This is a public service announcement: The Weatherman should win prizes for misleading advertising. It is a severely unfunny film, the trailers show the most amusing bits and the advertising utterly missells this miserable film. Also Hope Davis is an annoying actress. Having said that there may be things to like about this film but it is only adequate at best, and never really goes anywhere.
Oh, that sounds like fun!
Proof is a film based on a play about Mathematics, can you contain your excitement? It is better than it sounds, the story is really about a woman losing her father and losing her mind. Anthony Hopkins plays the Mathematician father who made ground breaking discoveries in his youth. Gwyneth Paltrow plays the long suffering daughter who takes care of him through his slow mental decline.
Hope Davis plays the annoying busy body sister. Hope Davis has the airs of an annoying drama school actor and is clearly trying to cover a speech impediment. Maybe it wasn't entirely her fault, the character is fairly unsympathetic to begin with and her supposed intelligence is briefly mentioned through her career as a financial analyst but the character comes across as terribly shallow and self-involved and even if that was intentional more depth would have been better.
The story is fairly relaxed and thoughtful, no explosions or car chases here. Nice enough though.
Saw many films during the Dublin Film Festival most of which are coming out soon. I'm unlikely to make time to review them all. Mirror Mask opens this week (in Ireland and probably the UK) and although I've probably mentioned it already I highly recommend it. I might go see it again even. The Proposition is a fantastic "cowboy" film, although bandit/outlaw film might be more accurate description. Speaking of cowboys, the word means herding cattle and despite being dubbed the "gay cowboy film" in Brokeback Mountain they herd sheep, which makes them shepherds (thanks to Pat Dillon for that insight). Gay shepherds doesn't have quite the same ring to it now does it? Speaking of films I'm not going to watch (clunkly segway but anyway) I know enough about Lars Von Trier to know I will not be going to see Manderlay (second part of trilogy). I'd sooner eat cold porridge. Make sure you don't go without knowing what you are letting yourself in for.
So many films to see and so little time...