Double Mini-Reviews: One Day and Buck
During the past week, I was sick with a terrible cold, so I was not able to review last weekend's releases as quickly as normal. Fortunately, I am caught up, and before this weekend's batch of reviews begin, I thought I would write out two mini reviews of the last two films I saw left over from the previous weekend...
ONE DAY - This is a passable, yet slight, romantic drama that finds entertainment in the dialogue (taken from the best-selling novel by David Nicholls, who also wrote the screenplay), and the simple, everyday tone of the film itself.
It follows two people, Emma (Anne Hathaway, sporting a shaky British accent here) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess), who meet as recent college graduates on July 15th, 1988. Why the significance of the date? Because the movie's central gimmick is that it follows both of their lives each year on that particular day, and how their relationship with each other builds, falls apart, builds again, and ultimately blooms into love, and the different people who walk in and out of their individual and collective lives. The fragmented narrative worked well enough for me, even though the movie puts more emphasis on certain years than on others. It's kind of fascinating to see the lives of Emma and Dexter change as the years pass. Emma starts working at a dead-end job at a Mexican restaurant as a waitress, eventually becomes a teacher, and writes a book. Dexter starts out as an alcoholic TV celebrity, burns out, puts his life back together, and ultimately realizes that what he's wanted out of life was in front of him all along.
There are a lot of nice moments here, and certain scenes between Hathaway and Sturgess carry some emotional weight, thanks to their performances. But, we never sense a complete connection between the two characters, due to the fact that the movie only looks at the lives of these people one day out of each year. So much obviously happens off camera, we sometimes feel like we're getting only part of the story. Also, certain supporting characters (like a struggling stand up comic that Emma has a relationship with for a time) never seem as fleshed out as they should be. Certain dramatic events (like a failed marriage for one of the characters) also doesn't have as much emotional weight as it should.
Something obviously got lost during the transition from novel to screenplay, but that doesn't mean that One Day is a total failure. It's a quiet, romantic story with a strong cast, and good direction by Lone Scherfig (An Education). Maybe I was just in the mood for a simple romantic story, but this movie worked enough for me. I wasn't wowed by it, but I don't think that was the intention of the filmmakers in the first place.
See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!
BUCK - A beautiful, quiet, and meditative documentary about Buck Brannaman, the horse trainer who was the inspiration for the best-selling novel, The Horse Whisperer, and also worked as a consultant and trainer on Robert Redford's film adaptation.
Buck tells his story in his own words, and he tells it with genuine humor, good will, and quite a lot of sadness. You can tell how hard it is to talk about the days of his youth, when his older brother and him were child celebrities as junior cowboys and trick ropers, yet were constantly under the thumb of their alcoholic father, who would beat them whenever they screwed up. Buck was fortunate enough to escape from his father, find a foster family, and began a career as a horse trainer, where he encouraged methods to understand and create a bond with the animal, rather than using force or older cruel tactics to get the animal to behave. Buck now hosts successful seminars at ranches all across the nation, where he teaches his methods to his many friends and followers, and trains his teenage daughter to follow in his footsteps.
While the movie skips over some details (we never really learn what happened to his brother, who was also beaten by their father), this is still a compelling and personal journey. We get to witness first hand his various successes (and failures) in his professional life, and how his method of showing empathy for the horse is a successful tool. We get to meet the different people who he has inspired, and we generally understand how they have been inspired by him. This is not just a "talking heads" documentary, where people just praise or talk about a person. We feel the warmth of his various relationships from everyone to the people who attend his workshops and seminars, to his elderly foster mother, who still joins him on the road sometimes.
Buck is an inspiring and pleasant little film about a very good person who managed to rise above a very grim beginning that could have turned him into a terrible person if things had turned out differently. It's a movie about moving beyond the pain of the past, and finding inspiration in the beauty of animals and everyday life. This is a wonderful and heartfelt film.
See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!
It follows two people, Emma (Anne Hathaway, sporting a shaky British accent here) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess), who meet as recent college graduates on July 15th, 1988. Why the significance of the date? Because the movie's central gimmick is that it follows both of their lives each year on that particular day, and how their relationship with each other builds, falls apart, builds again, and ultimately blooms into love, and the different people who walk in and out of their individual and collective lives. The fragmented narrative worked well enough for me, even though the movie puts more emphasis on certain years than on others. It's kind of fascinating to see the lives of Emma and Dexter change as the years pass. Emma starts working at a dead-end job at a Mexican restaurant as a waitress, eventually becomes a teacher, and writes a book. Dexter starts out as an alcoholic TV celebrity, burns out, puts his life back together, and ultimately realizes that what he's wanted out of life was in front of him all along.
There are a lot of nice moments here, and certain scenes between Hathaway and Sturgess carry some emotional weight, thanks to their performances. But, we never sense a complete connection between the two characters, due to the fact that the movie only looks at the lives of these people one day out of each year. So much obviously happens off camera, we sometimes feel like we're getting only part of the story. Also, certain supporting characters (like a struggling stand up comic that Emma has a relationship with for a time) never seem as fleshed out as they should be. Certain dramatic events (like a failed marriage for one of the characters) also doesn't have as much emotional weight as it should.
Something obviously got lost during the transition from novel to screenplay, but that doesn't mean that One Day is a total failure. It's a quiet, romantic story with a strong cast, and good direction by Lone Scherfig (An Education). Maybe I was just in the mood for a simple romantic story, but this movie worked enough for me. I wasn't wowed by it, but I don't think that was the intention of the filmmakers in the first place.
See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!
Buck tells his story in his own words, and he tells it with genuine humor, good will, and quite a lot of sadness. You can tell how hard it is to talk about the days of his youth, when his older brother and him were child celebrities as junior cowboys and trick ropers, yet were constantly under the thumb of their alcoholic father, who would beat them whenever they screwed up. Buck was fortunate enough to escape from his father, find a foster family, and began a career as a horse trainer, where he encouraged methods to understand and create a bond with the animal, rather than using force or older cruel tactics to get the animal to behave. Buck now hosts successful seminars at ranches all across the nation, where he teaches his methods to his many friends and followers, and trains his teenage daughter to follow in his footsteps.
While the movie skips over some details (we never really learn what happened to his brother, who was also beaten by their father), this is still a compelling and personal journey. We get to witness first hand his various successes (and failures) in his professional life, and how his method of showing empathy for the horse is a successful tool. We get to meet the different people who he has inspired, and we generally understand how they have been inspired by him. This is not just a "talking heads" documentary, where people just praise or talk about a person. We feel the warmth of his various relationships from everyone to the people who attend his workshops and seminars, to his elderly foster mother, who still joins him on the road sometimes.
Buck is an inspiring and pleasant little film about a very good person who managed to rise above a very grim beginning that could have turned him into a terrible person if things had turned out differently. It's a movie about moving beyond the pain of the past, and finding inspiration in the beauty of animals and everyday life. This is a wonderful and heartfelt film.
See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!
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