AMOUR / THE IMPOSSIBLE - Review Double Feature

Amour and The Impossible were the final two movies I needed to see before making my Oscar predictions and I REALLY want to talk about the Oscars, but first I'm going to throw out a couple of very short and brief reviews for these movies.

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Amour

2 hours, 7 minutes

Drama/Foreign (France), 2012

Written by Michael Haneke

Directed by Michael Haneke

Starring
Jean-Louis Trintignant
Emmanuelle Riva

"Things will go on, and then one day it will all be over."

Amour is a really good movie. Like, really good. It's a very honest and real love story about an elderly couple whose relationship is tested when Anne's (Emmanuelle Riva) health begins to decline. Georges
(Jean-Louis Trintignant) does his best to cope with the situation, doing everything that he possibly can to help his dying wife.
In retrospect, it's really a beautiful movie. It definitely has that artsy kind of feel: very little music, a tiny cast, artfully shot, etc etc. It's very well written with a very satisfying conclusion that definitely left me a bit stunned.
However, Amour is one of those movies where the pacing just kind of slows down randomly. It feels a bit slow here and there. But when it isn't slow, then it's very entertaining.
The performances are definitely the strongest aspects of the movie, definitely Oscar worthy.
But... for some reason, I felt a little bit empty about it. Not saying that I disliked it, or anything, but I don't feel like that I can give it as high of a score as it sounds like I'm about to give it. I don't think it's something that I would want to watch again, and I don't think it should totally win too many Oscars, but we'll get to that later.

7/10

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The Impossible

1 hour, 47 minutes

Drama, 2012

Written by Sergio G. Sánchez

Directed by J.A. Bayona

Starring
Ewan McGregor
Naomi Watts
Tom Holland

"Am I dead?"

I liked The Impossible, but there's one thing I want to get out of the way: this movie would've been completely different if the stars weren't a wealthy white family. Okay, I get it, the filmmakers want to relate to their audience, but I'd much rather see a movie about a poor not-white family that's actually from Tailand. Because they can't just "go home" at the end of the movie, it doesn't fucking work like that.
Whatever, I'm done ranting.
So this movie has gotten a lot of praise, and I can see why. It's a great movie. The tsunami is actually really terrifying, and you can really relate to the characters (that might just be because I'm white but whatever that's not the point) and the performances are really good. Naomi Watts got a lot of praise but she spends so much time in the hospital looking like a walker that I don't really get why she got nominated but when she isn't looking like a walker she's really good. Ewan McGregor is really good too, even though he spends most of the movie looking like that poor chap from District 9 who's about to turn into an alien.
But the stand out is the kid, Lucas, played by Tom Holland. I think this kid has more screen-time than anyone, but it's not about screen-time, I guess. I'd give this kid a nomination for Supporting Actor. Really, he was fantastic and definitely the best part of the movie.
The movie is really good up until the end, when SPOILER ALERT they fly away in a fucking jet while everyone else is sad and crying and dying in Tailand. Seriously. The rich white company comes to get them and flies them away. They all survive, but whatever. Again, refer to the first paragraph of this review.

8.5/10