Change Your Image
Bahorel
Reviews
This Is My Father (1998)
Beware Paul Quinn screenplays -- editing very necessary
Someone needs to be a little more careful next time -- I could have written this thing better than Paul Quinn.
Let me start by saying I actually did like the main story, though I thought they needed a younger actress and a more developed plot. It's the frame that made no sense. The frame, about James Caan and his nephew being in Ireland, was extraneous. I kept wondering what was up with the kid, and he seemed to be there only to break things up, not to add anything to the story. I quickly grew tired of Colm Meaney's character.
But once you fast forward through the entire frame, you get an excellent village love story. What it needed was a bit of clarification. How old the girl was came far too late, and we never really found out how old Aidan Quinn's character was supposed to be. Nothing came of the curse, which is a shame because its inclusion was highly realistic. And we needed more of the fantastic Stephen Rea. John Cusack's character seemed to have been invented just to get him into the film, but with some more development, I would have liked him.
The greatest flaw was that we never were allowed to understand how Aidan Quinn's character was an outsider. Obviously he was not a part of the community, but there had to have been something about him that would attract an intelligent seventeen year old. We never know why. It would have been a truly moving piece of work if we could understand their love.
As this film stands, we are left with pieces, nothing complete, nothing fully realised. And that is a tragedy. Performances cannot make up for gaping holes where true understanding could make this a moving piece of screenwriting. Some editing was all it needed.
Sharpe: Sharpe's Company (1994)
Best of the films
The wonderful thing about Sharpe's Company is that it can be viewed alone, and without knowledge of the novels, or it can be viewed in the series, or it can be viewed after reading the novel. Most of the other films, if one is familiar with the novels, seem to be "view at your own risk." Sharpe's Rifles springs to mind as one of those. But they got it right with Sharpe's Company. The plot is the same, just less time spent setting it up. Accuracy is a key element to this one (accurate to the novel, not the history). For historical purists, the reader's note Bernard Cornwell puts at the end of the novel is a necessity if one is familiar with the siege of Badajoz. As for the plot, fully formed, it actually makes sense, and, of course, the hero and his sidekick will have to live to fight another day. It's part of a series, and that always makes you feel good, since you know Sharpe and Harper aren't going to die. As for the rest, Hakeswill's first appearance is a delight, and Pete Postlethwaite outshines the rest of the cast. Sean Bean is, of course, in perfect character, but out acted by Daragh O'Malley. In short, Sharpe's Company is an excellent introduction to the Sharpe series, even though it is not meant to be the first, and a fitting addition wherever it belongs in the real order of things.