Love Happens

We have a new reviewer on The Popcorn Bucket, she's called Miss Lily Rae and she's even more sarcastic than I am. Honestly. Anyway, she sent in her review of some guff starring Rachel from Friends and Harvey Dent. Rock on!

I’d like to say, before we start, that I would never, ever watch Love Happens out of choice. It manages to sandwich everything I hate about film – appalling script, ill-considered plot, Jennifer Aniston – into two gruelling hours that I will never get back. However, given that it was my first assignment as a film reviewer, it was a damn good reminder that Any Work Is Good Work; and, if nothing else, it makes you really appreciate the next decent film you watch. Read on, if you dare...

Love Happens (2009)

The debut film from director Brandon Camp, Love Happens tells the story of Burke (Aaron Eckhart), a man struggling to come to terms with the death of his wife, and Eloise (Jennifer Aniston), a florist determined to help him move on.

"If you had a brain in either head, you'd know that I'm doing what's best for both of us."

Burke Ryan, a man with the empathy of Trisha Goddard, is the author of “A-OK!,” a bestselling self-help book. In his seminars, Burke smiles beatifically at his grieving audience whilst constantly reminding them that “I’ve been there.” Privately, he goes dark and brooding every ten minutes over the death of his wife, be it in the low-key lighting of the Space Needle or the low-key lighting of the hotel pool.

Enter Eloise (Aniston), a flicky-haired florist with a penchant for doing ‘kooky’ things such as writing long words behind paintings and communicating in sign-language (neither of these inane habits is ever explained.) After the fastest break-up in cinematic history, Eloise inexplicably becomes the mohair-jumpered girl of Burke’s dreams.

Love Happens is a very confused film. It sets out as a romance with Burke and Eloise’s encounter in the lobby of a hotel, morphs into a drama as Burke begins to accept that he hasn’t been able to move on since his wife’s death, before suddenly becoming a comedy, with a surreal subplot involving Burke breaking into his in-laws’ house to steal a parrot. Although the subject of grief and loss is dealt with in a remarkably heavy-handed way, there is genuine poignancy to be found in the character of Walter, a man left devastated after the death of his son, who doesn’t believe Burke’s shtick. However, even Walter succumbs to the benign smile of Burke by the end, after a montage in a home-depot.

Had more thought gone into the plot progression, had the subplots gone somewhere, had the character of Eloise actually had a point, Love Happens could have been a credible drama. The romance between Eloise and Burke seems at odds with the rest of the plot – the unconvincing chemistry between the two characters does nothing to help this, both being so incredibly self-absorbed you wonder how they ever managed to notice each other. Both performances are unremarkable and lack charisma, and the supporting characters – Burke’s manager, Eloise’s shop assistant and Burke’s father-in-law – just feel undeveloped and annoying.

"Funerals are important rituals. They're not only recognition that a person has died; they're recognition that a person has lived."

As Eloise says, “My life is a day by day experiment in very bad decisions.” Rarely does a film sum itself up so perfectly.

Lily Rae

High Fidelity

Another Rob Bender review. This time it's about an indie film, just for a change...

Ben

First things first. I love the book from which this film is taken. Nick Hornby is a fantastic writer, and this is one of my most favourite books of all time. So I approached this film with a mixture of excitement and apprehension. I’ve been burnt by adaptations of novels before (I’m looking at you, Harry Potter 4!). And also because the film moved the story from the charming hidden alleyways of London to the backstreets of Chicago.

High Fidelity (2000)

As it happens, it doesn’t matter. The hidden alleyways of Chicago are as equally charming as those of London. High Fidelity tells the story of Rob Gordon (John Cusack), an owner of a delightfully obscure record store (think ‘Spillers’ in Cardiff), and how he deals with the breakup of the relationship with his long-term girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle). As well as being a music fanatic, Rob seems to have an almost obsessive compulsive nature when it comes to making lists, particularly of music, so it is natural that this is how the character deals with his break-up. At the beginning of the film, following the breakup, Rob lists his ‘Chronological Top Five Emotional Break-Ups of All Time.’ The film then follows Rob trying to run his record store, whilst getting over xxx, and meeting up with the ‘Top Five’ in order to see where he has been going wrong in relationships.

“What really matters is what you like, not what you are like... Books, records, films - these things matter. Call me shallow but it's the f****** truth.”

The script is hilarious, and Cusack is fantastic as Rob. He repeatedly breaks the fourth wall, often whilst standing with other characters, to explain to the audience his feelings and thought processes, or what is about to happen in the film. This is a nice touch as it brings the audience in to the story. At first I thought the perhaps the other characters, in particular Rob’s exes, could have done with some more fleshing out. But upon consideration, I realised that the film is meant to be from Rob’s perspective; he tells the audience what the women were like when he was with them (particularly his adoration and romanticism of Catherine Zeta-Jones’ Charlie Nicholson), and then we, along with Rob, see what they are like now. This works as it shows how hindsight and distance makes you look at relationships.

“Don't tell anyone you don't own "Blonde on Blonde". It's gonna be okay”

As well as Cusack fitting the main character extremely well (as if he was made for the role), the other parts are played well. I particularly liked Zeta-Jones, and Lisa Bonet as Marie DeSalle. Jack Black steals the film in every scene he is in as Barry, one of the employees at Rob’s record store, playing what could easily be the older brother of his School of Rock character. There is also a fantastic cameo from Bruce Springsteen. The only person who I feel isn’t as good as the remaining characters is Tim Robbins as Ian/Ray, Laura’s new partner. I don’t feel that the character is particularly convincing.

“Should I bolt every time I get that feeling in my gut when I meet someone new? Well, I've been listening to my gut since I was 14 years old, and frankly speaking, I've come to the conclusion that my guts have shit for brains.”

Overall, I love the film, and it is a fantastic adaptation. Perhaps that says something about Hornby’s writing, as About A Boy is another good adaptation. The characters are well acted, and are all people I wouldn’t mind being friends with. Except Ian/Ray.

And so, in tribute to the story, here are my top five things about this film:

1. A fantastic story.

2. Great soundtrack.

3. The cameo from The Boss.

4. A good and faithful adaptation.

5. Rob’s record collection, which I would just love to own even half of.

Rob Bender

District 9

Yes, I'm back. After an invasion of pretenders to the 'Bucket crown (only joking, Rob!) it's time for a Benjamin J. viewpoint on a film I'd been desperate to see for a long time.

District 9 (2009)

Sci-fi is a tricky thing. Do it right and you create a world so vivid and enrapturing fanboys will write fan fiction about it for decades to come. Do it wrong and you look like a complete tithead who wouldn't know a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster if it came up and kicked you right in the Tannhauser gate. Luckily, District 9 belongs to the former category.

"When dealing with aliens, try to be polite, but firm. And always remember that a smile is cheaper than a bullet."

After a massive ship hovers over Johannesburg, the human race makes first contact with alien life. Finding them malnourished and leaderless, the aliens (derogatorily called "prawns") are bundled in to a huge, sprawling camp called District 9, policed by a private military contractor called Multinational United (MNU). The story follows bureaucrat Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) as he is assigned the immense task of moving 1.8 million aliens to a new camp, further away from society, called District 10. The plot itself is fantastic. The best sci-fi has always been able to find parallels with reality and District 9 is no exception by holding up a mirror to issues such as apartheid and xenophobia. Sharlto Copey was amazing as Wikus, giving us a flawed hero who is actually relatable, rather than a ripped badass who pisses pure awesomeness. Wikus starts out as a generally unlikable character, who at one point revels in the firey destruction of alien eggs- likening the sound to popcorn popping. What I loved about Wikus is that most of his actions are driven by panic and selfishness- something which I'm sure is the more realistic reaction, rather than taking it upon one's self to save the World.

I knew I'd love District 9 as soon as the mockumentary voice-over noted that the alien ship wasn't hovering over a well-known American city such as New York and Chicago for once. It was nice to see such a different approach to the standard "alien invasion" bullshit we are normally fed. In fact, some of the content has a bit of a Bad Taste anarchic feel to it, which can only be a good thing. The effects are very impressive and prove you don't need an astronomical Michael Bay-type budget to create photo-real creatures to lumber about on screen.

My one problem with District 9 was the fact it was so heavy-handed with its messages. It was fine to allude to apartheid, racism and so forth, but I honestly got a bit depressed with the way that pretty much every human in the film was a shitbag. Yeah, Wikus was good- but as I said before, he's only acting out of panic. It felt like the film was pausing every so often to remind us that we suck before moving on to the next scene. I also believe that the Nigerians got the shitty end of the stick when it came to being represented as they are portrayed as little more than violent, armed animals who feast upon alien flesh.

"[Points out Alien graffiti] This is basically a guy, and there's 3 humans here, basically trying to make a warning, you know, saying "I kill 3 humans, watch out for me."

However, these were very minor problems and were only included to slightly hide the fact that I've pretty much being sucking the film off for the majority of the review. It might be a little premature to name District 9 as the best film of the year, but it's damn tempting. A film would have to be very special to nudge it off my top spot, but the comforting thought it that if District 9 is indeed displaced, we're in for a massive treat.