Athersgeo Film Review
Jan. 8th, 2005 01:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
athersgeoHaven't done too many of these recently - though I do have an absolute stack of DVDs to watch so you can probably expect a few more of these in the next few weeks. Today's subject, Chasing Liberty.
Well, where to start?
It's a nice almost old Hollywood screwball romance. It's funny without making me cringe and quite a sweet (without being too sacharine) story. It's also a double-barrel romance, and the secondary love story, between the two chasing agents is as well done as the primary romance.
I'll deal with the problems I have first: The main one is that I just cannot buy that the first daughter is really that recognised around the world. Certain sections of the movie depend on her being recognisable and I really don't think it works that well. Sure, the movie makes a big play of showing that Anna is well known and does photo ops and stuff - so within the movie, I guess it works - but I just can't match it in real life.
Which is a pity, because the rest of the movie makes sense pitched against real life.
The other major niggle is the ending. To be fair, it could have been a heck of a lot worse and very, very cliched, BUT it could have been a lot better.
Ah well. On to what I did like. Which, to be honest? Was most of it. Anna could have come off as a real whining bratty kid but she didn't - she was understandably fed up with her decidedly paranoid father. Actually that was a minor irritation - I couldn't work out whether her father was that paranoid because there'd been some off-camera threat to her or because he was being an over protective dad. The over protective dad works to a point, but I think a real threat might have made for a more interesting/better climax rather than having it hinge on the whole 'being recognised' thing. *promptly squashes a plot bunny*
Then there's Ben (if you can imagine Hugh Grant's stock character crossed with Oz from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that's more or less Ben!), who is just adorable. He starts out as very reluctantly being along for the adventure - basically only going because he's told he's going [more on that in a sec] - and gradually gets more and more into it...and all the while knowing he shouldn't be!
And so to the climax. See, Anna, the first daughter, is running away from her dad's idea of a little public security [filling a club with agents]. She runs into Ben who...the audience discovers, is an agent himself. Anna, needless to state, doesn't find out until they finally reach Berlin (from Prague, via Venice [and you need to see the film to find out just why they go the long route but it does work out very nicely!]). Anna only finds out what Ben's day job is when she over hears him on the phone. She runs off and into trouble, Ben saves her and puts her back into the arms of the agents she ran away from so that she can go home.
At which point the film more or less stops. There's no real sense of fallout from Anna's adventures; there's no consequences for either her or Ben. There's a random scene of Anna at Harvard and then there's Christmas [the film moves four or five months in two scenes!] where her dad suddenly seems rather gungho about the idea of his daughter spending a semester in Britain, studying - which really doesn't make sense considering how the movie starts - and he even tells her that, by the way, Ben's left the CIA and is in London now. That was a swerve I didn't expect (I figured Ben was going to come walking in to the Oval office and that would be the happy ending), but the happy ending was just a rather pointless establishing shot of the Thames away.
Overall, and despite the nits, this is an enjoyable and sweet little movie.
Well, where to start?
It's a nice almost old Hollywood screwball romance. It's funny without making me cringe and quite a sweet (without being too sacharine) story. It's also a double-barrel romance, and the secondary love story, between the two chasing agents is as well done as the primary romance.
I'll deal with the problems I have first: The main one is that I just cannot buy that the first daughter is really that recognised around the world. Certain sections of the movie depend on her being recognisable and I really don't think it works that well. Sure, the movie makes a big play of showing that Anna is well known and does photo ops and stuff - so within the movie, I guess it works - but I just can't match it in real life.
Which is a pity, because the rest of the movie makes sense pitched against real life.
The other major niggle is the ending. To be fair, it could have been a heck of a lot worse and very, very cliched, BUT it could have been a lot better.
Ah well. On to what I did like. Which, to be honest? Was most of it. Anna could have come off as a real whining bratty kid but she didn't - she was understandably fed up with her decidedly paranoid father. Actually that was a minor irritation - I couldn't work out whether her father was that paranoid because there'd been some off-camera threat to her or because he was being an over protective dad. The over protective dad works to a point, but I think a real threat might have made for a more interesting/better climax rather than having it hinge on the whole 'being recognised' thing. *promptly squashes a plot bunny*
Then there's Ben (if you can imagine Hugh Grant's stock character crossed with Oz from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that's more or less Ben!), who is just adorable. He starts out as very reluctantly being along for the adventure - basically only going because he's told he's going [more on that in a sec] - and gradually gets more and more into it...and all the while knowing he shouldn't be!
And so to the climax. See, Anna, the first daughter, is running away from her dad's idea of a little public security [filling a club with agents]. She runs into Ben who...the audience discovers, is an agent himself. Anna, needless to state, doesn't find out until they finally reach Berlin (from Prague, via Venice [and you need to see the film to find out just why they go the long route but it does work out very nicely!]). Anna only finds out what Ben's day job is when she over hears him on the phone. She runs off and into trouble, Ben saves her and puts her back into the arms of the agents she ran away from so that she can go home.
At which point the film more or less stops. There's no real sense of fallout from Anna's adventures; there's no consequences for either her or Ben. There's a random scene of Anna at Harvard and then there's Christmas [the film moves four or five months in two scenes!] where her dad suddenly seems rather gungho about the idea of his daughter spending a semester in Britain, studying - which really doesn't make sense considering how the movie starts - and he even tells her that, by the way, Ben's left the CIA and is in London now. That was a swerve I didn't expect (I figured Ben was going to come walking in to the Oval office and that would be the happy ending), but the happy ending was just a rather pointless establishing shot of the Thames away.
Overall, and despite the nits, this is an enjoyable and sweet little movie.
Funny coincidence
Date: 2005-01-08 04:29 pm (UTC)It's hard to know whether the president's daughter would be recognizable or not--I certainly knew what Chelsea Clinton looked like during her father's administration, but I doubt I could pick out the Bush twins in a crowd. And I live here ;)
But it was a fun, cute movie. ;) Especially for one without any spaceships or dragons or anything. :)
Re: Funny coincidence
Date: 2005-01-08 07:29 pm (UTC)But yes, you're right - for a movie with no fantasy elements at all, it's definitely cute and fun :) (And I really can't complain too much about Ben; nice eye candy!!!)