Relative Values
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Movie Reviews of Relative Values
Movie Review: Relative Values
Summary: 5 Stars
Loved this film! Julie Andrews & Colin Firth make the film! Very witty & fast-paced!Movie Review: Fun drawing-room comedy
Summary: 4 Stars
Hollywood and English high society collide in a fluffy little comedy, amusing and witty in quite a few places and with a top-rate cast. It's not quite P.G. Wodehouse, a little gooier and less complex, but it'll hit about the same note."Everything is quite, quite ghastly." So says the English aristocrat Lady Felicity Marshwood, and rightly so. America's golden acting couple, Miranda Frayle and Don Lucas, has recently split up after a tempestuous romance. Now the glamorous Miranda is engaged to Felicity's son Nigel, and he's bringing her back to England to meet his dear mum. Felicity is inundated by friends making offers of support that she doesn't want, and the servants (with the exception of the brainy butler) are all in a twitter over getting to meet a real film star.
Then little disasters begin to strike. It's found that Moxie, Felicity's faithful maid, is really Miranda Frayle's older sister. Miranda herself is charming and utterly artificial -- until her slightly sozzled ex-boyfriend shows up, intending to woo her back away from Nigel. Felicity, her wittily charming nephew Peter, and her thoughtful butler Crestwell must try to keep everything and everyone steady as the entire situation spins out of control.
This is a cute little comedy. It has plenty of touches like the Girl Guides drooling over Don, Miranda's makeup and oh-so-perfect hair during her swim, Felicity walking in on Don and Miranda smooching, and the hapless woman being dragged across the Marshwoods' lawn every day by a dog. There's even a clip from the Miranda-Don movie in the middle of it -- a hilariously overacted bit with dreadfully hammy acting. It's great!
The casting is great, though a few are a bit well-worn for the people they are played by: Julie Andrews is great as the serene dowager (when she says "I think I'll explode" to Peter, you don't believe she will for a MOMENT!); Stephen Fry has echoes of his Jeeves role as the ultra-brain servant Crestwell; Colin Firth plays a barb-tongued "idle rich" who is enjoying the whole fiasco; Sophie Thompson of "Sense and Sensibility" plays an insecure and overwrought friend/servant with a Dirty Little Secret. Jeanne Tripplehorn is pretty good as Miranda Frayle (she doesn't overdo Miranda's lies and preening); William Baldwin was overacting as Don Lucas, but he was also sexy as heck; Nigel is enjoyably stereotyped as a stiff-uppa-lip type who is also too stubborn to admit that he made an idiotic mistake with Miranda.
It's PG for a bit of mild language, usually from Miranda and Don. There's no smut (beyond a few passionate smooches) or violence, though parents should note that it is hinted that Peter is gay. But kiddies will probably not fully understand the storyline and might be bored stiff by it; they won't start enjoying it until they're teens.
Okay, so this movie won't make you laugh and cry and vow to go out and live life. It's an entertaining little comedy that is well worth the watch.
Movie Review: CHANGE OF PACE FOR COLIN FIRTH
Summary: 4 Stars
To see Colin Firth as a blond and as a Noel Coward type character is certainly worth the price of this DVD. For a long time, I have thought that Colin is a splendid actor having first seen him in "Another Country" with Rupert Everett. However, I always viewed him as being a rather serious, dark, intense and rather gloomy type of actor(i.e, Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice). As usual those British actors/actresses can not be stereotyped! Anyone having the perception, as I did, that Colin Firth can only be serious is in for a huge suprise in "Relative Values". He is funny, charming and delightful as a character that resembles Noel Coward. He is so good that, at first, he is almost unrecognizable. There isn't even a hint of his "Mr. Darcy" side. It really is a nice change of pace for him and for his fans.The rest of the cast is also very enjoyable. Stephen Fry is a delight as a "Jeeves-type" character. Julie Andrews is also very enjoyable!
For a light, forthy movie you can't go wrong with "Relative Values". If you are a fan of Colin Firth and think that he is soooooo serious, treat yourself to a nice surprise and see how versatile this superb actor is.
Movie Review: Stylish & fun!
Summary: 4 Stars
Now that we readily accept that royalty can be as tarnishedand media hungry as anybody (in Hollywood), it might take
a minute to swallow the merely mildly amusing premise of
the film: social barriers.
Once you've done that, you have yourself a thoroughly stylish
comedy-bordering-farce that offers moments of gold and gems!
Literally: I've rarely seen a small film as convincingly art
directed as this, looking like 10 times its budget with lush
interiors in rich colours, elegantly dressed people, rolling
lawns and gardens, all bathed in bitter-sweet, golden summer's
light, well echoed in the unusually inspired film music.
It's delightful ensemble playing, well paced and cleverly edited.
Julie Andrews shows superb command and comedic skill, her facial
reactions are priceles. Sophie Thompson does a manic and touching
'rags to riches' turn on Pygmalion. The film has a heart, too,
something not found in the overproduced rubbish that Hollywood
keeps manufacturing to seemingly please brain-dead teens.
- Like a glass of champagne: light bubbles quickly gone, leaving
you feeling so swell:)
Movie Review: Frothy? Yes. Fun? You bet!
Summary: 4 Stars
OK, OK, so it's not "Citizen Kane", but this is a fluffy, sweet little comedy, perfect for a rainy day. I agree with most of the other reviewers that the British Cast (especially Andrews, who is perfect for the role) is great. The Americans (Baldwin & Tripplehorn) are simply awful. I realize the entire premise of the movie would be gone without the Americans, but I enjoyed the film a lot more when they weren't around! But the film breezes along at a nice clip (not like the recent God-awful Robert Altman manor film, which bored me to tears). So put your feet up, grab a martini and enjoy. It really is sad that this kind of movie rarely makes it into the theatres. Brain-dead, illiterate teens are the market the studios go after, and the rest of us yearn for the day when the "Art Theatre" (as opposed to a pimply-faced "Multiplex) returns.