I wasn’t too interested in this movie at first – call me a cynic and a meanie, but I don’t see any of the Harry Potter kids becoming anything big outside of the Harry Potter franchise, and though of all them Rupert Grint is the one that stands the biggest chance, movies like this (as advertised) and Thunderpants (no matter what good anyone says about it) don’t exactly inspire confidence. Despite the presence of an obviously unique performance by Julie Walters, the movie just always looked too … TV-ish – a problem, I’ve gotta say, that affects tons of these movies that are released every year with the National Lottery Funding tags on the front and touted as saviours of the Great British Film Industry by all clueless media sheople. Even when I read a handful of reviews comparing it to Harold and Maude, one of my all-time favourite movies, I didn’t get too excited. Harold and Maude doesn’t need re-doing – it just needs to be seen more – and if anyone’s gonna re-do Hal Ashby then that’s Cameron Crowe’s job, and he’s doing it.

But in the end, I’ve gotta say, it’s no way near as bad as it could’ve been. Rupert Grint easily shakes off the shackles of Ron Weasley, neither losing himself completely nor simply channeling Bud Cort. Laura Linney does a fantastic middle-class British mother, and Julie Walters is completely off the leash: part Maude, part Mrs. Overall from “Acorn Antiques”; but mostly, entirely, deliriously foul-mouthed (I’m interested in what ITV will do about this when the movie screens, almost surely in a pre-10pm slot, being as it’s the hottest premiere they’ll have had in quite some time, later in the year). Continuing the “Harold and Maude” comparison, of course, a soundtrack to rival Cat Stevens’ masterpiece – which was at least 50% of that movie – is not forthcoming … but they do at least try to put something together beyond the usual Rachel Portman / Ann Dudley facsimile (ok, no more Britfilm-bashing, I promise).

That’s this movie’s story in a nutshell – it does try, kind of even above and beyond as far as it needs to … but no matter how hard it tries, it’s still condemned to look forever like a Sunday night ITV drama. It’s just shot that way and presented that way, and I don’t know what that way … it’s just too small and wishy-washy. As an ITV drama, you couldn’t ask for more. As cinema? Hmm. It’s worth it for Julie Walters alone, I’ll say that.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 13th, 2006 at 3:41 am in 3 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.