Day 181: Tarzan

A baby is saved by a gorilla and raised as one of them. The leader of the gorilla family doesn’t want him there and makes it clear that he is not one of them. When humans arrive on the island, he has to decide whether he wants to stay with the family who have raised him, or go and live amongst the humans.

How have I not seen this before? Madness. The start is so sad. First you have Kala (Glenn Close), the gorilla who saved Tarzan (Tony Goldwyn), lose her baby. Then you have Tarzan’s parents killed by the same animal that killed Kala’s child. She heard Tarzan crying and immediately took off to save him, then she was determined to keep him regardless of what the leader said. I loved her strong maternal instinct.

My only problem would be with how quickly and how well Tarzan learned English. There have been cases where people have been found who have had no chance to learn a language as children and it is extremely difficult for them to learn it in adulthood. There’s an optimal period for language acquisition and Tarzan would’ve been well past it. He was good at mimicking noises, however, so it would make sense that he could copy the words he heard. But I can’t see how he would’ve been able to construct sentences at the level he did. Anyway, I know it’s a Disney film about talking apes and whatnot so I’ll not let this little thing get in the way of my rating of it.

8/10

Day 180: Confetti

In an attempt to win a house, three couples take part in a magazine competition that’s looking for the most original wedding. While working through their themes, each couple comes to understand their relationship in a new light.

For the wedding themes we had: Hollywood musicals, tennis, and naturist. The first and last sounded interesting but the second one was boring. Out of all the couples who auditioned (dinosaur couple, hello!), why oh why would you have picked the couple with the tennis theme? They are given the least attention by the wedding planners. That could’ve been because the theme was boring or because the couple were awful. Despite my issue with the theme, the actual wedding was kinda fun. I mean, I’d never have it myself but it wasn’t horrible. The naturist wedding was really sweet, and I’m so glad they stuck to their guns and were naked for it. The magazine bosses were completely against them being naked and it almost split the couple up but then they did what was right for them. The musical one sounded great in theory (I have a soft spot for musicals, I don’t know why) but the actual wedding just seemed far too much. If I was at a wedding that did this theme, I’d probably be cringing the entire way through.

The naturist couple, Joanna (Olivia Colman) and Michael (Robert Webb), had a difficult time in coming to an agreement on how the wedding should be. Michael had always been a naturist but Joanna was new to it, so she wasn’t entirely comfortable being naked in front of a lot of clothed strangers. He was completely inflexible about it, however, and just kept saying she was beautiful so should be fine with it. She did want to have a proper naturist wedding though and managed to find the confidence to go through with it.

The tennis couple, Isabelle (Meredith MacNeill) and Josef (Stephen Mangan), were just insufferable. If you knew people like them in real life, you’d never willingly associate with them. Obviously as tennis players they’re quite competitive but sadly they bring it into all aspects of their lives and don’t leave it on the court. He is quite insecure and he says in a counselling session that he’s worried she’ll realise that he’s not enough for her and can’t offer her anything. That does help to explain a lot of his behaviour but still didn’t convince me to root for them as a couple.

The musical couple, Sam (Jessica Hynes) and Matt (Martin Freeman), seemed to be the most secure couple. There were some stresses with Sam’s family but the couple stuck together through it. He helped her to find the confidence to stick up for herself and make the choices that she felt were right for the wedding, without giving in to pressure from her mum and sister. A musical theme seemed a bit out-there for them, considering neither of them could sing or dance. If I was to guess at their reason for picking it, it would probably have something to do with Sam always feeling like she’s in her sister’s shadow and her wedding day is a chance to do something big. And she did look like she really enjoyed it, so that was a good moment.

I wouldn’t watch the film again but it’s an easy film to watch if you’re looking to kill some time. There were some cute moments and the acting was alright.

6/10

Day 179: Sound of My Voice

A couple infiltrate a cult in order to expose them and potentially stop them from doing anything harmful to themselves or others. The leader, Maggie (Brit Marling), claims she is from the year 2054 and she offers peace and understanding to her followers.

Cults just seem fascinating. Strangers come together and share something so intimate with each other, all from a common belief. The depictions of cults that I’ve seen in fiction all seem to have quite close relationships between their members. They seem to offer that closeness that we can so often lack in our normal lives and it makes sense that people would be drawn to them. And it allows them to give up control. People claim to want freedom and to be in control of their own lives, but when it comes down to it, I’m pretty sure people would give up that control if it meant they’d be looked after. There is a freedom in having to make no choices and having absolutely no responsibilities. I’d argue that’s one of the main reasons children can enjoy themselves. They don’t have to plan ahead and sacrifice something they want for something they need. They have no control and they’re happier for it. I’m not saying we’d all be happy if we were completely restricted in everything we could do. We’d need the illusion of control otherwise we’d fight against it. In ‘The Fat Years’ (a book that explores China and its government), the author says that, given a choice, people will choose dictatorship over chaos. If our future is uncertain, we look for someone to help put it in order. We want to relinquish the demands placed upon us but at the same time we want to believe we chose that for ourselves. And I think that’s where cults shine.

This film was really well done. I like that we don’t know if she is actually a fraud or if she’s from the future. It was interesting to see the change in the couple who infiltrated the cult. Peter (Christopher Denham) was determined to expose the leader as a fraud but he became mesmerised by her after a few sessions. She had a way of seeming to understand what her followers kept within themselves and she managed to bring it out of them so that they could be free of what was trapping them. After helping Peter to confront his childhood trauma, you can see the change in him. He now wants to go to the sessions, not necessarily to help expose the cult, but in order to learn from Maggie. His girlfriend, Lorna (Nicole Vicius), originally seems to believe that Maggie may be who she says she is but after it becomes clear that Peter has been sucked into their world, she doubts the group and helps to bring Maggie down. Sometimes when the group was meeting, it all seemed so peaceful and I kind of understood how someone could willingly spend their time there. It scares me how easy it would probably be for me to join a cult.

8/10

Day 178: Into the Wild

Unwilling to live in a society of hypocrites, Christopher takes off to live in the wild. He wants the simple pleasures of waking up in the open air, with the sunshine above him and the dirt below. Through his journey he meets some great people and comes to an understanding of life.

I know a lot of people have a problem with this because he dies and so they think there’s no point to it but I’m not convinced that it matters that he died, what matters is how he spent his time when he was alive. For the majority of the film, he is quite happy to spend his time alone in the wild but that seems to be only when he has the choice to spend his life that way. When he ends up trapped in the wild and moments from death, he writes that happiness is only real when it’s shared. He had a wonderful time and he saw some beautiful things but in the end, he would’ve liked to have shared that with someone. It’s a shame that he had to die in order to realise that but even so, he didn’t seem to regret how he spent the rest of his time. It just doesn’t seem to matter that he dies at the end because he still enjoyed his life leading up to that point.

The film is based on the story of Christopher Johnson McCandless. When people talk about him, they seem to be split into two camps; hero or fool. I can understand the points for both sides but I’m not sure I see him as either. He decided to make a radical change in his lifestyle and he has some amazing experiences that a lot of people just won’t have, and that’s pretty amazing. He renounced materialism and went back to nature. That’s impressive, definitely. I would love to be able to do that but I don’t think I’d survive a week. And yes, he bought a book about which plants he could eat and ultimately ended up reading it wrong and then died, which could be considered foolish, yes. I just think he was brave for escaping the world so many of us complain about and for doing what he wanted to do, even if he did die as a result.

9/10

Day 177: The Fall

In a hospital in 1920s Los Angeles, Roy (Lee Pace) tells Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) a fantastical story so that she’ll fetch him morphine so he can kill himself. Alexandria thinks of Roy as her father and she’s devastated that he’s killing everyone off in the story and begs him to stop.

Roy's depression adds a wonderful layer to the relationship between him and Alexandria. She just wants to listen to him and for him to be alright but he can't seem to see through his own pain. In exchange for more story, Roy asks Alexandria to fetch him some morphine. The plan is for him to kill himself and he uses their friendship to try to make it happen. She ends up only getting him three pills though, after confusing the 'e' in morphine with '3'. He then asks her to get the morphine pills from the cabinet of someone else staying in the hospital and he takes them all but when he wakes up he realises they're sugar pills. She wants to make him happy so in the middle of the night she sneaks off to get another bottle for him but when she's reaching for it, she falls and ends up badly hurt. He is devastated that she was hurt while trying to help him and he sinks even further into his depression. He continues on with the story but he kills off the majority of the characters and they're both crying because they know what's coming next and he's determined to kill himself in the story but she begs him not to. He sees how much the story has affected her and he realises he does care for her, and so he doesn't die in the story and he doesn't kill himself in real life.

Such a beautiful film. Almost every shot is absolutely stunning and it really is a pleasure to watch the film just for that alone. I love the story and that she understands his sadness through it.

10/10

Day 176: 8 Women

In a grand house in France a man is killed and 8 women are the suspects. They can't escape the house (phone line is cut, car won't start) and so interrogate each other and uncover clues as to what might have happened. Each woman has something to hide and they are all suspicious of each other.

Such a campy dramarama film, I loved it. Everyone is over the top and there's spontaneous singing throughout. I can see how it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea but I personally loved it. The story is interesting and I liked that each woman had a story of their own. They all live together and they all manage to keep such amazing secrets. But at the same time, all their relationships are fraught and aggressive. They're all quick to point the finger.

8/10

Day 175: The Cave of the Yellow Dog

Nansal finds a dog inside a cave and takes him home with her. She is determined to keep him despite her parents telling her that she must take him back.

What a great film. The family are a real life family and their interactions seem genuine despite the artificial aspect of the filming. It is a slow film and nothing much happens in the way of drama (except, obviously, with the little boy) but it still managed to be interesting. I liked how the stories were told.

8/10