Birdsong (2012, UK)

Oh, Eddie Redmayne. You could be watching paint dry and I would be utterly captivated. You merit at least a full additional star for yourself in every movie. You are beautiful and brilliant with your too-wide mouth and your piercing eyes and your childlike freckles and your one-of-a-kind voice.

Excuse me. Now that I got that out of the way... This was a beautiful piece. I'm really curious to read the Sebastian Faulks novel that it came from. (I watched Charlotte Gray a long time ago, before the blog, and I remember really enjoying it too. It's also from his loosely connected France Trilogy.) The juxtaposition of Stephen's life before and after the war is amazing. They did a great job of contrasting bright and lovely greens in the idyllic 1910 countryside with the dusty, depressing browns of that same country covered with trenches. Stephen learns really important life lessons that he needs both personal tragedy and global tragedy to understand. It's hard to explain this, but it's the core of Birdsong.

I liked basically everything about this. Obviously, I think Eddie Redmayne is a genius. He has such an emotive face and a strong range. I think this was the first I've seen of Clémence Poésy (outside of Fleur in Harry Potter), but she was utterly perfect for the role too, as was Joseph Mawle, who plays a miner in the trenches who helps Stephen on his path to enlightenment. The rest of the cast was good too, but those two stood out.

I already mentioned the perfection of the mis en scène. I also found the music to be very powerful. It was very piano-heavy, and many of the songs were simple, relying on repeating series of 3 or 4 notes. It fit the tone perfectly. (Incidentally, this is, as far as I know, only the third score I've heard by Nicholas Hooper. His HP6 score was a big tone-perfect standout for me too.)

Oh, I'm just not doing it justice. I spent nearly 3 hours with the mini-series, plus extra time for the special features, and I loved every second. It was beautiful, heartbreaking, well-acted, realistic, enlightening, and powerful. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4.5

The Haunted Airman (2006, UK)

What a crazy film. There was a lot of psychological baggage to cram into 68 minutes, and it was definitely a head trip. I went into it thinking that I would probably like it, because the previews looked incredible. And I will say that I did, in fact, like it, though I say this with reservations. Because mostly I was confused.

From what I gathered, this British pilot was shot down during World War II and lost the use of his legs. He goes to a creepy recovery home, as far from the war as he could be. He starts to lose his mind, feeling spiders everywhere and seeing things that aren't there. Or perhaps he doesn't. Perhaps his doctor is actually pushing him into these delusions. Meanwhile, the RAF pilot has been having an affair with his deceased uncle's wife, and they let her come stay at the hospital too. It's just a bunch of weirdness. And the end will really blow your mind.

I definitely need to see this again to understand it better. But I can say that the cinematography was incredible. And the acting was superb. This is a 20-year-old Pattinson who acts like he's been at it for decades. (In reality, he'd just been in Vanity Fair, where his scenes were cut; a made-for-European-tv movie, where he had very few lines; and The Goblet of Fire, in which he made us all fall in love with Cedric Diggory.) The intensity with which he portrayed this character and his fractured mind was simply mind-blowing. Previously unknown gems like this make it clear that Pattinson has real talent, and isn't just a lucky boy (to land HP and Twilight roles) with a pretty face (and musical talent and bad hygiene).

Rating: 3.5