| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| randall |
Posted - 12/01/2008 : 20:50:01
OK, I just saw it. Can Brits please explain to me why this was such a big hit? I found it disappointing on every level: plot [inexorably led into bleakness once they listened to Ewan and took the money], characters [I disliked each and every one of them, including the cops] and execution [the comedy/thriller casserole didn't work for me at all]. Tepid Hitchcock, and I'm sullying the great man's name by even invoking it.
Please clue me in. I genuinely want to understand. This one came at me with such a fine reputation that I was somewhat flabbergasted at my own disdain. Has its zeitgeist passed in the last decade? WTF? |
| 9 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| randall |
Posted - 01/21/2009 : 21:54:50
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
quote:
Originally posted by Randall
Thanks, everybody, and please keep the comments coming because I'm really pondering them, but over the years I was somehow led to believe this was a "dark comedy." Having now seen the film, I realize it is anything but.
Certainly to understand the kind of comedy inherent in the film, I think you have to remember the political context. Both Hodge and Boyle were well aware of the repressions a decade of Thatcherism had poured on the cultural development of the nation.
Well, there you have it, I guess. Dark comedy for Brits, nothing anywhere near it for Yanks like me. I was just thoroughly let down when I finally had the pleasure. |
| chazbo |
Posted - 12/02/2008 : 00:38:12
quote:
Originally posted by Randall
Thanks, everybody, and please keep the comments coming because I'm really pondering them, but over the years I was somehow led to believe this was a "dark comedy." Having now seen the film, I realize it is anything but.
I agree. When I think of dark or black comedy, or whatever its called, I immediately think of Slim Pickens atop a nuclear warhead or a Vietnam War platoon singing the Mickey Mouse Club theme song as they march. Something where the humor is incongruous with what is actually taking place.
Perhaps the marketers for Shallow Grave confused black comedy with an already confused sense of irony, as when the woman opens the suitcase to find only newspaper clippings.
I saw the film when it first came out on DVD here in the U.S. I remember that I liked the mood (that would be dark) and the acting. I don't remember investing much emotion in what happens at the end, and I thought the story was OK.
The problem for me with many Danny Boyle films, such as Sunshine and 28 Days Later, is that they start off in an intriguing way but usually end badly.
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| demonic |
Posted - 12/02/2008 : 00:31:09
Wow. That's a stupid tag line. Totally mispresentative...
The original tag sums it up a bit better: "What's a little murder among friends?" |
| Sean |
Posted - 12/01/2008 : 23:12:11
quote:
Originally posted by Randall
Thanks, everybody, and please keep the comments coming because I'm really pondering them, but over the years I was somehow led to believe this was a "dark comedy." Having now seen the film, I realize it is anything but.
Could the "dark comedy" aspect be perhaps how they tried to sell it in the US? I'm skeptical, since the film is a decade and a half old, and I only rented it b/c of critical traffic on this here site!
Actually the tagline doesn't help:-
"The award winning thriller that'll bury you with laughs."
'Bury you' perhaps, but not with laughs. |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 12/01/2008 : 22:59:09
quote:
Originally posted by Randall
Thanks, everybody, and please keep the comments coming because I'm really pondering them, but over the years I was somehow led to believe this was a "dark comedy." Having now seen the film, I realize it is anything but.
Could the "dark comedy" aspect be perhaps how they tried to sell it in the US? I'm skeptical, since the film is a decade and a half old, and I only rented it b/c of critical traffic on this here site!
Well, granted it's been quite a while since I saw it, but some images have stayed with me over the years. Certainly to understand the kind of comedy inherent in the film, I think you have to remember the political context. Both Hodge and Boyle were well aware of the repressions a decade of Thatcherism had poured on the cultural development of the nation. Scotland especially was feeling the pinch as they witnessed their natural oil assets virtually stolen from them.
There was a similar feeling to today of financial profligacy gone mad. For many months people awaited consequences. It was the calm before the storm.
And, not quite as powerfully as in the mid-1960s, there was an undeniable cultural shift. You could hear it in the music. You could see it on TV. It was a period of stagnation, an era when qualitative values were being wholly replaced by quantitative ones.
The dreams of young adults had shifted from the rebellious flights of punk to neatly pressed mundanity.
The "comedy" of the film comes from a recognition that the extreme behaviour of Juliet, Alex and David might be moments away. No! NOt really! Oh, yeah, well you better be careful then. Oh, OK. Ha-ha.
It's a similar kind of comedy as the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the knight is left spitting venom as a bleeding torso on the ground.
It's like a Treasure of the Sierra Madre for the mid-1990s. The point isn't that you like them, it's that you're more like them than you want to admit.
But, as I say - it's been a while.
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| randall |
Posted - 12/01/2008 : 22:30:08
Thanks, everybody, and please keep the comments coming because I'm really pondering them, but over the years I was somehow led to believe this was a "dark comedy." Having now seen the film, I realize it is anything but.
Could the "dark comedy" aspect be perhaps how they tried to sell it in the US? I'm skeptical, since the film is a decade and a half old, and I only rented it b/c of critical traffic on this here site! |
| demonic |
Posted - 12/01/2008 : 22:20:41
I saw it twice in the cinema when it came out. First time I was fairly repulsed by it and struggled with the fact that everyone was loathsome and I couldn't see the reasons for the end result. It stuck in my mind, so a week later I went back and saw it again and really enjoyed it having a perspective on what was coming. It's still my favourite Danny Boyle film - I much prefer it to "Trainspotting", for it's style and the performances. Most of his work since has been pretty shabby I think. Prepared to give "Slumdog Millionaire" a go though. |
| Sean |
Posted - 12/01/2008 : 22:00:36
Kinda on topic, but I saw Kerry Fox (who played Juliet) in a two-person play in London soon after I saw this movie, she and her co-star were naked for most of the play (forgot the name of the play, sorry), and afterwards I had a couple of beers with her in a pub around the corner. |
| Sean |
Posted - 12/01/2008 : 21:39:46
OK, I'm not a Brit, but I liked it. I'm not sure where the 'comedy' was supposed to come from, I don't remember anything funny about it, and I don't recall expecting a comedy. I didn't like any of the characters either but I'm not sure you're supposed to like them. This was more noir than Pulp Fiction, it was bleak and if I remember correctly everyone got what they deserved.
I get the feeling that you were expecting something quite different from what it actually was, you seemed to be expecting a thriller/comedy with likeable characters. This movie was a violent, bleak look into the lives of shallow, flawed characters and the viewers are supposed to delight in their self-destruction. |
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