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Reviews
Venus (2006)
Decent attempt, but could have used more polishing before shooting
The story, subject matter and broad structure were admirable, but I felt strongly that the script could have used another revision or too... plus perhaps some guidance in a few spots.
The Shakespearean quotes were pretty cheesy - I mean "To be or not to be" and "Is this a dagger I see before me..." Please. "Can I compare thee to a summers day...." Okay that was well delivered, and not too bad. But otherwise it had a bit of a high-school writer feel with the other bits. Either an unsophisticated perspective on the part of the writer, or trying to pander to a viewer who wouldn't be part of the demographic for this story.
Other elements that were weak are the two scenes I expected from the first 30 seconds of getting the plot direction: the brash young punk in the old guy's apartment, and the death scene. I thought from the start - oh, please don't do those two, so predictable. A minor quibble with O'tooles apartment up against the subway track. That seemed so implausible as well, for the successful, life-long actor in his twilight years, living up a few flights of stairs against the train tracks. Right.
Finally the slapstick fall down, stumble into the art studio bit was a sad TV "Three's Company" bit.
Given the ham-fisted writing, and several spots where the writing didn't seem in character for our young Venus, there were other elements that worked well. The actors were first rate, and held together an otherwise weak script. Redgrave and O'Toole were strong, as was Venus (Whittaker). The latter was well cast, as were the aging stars.
I thought the symbolism of the scenery was strong - we see the workings of the city: trains, infrastructure, wires, roads in parallel to the workings of an aging body. In the apartments, we see clutter, cramped awkward spaces. Again, the baggage of many years, and the discomfort of aging bodies.
It was good to see a handling of the subject matter. People age on the outside much faster than they age on the inside. A woman is the most beautiful thing a man will ever see, says Maurice. "For a woman?" asks Jessie - "A baby," he says.
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
Weak directorial effort with a thin plot
I was expecting a beautifully filmed movie with perhaps an overly romanticized plot. I was surprised that it was fairly mediocre cinematography, with weak plot. Maybe the director was trying to create something like 'House of Flying Daggers' look, but it was not nearly as beautifully filmed. The romance was even thin basis for the story and unengaging.
The screenplay has weak dialog, and directorally, it has some really "stagey" looking scenes - a case in point: the one where they first show awkward American soldiers walking around in perfectly pressed fatigues looked like a scene from a high school production of south pacific (but with more expensive sets).
There were lots of big unexplainable holes too. My favourite is this: A girl gets kidnapped at 5 or 6 or 7 years old from a fishing village, is enslaved in a Geisha house, gets rushed away to the rural mountains to escape the dying days of the war, then is pulled out of the mountains... and speaks perfect English to American soldiers, as do all her friends.
Or how about: Girl is trained to show a little bit of wrist skin, because it gets the men very excited. Then goes away to escape the war, comes back and they all skinny-dip with Americans... but then it flips back as she is shocked, SHOCKED, that an American made a pass at her.
I also thought it incongruous that the young girl is obsessed with getting back her sister (seems reasonable) and she does, yet someone shortly tells her her sister left, and her reaction is basically - "Oh okay - hey! look at that dreamy 30 year old guy" Maybe you'll feel those inconsistencies were just a bit of the sloppiness. Also, I noticed a few points where they seemed to be mixing up Chinese culture with Japanese culture as if they didn't know the difference. Perhaps it's an American myopia thing, but I wasn't surprised at the closing credits to see it was written by a non-Japanese, male author. I don't know anything about the author or screenplay writer, but I had the vague sense of a flamboyant gay kimono wearing writer fantasizing about Japan... or somewhere over there where they wear saris or kimonos or something.
This may be stretching it a bit but I had a sense of something a bit distasteful in the message that the movie leaves with you. Isn't it kind of saying "If you're a 30 or 40 year old that thinks that 6 year old girl is pretty hot looking, your grandest dream is to groom her for your future lover." I'd think that sentiment would be a better one behind a movie that digs into the seamy underbelly of pedophilia or something. Kind of reminds me of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" message: "If you think that chick is hot, kidnap her and she'll gradually come around to liking you." So, yeah, not too impressed with this one.
Hope the book was better