Raving

I watched the short film Raving, written and directed by Julia Stiles. It's well done, interesting and amusing. Sometimes a small story concentrating on a couple of people can work really well, and this is one of those stories. Watching it in flash from the website isn't the best quality, but it will have to do unless it comes out on disk at some point. Not only is she a really good actress, but it appears she's going to be really talented behind the camera also. Hopefully this small start will turn into bigger projects down the road.

The Bourne Ultimatum

This was a very good movie, like the previous chapters in the series. I was particularly impressed with how they wove the ending of the previous movie into the story of this one. It was done so well I couldn't tell if they reused the footage interwoven with new footage or shot it again. The acting across the board is superb. The story fits in nicely with the previous movies, and the whole production sets a new level for spy movies.

I've liked the Bond movies for pretty much forever, despite misgivings about the character, but Bourne is a step above in the way that the movie is about the characters rather than about a formula that works well. It's not that Pierce Brosnan didn't try to make Bond so, and Daniel Craig seems to be doing so also, but it ultimately comes down to the writing allowing the actors to do it. The Bourne movies have resoundingly proved that you can take an action thriller like this and have it be about people rather than a collection of gadgets and stunts and one-liners. As satisfying as those can be, this is more so and also more lasting.

There are bits of movie music, specific themes that get the blood racing because you know that something familiar is coming and you know that it will likely be very enjoyable. The Bond theme has that ring, bits of the Star Wars music and so forth, and Friday night when the studio logo came on screen and the Bourne music started playing behind it I felt that same rush of anticipation coming to fulfillment.

It doesn't seem that another Bourne movie will be made, although it is certainly possible. Matt Damon has made the role his own, and I can't imagine anyone else playing it at this point, so it probably boils down to a simple question of him being willing to play the part again. Julia Stiles and Joan Allen would need to be on board also, as their characters are very much woven in and owned by them as well. It was very nice to see Julia get more to do in this one. Apart from the actors and hopefully Paul Greengrass being willing to direct, they would have to come up with a story to tell. I don't see Bourne working directly or regularly for the CIA, but I can see Bourne trusting Landy enough to listen to a request for an urgent job requiring his talents and not write it off to being just another bill of goods.


Even if they don't make another one, I'll be looking for movies involving any of those four.

Becoming Jane

The movie was well done, with a bittersweet flavor that was not unexpected, since it was based on Jane Austen's life, and we know she did not have a happy ending romantically like she gave her characters. The last bit of the film reminds me of Possession and in a way of The Age of Innocence as well, in that we don't have a totally Hollywood ending.

I don't mind endings where everything works out well, and would hardly like Jane's stories to begin with if I did. At the same time, it's nice to have some stories where things are not perfect, but there is not total heartbreak either. Given that I'm currently on course to mimic Jane's fate rather than Elizabeth's, small comforts are nice.

I read somewhere or another recently that Anne Hathaway almost did not do the film because of the pressure involved in the subject, and I'm glad she did. I'm rather beginning to like her performances, and hopefully she can continue the excellent work she has been doing recently. The rest of the cast was good also, and I was reminded that I want to watch the House of Cards trilogy with Ian Richardson again.


Upon further reflection, I'll toss in a warning to those who are intimately familiar with the history of Jane herself. It's a Hollywood film. If you can't suspend disbelief on it and forget about such things, you may want to pass, but then again, if you were paying attention to what they said they were doing while making the film, you'd already know that the film was a riff based on certain convenient bits while totally ignoring certain other bits. Jane has been big in movies recently, and something like this was pretty much inevitable. It's done now, there won't be a sequel, and we can move on and hope they come up with something based on her works again.