I saw this movie over the weekend with my sister, and i found that the screenplay was truly brilliant- it was the foundation on which the actors created their characters- and it was a solid foundation, it become, to me, a tangible thing, almost like another character. judi dench reading her diary entries was painfully naked and exposed- you saw her in all of her flawed humanity. i found the prose to be so vivid and alive, the narrative was so filled with emotion and the raw desperation of loneliness and the need to be loved... to connect to someone, to be seen.
not to take away from the actors' performances- which i felt were deep and honest and utterly engrossing- but with a screenplay that is so solid, the core of the movie was already there. i felt like the actors' were free to play with the roles with confidence that the screenplay would support them and allow them to explore their characters with intensity and abandon- which they did perfectly and with believable subtlety.
the novel must have been wonderfully rich and starkly confessional- the insight into a woman's mind, the thoughts that she hides from everyone, her obsessions and deepest insecurities and fears are laid bare for the audience- it creates a heady yearning to know more, to possess the character and understand all of her. but it also makes you want to turn away, as though looking into an open wound so achingly hollow. judi dench's character was desparate to be recognized and validated. but it seems that she was met with society's indifference, a cruel responce to her wretched plea for companionship. It seems to me that she had to resort to her single- minded, calculating schemes. she had to be vindictive and unfeeling in her tactics, she was in an attack mode- simply a self-protecive subterfuge. she saw herself discarded, unappreciated, left to sour and grow limp with loneliness and old age. society had relegated her to the realm of the unseen, the used up and worthless, utterly inconsequential and not worth a moment's thought.
the screenplay was perfect in pitch and in subtlety. convincingly candid and an uncompromising reflection of the innate unrelenting desire to commune with one another.
I saw this movie over the weekend with my sister, and i found that the screenplay was truly brilliant- it was the foundation on which the actors created their characters- and it was a solid foundation, it become, to me, a tangible thing, almost like another character. judi dench reading her diary entries was painfully naked and exposed- you saw her in all of her flawed humanity. i found the prose to be so vivid and alive, the narrative was so filled with emotion and the raw desperation of loneliness and the need to be loved... to connect to someone, to be seen.
not to take away from the actors' performances- which i felt were deep and honest and utterly engrossing- but with a screenplay that is so solid, the core of the movie was already there. i felt like the actors' were free to play with the roles with confidence that the screenplay would support them and allow them to explore their characters with intensity and abandon- which they did perfectly and with believable subtlety.
the novel must have been wonderfully rich and starkly confessional- the insight into a woman's mind, the thoughts that she hides from everyone, her obsessions and deepest insecurities and fears are laid bare for the audience- it creates a heady yearning to know more, to possess the character and understand all of her. but it also makes you want to turn away, as though looking into an open wound so achingly hollow. judi dench's character was desparate to be recognized and validated. but it seems that she was met with society's indifference, a cruel responce to her wretched plea for companionship. It seems to me that she had to resort to her single- minded, calculating schemes. she had to be vindictive and unfeeling in her tactics, she was in an attack mode- simply a self-protecive subterfuge. she saw herself discarded, unappreciated, left to sour and grow limp with loneliness and old age. society had relegated her to the realm of the unseen, the used up and worthless, utterly inconsequential and not worth a moment's thought.
the screenplay was perfect in pitch and in subtlety. convincingly candid and an uncompromising reflection of the innate unrelenting desire to commune with one another.