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Happy to expand :
The Accidental Tourist : will William Hurt's character end up with the character played by Kathleen Turner, or the one played by Geena Davis ? Do we care ? Geena's character is a bit wacky and zany in a painfully obvious way, but at least she comes over as human - Hurt looks as if he was using this as a calling card for a part in AI. For a film purporting to deal with emotions, it's shockingly soulless and free of depth. About as emotionally involving as kissing a mirror, and with the same amount of warmth.
Pulp Fiction : The Emperor's New Clothes on the silver screen. Strip away the amusing use of music, and the gangster stuff that's so oddly beloved by so many filmgoers, and what have you got? Granted, three tales that are quite neatly interwoven (though I seem to recall that Jackson's biblical speech is actually different when heard second time around ? Oops), but none of the tales are really going anywhere, and the second one is an absolute atrocity of coincidence.
To whit (apologies if I miss anything): Willis' character goes back to get his watch from his flat and the Travolta character JUST HAPPENS to have left his gun on the side while he JUST HAPPENS to have gone to the bog, and so after shooting him and driving off, Willis JUST HAPPENS to see the one person who he didn't want to see (the Ving Rhames character); they get involved in some chase or other, and JUST HAPPEN to end up in a shop where the owner and a friend JUST HAPPEN to have a habit of taking people down to the basement to rape them. Tied to a chair, Willis JUST HAPPENS to escape, and searching for a weapon he JUST HAPPENS to find a sword... don't be fooled by the distractions of the Gimp and the ferocity of the rape scene : this is not a solidly-constructed story.
Trainspotting : whoo, wizzy camerawork and neatly-integrated music ! But, like the book, we're looking at a random rag-bag of tales, none of which actually build to a coherent whole, and some of the switches in mood are so sudden as to - to use Victor Lewis-Smith's expression - leave you with a case of the the emotional bends. Spud's covered a room with shit ! Begbie's picked a fight ! Their drug habit has led to a baby dying ! Renton's up to his arms in shit ! They're ripping someone off for a stash of drugs, and then Renton's ripping the others off ! Remind me again why I should care ?
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