Angela Law

We watched this movie last night. It was pretty good. Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins starred in it, so it was bound to be decent. We’ve watched so many movies in the past few months, that it is sometimes hard to think of something to write about them (this, being one of those times). But, this is definitely one of the better movies we’ve seen.

Maybe I should turn this into a movie and book review blog. That’s all I seem to be doing lately. Hopefully, I will have more to do (and therefore write about) in the coming months.

I don’t know how I managed to get through the last 16 years without seeing this movie, but I finally rectified that last night. Brian had already seen this one a number of times, so he made sure I didn’t miss any of the good parts (you know, when I was off mixing drinks or whatever). Obviously, this was a good film. The only thing I didn’t like was the part where they explained the title, “You know, we always called each other goodfellas. Like, you’d say to somebody: “You’re gonna like this guy; he’s all right. He’s a goodfella. He’s one of us.” You understand? We were goodfellas, wiseguys.” Granted, a minor piece of dialog, but ever since we watched The Stand miniseries on tv so many years ago, where they did a similar such thing, we always make fun of movies that do this by yelling out “Stand!” And, you know what? Practically every movie does this. Just watch. Is it really necessary to explain the title to the viewer? If so, then maybe they ought to work on the plot a little harder.

Rant aside, I really did like this movie. And, it’s got me primed for The Sopranos, which starts back up in a few weeks.

This is a movie about how people suck. And, it brings the audience down with it.

The entire film took place on this stage (not unlike a play). The stage was devoid of most props. Houses were delineated with squares painted on the stage. At first this was kind of weird, but most of the scenes were shot close up, so you’d actually forget about it during these times. It was quite engrossing, actually.

The story, which takes place in the 1930s, is about a woman, Grace (played by Nicole Kidman, who did a great job in the starring role) who ends up in this town called Dogville. She is on the run from the mob. The town takes a vote and lets her stay. In order to get people to like her, she helps each person with something (chores, babysitting, etc.) each day. The people end up taking advantage of this, and the story spirals downward from there.

As much as I liked this movie, I hesitate to recommend it only because it was so weird. If you’re into experimental film, you’ll probably like it. If not, don’t bother.