Reviews

Well, rarely have I seen a period movie of such poor standard. A period piece from 1994, I might add. One would think it had been filmed in the early 80s where stories were often quite naïve.

The robes were magnificent and Isabelle Adjani looks like a perfect porcelain doll but the acting, the storytelling, the editing - they were all horrendous.

Picture one of those romantic novels with undeveloped shallow characters you enjoyed when you were 12 and make one of them into a movie - this is the excact feeling I got when I watched La Reine Margot.

SPOILER (Except without the usual happy endings those novels used to give you of course).

The only positive comment this movie will get from me is that Vincent Perez looked incredibly sexy and hot and his final scene was quite heartbreaking. For that alone I will give this poorly made movie 2 out of 10 stars. It really shouldn't get any.

Henry Roth (Billy Crudup) writes books for children all the while suffering from the ramifications of a childhood with a missing father and an abusive, probably violent, mother. He has a bit of an OCD problem as well.

His mentor, best friend, and parent replacement, is Rudy Holt (Tom Wilkinson), who illustrates Henry's books. When Rudy dies, Henry is devastated. He keeps imagining seeing Rudy, thus continuing to let 'Rudy' tell him how to handle Life. Something Henry is not very good at at his own.

He is teamed up by his publisher Planck (Bob Balaban) with a new illustrator, Lucy (Mandy Moore). In the beginning, he treats her like he would anybody else, which means mean, but it becomes very clear that she is a nice person and quickly he begins to like her. But he doesn't know how to break the habit of being strange and sarcastic. (Anybody who's been shy and hurt knows that being rude or weird is a perfect way to stay safe; to keep people away from the core).

Here is what he tells her in one long hilarious monologue which conveyed by the brilliant Billy Crudup comes out exasperated, hesitantly and too fast all at the same time and with a voice that is nearly broken , due to the fact that he has realized that he's told her far too much:

"I hate my mother I hate my goddamn dead father more, Rudy was the only friend I ever had, I had a girlfriend once who I used to like to masturbate to more than have sex with, carrots and snakes frighten me um I'm superstitious about the numbers (3. 5. 7) I can only stir things counter-clockwise and I know that if I don't something bad will happen, I take a size 11 and a half shoe I don't have a favorite book, I don't drive or ride in cars, statistically speaking you have a 100% chance of being in an accident in your lifetime, they're death boxes, I give to Amnesty International on the off chance that I'm ever imprisoned and tortured for my political beliefs, paradoxically I have no political beliefs, um Life is pain, black kids are cuter than white ones, I didn't mean it when I compared you to our waitress I was only trying to hurt you, I could've been meaner about your looks and what I would have said would've made you cry, I have a towel I can't throw out because it may have feelings, when I ejaculate I go into deep depressions, though by any standard you're a nice person I deeply resent having to work with you, I love Japanese monster movies, Gamera specifically.."

Ultimately, it's a love story told in a funny, quirky way and with great performances by Billy Crudup, Tom Wilkinson, not to mention Bob Balaban. Mandy Moore does a good job as well.

Oh, and Life at its best is a love story, isn't it?

Billy Crudup plays Ed Kynaston - a male actor portraying women on stage in the late 1600s and frankly Crudup's acting just blew me away. He made me laugh, cry, sigh, and shake with emotions.

The movie is not pretending that a homosexual can be "cured" or should be cured if he "gives it a go" with a real woman as some silly critics claim.

Ed Kynaston is - if anything - a bisexual. His androgynous behavior is the result of part that and of a childhood spent learning how to be a woman.

He has been taught that he is not worth anything as a man but as a woman he can be worth admiration or love. Or so he believes until Claire Danes' character Maria tells him differently.

SPOILER Crudup portrays the emotionally confused man and his downfall wonderfully. And I do not mind the love-like story between Crudup and Claire Danes at all. The romance only adds that little extra to make me walk away from this movie pleased on all levels. And it is not a HEA ending - Kynaston is not "cured" or truly in love with Maria in the end. But he is finally a whole person. And she has become an actress during the process.

Watch it !