” ... of those who love, of those who hate – and one who loved too much ...”

Another old fave I was actually only reminded of just recently that I actually thought would take me much longer to stumble across again. It’s no wonder to me now that parts of it had stuck in my mind all these years while the specifics had slipped away – right from the moment when Margaret O’Brien first speaks in that breathy voice, “By watching you, Madame Bouchet …” it’s one of the most strangely arresting movies I’ve ever seen, if only for her weird performance.

It’s particularly clunky with a lot of dead air, but, well, if you know me and little ballerinas then you know me and little ballerinas, and the ballet and the colours here more than make up for its failings elsewhere for me. It’s just a pure little girl’s dream/nightmare movie and as such would maybe make a good companion to Curse of the Cat People that I watched just last month; but certainly an even better double bill would be with The Red Shoes ... it’s not a great or even halfway good movie by any means, but given its obscurity and how much I for one love it, will watch it over and over as long as I live, etc … it’s certainly a special one. I discovered at the IMDb (see it’s useful sometimes!!) that it’s a remake of an older French movie, Ballerina (La Mort de Cygne) which sounds fascinating … I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled …

It’s a massive credit to this film that I didn’t spend the first half hour itching, “where’s Tatum?!?” lol … sure, there was some of that, but really this is one of the best sports movies I’ve seen even without her. It has such a great, real, consistent feel to it, reminding me of the very few occasions when I was little where there’d be a great outdoor, hot summer day sports event I was in some way involved with that I actually enjoyed.

That’s not to say the screen doesn’t spark alight the moment O’Neal makes an appearance. They really missed a trick not casting Annasophia Robb in this role in the remake, I was instantly reminded of the quirky confidence of Robb in Winn-Dixie, Terabithia etc, (that crinkly nose, O’Neal writes about in her autobiography I’m reading right now how her dad told her every time she smiled she looked like she smelled something funny; what he should’ve added was that though that’s sort of true, it’s an adorable look :)) While I’m on the subject of cuties, it’s worth mentioning Jackie Earle Haley who was surprisingly quite beautiful way back when. Him and O’Neal make quite the onscreen couple without even interacting much at all, lol. I love the costumes on Tatum outside of the uniform too And that front and back shot of her walking away from Matthau in tears is an emotional high I never in a million years expected to find in this movie. It’s one of those scenes that actually means even more when you know something of the actor’s real life backstory – for her to put herself in a scene where a father figure slings beer in her face like that after her upbringing is really something. I know, stuff like that shouldn’t affect one’s judgment of a film … but sometimes, you just can’t help it.

It even made me want to check out the remake again – I think perhaps Richard Linklater was attempting something there I didn’t give him credit for ‘cos I hadn’t seen this yet … like simply showing how child protection^*, health & safety and political correctness laws have poisoned the world so much you just can’t make a movie like this anymore. Which makes this one all the more special.

* Just in case that sounds to anyone like I don’t care about child protection – that’s not what I mean, but if your eyes are open you’ll know what I do mean by the fact that some parts of that thought train have gone way off the tracks.

I’m sure my opinion will lose a lot of respect when I say this (lol like it has a lot to lose) ... but this is now one of my ten favourite movies ever, and it damn near tops the bunch. There’s just so much in this movie that hits me in the places I want movies to hit me. The Dakota tea-cup ride scenes hit me in a really personal place so hard, that look on her face that’s just like, typical, one week early to ride, pulling the glasses down over her eyes so Brittany Murphy can’t see her tearing up; and later when they finally ride it, both of them working out years of frustration on the wheel and each other; and like, I guess I can’t deny that where I am in life right now makes the whole “grow up” theme resonate deeper too, Murphy’s response to somebody telling her, “But this isn’t you!” – “I can’t afford ‘me’ anymore …”.

I can understand why a lot of people will put this movie down before they even see it, and I can understand why not a lot of people will consider it anything more than a bit of fluff to pass the time – but I can’t understand how anyone could see it and say the amount of bad things that have been said about it … I mean, I can’t believe how I gave it only 3 stars on my first viewing, I can’t believe it didn’t get me in the way it got me today. And the finale … it just doesn’t get better than Dakota letting her hair down and leading a ballet troupe armed with electric guitars.

April 2nd, 2005:

I love how nearly all Dakota Fanning movies seem to have come from some kind of story meeting where someone goes, “Okay, she’s an amazing actress… but she’s 11… who’re we gonna put with her? I know, she’s gonna need some-one to look after her – she’s a kid, afterall… but who?” So we have a giant talking cat, a psychotic killer, a hitman, a mentally retarded man, and here, a spoiled bitch. I may just steal this system when I run dry of ideas for my own screenplays, lol…

Once again Brittany Murphy makes her character 800x more sympathetic than she probably deserves (see last year’s Little Black Book, which I loved), and once again Dakota Fanning steals the movie.

Watching it reminded me of last year’s Raising Helen. Boaz Yakin is an interesting director, lots of visual ideas à la Bronwyn Hughes (Forces of Nature, Harriet the Spy). There’s a neat continuing idea about the spinning tea-cup ride at Coney Island, one beautiful image where Dakota is just staring at it; and in the final ballet recital scene, loads of little ballerinas carrying electric guitars.

Julia Stiles is compelling in everything she does. I didn’t expect to enjoy this movie as much as I did. It’s yet another Karate Kid/Dirty Dancing, Rocky, Flashdance, you name it. The one person who shouldn’t by any conventional reality “make it”, makes it against the odds. Here that person is Julia Stiles. There is an estranged-father/daughter subplot in this movie that is far too similar to Fly Away Home and not aided by the fact that said estranged father in this movie is played by the same actor who played Anna Paquin’s uncle in the latter. What works wonderfully in this movie is the juxtaposition and harmony of the two worlds of ballet (Stiles’ aspiration) and hip-hop (where she learns the passion she needs to give her sound ballet technique wings).