Having been too busy lately to so much as watch a DVD from Netflix (I’ve really been wasting that money), I overindulged over the weekend. My younger son and I went to see "Next," then I went straight home to watch the rental that had come of "The Queen." Brief thoughts:
- Next was better than expected, but it had this problem — if a guy can see his own future for two minutes out, how can he change it? If he changes it, that means it doesn’t happen, which means it isn’t actually his future, so how can he see it? What he should be seeing is himself changing it, and what happens instead as a result. But how could he act to change it if he didn’t see it, because it was never going to happen? I could see him winning at cards, because all he has to do is bet differently, knowing what cards are coming, but not changing the cards that are coming. In that case, he would probably see himself winning, because that’s his actual future. But dodging bullets? Preventing his girlfriend from getting blown up? I don’t think so. My son told me that this wasn’t a problem, that if I read more comic books I’d get it, but I don’t know. The whole time paradox was treated better in "The Final Countdown" (although what that title had to do with the actual film, I don’t know). It was very satisfactory right up until the time that — WARNING: PLOT SPOILER — the Nimitz was about to fight off the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, then they got snatched back to 1980. I guess they didn’t have a big enough budget for more than two Mitsubishis, or the writers just got too confused to go on.
- The Queen was more or less as good as I had expected, which was quite. I don’t know about you, but I cheered for Her Majesty’s position all the way through. I will never, ever understand the tears and flapdoodle that seemed universal over the death of her ex-daughter-in-law. I understand it no better than I do the appeal of reality TV, or the idiots who bit their fingernails hoping Michael Jackson would be acquited. Of course, it’s all the same thing. Diana was a lovely young woman — graceful, sweet-looking. But give me the I-grew-up-during-the-war, stiff-upper-lip approach every time. Grief should be private, and what business do total strangers have grieving anyway? Lowering a flag at Buckingham, when the queen wasn’t even there, meaning there should be no standard anyway? It was idiocy, and she shouldn’t have been compelled to give in to it. I was much bothered by the way his role made Tony Blair look like a shallow twit through much of the film — the pandering apologist to celebrity-soaked, trashy sentimentalism — but when he got a little backbone and defended his sovereign from first his wife, then his churlish press aide, he seemed more like the Tony I admire so. Elizabeth was bound to lose her battle for a little dignity, of course, especially with her whiny scrub of a son undermining her, but I admire her for holding out as long as she did.
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Good word that, "scrub."
Any Aubrey-Maturin fans out there? There was a rather disappointing film, although it would have been all right if I hadn’t been such a fan of the books.
Brad, it’s been a while since I saw “The Queen,” but I did not get that impression of Blair portrayed as shallow early in the film. In any case, any film/play/book worth its salt has to show multiple aspects of a personality. I thought the early moments of Blair were more about his populism, his telegenic-ness, his very un-traditional-for-a-British-politician “people’s touch” not unlike Bill Clinton.
There would have been no story to film unless the slick politician/populist Blair was able (via his innate respect for/understanding of the need for the institution of the monarchy) to convince the Queen to meet him halfway.
For me and many other viewers I’m sure, there was a tremendously elegiac aspect to the portrayal of the heady optimism rampant in Britain at the time of Blair’s election…that is to say, seeing the character of Blair onscreen in that period knowing what we now know about the cloud under which he leaving as this film is released.
Hi guys. The only difference between a rut and a grave… is in their dimensions.
I am from Jamaica and , too, and now am writing in English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “”
😀 Thanks in advance. Zosia.