Love, actually & action with brains

Rating: 10/10 (7 November 2014)

This is an excellent movie. I was crying within the first half hour and multiple times thereafter until the unbelievably beautiful ending of this film. And I don't cry easily in particular I don't cry when a movie is sentimental.This film however is full of feeling that never rings false. Partly owed to the performances. Without giving anything away: some of these tears were tears of joy, others tears of pure action and story induced angst and sadness. The film takes its time and is not a minute too long. If anything, it was too short for me. It fixes in a way, and this is not a spoiler, some things that were wrong with Kubrick's film "Space Odyssey". It does lose the latter's confusion and it adds another layer of modernity which, I think, is needed nowadays. At the same time it is indebted to Kubrick's aesthetics. Of space opera. And why not: after all space is pretty much unchanged as we keep spinning on this old orb. I found the movie most inspiring for my own science fiction writing, too. Action with brains and love - the whole package of humanity.