Film Reviews - Cathering Called Birdy and Rosalind

[shadowkat]

Nope, no side-effects, except for sore arm.

Kind of crashed today, outside of a side trip to Foodtown to pick up groceries.

Watched two flicks adapted from books, released first in theaters then on streaming:

1. Catherine Called Birdy - directed/produced/and adapted screenplay by Lena Durham.

Mother: How was it?
Me: I fell asleep during it.
Mother: So not that great?
Me: I liked the ending well enough, also could follow it rather well, without any rewinding considering I dosed off during about thirty minutes of it.

It's badly paced. Also it's a coming of age tale about a fourteen year old girl (set during medieval times) who is trying to dodge an arranged marriage set up by her loving father to an old codger to get money.

Me: There's the gay male best friend trope. Which is in all of these movies now. And I'm not sure it works with the medieval setting.
Mother: When is this set?
Me: Medieval Times (as in 1212 or the 13th Century).
Mother: You're right - that is odd. Although there were rulers back then that were, but if they were open about it..they'd probably be killed.
Me: Exactly - especially considering Religion was King back then.

There's also a lot of African women in the film - and I'm not certain they'd have been married to English Landowners in the 13th Century. It's not that I don't appreciate the diversity - I do. But this was the 13th Century - it was hard to get around back then. And people back then were even more bigoted, superstitious, and nasty to outsiders than they are now. Maybe the Uncle, who has brought his wife back from the Crusades. But it jarred me, personally, and took me out of the movie.

I may be wrong about this - since I'm neither a historian nor a medievalist - but I'd think this film would be jarring to people who are? It felt very modern to me, with the exception of arranged marriages for 14year olds in exchange for money - that's very 13th Century.

All of that said, some strong performances, an appealing lead, and an unrecognizable Billie Piper as the mother. (I honestly did not recognize her until I saw the credits.)

This is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

2. Rosalind - film is by 20th Century Fox, and currently streaming on Hulu. Also it was in theaters too apparently for a blink of an eye. Has a decent enough cast, I guess. But is rather...dumb?

Apparently somebody out there doesn't like Romeo and Juliet? Because this kind of skewers the play and trope. It's about Rosalind, the woman that Romeo was obsessed with before he ran into Juliette at a party and fell in love with her, or they fell for each other.

Prior to meeting Juliet, Romeo is busy romancing Rosalind, who enjoys it and fancies herself in love with him, except she's a bit smarter than he is, and Juliet for that matter. When he preaches undying love, and states how lovely things will be when they are living together in the country, where she's tending his house and raising the kids, while he concentrates on his poetry.

Rosalind: Uh, wait a minute. You're going to be writing poetry while I'm changing the diapers? That's how you see us?
Romeo: Yeah, what's wrong with that? I love you, don't you love me?
Rosaling: ...

They kind break up right there. But she's discombobulated about it. And not sure what happened. She convinces him to meet up with her at the Capulet Ball and they can dance, have fun, and work things out there.

Meanwhile her father keeps thrusting men at her - to marry. The latest is a hot Venetian Solider, recently returned from War intact. Dario. Who basically makes Romeo look like a wet behind the ears school boy. (I'm thinking, Rosalind forget about Romeo and grab this dude, he's much better.)

Rosalind is too busy worrying over Romeo moving on to Juliet to notice.

Mother: So what is it about?
Me: It's kind of Taming of the Shrew meets Rome & Juliet by way of My Best Friend's Wedding..
Mother: That's an odd combination.
Me: Yep, and I don't think it quite works.

I gave up half-way through - because I got bored. Called mother. Then came back to it. It's a bit too contemporary for the time-period. Rosalind basically gives all the speeches that Paris did in the play, and Paris is "gay" in this version. Once again we have the "gay best friend" motif.
I'd have gone for Mercutio over Paris being gay - but that admittedly wouldn't have worked for the plot.

The second half is slightly better than the first half. But a lot of it felt thrown together. And rushed. As if the actors were being told to do this and to do that - and they rushed to do it. And that's the take that they used. I can almost see their reactions to the film..."Wait, you used that shot? Really? I was phoning it in - I thought that was the dress rehearsal shot." Which can be a problem with film - if rushed, the filmmaker will often take the shot that works best in regards to lighting, etc.

I say that because there's a scene at the end in which all the actors have delayed reaction times. And many are veteran screen actors.

Christopher George (Capulet): Is there a Doctor in the house? I want proof.
Minnie Driver (after a pause) - I am.
Rosalind's father: wait are you qualified?
Minnie Driver: I'm a bloody registered nurse.
Rosalind's Father: I thought that was just your name.

This would have been funnier - if the exchange was faster. It's delivered kind of slowly, with delayed reaction time, which is kind of jarring.

I think the movie was meant to be a rom-com, but it didn't make me laugh.

It's okay, but not recommended. I was rather disappointed by it to be honest.


Of the two - Catherine Called Birdy was slightly better. Both had pacing issues and both were disappointing in my opinion.