You probably think this world is a dream come true...

Coraline (Selick, 2009)
Having read Neil Gaiman’s novel just before seeing the film, my primary complaint against the latter is that it wasn’t quite dark enough. The book struck me as exceptionally creepy for a children’s story—what with the singing rats and all. The film, perhaps toned down a bit for the kids in the audience, looked stunning, but didn’t seem to capture the creepiness of the book as well as I’d hoped it would. In dealing with adaptations, I try not to compare the content too much, but I do think it’s fair to compare them in terms of effect. Though the film version of Coraline didn’t leave me with the same effect as the book, this is the only flaw I really found with it, and it’s a fairly minor one. The story is relatively simple, and the stop-motion animation brings it to life marvelously. All in all, I enjoyed the film, but it didn’t quite absorb me as much as I had anticipated. I’ll have to give it a second viewing, as I was clearly distracted by my 3D glasses throughout the first screening.

Rating: 3.5/5

Hopeless emptiness. Now you've said it.

Revolutionary Road (Mendes, 2008)

Sam Mendes traps viewers in the rather claustrophobic world of his two main characters—Frank and April Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, respectively). While the tedium of this entrapment is part of the film’s pointed and depressing look at 1950s suburban life, after a certain point, I couldn’t take it anymore. Kate Winslet did a fine enough job in the role, but DiCaprio was pretty bland. The script didn’t give them much to work with either. The story demands to be told in subtle moments and body language, and the performances are too exaggerated to work in the small space the film creates. In the end, like the suburban life it critiques, the film is altogether too bland and typical to have kept my interest for long.

Rating: 2.5/5