Sense and Sensibility review

 Number 580 on the top 1000 films of all time is Ang Lee's 1995 period drama 'Sense and Sensibility.'

Based on Jane Austen's book of the same name, Sense and Sensibility follows the Dashwood sisters: Elinor (Emma Thompson) and Marianne (Kate Winslet) after their father (Tom Wilkinson) dies leaving them penniless. To guarantee their financial security, they must marry. Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman) and Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant) are their respective suitors.

In completing this challenge, I naturally watch a lot of films and genres that I would have no interest in otherwise. But I aim to watch these with an open mind. Unfortunately, I have never been a fan of period dramas or Jane Austen. I know...I know, I'm a culturally ignorant philistine, but they're so boring. And Sense and Sensibility was no exception. The characters are so far removed from me that I would never relate to them. And the dialogue was as verbose and stuffy as I would expect any adaptation from an nineteenth century book. Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay and she went onto the win the Oscar. Good for her; in some ways she was a trailblazer for women, like Jane Austen before her. I'm just never going to care about a bunch of rich white people having rich white people problems.

The drama and the stakes were so unbelievably low that there was never any dramatic tension. Nothing exciting happens. Nothing happens. I couldn't have cared less about the Dashwood sisters, so I wasn't particularly bothered whether they went destitute or not. Elinor was slightly less annoying than Marianne who spends most of the film being carried around by the male leads. One point she falls and twists her ankle, but you would think that she's just witnessed a murder. At the end of the film, she runs off into the torrential rain and catches pneumonia causing a big trouble to the rest of the characters. But I guess that's what Marianne is supposed to be like whereas Elinor is more sensible and headstrong.

For me, the one saving grace of this film was Hugh Laurie who had a small but scene-stealing role of Mr Palmer. He and Imelda Staunton, who plays Mrs Palmer, provide a bit of light relief with funny, sarcastic jabs to one another. I say light relief, the film doesn't really need it. It's hardly a dramatic thriller, now, is it? 

I remember when my sisters dragged me to see the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in the cinema. I was so disinterested that I actively slept through the whole film. I should have the done same with Sense and Sensibility. I wouldn't have missed anything.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street review

 Number 800 on the top 1000 films of all time is Tim Burton's musical horror: 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.'

Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) better known as Sweeney Todd is a barber who has just been released from prison into Victorian London. He was wrongfully imprisoned by the corrupt judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) to steal away with his wife. With the help of pie-maker Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter,) he schemes to take his revenge, while also murdering his customers and processing their bodies into meat corpses. Timothy Spall and Sacha Baron Cohen co-star.

Originally based on the same character who appeared in the lurid penny dreadfuls that were all the rage in Victorian London, Tim Burton brilliantly captured the atmosphere and effect of these serialised stories. He created a dark, gothic world full of sensationalised violence. The colour scheme is dark and muted only punctuated by the red blood that spurts from the necks of Todd's victims. It is melodramatic and over-the-top, but that's what you can expect from such crude source material. Depp and Carter are also suitably over-the-top with their characters bordering on the campy at times.

I can respect the film for what it is and what it was trying to do, but it really wasn't for me. I find musicals very hit-and-miss and Sweeney Todd definitely missed for me. It was entertaining enough, but the songs really slowed the pace down to a crawl. Todd wasted a lot of time singing when he could have been taking his revenge on Turpin instead. And the songs were hardly the most inspired either. It was just like the character's dialogue was set to music. 

I'm sure Sweeney Todd  would excite lovers of musicals, but it really did little for me.