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Dorian Gray
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Paris, France
 
2006-04-08, 11:04

Okay, Windswept, I'll personally recommend an older film to you then. It's one I stumbled across while flicking through channels in a hotel room a few years ago, and it had me riveted to the screen until it finished, when I wrote down the title so I could find out more about it. It's a quirky Welsh film from 2000 called Very Annie-Mary.

The critics were very much divided over its worth, but I think we can safely ignore those who damned it for its "tedious sentimentality". Yes, it contains a good deal of sentimentality, but knowingly so: the director, Sara Sugarman, is a master at mocking the very sentimentality that many of the dim-witted critics took at face value. It's certainly not a polished piece of perfection like Amelie, but in many ways it could be compared to that masterpiece: it's wildly humorous at times, occasionally so eccentric that it becomes mildly embarrassing to watch, and edifying only in the most limited satirical sense. It does have moments of poignancy far more intense than anything Amelie delivered, though.

I think in this case it is useful to compare the reviews of the professional critics with those of the general public. Tiscali, a mainstream ISP-cum-portal, rates it 2/10. On Rotten Tomatoes 30% of the critics recommend it, compared to 100% of the viewers. On the UK Amazon site an incredible 13 out of 16 reviewers gave it a full 5 stars (the remaining three reviewers gave it 4 stars). On the US Amazon site 6 out of 9 reviewers gave it 5 stars (their reviews are worth reading too). Looks very much like yet another case of professional reviewers not wanting to admit in public that they love a low-budget film, if you ask me! For what it's worth, I hereby announce that I rate it 9/10. A true gem that one rarely has the pleasure of finding. My only complaint is it was too short at 105 minutes!

It's risky to say so, but I think you would also thoroughly enjoy it.
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