James Piper, Author

Movies Watched in June 2007 1. 2007/06/01 Battle of the Bulge. War. (1965, 167 mins.) NR 2. 2007/06/02 Battleground. War. (1949, 118 mins.) NR 3. 2007/06/03 The Age of Innocence. Drama. (1993, 139 mins.) NR 4. 2007/06/04 Pat and Mike. Romantic Comedy. (1952, 95 mins.) NR 5. 2007/06/05 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. Action. (1980, 124 mins.) NR 6. 2007/06/06 A Raisin in the Sun. Drama. (1961, 128 mins.) NR 7. 2007/06/07 World Trade Center. Drama. (2006, 129 mins.) NR 8. 2007/06/08 Beloved. Drama. (1998, 172 mins.) NR 9. 2007/06/08 Wag The Dog. Comedy. (1997, 97 mins.) NR 10. 2007/06/09 The Remains of the Day. Drama. (1993, 134 mins.) NR 11. 2007/06/12 Erin Brockovitch. Drama. (2000, 132 mins.) NR 12. 2007/06/13 Marie Antoinette (1938). Drama. (1938, 157 mins.) NR 13. 2007/06/14 Troy. Drama. (2004, 163 mins.) NR 14. 2007/06/15 Bon Cop, Bad Cop. Comedy. (2006, 116 mins.) *** 15. 2007/06/16 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Action. (1997, 178 mins....

Sunday, June 24, 2007 A Good Woman. Feature film. (2004, 93 mins) IMDB ... Adapting a play for film is never an easy task ... O ne has to wonder how, in adapting a play to film, they can change locations (England to Italy), centuries (1890's to 1930's), nationalities (British to US) and heros (Lady Windermere to Mrs. Erlynne) and expect it to resonant as the play does. It can happen, but not with A Good Woman --a 2006 feature film starring Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson. I almost believe the brain trust behind the film saw A Month by the Lake with Venessa Redgrave and wanted a similar movie. They thought about it and came up with Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermere's Fan instead of an original story. It's based on the play, but they shouldn't have bothered. The play addresses two issues: satirizing the British upper class and illustrating the manner in which most humans jump to conclusions often to their own detriment. But how do yo...

Saturday, June 23, 2007 Sylvia. Feature film. (2003, 110 mins) IMDB ... Some ideas just don't work as a film. ... S ylvia is a 2003 feature film starring Gwyneth Paltrow as Sylvia Plath and Daniel Craig as her husband Ted Hughes. There was nothing wrong with the acting or the actors. Both stars are accomplished and believable, but the film attempts to show the real-life story of poet Sylvia Plath and fails. She falls in love, gets married, and struggles with her writing. No respect. Little income. Her husband is an accomplished poet and philanderer. This is filmable, but so what. It's not very interesting. What is interesting is her struggle with depression--a depression that leads her to suicide at 31--but how to show that with any insight? It's not in this film as it raises more questions than insights. Narrate her journals? You'd be better off reading her published journals. Posted 2007/06/23 at 17h16ET in Movie Commentary.

Friday, June 22, 2007 ... Why do people like it? ... I decided that I should read some novels of writers I wouldn't normally read and this time around it's Ruth Rendell and Thirteen Steps Down. I knew nothing about her or her work, but it was clear she's popular (number of copies at the library and hold list) and successful (long, long list of credits). I'm a quarter of the way through and I want to throwing it back at the library. There are two main characters--an eighty-something spinster and a twenty-something male border named Mix. The spinster spends her time reading and reliving the past. Mix is delusional about some fashion model and obsessed with a serial killer who was hanged fifty years ago. I don't find either of them interesting. Nothing they do or say interests me. I'm tired of serial killers stories so I don't care who he was or who he killed or why he did it or how it did it. There is a narrative but it laced with back...