Reviews

I've just seen this film last weekend at a little alternative cinema. It sounded promising and surely was. I found the film very moving, because in a way the actions of the author might be seen by todays standards as "wrong", because he gives away information to the secret police, but on the other hand you can see how this is his only chance for survival. And even that is not really true, as a Communist system such as the one in Romania under Ceaucescu was so much more powerful than the will and struggle for survival of a single citizen. Go see this film if you want to get a glimpse into life in socialism if you weren't one of the conformists, but at least tried to live a life that was sticking to your own rules of integrity and doing-the-right-thing. Very good. Only let-down: why in French? And this was no dubbing. If it is about Romania and the actors are Romanian, why not let them speak their language?

we rented the movie last night and although it starts off promising, it gets bad really soon. all is soooo predictable and ever so constructed. yeah, the baby gets the family back together again, the teacher turns out to be the big love of the school keeper, larkin names the baby after the dead brother of her teacher. come on! my friend and i were just looking at each other as scene after scene went down the drain by little imagination. we were clearly annoyed by the larkin-character. duh! talk about constructed. no child would EVER say any of the deep insightful sentences she's uttering all the times. and while being ever so clever, she insults her best friend, when he tries to help... so this was made for tv. i hope it's not shown too often.

i rented this last weekend, because it had tim roth in it and i think he is brilliant. this film, however, was a tad too weird for me. the beginning is interesting, but then somehow the thread gets lost and the end is just strange. things do come together, but then again, some pieces seem missing. and i felt bored in the end. sorry.

and i have to say that i WAITED for this movie a long time. i had read the book and loved it, loved every page of it, gave it as a present to friends who share the same sort of humour. waiting in mexico for a film about a chicago-record-store-owner might mean waiting for the video to come out. but no, i saw the film on a plane when i travelled to europe - i was so excited to see it finally and then with all the hopes and expectations found it utterly boring. mind you, it had its scenes. the ones in the shop are good, the one with springsteen is great, but in all it lacked the freshness of the book. rob marvelling about his life, makes ever so much more sense reading it than seeing him talk into the camera. i don´t know, maybe i have been expecting too much. usually i expect films made from books i like to be bad. not this time, and i felt disappointed. apparently, most people liked the film, which is good. still sad, i can´t join in the excitement... kris