Ugh, another poor post-modern view at love. Old fashioned romance movies are officially dead.

Rating: 1/10 (8 October 2010)

so, a friend rented this movie and since she was a chick, i decided to sit through it. I'm a guy, but secretly i do enjoy those corny love movies, or "chick flicks", every once in a while. however i tend to watch the ones that are shown on TCM or any old movie channel because old movies tended to have a sweetness and a kind of innocence to them. you weren't allowed to curse or show nudity or any of that. thats why i like those old fashioned romance movies. today, there is a fine line between romance movie and sex comedy. the only romance movie in recent times that i can think of that was actually good was "a walk in the clouds" with keanu reeves. that movie was not ponly beautiful looking, but it had an old fashioned heart and a beauty on the inside that really touched me in a good way.
however, films nowadays, i would even say for the past 30 or so years, romance films have been getting progressively worse. a "romance" film these days must include senseless scenes of sex, nudity, swearing and sometimes very crude "humour". love actually isn't the worst when it comes to this, but this movie actually showed promise but again fell very short of what it could have been: a nice sweet tale of romance (or romance's). the perfect example of the grossness is the naked couple who are constantly talking while doing some kind of strange nude scenes. personally, i found these parts of the movie pretty distasteful for a "romantic" movie. was it supposed to be funny? it was just weird, and odd. but they talk like they just met and they act all nervous and shy while doing these random sex acts? am i supposed to laugh at the paradox? wasn't funny to me, it actually was pretty sick. things like this in movies show just how uninhibited society has become where people can just get naked in front of you and act like its nothing (not saying everyone does but you get my point). pretty disturbing stuff. remember a time when women were so afraid to even show there knees or ankles? boy had the apple fallen far from the tree where you live in a society where prostituting ones self is perfectly normal and acceptable. very sad.
the rest of the relationships offer nothing much that we haven't already seen elsewhere. i also didn't like the amount of swearing in it. it just came off as awkward and unneeded, especially since the film takes place around Christmastime. it could have been sweet. it could have been nice. but what it is is a post-modern strange look at love. the only story lines that were actually not too bad and kinda sweet was the writer falling in love with the house cleaner and the office woman who sacrifices love for her mentally ill brother. i have one question though: was is REALLY necessary for the house cleaner girl to take off all her clothes (in a very slow manner) just to jump in the lake? if she was in such a hurry to get the notes why would you feel the need to take off all your clothes? especially right in front of your employer? there were also some pretty random and pointless scenes of alan rickmans secretary taking off her clothes or walking around in lingeria. just, pointless stuff like this...i don't get it. and this movie is filled with them.
there is one very funny moment with Rowan Atkinson aka Mr. Bean who appears at the jewelry counter. but really, the film could have been so much better. i didn't even like the environments, besides the writers house, all the houses/buildings looked so sterile and white and soulless. i also found liam neesons son's behavior to be so unrealistic. no 7 year old acts like that, or talks like that. and neeson talks to his very young son like hes teenager, mentioning things like "haveing sex" and even saying "who is she, or HE.." i was like, what? why would you automatically assume your son is gay? just weird. i heard about this film 7 years ago but i could tell what kind of movie it was going to be. lo and behold, i was correct. now i know why i hadn't been in any rush to see it. same with king Kong. heard about, it was popular, but deep down i knew it would suck. and i was right. anyway, sad to see liam neeson in such rubbish, but hey every actor needs work right? cant always be in those deep human drama's or action blockbusters like schindlers list or star wars, unfortunately. but he is still good even in this cold turkey of a "love" movie. the days where you could go to a romance movie with a date or family are gone, as by "romance" they now mean "must be 18 years or older to attend this R rated sexual movie". very very sad. now i know why i don't go to the movies anymore, not only is there a lack of good action adventure films, but also decent romantic films. i think i'll just stick with watching TCM for my romance fix.