You know, I’ve never enjoyed watching
It’s A Wonderful Life. Not that it’s a bad film – far from it!
It’s amazingly well acted, with brilliant cinematography and
everything else people say about it. If anything, its problem might
be that in a sense it’s too good. I end up feeling so much of the
pain and misery through the middle of the film that even though I
totally recognize its quality, I don’t have a good time with it. It
just isn’t that kind of film for me.
Most of its imitators, though, are hard
to watch for the usual reasons. The original, despite my personal
aversion to viewing it again, had a subtle touch and a lot of skill
behind it. As is often (but not always) true of great works,
attempting to imitate what a master was able to do without being a
master is a recipe for disaster. So, you can imagine my trepidation
when I learned that the cinematic followup to the Haruhi Suzumiya
series was supposed to be cut from the cloth of It’s a Wonderful
Life. That film’s what we’re looking at today – I know I usually
do a series for Monday, but it’s Christmas week, you’ll excuse me a
little diversion from the usual in order to stay on theme.
Read More…Read More…