2006

Director: Roger Michell

i had somewhat high expectations for this film going in.  not only had the great peter o'toole been nominated for an academy award, i thought i had remembered hearing good things about the movie as well.  well, if i had heard good things then i had heard wrong cause this film is not that good.  i wasn't bothered by the sexual overtones between o'toole and the young actress jodie whittaker (who holds her own next to o'toole), i mean it did make me a little uncomfortable at times, but i didn't have a problem with them trying to tell that story.  the problem was that the filmmakers didn't seem like they knew what story they were trying to tell - was this a story about reclaiming youth, saying good-bye, remembering the past, a combination of all three or something else? 

more than that thought, my problem with the film was its appeal to my emotions without giving me enough to get to the place they wanted me to get to.  by that i mean that it felt like the script made sure to show us a scene or two to tell us something about the characters and their relationships and then felt like that was enough for us to become attached to them so that when 'something' happens to, or between, them we would buy it.  well it didn't work. 

just because my head knows how i am supposed to feel, doesn't mean i will feel it.  at just around 95 minutes long i think they could have added another 10-20 minutes and actually developed the relationships properly.  they could have built the whole scale rather then just trying to hit the 'important' notes and forgetting about the build-up.