Jun. 16, 2003 - 6:11 pm
this is one of Colin's favorite movies of the past few years and he's been telling me to watch it for quite a few months now. i recently borrowed his dvd and kept waiting for an opportunity to watch it. i finally got to it this afternoon.
this is a sort of tragic romance about an aspiring young politician in the 1970s and the girl he loves. at the beginning of the film she is killed by a car bomb while helping some Chilean nationalists. the rest of the film alternates between flashbacks of their developing romance and his present day congressional race as he tries to deal with her death. he also begins to convince himself that she is not actually dead and he starts seeing visions of her in his daily life. this begins to put more and more strain on his campaign, not to mention his dwindling will to push himself through each day.
i thought this was an extraordinarily well acted film. Billy Crudup is an amazing actor, although i have not been extremely pleased with his career choices up to this point. he's done some quite mediocre films and there haven't been many signs (other than this film) that he'll be doing anything that much more promising in the future. Jennifer Connelly is always amazing though, so her performance definitely makes the movie worth watching as well.
i think Colin secretly wants to play the character in this movie. it fits the profile of all the roles that Colin always plays. i think he'd do well at it.
this movie believe it or not, reminded me a lot of The Crow (1994). it has the same sort of ephemeral atmosphere and the sense of loss for the love of your life. there's also the people coming back from the dead aspect. and Billy Crudup's looks and acting style remind me a lot of Brandon Lee actually. i'll have to tell Colin about that. he might find it interesting.