I'm not keen on narrators in movies, and especially not a child. So Australia was off to a disappointing start. Now, how to show off the Northern Territory to best effect. Let's have a cattle drive. The answer should have been no. So, lets have the main characters as opposite as they can be. No, they will be caricatures, and they were. How about an underlying theme from the "Wizard of Ozz"? No, that will be just too hammy. We have to have a clever solution to the sequence where Drover stops the villains cattle being loaded first. Did I miss something? Lets make the movie as long as we can, just like Gone With The Wind. It was far too long. The film was not all bad, just a big missed opportunity. The cinematography was great, the scenery wonderful. The secondary characters were pretty good, shame that Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman had characters that were such a cliche. And some of the action sequences were well choreographed. Come on Bazz, you can do so much better.
The less I say about The Spirit the better. I should have known from the reviews that the whole film would be an embarrassment. It is mainly due to such a wooden lead as Gabriel Macht. His constant monotone narration makes you cringe. The story is pathetic and the writing is a disaster.
Thank goodness for films like The Reader. Stephen Daldry has added another fantastic piece of work to his previous successes Billy Elliot and The Hours. No wonder that producers Anthony Mingella and Sidney Pollack wanted to make a movie from the book by Bernhard Schlink. It is a great story. David Hare does it wonderful justice in his screenplay. Kate Winslet deserves her Golden Globe and should get the Oscar. The last half hour is particularly moving, but the whole film is made with such loving care. Mark Kermode (BBC film critic) said it was not cinematic? I don't understand, maybe he likes a bit more action. But I do like a good drama, especially when it's this good. The best film I have seen for ages.
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