Tag: 2013

The Food Guide to Love (2013)

140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

Dublin-set rom-com won’t win awards or set bar for originality, but leads Richard Coyle & Leonor Watling are beyond charming & it’s funny…

Spoiler-free Movie Review of The Food Guide to Love:

Being a huge fan of the now defunct BBC show Coupling, I’d watch Richard Coyle in just about anything. (Although I’m not going to start watching Crossbones, NBC’s silly-looking pirate drama with John Malkovich as Blackbeard. That thing has early cancellation written all over it.) As neurotic, sex-obsessed accountant Jeff Murcock on that comedy, Coyle was charming, funny and simply fun to watch. Sadly, he seems a bit stuck in TV, having trouble breaking into films only in small roles.

The Food Guide to Love is a feature, although everything about it screams straight-to-video. Not because it’s not competent – it’s quite good. There’s just an overabundance of rom-coms and only the ones with big stars seem to have legs. Coyle and co-star Leonor Watling deserve the attention, but I fear this little indie film won’t garner much.

Shot in Dublin by Spanish writer/directors Dominic Harari & Teresa Pelegri, it’s a good looking movie – great footage of the city, even if the story really could be set just about anywhere (it was written for London). The opening titles are nearly as long as the cast list, as this is one of those films that seems to be sponsored and funded by 30 different film agencies, production companies & distributors, but that’s ok because they do a nice job of setting up the main character of Coyle as Oliver Byrne, a hip and popular food writer.

Seemingly incapable of maintaining a relationship beyond 6 months, Oliver meets cute with Bibiana (Watling), a smart and politically active Spaniard who is not impressed by his fame or with what she considers his shallow interests. There’s lots of great and funny material here, and if this film starred Hugh Grant or Anne Hathaway or similar, it could be a hit. It may be just as well that it doesn’t, as that imaginary film certainly wouldn’t cast Irish actors Bronagh Gallagher & Simon Delaney in good if too small roles.

The best moments of the film actually don’t concern the love story at all, but focus on the relationship between Oliver and his parents. I actually found a few of these scenes very moving and they have stuck with me.

The film is good if not laced with originality, and really the only flaw in it is a somewhat jarring tendency to skip forward in time. You may get three scenes set over a single meal, then zoom forward a few years. It’s a little odd; feels like they could have lengthened the film a little bit to insert a few transitional scenes. But it’s a minor point; the length of the film is just right in terms of keeping your interest. Recommended.

Poster:

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Fail

The Representation Test Score: B (9 pts)

(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)

[schema type=”movie” name=”The Food Guide to Love” description=”A dysfunctional love story about an Irish food writer and a politically committed Spanish woman. Richard Coyle and Leonor Watling star.” director=”Dominic Harari, Teresa Pelegri” actor_1=”Richard Coyle” ]

Main Cast	Richard Coyle Oliver, Leonor Watling Bibiana, Ciara Bailey Polly, Michelle Beamish Maxine
Rating	R
Release Date	Wed 18 Dec 2013 UTC
Director	Dominic Harari, Teresa Pelegri
Genres	Comedy, Romance
Plot
Poster
Runtime
Tagline
Writers	Teresa Pelegri &, Dominic Harari …
Year	2013

June 18, 2014

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

#140RVW

If less is more then its corollary that more is less is certainly the case here. There’s nothing really wrong with Thor 2; just kinda there.

What’s more:

The first Thor was a pleasant surprise. I’ve never had even a mild interest in the character and I just assumed they’d pass on making a film version of the God of Thunder since he was just so silly.

So I was unexpectedly engaged by Thor (2011). They crafted a great story of an arrogant royal brought low by hubris and his resultant quest for worth by accepting responsibility. It deliberately traded weighty importance for a more funny and irreverent tone that was far more accessible, while still taking the story and characters seriously. Just not too seriously, thankfully. The political intrigue and scheming of the gods was actually interesting and provided flavor. It had a classic fish out of water tale, buoyed by good acting, a lovable villain, and it was a hell of a lot of fun.

Chris Hemsworth & company are back for Thor: The Dark World, minus director Kenneth Branagh. Who would ever have thought that the movie that was overly dramatic and full of epic grandeur was NOT the one directed by the Shakespearean scholar?

I don’t think I’ve ever given up on a plot so quickly. Hopkins hadn’t even finished the pre-title exposition before I was completely lost (and indifferent). That’s got to be a record.

I’ll be the first to own up to a more than passing bout of superhero fatigue, and I’m sure that colored my opinion somewhat. But my daughter is right in the sweet spot for heroes right now – she can’t get enough of these. And she was underwhelmed.

Note: when we hit pause a little more than halfway through the movie to grab a snack from the kitchen, she looks at me and says “What do you think?” I said I was really enjoying it, but I could instantly tell we weren’t on the same page. “It just seems like they’re trying too hard to make it HUGE and EPIC” she commented. Hmm. Well spotted, I think.

It’s definitely the Motorhead approach to movies (“everything louder than everything else”). Nothing really wrong with that – it is a comic book movie about a huge dude with an enormous hammer, after all. Subtlety is not required.

But it definitely suffers from the modern CG action movie problem of lack of weight. The more destruction the less it seems to matter. There are these massive things happening but none of it feels particularly important.

I think it really comes back at some point to the story. It just isn’t fresh or strong enough to lift this thing above the pile of big action movies with lots of things smashing and exploding. The Macguffin is as uninspired as the villain, played by the Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, who presumably brought the costumes for himself and his elf henchman with him from the set of Doctor Who. They look ridiculous.

What I’m supposed to love most about the movie, I suppose, is the interaction with Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. And I do; he was the best thing about the 1st movie and The Avengers. But I think they’ve gone to the well one time too many here. Overexposure has weakened the character somewhat, and while he’s still the best thing in the picture, that’s faint praise this time around.

I actually enjoyed Thor 2 at the time, it just didn’t stay with me. Only days after seeing it I could barely remember anything about it. It was perfectly fine as a popcorn movie, I guess; I suppose I’d hoped for more.