Wednesday, November 01, 2006

MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS -- by naudy (6)


Do you have Netflix friends? I do. I actually have seven Netflix friends and I'm quite proud. It's pathetic, of course. I'm certain there are lots of people with lots more friends, in fact I'm certain there's a whole blossoming Netflix community. I'm not a part of that community, but it's really neat I'm sure.

Anyway, I mention it because MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS was recommended to me by a Netflix friend of mine. This particular Netflix friend dosn't enjoy the same sort of film that I do. She is, in fact, only 57% similar. I know this because Netflix told me and Netflix very often neglects to show me the things this particular friend thinks/says/sees because of our dissimilarities.

But, MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS was recommended to me by this friend and so I watched it. It's a cute enough film. Dame Judi is delighful, and the costuming/sets/lighting/overall production values are marvelous. It's a nice movie but I didn't love it. It felt shallow. It felt insincere and trivial and pleasant and meaningless, a pretty little bon-bon of a story. After watching it I assumed that my Netflix friend had only recommended it because it was the only movie she had seen that she could imagine me enjoying as well. She does, after all, tend to prefer films which involve disenchanted priests, people being insular and horrible, or movies with cute kids and puppies in 'em.

I saw this Netflix friend the other day and mentioned this movie. She gushed and I was hard pressed to come up with enough pleasant things to say about it. I'm starting to think that perhaps Netflix is right. Being only 57% similar to someone means their opinion, while well intentioned, is only very occassionally in sympathy with mine.

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