Change Your Image
connorblake
Reviews
Pavilion of Women (2001)
Director/producer should have read book
Am I the only one out here who read 'Pavilion of Women'? This film took a great book and what would have been a fantastic female role and turned them both into porridge. In the book, the relationship between Brother Andre and Madame Wu was that of a wise teacher and a brilliant pupil until, literally, the day he died: it wasn't until that day that she realized that she loved him. Pavilion of Women is not a 'romance': it is the awakening of a woman to her own humanity, and, through the transforming power of love, to the humanity of others, whom she has previously regarded only as problems to be solved or duties to be performed. To turn it into a 'romance' is an insult to the author, Pearl Buck, who, for the record, did not write Harlequin-level trash, and the audience, who would have been quite capable of understanding the story as it was originally written. Whoever's responsible for foisting this 'dumbed-down' mess on the universe should be ashamed of themselves.
Shallow Hal (2001)
If a paediatric burn ward amuses you, rush to see this movie.
If I'd known this movie came from the people responsible for 'Dumb and Dumber", I'd have passed: sheer crudity doesn't amuse me. Unfortunately, I didn't. The writers apparently thought they were being terribly relevant, but I think there'd have been some radical re-writes if any of them ever spent a week in that 'fat' suit and got a taste of their 'broken chair' jokes from the receiving end. And there's nothing amusing about burned children, as any paedatric practitioner or any parent of a burned child would vehemently testify: using that burn ward as a setting was simply tastelessness beyond description. As to the movie's supposed reflection of reality, it flops there as well. In reality, Hal would have been quite willing to concede Rosie a lovely person, but he'd have known he was going to cringe every time he introduced her, and gone on hunting something with "skin like cream and a chest fit for a herd of cows." (Terry Pratchett) To anyone who thinks I was offended because I'm obese -- sorry, no, not any more. I dropped thirty pounds and started getting calls from people who wouldn't give me the time of day the year before. My response was "Sorry, sugar. I wasn't good enough for you then; you're not good enough for me now." Some seriously shocked responses from people who'd expected me to be grateful for their attention. Why anyone would be expected to be grateful for attention from that kind of person, I never did figure out.
If this movie has a message, it's that if you differ from the norm -- and the norm here is 'movie-beautiful' -- only a saint could learn to love you. All I can say is 'Dumb and Dumber' are both Dumbest -- and that's the last movie of theirs I'll ever see.