Downbeat films

It is rather unfortunate that during this difficult time for the family, James and I have unwittingly chosen to watch some films that have been more downbeat that we expected. Last week we went to see the biopic of Laurel and Hardy, entitled “Stan and Ollie.” James had been very keen to see it and we were lucky to catch it at the Fort Vue cinema at the end of its run. However, although the acting by Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly was very good, the film was about their final tour in Britain when their glory days were long over, they were hard up because of alimony owed to their ex wives, and Oliver Hardy’s health was suffering. As such, I found it a wee bit depressing, although that could be a reflection of my current frame of mind.
On Friday evening, after Ally and Cat set off northwards for a hill-climbing weekend, James and I decided to watch the recent film about Neil Armstrong’s life in the run up to his famous landing on the moon, “First Man.” This sort of film is right up our streets; science for James and human interest for me. However, guess what, I found it a bit depressing. Neil Armstrong was portrayed as taciturn and deeply affected by both personal and professional tragedies. This may well be spot on, but it all felt a bit bleak; there wasn’t much sense of the excitement of the space race.
Perhaps predictably, I didn’t find our choice of film last night a barrel of laughs either! I had bought the DVD of Dr Zhivago a while ago because I do love Russian literature and also it’s meant to be one of the greatest love stories of all time. It's an old film from 1965 but I have never seen it. We sat down to watch it after dinner. It was extremely good in my opinion, and will definitely stay with me. Omar Sharif was perfect as the good-natured and optimistic Dr Zhivago, and Julie Christie was so beautiful and tragic as Lara. And the music was gorgeous. But it was very long film even though parts of the convoluted plot had been ruthlessly cut to make it simpler, and perhaps because of this some of the characters were underdeveloped and a bit unbelievable. And it was very, very sad.
We really could do with watching a more cheery film next!