Finally I get original and remake lined up the right way round, lol. I had the Tobe Hooper remake of this hanging around for ages, was saving it for this year’s Halloween but I noticed this week that both versions were showing on TV by what looks like pure coincidence on different channels so I couldn’t resist watching them in succession.

It’s embarrassing to say, but I really got lost by this one in the end, mainly because I just wasn’t ready for a lot more than the kind of average mindless slasher it’s easy to have on in the background yet still somehow absorb completely. It opens appallingly, bad acting and all, and I feared the worst; but then the nailgun sequence kind of turned my head and it gets a lot better thereafter in all departments: except, as I say, for a subplot with a kidnapped girl that I really think I missed the details of.

I’d certainly watch it again on a Halloween sometime paying closer attention. For now, for the nailgun scene alone it’s worth checking out – it reminded me of Last House on the Left a little, it’s ghastly, horrible, wrong, but somehow beautiful and impossible to avoid looking at, that song playing over it very like David Hess’ stuff on the Wes Craven movie. Which reminds me, the score deserves mention too – I always find it amazing that these days even a lot of large budgeted movies resort to Sampletank and the like for their music, when back in the 60s and 70s so many of the lowest budgets seemed able to afford some kind of orchestra, lol.

“Sometimes we love people so much that we have to be numb to it. Because if we actually felt how much we love them, it would kill us. That doesn’t make you a bad person. It just means your heart’s too big.”

I have the Donofrio book queued up to read really soon, like in the next couple of weeks, but I really couldn’t resist watching the movie yet again once it entered my mind this afternoon.

In answer to the question, “Why do boys suck?” I once said, “Because people expect it of them,” and it was like a revelation to me, it just popped out of my mouth without any real thought behind it but I knew immediately that it was true; and this movie kind of touches on that. Like, right at the moment of birth, we see Beverley’s horror at being given a boy – she was meant to have a girl, who would be just like her! But as Steve Zahn says, it’s a boy, and it’ll be just like him!

This movie just explains so many things, I find – I think in short it could be described as, “the cycle of shit” in life; even the marriage proposal here, “so romantic”, contains the ’s’ word, lol. Yet in Beverley’s son Jason, we see how even despite how the world can grind so many of us down and lead people to all manner of quick-fixes that make matters worse, morality and intelligence tend to thrive. The last time we see the “young” Jason it’s following the last straw for Beverley when he turns her in to her cop father for drying weed in the house. She tells her son that he’s ruined their lives, but he fires it right back at her, “That’s not what you’re supposed to tell people when they tell you the truth.” The mother-son back and forth here is as pointed yet at times hilarious as Edina and Saffy in Absolutely Fabulous (a random comparison, maybe: I’ve just finishing watching that show from start to finish, it’s on my mind), him so often telling her how she should be acting, perhaps hitting its pinnacle when he falls into a hot tub, and in the middle of pulling him out, she chastises herself and drops him back, then declares herself a bad mother, to which his response is a simple, “yeh …”.

I think what perhaps made this repeat viewing resonate with me more than any other times I’ve watched it relates to that quote that jumped out at me the very first time I saw it, “I’m 22 years old …” (the rest is below) – suddenly, I’m actually almost 30 lol. The use of the song “All I Have to Do is Dream” by the Everley Brothers, sung by James Woods and Mika Boorem (“Dad, you can’t negotiate my boobs!”) as the young Beverley early in the movie and then at the end (which I’d forgotten entirely) with Drew, suddenly made sense to me: “Only trouble is, gee whiz, I’m dreamin’ my life away …” This is a movie I’d recommend to anybody to watch from the moment they’re ready to see it (and that could be anywhere between the ages of 8 and 28 so, who knows when that is?) but that reveals itself more to you as you grow. I’m still in awe of its little pockets of realism, I find more every time I watch. I’m pretty sure it’s Drew Barrymore’s best movie to date, though that’s by no means the only reason to watch it.

July 28th, 2005:

Nothing to add to the old review (below). I think this movie’s a masterpiece. It’s even more realistic than I remember it. And I remembered how badly Steve Zahn’s character degenerates at the end, but I’d forgotten how far gone he kind of already is at the start. It’s really one of the saddest characters I’ve ever seen. I’ll definitely read the Donofrio book one day.

20th February 2004:

“I’m 22 years old – that’s almost 30, and I still haven’t accepted that this is my life. And I just wish that I could be dumb. And then I wouldn’t know better and I could be happy and stop hoping. And I’m telling you this like you’re interested in my boring life.”

This movie was a surprise. I expected to like it purely for the presence of Drew Barrymore but she amazed me. She plays between ages of 15 and mid-thirties perfectly. The movie towards the end reminded me of Ted Demme’s Blow – the way Steve Zahn’s character has totally degenerated towards the end, but is still able to express love to the son he can’t even recognise. The way real life is portrayed in this movie is shockingly true. Just a simple thing such as Drew Barrymore’s character working in a fast food joint – the way she’s joking to some people off camera and she turns for the customer window and sees some old school enemies who always “knew” she’d end up in a place like this, the way her expression just totally upturns and you know, this is the worst moment of her life.

Great performances from James Woods, Brittany Murphy (who has one of the films funniest scenes – “My daughter’s a tramp! My daughter’s a tramp!” – alongside Barrymore trying to fall down the stairs to the song “The End of the World” which accompanied Murphy’s suicide in Girl, Interrupted), and Sara Gilbert who we don’t see enough of these days as the one character who seemingly “gets it right”. Just for its portrayal of life itself, if a little depressing if it catches you in the wrong mood, this movie deserves major kudos.

The poster of this says, “This is the story you haven’t heard.” Hmm. Yeh – unless of course you’ve read the book by Daniel Pearl’s wife that it’s based on, I guess. Even if you haven’t, I don’t think there’s a lot here that couldn’t be inferred by the basics of the story. Your husband goes missing in the most dangerous part of the world right now, how exactly are you gonna react?

I considered trying like so many have not to sound insensitive in this review, to glow enough about Angelina Jolie’s performance that I don’t have to worry about the lack of comment on the rest of the movie. I decided, hopefully those who know me already will know I’m sensitive about stuff like this, and hopefully those who don’t know me that care about whether a person is sensitive about such things will attempt to get to know me.

In short, it’s not that great a movie. I was swung as most everyone else by Jolie’s performance in the end – though I’m still a little skeptical that the nonetheless emotionally affecting “screaming in a room” scene is really worthy of an Oscar nod – but like the last Michael Winterbottom movie I saw before the only slightly better Cock and Bull Story, Code 46, this is ultimately so “authentically” procedural it’s painful (and not in a good way).

I loved this movie when I first saw it. I could see why people were criticising its similarity to movies like Goodfellas and Boogie Nights etc, but there were still plenty of moments where the movie came into its own. I still pretty much feel this way about it, it’s one of those movies that easily makes up for any failings it might have with a handful of simply beautiful scenes or sequences. I love how the look of the film, the colour and everything, develops over the course of the movie.

Johnny Depp is good … not one of his best performances but it’s a pretty difficult character – how likable can you make this guy? Penelope Cruz was more annoying to me on this viewing than I ever remembered. Ray Liotta and Rachel Griffiths are the standouts here. My first impression of Ray Liotta’s appearance in the movie when I first saw it was, “could they force comparisons to Goodfellas any more?” lol, but he’s really pretty fantastic, especially in the character’s later years. Griffiths is most amazing in the scene following Depp’s arrest in their home. Even though what she’s done is unbelievable, I can’t help feeling so sorry for her.

It’s the last half hour that wrecks me and brings the movie up a lot, as Jung goes past the point of no return and beyond. There’s so many images in this section of the movie that kill me – his daughter’s piercing, shaming gaze as he’s arrested once more; her sitting alone with her pink suitcase waiting to go to California; her line in the visiting room, “I thought you couldn’t live without your heart,”; and the final scene when she ‘visits’ him grown up, that reverse angle on their hug is so sad.

I just realised I could sit around quoting this movie forever. As I said, it has it’s little problems, but for me they’re far outweighed. It’s just a beautiful movie with an amazing philosophy in Jung’s voiceover narration – unbelievably sad, but with glimmers of joy. It’s sad that this turned out to be Ted Demme’s last movie, but it’s certainly his best.

I’ve loved this movie from the first time I saw it, but like Chicago which I watched just before this viewing, it’s one of those movies I always forget about. It just doesn’t seem cool to praise this movie too much, even though it’s Spielberg, it’s like, too glossy… maybe it’s just a personal prejudice – whatever, if it is… I don’t get it either.

The brilliant title sequence totally belies the heaviness of some of this film, and shows how personal Spielberg might get in his future movies, particularly one I recently read about which he describes as being very autobiographical. Leonardo Di Caprio plays the small but crucial age range of Frank Abagnale perfectly… even when he’s beginning to play it cool, he still shows the child when it goes wrong, absolute fear, and it’s amazing how much he looks as he looked in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, his break-out movie nearly a decade earlier, when he’s playing Frank at his youngest. Gilbert Grape has a much quirkier performance which is probably why Di Caprio was nominated for the Oscar, but this performance is equally brilliant, showing a real knack for comedy but with real intensity, in the fear already mentioned and in particular the last scene on the plane back to America, his reaction to the news I won’t mention for fear of spoilers.

Christopher Walken and Tom Hanks also deliver great performances, both portraying the honest guys… while Frank goes off in the best hotel suites, the best jobs, the best girls, never being honest, these two are the severe contrast – Walken incessantly pursued by the IRS, not knowing what a chilled salad fork is; Hanks ever humiliated by the 17-year-old fugitive, eating chinese food, perceived as a grinch by his colleagues, withered Christmas tree in the background. I love the Christmas tree… it’s one among many major contrasts which are shown between the lucrative criminal and the practically poverty-stricken pursuers, but it’s my favourite. It’s so sad, so real, but also, so funny.

John Williams’ score is one of his best. The “Recollections” theme on a lone saxophone always instantly makes me want to cry… I can’t explain it, I’ve studied music theory but forgotten it and I’m glad – music is something I love to listen to, perform, and compose, but I never want to explain it or its effect. All I can say is, it makes me cry.

The opening and closing of the movie, too, contrast with this bitter-sweetness. The TV show introduction, showing three people posing as Frank, one the real Frank, the goal of the show to determine which is real. This is perfectly done, Frank seemingly trying to look the liar, blinking like the guy next to him while the guy next to him tries desperately not to blink when telling “the truth”. And the closing titles, describing what happened to Frank afterwards, now earning millions for cheques he designed for Fortune 500 companies… it’s like the current hacker situation, that complex issue, the way evil can sometimes lead to good. It just really says how mad the world can be. My take anyway