Blog Archives
Flash Movie Review: A Haunting in Venice
THE LAST TIME I VISITED THE city, the museum was closed; so, I was excited that I was finally able to get inside this time. The museum building itself was originally a millionaire’s mansion. But it was nothing like any of the mansions I had seen on walking tours or driving by. This structure had a combination of marble and granite, making it look partially like a Venetian palace from the 15th century. The owner who had this place built was an art collector, philanthropist and patron of the arts. The owner’s intentions were to have their art collection permanently housed and displayed in the house for everyone to come and enjoy them. Upon their death an endowment was created to turn the mansion into a “living” museum. I had heard many things about the place, but I wanted to see it for myself. There was something fascinating about going through someone’s place from a century ago to see how they lived back then, besides seeing how many things they were able to collect in their lifetime. From what I read, artists they were fond of would come and pay a call to them from time to time. And they collected from multiple genres such as paintings, sculptures, textiles, and a variety of historical items. ONCE I WAS ADMITTED INSIDE, I was taken aback by the largeness of the hallways. The walls were stone/brick, and the floors were some types of flagstones or slate. There were two suits of armor positioned across from each other. Further down there was a tapestry hanging on the wall that filled that portion of the wall from the floor to ceiling. It looked ancient to me. I walked into a room that had artwork covering all the walls. Some of the works I was able to recognize the artists, but others I did not have a clue because nothing was labeled. The room must have been used as a sitting room, I am guessing, for visitors who first arrived. There was a sofa lushly upholstered in a thick damask fabric with two heavy chairs on either side. In front of the sofa was a small table that had a vase on it that looked Asian, but again I had no idea if it meant anything. As I made my way through the museum, I appreciated the amount of effort and money it must have taken to acquire such a massive collection. The artworks were beautiful, and I appreciated that the guidebook talked about a few of them for each room; however, there were more times than not, I did not know what I was looking at. It was disappointing. Interestingly, I felt the same way about seeing this murder mystery drama. CONTENT WITH RETIRED LIFE, FORMER DETECTIVE Hercule Poirot, played by Kenneth Branagh (Oppenheimer, My Week with Marilyn), reluctantly agrees to go with a friend to a séance. When one of the guests is found murdered, Detective Poirot has no choice but to find the culprit. With Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Gunpowder Milkshake) as Mrs. Reynolds, Jamie Dornan (Belfast, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar) as Dr. Leslie Ferrier, Tina Fey (Wine Country, Mean Girls) as Ariadne Oliver and relative newcomer Dylan Corbett Bader as Baker; this latest Agatha Christie story from Kenneth was the least interesting of his Christie films for me. The visuals were wonderful, set in Venice; but the script started out slowly and I never felt an emotional connection to any of the characters. They seemed to all be on the same plateau with no difference in feelings. As I said it was disappointing because I respected the cast and knew they could do so much more with their characters. Another thing, I was not fond of some of the camera shoots with their close-ups and shadows. They seemed to have been put in for effect that fell flat. Having recently been in Italy, I loved all the scenery filmed for this story; but I just felt empty by the end of the movie.
2 stars
Flash Movie Review: The Aspern Papers
WHEN I WAS A SMALL BOY, I was obsessed with pencil sharpeners. Though my obsession lasted a couple of years, I acquired a large collection of them within that time frame. I had several pencil sharpeners that were in the shape of airplanes and rocket ships; another group of them was made up of different animals. I would rotate bringing different sharpeners to school with me; as you might expect, I never had a dull pencil at my desk. There was a game I used to play with myself when sharpening a pencil. I would try to turn the pencil continuously to see if I could get one long shaving off of it. Yes, I was an intense child at times. One of my favorite pencil sharpeners was a flying saucer, the top half white and the bottom gray. The pencil hole was right in the center on the top, which allowed the pencil shavings to spin around the interior circumference of the round saucer. There was always a good chance I could get a long shaving with this pencil sharpener. At home, I would keep this sharpener in a desk drawer and whenever I needed it, I would take it out and hold it high in the air, pretending it was flying. AS I GREW UP MY OBSESSION faded away and the pencil sharpeners were relegated to an old shoebox that resided up on a shelf in a closet. Through the years, I had other things that became my new obsession. In one of my recent reviews I talked about my thing for wristwatches; so, you see I have been visited by obsessions through my whole life. Whenever I have had conversations and talked about an obsession, I always say I prefer shaking hands with the obsession instead of trying to wrestle it. The thing I am grateful for (if there is something to be grateful about) is my obsessions never involved other people. They were always things that only had an affect on me, whether it was pencil sharpeners, wristwatches or dance music CDs. I had a friend who became obsessed with someone she met online. This altered her daily life to the point it put a strain on her friendships. She would cancel dates with friends so she could drive to finally meet this individual at a central location, only to receive a last minute text that he was called into work or some other excuse like that. Yet she would do the same thing over and over to the point some of her friends refused to make plans with her. I could see their point, but I tried to stay neutral; her obsession was preventing her from coming to terms with the reality of her situation. I could say the same thing about the main character in this dramatic movie. WRITER AND CRITIC MORTON VINT, PLAYED by Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The 12th Man, The Tudors-TV), wanted to know everything he could about the famous poet Jeffrey Aspern, played by Jon Kortajarena (The Cliff, A Single Man). He would even pretend to be someone else if it meant getting more information about his favorite poet. With Vanessa Redgrave (Letters to Juliet, Howards End) as Juliana Bordereau, Joely Richardson (Event Horizon, Maggie) as Miss Tina and Lois Robbins (Girls Nite Out, One Life to Live-TV) as Mrs. Prest; the only reason to see this film would be to watch Vanessa and Joely working together. They were wonderful to watch as they powered their way through the weak script. I thought Jonathan’s character was not believable; he came across so odd to me that I found him uninteresting. The scenery and sets were pleasing but due to the direction and script I felt many opportunities were lost to add drama and back-story. It was sad to see Vanessa and Joely being wasted in this misfired picture. I only wished the writers would have been obsessed with telling a good story as much as Morton was obsessed with the poet Jeffrey Aspern.
1 ½ stars
moviejoltz 