the abridged audio versions of several of the books, I think it would have been better if the script had used these as more of a base - too much of the story was lost in transition (Susan's detective side-story dropped, they just waltz off to the Tooth Fairy's castle) and all the humour in Death's deliveries was lost - all the subtlety of Albert's attempts to teach Death the real meaning of Hogswatch was gone. And the growing sense of malice in the Tooth Fairy's castle was rushed too - the nightmares weren't explained fully and so seemed tacked on.
On the plus side, Michelle Dockery is almost exactly how I pictured Susan appearing and behaving. I look forward to seeing her in future productions (Discworld or not).
A fair attempt, and I hope it does well enough to fund further trips to the Discworld. But don't be fooled, it's like most book-to-film fantasy translations (and I include Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter here) - don't expect it to look and sound like it did in your head.