Fierce People (2005)

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Fierce People. Feature film. (2005, 107 mins) IMDB

...a far too predictable filme...

here do people get the notion that being eccentric is interesting? It may be interesting in itself for a few seconds, but it wears, after which point there had better be something happening to the characters or we'll get bored. But that's not enough, because we have to care about the characters and I never cared about the characters in this film.

Diane Lane plays a single mother living in a small, run-down apartment in NYC. She's a masseuse, sort of, because she screws just about anyone who shows up at her door, does drugs and drinks to excess. Her adolescent son lives with her and just accepts that her mother is screwed up.

Here comes the inciting incident. A very rich dude wants her to live and work for him as his personal masseuse and in a flash, the two of them pack up and head to this giant estate out in the country.

What follows really doesn't matter as it's not interesting. Truly. It's also extremely predictable.

The patriarch (Sutherland) takes care of his kingdom. Whatever wives he had have left with a boat load of money. His daughter (Perkins), the lush, lives with him. There's the two grandchildren and various maids and servants and all the rich neighbours.

There are so many characters we don't have a lot of time to get to know them. They come in for a scene or two and are gone. Plus we don't care because they don't do anything.

Somehow I think the filmmakers viewed this story as an indictment of the rich, but it doesn't go very far. We known the rich get away with murder. That's hardly news.

If it's meant to be a satire, it didn't strike any notes.

This film muddles along in a predictable way and when it's over we're thankful.

Posted 2009/04/29 at 20h47ET in Movie Commentary.

Comments

If Only We Could Agree

Monday, June 11, 2012 ... have you been accused of misspelling a word you know is correct ... S usanne O’Leary wrote an interesting article on her experience with the variations of the English language in different countries. You know the obvious ones like colour with or without a “u” but less obvious ones like travelled versus traveled. Growing up in Sweden she learnt English in school—the UK variation. In publishing her books, she read reviews where she was criticized for improper spelling. False accusations as it turns out. While I write tire and cozy, it’s not incorrect to write tyre or cosy. Same language. Both accepted. Just different. You can read her write-up here along with the numerous comments posted by readers. I found it interesting, but that’s me. As a Canadian I deal with this issue everyday. I feel her pain when she’s criticized for something based on ignorance. No fun. I was told by a boss that “data are” isn’t correct. It should be “data is.” Read

Days 9-108: Writing a Novel—The Deep Blue Hold

November 25th, 2016 to March 5, 2017 Note: Unedited writings from my notebook for this novel. Square bracket items represent added comments. At 15:53 Office ... And so began a three month odyssey away from writing this novel, The Deep Blue Hold. ... W herein I try to explain why I stopped working on this novel. The shortest answer is I gave up. The short explanation is I struggle with mental health issues (MDD, GAD, PTSD) that paralyse me at times. When it happens, I’m not able to do much of anything. Don’t want to do anything and that includes things one might expect to enjoy. For a while I spent time trying to create some thirty-second videos that would play a word puzzle like a crossword. Here’s the clue. Here’s the blank spaces. And after an interval, one of the letters would appear until all the letters appear. A bit of a crossword puzzle in that sometimes you come to a word where crossover words give you certain letters and you have to fill in the rest. A

Day 8: Writing a Novel—The Deep Blue Hold

Thursday, November 24th, 2016 Note: Unedited writings from my notebook for this novel. Square bracket items represent added comments. At 15:53 Office ... This was a Chinese ship with Chinese officers. He didn't need some damn Dutch sailor to tell him how to run his ship. ... Y esterday was a day of distraction and writer’s block as I didn’t get too far. No new pages and nothing new on the story. Right now I’m stepping back to Tuesday, trying to get my mind around this story. Would it help if to read what I have. [Draft pages of the novel.] ____ Later. What I have is okay. It’s working. Of course it needs edits but that’s for another day. I think I worked out the broad strokes for Chps. 4, 5 & 6. Chp. 4 Captain on ship Chp. 5 Family back home Chp. 6. Leanne tending to her wounds Time to brainstorm some ideas for Chp. 4. It’s dawn. People getting up for morning routine. There will be a change of watch. Cross checking containers… The captain w

James Piper, Author

Search This Blog