With recent sign ups from both Washington and Amsterdam (update: and London and Australia), there doesn’t seem to come an end to the travel of The Girl. She is heading for another US and UK tour soon.
The Girl has also been in New Zealand, visiting Mark, and has just visited Slovenia too.
Mark wrote a fantastic review. He saw the film with 16(!) of his friends and they all loved it.
Do step inside to read his review, it made me jump with joy. And I suddenly got a brilliant idea when I read it, I will tell you more about that soon.
A big Thank You to Mark for writing this.
Have a look at the worldmap here, and if you want to signup, please go here. It’s free, and the rules are easy:
See the film.
Write about it.
Pass i(t) on.
Love can’t change
what’s wrong in the world.
But it’s a start.
The Girl in the Café Review
by MarkThe Girl in the Café was, shown on TV here in New Zealand but seen by very few if those that I work with are a representation of the population. After having talked about how great it was, a number of them expressed an interest in seeing it and it was for this reason and the fact that I also wanted to see it again that I put my name on the list. It duly arrived and sixteen of us gathered one evening for the viewing. If complete silence at the end of a film can be taken as a measure of how good a film it is and the impact that it had this film rated very highly amongst those present. My hope is that they all got something from it.
As for me, how I did I rate it? Well my rating system works on the number of times that I can watch a movie and still get the same feelings as I did the I first time I saw it. The Girl in the Café is one of those movies. Yes I did watch it more than once, six times in fact. It is only after a number of times unless you are very observant that you spot the little moments that may otherwise be missed. Such as was observed by one of the other reviews. That the table lights were being turned off one every three seconds.
My little moment is in the opening scenes before the title appears. There is a shot over the shoulder of a girl under an umbrella that I am sure is Gina. For a brief moment she puts her hand out into the rain. It is the kind of gesture I think you would do if you had not felt the sun on your face, the wind in your hair or the rain on your skin for some time.
What more can be said about the plot or about the actors that has not already been said by others. Bill Nighy plays a particularly good part as the quintessential back room civil servant, Lawrence. But for me the part played by Kelly Macdonald, as Gina is one that I will remember for a long time. You know little more about Gina at the end of the film than you did at the beginning but what you do learn is more than enough.
The dialog is great from start to finish and I am sure there are lines that we can all relate to in our own lives. I particularly like:
“I’m not the man I dreamt I might be when I was young.”
“A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Lot of knowledge can be dangerous too. Stopped you seeing the heart of things.”
“We work and work all our lives. We don’t get what we’re working for.”
As for the music. Staralfur by Sigur Ros is a fantastic piece of music that conveys the feeling of the scene so well.
My recommendation. Put your name down and become part of this project started by Ingrid. If nothing else you will learn four facts about Reykjavik that you may not have known before. It is a great film with great acting, on a topic that is all too easily ignored by fat old us. That of poverty.
Thank you Ingrid for allowing me to see The Girl in the Café again it has been a pleasure being part this project.
Great review … I’m glad that I was part of this travelling project and am happy that more people are signing up as well!