When Jonathan Ross reviewed this I was really surprised by his enthusiasm for it. I’m usually pretty well in agreement with his opinions on movies, moreso when he’s especially/surprisingly passionate (he loved Pieces of April almost as much as me, if I recall correctly). But this movie just looked way too weird to me. The look of it, Emma Thompson’s make-up in particular, just … wrong.

I think a lot of people probably had this knee-jerk reaction to the trailers. But Jonathan Ross was not wrong, I too spent around 3/4 of the movie on the verge of tears … and when Kelly Macdonald has, umm, the “snow thing” happen at the end (I really don’t want to spoil it, I just urge everyone to see this movie), the floodgates opened. I get a lump in my throat just remembering it. This is a beautiful movie. The strange look of it is all part of it and it makes sense once you’re in, and more as the movie goes on, honest. By far and away the best movie I’ve seen this year so far. It doesn’t hold itself back at any point, it confronts the extremes, the kids are cute, Emma Thompson is extraordinary and Colin Firth is even better – he looks so lost and alone at times when the camera lingers on him, there are single frames of him in this movie that could start me off crying.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 13th, 2005 at 6:05 pm and is filed under 5 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.