Filmography
May. 19th, 2007 11:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_lady_lilySteel Magnolias
When you find yourself staring at the screen thinking 'oh my goodness, they just killed off Julia Roberts', you know you're facing something with a certain pathos value. Particularly when it's just happened as the result of a rejected kidney transplant.
Steel Magnolias is one of those weepy films that supposedly is formative and girl-bond-y for a certain breed of American woman, so I figured that watching it couldn't hurt. Plus it has Dolly Parton's fabulous hair, which I freely admit kept me enthralled - and an armadillo groom's cake, which I felt surprisingly fond of. The film actually manages to be quite quirky and upbeat up until the killing off Julia Roberts part. Normally one wouldn't mind too much, except she's excelled as Shelby, a bratty Southern girl getting married with a quite incredibly insane father and a pair of bratty brothers, and a gently despairing mother, M'lynn. A group of friends she knows through Dolly Parton's hair salon surround and support her, through the wedding, Shelby's choice to have a baby against doctor's recommendations, and handing over one of her own kidneys after the pregnancy is too much for Shelby's body. The kidney is rejected, Shelby goes into a coma and eventually the life support is turned off. M'lynn then gets to have a fabulous collapse scene at the graveside. We end somewhat upbeat at the Easter egg hunt, and the birth of a new baby who will also be called Shelby, and presumably we're in a circle of life thingie.
Oiuser (no idea, played by Shirley MacLaine) and Clairee (Olympia Dukakis) are precious. I am convinced there's lesbian couple subtext there - especially since Clairee's nephew turns out to be gay. It amuses me to see it there, anyway. They've both also got fabulous sniping elderly lady parts; Clairee is sarky high society dame, Oiuser is don't give a damn straight talking scruff-bag eccentricity, and the two complement each other beautifully. I will say that they alone are not enough to redeem the film for me - I enjoyed it in passing, yes, but I have to say that although it was alright, nothing particularly grabbed me apart from these two actresses. And the hair. Big hair. Three stars.
When you find yourself staring at the screen thinking 'oh my goodness, they just killed off Julia Roberts', you know you're facing something with a certain pathos value. Particularly when it's just happened as the result of a rejected kidney transplant.
Steel Magnolias is one of those weepy films that supposedly is formative and girl-bond-y for a certain breed of American woman, so I figured that watching it couldn't hurt. Plus it has Dolly Parton's fabulous hair, which I freely admit kept me enthralled - and an armadillo groom's cake, which I felt surprisingly fond of. The film actually manages to be quite quirky and upbeat up until the killing off Julia Roberts part. Normally one wouldn't mind too much, except she's excelled as Shelby, a bratty Southern girl getting married with a quite incredibly insane father and a pair of bratty brothers, and a gently despairing mother, M'lynn. A group of friends she knows through Dolly Parton's hair salon surround and support her, through the wedding, Shelby's choice to have a baby against doctor's recommendations, and handing over one of her own kidneys after the pregnancy is too much for Shelby's body. The kidney is rejected, Shelby goes into a coma and eventually the life support is turned off. M'lynn then gets to have a fabulous collapse scene at the graveside. We end somewhat upbeat at the Easter egg hunt, and the birth of a new baby who will also be called Shelby, and presumably we're in a circle of life thingie.
Oiuser (no idea, played by Shirley MacLaine) and Clairee (Olympia Dukakis) are precious. I am convinced there's lesbian couple subtext there - especially since Clairee's nephew turns out to be gay. It amuses me to see it there, anyway. They've both also got fabulous sniping elderly lady parts; Clairee is sarky high society dame, Oiuser is don't give a damn straight talking scruff-bag eccentricity, and the two complement each other beautifully. I will say that they alone are not enough to redeem the film for me - I enjoyed it in passing, yes, but I have to say that although it was alright, nothing particularly grabbed me apart from these two actresses. And the hair. Big hair. Three stars.
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-20 08:36 pm (UTC)