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Tuesday, May 10, 2005

DVD Mini-Reviews: House of Flying Daggers/My LIfe Without Me 

House of Flying Daggers: Much like its predecessors, Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Daggers offers a beautiful, yet quintessential example of style over substance. Lost in the seemingly endless series of swordfights and ambushes is a simple love story, akin to a Mandarin version of Romeo and Juliet. It teases you with both tragedy and triumph, but after drawing things out at least a half hour too long, by the time it reaches its climax, you just want it to end already. 6/10

My Life Without Me: Imagine learining that you have only two months to live. What do you do with your remaining days? Twenty-three year-old Ann (Sarah Polley, Go) faces that dilemma in this slow-yet-moving Canadian film. If you can get past the opening thirty minutes (I almost couldn't), the remainder is well worth the wait. It reminds of us of our mortality, but it also shows that the beauty of life isn't in how long it lasts, but rather how well it's spent -- even when the lesson isn't learned until the twilight period. 8/10

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