Sad Movies that I Have Watched Recently

Hello Everyone,

Over the last few weekends I have watched some sad, sad movies. My wife says that I watch depressing movies; this is true, but they are are still very good. MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.

Two weekends ago, I watched Children of Men, which my wife bought for me on boxing day; that is how backlogged that I can get with my movies. I knew that it was going to be a sad movie, so I waited until my wife feel asleep and then I bought it on.
Children Of Men
I consider myself to be a Clive Owen fan; it would have been really cool to see him play James Bond, but it would have to have been like 10 years ago when Brosnan was playing Bond. The film depicts a bleak, terrorist-filled world (much like the world of today; with all the fanatics), but still features a glimmer of hope. The decay of society (buildings, morals, people) is done stylistically in a sort of home video type way; I do not think that it was shot on digital video though. This type of depiction of the future is a change from the Back To The Future 2/Minority Report type future that is very slick. It is sad, but is decently done and is worth a viewing. I do not think that it is a great film, but it is a good film.

Casanova
I bought this Heath Ledger film along with Ned Kelly (remake) and Candy because there was a good sale on amazon.ca in January on Ledger's films; I got the 3 of them for 47 bucks USD. This was a cute little romantic comedy starring Ledger (obviously), Sienna Miller (HOT; rent Layer Cake), Oliver Platt (he is always funny; see Huff Season 1) and Jeremy Irons (bad guy from Die Hard 3: sucking hard [it was a big disappointment]). There are cute little instances of mistaken identity and shenenigans. I do not like the fashions of the time mid-late 1700s; I am not a period piece fan; it's too old. I thought that I would give the movie a try and it is pretty much what I expected. Cute little film. Ledger was always great.

The Ice Storm
My wife has been telling me for a few years that this was a good film and I am a fan of Ang Lee (Eat Drink Man Woman, Brokeback Mountain, The Hulk [it was not his fault, it was the stupid studio and the screenwriter and the stupid special FX for absorping man [Nick Nolte] and that whole fight at the end of the movie was crap, crap, crap. I digress. My wife told me that this film was about a bunch of couples that go to a key party during which a tragedy occurs (I am not saying that the tragedy occurs at the party but one occurs). Knowing this, I could really see the the tension building; I could tell that something tragic would occur. The film teased you with options as to what it could be, who it would happen to or who would perpitrate the act. What happened was not what I expected; I expect something a little bigger, but it was very dramatic and epiphanic for some of the characters involved. It was an interesting look into a very uncertain period in American society (1970s). The film showed that it was a period of questionable morals, uncertain politics and general unease; it was as it the free love of the 60s was being paid for in the 70s. All the excesses of the 60s came to a head at some point in the 70s about the time when this movie takes place or a little before that time. Kevin Kline, Joan Allen and Sigourney Weaver all put in good performances. Katie Holmes and David Krumholtz (Freaks and Geeks, Superbad, TVs Numbers) have brief parts. Tobey Maguire provides voice-over narration ocassionally during the film which helps to shed light on how to view the characters in the story; using The Fantastic Four characters as a metaphor for his family; interesting. Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood show how good they were as young actors and their parts are important to the message of the film. I recommend this to fans of American Beauty cause I get a bit of an American Beauty vibe from this movie, but it sadder than American Beauty gets so be prepared. The decision for characters to change their ways comes at the end of the film, so you do not get that move to change their lives to make themselves happy that you have in American Beauty.

I hope you have enjoyed my brief fore into sad sad films. Thanks for reading. Leave questions, comments or suggestions if you like.

Have A Good One.

Fanboy Dave