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Head In The Clouds [2004]
![Head In The Clouds [2004]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Q6BRATBAL._SL160_.jpg)
RRP: £19.99
Our Price: £4.24 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.com
If movies were solely about the cheap pleasure of watching gorgeous people make grand gestures in epic circumstances--because, sure, sometimes movies are--director/screenwriter John Duigan's goopy, obvious, overwrought contemplation of how global unrest really messes with your love life would be Oscar-worthy. Charlize Theron, Stuart Townsend, and Penelope Cruz are headstrong 1930s playthings who each discover that they need to pull their attractive heads out of their inviting behinds if they're going to play a part in stopping the spread of European fascism. Charlize is socialite Gilda, who ensnares both brooding, Cambridge-educated Irishman Townsend and Spanish rebel Cruz (who is particularly ill-defined) in a love triangle while seemingly caring not a whit for the imminent goosesteps of the Nazis. Charlize wears a lot of fabulous outfits, and she and real-life paramour Townsend do impetuous things like sport fedoras while romping in a milky-white bathtub; Cruz, meanwhile, performs a passionate impromptu striptease. Hey, there are worse ways to be entertained. Unfortunately, you don't really give a damn about any of them, and you can predict what's going to happen to all of them well before it actually does. It's an efficient, glamorous, hokey, ultimately downbeat time-killer for anyone willing to spend two hours trying to decide which of the doe-eyed trio you'd save from destruction first. --Steve Wiecking, Amazon.com
Not half bad
Review date: 2006-08-08 Rating: 8 out of 10
Set in the years leading up to and during world war 2 this movie follows the relationship between Gilda (Charlize Theron), Mia ( Penelope Cruz) and Guy (Stewart Townsend). Gilda and Guy meet when he is in university and they share an undeniable chemistry. She is not a one woman man however and eventually decides to travel the world keeping in touch with him via the occasional letter.
They meet again several years later after she has settled in Paris as a photographer and lives with one of her models, Mia. The two of them are friends as Mia has no family after fleeing war torn Spain and was `saved' by Gilda.
The three of them live together until Mia and Guy decide to go to Spain and join the fight against the fascists leaving Gilda behind.
We then see the effects war has on their relationships and lives.
A good film with top notch acting but there are scenes where you can clearly tell the setting is a prop together with the good old fashion hero dodging a hundred bullets which brings it down a bit.
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Reviews
Period drama by numbers
Review date: 2006-07-20 Rating: 4 out of 10
The title might refer to the way the main players act their parts - Stuart Townsend lurches through the film with the look of a man trying to remember where's he's mislaid something (possibly his career after this). Theron and Cruz are also below-par, though to be fair the material they're all working with is not top-notch.
Any romantic drama using the Spanish Civil and Second World Wars as its backdrop ought to be able to elicit more emotion than this managed. Despite being a closet cry-baby, I was unmoved by much of what happened, and had to double-back a couple of times to check that something `dramatic' had occurred.
Some of this film is well-shot, though the Cambridge scenes were too chocolate-box and the Parisian scenes shot on clunky sets, along with an incessant Reinhardt and Grapelli soundtrack that struggled to make things seem fun.
Theron plays a vapid hedonist who goes through life treating it as a game, believing her destiny to be preordained, having had a fortune-teller recoil from her palm at a young age. Her outlook conflicts with that of Townsend and Cruz, who head off to fight the Republican corner in Spain.
Theron's character is not all bad, of course. This is shown when we see her give the nasty old sadist who harmed her friend a damned good spanking. Yet she keeps this noble act to herself, as she does with other good deeds later in the story.
Redemption for Theron's character predictably comes at a price, though the Director surely can't have intended that price to be lack of viewer interest.
Sounds great, but isn't
Review date: 2006-05-15 Rating: 2 out of 10
Should be called head under the pillow as that's what I wanted to do. Seeing as noones reviewed this I might as well warn people out there to give this one a miss. It's an overly syrupy romantic tale with partner swops faster than you can say eggnog, salacious sexual scenes, unbelievable obsessions etc etc. Basically there's a confused romantic guy torn between the stereotypical bitchy blonde and the caring nursing brunette with a few bits of girl on girl thrown in for "real" swinging 20s atmosphere.
War scenes maybe a little like The Pianist but fleeting, romance similar to predictable Walk in the Clouds type. Synopsis makes it sound very grand, epic, powerful and sweeping but it's all a bit fake and plotless really. Cruz and Theron have far superior performances elsewhere (Monsters, Open Your Eyes/Don't Move etc) and director comes with a pedigree consisting of Sirens, well that says it all really.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Stuart Townsend
Charlize Theron
Penelope Cruz
Creators:
Charlize Theron (Primary Contributor)
Stuart Townsend (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
EAN: 5035822766938
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, PAL,
Release date: 2005-07-04
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 116 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2004
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Hindi (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)