Simple and Simply Disappointing

Arrietty in one of the beautifully drawn sets of the film

Arrietty (or The Secret World of Arrietty)

I’ll be honest: I haven’t seen Up and I don’t plan on seeing it. The thing is: it’s too adult for me. In fact, a lot of the animations that currently populate the cinema landscape, such as Despicable Me and The Smurfs, don’t really seem like animation films I grew up with. They seem too serious, play too much to the attending adult and not enough to the child. They lack the innocence that made classics such as Bambi and Snow White so enduring. That’s why my recent trip to see Arrietty was so refreshing: finally, an animation for children.

The story of Arrietty revolves around the miniature person Arrietty and her family that live under a human’s house. When Sho, a sick child, visits the house, her existence is detected and hence her family’s safety put at risk. The plot has its obvious bad guys, in this case the house keeper, and good guys, Sho, with a strong, heroic lead, Arrietty.

While this may sound boring, in fact the plot doesn’t develop much more, this is part of the charm and appeal of this delightful animation. The plain and uncomplicated desires of the main characters, friendship and understanding, make them easy to respond to and support as they face their trials with strength and determination. It sounds naive and indeed lacks some of the greyness that is real life but if I had wanted that I would see something rated M.

The other obvious major attraction of the film is the animation. The Studio Ghibli crew have once again put together a highly decorative and colourful set of characters and settings to entice the audience. The design and detail of the doll’s house is particularly beautiful while the cat is the best animated character by far. Moreover, you truly buy the Arrietty and her family as small humans thus making them even more appealing.

While this film may be seen to lack the humour and sophistication of more recent animations, Arrietty is a delightfully simple film that shows courage and friendship are sometimes all that is needed to create an engaging tale for all ages.

The Descendants

George Clooney is a great actor. If you want proof see him in any of the following: Goodnight, And Good luck, Up in the Air, or even The Ides of March. However, if you go to see The Descendants don’t expect to find gorgeous and talented George hanging about because you’ll just be disappointed.

In search of my disappointment at The Descendants, I first decided to blame the film critics and award season hype. This year was meant to be George’s year and this was his vehicle to Oscar success. Moreover, most reviews seemed positive and the film didn’t overly offend or venture to out of the norm for the voting panels. However, it would be a shame for George to win it on such an up and down performance compared to Up in the Air, a similar style of film that he excelled in (a bit like Denzel Washington receiving an Oscar for Training Day.

Yet this wasn’t at the heart of my disappointment; I looked closer at the film. The premise was solid: the impending death of his wife leads a man to confront his fractured family life and the man his wife was having an affair with. The casting was good: most acted their parts well and his family unit was convincingly portrayed. The music was ok: I got a bit sick of the repetitive Hawaiian refrain but it was part of the setting. The script was... awful!

The main problem with the script was the inconsistent emotions and behaviours of the characters. On occasion, Clooney or his older daughter began to scratch the surface of anger, resentment, despair and sadness that would accompany their plight but then only to break it with almost mandatory comic relief. Almost farcically, the spouse of the man who had been having the affair comes into farewell the dying wife and actually forgives her! Call my cynical but the death of a spouse is not lightened by such feel good moments that affirm the power of forgiveness. Moreover, it was bemusing at the speed at which the recalcitrant and troublesome daughter goes from drinking and skipping school to being the model daughter – act out for goodness sake! Finally, this was made all the worse by the tiresome length of the film that ran at nearly 2 hours.

So this was my disappointment: a poorly written, long, unbalanced piece of award night tenderloin that was served up with a good dollop of George Clooney to add a depth of flavour. While this may be palatable for members of the Hollywood Foreign Press, I prefer my George slightly more aged with a hint of spice.