yemgha

Good things first: Actors are doing a fine job, Soundtrack is great, cinematography is beautiful ... Actually, everything is very stylish and nice ... But so boring, so predictable, so dishonest, so overambitious and eager for applause (and probably awards - not much luck there, though).

The anger and desperation that this story could stir up is drowned in a self-suffocating overdose of righteousness. This story could be deeply moving, shocking and rage-inducing. But the film makers are trying so hard to be good people like those in their own film, as if they thought they were personally responsible for a whole racial movement of proud decency. Which, as should be clear by now, is just doomed.

And here goes Mr. Jenkins, happy to indulge in pretentiously clean and bourgeois surface scrubbing of a racist society. But then again, so was Mr. Baldwin, a great author who, however, would write anything to get praise and acceptance from the powers that be.

One more word to the use of music, which is quite revealing: Billy Preston's endlessly moving rendition of My Country 'Tis of Thee is abused to intensify the emotions at the end of the film. This is such a clichéd move and it also backfires as the song is so much more potent than the film itself. Using music to illustrate and boost a film's sentiment is very unsatisfying.

PS: How the exact same song could be used in a creative, almost subversive way and therefore much more emotionally affecting, has been shown by Robert Aldrich in Twilight's Last Gleaming.

The three actresses are great. They act and interact with an enormous level of authenticity and sensibility. Particularly Elizabeth Olsen, who is amazing and almost uncanny in her acting abilities. The tiniest details in her playing reflect the deep understand of the complicated character she is portraying.

This film could have been a masterpiece if it wasn't completely predictable from the start and if the director would have refrained from some really tacky and clichéd decisions. Even these wonderful actresses could not hide their uncomfortability with some of the scene settings, especially towards the end.

It leaves a stale aftertaste to realize that what starts promising ends in mere conventionality and is not very interesting after all, despite the terrific actors.

What starts quite enoyable and funny, building on a promising premise, takes a turn to the bad, boring and trite astoundingly quickly.

It's as if the film makers tried to do stereotype bingo for a british comedy. The forced quirkiness, the funny overemotional gays, the people with no self-esteem who bounce back from tragedy, the hilariously blunt parents ... Whatever it is, it has been seen countless times, but funnier. And yes, Richard Curtis, he has been mentioned by other reviewers, but even the Godfather of british cliché comedy, has written better stuff than this. Although he clearly serves as an inspiration here - which is not a good omen either.

The actors are not to blame. They are just left with a boring script, too many punchlines that fall flat and an inept direction.

The often lamented fact that the characters are not likeable is really not the problem here. That they are kind of annoying is one of the better things here, because it actually makes them relatable ... Probably the only thing that Richard Curtis could learn from this mess here.