=,ANOTHER REASON WHY I WON'T BE A FILM CRITIC[/

I just watched Things We Lost In The Fire and just like The Jacket I absolutely loved it. The performances in this film are soooo strong. Benicio Benicio Benicio!!! I think I forgot about how great you are. I mean, I watched the man portraying Che and he was outstanding, but as Jerry in this film he really wowed me. Excellent in every scene he's in. And Halle Berry, she should be offered more roles like this one. This woman is a really great actress and I feel that even though she won an Oscar she's still prettymuch underrated. Most of this is due to the explicit sex scenes in Monster's Ball for which she won the Academy Award for Best Female Performance In A leading Role. I've read many comments since her win in which people say she only won because of those sex scenes. But that's just really wrong. Those people should watch Things We Lost In The Fire so they can see for themselves that she's capable of giving very strong performances. And then there's David Duchovny who's most famous for his role in The X Files, I myself can't even remember having ever really seen a film of him. His part is small but he plays his character with so much ease. He's so real, so authentic, so normal. I can't believe it only got a 64% rating on Rottentomatoes.com! What the F*CK?! I mean, 64% is not THAT bad, but it's far from excellent and would have a lot of people change their mind about the film. Before the reviews they might have thought about seeing it but knowing reviews aren't that great they may have ended up choosing to see a different film instead. Fortunately for me the film was directed by Susanne Bier who I think made at least two wonderful films Brødre (Brothers) and Efter Brylluppet (After The Wedding). So that's why I decided to buy the film when I saw it at the shop this one day even though I knew critics weren't overwhelmed by it. Perhaps if it had not been directed by Bier but someone completely unknown to me I would have never bought it just because I had not really heard any good things about it. It's so unfair. This film deserves way better. I enjoyed every second. It's such a warm film. Of course you should decide for yourself and some people will completely disagree with me. I'm not trying to write a review here even though it is kind of what I'm doing, I know. How can you ever really explain your love or dislike for a film without it being a review? So that's why most of the time I go and see a film because I saw a screenshot of the film that intrigued me or just because I'm familiar with the work of the director. Of course I also go see films that get a lot of positive reviews and tend not to see those which doesn't. You can't really escape it. But I feel sometimes critics are really only there to make you go see a film or not. As if that's their real job. Like they're really trying to make that decision for you whereas I hope that in the end people still really decide for themselves. I know a lot of people still do just that though, 'cause a lot of films which I'd say are crap still bring in a lot of dough :) But I just wouldn't feel right being one of those people, being a real professional critic. I wouldn't want to be the person whose job I feel is to make you decide whether something is really good or bad when you haven't checked it out yourself.
Anyway. I liked this film. I figured that out on my own and for me the negative reviews are wrong. Same with The Jacket. It's your own opinion that counts. Just try to see things with an open mind. In the end we're all our own critics.

>*THE JACKET$#

Just finished watching The Jacket which is this really interesting film which doesn't seem to make much sense, but it just grabs you from the beginning and sucks you in. You just have to forget about what's real and what's not and just jump into the diegetic world of this film and watch the story unfold. I guess it's science-fiction, a bit of fantasy. When you think about the story too much you'll ruin it for yourself. I can't really explain. It's a really good film and at the same time it's flawed and I would totally understand if someone would just bluntly call it bad. But I feel there's just so much more to this film. It's very satisfying, it feels so layered. So full. So detailed. It just believes in itself and overall is just very convincing. Adrien Brody carries the film really well. There's a lot of suspense, I had some moments that gave me some chills a bit which not happens often. Keira Knightley for the first time felt to me to be really in the right place. I've never been really convinced by her as an actress. She was nominated for Pride & Prejudice for an Academy Award but after seeing that film I just couldn't understand what was so great about her performance. For some reason she never really gets to me. I never feel involved. But in this one she was pretty good. I guess I liked her in Bend It Like Beckham as well but Pride & Prejudice as well as Atonement didn't really do it for me. Perhaps I have to see those two again. The film also features Jennifer Jason Leigh who has been one of my favourite actresses for quite a long time. I loved her in eXistenZ and The Hudsucker Proxy. She deserves way more recognition. So I thought I was going to watch a not so good film, because I remembered critics not liking it too much, but I ended up watching a film which really got hold of me and that will probably linger on in my mind for quite some days to come. Totally unexpected. I really like this film :)