Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Atonement and P.S. I Love You (films)

You didn't think I was done, did you? Sucka.

I don't usually dabble in movie reviews here (hence, the title of the blog), but movie reviews of books I've just read (or, in the case of P.S. I Love You, not) seems fair...

I saw Atonement two weeks ago, and I liked it, but didn't love it. (The friend that I went with loved it, though, as did, apparently, the Golden Globe folks.) It followed the book exactly (though the second section, about Robbie's trek through France, was much shorter) and I felt devastated all over again at the end. So mostly I'm just going to blame my ambivalence on Keira Knightly, who I generally can't stand. I don't know why, either, except that instead of seeing her character, I usually just see her. Two thumbs up to James McAvoy, though. I've loved him since Wimbledon (though if googles himself, like all good people do, and sees this, please stop biting your nails! It's very noticeable on film.)

I took my 13-year-old neighbor to see P.S. I Love You on Saturday. She also liked this one better than I. It was an entertaining film for an afternoon, and the men are absolutely yummy (hello, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and the unpronounceable Gerard Butler!), but...I don't know, the writers didn't spend enough time building up any of the relationships so that we really cared. I'm not sure I'd see it again on DVD - which is the true barometer for a good chick flick (my top 5 for a cheering-up, thank you High Fidelity: Wimbledon, How to Lose a Guy in 8 Days, Bring It On, The Holiday, and Catch and Release.)

Clearly I've gotten totally off-track here, so let's move on...

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