Luna
21-02-2006, 21:26
Rupert Grint plays Ben, a seventeen-year-old boy, living in a suburban district of London. His mother is very mannerly, conservative and is extremely involved in her local church. Almost every one of her sentences contains a religious preaching, which obviously frustrates Ben, whose father is also a priest. Ben reluctantly spends most of his days at bible classes and taking driving lessons from his mother. He is also coaxed into playing the part of a tree in one of his mother’s plays at their local church.
The first twenty-some minutes of the film describe Ben’s situation. We discover that he’s quite shy and isn’t happy with his current lifestyle, which is heavily influenced by his mother. His dad is more complacent, but we do not see much of the relationship between him and his son.
One day, Ben arrives at an old, retired actress’s house looking for a job. Ben enters her garden tentatively and sees her cutting brambles angrily. She swears loudly. Immediately, we know this woman is not at all shy and speaks her mind. She also appears a little eccentric, but in a very hilarious way. When she and Ben begin talking, we notice a massive contrast between the two characters: one is timid and bland, while the other is enthusiastic and mad. Eventually, Ben becomes fond of the woman called Evie, played by Julie Walters, and they begin to spend quite a lot of time with each other.
While cleaning Evie’s room, Rupert notices some letters. He realises they’re rejection letters from casting agencies. Evie catches him at it and turns livid. Thus far, we had seen Ben very quiet and a part of me thought that it wasn’t his character that was quiet, but Rupert playing him. However, in this scene, we see for the first time that Ben can show some sort of emotion as he apologises and defends himself while Evie reprimands him. Another scene of importance is where Ben enters Evie’s house to discover her in a heap on the ground. She had been drinking, and Ben helps her feel better. From this, we discover she is an alcoholic.
Slowly but surely – as the days and weeks pass – we see Ben and Evie’s relationship strengthening. One day, Ben drives Evie to a camp site, although he doesn’t have a driving license. When he says that he must go home for his mother is expecting him, she refuses.
“Give me the car key,” she says.
“What? OK, fine…” says Rupert.
She then swallows it.
Now, we see another side to Ben. He turns angry, but absolutely incredulous at the same time. At this point, my lack of confidence in Rupert’s acting ability completely subsided. He pulled off the emotions spectacularly, and curses for the first time, which is pretty hilarious.
“What? You must be out of your mind!” he bellows.
“Don’t worry… It’ll [the key] be with us in the morning,” says Evie nonchalantly.
Overall the film is incredibly funny, as a result of Evie’s eccentricity, and the above is an example of this.
Ben then rings his mum from a pay-phone (his mother doesn’t believe in mobile phones – “they give you cancer!”) and she is absolutely furious; but this turns out very comical.
“Where are you? That woman is mad! She swallowed the key!” says his mother.
“Yes… look, I’ll be home in the morning, I’m fine, don’t worry,” says Ben.
“Ben! Did she give you a tablet?”
“No, mum!”
“She’s kidnapped him and now he’s on drugs!” shouts Ben’s mother to his father in the background. “Ben, I’m calling the police!”
“No, mum, you can’t! Look, I told you I’ll be home in the morning, so trust me!”
“Oh. Alright…”
“Mum?”
This is a rather peculiar ending to the phone call, but adds to the tense atmosphere.
The next morning, Evie decides she wants to go to an Edinburgh literature festival and Ben isn’t pleased because he is expected home by his mother. However, after Evie tells him a lie about her dying of breast cancer, Ben consoles her and agrees to drive her to Edinburgh. At this point in the movie, Ben and Evie are incredibly close, and eventually become great friends.
Evie is expected to do a reading from some of her favourite writers’ work and makes Ben promise to be with her. While she sleeps, Ben wanders up to the reception of the hotel and meets a girl, who is couple of years older than him. They start talking, but the conversation is very one-sided as Ben remains silent. She takes him to a club and offers him some beer. After Ben livens up, they head back to the girl’s apartment, and begin to drink some wine. Ben lies to her about his age, saying that he’s almost nineteen. I didn’t see this coming at all because the girl looks quite a bit older than Ben and they had barely talked but… they kissed and then slept together (but we only see the kiss!) For those of you interested, Rupert/Ben is a very awkward kisser at first, but this is how his character is meant to be portrayed.
Ben wakes up the next day and hastily jumps out of bed, realising he’s late for Evie’s reading. She angrily sets off the fire alarm at the hotel after the hotel manager refuses to let her into Ben’s room. However, she attends the reading anyway but is an utter mess; she is shaky, clumsy, and stutters constantly while reciting some poems. Meanwhile, Ben races through the streets of Edinburgh and eventually makes it. By this time, Evie had almost broken into tears of anxiety and when Ben arrives she shouts angrily at him to take her home.
Their journey home is interrupted by another stop at a campsite. Both Ben and Evie are very in love with nature. This is evident when they gaze, transfixed at some beautiful mountain scenery. Ben tries to persuade Evie to go to another literature festival, saying that if she was dying, she should make the most of the time she’s got. She then confesses to lying to him. He takes it surprisingly calmly. After this, they go home.
Ben’s mother is furious with him. She forbids him to work for Evie and when the woman turns up at his door, she says he no longer wishes to work for her. She falls for it.
In another one of his mother’s religious plays, Ben discovers a few minutes before he is due on stage that Evie visited and his mother sent her away. He is shocked and half-way through the play, he storms out dramatically. He knocks on Evie’s door and although she can hear him, she doesn’t answer. She had been drinking. Again, dramatically, Ben gives up just when Evie decides to open the door, but they miss each other. Ben returns to the play and the climax happens when Evie enters the hall and leaves with Ben. His mother runs out and orders Ben to come to her but she isn’t aware that a car is driving towards her and is knocked down.
The denouement includes the recovery of Ben’s mother in hospital. We also discover that although she preaches that all should be loyal and faithful to their religion and God, she has an affair. She and Ben’s dad get a divorce. Meanwhile, Ben continues to visit Evie, but not as regularly, as he gets a new job.
All in all, I think this was a terrific film. The audience becomes emotionally involved in the film as we see the actors portray feelings of loneliness and despondency, but comic relief is also used to great effect. I believe Rupert’s acting at the beginning of the film was – to be honest – awful. I understand he was meant to be extremely shy and introverted, but he exaggerated these traits by looking stony-faced in almost every scene. However, we really see his true ability as the film progresses and his character becomes more relaxed and extroverted in the company of his good friend, Evie.
Julie Walters is an incredible actress. She played the part of Evie brilliantly. She portrayed accurately the character as crazy, out-spoken and emotional. In the interview following the screening, she said she pulled a lot of these characteristics from her grandmother, who was highly eccentric.
I rate this film 9/10.
We don’t yet know when the film will be released, but when it is, I highly recommend you go see it!
In response to some of your comments: Overall, Rupert acted well in this movie. However, at the beginning when he had to act shy, he didn't do it well, I think. When he was being spoken to, he just stared stony-faced directly in front of him and gulped relentlessly. This was his only way of portraying how uncomfortable he felt. He didn't jerk his eyes nervously or look down in shyness or do anything which would normally indicate a person is nervous, shy, or uncomfortable.
I also said that his acting improved as the film progressed. And as most directors choose to film the most difficult scenes first, I believe the film was shot sequentially as I think all scenes were equally difficult to shoot. I do not question Rupert's acting ability, but I feel he may not have been used to portraying emotions such as shyness on-screen.
The first twenty-some minutes of the film describe Ben’s situation. We discover that he’s quite shy and isn’t happy with his current lifestyle, which is heavily influenced by his mother. His dad is more complacent, but we do not see much of the relationship between him and his son.
One day, Ben arrives at an old, retired actress’s house looking for a job. Ben enters her garden tentatively and sees her cutting brambles angrily. She swears loudly. Immediately, we know this woman is not at all shy and speaks her mind. She also appears a little eccentric, but in a very hilarious way. When she and Ben begin talking, we notice a massive contrast between the two characters: one is timid and bland, while the other is enthusiastic and mad. Eventually, Ben becomes fond of the woman called Evie, played by Julie Walters, and they begin to spend quite a lot of time with each other.
While cleaning Evie’s room, Rupert notices some letters. He realises they’re rejection letters from casting agencies. Evie catches him at it and turns livid. Thus far, we had seen Ben very quiet and a part of me thought that it wasn’t his character that was quiet, but Rupert playing him. However, in this scene, we see for the first time that Ben can show some sort of emotion as he apologises and defends himself while Evie reprimands him. Another scene of importance is where Ben enters Evie’s house to discover her in a heap on the ground. She had been drinking, and Ben helps her feel better. From this, we discover she is an alcoholic.
Slowly but surely – as the days and weeks pass – we see Ben and Evie’s relationship strengthening. One day, Ben drives Evie to a camp site, although he doesn’t have a driving license. When he says that he must go home for his mother is expecting him, she refuses.
“Give me the car key,” she says.
“What? OK, fine…” says Rupert.
She then swallows it.
Now, we see another side to Ben. He turns angry, but absolutely incredulous at the same time. At this point, my lack of confidence in Rupert’s acting ability completely subsided. He pulled off the emotions spectacularly, and curses for the first time, which is pretty hilarious.
“What? You must be out of your mind!” he bellows.
“Don’t worry… It’ll [the key] be with us in the morning,” says Evie nonchalantly.
Overall the film is incredibly funny, as a result of Evie’s eccentricity, and the above is an example of this.
Ben then rings his mum from a pay-phone (his mother doesn’t believe in mobile phones – “they give you cancer!”) and she is absolutely furious; but this turns out very comical.
“Where are you? That woman is mad! She swallowed the key!” says his mother.
“Yes… look, I’ll be home in the morning, I’m fine, don’t worry,” says Ben.
“Ben! Did she give you a tablet?”
“No, mum!”
“She’s kidnapped him and now he’s on drugs!” shouts Ben’s mother to his father in the background. “Ben, I’m calling the police!”
“No, mum, you can’t! Look, I told you I’ll be home in the morning, so trust me!”
“Oh. Alright…”
“Mum?”
This is a rather peculiar ending to the phone call, but adds to the tense atmosphere.
The next morning, Evie decides she wants to go to an Edinburgh literature festival and Ben isn’t pleased because he is expected home by his mother. However, after Evie tells him a lie about her dying of breast cancer, Ben consoles her and agrees to drive her to Edinburgh. At this point in the movie, Ben and Evie are incredibly close, and eventually become great friends.
Evie is expected to do a reading from some of her favourite writers’ work and makes Ben promise to be with her. While she sleeps, Ben wanders up to the reception of the hotel and meets a girl, who is couple of years older than him. They start talking, but the conversation is very one-sided as Ben remains silent. She takes him to a club and offers him some beer. After Ben livens up, they head back to the girl’s apartment, and begin to drink some wine. Ben lies to her about his age, saying that he’s almost nineteen. I didn’t see this coming at all because the girl looks quite a bit older than Ben and they had barely talked but… they kissed and then slept together (but we only see the kiss!) For those of you interested, Rupert/Ben is a very awkward kisser at first, but this is how his character is meant to be portrayed.
Ben wakes up the next day and hastily jumps out of bed, realising he’s late for Evie’s reading. She angrily sets off the fire alarm at the hotel after the hotel manager refuses to let her into Ben’s room. However, she attends the reading anyway but is an utter mess; she is shaky, clumsy, and stutters constantly while reciting some poems. Meanwhile, Ben races through the streets of Edinburgh and eventually makes it. By this time, Evie had almost broken into tears of anxiety and when Ben arrives she shouts angrily at him to take her home.
Their journey home is interrupted by another stop at a campsite. Both Ben and Evie are very in love with nature. This is evident when they gaze, transfixed at some beautiful mountain scenery. Ben tries to persuade Evie to go to another literature festival, saying that if she was dying, she should make the most of the time she’s got. She then confesses to lying to him. He takes it surprisingly calmly. After this, they go home.
Ben’s mother is furious with him. She forbids him to work for Evie and when the woman turns up at his door, she says he no longer wishes to work for her. She falls for it.
In another one of his mother’s religious plays, Ben discovers a few minutes before he is due on stage that Evie visited and his mother sent her away. He is shocked and half-way through the play, he storms out dramatically. He knocks on Evie’s door and although she can hear him, she doesn’t answer. She had been drinking. Again, dramatically, Ben gives up just when Evie decides to open the door, but they miss each other. Ben returns to the play and the climax happens when Evie enters the hall and leaves with Ben. His mother runs out and orders Ben to come to her but she isn’t aware that a car is driving towards her and is knocked down.
The denouement includes the recovery of Ben’s mother in hospital. We also discover that although she preaches that all should be loyal and faithful to their religion and God, she has an affair. She and Ben’s dad get a divorce. Meanwhile, Ben continues to visit Evie, but not as regularly, as he gets a new job.
All in all, I think this was a terrific film. The audience becomes emotionally involved in the film as we see the actors portray feelings of loneliness and despondency, but comic relief is also used to great effect. I believe Rupert’s acting at the beginning of the film was – to be honest – awful. I understand he was meant to be extremely shy and introverted, but he exaggerated these traits by looking stony-faced in almost every scene. However, we really see his true ability as the film progresses and his character becomes more relaxed and extroverted in the company of his good friend, Evie.
Julie Walters is an incredible actress. She played the part of Evie brilliantly. She portrayed accurately the character as crazy, out-spoken and emotional. In the interview following the screening, she said she pulled a lot of these characteristics from her grandmother, who was highly eccentric.
I rate this film 9/10.
We don’t yet know when the film will be released, but when it is, I highly recommend you go see it!
In response to some of your comments: Overall, Rupert acted well in this movie. However, at the beginning when he had to act shy, he didn't do it well, I think. When he was being spoken to, he just stared stony-faced directly in front of him and gulped relentlessly. This was his only way of portraying how uncomfortable he felt. He didn't jerk his eyes nervously or look down in shyness or do anything which would normally indicate a person is nervous, shy, or uncomfortable.
I also said that his acting improved as the film progressed. And as most directors choose to film the most difficult scenes first, I believe the film was shot sequentially as I think all scenes were equally difficult to shoot. I do not question Rupert's acting ability, but I feel he may not have been used to portraying emotions such as shyness on-screen.