Fur | Steven Shainberg – Enchanted | (Disney)

From the director of one of my favourite films, Secretary, comes Fur: An imaginary portrait of Diane Arbus, and like Secretary, it’s an amazing piece.
Shainberg seems to handle so deftly the subject matter of being different and not squarely fitting in with normal society. His films tend to be about people who perceive life and express themselves in very unique ways that most do not understand. Fur is a magnificent adventure into an alternative side of the stifling 50’s through the eyes of a truly unique artist. As a partly imaginary film, I imagine much liberty has been taken with the facts, as per usual, but if anything it’s a good thing that the title indicates this right from the get-go, rather than attempting to pass off all events as fact. The film deals much more in those perceptions and expressions I mentioned earlier rather than the hard facts themselves, and they come together to form a graceful and beautiful film. This, like The Others, is a film where Nicole Kidman truly shines, an actress I rarely am impressed by other than on a few occasions.
Like Secretary, I scored it 9.

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Last night I also headed with my sister-in-law to our local cinema to watch Disney’s Enchanted. The two of us are great fans of children’s books and films, and we both wanted to see it. I never go into a film like this expecting David Lynch or some such, so I greatly enjoyed it. I think what makes this film great for grown-ups is that we grew up with Sleeping Beauty, Snow White et al and all the singing and dancing that ensued. Watching Enchanted with these memories brought on more than a few laughs from us than some of the younger audiences gave, while for them at the same time, they get swept up in the melodies of the songs just as we did in the older films. Of-course it has a fairly simple story with a nice, rounded ending, but as a children’s film I have no problem with it. Amy Adams absolutely shines as the innocent princess, James Marsden does the predictably noble and slightly dim-witted prince well, and Patrick Dempsey does the straight man-who-would-be-enchanted very well indeed.
The ensemble songs are fantastic and the Weta animated animals are charming.
I give it 7.