Truly, Madly, Deeply
Review by Paul Fiander
RELEASE DATE: 5th March
DVD RRP: £13.27, Blu-ray RRP: £18.37
DVD RRP: £13.27, Blu-ray RRP: £18.37
|
I’m not a fan of blurbs, they serve a purpose to let people know the rough idea of a films path, however they can be reductive and this is certainly the case for Truly Madly Deeply. I will not spoil the film but the blurb focuses on the Nina’s relationships and this devalues her journey throughout the film. This is the most important part of the film as we see Nina go through the trauma of loss without ever seeing the actual instant aftermath. This is due to the timescale of the piece, the slowly revealed story and some truly wonderful characters.
Juliet Stevenson turns in a wonderful performance as the bereaved Nina, her fight to recover is eminent throughout as we see her in tears at one point and fighting for friends in a well pitched look at the issues surrounding immigrant workers and their exploitation. The main aspect of her character though is her fight to “recover”. The loss of a loved one must be devastating and although you can not really imagine how much so unless you have been through it the fragility of Nina is plain to see, this however does not define her as she tries to get on with her life with varying degrees of success. You feel her anger, regret, sorrow and moments of happiness throughout, There is a lovely echo of this in Nina’s flat qas it goes from chaos to order. |
It is not until halfway through the film that we get to see the deceased Jamie. Alan Rickman does what he did best in making his character a lovable “Bar Steward” who can be sweet but also selfish and controlling. It is great to see a honest look at a character as we generally like to sanctify those who have passed away instead of accepting them for their flaws. Crucially though there is nothing ultimately terrible in Nina and Jamie’s relationship yet the flaws are there to see but the key is her realization of the issues that makes this such a believable story.
On a technical standpoint the film shows its age, the DVD version I watched has a 4:3 ratio which does look dated on a modern TV, This however adds to the films charm as it is very much a film of its time. The images of 1990 London are used sparingly and it is really refreshing to see a London based film that focuses on the quaint side streets and tube stations rather than the world famous monuments. There is no real need for this film to be set in London giving it a universal appeal.
In terms of story Truly Madly Deeply is not an easy film to encapsulate into a few sentences and so I do feel for the Blurb writer. Personally though I would like to have focused more on the journey Nina has throughout the film rather than her relationships past, present and future. In essence this is a character study of someone trying to recover from loss making her relationships important but not defining in her progression of that of the film. If you haven’t seen the film then I can highly recommend it with one caveat. If you are afraid of Rats you may need to bring a pillow to hide behind at one or two points as director Anthony Minghella does not hold back from putting our furry little friends front and centre of more than one scene.
On a technical standpoint the film shows its age, the DVD version I watched has a 4:3 ratio which does look dated on a modern TV, This however adds to the films charm as it is very much a film of its time. The images of 1990 London are used sparingly and it is really refreshing to see a London based film that focuses on the quaint side streets and tube stations rather than the world famous monuments. There is no real need for this film to be set in London giving it a universal appeal.
In terms of story Truly Madly Deeply is not an easy film to encapsulate into a few sentences and so I do feel for the Blurb writer. Personally though I would like to have focused more on the journey Nina has throughout the film rather than her relationships past, present and future. In essence this is a character study of someone trying to recover from loss making her relationships important but not defining in her progression of that of the film. If you haven’t seen the film then I can highly recommend it with one caveat. If you are afraid of Rats you may need to bring a pillow to hide behind at one or two points as director Anthony Minghella does not hold back from putting our furry little friends front and centre of more than one scene.
