Mike the Boss - Films of 2010 - Film the Tenth: Enid

Don't worry. I haven't given up on the quest of 365 movies in 365 days. I just happen to have caught a cold and then passed it on to my partner so I haven't had time to write my movies up. I'll try to catch up over the next week or so.

Enid (2009) (dir: James Hawes)

This movie was made for British Television which means it is good enough for the big screens over here. It stars Helena Bonham Carter doing her usual journeyman's work in the role of Enid Blyton, beloved British writer of children's books. If you don't like Bonham Carter's acting style, you'll hate this movie since it is all Helena all the time. I think she does a pretty good job most of the time and this kind of role is well suited to her talents.

You would think making a biopic about Blyton would emphasize the playful side of her writing but the Brits apparently thought otherwise. Instead we find out that Enid had a miserable childhood and left home shortly after her father abandoned her family. She managed to talk publisher Hugh Pollock into publishing her first book and promptly married him. Given that she came from a broken home, one would have hoped that Blyton could have chosen a different path than she did. However, old ghosts seem to haunt her resulting in her being an indifferent mother, an adulterous wife and really an all-around bitch.

Given that this movie is a thorough assassination of any good thoughts one might have had towards Enid Blyton, it is a wonder that they do not bring up the inherent sexism and racism involved in her writing. Some of it is implied in the movie but if your going to rake a dead person over the coals, why not go all the way? Other than that, the movie is a perfectly satisfactory BBC production and worth checking out unless you wish to keep your deluded image of what Enid Blyton was really like.

tm Does the QT 20 Part 4: Fight Club

Starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter – this is a good movie and worthy of repeated viewings. There’s the big Plot Twist, which is pulled off semi-believably, but there are several layers to the whole movie and it’s clear that a lot of thought went into it, most of which undoubtedly came from the original novel, written by cult-fave author Chuck Palahniuk

Norton plays a corporate drone and meets Pitt, a free spirited soap maker, on an airplane. They hang out after the flight and Norton becomes envious of Pitt’s anti-establishment character. By accident, they form Fight Club – a brawl between two willing combatants that becomes an emotional and physical outlet for the participants - basically, pugilistic therapy. Its success escalates and more people become involved, this in turn sees the Club turn to pubic pranks intent on self-improvement for the members and showing the public its shallowness and greed; this then escalates into bigger and bigger stunts, Club members become organized and militarized, and it culminates with the Mother Of All Stunts.

Bonham Carter is the woman between the two men and she’s does a great job of playing the flaky waif, though she does kinda disappear for a while. And worthy of mention is Meatloaf (yes, the singer), who wears a fat suit with huge boobs complete with nipples.

Not wanting to be overdramatic, but the home-grown terrorism aspect makes it strangely a little hard to watch post 9-11.

This is a 2-dvd set – there are four commentaries with the disc and a lot of production scenes. Good stuff. Too bad the Fincher/Pitt/North/Carter commentary is not all of them together – sounds like only Fincher and Norton were recorded jointly.

tm sez: 8/10