Cemetery Junction/Ricky Gervais
what do people think of this coming of age film?
I really enjoyed it, though a lot of critic's bemoaned it for not being close enough to the office, in terms of sardonic depression; I personally thought that worked to its advantage. This is because though I loved how dark the office could, two hours of that would be far too much depression and discomfort to handle o0. As well, the happy feel go lucky side to the lads is more in line with their characters than the completely crushed characters in office, just due to the fact we can accept these kids are wideyed enough to believe something more. I would go so far as to say these characters are what Ricky felt the office characters once were, before reality finally broke them.
However this films, greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. I can 100% empathise with this films main character, this is because I was someone raised in a small English city-town by a father who works in factory and believed an advantageousness trip/holiday would be going into the wilds known as Wales. I also had mother with those small town values that basically consisted of distrusting everything none-British without admitting bluntly. Though my Mother was slightly more articulate than family portrayed here, her reaction was otherwise the same as this familes reaction to one of members claiming he wanted to travel to Africa. (my sister in this case). My friends often suffered the same level of entrapment that his friends suffered as they fatalistically accepted their lives ended at town boarder. This went I could really understand why the main character acted as he did and felt as he did (won't say what those actions/feelings are) because I went through all this myself. The problem is that I suspect those who are less acquainted with this way of life will struggle to find this same connection in this character and probably won't want to accounting with other characters.
This is a great film, what do others think.
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06-20-2011
