Post by muz on Feb 29, 2008 10:30:44 GMT
My Wife and My Dead Wife (2007)
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
Featuring a cast of rather listless actors plodding along through what is after all a rather simple story, "My Wife and My Dead Wife" left me feeling this could have been better covered in a half hour episode of the Twilight Zone.
It's shot well enough, and most of the actors aren't that bad (in an amateur dramatic society sort of way) - no, my main gripe goes to the dialogue/script writer (if there was one) and the people who "wrote" the soundtrack - especially the apparently random notes generated by the musical box which gave me a headache, not to mention the Spanish guitar strumming away inappropriately during some scenes, (giving some attempted ethereal moments a spaghetti western flavour).
This movie is as scary or supernatural as an episode of the Simpsons' Tree House of Horror series - in fact I quote (as Homer aka "Graham", the lead man goes up to the attic) "Now, where the hell is that light... doh!" as he bashes his head I assume - and while we're on dialogue, who has ever really said "What a day" (takes a swig of beer), "I'm beat!" **SPOILER AHEAD** This, in short, is a story of a lawyer called Graham, with none too apparent marital problems, who, when moving to a new ACME Spooky House, finds a disappointingly cheap looking musical box which, apart from giving every audience member a migraine, summons a badly acted ghost, who, apart from being generous in the nookie department, continually tells him to TAKE THE NEXT STEP SO THAT THEY CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER.
This dead wife of the title looks not so much ghostly, as someone who is either a bit "special" or a hippy – or both. She's sort of distracted and blank, and oh so wooden. She does seem to nag him quite a bit about taking the NEXT STEP, (she's dead, he's not – what could she mean?) while his real wife actually seems quite nice and supportive to him (just don't forget to wash the dishes!) He starts skiving off work to, er, "liaise" with the dead missus, but also continues to have a rare old time with the live wife, and this seems to carry on, and on, and on, in real time, for about a month, with not much more plot development, until he eventually quaffs a nice big bottle of vodka.................. AND TAKES THE NEXT............ oh, that would be telling I suppose.
Oh and a special mention to the lead man Guy Balotine, whose portrayals of "Graham" sober and happy, "Graham" drunk and angry, "Graham" after presumably a bucket of tequila in some bar, and "Graham" getting sacked ...... are all exactly the same.
Finally a genuinely spooky moment – I must have dozed off after another scene of Graham skiving off from work, only to wake up with a start, at the same time as Graham on screen wakes up with a start! We looked at each other and I could swear he was thinking what I was thinking…."What the hell am I doing here?"
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
Featuring a cast of rather listless actors plodding along through what is after all a rather simple story, "My Wife and My Dead Wife" left me feeling this could have been better covered in a half hour episode of the Twilight Zone.
It's shot well enough, and most of the actors aren't that bad (in an amateur dramatic society sort of way) - no, my main gripe goes to the dialogue/script writer (if there was one) and the people who "wrote" the soundtrack - especially the apparently random notes generated by the musical box which gave me a headache, not to mention the Spanish guitar strumming away inappropriately during some scenes, (giving some attempted ethereal moments a spaghetti western flavour).
This movie is as scary or supernatural as an episode of the Simpsons' Tree House of Horror series - in fact I quote (as Homer aka "Graham", the lead man goes up to the attic) "Now, where the hell is that light... doh!" as he bashes his head I assume - and while we're on dialogue, who has ever really said "What a day" (takes a swig of beer), "I'm beat!" **SPOILER AHEAD** This, in short, is a story of a lawyer called Graham, with none too apparent marital problems, who, when moving to a new ACME Spooky House, finds a disappointingly cheap looking musical box which, apart from giving every audience member a migraine, summons a badly acted ghost, who, apart from being generous in the nookie department, continually tells him to TAKE THE NEXT STEP SO THAT THEY CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER.
This dead wife of the title looks not so much ghostly, as someone who is either a bit "special" or a hippy – or both. She's sort of distracted and blank, and oh so wooden. She does seem to nag him quite a bit about taking the NEXT STEP, (she's dead, he's not – what could she mean?) while his real wife actually seems quite nice and supportive to him (just don't forget to wash the dishes!) He starts skiving off work to, er, "liaise" with the dead missus, but also continues to have a rare old time with the live wife, and this seems to carry on, and on, and on, in real time, for about a month, with not much more plot development, until he eventually quaffs a nice big bottle of vodka.................. AND TAKES THE NEXT............ oh, that would be telling I suppose.
Oh and a special mention to the lead man Guy Balotine, whose portrayals of "Graham" sober and happy, "Graham" drunk and angry, "Graham" after presumably a bucket of tequila in some bar, and "Graham" getting sacked ...... are all exactly the same.
Finally a genuinely spooky moment – I must have dozed off after another scene of Graham skiving off from work, only to wake up with a start, at the same time as Graham on screen wakes up with a start! We looked at each other and I could swear he was thinking what I was thinking…."What the hell am I doing here?"
) to encourage audience members to fall asleep just before that scene so that they will interact with the character in that way?! It would be interesting to know whether anyone else in the audience had the same thing happen to them???
