What are the odds that on two consecutive days Lee Pace’s movies are on while I’m watching the telly? The first was Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day(2008). I didn’t catch it all but I will. It’s set in London, just before WWII. Glorious costuming and such subtle, skillful acting. The utter, almost desperate, giddiness of the rich made their misery and insecurity all the more moving. And Lee Pace, who had much less screen-time than the lead actresses and yet made such an impression as the miserable, penniless True Love. Without saying too much, the ending is not as wretched as I expected. Although considering the times they were living in and what was about to happen next, perhaps the author was just plying us with sweets so we forget to fret about the dentist. Watching Atonement immediately after is guaranteed to put things into perspective. Perhaps too much perspective. I was depressed for days after that film.
Tonight, The Fall (2008) was on. It reminds me of Mirrormask but this time with stronger ties to the real world and emotions. A lavish production with the most marvelous fantasy sequences that, fuck all the critics, made the movie brilliant. There is no such thing as modesty in escapism and that was certainly captured in the story sequences. Epic and completely fascinating, again a sharp contrast with reality, heartbreak and hopelessness. The combination of Lee Pace as the storyteller and Catinca Untaru as his enraptured audience was what really made the movie. It really captured your mind and heart in a way that I found Mirrormask lacking. Both are wonderful tales and both have beautiful visuals but The Fall has a great deal more heart, an anchoring to human emotions and the flaws of people that dreamy Mirrormask never quite achieves. Perhaps that was its purpose, that Mirrormask was simply a tale where you suspended disbelief throughout for the sake of enjoyment, much like children’s tales where consequences and implications are generally ignored or never referred to. The evil villain dies and that is all. He deserves it, has no personality and no history beyond his nastiness so death is his natural end.
(Screencap from The Fall, from fuckyeahleepace)
