Wicker Park-2002 * * * *

Passion never dies.

Wicker Park is a strange film. I tried to watch it a while back and was totally bored and unimpressed with the whole idea. I tried to watch it again recently and was totally bowled over and gripped by the acting, the plot and the conclusion. Josh Hartnett to my mind has never been a good actor, he's been a hearthrob and maybe a bit of a sex-obsessed joke in some of his films but never strong enough for the audience to go 'wow'. However in this film I took his portrayal of a man who's lost the only woman he ever loved to be a pretty good example of quality acting. This film is all about coincidences, memories, passion and mistaken identity but it still manages to serve up some eerie scenes where Hartnett believes he is looking right at his lost love, only for her to disappear suddenly. The movie takes a much needed darker turn about half way through and we find out exactly what we are so anxious to know in relation to what happened to his girlfriend. Rose Byrne is really quite nauseating as Hartnett's best friend's girlfriend who appears to know a lot more about the situation than she is letting on. (His best friend incidentally is that dorky bloke who is in 'She's all that' and 'Without a Paddle' but whose name I can never remember.)

I'm not sure how to class this film- suspense, thriller, dark comedy... Whatever it is it still deserves a watch, and maybe another one soon after to tie up any loose ends that you may have missed the first time around.

Picnic at Hanging Rock - 1975 * * * * *

Everything begins, and ends, at exactly the right time and place...

Picnic at Hanging Rock is a movie I will never be able to figure out or forget. It haunts, scares and totally encapsulates the dusty and humid atmosphere of Australia at the beginning of the 20th century. Time and time again I go back to this movie, and although I know for a fact that it had no truth in it whatsover I still believe that by watching it again and again I will be able to find the key to the mystery.

The story is fairly simple (this is no spoiler because it mentions this at the beginning of the film)- a group of school girls and their teachers go for a picnic to Hanging Rock to celebrate Valentine's Day in 1900. By the evening, three girls and a teacher have disappeared. You may think to yourself that while it is a dreadful thing to happen, it isn't particularly odd, people slip off rocks all the time and fall to their deaths. The thing is, the bodies are never found, and the one girl who didn't disappear but was the last to see them has no clue or knowledge of what happened. If this film had been set in the present day it may have shocked, but I doubt very much that it would have haunted it's viewers as it does here. There is something so eerie about the situation that you can never quite put your finger on that could only fit in with the 1900s. Joan Lindsay's novel caused a great stir soon after, for many people believed it to be a real film and were convinced that Lindsay knew the answer to the disappearance of the girls and teacher. However Lindsay has always maintained her answer that the story is just a story and all characters have come from her head instead of a police case.

Dance Flick - 2008 * * * *

Look man, there ain't I in team! There ain't?

Uh oh, I probably shouldn't be saying that I liked this movie. Parody films have got a bad name now after so many have been released and to be truthful most of them aren't actually funny! So it was such a relief to watch this film and actually laugh. Laugh out loud and laugh long. One thing I do like about parody films is the fact that you have to know all the films that are being referenced otherwise you're unlikely to find it funny at all. I did. I'm glad I watched Save the Last Dance now (not because I liked the film though, because I didn't!) as there were parts of the movie devoted to the relationship in that movie. Step up is also referenced, with an incrediably ugly in need of dental care Channing Tatum 'look-a-like.' As usual the film didn't really have a strong story, and normally that would make me switch off straight away, but this type of film doesn't really need to rely on intricate plots to be classed as a funny film. Worth a chuckle, and even a full-bodied laugh, maybe these types of films are getting better after such a long time.