Friday 16th of January 2004
« « Cold Mountain| Monster » »In America
This isn’t really going to be a review – I don’t think I can review this film. Watching it was a very strange experience for me, all sorts of strange resonances. On a basic level, it’s the story of a family who move from Ireland to New York to try and make it, which is pretty much what I’m doing. But apart from that, I was in college with Kirsten Sheridan, one of the writers, and I’ve been to parties in the house belonging to the family that the film is partially about (it’s semi-autobiographical). So that’s odd as well.
And another, quite unexpected source of oddness comes from the fact that the film was shot mostly in Dublin – the interiors in Ardmore Studios, where I was working at the time, and some exteriors around the place. I remember coming home from work one day to Rathgar, and the crew (some of whom I knew) were right on my street, shooting the outside of a building.
I pretty much forgot about that until the scene came up in the movie. So, to recap – I’m sitting in a cinema in Manhattan, an Irish guy living in New York, watching a semi-autobiographical movie, in which I know the real life counterpart of one of the characters, about Irish people living in New York, and then one of the scenes, set in Manhattan, is a recognisable building right around the corner from where I used to live in Dublin.
Quite surreal.
It’s tough to disentangle all that weirdness from what I thought about the movie itself, but I’ll try. There are some fantastic powerful suspenseful scenes early on, mostly involving money. The kids are great – everybody has said that, and it’s true. I felt that some of the emotional confrontations were a little bit on the nose. People were articulating their feelings very clearly, and there was a bit of a sense of an actors’ workshop.
This was what was uppermost in my mind as the film was coming to an end, so imagine my surprise when the final scene actually made me cry. And I never cry in the cinema. It was completely devastating, and completely snuck up on me. Nice one, Kirsten. Good luck in the Golden Globes.
I am such a wuss!
Comment ID: 41
At 3:07 pm on Saturday 17th of January 2004, Nigel statedWhich building was that? What scenes took place in it?
I have similar kind of strange reactions to things here. if I hear an Irish accent on the tube I’ll think “obviously a foreigner, but sounds quite familiar for some reason …”
Guess I’m slowly becoming English? Or, at the very least, a Londoner.
Oh, the movie. I liked it too. Funnily enough it was mixed in Twickenham Studios and I pass a poster for it on the way to my cutting room.
Comment ID: 42
At 9:07 am on Monday 19th of January 2004, daragh wanted everyone to knowu’ve always talked like that nigel!
Comment ID: 43
At 2:45 pm on Wednesday 21st of January 2004, Nigel announcedHave not! My accent has, over the years, displayed some of my chameleon like characteristics.
For instance, when I lived in Louisiana I actually began speaking with a southern accent. At least that’s one explanation for it. I think it’s more speed though as too many of the locals complained that “that boys speaks tooooo fasssssst.” When I was living in Germany I didn’t quite pick up the accent but I would sometimes gaze wistfully eastwards ….
And I wasn’t, of course, referring to my own accent but rather the manner in which I would react to that which should be familiar. London is a state of mind, as Boswell or Johnson said, and not just an accent. Mind you, I have managed to drift into a snobby area here.
How do you think your cooking compared to that on show in the film?
Comment ID: 44
At 5:43 pm on Wednesday 21st of January 2004, Anthony felt the urge to writeMine is… different.