Friday, July 29, 2011

Catching up with the past

In an environment when even the twenty-four news cycle has been replaced by the immediacy of live website feeds and twitter, it can seem not just old hat but positively antique to discuss events that have occurred several weeks ago. Numerous films I have seen but have not commented upon – I could discourse greatly on the King’s Speech (which I saw twice) but have left it so long it has now been released on DVD. Although there are a few anachronisms and can’t believe Colin’s Firth’s Bertie (later George) would not know his family history or his father would be so prescient on events that were far from apparent at the alleged date he made it, it was an immensely engaging movie, especially for history buffs watching out for famous quotes being trotted out, dealing with triumph over adversity. Well worth the Oscars it garnered. The Fighter, although seemingly totally unconnected in time and social milieu, also dealt with someone overcoming handicaps, of their own and those that others impose. I watched it on a whim rather than any pre-determination that I would see it on the basis of hype or reviews and it was an astounding ‘discovery’. Great acting plus interesting twist on an old plot. All in all, a worthy return for director David O. Russell after a few years in the doldrums. True Grit was a flick I saw motivated by what others said about it especially regarding Jeff Bridges performance. True enough, the delivery was top notch by the cast – you really believed in the characters. My main trouble was that (aside from an irritating black line that danced across the middle of the screen for most of the running time distracting from the immense openness of the prairies – was this the only reel the cinema had available?) it all felt a bit reductive. This maybe a deliberate ploy of the Coen brothers, to suggest there are no easy resolutions and life just goes on, whatever one’s circumstances happen to be. It is a running thread through most of their productions, yet I must say, while admiring the craft, it leaves me unmoved. Even their most lauded creations, Fargo and No Country for Old Men, haven’t done anything for me in terms of engagement. Not having seen the John Wayne original, I couldn’t make a comparison.
Now, more recent, Lord Sugar probably got bored of hiring people who didn’t last their contractual period or who did but then quit the business on their own initiative to do their own thing. Then again, perhaps a reality format isn’t the best way to decide who to appoint as underlings. That is why it makes sense for him to go into business with the winner as a 50/50 partner. As usual, there were some incredibly stupid blunders by the participants. I’m glad Tom won - of the last five, he was my pick on a personal preferment though I though Susan would be a strong rival. As it was, in the final two, (after Jedi Jim fell away – I was disappointed that it was not alluded to in the review show that Jedi mind tricks only work on the weak-minded – Star Wars fans indeed), he faced off against the formidable Helen. She, however, had produced a very underwhelming business proposal and the compounded the error by at the last moment abandoning it in favour of her ‘second choice’, even though she could produce no facts or figures on the spur of the moment for this second choice. From the second she did not defend her original concierge idea to the hilt, Tom had won. So we had, in essence, a very elongated version of Dragons Den, where someone will win an investment, even though Sugar junked Tom’s plan to go into offices to stress test people’s backs and on the review show, pretty much said the chair was not what he was after, more he would be developing Tom’s nail file enterprise. For the sake of success, let’s hope Tom’s business plan doesn’t relate to the history of literature (“Byron was writing at about the same time as Shakespeare, wasn’t he”) or the Age of Dsicovery (“Columbus – he was British wasn’t he? Didn’t he discover the potato?” No Tom, Columbus ‘discovered’ America and Raleigh was associated with the potato).

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