Beware Of Falling Boulders
Posted on | January 13, 2008 at 12:55 pm | 5 Comments
Pet Peeve of the Day: When movies try to hit you over the head with their settings. Last night, the gf and I watched Catch and Release, a character-driven movie about a young woman played by Jennifer Garner whose fiancé dies in some un-detailed sporting accident before the movie even starts, and how she deals with it. She comes face to face with her fiancé’s heretofore hidden life, she mixes it up with his and her friends played oddly by Kevin Smith and Sam Jaeger (who of course has an unrequited crush on her), and she has a fling with her fiancé’s best friend, played by Deadwood’s Timothy Olyphant. And, oh yeah, there’s a bit of a clash with the almost-mother-in-law. And that’s about it. Two hours of people talking, with some occasional weeping, painting and throwing-of-fruit and empty wine bottles. Oh, and one sort-of suicide attempt that didn’t make much sense. We both found the movie pretty banal and gave it 2.5 stars out of 5.
But what irked me most about the movie was that it was set in Boulder Colorado, and went out of its way to prove it. I remember reading about how some of it was filmed in Colorado (including, obviously, Boulder) and that may have influenced our desire to see it. But since there was a lack of location shooting, they had to make up for it by constantly mentioning how it was taking place in Boulder. There were Bolder Boulder t-shirts and posters all around, as well as a Boulder High School t-shirt that was a very brief plot point. Kevin Smith’s character worked at Celestial Seasonings and was almost always wearing one of their t-shirts, as well as constantly quoting from tea boxes. There were a couple of location scenes shot on the Pearl Street Mall, and Timothy Olyphant’s character commented on how happy (read: hippy) everybody seemed there. And of course there was that old trope: every movie set in Colorado has to have a scene in a country western bar with country music blaring and drunk people in plaid wearing cowboy hats. I’m not even sure there is a country western bar in Boulder (I went to college there for three years in the 80s), but if there was, it probably wouldn’t look like the one in the movie. The scenes outdoors on the river (some of the characters are fisherman) didn’t really look like Colorado, and I suspect they were filmed in Canada. I could be wrong though.
Anyway, I applaud the fact that the entire movie was set in Colorado (except for a part at the end), but I wish the filmmakers could’ve been a bit more subtle about it instead of “see how idiosyncratic our setting is?”. Better luck next time.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 28°F). Back to the full two mile route at last!
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Ein Symphonie Des Grauens (Lida Husik)” (The Monochrome Set)
- “Touch the Fire” (Icehouse)
- “Ninja Gaiden-Mine Shaft” (The Advantage)
- “[Untitled Track 13]” (Chris Mars)
- “So It Goes” (Gordon Gano w/Linda Perry)
- “Is This Love?” (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
- “Dysfunctional Friend” (Hypnolovewheel)
Latre.
Comments
5 Responses to “Beware Of Falling Boulders”
January 13th, 2008 @ 3:37 pm
Sounds like yet another film from the “Indie Movie in a Box” kit…
January 13th, 2008 @ 3:39 pm
Oops – I meant also to link to this.
January 13th, 2008 @ 3:56 pm
It worked for “Mork and Mindy”, turning a simple 1-joke spinoff into the romantic comedy of the decade simply by slapping some stock footage into the opening credits.
January 13th, 2008 @ 5:26 pm
See:
http://www.johnives.com/film/index.html
January 13th, 2008 @ 5:57 pm
See:
http://www.johnives.com/film/index.html
Oh yeah, I forgot about New Belgium Brewery – there’s was a ton of that! Tokyo Joe’s surprised me.