Overthinking it - Richard Curtis

[SDSS]

Have just finished watching About Time, had never seen it before.

No spoilers but the take-away message at the end was that we should 'enjoy every moment of this wonderful, amazing life'.

I'm aware I'm overthinking this but... for many this life isn't wonderful and amazing, is it?

For many it's hard, living below the poverty line, living in a war zone, living under oppressive administrations or having to fight for basic rights.

I'm not quite sure what point I'm making but surely a lot of this message is just not applicable for a shattering amount of people and is a bit ridiculous. That annoys me a bit.

(Again, not sure what point I'm making...)

About Time was the worst film I've ever seen.

Thankfully it was years ago now and I've mostly erased it from my memory 😬

I've got an idea for a film - following a massive world-wide power cut, young film student Ibrahim from Tower Hamlets wakes up to discover that no one else can remember anything created by Richard Curtis. He briefly considers seeking fame and fortune by claiming credit for writing a bunch of stereotypical British Rom Coms that go on to become global box-office smashes.

Then he has an epiphany 'Nah, fuck it, the world is better off without that shit. I'm sticking to 12 hour shifts at Amazon and making Tik Tok videos at the weekend.'

The end.

I sort of did think we are meant to take a deep meaning away from a film. I have no idea where that belief comes from

totally normal. Myths, fairy tales, dramas are how we make sense of our journey through life and one of the ways we experience catharsis about our own journey. It doesn’t mean there necessarily is a deep meaning in every story - that depends on the quality of the writing, the writer’s understanding of their own and cultural narratives, and how well they’ve translated that into their story.

Did you know there are only 7 basic storylines?! 😉en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots

i have seen it once, wouldnt want to watch it again.

It's lighthearted fluff in my view - entertaining enough but not meant to be taken seriously.

The main characters (it was ages ago I saw it so can't remember any names) are all from a wealthy, privileged background - of course they can enjoy every moment of their lives, they don't live in the real world. The guy moves from his parents' idyllic coastal mansion to his uncle's house in London - doesn't have to get down to the business of making his way in the world because it's all done for him.

I like time-travel films mainly for spotting plot-holes and that film is full of them!

I lasted about ten minutes. It was the way the bloke manipulated time travel to get into the woman’s knickers, as if that was an ok thing to do that pissed me off.

The Seven Basic Plots is a FANTASTIC book. Its opening premise is to demonstrate that Jaws and Beowulf have the same plot

It didn't work, though - I thought the message was that if she didn't fancy him, she didn't fancy him and no amount of time-travel would change that.

Richard Curtis takedown

This is just what Richard Cutris films are like. Complaining about is a bit like picking up a Jilly Cooper novel and saying, "Gosh, there's a lot of posh people shagging in this".

Yes, that's exactly it. And a lot of people enjoy RCs films because they're entertaining .
Critics give him an unfairly hard time imo, in a way they never would about someone like Ken Loach, who - whether likely actually enjoy his films or not - is seen as worthy .

Plaitbilled I think she means his wife! That’s the bit I hate too. Pretending he loves Kate Moss and the but where they have sex multiple times but she doesn’t know - Urgh

Oh, that bit! I thought she meant the bit with the girl who came to stay with them at the beginning, because she said she only watched 10 mins of it and the bit with his wife was further on.

I've just listened to an interview on the radio with the writer who wrote My beautiful Launderette as as a result of an accident he can no longer use his arms or legs and is incontinent.
He said when he sees other people waking now he thinks about how amazing it is to be able to walk or even just to be able to scratch your head.
I guess the point is we don't appreciate what we have when we have it.

I didn’t view is through the class war prism.
The other theme I took from it is to find a kind partner to spend
your time with.

Perhaps that is too twee and whimsical a concept for mumsnet - but we could all have much happier lives if we were lucky enough to find someone who reflect that trait…

• ’this’ keyboard keeps jumping

Yes, standard theme for rom coms - the right person is out there and once you find them, everything will be OK. Most people want to believe that's true, so they like seeing it played out on screen.

I think his contrived courtship of his wife was supposed to be justified because he'd established they were meant to be together when they met naturally at the blind-date-in-the-dark place; but he undid that when he altruistically went back to rescue his uncle's play. He couldn't recreate the blind date without ruining his uncle's play, so he had to engineer their meeting in favourable circumstances instead (and oust the other guy she'd started seeing).

I agree. This is one of RC's less irritating films imo, but still - why is there always an allegedly adult woman who flings herself at other people like an untrained puppy and needs to be saved by a man becase she is so emotionally frail?

The scene where Margot Robbie undressed for him made me really queasy - just for the actress's sake. She had to run around a bedroom in nothing but knickers being chased by a fully dressed male actor. Why?

OP, I don't think Curtis 'does' poor people. His characters always live in wealthy areas and have pots of money. He's not interested in reality.