This probably has more to do with watching more than one movie in a week than anything else, but...
I finally got around to seeing Brazil last week and discovered that even the best technology and a supposedly better, darker ending couldn't make me like it. This is disapponting because according to many many books on my shelves and even WIRED magazine I should like it. It's "one of the best" scifi films, or so I'd been led to believe. It wasn't. The ending was tired and predictable (both endings). The main character dreaming about being one of the Silverhawks was flat out lame. And, of course, the stalker winning the girl got under my skin.
Sure, it makes one wonder where fantasy and reality get mixed together, and there's some good set direction (purposeful wandering crowds, the bridge with the billboards, the videogame), but it's not much of a movie: neither fun nor questing.
I pretty much hated it. My partner, also out of character, loved it.
I really enjoyed Monsoon Wedding, though. Relatively low-tech and multilingual with stilted dialogue, it manages to come across as very human - touching on family, work, love, childhood, abuse, friendship, tradition, empire... Even throws in a double wedding at the end (very common in early Hollywood.)
So I fell for the cheesy movie and hated the ostensibly late/postmodern angsty one. Am I just getting old or can I reconcile my love for Blade Runner (and both versions are good, really) and last week's experiences? Or am I doomed to hope for a double wedding in Zion at the end of Matrix III? |
