Love

Rating: Null/10 (26 December 2009)

I make a habit of watching movies where the filmmaker is in love with his star. There is a lovely feel to many of these. The camera caresses. The eye lingers. There is often visible emotion in the movement of the eye. This needs to be added to that class. To my mind, there are only three elements: Dumb but lovable and enthusiastic commitment from halfway until the end, after self-doubts. This time we have it accompanied with prayer.
These two elements are not worth watching.
And then you have the fight, which here you can skip to 1:42 into the thing. It is the whole thing. this is where the camera starts to embrace. The in-ring camera is missing this time; all the shots are from outside the ring, probably six or eight cameras. It fails. This is where Scorsese steps in and does it right, one of the few things I celebrate him for.
The only excuse for this is to substitute the appreciation of ability to take a punch for true valor, or any other admirable trait. Ostensibly Rocky did this for his wife, but we do not believe that for a second. We know who he loves.
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.