Damage

Rating:
Summary: cyclonic passions rage
Review: 'Damage' is one of those strange films, like a train out of control, doom looms over all involved. The film is riveting, but the viewer is always at a distance finding it hard to identify with the emotions of the protagonists. Iron's is utterly contemptble even though he is to an extent being manipulated by his feelings of desire. Contrary to some unfavourable reviews Binoche captures the role in her customary unorthodox way. She is dresseed in black and looks almost androgenous, her strong accent and unsettling presence remind one of the 'foreign' capacity of her character and the desruction she causes but which is out of her control. The cemistry between Irons and Binoche is dynamite but in an utterly distructive way as played out in the violent and disturbing sex scenes. All in all 'Damage' is a good film, it is however not one of those films which one will always fondly remember, but be ware you'll never forget it!

Rating:
Summary: Jeremy Irons is perfectly casted as a sexually obsessed man.
Review: I was very moved by this movie. Jeremy Irons portrayed accurately what obsession can do to one's life, how it can overtake all other priorities, and how it can be all-consuming, to the point of everything else is nothing.

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Summary: I've Read It Twice
Review: I found this to be a very well written book about a rather disturbing subject.

Rating:
Summary: utter tat for the beach crowd
Review: It's a crying shame that some trees in this world were felled for the printing of this piece of tat from a uniquely untalented writer.It is written in an embarrassingly simplistic style reminiscent of John Steinbeck's "The Pearl"--mind-numbingly obvious,slow to reveal what we've already assumed 3 lines before.The cynical thing about this execrable debut is that was written with the intent of begging to be adapted for the big screen.Well,it didn't have to beg at all,it transpires--the writer's husband is Advertising supremo Charles Saatchi[Saatchi @ Saatchi,London],who's good friend was French director Louis Malle.It wasn't long before poor Louis got a dig in the ribs to drag this tawdry,pretentious lame duck of a novel to the screen[Malle did the decent thing and promptly died of professional embarrassment not long afterwards]... It's a ludicrous tale of a british politician who falls in lust with his son's new girlfriend.They begin a series of sordid mid-afternoon Clintoning;their increasing risk-taking in being uncovered is the lazy device [yawn] that shunts this stupid plot along with what I'll loosely call momentum.In the end[please see the old tender of the oil tanker in Kevin Costner's "Waterworld" for his response to seeing a huge fireball coming towards him:it's a replica of my own reaction],Ms.Harte attempts to tie the whole laughable mess up with a pseudo-bizarre "twist" concerning the politician,spartan garret accommodations,and some life-size photographs of himself ...and his dead son...or the floozy who tore them apart...or the beleagured wifey...Oh,Lord,it hardly matters! Josephine put this corpse to bed and I've never been happier to see a back cover in my life. Josephine Harte is from a rural town in Ireland; "Damage",please note,is no more than a besotted moon-in-june lapping up of her sophisticated new life in London,an attempt at a consolidation of her successful entre into London society by marrying mover @ shaker Saatchi.It's observations are cringe-inducingly self-conscious and over- familiar,as if she was born to it all...at least good 'ol Maeve Binchy[Circle of Friends]never forsook the "Bog" when she herself travelled across the Irish sea.And if it's HONEST beach-towel pulp you want,Maeve is your only Woman... Amazon should have a Zero stars category,my one is one too many.Give your eight dollars to Ms Binchy instead!

Rating:
Summary: Addictive.
Review: Insightful, addictive popular fiction. The psychic turmoil of the narrator transfixes you...He's dead to himself until he meets the woman who's made his son change his ways, the woman who will inevitably marry his son...the woman who comes to him in her damaged form, the woman who awakens his soul and deadens his superficial life...(He's probably got a chemical imbalance, and obsessive-compulsive tendency, but in this story we believe he's soul-locked beyond his control.) A few inelegant, jarring shifts from one scene to another, but mostly smooth and compelling.

Rating:
Summary: If Only There Were Negative Numbers
Review: One of the worst books I've ever read. I can only be thankful it was one of the shortest as well. This was a senseless death of trees. I can't think of enough words to use to describe how horrible, stupid, bad, lunk-headed and terrible this book is.

Rating:
Summary: Damage Control
Review: After seeing the movie, I had to read the book. The movie (with Jeremy Irons) was incredible and the book was even better! It is a very dark, twisted, controlled and emotional story. It is a love triangle in the strangest (and saddest) of ways... Josephine Hart writes a story that I couldn't put down and couldn't stop talking about for weeks! If you like out of the ordinary tales that make your heart pound and your mind spin, you will enjoy this book. I also recommend her second book, "Sin" which is equally compelling and hypnotic.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent first novel
Review: Ms. Hart's first novel is a well-written and insightful description of a man's infidelity that leads from deception to obsession. What stands out most in mind is the opening of the book and the poetic way it leads in to the story as well as the overpowering and somewhat bizarre relationship that the main character and his lover share.

Rating:
Summary: Mapping The Internal Landscape
Review: Damage is about truth. Damage is about love. Damage is about an honesty so revealing it's frightening. Josephine Hart examines an english man's search for fulfilling the 'internal landscape' of one's soul, and the need to fill an emptiness through another; no matter how selfish the need becomes. Damage is about stripping away the outside facade and exposing the bare reality of that fulfillment. Damage is about the courage to see beyond society and tradition, and in doing so, the painful reality of those actions

Rating:
Summary: Modern Literature
Review: Bloke has affair with his soon-to-be daughter-in-law. Sounds familiar. The language of the narrative didn't seem accurate to real men, so I couldn't believe in it. (B)