Nov 17 2019

Recap & Review – The Crown Season 3 – Overall Review

With the third season of The Crown we jumped the cast forward, with the excellent original cast being replaced by older actors, this was always going to be a difficult task to achieve with such a stunning set of performers. Olivia Colman will get praise and deserves is all, but this season has such a brilliant cast with the big known names like Helena Bonham Carter and Charles Dance showing their experience, the stars like Tobias Menzies and Jason Watkins that have been through the television scene for years and this shows why they are always excellent choices. Add in the newcomers in Josh O’Connor and Erin Doherty we have a complete mix of experience that all performer to the highest levels.

When it comes to the episodes we do start very well with the first three being excellent with the Aberfan one becoming one of the most difficult to watch, one that is emotionally draining, following one from this, everything does seem to goes downhill with a couple of slower episodes, with most of the focus being away from the Queen, instead focusing on the people around her, giving Margaret, Philip and Charles episodes where they are centre stage. The episodes do have a wonderful ability to reflect the situations the family is going through with the incident going on within the world.

If you have watched the first two seasons, you will enjoy this one because with a new cast, we get a fresh approach to the characters at an older stage of their lives, we get to learn history along the way, though certain government problems don’t get discussed enough for my liking. We do also fall into the feeling that each episode is just focused on an incident that they had to get through rather than being a connected by the events that have previously happened between the royal family, which was a flaw I noticed in the second season over the first.

Overall this is just as captivating as the previous seasons, we get a chance to learn about big event mostly in British history, while showing us just how difficult the years in this season were for the Queen after losing some of her most trusted allies.

Rating 9/10

Nov 17 2019

Recap & Review – The Crown Season 3 – Episode 10 Cri de Coeur

This episode starts by as Margaret is seeing her marriage fall apart seeing her slip into a depression despite the Queen trying to cheer her up, while the government is turning into a complete mess with neither side managing to get a majority vote off the latest election.

Margaret hosts a birthday party where she declares that she wants her husband banned from all royal functions, turning to social friends to find her own affair on the side with a younger man, one that the tabloids are quick to make front page news of.

The Royal Family has seen its reputation dragged through the papers once again, now Margaret is going to get caught up in the middle messy divorce, as her life spirals out of control. Harold Wilson regains the power of Downing Street, but will need to look to step down, finding his latest replacement and finally showing the respect for each other that the two have often clashed over before, being offered the honour only Winston Churchill had received before.

The Queen is preparing for the next chapter of her career in the palace, with a new prime minster, her sister being the first royal to have a divorce in memory and now a change in the world once again, for the next season.

This episode if a Margaret one which has been long awaited for because she is a delight to watch, Helena Bonham Carter gives us a wonderful performance that finally gets the laughs we were expecting. The troubles could reshape her reign and learning more about who she can trust around her, while seeing the country starting to fall apart, in ways that were completely out of her control.

Rating 9/10

Nov 17 2019

Recap & Review – The Crown Season 3 – Episode 9 Imbroglio

This episode starts with the funeral of Edward the Eighth back in England, as Prince Charles sees his closest Uncle put to rest and starts to see his family looking at him the same way they once looked at his Uncle and his relationship with Camilla isn’t going to make his life any easier.

Queen Elizabeth is working with the Prime Minister Edward Heath to help deal with the miners strike who want the equal pay for their work, one that she sees as one that could end easily, while Edward just wants to stay in control of the situation.

Charles’ relationship becomes the centre conversation between his parents with his mother wanting him to be happy, while Philip doesn’t believe Camilla is the type of woman that you can just marry seeing her as a girl you turn to after time at sea. Lord Mountbatten plays to send Charles on a long-term posting in the Navy, one where he can’t spend any time with Camilla, finally putting a wedge between the lovers.

The Queen however is seeing the Prime Minister losing his battle against the miners, which sees the loss of electricity around the country forcing even the Queen to greet guest in candlelight, as she is also involved in trying to break up the Charles and Anne relationship, planning to push both families away from her own children.

This episode does get to reflect how the Queen herself was almost pushed into marrying somebody other people wanted instead of letting her follow her own heart, she might not make the big decision, but she is left to deal with Charles after the family got involved in his life. This part of the episode is sad to see making you only feel sorry for Charles, while the mining strike side of the episode just doesn’t get enough attention for what is happening in the country.

Rating 7/10

Nov 17 2019

Recap & Review – The Crown Season 3 – Episode 8 Dangling Man

In this episode we pick up with the Duke of Windsor still leaving in exile in Paris, while facing health problems, not giving him much time left. Charles is the one that has visited him seeing how sick he is, keeping in contact with the disgraced uncle.

Princess Anne has her first romance, which the fallout sees Charles meeting his first love Camilla Shand (Emerald Fennell) and the Queen must open up her palace to the latest Prime Minister Edward Heath who suggests making up with her Uncle.

With Charles and Anne both in love with an old couple they need to remain in power of the relationship, while the anniversary of the end of World War II is being remembered in France to reflect on not learning from mistakes of the past, with how the Queen is treating her own Uncle.

This is one of the busiest episodes of the series, we get to see Charles and Anne involved in their first relationships, the Queen facing her own past with her Uncle and former King facing death, as we see how Charles is waiting to step up and be the King he believed his Uncle would have been one day.

This is one where the whole cast get to shine and we give the smaller characters a chance to shine, with Erin Doherty coming into her own here and Princess Anne, and Josh O’Connor once again showing he could be one of the best performers in the series.

Rating 8/10

Nov 17 2019

Maggie Gyllenhaal Weekend – Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

Director: Mike Newell

Writer: Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal (Screenplay)

Starring: Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ginnifer Goodwin, Dominic West, Juliet Stevenson, Marcia Gay Harden

Plot: A free-thinking art professor teaches conservative 1950s Wellesley girls to question their traditional social roles.

Tagline – They had everything. She showed them more.

Runtime: 1 Hour 57 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Brilliant

Story: Mona Lisa Smile starts when Katherine Ann Watson (Roberts) takes a teaching role at the prestigious Wellesley College, one with the social traditions taught to girls studying they’re from the upper-class families. Katherine learns that her class with includes Betty Warren (Dunst), Joan Brandwyn (Stiles), Giselle Levy (Gyllenhaal) and Connie Baker (Goodwin) know the whole textbook on the first day.

Katherine must learn to keep her head down, while trying to teach the young women about being thinking instead of following the traditions they have been raised to believe are the only way to go. With Katherine showing them a new look at life the pressure starts getting thrown back at her by the parent’s of the students, with some wanting to accept it, while others are happy to stay in the line they believe is right.

Thoughts on Mona Lisa Smile

Characters – Katherine Ann Watson is an arts history teacher that is known for her free-thinking ways that doesn’t follow the traditional ways of the school, she does want to teach the women they don’t have to just get married and become housewives, she must remain in a position which will see the higher ups in the school question her beliefs and methods. Katherine will help develop these young women to understand they can be more in life. Betty Warren is the daughter of the head of the school, she is engaged and ready to finish school and become a housewife, everything she has been taught is right for her, she isn’t afraid to report anyone going against the traditions and questions her own friends for trying to be different. Joan Brandwyn is one of the students who also believes she is meant to just get married, she did want to study law and Katherine pushes her to follow her dream an apply for law school, this puts Joan in a position of not knowing what she should do next. Giselle Levy has been having an affair with one of the professor, she pushes the other girls into trying to break the rules more which is the way she feels like she fits in.

Performances – Julia Roberts is wonderful in this leading role, being the truly free-thinking which does seem to reflect her own acting career at times. Kirsten Dunst is great too showing that in the early 2000s, she was nearly untouchable in her acting. Julia Stiles is great to breaking away from the romantic comedies she had been doing. Maggie Gyllenhaal shows that she was going to go onto bigger projects with her wonderful supporting performance and Ginnifer Goodwin is wonderful in this film too.

Story – The story here follow a free-thinking professor that takes a job in a prestigious women’s school where she wants to help the young women start to think for themselves instead of following the traditions set up for them to follow, her thinking does upset the normal in the beliefs, as she just wants to make a difference to these women’s lives. When you look back at the story and time it is set, it does show us just how frustrating the mentality was. You could compare this to ‘Dead Poets Society’ with a teaching trying to show students life can be different to what they have been raised to believe. The story does show us enough of a previous problem in life and does show how people would have changed if they were given a glimpse into the life they could have.

Settings – The film is set around the school in which Katherine teaches, it shows how the rules are going to be difficult to follow or understand and how people will constantly be looking down on people trying to change thing.

Scene of the Movie – The flowers of goodbye.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Certain characters are too generic.

Final Thoughts – This is a wonderful look at how somebody wanted to help make a change to the normal which should never have been the normal, we have five excellent leading lady performances too.

Overall: Wonderful look at change.

Rating