Film ratings [10]

“I am Shiva the destroyer, your harbinger of doom this evening.”
— Kym

While watching Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married, I was thinking just one thing: my oh my, Anne Hathaway has grown into a marvellous and strong actress, one who will be able to continuously wow us. Sure, last week I bitched about the awful Bride Wars, and yes, I thought that Passengers was a mediocre mess, but I can’t possibly say anything negative about her performance in Rachel Getting Married.¹

Hathaway’s performance is strengthened by Demme’s direction and the screenplay by Jenny Lumet, and all the while watching the film I was going over the similarities in style and subject between Rachel and Margot at the Wedding (directed by Noah Baumbach). Because of the direction and writing of both, it seems that you’re not watching actors playing out a screenplay, but characters, living day to day, experiencing the positive and mostly-negative in life.

But enough about what is good in film. Looking over my selection of last week, I noticed something odd; the first four films were crap, utter and plain crap. I don’t even want to spoil a whole paragraph on any of them, so I’ll just use one sentence per flop:

• The Love Guru: I don’t see why this is comedy;
• Testosterone: what just happened?;
• Kissing on the Mouth: what just didn’t happen?;
• Death Race: kill me, kill me now.

On to Merchant Ivory. Do I even have to say anything more? “Merchant Ivory” should be included in the Oxford English Dictionary as a synonym for “excellence.” Last week I watched the sensual Maurice and the brilliant Howards End, with Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter and Emma Thompson. Both excel at everything, especially in the acting, directing and stage setting categories. I don’t know what it is, but Merchant Ivory films have something about them; I think it’s the passion both Ivory and the late Merchant had for film-making and storytelling.

Film ratings

Film	Studio	Grade	Stars
The Love Guru	Paramount Pictures	6.7	—
Testosterone	Strand Releasing	5.7	—
Kissing on the Mouth	Swanberg	4.6	—
Death Race	Universal Studios	5.6	—
A Crude Awakening	Lava Productions	8.5
Rachel Getting Married	Sony Pictures Classics	9.1
Coffee Date	TLA Releasing	8.0
Howards End	Sony Pictures Classics	9.5
The Women	Picturehouse	7.6
Maurice	Cinecom	9.4