![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Monsoon Wedding
Mar. 23rd, 2018 07:32 pmIn every project some rain must fall, and in mine that rain was Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding.
I know. I know. The pun came into my mind and wouldn’t let me go.
Seriously, though, up until now I’ve had very good luck with all my movies for the women film directors project; I haven’t loved them all, but even in the ones I haven’t liked as much I’ve found something valuable or interesting. But I was quite disappointed with Monsoon Wedding.
I’d gotten it into my mind somewhere that Monsoon Wedding was a joyful movie (probably I’m confusing it with some other Wedding movie), which it isn’t. It never made me laugh. But it’s not really an effective drama, either. There are a lot of plotlines to keep track of, which shouldn’t be impossible: Love Actually has more plotlines, which are more diffusely connected than the ones in Monsoon Wedding, and yet they come together to make a satisfying whole.
(Mind, I have a lot of reservations about Love Actually. But they did nail the structure.)
I didn’t feel that Monsoon Wedding came together. Most of the characters felt underdeveloped and I had to try to will myself to care about them, rather than just caring naturally.
There’s a Mira Nair film series in Bloomington this spring and I’ve been considering popping down to catch one or two of them, but I don’t want to drive for two hours if it’s all going to be as disappointing as this.
I know. I know. The pun came into my mind and wouldn’t let me go.
Seriously, though, up until now I’ve had very good luck with all my movies for the women film directors project; I haven’t loved them all, but even in the ones I haven’t liked as much I’ve found something valuable or interesting. But I was quite disappointed with Monsoon Wedding.
I’d gotten it into my mind somewhere that Monsoon Wedding was a joyful movie (probably I’m confusing it with some other Wedding movie), which it isn’t. It never made me laugh. But it’s not really an effective drama, either. There are a lot of plotlines to keep track of, which shouldn’t be impossible: Love Actually has more plotlines, which are more diffusely connected than the ones in Monsoon Wedding, and yet they come together to make a satisfying whole.
(Mind, I have a lot of reservations about Love Actually. But they did nail the structure.)
I didn’t feel that Monsoon Wedding came together. Most of the characters felt underdeveloped and I had to try to will myself to care about them, rather than just caring naturally.
There’s a Mira Nair film series in Bloomington this spring and I’ve been considering popping down to catch one or two of them, but I don’t want to drive for two hours if it’s all going to be as disappointing as this.
