Well, what a luxury that was, to be invited to review a film on a Monday morning. There is something ridiculously indulgent about sitting in a cosy little theatre watching a film at the best of times, let alone on a Monday morning….there were lots of proper films critics there and, um….us. They were all poised as the lights went down with pen and paper or laptops at the ready – I, on the other hand came rushing in at the last minute and fumbled around for ten minutes in my bag to find pen and paper. It was pitch black. How is anyone supposed to write anything legible in the dark? If I start being invited to more film reviews (she says hopefully) then I am going to have to find a more professional way to take notes.
Look at the state of my notebook. I can’t read what I wrote and it looks like it’s been written by a three year old:-
Hopeless.
Anyway. The film. I don’t really need to give you the whole plot – I hate it when people give me too much information. Suffice to say it is a film divided fairly equally down the middle about a dysfunctional father/daughter relationship and baseball. Not just set against a backdrop of baseball. Lots of baseball.
Two friends came with me and we all loved it – we sat at the back together and sobbed. More than once. There are some very moving moments. Ageing parents being fairly topical for us. Illness. Relationships. Life. Mistakes. Misunderstandings. “What’s crawled up your ass?” somebody asks a grumpy old Clint in the bar one evening….”old age” he growls back.
There are a lot of cliches I have to say in the film and its all a little bit predictable in parts but that doesn’t take away from the feel good factor of the story and the heart of the overall film. My friend (who came out all bleary eyed and ready to phone her parents immediately) said “I am so glad I saw it and would hate someone to miss that pleasure, even if was a little too contrived and a bit cheesy in parts”.
This is very possibly the last Clint Eastwood film you are ever going to see and I think he’s brilliant in it. There are admittedly a few too many random threads that all get sewn up nice and neatly with a big pink bow at the end, but nevertheless, the acting was great. I loved Clint’s role as a grisly old man – he even growled like an old bear when he was particularly displeased.
Micky, his fiery, closed, workaholic of a daughter, played by Amy Adams has some good lines and they compliment each other well – Justin Timberlake was an interesting choice as the uncomplicated love interest and how lovely that Micky suddenly realised that life in the fast lane with a hot shot lawyer boyfriend was mind-numbingly irrelevant and shallow and therefore went instead for the decent human being with a heart.
The scenery was absolutely gorgeous – set in North and South Carolina. Inspiring. Makes me want to wear Daisy Dukes clothes and head off there myself in a big old Mustang. A quintessentially American film this was – bars and beer and baseball, and that was really very reassuring.
