answar7979

Just saw this version for the first time. Wonderful! The opening street scenes are so vivid that you can actually feel the cold and smell the soot. This is also the first version I've seen that stays so true to Dickens' original story, without embellishing the character of Tiny Tim. The child actor who portrays Tiny Tim is refreshingly ordinary-looking rather than cloyingly cute. All the acting is top-shelf, although I think Scott downplayed the heartbreak Scrooge feels when he sees his former fiancée with a happy family that could have been his.

My only real quarrel with this production is Susannah York's makeup, which is completely ridiculous for the time period. She is very obviously wearing lipstick, eyeshadow, mascara, etc. The other women appear to be natural-looking and without makeup, which means that the makeup artists did their job well!

...to be associated with this deplorable mess. Halfway through, just when I thought it couldn't become any more boring and pointlessly violent, this bank robbery/hostage caper of a movie abruptly decides to become a vampire movie--and a gory, lumbering one at that. You can almost hear Tarantino musing, 'Hmm, what would it look like if they cut someone's hand off? Ooh! What about if a flying ax splits open someone's skull?' Etc., etc.

If you read through the reviews here, you may come to the conclusion that I simply didn't understand Tarantino's point or his artistic vision. Please. He HAD no point or vision. He had some money to make a movie and apparently felt smug enough about his own reputation that he could simply throw in whatever scenes interested him. If this had been made by a no-name director and been populated with no-name actors, no distribution company would have sat through the entire movie, much less backing it.

An absolute train wreck, spilling over with stinking piles of manure.

*Spoiler Alert - Spoiler Info Contained in Review* ***Lots of spoilers, actually***

No, it's not a PERFECT movie, but there are a lot of things to enjoy about this one. There are enough plot synopses on this site already, so I'll just mention what I consider to be the very best bits, both funny and touching:

• Funny: Bill Nighy shamelessly and hammily whipping off his clothes during a live TV performance of his cheesy hit song, "Christmas is All Around Us". Touching: He ditches an Elton John holiday party to admit to his long-suffering manager that he is actually the (platonic) love of his life.

• Funny: Colin Firth is trailed through the streets by an ever-growing throng of gossipy townspeople on his way to propose to his Portugese beloved, Aurelia. The gossip begins with "he wants to marry her" then becomes "he is going to enslave her" then "he is going to murder her."

• Touching: The look on Juliet (Keira Knightley's) face when she realizes that her new husband's best man is in love with her, and he can't let anyone see the wedding video he shot for them because all the frames are full of her.

• Funny and touching: Rowan Atkinson's two well-timed appearances.

• Funny: When Hugh Grant gamely but tentatively starts to sing a Christmas carol for two little girls, and his bodyguard chimes in with an exquisitely operatic voice.

• Funny: The Christmas pageant with children dressed as lobsters, other assorted sea creatures, and Spiderman. Oh, and singing "Catch a Falling Star," which isn't even a Christmas song.

• After several wistful comments about the lovely Claudia Schiffer, Liam Neeson's suffering widower meets a young woman named Carol--played by a refreshingly makeup-free Claudia Schiffer.

One of the earmarks of a great true story on film is that, when it's over, you find yourself wishing it had been longer and wanting to know more about the subject. This is definitely the case with "Something the Lord Made." I can't wait to do a little reading up on this very intriguing story! Alan Rickman as Alfred Blalock is excellent, as he always is, but the real pleasure is in watching Mos Def as Vivien Thomas. Through his lovely, subtly nuanced performance, we are able to truly appreciate this incredibly gifted and complex man. The writers did an excellent job of making the viewer aware of the racial climate in Viven Thomas' life; note the early scene in which Vivien and a friend are walking and talking, and each time some white people approach them on the sidewalk, they step aside and yield right of way without hesitation. And yet, there is no heavy-handedness or preachy air to these scenes. The racial injustices that Vivien Thomas endured are obvious, but the viewer is not clubbed over the head with them.

I saw this film when it was originally released and it still ranks as my all-time favorite. From the opening strains of Tom Waits' gritty "Invitation to the Blues" (which is cut off by the wail of an ambulance!) every aspect--music, scenery, the astonishing acting--melds together into a masterpiece.

Theresa Russell is simply a knockout as Milena, a woman who refuses to be "owned". She's beautiful, sexy, carefree, and absolutely infuriating to Art Garfunkel's psychologist Dr. Linden. His compulsion to control her leads to disaster, and Garfunkel's performance is absolutely astonishing. The expression on his face in the final scene is unforgettable. It haunts me still.