robslady Reviews

The Captain's Paradise (1953)

I'm not laughing

[4/10 · 8 July 2010]

*** This review contains significant spoilers ***

This movie was supposed to be funny and we were supposed to enjoy the adventures of Captain St. James, the man who "makes everyone happy." I just couldn't help feeling very annoyed at the bigamous captain and sorry for his unsuspecting wives. The truth was, the only one he was making happy was himself, and he expected his wives to remain exactly the same, with no room for growth or change on their part. I found this infuriating.

Was I taking it too seriously? I'm sure I was! But I couldn't help it, I found myself just waiting for the guy's comeuppance. I loved it when the women told them just how unhappy they actually were, but shortly thereafter, one of the wives is murdered -- even this is played for laughs, as our hero uses the confusion surrounding the murder to sneak away.

I guess I just don't find bigamy and murder funny. Even less funny is premeditated murder for hire. While I fully expected that the Captain was not actually executed, I found it horrible that the firing squad, instead of firing into the air or at the wall, killed their commander. This isn't emphasized in the film, but the Captain has to step over the commander's body in order to pay off the firing squad. So, having committed one more hideously irresponsible act, our hero goes smirking into the sunset in order to continue deceiving and bribing his way through life.

Not my cup of tea.

The Voyage of the Mimi (1984)

A wonderful gateway to the world of science for all

[7/10 · 24 June 2010]

This was a fabulous show. I watched it as an adult with my baby sister and learned *so* much. Even today, years later I can remember lessons I learned on "Voyage of the Mimi" about whales, whale tagging and whale songs, but the show was about so much more than whales. I learned about sailing, sign language, research methods, the top of Mount Washington, hypothermia and so much more. When watching documentaries, to this day, I often see eminent scientists that I first "met" on "Voyage of the Mimi," such as Ken Balcomb and Sylvia Earle. The first part of the episode would often introduce a subject which would then be carried through to the expedition afterward. Those segments were full of information interesting to both adults and children. This show is so much more than a curiosity and a place to see a young Ben Affleck, (although I thought he was a good actor even then). If you want to learn more about the sea, whales, scientific research and even what it's like going to a college for the deaf, "Voyage of the Mimi" is a great place to get started. It certainly led to many avenues of interest and fields of inquiry for me.

Sarah, Plain and Tall (1991 TV Movie)

I loved the book so much more

[6/10 · 24 January 2010]

This seems to be a minority opinion, but I actually liked the book "Sarah, Plain and Tall" much better than the movie. The book is spare, poetic and lovely. The romance of Jacob and Sarah is in the background, but Anna and Caleb's hopes to have a new mother are almost palpable. The lack of details allows rich play for the imagination, and Patricia MacLachlan is an absolute master at evoking the sights, the sounds, the very texture of the world in which her characters live. When Jacob puts his arm around Sarah for the first time in the book, it is a delightful surprise and it means so much because we are seeing it through the eyes of the children who so very much want Sarah to stay. The movie, by filling in all the gaps, and filling it with conversations which to me, felt too modern for the times, lost a lot of the magic of the story. Glenn Close did a wonderful job of embodying Sarah, but she was a little too adept in her ability to analyze Jacob's lingering grief and anger -- in those days they didn't do as much emotional analysis as we do now, and anyway, how would a spinster who lived with three elderly aunts know about a widower's inability to let go of grief? I think perhaps if I hadn't read the book first and loved it so deeply, I may have liked the movie more than I did. The book was a perfect example of the old writing adage, "show, don't tell," but ironically, the movie did way too much telling and not enough showing.