Displaying items by tag: Sarah Jessica Parker

LIFE WITHOUT DICK

US, 2022, 100 minutes, Colour.

Sarah Jessica Parker, Harry Connick Jr, Johnny Knoxville, Craig Ferguson, Teri Garr, Geoffrey Blake, John Eddins, Claudia Schiffer, David Koechner, Lee Garlington, Holmes Osbourne.

Directed by Bix Skahill.

In no way to be taken seriously. For audiences who like a very, very light comedy with some twists, some romance, some pratfalls and silliness, 100 minutes to entertain them.

However, with two very ditzy central characters, some basic dialogue, some funny moments, many silly moments, many audiences have found it a mixture of too much and too little.

Sarah Jessica Parker, so well-known from Sex and the City, plays Colleen, an ingenuous would-be painter (framed single colours), with a private detective boyfriend, Dick, Johnny Knoxville, is upset at his packing to leave, holds a gun at him, shoots, and he had put a bullet in the gun. She hides the body in the basement.

There are all kinds of side issues throughout the film though, at the end, one can admire the various strands of the screenplay coming together. She has visited medium, Teri Garr, misinterprets Dick’s behaviour, flashbacks to him at a bar, the encounter with two straightfaced detectives (who do provide some deadpan comedy), is the target of the local Irish Mafia chief, Craig Ferguson, who has employed a singer, his brother-in-law, Daniel, Harry Connick Jr, whose girlfriend, Claudia Schiffer, had laughed at him, so he is becoming a hitman but is unable to shoot straight and is reluctant to shoot. Dick was his target. He visits Colleen and the romance and the complications start. Especially as, we expect in the romantic scene, that she volunteers to do all the shooting which is not seen on screen.

The romance progresses as do the success of the hits. Colleen is in love and conscienceless.

Of course, the romantic complications, the former girlfriend turning up, Colleen misinterpreting, the owner of the yard where the bodies are buried, David Koechner, confesses. Daniel gets his audition, Colleen thinking to shoot him, the revelations about the Mafia boss and a climax after the singing of Danny Boy.

Perhaps, that makes it sound better than it actually is!

HERE AND NOW

US, 2018, 91 minutes, Colour.

Sarah Jessica Parker, Simon Baker, Gus Birney, Jacqueline Bissett, Common, Taylor Kinney, Renée Zellweger.

Directed by Fabian Constant.

First called The Best Day of my Life, ironic title, being called Blue Light, the film is now Here and Now, focusing on 24 hours in the life of singer, Vivenne. She is played by veteran actress, Sarah Jessica Parker well-known for films as well as for the television series, Sex and the City.

At the opening of the film, Vivenne visits a doctor, gets a diagnosis of cancer in her brain. The next 24 hours, until her next appointment, the audience accompanies Vivenne wandering through the city of New York, late for a rehearsal at the club where she has worked for 25 years, contact with her manager (Common), an affair with a musician (Taylor Kinney), her buying a dress and giving it to her daughter, a visit to her former husband (Simon Baker) and a further return to be with her daughter, Gus Birney.

She is pestered by phone calls from her French and dominating mother, Jacqueline Bissett, who turns up at her apartment, possessive and interfering. Upset at her taxi driver, she leaves the dress in his taxi but later has to retrieve it, finally meeting him again and paying him to be available for her for the rest of the evening when she returns to be with her daughter.

There are also interludes where she goes to sing in a club and is welcomed. And she encounters an old friend celebrating her birthday, Renee Zellweger, and their conversation.

The invitation to the audience is to empathise with Vivenne on this significant day of her diagnosis. However, blogging comment is very negative on the film, lack of sympathy for Vivenne, and many accusations that it is very boring. One might have thought that the situation and the character might have elicited more empathy and understanding.

1. The title? Rigidly, The Best Day of my Life, then Blue Night? A day in the life of Vivienne? And her contemplating her illness and death?
2. Sarah Jessica Parker, reputation, star, producer? Audience sympathy for her character, her health situation? Family, career?
3. The New York setting, the life of the city, the look of the city, the sound? Streets and taxis, apartments, clubs, music rehearsals, medical interviews? The musical score, the songs, Vivenne singing?
4. Vivenne, her age, career, the French background, her relationship with her mother, the phone calls, irritating? Her mother turning up, possessive and dominating? The breakup of her marriage, her relationship with Ben, able to turn up, her relationship with her daughter, tensions, the daughter’s age, music interests? Relationship with the group, the club, 25 years, her relationship with Ben, her manager? The affair with the musician? past life, tours, prospects for the future?
5. The health situation? The diagnosis and explanations? Vivenne’s mood? Her not revealing the truth, the possibilities for support? The day, late for the rehearsal, apologies, singing, relationship with the group? Her wandering, at home, the shops, buying the dress, leaving it in the taxi, the later contact, her abruptness with the driver and the music, the phone call, leaving the dress, finding it again, and later meeting him, paying him for the hours of the night? Her continued wanderings, going into the club, the singer welcoming her, her song? The arrangements with the manager and discussions, and his supporting her at the end and going to the hospital? The chance meeting with her friend Tessa, the years, the birthday party, going out into the street talk?
6. Vivenne going to meet Nick, his patience and understanding, her daughter, later returning, gift of the dress, the night with her daughter, the emotional effect?
7. The preparation for going to the hospital, the driver, meeting Ben, going in – and the prospects?
8. The hostility of bloggers against the film, considering it boring? No empathy for the health situation?