We Need To Talk About Kevin
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I tried to read the book, but as a child care professional I found it very hard. I just wanted that baby taken away from his mother so bad - clear emotional abuse. I don't think I could watch it, I'd be throwing things through the screen.

Yes, I could understand that. I originally avoided it for similar reasons, & it was only a comment on these forums that made me give the film a try - it wasn't what I thought it was going to be, it was more complex. Maybe the book is different. Can't guarantee that you wouldn't throw things at the screen though; I averted my eyes occasionally.


Edited to add:

Agony, I've been thinking about what you said and I find that the film didn't leave me with feelings about the "mother's emotional abuse" of her child - in fact I don't think that phrase is really applicable.

So I'm wondering if the book really was different or whether you might have felt differently had you finished the book or watched the film. In the film, the story reveals itself slowly and so earlier scenes might not give a fair summary of the story.

Either way, if you ever decide to watch it I would be very interested to hear what you thought, so even if it's years from now I hope you update us.

I couldn't even finish the book, as I couldn't stand the way she was treating that baby. I also saw a lot of, um, nonsense, in the way the author was setting up the child to be a monster. It was like a "demon seed" movie from the fifties rather than anything reflecting what we know about how children develop empathy. I mean, sure, it's their book, their movie, they can have him sprout horns and forked tongue if they want to, but that's not how children with empathic personality disorders work. The book was presented as a serious look at children who do unspeakable things, but really it was just cheap horror.

Maybe I can give the movie a chance at some time, though, when I'm feeling well grounded.

I was channel flicking the other day and stumbled across Hitchcock's The Birds, so I ended up watching it along with my learning disabled daughter who loves most films that involve people being eaten, colonised or dismembered by abnormally large or genetically mutated animals.

Not surprisingly she loved it ... and we're now awaiting arrival of the DVD from Amazon (at her insistence). It really hasn't lost any of its power over the years, despite the almost laughable staginess of the bird attacks. Great film!

(After the film I asked my daughter if she'd like to pop outside and garage the car for the night ... as there were a few birds about that I didn't like the look of ... but she was having none of that!!)

Searching for more of Valerie Quennessen's work I came across 1979's "French Postcards".
Choppily edited together, it still presents a fair window on coming of age in a foriegn culture for some American students in Paris. It is the first major billing for the following artists:
Miles Chapin (left acting to run the family business - Steinway Pianos)
Blanche Baker (Carroll Baker's daughter and a steady supporting actress through the years)
David Marshall Grant (Did mostly Broadway work)
Valérie Quennessen (the princess saved by Arnold in Conan the Barbarian")
Debra Winger (many big roles)
Mandy Patinkin (many big roles)

The film was shot almost entirely in and around Paris, often highlighting some of the famous destination's major attractions.

Edit to add for other Valerie fans: She rides a moped in this movie too. In fact, she jump starts it by running in high heels, jumping on it and poppong the clutch!

Totally understand not wanting to watch WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN. I know I could never get through it. It was difficult enough for me to watch MY NAME IS KHAN, though I'm extremely glad I did.

As the mother of a son with autism, I would either be too overwhelmed emotionally by the film or hyper-critical of it. Either way, it just wouldn't work.

The Kingdom.... What a great action film that is! Highly recommended.

In the past two weeks I've watched:

-"Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" - Good story but weak on character empathy and portrayal. Until the ending of course.

-"Titus"(Andronicus)- The Julie Taymor exquisite presentation of what they say was Elizabethan Shakespear's most successful effort. Her mix of modern elements with Roman parts makes the telling seem like the material is good for any age. It has Antony Hopkins, Jessica Lange and Alan Cummings at their very best.

-"Boondock Saints" - Irish South Boston as filmed in Canada? Why? But the time spent with the brothers McManus fighting the Russian mob is well choreographed and stunted.

-"Fail Safe" - still relevant, maybe even more so today with 9(?) known nuclear bomb capable nations.


Edit: I put "The Kingdom" on my buy list. Thanks Sisterseagull.

Just watched "The Descendents". Very very good indeed - a real movie for grownups. I thought it dealt beautifully with the mixed feelings we have when a much loved but imperfect person dies - "my pain, my joy..."

I've been watching a lot of superhero movies this summer, and it was so nice to see something adult in the best sense of the word.

I last watched Alexander Korda's "The Private Life of Henry VIII" with Charles Laughton in his Oscar-grabbing title role. Co-starring were Robert Donat (future Oscar-winner for "Goodbye, Mr. Chips"), Merle Oberon (who Korda later married, and whose life nephew Michael Korda would fictionalize in the novel "Queenie") and Laughton's wife Elsa Lanchester (best known for playing Mary Shelly and the title role in "Bride of Frankenstein"). Laughton and Lanchester had a long marriage (despite Laughton being homosexual) and co-starred in other films, such as Korda's "Rembrandt" and Wilder's "Witness for the Prosecution".

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John Grisham’s “The Rainmaker.” (I bought it on audio from my local community library in a book sale. Still on tape one of four, but so far it’s very good.

The last book I read (in Braille) was “Firestorm” by David Klass. It’s the first in his “Caretaker Trilogy,” and I actually read it twice. It’s an environmental thriller, and I highly recommend it to those who are interested in that kind of thing. Well written, to say the least.

I watched Battleship last night. For a film based on a boardgame it was good and worth watching.

The Princess Bride.

Mom got the DVD from her friend, and thought I'd enjoy it, not realizing it was already on my list of favorite films (years ago, I used to watch the made-for-TV version). Nothing compares to the DVD!

"Sweet and Lowdown" Jazz biography, Woody Allen style. Sean Penn plays a fictional Depression-era jazz guitarist. Hilarious.

Just watched the modern remake of "The Italian Job" - enjoyable and quite a lot of fun, but with this much star power, it should have been better. Getting the original with Michael Caine from the library - love his movies from the 60's so looking forward to it.

"In Bruges". Definitely not for everyone, but if you like dark humour, and don't mind violence and profanity on the way, this is quite the film.

Except for the opening sequence, the two "The Italian Job" movies are very different but each enjoyable in their own way.

Over the past week I've done eye strain with:
"Superman II" - Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Terence Stamp

"Superman III" - Christopher Reeve, Richard Pryor, Jackie Cooper, Annette O'Toole, Annie Ross, Pamela Stephenson, Robert Vaughn, Margot Kidder

"Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" - Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, Mariel Hemingway, Jon Cryer

"Sixteen Candles" - Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Michael Schoeffling, Paul Dooley, Blanche Baker, Justin Henry (Oh, that Blanche Baker again! Have I mentioned "French Postcards" and "The Girl Next Door"?)

"The Mask" - Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz, Peter Riegert, Peter Greene, Amy Yasbeck

The "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" I found to still be pertinent to the debate about whether more nations should be allowed into the Nuclear Arms Club or whether the club should be disbanded altogether.

Upcoming: "Rent" and the first seven "Hellraiser" films. There are two more "Hellraiser"s I may look into. Anyone have input on #'s 8 & 9?

Ohmygosh, I had no idea there was even a 2nd Hellraiser! lol




Well described. I loved "In Bruges".

Made yet another attempt to watch "Dangerous Liaisons". Failed again. Apart from the pretty costumes - and they are very pretty - I just cannot concentrate on it and always end up doing something else like writing on forums or sleeping. Is it just me?

LOL, not just you Chavs. I've never been able to get all the way through it either.

Phew!

"Young Adult". The trailers make it seem like a comedy, and while it certainly is funny, I wouldn't really say "comedy". More of a character study, of an unattractive character. Charlize Theron does a fantastic job.

The original "Italian Job" from the sixties, with Michael Caine. I was hoping for something along the lines of "Get Carter", but it's more like "Carry On Thieving". Should have twigged when I saw that Benny Hill was in the cast. Not really my cup of tea.

I watched "The Iron Lady". I didn't think it was very good. It zipped around so much in time that you never really ended up caring about what was happening at all.

I would have preferred the movie picking one specific time period or crisis (maybe Falklands War?) instead. It just felt entirely too rushed and like they made a 10 hour movie and just cut out most of it to fit into the allotted time.

"The Hustler". Where can you go wrong, really, with the young Paul Newman? I hadn't seen it for years, and don't think I'd noticed before what a visually striking film it is. We really lost something when we moved to colour in the movies.

Noting both of those write ups.

I usually keep away from films made in the 70s but I watched "Dog Day Afternoon" recently and was just blown away by the quality of it. (It opens with Al Pacino about to rob a bank and the film is the hour by hour story of how that all pans out.) Great acting all around. Brilliant capturing of atmosphere and characters. Fabulous (and oscar-winning) screenplay. Intense!

That's one of my favourite movies - it was pretty daring at the time, too.

That's interesting! I think it has kept its edginess and relevance. I think it's going to get on my favourites list too.

I wondered why it didn't win more Oscars (as it was nominated for the big ones) so I looked it up and that year was a "clean sweep" for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Them's the breaks, I guess.

"Defendor" in which Woody Harrelson portrays a mentally challenged person who seeks self improvement by donning the persona of a superhero. There are many comical angles to this (he uses marbles as a weapon of choice, wasps in a glass bottle grenade and chewing gum and a firecracker to open unlocked doors to name a few). But the real point of the movie is that society allows this person to put himself in harm's way and that life doesn't care who you are or what your situation is. A very touching tale told by good performances by all the crafts involved in its making.

PS(edit) It takes place in The Hammer (Hamilton, Ontario).

If you count movies on television, then the last film I watched was "Wait until Dark" (1967), starring Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman on whom three criminals work a complicated confidence game, at least at first.... It is pretty startling at times, and features Alan Arkin as one of the creepiest and coldest villains I've ever seen. It's a real nail-biter! And a sountrack by Henry Manicini ("Pink Panther") to boot!