Parked and Island
I finally got to see Parked in its entirety! Woo-hoo!
And, OMG, it's even more heartbreaking in full. Oh, Colin, you little heart-wrencher, you. It was such a sweet little movie, not very long but quite lovely. The kind of movie that manages to push all my happy buttons.
Save for one, and it's an issue I have with all movies of this type. You have your down-and-out character, then you have your mentor figure. I loved that Parked was rather a reversal in that the mentor figure was actually younger than the down-and-out figure. But what I don't like is how in such movies the mentor figure always ends up dying (or, in less extreme cases, being locked away). And I kind of understand the need for this death either as a motivator or as symbolism for the down-and-out character moving on and no longer needing said mentor figure. But said mentor figure is often down-and-out themselves, even more so than the down-and-out figure at times. In the case of Cathal, he wasn't just down-and-out, he was pretty much dying, and the movie portrayed this wonderfully.
But I guess that, for me, I would really like to see this particular trope handled differently, because even when beautifully done it's still a bit of a cliche and one you can pretty much see coming a mile away. Heck, I knew from the synopsis alone that Colin's character was probably going to die, not because of any spoiler, but simply because his character was the mentor figure.
Plus, I would really like to see this trope handled in a way in which the mentor character gets as much of a second chance as the down-and-out figure. I would love to see, for example, the down-and-out character getting their life back together thanks to the mentor character, then the down-and-out character turning around and helping the mentor figure... and actually succeeding.
(And just for clarification, my personal definition of a mentor character is one who guides and motivates the down-and-out character through intelligence and kindness. Because then there's those life-changing characters like Johnny Depp's character in Benny and Joon, or Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man, who alter things simply by being there rather than through words of wisdom).
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Island was... er... okay, I guess. I liked the concept, liked the use of fairytales and how both characters are so caught up in their dream worlds that they don't know what's real, and loved the scenery. And Colin, as usual, was brilliant and adorable. But the little incest make-out scene could have been scrapped, I think. And I'm not just saying that as someone who isn't a fan of such things. Nothing explicit happened, and it faded out at a point in which if you wanted to you could say it was a make-out session and nothing more (except I kind of get the feeling you're supposed to look at it as something more), but I guess it made the movie feel like it was trying too hard to show how messed up the characters are. Because another thing I liked about the movie was how you have this air of innocence with the fairy stories and Callum and his sea treasures balanced with this air of darkness that is Nikki wanting to kill her birth mother and the troubled memories motivating her. But the make-out scene... I don't know, I guess it felt like it was pushing things a little too far, and that it would have worked better had Nikki either pushed Callum away or they were interrupted. It felt like it wasn't needed, that we had plenty to work with, and that the only reason it was there is because it tends to be a common consequence in such tropes.
(Although I do kind of see where they were going with it, in that history was about to repeat itself).
Or maybe it was the way the characters were handled, because Nikki, even messed up as she was, didn't strike me as the kind of person who would let someone she knew was her brother get all intimate like that (she did freak a little when Callum tried to look at her necklace, after all), or let anyone get intimate with her, period. And Callum seemed more interested in Nikki as a friend than anything more. Or maybe there just needed to be more build-up to it. I don't know. (And keep in mind that I haven't read the book, nor do I plan to).
It's also rather hard to feel a lot of sympathy for these characters, more specifically for Nikki's feelings of betrayal toward her birth mother. If anything, I feel more sorry for the birth mother. But... it works, it really does, because that's the way the characters are. And although you can't sympathize with their actions and decisions, neither can you dislike them.
And, OMG, it's even more heartbreaking in full. Oh, Colin, you little heart-wrencher, you. It was such a sweet little movie, not very long but quite lovely. The kind of movie that manages to push all my happy buttons.
Save for one, and it's an issue I have with all movies of this type. You have your down-and-out character, then you have your mentor figure. I loved that Parked was rather a reversal in that the mentor figure was actually younger than the down-and-out figure. But what I don't like is how in such movies the mentor figure always ends up dying (or, in less extreme cases, being locked away). And I kind of understand the need for this death either as a motivator or as symbolism for the down-and-out character moving on and no longer needing said mentor figure. But said mentor figure is often down-and-out themselves, even more so than the down-and-out figure at times. In the case of Cathal, he wasn't just down-and-out, he was pretty much dying, and the movie portrayed this wonderfully.
But I guess that, for me, I would really like to see this particular trope handled differently, because even when beautifully done it's still a bit of a cliche and one you can pretty much see coming a mile away. Heck, I knew from the synopsis alone that Colin's character was probably going to die, not because of any spoiler, but simply because his character was the mentor figure.
Plus, I would really like to see this trope handled in a way in which the mentor character gets as much of a second chance as the down-and-out figure. I would love to see, for example, the down-and-out character getting their life back together thanks to the mentor character, then the down-and-out character turning around and helping the mentor figure... and actually succeeding.
(And just for clarification, my personal definition of a mentor character is one who guides and motivates the down-and-out character through intelligence and kindness. Because then there's those life-changing characters like Johnny Depp's character in Benny and Joon, or Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man, who alter things simply by being there rather than through words of wisdom).
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Island was... er... okay, I guess. I liked the concept, liked the use of fairytales and how both characters are so caught up in their dream worlds that they don't know what's real, and loved the scenery. And Colin, as usual, was brilliant and adorable. But the little incest make-out scene could have been scrapped, I think. And I'm not just saying that as someone who isn't a fan of such things. Nothing explicit happened, and it faded out at a point in which if you wanted to you could say it was a make-out session and nothing more (except I kind of get the feeling you're supposed to look at it as something more), but I guess it made the movie feel like it was trying too hard to show how messed up the characters are. Because another thing I liked about the movie was how you have this air of innocence with the fairy stories and Callum and his sea treasures balanced with this air of darkness that is Nikki wanting to kill her birth mother and the troubled memories motivating her. But the make-out scene... I don't know, I guess it felt like it was pushing things a little too far, and that it would have worked better had Nikki either pushed Callum away or they were interrupted. It felt like it wasn't needed, that we had plenty to work with, and that the only reason it was there is because it tends to be a common consequence in such tropes.
(Although I do kind of see where they were going with it, in that history was about to repeat itself).
Or maybe it was the way the characters were handled, because Nikki, even messed up as she was, didn't strike me as the kind of person who would let someone she knew was her brother get all intimate like that (she did freak a little when Callum tried to look at her necklace, after all), or let anyone get intimate with her, period. And Callum seemed more interested in Nikki as a friend than anything more. Or maybe there just needed to be more build-up to it. I don't know. (And keep in mind that I haven't read the book, nor do I plan to).
It's also rather hard to feel a lot of sympathy for these characters, more specifically for Nikki's feelings of betrayal toward her birth mother. If anything, I feel more sorry for the birth mother. But... it works, it really does, because that's the way the characters are. And although you can't sympathize with their actions and decisions, neither can you dislike them.