tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494160638739613756.post6584559345213299095..comments2024-03-28T02:30:08.913-04:00Comments on Not Just Movies: A Christmas TaleJakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09078001374402400232noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494160638739613756.post-9668357188031243632010-02-07T23:03:44.269-05:002010-02-07T23:03:44.269-05:00Thank you very much. To be honest, I think Craig u...Thank you very much. To be honest, I think Craig understood the ending more than I did, and I'm not sure how much of it I'll remember either. But I think the film exerts some strange pull over me. Not to the extent of <i>Fanny and Alexander</i>, but if that's the measuring stick a lot of movies are going to come up short. I think it's too deadpan and optimistic to be either a loopy Xmas movie or a weepy melodrama. Desplechin, as he did in <i>Kings and Queen</i>, toes the line carefully, but I feel that he pulls it off brilliantly both times and, while I wouldn't put this quite at the same level as K&Q, it shows Desplechin continuing to grow as a filmmaker.Jakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09078001374402400232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494160638739613756.post-511431548449420382010-02-07T15:23:34.736-05:002010-02-07T15:23:34.736-05:00Man, maybe I'm just not that smart, but I just...Man, maybe I'm just not that smart, but I just couldn't fall in love with this movie. I mean I liked it, but at two hour mark I really started to feel the that film's length was working against it. Some of the standout scenes you mention I think are brilliant, too (I also like the scene where the kid is watching TV and those wolves are looking at him), but those moments didn't make me forget how horribly bored I was during the end of the movie. I watched it about a month ago and I'm having trouble remembering what happened at the end. <br /><br />That's not to say that the movie doesn't ultimately succeed, because I think it does (the film, if forced to assign a grade, would be a solid B for me); however, outside of Amalric's amazing performance as Henri I didn't see anything that different from this film and something like <i>The Family Stone</i>...except it's French and allows a little more room for existential ideas to be sowed. <br /><br />To be fair you point out how mechanic and derivative the story is, and I'll agree that the director livens things up with a kind of <i>elan</i> we expect from French auteurs, but the film ultimately left me fidgety and bored. Which is a shame because if the film would have been trimmed down a bit I think it could have been the great movie you're describing here.<br /><br />I will say this, Jake: Your review is amazing. You have an extraordinary gift for writing and I may have to give the film another look thanks to the insights found here within your essay.Kevin J. Olsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17275402809912728035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494160638739613756.post-4305903744255903812010-02-07T10:02:12.245-05:002010-02-07T10:02:12.245-05:00I found myself moved by the ending, which is weird...<i>I found myself moved by the ending, which is weird because I'm not entirely sure what the hell happened.</i><br /><br />I second that emotion. I really liked this movie, for the reasons you mentioned. And I think the ending works because there's something oddly brave and touching about Deneuve and Amalric still giving each other deadpan grief rather than openly grieving: she telling him that her body is rejecting him; he teasing her by delaying the result of the coin toss. A critic -- was it Roger Ebert? -- once wrote that there's no better special effect than an actor's face, and the close-up of Amalric's eyes is unforgettable.Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01450775188328918558noreply@blogger.com