Raoul Duke
So I watched "I capture the castle" from 2003, starring a bunch of British actors who for the most part I am not familiar with and the kid from E.T. (Henry Thomas). To get sidetracked just a little before the review, if you look at the list of young stars who Spielberg has worked with he has spotted some kids who actually have made careers as actors including Dakota Fanning, Drew Barrymore, and most notably Christian Bale (empire of the sun- great flick!). So is it good, I say yes. This movie is sort of a romantic comedy that takes place in the 1930's in England. It is humorous especially in the early moments of the movie, and as the film progresses gets more serious and more about discovering love and the way love affects everyone differently and can change, grow, be confusing, painful, and well die out sometimes. So is this movie for everyone, well no. This movie I would say is geared more towards the Jane Austin crowd, and anyone else may groan during it. I am not a huge chick flick guy or a Jane Austin guy, but I enjoyed it. It is an interesting story, the period is represented beautifully and authentically, and the characters are for the most part very fascinating especially the father, played by the one guy I really knew in this flick, Bill Nighy. So if you find yourself having high tea while playing croquet and being bohemian than turn this movie on some night you should enjoy it. if you like concise reviews of interesting films please read my other reviews at http://raouldukeatthemovies.blogspot.com/
ehhall
If I could have rated this film lower than 1, I would have. I agree completely with Freudella's commentary (which see), and I don't understand how she could give it even 5*.The events of the book are technically correct in the film, but the essential charm, agony, poignancy, and sense are completely missing. I do wonder how I would have felt about this film if I'd never read the book; I think it would have seemed merely baffling and pointless. As it is, the disappointment is deep.I love a good "quirky" film, but for all its quirkiness this film is (paradoxically) both bland and nasty. No believable context is provided for the characters' eccentricities, which hang suspended out of time, place, or background. Whereas the book amazes with its revelation of the tension between Cassandra's innocence and growing knowingness, and the preservation of innocence within knowingness, the movie makes no space for her innocence at all. Contrast that with, say, Hudson's MY LIFE SO FAR.Adolescent romance is an expression not just of sexual drive but, even more, of the need to make sense of adult life. Dodie Smith understood this. These filmmakers did not.
ianlouisiana
Bill Nighy should be taken to one side and quietly warned that his eccentric English bloke persona is in danger of wearing out its welcome. Henry Thomas should never have been allowed to act in another movie after "E.T."Romola Garai at 21 was more convincing as a 17 year old than any 17 year old could possibly have been.Those were my initial reactions to "I capture the castle".It would be very ordinary stuff indeed without the remarkable Miss Garai as Cassandra,middle child of an "artistic" family living in a rented tumbledown castle.Bill eccentric English bloke is the father, a "one book" writer living apparently on fresh air,two years behind with the rent and inventing all sorts of excuses for not settling down with his typewriter. Two rich young American brothers(Bugatti owners to boot) fall within their orbit and Cassandra's older sister sees them as a way out of poverty.Cassandra herself,with all the intensity of a sensitive young girl,falls in love with the one Rose seduces. Set in the less than egalitarian mid - thirties the film plays up the lifestyle Rose is determined to win for herself(and,by extension,her family)against the genteel but dirt - poor existence they presently enjoy. Tara Fitzgerald graces the film in the unappreciated stepmother role she is surely too young for. Cassandra learns some of life's more important lessons at the expense of a bruised heart,and since she is the only truly sympathetic character in the cast it's all a bit unsatisfactory,but there's no denying the film's overall charm despite the deeply uncharismatic American contingent. Miss Garai's ability to portray vulnerability,confusion and adolescent despair lifts the movie into a class above itself. I hope she doesn't become enmired in a long - running TV series that would blunt her intensity and dull her appetite at the same time as it enhanced her bank account - but that's just selfish,isn't it?
Sherazade
Romola Garai and Rose Byrne as stellar as two sisters coming-of-age and in virtual competition with each other. The film is centered around their family life as they live in a old English castle circa 1930s. Most of the film is told from Garai's character's point of view and through this you see her genius father slowly go insane as he struggles to survive the novelist sophomore slump, which isn't helped along any by their eccentric mother. Byrne's character is a seductive vixen who has a guy who loves her but she would rather chase after another, meanwhile her younger sister (Garai's character) is in love with the very same man whom her sister repels.
AD
