After the first half-hour of this movie I could not finish it due to the idiocy of the plot and the unintentional unlikability of supposed 'nice' characters, but I felt like commenting anyway. Why? Who knows, but basically with everyone scared to say boo to a goose these days for fear of offending some professional whinger online, I'm gonna do my bit for freedom of speech and possibly slaughter some sacred cows along the way. You have been warned.
First of all, the elderly actress in this movie is a complete loon. We see her in a flashback dancing around like a twot and murmuring gibberish in front of a mirror. When I first saw this, I assumed she was in a care facility and the Jamie Bell character was there to take care of her. Oops. This is patently false... it would make far too much sense for this stupid screenplay.
Then she comes onto him, and it's very clear she has a completely overblown view of her own washed-up career. Sadly, Bell being the good-guy-dullard he is humours her at every turn, and by far my LEAST favourite scene where he 'dares' make the 'mistake' of thinking she'd play the nurse in Romeo and Juliet instead of the teenage star-crossed lover herself, she goes into a childish tantrum. This pathetic fit is only remedied by him kissing her passionately, before they start making out (thankfully we don't see it then, but this lack of sexual action is MORE than remedied in later scenes. Alas.)
Yes, this 20-something man is currently dating a woman who is old enough to be his gran. Now, the huge age difference is stomach-churning in itself (I'd feel EXACTLY the same way if it were an older man going out with a much younger girl, before I get any complaints), but the fact he chooses to go out with this preening, whiny, self-centred deranged old diva simply boggles the mind. Also apparently his parents are okay with it... they must be pinning their hopes on this mad lady having a fortune stashed away when she pops her clogs, which would subsequently be inherited by him. This is the only plausible reason why they'd be willing to accept this ludicrous 'relationship' so readily.
Double Standards abound: We find out she has four children by four different men... one of the fathers was a STEPSON she had. Ew. The way the director frames this, it's something we should admire(?) But when he confesses to her that he's 'bi-sexual' like it's the worst thing ever, he feels to need to repeatedly apologise like he'd been caught pushing a pram into heavy traffic. This facet of himself also has no relevance to anything else in the picture, which makes me think it was just part of a box-ticking exercise to satisfy all those politically correct numpties out there. In other words, an utterly pointless addition.
All throughout from what I saw of the film, he has to say sorry for for every little thing he does (including during that whole Juliet nonsense), whereas she monopolises the conversation, picks where they go out, insists on seeing him even when it isn't convenient... geez. Sounds very much like an abusive partnership to me. It got to the point where her inevitable death didn't look like a tragedy, more a chance for this poor downtrodden young man to cut his puppet strings and start a free life. Which I'm pretty sure isn't what the film was aiming for.
What's that, you ask? Anything I liked about it? Well, I love Julie Walters who plays Bell's mother... she's a great actress who does the most with her minimum scenes. Sadly, this was a double-edged sword... seeing them both together reminded me of a MUCH better film you might've heard of called Billy Elliot. I should've been watching that rather than tolerate an annoying harridan and her nice-but-dim toy-boy.
That's it. I'm outta here. Avoid like an Everton fan should a Merseyside Derby. Arf arf.
First of all, the elderly actress in this movie is a complete loon. We see her in a flashback dancing around like a twot and murmuring gibberish in front of a mirror. When I first saw this, I assumed she was in a care facility and the Jamie Bell character was there to take care of her. Oops. This is patently false... it would make far too much sense for this stupid screenplay.
Then she comes onto him, and it's very clear she has a completely overblown view of her own washed-up career. Sadly, Bell being the good-guy-dullard he is humours her at every turn, and by far my LEAST favourite scene where he 'dares' make the 'mistake' of thinking she'd play the nurse in Romeo and Juliet instead of the teenage star-crossed lover herself, she goes into a childish tantrum. This pathetic fit is only remedied by him kissing her passionately, before they start making out (thankfully we don't see it then, but this lack of sexual action is MORE than remedied in later scenes. Alas.)
Yes, this 20-something man is currently dating a woman who is old enough to be his gran. Now, the huge age difference is stomach-churning in itself (I'd feel EXACTLY the same way if it were an older man going out with a much younger girl, before I get any complaints), but the fact he chooses to go out with this preening, whiny, self-centred deranged old diva simply boggles the mind. Also apparently his parents are okay with it... they must be pinning their hopes on this mad lady having a fortune stashed away when she pops her clogs, which would subsequently be inherited by him. This is the only plausible reason why they'd be willing to accept this ludicrous 'relationship' so readily.
Double Standards abound: We find out she has four children by four different men... one of the fathers was a STEPSON she had. Ew. The way the director frames this, it's something we should admire(?) But when he confesses to her that he's 'bi-sexual' like it's the worst thing ever, he feels to need to repeatedly apologise like he'd been caught pushing a pram into heavy traffic. This facet of himself also has no relevance to anything else in the picture, which makes me think it was just part of a box-ticking exercise to satisfy all those politically correct numpties out there. In other words, an utterly pointless addition.
All throughout from what I saw of the film, he has to say sorry for for every little thing he does (including during that whole Juliet nonsense), whereas she monopolises the conversation, picks where they go out, insists on seeing him even when it isn't convenient... geez. Sounds very much like an abusive partnership to me. It got to the point where her inevitable death didn't look like a tragedy, more a chance for this poor downtrodden young man to cut his puppet strings and start a free life. Which I'm pretty sure isn't what the film was aiming for.
What's that, you ask? Anything I liked about it? Well, I love Julie Walters who plays Bell's mother... she's a great actress who does the most with her minimum scenes. Sadly, this was a double-edged sword... seeing them both together reminded me of a MUCH better film you might've heard of called Billy Elliot. I should've been watching that rather than tolerate an annoying harridan and her nice-but-dim toy-boy.
That's it. I'm outta here. Avoid like an Everton fan should a Merseyside Derby. Arf arf.