So you all want to know what I thought of War Horse, don't you? What can I say?
Oddly enough, I wasn't terribly impressed. It depicts an oh-so-quaint England that I'm not sure ever existed, from the prettiest Devon village imaginable to the sweeping moors. The sunsets and the huge skies are out of this world - literally. Some of the sequences are brilliantly filmed but I was reminded of Lassie Come Home or Gone With the Wind. (I actually love Lassie Come Home.) War Horse oozed sentimentality and ventured into corny. The war scenes were too cheesy with trenches that looked cosier than my bedroom and hundreds of neat, clean corpses. At times, it's beautiful to look at but, for me, that terrible war had been gift wrapped in too many pretty pink ribbons.
Having said that …
You think I walked out of that cinema muttering about the heavy dollops of sentimentality? Um, no. I walked out of that cinema in bits. The film is 146 minutes long. About 15 minutes in, there's a scene where Joey - the most amazing horse who delivered an Oscar-worthy performance - does some ploughing in the pretty Devonshire fields. That totally choked me. I had tears streaming down my face for the next 2 hours. Nick had to remind me that it was 'only a film' and that 'no animals were hurt during the making of this movie', but I cried all the way home. I was still crying as I gulped down an extremely large - and I mean huge - gin and tonic.
So on the one hand, I thought it was too corny. On the other hand, the relationship between the boy and that magnificent horse really touched me. I'm sure it will win dozens of awards.
So another weekend has rolled round. Yay! What plans do you have? Me? I'm avoiding all films featuring animals. I'll be in my usual seat at Turf Moor on Saturday afternoon cheering on the Clarets, and on Sunday I may pluck up courage to venture to Ikea. Assuming I find my way out of the worst shop on the planet, I'll see you on Monday.
What about you? How will you be spending the weekend?