Post by coolbyrne on Mar 6, 2007 13:49:21 GMT -5
All right. Who's seen it and who wants to discuss it?
Through a very nice person in Australia, I was able to get a copy of this Hallmark movie. (Though if someone else has a copy they'd like to send in, that would be great- the audio on the one I have is a bit low.)
I had just finished watching S1 of "Murder in Suburbia", so seeing Jeremy Sheffield as the main character for "CufA" jarred me a bit until I got used to him. (Kept waiting for Scribbs and Ash to show up. ) I think I'll discuss this strictly as it pertains to Mandana and her character (Sarah), rather than as a movie as a whole. Because I have to admit, 1. that's all I was waiting for was to see her and 2. well, it's Hallmark so that should tell you a lot right there.
I'm a bad fan, 'cause I don't know exactly how long it took for her to finally show up (*grin*), but when she did, it was a very, "Hey!" moment for me as a fan, because this was the first time I had seen her in anything other than "Bad Girls". In that very brief first scene, I forgot all about Nikki Wade, not because Sarah is so diametrically opposite to Nikki (because there's nothing that indicates she is), but simply because, while there is a line or two I could hear Nikki say, the deliver of it by Mandana was utterly different. Or maybe it was just the hair.
No, I'm joking, of course. While the hair was very un-Nikki-like, Mandana herself was different, too. The story itself is quite cliched (workaholic discovers what life would be like if he took the time to smell the roses before it's too late), but I found Sarah's story, as little as we were given, was incredibly moving, perhaps moreso than the real plot. Here is a woman in her mid-30's who doesn't really know where she's going in life. Identifying what she wants seems to be just out of arm's reach, and of course, figuring out how to get that is impossible.
Though in hindsight she's not in the story very much (there's quite a large gap where she isn't in it at all), as I felt with Nikki Wade, Sarah was the emotional anchor to the story, and I missed that when she wasn't there. While the story may be Tom's, for me, ultimately Sarah was the catalyst and the heart of it. Sure, that has to do with my Mandana bias (and probably my identification with a mid-30 year old who doesn't really know where life is going!), but I think it also goes back to her presence on-screen. She demands you watch her when she's there, which can't do anything but miss her when she's gone.
It all ends as you might expect a Hallmark production to end, and it was a nice way to spend an hour. And, you know- Mandana Jones was in it!
Other bits:
- Tom's mother was played by June Whitfield, who also played Edwina's ditzy mother in "Absolutely Fabulous", so it took me a fair bit to get THAT role out of my head!!
- Did the title come from the George Orwell book of the same name? One of the themes of that book was the idea that things we dream about as kids get quashed under the demands of adulthood. In this movie, we see Tom in his amnesia revert to childhood memories.
- Mandana speaks a little bit of Spanish, and while I couldn't tell if it was any good or not, I kept thinking, "She needs to speak more foreign languages in her work."
- the Spain segments were actually shot in Spain, but boy, it looked cold!
- Isabella Melling, who played the young daughter, was a little darling. Her character, Maisey, bonded with Sarah immediately, and it was a nice touch.
- And I got a really good laugh out of one scene in particular, involving Sarah and Tom's boss, Susannah (who was trying to make the moves on Tom). There's a scene where the two women are facing each other in a doorway (what was the director thinking?!), and Mandana is a good five inches taller than the woman playing Susannah. And because they were in a small area, it made MJ look even taller. I honestly laughed out loud when I first saw that scene.
Not a great movie, by any stretch, but a fairly solid one. I will freely admit though, I wouldn't have watched it if Mandana hadn't been in it. She made the most of her moments, and made the movie -for me- that much more enjoyable.
Make sure you check out the FC for some screencaps of this movie!
Through a very nice person in Australia, I was able to get a copy of this Hallmark movie. (Though if someone else has a copy they'd like to send in, that would be great- the audio on the one I have is a bit low.)
I had just finished watching S1 of "Murder in Suburbia", so seeing Jeremy Sheffield as the main character for "CufA" jarred me a bit until I got used to him. (Kept waiting for Scribbs and Ash to show up. ) I think I'll discuss this strictly as it pertains to Mandana and her character (Sarah), rather than as a movie as a whole. Because I have to admit, 1. that's all I was waiting for was to see her and 2. well, it's Hallmark so that should tell you a lot right there.
I'm a bad fan, 'cause I don't know exactly how long it took for her to finally show up (*grin*), but when she did, it was a very, "Hey!" moment for me as a fan, because this was the first time I had seen her in anything other than "Bad Girls". In that very brief first scene, I forgot all about Nikki Wade, not because Sarah is so diametrically opposite to Nikki (because there's nothing that indicates she is), but simply because, while there is a line or two I could hear Nikki say, the deliver of it by Mandana was utterly different. Or maybe it was just the hair.
No, I'm joking, of course. While the hair was very un-Nikki-like, Mandana herself was different, too. The story itself is quite cliched (workaholic discovers what life would be like if he took the time to smell the roses before it's too late), but I found Sarah's story, as little as we were given, was incredibly moving, perhaps moreso than the real plot. Here is a woman in her mid-30's who doesn't really know where she's going in life. Identifying what she wants seems to be just out of arm's reach, and of course, figuring out how to get that is impossible.
Though in hindsight she's not in the story very much (there's quite a large gap where she isn't in it at all), as I felt with Nikki Wade, Sarah was the emotional anchor to the story, and I missed that when she wasn't there. While the story may be Tom's, for me, ultimately Sarah was the catalyst and the heart of it. Sure, that has to do with my Mandana bias (and probably my identification with a mid-30 year old who doesn't really know where life is going!), but I think it also goes back to her presence on-screen. She demands you watch her when she's there, which can't do anything but miss her when she's gone.
It all ends as you might expect a Hallmark production to end, and it was a nice way to spend an hour. And, you know- Mandana Jones was in it!
Other bits:
- Tom's mother was played by June Whitfield, who also played Edwina's ditzy mother in "Absolutely Fabulous", so it took me a fair bit to get THAT role out of my head!!
- Did the title come from the George Orwell book of the same name? One of the themes of that book was the idea that things we dream about as kids get quashed under the demands of adulthood. In this movie, we see Tom in his amnesia revert to childhood memories.
- Mandana speaks a little bit of Spanish, and while I couldn't tell if it was any good or not, I kept thinking, "She needs to speak more foreign languages in her work."
- the Spain segments were actually shot in Spain, but boy, it looked cold!
- Isabella Melling, who played the young daughter, was a little darling. Her character, Maisey, bonded with Sarah immediately, and it was a nice touch.
- And I got a really good laugh out of one scene in particular, involving Sarah and Tom's boss, Susannah (who was trying to make the moves on Tom). There's a scene where the two women are facing each other in a doorway (what was the director thinking?!), and Mandana is a good five inches taller than the woman playing Susannah. And because they were in a small area, it made MJ look even taller. I honestly laughed out loud when I first saw that scene.
Not a great movie, by any stretch, but a fairly solid one. I will freely admit though, I wouldn't have watched it if Mandana hadn't been in it. She made the most of her moments, and made the movie -for me- that much more enjoyable.
Make sure you check out the FC for some screencaps of this movie!