Very Annie-Mary

Rating:
Summary: very wonderful!
Review: I love this movie! It's very funny but at the same time it's very sad. Also, you have to love a movie where the actors have beautiful welsh accents. I think it's a different movie from the ones you usually see, there are also a lot of great songs in it. And it doesn't hurt that the lovely Cerys Matthews from the former Catatonia appears in one scene. A very very good movie indeed!

Rating:
Summary: Don't say you weren't warned
Review: I read all these reviews and bought this movie and am taking the time to come back and warn you. This movie is 92 minutes of nothing and two minutes of wonderful. Then, it's back to one minute to show us that she's still a loser but now she's a loser on her own. The situation is established in the first five minutes, then re-established and re-established over and over and over again for the next 90 minutes. Nothing changes. Nothing interesting happens.
Also, there are many people who like opera, and there are many people who like rock, but how many people are there who like both? and in spades?!
Even if you're a fan of Rachel Griffiths, forget it. Not even she could save this one. It gave her a really plum role, and I can see why she grabbed it, but the movie is a turkey; and if you buy it after reading this, you'll deserve what you get. Get "Me,Myself,I" (starring Rachel Griffiths) instead. It's outstanding.
The mystery is this: How do people who don't know zip about writing screenplays get the money to make movies?


Rating:
Summary: Opera Music at it's best!
Review: I recommend this picture to everyone. It is a dark comedy that is realistic. Up to date themes and sets. GREAT SIGNING! Good writing and hilarious jokes.

Rating:
Summary: Opera Music at it's best!
Review: I recommend this picture to everyone. It is a dark comedy that is realistic. Up to date themes and sets. GREAT SIGNING! Good writing and hilarious jokes.

Rating:
Summary: Are Welsh people this nutty? YES!
Review: I saw this film in the cinema on a visit home to Wales and couldn't wait for the dvd release. After a long wait I bought it on video in the UK and brought it back to the States. All of my British friends (and even some American ones)liked it but the Welsh ones love it. As crazy as the characters are, they are all recognizable. My favourites are Hinge, Minge and Bracket the village people wannabees. Wales is so overlooked and although I realize that this isn't going to do it many favours it will hopefully entertain. I wish that Sara Sugarman's short film "Valley Girls" was included as an extra on the dvd as that is 45 minutes of pure enjoyment.

Rating:
Summary: Need to know South Wales to fully appreciate....
Review: This was a blast of nostalgia for me since I spent many childhood vacations in a Welsh coal mining valley. The Welsh are an underated nation. Their coarse and pithy humor rides on lilting voices that are interspersed with fat vowels and accentuated syllables. Their hearts are pure gold, hence one of the main plots of the story, a village pulls together to raise money to send a sick little girl on a trip to Disneyland. Unfortunately, the idea seems more a Holy Grail in their own minds, since little Bethan really has no desire to spend her last days in Mickey Mouse land. The other main plot, is the conflict between Annie Mary and her dad, an overbearing village baker who makes her life a misery, until he has a stroke and becomes a sad and helpless doll to be carelessly carted around by Annie. I should add at this point that I was amazed at Rachel Griffiths' command of the Welsh dialect. I didn't believe it was her until I checked the credits. Super eccentric performance with a believable accent... very impressive. The rest of the movie is one of those lovely quirky low key ramblings, full of odd characters and bizarre situations. If you know Wales, you will know the characters and will smile with affection. Not an oscar winner, but a sweet little view of a working class community in a beautiful land. Treat your jaded palate to something simple.

Rating:
Summary: A Love Song to Life
Review: Very Annie Mary took me by shock and delightful surprise.

Rachel Griffiths (Hillary to Emily Watson's Jacqueline Du Pre) gives her
finest performance to date - and though the film is 3 years old Griffiths
hasn't as yet done anything quite as satisfying as her brilliant turn here as
Annie Mary.

33 year old, Annie comes off as mildly retarded, and, in the purest sense
of the word, is, since life was pretty much over for her at 15. That's when
Annie Mary, who's dream was to be an opera singer, won a national vocal
competition judged by Pavarotti. The Great Tenor told her she would have a
marvelous career, and awarded her the grand prize, a grant to study full
time study in Milan.

Unfortunately, that same week, her mother took ill, died. Her dreams
dashed, Annie is forced to take her mother's place at home. Her father
accomplishes his means of keeping Annie underfoot (disturbingly, and at one
point, literally) by constant humiliation of his daughter, reminding her
she isn't special, she isn't, in fact, anything at all.

As Pugh, her father, Jonathan Pryce is terrific: selfish, cold hearted and
almost two decades after he's shattered her dreams, the man still berates
as " talentless, useless, stupid, slovenly . . . what man would ever have
you?" Oh yeah, Dad forces her to dress in his dead mother's shapeless,
matronly shifts as he constantly regaling Annie of how beautiful her mother
was.

The film opens with Pryce singing Puccini's Nessun Dorma through mounted
speakers atop his bakery delivery truck as he steers through the Welsh
countryside as "The Voice of the Valleys". As the camera pulls in, we
see "The Voice of the Valley" in a rubber Pavarotti mask and a Pavarotti
sized tuxedo. And we get the entire aria. If for nothing else, this
opening scene is worth the price of the film. And it only gets better from
there!

While not slapstick Griffiths' Annie Mary is prone toward extreme
clumsiness - moving (especially when running) like an excited 5 year old,
all stiff arms and awkwardness. She's adorable. Clumsiness leads to minor
accidents, falling down stairs, running into doors - each moment hilarious
yet making ugly duckling even more endearing. Annie teaches voice lessons
and we get to see her in action as she instructs a young gay couple with a
dream to go to America and, star with Dolly Parton in "Annie Get Your
Gun." Amazing.

The heart of the film centers around Annie's relationship the villagers and
her best friend, Bethan, a bedridden teenager half her age. The villager's
wish for Bethan is to send her to Disneyland, however her own true and only
wish is to, at least once, hear Annie sing.

Through an unlikely series of events - including a talent competition, a
bouncing Pavarotti, the Village People, the Welsh Grand National Horserace
and the entire village turning against Annie) Bethan - and the village -
finally get to hear Annie Mary find her voice again. It is a magical moment
blending, forgiveness, hope, pathos and Puccini, as Annie Mary finds not
only her voice, but the strength to carry on.

Very Annie Mary is easily one of the most joyous DVD discoveries I've yet
made.