pauraque_bk (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pauraque_bk) wrote2004-04-09 10:32 am
pauraque_bk) wrote2004-04-09 10:32 am
Secret Window :: Survivor
Oh, and I suppose you all think you're very special for going and having fun at a convention without me? *sob*
Well, as it happens, I managed to have some real-life fun over the weekend too.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
keladryb is visiting, so we got together and talked fandom, wandered about the east bay, and (eventually) saw Secret Window. While drinking, I think I may have agreed to write West Wing femslash. It was that kind of night.
But of course, I must answer the burning question: Beyond the undeniable appeal of DisheveledIntellectual!Johnny, is Secret Window actually any good?
Yeah, a bit.
I admit I was rather taken with all the Disgruntled Writer stuff, the talking to the dog, the mumbling at the laptop. "This is just-- this is just bad writing." Hee. The actors were all good, and I was always entertained. There were also some interesting symbolic shots I liked -- as when Mort is watching Amy and Ted in the rear-view mirror: "objects in mirror are closer than they appear". Indeed!
I figured out the twist early on (as didkeladryb), but I still thought the scene where it was revealed was very effective -- easily the best of the film, and the only one that really broke out of the box.
The ending sequence, I thought, could have been much more effective. Too many elements seemed recycled from The Shining, and the story suddenly switched to the "safe" route of sympathizing with the victim, when for the previous hour and a half we've been (knowingly or unknowingly) sympathizing with the killer! That was really what I wanted to see -- I wasn't invested in whether Amy and Ted lived or died, but in what was going on in Mort's head.
The main difficulty was probably that the movie was too long for the story. There really aren't that many plot elements in it, so we were given too much time to figure out the ending. It would have worked as, say, a 45-minute short.
In a nutshell: Diverting, but not great.
*
I don't have much to say about Survivor last night, except that the shot at tribal council with the rain pouring down, where Rob is talking "to everyone" but really at Lex, and Amber is sitting between them soaking-wet and miserable in the bottom row -- that was a really, really good scene, dramatically speaking.
Well, as it happens, I managed to have some real-life fun over the weekend too.
keladryb is visiting, so we got together and talked fandom, wandered about the east bay, and (eventually) saw Secret Window. While drinking, I think I may have agreed to write West Wing femslash. It was that kind of night.But of course, I must answer the burning question: Beyond the undeniable appeal of DisheveledIntellectual!Johnny, is Secret Window actually any good?
Yeah, a bit.
I admit I was rather taken with all the Disgruntled Writer stuff, the talking to the dog, the mumbling at the laptop. "This is just-- this is just bad writing." Hee. The actors were all good, and I was always entertained. There were also some interesting symbolic shots I liked -- as when Mort is watching Amy and Ted in the rear-view mirror: "objects in mirror are closer than they appear". Indeed!
I figured out the twist early on (as did
keladryb), but I still thought the scene where it was revealed was very effective -- easily the best of the film, and the only one that really broke out of the box.The ending sequence, I thought, could have been much more effective. Too many elements seemed recycled from The Shining, and the story suddenly switched to the "safe" route of sympathizing with the victim, when for the previous hour and a half we've been (knowingly or unknowingly) sympathizing with the killer! That was really what I wanted to see -- I wasn't invested in whether Amy and Ted lived or died, but in what was going on in Mort's head.
The main difficulty was probably that the movie was too long for the story. There really aren't that many plot elements in it, so we were given too much time to figure out the ending. It would have worked as, say, a 45-minute short.
In a nutshell: Diverting, but not great.
*
I don't have much to say about Survivor last night, except that the shot at tribal council with the rain pouring down, where Rob is talking "to everyone" but really at Lex, and Amber is sitting between them soaking-wet and miserable in the bottom row -- that was a really, really good scene, dramatically speaking.