Desire Avenue

Premonition.
I've just picked up this recent Sandra Bullock film on dvd and it made for an interesting if slightly baffling viewing.

The film follows a young mother over the course of a rather eventful 7 days in which her 10 year old daughter crashes through a patio window badly injuring her face,she suspects her husband of having an affair and her husband is then killed in a road accident.Starting on the Sunday,the husband is dead and buried by the following Saturday.

What makes this film interesting tough is the way every morning when Bullock wakes up,she's in a different day of the week. As you can imagine the narrative leaps about all over the place and some memories of events Bullock can remember and others she can't.

It gets complicated but it always intriguing.Its received poor reviews but I enjoyed it.
Anyone else seen it?

Nope, I didn't see it but it's on my filmlist.

I watched this a while back, I'll always watch anything Sandra Bullock's in, she's one of my favourite actors.

There's been a whole slew of 'non-linear' movies over the last few years, influenced by brilliant examples like Mulholland Drive and Memento. They vary in quality ... some are really bad, some are OK. This is one of the OK ones, for me. It's a really interesting idea that, in the hands of an independent auteur, could have been fascinating and profound, but because it was a big budget mainstream movie it had to be more 'accessible', which is a pity. The ideas were watered down, the writing not as interesting as it could have been, but for someone who hasn't seen superior examples of this kind of movie I'd imagine it would be thought-provoking.

I thought the ending was a little ... sentimental? It made sense and was a satisfactory conclusion to a mainstream film that has to have a 'happy' ending, but it was a little too pat.

Sandra Bullock is great in it though, as she is in most of her roles.

blue wrote:Sandra Bullock is great in it though, as she is in most of her roles.

I think this is the only film I have that features Sandra Bullock so I'm totally unfamiliar with anything else she has done.Which is kind of interesting as I believe she is more known for lighter/comedy roles but to me she is simply a really good dramatic actress.

I think Hollywood did pretty much the same thing to Sandra Bullock in the 90s as it did to Meg Ryan in the 80s, ie put her in a 'light romantic comedy' straitjacket that really didn't do her ability any justice. LIke Ryan, she's a fine, intelligent actress who seldom gets the chance to show what she can really do. She's had to be content much of the time with bringing a delightful wit and vivacity to the romatic leads she's been stuck with. The good thng about that is it makes many of her romcoms and lighter movies well worth watching - things like 'Hope Floats', 'Forces of Nature', 'Practical Magic' and 'While You Were Sleeping' are great little movies.

She's had a couple of more serious films that stretched her a bit more, look out for 'The Net' and 'Murder by Numbers', oh and she had a small but poignant role in the recent film 'Crash'.

I see this is on Channel 4 tonight, well worth a second watch I think.

I'm really sorry to say but I found this film absolutely ghastly, just awful. Just another misguided vehical for an actress who can't seem work out what films she's suited to. I've always felt a bit sorry for her as an actress, she's obviously talented, just picks the most hideous hideous films to star in (28 Days was great right up until she went into rehab ).

The film interestingly began as an intended remake of a rather good Japanese thriller, but when the rights fell through the studio kept the title and made an original film instead.

For a much better film in a similar field try November, an ultra low budget indie film that Courtney Cox starred in and was filmed on digital cameras, about a woman presented daily with different versions of life after a devestating event and trying to figure out which path she really took. It surprisingly looks awesome thanks to some rather clever, unusual filming techniques (blowing blue smoke across the screen while filming to cast very surreal set pieces). Courtney is actually excellent in this too as a very damaged woman, far removed from the glitz she tends to magnetise towards. It went down a storm at the Sundance film fest a few years ago.

'November' sounds intriguing Daniel so i'll add that to my list of films to look out for.