Member review

This silent movie about silent movies was certainly interesting despite the fact I watched it before at VUE in Ellesmere Port. Yes, that means it is moderately new for anyone who thought silent movies were long gone. Now enough rambling about cinemas and time for the review. I personally thought some of the important catchphrases were missed despite an attempt to add text when necessary, which meant around 30 seconds after the line had been spoken! I feel that this threw me off the plot slightly but it is a silent movie and I think I would have complained if every minute, text came up breaking the flow of the movie. It is hard to keep the balance though i feel they could have got closer to it. The acting was very good and I hate to break it but my favourite character was Uggie- the dog who I believe beat his human rivals. Though Jean Dujardin put on a great show as George Valentin, coming across as full of character. Plus, he worked with the dog, A-MA-ZING!!!!! I must say James Cromwell who played Clifton had such a beautifully subtle ambience to him that made him another highlight. I feel John Goodman’s facial expressions replicated a hyper maniac and were fairly distracting. His sadness face looked very depressed too! The music was one of the highlights of this performance and made me feel ensnared- thesaurus word- by the film. The instruments and composition was surprisingly original for 2011 though I suppose the entire film was. I feel that the plot line was very interesting and exposed the best of each character which is always a positive but the two suicide attempts in 20 minutes drove me round the wall! The ending was also great as it revealed some of the voices of the actors which came as a shock to the system. When I looked on Wikipedia I found the rating was a U and this shocked me hugely. Advice to children, do not follow George Valentin’s smoking and alcohol addictions that he developed over the course of the movie. I feel this should have been raised to PG unless they want to act as promoters of TV cigarette advertising which is banned in the UK. On a more serious note the suicides (Spoiler alert!) were slightly provoking and not for the faint hearted. The auctioning may not have been too appropriate for younger faces either. On a short note, George’s moustache was very French, congrats costume department! I think the film certainly achieved its comedic intentions with all sorts of funny action and dry humor. Yet again I have spotted another inappropriate addition, when peppy miller hugs herself with George’s coat, maybe I am getting slightly picky now! The action element was also achieved as the plot was very well paced and full of drama – including relationship drama for any romance lovers! The effects of course were great but it was made in 2011 so I would expect that. So, it is yet another 4-star review from me and I recommend it to anyone who loves silent movies and anyone who hates them too!