SYLVIA - dirge

The first film I ever watched at the London Film Fest started a trend of disappointing opening and closing night galas - the programming dictated by commercial interests rather than artistic merit. The movie was Christine Jeffs' dismal biopic of Sylvia Plath: acclaimed poet; wife of the adulterous Ted Hughes; mother to two small children; and suicide. And if you think I'm being reductive, then that is exactly what this movie does: it reduces Plath and Hughes' relationship to a daytime TV melodrama. Oh how pretty tony, young Sylvia (Gwyneth Paltrow) looks! See how her hair shines! See how that devilishly handsome Ted Hughes gets tired of her and betrays her! See how she is martyred in a dismal British flat in dismal post-war London! Oh, how Paltrow emotes inner pain! The whole thing was utterly dull and unconvincing. The fault, however, does not lie with the actors, nor with the score, cinematography or any other matter of execution. It lies in the movie's conception as a touching homage to Sylvia rather than a genuinely engaged, insightful analysis of what was, by all accounts, a passionate marriage and a painful suicide that cruelly left behind small children. The resulting film simultaneously caused offence to Plath's family for daring to be made at all - but causes offence to its viewers by refusing to actually delve into the emotional torment at its heart. It is the same emotional evation that frustrated me in Christine Jeffs' new film, SUNSHINE CLEANING - another film that deals with quite dark, depressing subject matter and yet handles it with all the willingness to truly engage of a rom-com (but without the benefit of actual laughs).

SYLVIA played London 2003 and opened in 2003 and 2004. It is available on DVD.

THE LAST KISS - unamiable people whine

With Zach Braff's latest film, THE EX, on release, I am reminded that I haven't reviewed THE LAST KISS. This was due to a feeling of indifference and apathy as the end-titles roled. It's a decently acted film, but under-written and ploddingly directed. A bunch of young adults broach that part of life where you finally stop pretending you're still a carefree student and face up to the reality of marriage, children and mortgages. They are written as callow and self-absorbed, which is in some respects a brave choice. For instance, Zach Braff plays a weak-willed man who ditches his earnest pregnant girlfriend (Jacinda Barrett) for a good time with a young university student (Rachel Bilson) and then abandons said student when he gets an attack of conscience. Even the adults in the piece act with a self-obsessed flakiness. Viz Blythe Danner's middle-aged wife who leaves Tom Wilkinson's husband, only to mooch around for a bit and then return

Yes, these characters may be true to life and genuinely unlikeable. Sadly though, they are not written to be interesting. The blame, I suppose must be shared between Gabriele Muccino, who wrote the Italian source film, and Paul Haggis of CRASH fame, who rewrote it for the non-subtitle reading world. Still, Tom Stern creates a memorable visual mood, as one would expect from the DP of FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS and LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA.

THE LAST KISS was released in 2006 and is now available on DVD.