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halpen567
Reviews
Whatever Love Means (2005)
Witty and surprisingly moving
I started watching this with some scepticism, fully expecting it to be another soapy royal saga, but to my astonishment found it sensitively written and surprisingly perceptive. It didn't fall into the trap of being royal "spin" or the equally easy trap of being cheaply sensationalist - it just tried to understand what happened between the young Charles and Camilla without making glib judgements. As a result it was touching and funny and wholly absorbing, and in the end extremely moving.
The actors playing Charles and Camilla were excellent, helped by some of the best dialogue I've heard in ages - effortlessly witty at one moment, direct and emotional the next. And never ever falsely sentimental. Many congratulations to all concerned.
Too Good to Be True (2003)
painfully perceptive and scarily gripping
I thought this was wonderful. It was that rare thing, a completely successful thriller - disturbing, gripping, and by the end really edge-of-the-seat stuff - that also managed to be psychologically complex. It was about an ex-husband (happily remarried to the statutory younger woman) who seems to have an ideal relationship with his ex-wife - to the extent that he even goes on holiday with his ex and their two young kids. He's the perfect 21st century liberal divorced father....Until that his ex-wife meets another man, when jealousy starts to kick in. And we see the caring ex-husband and father gradually becoming obsessed both with his ex-wife and her new bloke, and trying to turn her against him. And maybe he has a point - because she met him on the internet and knows very little about him....So is the ex-husband's obsession justified? After all, he needs to protect his kids from this stranger- and also his ex-wife....
The gradual tightening of tension is done with complete psychological conviction, and a painful - and painfully common - contemporary situation is pushed into highly disturbing, nightmarish territory.
It's so good it should be made into a movie instantly!!!