a movie rec, some John Hughes ramble, and my attempts to make Mary Stuart Masterson a lesbian
I'm going to give you a movie recommendation, and I need you to read carefully, because at a first glance, this film seems very dismissable.
The film in question is Dear Frankie, a British drama from 2004. Frankie is a nine-year-old deaf boy who lives with his mother Lizzie and his grandmother, constantly moving from one place to another. The family is on the run from Frankie's abusive father, but he's never been told this, instead Lizzie claims that Daddy is a sailor on a big ship. Frankie writes letters to his father all the time, and Lizzie writes back, pretending to be her own ex-husband. The trouble is, one day the ship in question approaches the town where they live, and Frankie tells his classmates that his daddy is coming. Lizzie, not knowing what to do, pays a stranger to pretend to be Frankie's dad. The good and bad news is that this stranger turns out to actually be dad material.
I know. It sounds like sentimental junk - "pure apple sauce" like my dad would say. But take the movie you're currently imagining. Instead of sentimental caricatures, populate it with people. Give it a kid who knows how to act, not one who's playing cute for the cameras. Instead of a tale painted in wide strokes and heavy anvils, give it subtlety, and things left for the imagination. Give it one of those endings Katta loves so dearly, which provides closure but also asks more and bigger questions. Yes, it made me cry, but I didn't resent it for making me cry - I was touched, and so I cried. It's moving, understated and beautiful. Even Gerald Butler surprised me in this one; I had only previously seen him in Phantom of the Opera, where I was very underwhelmed. (Perhaps it was a good thing that he didn't sing this time.)
I don't know how to describe this film to make you want to see it, but I still have to say: see it, especially if you like me enjoy emotional stuff but can't stand sentimental manipulations.
Oh, and it has an 80% approval rating at rottentomatoes, so it's not just me. :-)
***
Speaking of movies, every time I see Some Kind of Wonderful I fall in love with Mary Stuart Masterson and her baby dyke ways all over again. I keep trying to rewrite the movie so that she can really be a lesbian. She can start dating Amanda - but that would deprive us of that great Keith/Watts friendship-romance. Keith can be a girl - but then his/her love for Amanda wouldn't be that attempt at social acceptance that it is. Amanda can also be a boy - but Amanda's role is so tied up into her status as a trophy, in a way that doesn't really work if she's a boy. Watts can be a boy and Keith can discover his own inner gayness - but then Watts wouldn't be Mary Stuart Masterson and then what's the point?
In the end, all I can do is begrudgingly allow her her straightness and tell myself that there's always Fried Green Tomatoes. (Even if that movie has been incredibly de-gayed compared to the book. Still, I can fill in the blanks with my favourite book scenes. *g*)
The film in question is Dear Frankie, a British drama from 2004. Frankie is a nine-year-old deaf boy who lives with his mother Lizzie and his grandmother, constantly moving from one place to another. The family is on the run from Frankie's abusive father, but he's never been told this, instead Lizzie claims that Daddy is a sailor on a big ship. Frankie writes letters to his father all the time, and Lizzie writes back, pretending to be her own ex-husband. The trouble is, one day the ship in question approaches the town where they live, and Frankie tells his classmates that his daddy is coming. Lizzie, not knowing what to do, pays a stranger to pretend to be Frankie's dad. The good and bad news is that this stranger turns out to actually be dad material.
I know. It sounds like sentimental junk - "pure apple sauce" like my dad would say. But take the movie you're currently imagining. Instead of sentimental caricatures, populate it with people. Give it a kid who knows how to act, not one who's playing cute for the cameras. Instead of a tale painted in wide strokes and heavy anvils, give it subtlety, and things left for the imagination. Give it one of those endings Katta loves so dearly, which provides closure but also asks more and bigger questions. Yes, it made me cry, but I didn't resent it for making me cry - I was touched, and so I cried. It's moving, understated and beautiful. Even Gerald Butler surprised me in this one; I had only previously seen him in Phantom of the Opera, where I was very underwhelmed. (Perhaps it was a good thing that he didn't sing this time.)
I don't know how to describe this film to make you want to see it, but I still have to say: see it, especially if you like me enjoy emotional stuff but can't stand sentimental manipulations.
Oh, and it has an 80% approval rating at rottentomatoes, so it's not just me. :-)
***
Speaking of movies, every time I see Some Kind of Wonderful I fall in love with Mary Stuart Masterson and her baby dyke ways all over again. I keep trying to rewrite the movie so that she can really be a lesbian. She can start dating Amanda - but that would deprive us of that great Keith/Watts friendship-romance. Keith can be a girl - but then his/her love for Amanda wouldn't be that attempt at social acceptance that it is. Amanda can also be a boy - but Amanda's role is so tied up into her status as a trophy, in a way that doesn't really work if she's a boy. Watts can be a boy and Keith can discover his own inner gayness - but then Watts wouldn't be Mary Stuart Masterson and then what's the point?
In the end, all I can do is begrudgingly allow her her straightness and tell myself that there's always Fried Green Tomatoes. (Even if that movie has been incredibly de-gayed compared to the book. Still, I can fill in the blanks with my favourite book scenes. *g*)