secretary and lost in translation: spoiler-free reviews:

[cimorene]

lost in translation was sweet, contemplative, and pretty. it was a very accurate, and quietly humorous, look at a foreigner's stay in japan. i laughed out loud in a lot of places a the japanese where my parents, through lack of experience, didn't. it's poignant. it's quietly, a little tragically, romantic. it's very real-feeling. it's not a typical bill murray comedy; it's far too dramatic for that, and it's not funny enough. i'm saying only good things about it so you know there's a but coming: BUT... i was disappointed. i prefer the kind of literature that comes together a little more in the end, not the vignette-literature that just shows a portrait of a piece of life--however poetic or deeply speaking that piece of life is.

secretary was even better than i expected and i expected it to be good. it was filed under drama, but it was a neat hybrid of that and a rather wacky romantic comedy. it's sexy. it was very funny, and it was a sweet and ultimately rather fluffy, feel-good dominant/submissive thing between a compulsive cutter nut and a rather nuttier compulsive non-cutter nut. the compulsiveness is cute; the bdsm isn't really hardcore. the romance is sweet although not all fluff--not without poignancy or tension. maggie gyllenhaal and james spader are both very attractive, and i think it makes them more so. it's just an excellent movie.

Comments

[ljash.livejournal.com]

I am not yet capable of speaking coherently about Lost in Translation but I wanted to say that I also really liked Secretary. I hadn't had any expectations, I hadn't heard of it before. But it was very interesting and moving and real, in its odd way. Both the principle actors play their parts perfectly.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

yes, i thought so. remarkably good acting.