I've just had to sit through Puffball at the Exeter Phoenix screening where Mr. Roeg graced us with his presence for a listed Q& A session pre the movie viewing
and thank god for 'his' own sake he did. I thought Basic Instinct II was a turkey
but this movie takes bird basting to a whole new level
There's no doubting Nic's past pedigree (40 years ago) with über works such as Walkabout, Don't Look Now and that allegory of our current times The Man Who Fell to Earth
but in his current contemporary offering the only truly menacing character in this supernatural themed movie is Molly's (Rita Tushingham's) Dog
It does the menacing stare very well
though as I know not of the book (original material)
I cannot judge what Fay Weldon's original story had in mind? And interestingly, Mr. Roeg stated pre viewing
that this is a woman's film
which as I saw the movie with three women
all four of us didn't seem to share this heterogamy vision
Major problems with the film are it's done on a shoe string budget
and the characters particularly Liffey lack real depth and any sense of believable credibility
And the monotonous steady delivery of the plot with no twists or unexpected turns also means that you just wish the whole experience would come to a more dramatic, less over acted, swifter end
I kept expecting to have Father Dougal McGuire appear, with Mrs. Doyle in tow
in which case some real farcical humour could have ensued
so at least the 'naff' typical Irish stereotypes could be further exploited
for better comic affect.
I imagine as a favour to his buddy from the 1970's - Donald Sutherland's cameo appearances were there to add an A list weight -.playing the mad senior 'deity' partner from Liffey's city slicker, architectural practice past. Poor old Donald wanders around grinning maniacally like a Cheshire cat mumbling words of architectural design guru wisdom, ruefully confessing to having always wanted to see an ancient fertility stone
.
The continual references to Odin throughout the movie (Norse paganism) for me seemed at odds with the setting of in-depth Celt southern Ireland
but lets not be a stickler for accuracy here
perhaps it should have been shot in Stavanger? The heavy handed use of somewhat unsubtle sound xfx and inappropriate Irish music doesn't help either
and I do suspect greatly with this work that younger members of the team have been overawed by the combined presence of Weldon (by proxy through her son, 2nd unit Director, and screenplay writer Dan) and Roeg into creating a low budget, 2 year film school result, instead of following their own more polished and well-honed intuitions. Miranda Richardson
should really have known better
And as a woman we do 'get' how babies are made on a biological level
seeing frequent cutaways to spermatozoa and uterine membrane walls if over done leaves you feeling somewhat violated
To sum up, I'd recommend seeing this movie for one reason only
it's a testament to triumph of ego over more humble led creative sanity
and you need a film like this every-now-and-then to appreciate what's really good
I saw 2 Days in Paris by the wonderful Julie Delpy last week
this is definitely a 'womans' movie also made on a low budget
and is a remarkable result because of it
And I whole heartedly recommend you all go see that!
