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ken_l-1
Reviews
Emotional Arithmetic (2007)
This is required viewing for all Chris Plummer fans.
As a Canadian, I generally steer clear of Canadian-made movies, but this is an exception that I'm glad I made. What a pleasure to watch two old veterans like Plummer and Von Sydow square off. Even in spite of the lukewarm reviews (usually my cue to bail a movie before it's done) I was able to finish this movie in relative comfort. (Most Canuck efforts make me very uncomfortable and embarrassed for all parties involved.) I cannot help but observe that reviewer "Huggo" misused the word "interred" in his review. To "inter" someone is to bury that person. The past tense of "inter" is "interred". I'm sure "Huggo" meant "interned".
Cleaverville (2007)
Gerald Pratley, where are you when we really need you?
I don't know how anybody could spend 2 hours watching this or most other provincially made Canadian movies. The best part of any such TV movie would be the frequent commercials which interrupt the plot(?). In the past, Canadian movies have been bad but now they're politically correct and bad. And they always appear juvenile, like an ABC After School special or a TVO or PBS show meant for kids; the acting always is self-aware and concerned with teaching or getting across a point rather than convincing you, the viewer to suspend your disbelief, the sine qua non of all acting. That is, you have to forget that the actors are acting and get caught up in the excitement of the plot. This never happens in Canadian movies and television because the actors are self conscious. They also are more concerned with hitting their marks and remembering the director's latest instruction than actually acting their part. Canadian TV and movie acting is a director's medium in the worst sense of the phrase. In a top-down bureaucracy like the Canadian film industry, the director's main job is to make sure his instructions are followed to the letter because he has people who instruct him about making sure all the politically correct instructions from the producer and funding agencies are followed so the movie sends the right message to and for all interested parties. Otherwise the next movie might not get the funding. So....the minorities have to be represented in the right proportions (that might not be the case with this movie since there were an awful lot of white people in this one.) But the main and most recent mandate was fulfilled: Lots of women were featured: young and old and short and tall and all smart and in positions of power, with the men bringing up the rear and generally marginalized and stupid. This to correct for the years when women on Canadian TV and movies were under-represented. This is the time for the unsubtle redress of that longtime imbalance. Question is: when will it be over so we can go back to believable drama????
Ken Laing