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Reviews
The Queen's Gambit (2020)
Mr Shaibel is Alfredo
I really enjoyed the Queen's Gambit.
I felt the first episode and a half tried a bit too hard and tried too hard to tug at the heart strings. It didn't quite work for me. However, once it got into Beth's success at chess tournaments, as cliched as it was, I was enthralled. It's beautifully filmed with every set just so, almost to Wes Anderson standards.
I'm a sucker for stories about coming of age; the transition from being a child to being an adult; about what's important in life.
This brings me to my final point. There are many echoes of Cinema Paradiso for me. That film is one of my all time favourites and is about a boy, Toto, growing up with a love of cinema to be one of the great film directors. In this film his father has been lost in the war and he is befriended by an older man called Alfredo, the projectionist at the local cinema. Alfredo guides as a young boy in all things to do with the cinema. They lose touch as Toto becomes an adult. When adult Toto attends Alfredo's funeral, he discovers that Alfredo has idolised him all his life and that leads to surely one of the greatest film endings in cinema history.
So it is with the Queen's Gambit. Mr Shaibal is Beth's mentor in playing chess when she is a young orphan. When she goes back to the orphanage as an adult after Mr Shaibal has died, she discovers that he has built a shrine of newspaper cuttings about her. He had idolised her too.
Mr Shaibal even looks like Alfredo from Cinema Paradiso. Is that a coincidence? As a book the Queen's gambit was written just a few years before Cinema Paradiso came out. If one is based on the other, which came first?
Us (2020)
Sofie Grabol steals the show
I often rate stories on whether I believe in the relationship between the protagonists.
In Us, I didn't really believe in that between Douglas and Connie in their young personas or their in middle aged ones. Perhaps that was the point and the makers of the series did that deliberately.
But I did believe in the relationship between Douglas (Tom Hollander) and Freja (Sofie Grabol). This leant the ending with much more of a sense of a new beginning than the open possibility in the book.
The book also had a strong sense that Douglas couldn't believe his luck that he had married Connie. That Connie was so much more beautiful and worldy wise than him. She was completely out of his league. I didn't get that feeling in this adaptation.
The ending of the book also hits hard with its alternative interpretation of the ending when Connie goes back to her first and only true love. Douglas had just been a sensible intermediary for Connie with whom to have children. We don't get that interpretation in this series.
Having said all of that. I did really enjoy the TV version. It was beautifully filmed and full of warmth and humour. So overall I would definitely recommend watching it.
Normal People (2020)
Understanding the Ending
As Connell said in their last conversation 'why?'.
Connell and Marianne's tortured lives and relationship had been through many ups and downs. Their mis-understanding of each other's intentions had led to them breaking up before. This was despite them understanding each other better than anyone else and clearly being in love to those watching. Intellectually they were at a different level to everyone around them at school and were drawn to different things to them.
Finally, Marianne is learning how to live a life without her family weighing her down and without the masochistic streak that this had imbued in her. Marianne's mother has thrown her out of the Dublin flat and is living in cramped surroundings with Connell.
In a sequence near the end with a friend they are discussing their plans for that evening. Her friend says 'did we get married and become 50 years old?'. Marianne replies 'I actually love it...first year me would be amazed. Look at her she's actually content'.
Connell is getting over his depression. Connell has become the star English student in his year and is lauded for his skill and achievement at a party as Marianne looks on.
They realise that the only times in their lives that they didn't feel lonely was when they had been together. At a New Year Party back in Sligo they show their affection openly in front of all their old school 'friends'. As the New Year is celebrated, they openly declare their love for each other in a straightforward way for the first time.
They are in love, happy and content for the first time in their lives. They have grown up.
And yet, in the final scene they discuss whether Connell should go to New York to take up the place on the creative writing course that he has been offered. Marianne says 'I've been thinking about New York, the offer.... I keep imagining you being there, writing'. This has echoes of earlier episodes when Marianne says she'd like watching Connell having sex with someone else and how she loved watching him play Gallic football. She has always wanted to please him and see him doing the best he can. Perhaps this is the key to the ending - she feels strongly that she shouldn't hold him back.
Connell is clearly reluctant to go, but Marianne pushes him saying 'there's been so much that's been difficult and hard, but this would be difficult and amazing'. She is trying to give him the freedom to do what he wants with his life and what she clearly thinks is the right thing for him. Is this her greatest gift of love, to set him free?
Connell suggests that perhaps she should come to New York with him. She shakes her head and Connell asks the key question 'why?'. Marianne says 'I want to stay here, I want to live the life I'm living...I'm getting better at it'. Whilst Connell is a (the?) major part of that life, the implication is that she wants Connell to go and fulfil is talent. For Marianne it suggests that the peace she has found in her life is what is most important to her.
Connell suggests that it's only a year and he'll be back. Marianne says 'don't promise that, you don't know'. Connell says 'I'm never going to feel the same way about anyone else'.
There are strong echoes of the film Cinema Paradiso in this ending for Connell. Is it more important to pursue your passion in life, your talent (creative writing in Connell's case) or should you potentially sacrifice all of that for the love of your life? If you can't have both, which should you choose?
What we are left with is the strong sense that Connell will go to New York and pursue his creative dream; that their relationship has reached its pinnacle and is the greatest love they will experience in their lifetimes. They have found their safe place to return to in their minds if things go wrong for them even if it doesn't exist in reality anymore. They know what is possible and what to strive for.
However, in all probability they won't be together again. Not unless there is a sequel!
(The sequel to Normal People is a short story called "At the clinic'. This was written before Normal People and the two characters are the same and going through the same sorts of relationships with other people as well as with each other. I think it would be a mistake to carry on that narrative into a second tv series.)
La La Land (2016)
The question at its heart is the same as Cinema Paradiso SPOILERS
I wasn't sure I wanted to watch this - this sort of musical isn't normally my sort of thing. In the event, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to.
The big question at the heart of the film is whether you should follow your passion in life or whether you should stay with the love of your life. In that respect, it is the same as Cinema Paradiso.
The two leads are very good.
The last two scenes in the film (what might have been and the look between them) are great - but not as good as the last scene in Cinema Paradiso.
Paddington 2 (2017)
Farage - watch Paddington 2 instead of Dunkirk
I've got nothing against the film Dunkirk or its important place in the history of the world in standing up to tyranny. It's just that as soon as Nigel Farage suggested that every British schoolboy should watch it, I decided not to go.
I'd suggest watching Paddington 2 instead. Its message is that tolerance, immigration and difference are good things.
The film itself is lovely. The story doesn't stack up quite as well as the first one, but each individual scene is gorgeous. Where Nicole Kidman was evil as the baddie, Hugh Grant is self obsessed and bumbling.
The sets are beautifully done. I kept thinking of Wes Anderson and The Grand Budapest Hotel. The scene with Paddington exploring a pop up book is probably the best of the lot. The humour is excellent.
Pork Pie (2017)
Invercargill
We are a couple of Brits and have just a fantastic two week holiday in NZ.
On the 31st of January we drove from Queenstown to Invercargill on what is known as the Southern Scenic Route. We shouldn't have bothered - it rained all day and the winds were high. We arrived in Invercargill and checked into our hotel and thought 'why on earth have we come here?'.
We checked out the cinema opposite the hotel and the next day they were showing Lion at 3.15pm. We really wanted to see this.
The next morning was much brighter and we went to the hardware store (no. 1 on Tripadvisor) and to the Botanic Gardens (magnificent). We made our way back to the cinema at 3.15. I said two tickets for Lion please. The lady said, it's not on. I said it's still showing as being on on the schedule on the counter. She said, it's been cancelled - we've cleared the schedules for the premiere of Pork Pie this evening.
We were a bit hacked off by this and we'd never heard of Pork Pie. So we went back to our room and watched the trailer and we decided to see if tickets were available. We had to go to the City Hall for them, but we got two. So we turned up for the red carpet event - rarely seen in Invercargill. It was a great occasion. There were minis everywhere. People had driven from the north of north island all the way to this southern tip of the south island. The stars of the film made brief speeches. And then we settled down to watch it.
We loved it. It's a lot of fun with great humour all the way through. It deserves to do well. My only regret is it's not due for release in the UK - I think it would go down well here. I want to see it again.
We'll always remember it and the city. We took our bl***y hire car to Invercargill!
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015)
Disjointed and clichéd but still hugely enjoyable
It's true that the plot is very disjointed and the plot threads have all been done before and are pretty obvious.
But that said, I still loved it. They've turned up the saturation on Rajasthan , making it look even more colourful, even friendlier and definitely cleaner than it actually is.
The warmth and humour of the characters comes shining through. Dev Patel gets it just right so that even when his character is being annoying and stupid, you know that his heart is in the right place. As before, Maggie Smith delivers some lovely withering one liners.
So, if you liked the first one, you'll probably like this one too.