Reviews

I think I am one of those stark staring mad Miyazaki lunatics who owns a copy of almost everything he has made... but for me this movie was a disappointment for various reasons that have been already said by many others here. Lack of new ideas (almost every trick, character, face, music passage not to mention a style) and on the other hand lots more of syrup and pathos instead of openness and sincerity. It felt more like a "Hollywood Blockbuster" than any of his previous masterpieces - though some have had hints of it here and there. Laputa comes to mind.

Again, as others have mentioned, everything is relative. Regardless of its drawbacks, it is still Miyazaki with most of the greatness this inevitably implies. Disney still can't touch this and it still was great to watch.

It's just... that I will still prefer to watch Totoro or Kiki or Spirited Away all over again instead of this one. These three are and will remain timeless classics for me I guess.

It is impossible to rate this movie. Did it move me? Affect me? Oh yes. I feel completely and totally wrecked right now. And that is after 4 stiff drinks and a very lighthearted comedy I saw after this one on the Black Nights Film Festival. I almost walked out of this one - a first in my movie-going career. Not because it was a bad movie, or a boring movie or a pointless movie. But because I was afraid. Of what it could do to me. A definite first for me. Kim-Ki Duk's "The Isle" is child's play compared to this one.

Remember, what you don't see, is the most horrible of all.

No I do *NOT* want to see it again. And I am not sure I can recommend to anybody who has feelings.

It has been long since I have commented on a movie but in this case I just have to. The movie is actually a collection of short films with very little in common. Just various peeks into the hearts and minds of different people in modern day Eastern Europe. Dealing with very different matters. All were interesting in their own right but for me, one really stood out (the Romanian film), where I would have actually wanted to vote "10" but I couldn't, because most others didn't exceed the grade of "interesting" or "good". All of them still moved me in their own ways, a little bit at a time, but "Turkey Girl" will probably remain in my heart as one of the highlights of the Black Nights Film Festival happening just now in Estonia. On the other hand, I believe other people may find their own favourites. Or none at all.

I really don't get it why so many people are so critical about this film. I really liked the easy-going way this film was done - not taking things too seriously. Most of the time I really liked how the cast acted - it wasn't coldly theatrical (which I hate), but instead warm and simple. Yes, there were some bad patches here and there. John Cleese especially was a disappointment - way below what I would hope from him. But in general, it was a great feel-good movie, got a lot of laughs out of this one.

For me this one stands out of other work I have seen from Hal Hartley to date (5 films including Trust but not including Unbelievable Truth). This one left a much warmer feeling inside me than his other films. It had less black humour in it, but the characters were more open, warmer, became closer somehow.

Its actually surprising that I liked this film that much as after finding Hal for myself, I have watched 5 cassettes worth of his films in a few weeks timeframe (one of them contains 3 of his short films including this one). I was actually afraid that I might get bored of his style, his means of presenting a story and characters, as the means, style change only a little from film to film. He has so many "trademarks" about his filmmaking.

I needn't have been afraid. I can feel this one.

For me, Hal Hartley is easily the only American director whose work I have seen lately and Really liked. I had seen 3 movies before this one and I was kind of afraid that he might be caught in a rut, not be able to deliver something new, something that wouldn't remind me too much of his previous work. Maybe lacking enough new ideas. Well, he definitely succeeded with this one. Partly anyway.

Until about the last ten minutes the characters really got into me, the conflicts and situations these people found themselves in really touched me. But. In the end all that suddenly fell apart. And did that really abruptly. In such a way that I found myself thinking that WTF is going on here, there's no way that these characters could think of doing something like that or feel this way.

Fortunately I still remember emotions everything before that generated in me. Yet, the ending did put a sour stamp on it for me.

Great romantic comedy. Erotically charged in a way I don't remember ever seeing. Heartwarming, hilarious... A lot of beautiful ladies with beautifully played interesting personalities. The latter part is of course totally missing of usual R-rated erotic flicks. So, from one point of view it indeed is an extremely simple plot which shamelessly plays on eroticism. But it does it so damn well, that I am certain I won't forget this one a *long* time.

The only flaw for me was that the Fernando character totally fails to portray a guy in love in the end of the movie. Up to that point everything was just great.

So, 10 out of 10 for warmth, eroticism and comedy during most of the movie, but below par for romantic drama in the last quarter.

My thoughts fail me how on earth could Lukas Moodysson capture something like that on a film... Make all of the cast, especially Rebecca and Alexandra of course, make all of them shine in a way no other movie has ever even come close to... How is that possible, I don't know.

It even makes my heart ache of what kind of pressure such an achievement puts on them... What will the expectations be like after such a masterpiece, what will it be like to live up to... How is it possible to be so fresh and unspoiled, so real that they were after that. To do something else than acting altogether would be the only option I can think of. Which would be a loss of course.

Anyway. It has been a week since I first saw it and is still my favourite pastime before getting to sleep, just to watch parts of the film from video... It makes me sooo warm and dizzy all over. At the same time it isn't love towards any specific character, I don't even know whom or what I like most. It's the film itself that does this to me. Incredible. I am pretty sure that this film will surpass my previous viewing record of a film (Labyrinth - 18 times over 6 years) in a next week or so :)

I didn't expect much from this movie. I have never much liked the usual Hollywood feel-good romantic/comedy/action movies. They are usually filled with long and pathetic overly prolonged scenes, where people supposedly express their feelings, in a totally unrealistic way. In a way only american can think of.

Not this one however. I totally enjoyed the way this one was put together. The feelings of actors, who mattered, were expressed realistically, not dragging them on gleefully in a way that usually makes me bang my head against the wall when watching Hollywood movies. The characters felt much deeper this way.

Of other characters, we had a total looser, playing a total looser, and a sexy bimbo playing a sexy bimbo. So I even liked the casting, although that looser indeed was a looser.

Anyway. It was my first hollywood romantic/comedy/action that I thoroughly enjoyed without any reservations.

I was really confused when I left the cinema. On one hand, I very much enjoyed the way characters felt down to earth, human, with all their faults. On the other hand, there were a few passages where the plot seemed TOTALLY unrealistic (particularly in the end), that people just can't feel and act this way in the particular situation. All that not in the glossy Hollywood way, but from the hands of European filmmakers, who usually draw very realistic plots and characters. It was a shame, as I would have remembered the film for its better traits, it wasn't for the end that spoiled much of it for me.