Maleficent (2014) – 52 in 52: Film 1

“DISNEY GOT DARK”

Alas, a new challenge is upon us, and what a great way to start than with a unique twist on one of Disney’s classic and best known fairy tales. In a world where 2014 was a-wash with Frozen, Maleficent cuts through the songs, talking snowmen and over-night relationships with betrayal, tense battles and an irreversible curse; Disney got dark!

Directed by Robert Stromberg Maleficent portrays the other side of the Sleeping Beauty story but this time from the perspective of the villain. Or should we say “villain” as this retelling puts a different spin on how Maleficent became to seek out vengeance.

Jimmi says: “I have never really taken much interest in anything with Angelina Jolie in, not that I fault her as an actress or anything, but they just never really struck me as ‘must-watch’ (maybe that will change over the next fifty weeks or so?). That was until I watched this and I must say she put on a very good and very striking performance as the malevolent fairy. Jolie makes Maleficent and depicts her as powerful yet graceful, like she is always a force not to be reckoned with and is always in control of the situation no matter how sinister it may be.”

Kat says: “From the point of view of having watched the original Sleeping Beauty as a child, it was thought-provoking to see Maleficent as more than a one dimensional villain that she was portrayed as initially. I like the fact that she was showed as a human character with emotions, feelings and motives rather than someone who was outright evil for no discernible reason, something that Sleeping Beauty never really touched on; she was bad and that was that. This film shed light on this misunderstood character and created a more mature narrative.”

From the beginning, it was clear that the character set up in Sleeping Beauty was of course, very wrongly portrayed. As a child, Maleficent was a kind, sellfless and sensitive fairy, protecting the Moors and all of its amazing creatures. After meeting a human boy, Stefan, the two grow close and start to fall in love. As they grow apart and grow older, we learn that a powerful king wants to claim the Moors as his own. This doesn’t sit very well with Maleficent who summons vast tree-creatures of the forest in their droves and fights back taking out the King’s army and wounding him in the process. No small task but it showed us how much the Moors mean to Maleficent and the lengths she will go to. As the King lies on his deathbed he states he needs an heir for the throne and his daughter; the man who overcomes Maleficent will inherit the throne and his daughter’s hand. Stefen steps forward as he knows he had a bond with a younger Maleficent and uses this to deceive her for his own personal gain, claiming the throne. Seeing Disney use such underhand tactics gives the film darker edge. Disney has always done death and characters being killed off but what they did in Maleficent isn’t really the norm. Jimmi says “the emotion Jolie puts into her character once she knows she has been deceived was rather unsettling for me to watch and would perhaps go over some children’s heads. It’s interesting to see it be done but at the same time, very irregular.” The motive of how she became evil is suddenly apparent and the rest of the story plays out with that in mind hence why she curses Princess Aurora with an unbreakable spell, the same spell that was cast in the original film, word-for-word, something that Jolie insisted on during the production. “At first, Aurora is the chance for revenge and so Maleficent makes sure nothing gets in the way until her sixteenth birthday when the curse comes into effect. However, when the two start to bond, I sense that Maleficent sees that innocence in Aurora that was once in Stefen and as she watches over her, she grows to love her” Kat adds. The rest of the story shows how Maleficent battles not only with the true enemy, but also her regrets.

This is all set on a backdrop of amazing set pieces. In one scene the colourful, neon Moor creatures evoke a similar sense of awe that was found in the alien rainforests of Avatar and having the palette  change when things do inevitably get dark, it sets the right sinister tone making this film get the right balance between good and evil. Sam Riley is great as Maleficent’s human-formed raven Diaval and the dialogue between the two is a sharp contrast to the slapstic and comedic three pixies Knotgrass, Flittle and Thistlewit (played by Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville and Juno Temple respectively). Sharlto Copley as King Stefen is also remarkable at out-villaining the villain too and Elle Fanning’s Aurora recaptures the carefree sweetness of the typical Disney princess.

Rather than seeing the villain as just a villain and a means for the protagonist to finally defeat, seeing this sort of twist is unusual of Disney to do but something that we would like to see them do more often. Normally the villains have a better tale to tell than the hero and learning about how they came to be is bound to be very interesting. Maleficent proves that this type of storytelling can be crafted extremely well.

Words by Jimmi and Kat

The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen: 52 in 52 Book #30

Upon finishing Tess Gerritsen’s novel The Surgeon, I immediately went online and ordered the sequel: The Apprentice. After waiting a few days for delivery and then a few more as we had a guest over, I got around to reading it…. and finished it less than 24hrs later. I love it when a book grabs me by the mind and doesn’t stop wringing it like a flannel until I’m finished!

Following on a year later from the events of The Surgeon, Detective Jane Rizzoli and the rest of Boston PD homicide unit investigate the antics of another serial killer, who is eventually nicknamed…. The Dominator (bet you didn’t see that one coming). This particular killer has a penchant for necrophilic activities. Thankfully, this book was not nearly as gory as the last one, or at least I have now acclimatised myself to it, but the events are described in juicy and tantalising detail which really helps paint the storyline well.

Also in this book Dr Maura Isles, the latter partner of the Rizzoli & Isles duo, is introduced. The Queen of Death, as she is dubbed, presents a rather glamorous contrast to the tomboyish detective. She’s the medical examiner and conducts most of the autopsies in this book. Although she doesn’t star heavily in this novel, I really liked her character and look forward to reading more about her in the future.

Character development and plot continuation in this novel were excellent. Unlike in many crime series I have read, Rizzoli is shown to be genuinely affected by past events and developments in the story show how she has changed in the year since the Surgeon was locked up. There are also scenes that show a much softer side which allow the reader to see her as more of a human being than an angry, trodden-down-female robot. Other characters also show good plot continuation, although this is rather more diminished than Rizzoli’s.

And as I bring this review to a close, I am already loading up online bookstores to search for my copy of the next instalment The Sinner. I initially was sceptical of this series when it was recommended to me; I couldn’t have been more wrong. If crime novels are your thing, get yourself copies of these books. You won’t regret it.

 

Kat

Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith: 52 in 52 Book #29

Way back in January I kick-started this challenge by reading The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. Now, nine months later, I have gotten round to reading the second instalment of the series.

Just like its predecessor, this book is infused with the essence of Africa. From the behaviour of the characters, the descriptions of the land and the traditions, it leaps out of every page: you can almost smell the red dust! This is what I loved about the original book and I’m glad to see the sequel has not lost anything of its African charm. It makes me ache to get back out to Africa and explore the continent some more.

The character development is great too. Now Mma Ramotswe is engaged, we see more of her fiancé and of the new additions to her family. It doesn’t feel forced or rushed and these developments are so charmingly written they put you at ease. Also Mma Makutsi, the secretary for the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency is given a promotion to assistant detective which provides a new character and plotline to follow.

However, as good as they were, I did feel the actual cases in this book were not as intriguing as the first book. Possibly they suffered as a result of the fantastic character development but I felt they lacked some of the suspense of the last book and at various points I completely forgot about what was supposed to be being investigated. They were still interesting and heart-warming but alongside the other plotlines they almost faded into the background. I hope in the next instalment, Morality for Beautiful Girls, the cases will make a comeback and fill me with anticipation and suspense.

If you read and enjoyed The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, you’ll enjoy this book. For anyone who loves Africa or detective novels, this series is a must read.

Kat

The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen: 52 in 52 Book #28

In my profession, I see a fair amount of blood. Blood isn’t something that bothers me, neither do organs or bodily tissues covered in the stuff. That was until I started reading this book. I’ve no idea why but the descriptions of the mutilations carried out by The Surgeon, the book’s antagonist, made my stomach turn. I had to stop after the first description and have a glass of water. I did overcome my squeamishness and finish the book but I issue a warning right now: this book is not for the faint-hearted.

Tess Gerritsen tells a wonderfully gripping tale filled with all the gory details you would expect from a doctor turned novelist. Set in the city of Boston, detectives from the homicide unit are trying to track down a killer dubbed “The Surgeon” after a series of murders where victims have been horrifically mutilated. These crimes match similar ones committed a few years before where there is a surviving victim. Working with the victim the police face a thrilling race against time before more women are murdered.

Between the blood-filled descriptions, there sits brilliant plot and character development. The two detective central in the plot, Jane Rizzoli and Thomas Moore are fully fleshed out and believable. They have flaws, desires, history and are believable. Even the backup characters are described well and with enough panache that no one feel two dimensional and boring.

This book is no delicate Miss Marple story or stoic and smart Sherlock Holmes adventure. It’s a delightfully brutal and in-your-face American crime thriller and I thoroughly enjoyed it (in between bouts of nausea). For anyone who enjoys CSI or similar: this is the book for you.

Kat

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: 52 in 52 Book #27

So, I had never read To Kill a Mockingbird before. I was one of very few people it seems who never studied this book at school or had it recommended to me as a teenager, a fact which some of the people I mentioned this to found amusing. At GCSE, I studied Lord of the Flies by William Golding (really good, recommend!) and Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen (to me, mind-numbingly dull until I discovered the “and Zombies” version) so missed out on the profound and interesting events as told by Scout Finch.

Lent to me by a friend, I started reading this book and without realising it, read the first hundred pages in one go. The book was so comfortable to read. It wasn’t heavy or demanding but gently kept your interest going, listening to a little girl recount playing with her brother and friends and starting school. Reading it was like sitting down with a tub of Ben & Jerry’s in front of your favourite film in your pyjamas: nice and relaxed. Even as the book takes you down a darker path it never feels forced or uncomfortable, except where the book intends it to be. Rape, injustice, murder are all covered in the cosiest of ways.

That’s not to say there weren’t any thought-provoking points made. As a book that is studied by high school children across the globe, this book has more than enough passages and sentiments to keep the little cogs whirring. The way this book delivers these makes it even more amazing. It doesn’t shove these sentiments down your throat at all (or at least, I didn’t feel so). They have been gently slipped into the prose so that it doesn’t feel like an intrusion on the story or that you’re being preached to. Another brilliant part about the sentiments is that they are seen from a child’s point of view. As the book points out, adults have prejudices and often make judgements whereas children are a clean slate. Children will not learn a prejudice unless they are taught it. Seeing the way the different characters react to and interpret events makes this book multifaceted and engaging.

I would imagine that a lot of you have read this before but if you have not, please please please do! I understand why it is coveted as an educational text and why so many people sing this book’s praises. My review does not do this book justice and I do firmly believe this is a book everyone should read in their lifetime.

Kat