The Princess Bride

A month from now on the pace of my posting will slow down, because I'll be spending most of my time away from Internet, in the middle of nowhere. By a beautiful lake. Enjoying the sunshine. (Because there WILL be sunshine. Right?) Ah! I'm not saying I have the best summer job in the world, but it's a very very good one. But anyway, I'll be watching movies when I can, and writing about them too, as often as possible.

Until last week, I had never really realised the potential of libararies, dvd-wise. I don't know how that's possible! Maybe I thought there wouldn't be any good films, anyway. But there were! Yaaay! My world was illuminated a bit.

The Princess Bride (1987)

Directed by Rob Reiner. Starring Robin Wright, Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin.

Long story short: A grandfather reads a bedtime story to his grandson. It's about a princess and a prince and true love. The true love does not occur between the princess and the prince, though.

Rob Reiner is cool! This is his third movie I've seen - the others being Stand by Me and When Harry Met Sally - and all of them have been pleasant surprises so far! Next in line is The Bucket List... Anyway.

I wasn't sure what type of a film The Princess Bride would be. Somehow me and the film have always managed to avoid each other, but after hearing some positive things about it, I didn't hesitate to choose it from the library's shelf. Apparently it's also the favorite film of Hayden Christensen. This important fact was brought to you by a friend of mine. I'll be glad to pass her your many thanks.

Okay, so. The whole film is a story told to a little boy by his granfather. So none of it really happens. But isn't that the great things about fairy tales? You know it's not true and it'll all end well, and you can just relax and enjoy the ride. That's what this film was: enjoyable.

The part set in the real world was at least as enjoyable as the fairy tale part. The kind grandfather and the kid, who doesn't want to enjoy the story, because it's not about sports, but can't resist the magic of it in the end. It's sweet. And it was funny how the story-telling was sometimes interfered by the kid, who protested or asked further questions.

The beautiful Princess Buttercup is the most boring character of all - in this film that is about her, hmm. She was a bit distant and cold and I'm not very keen on Robin Wright, either. Luckily she was really just the thing to trigger all the events, and the other characters were much more interesting. Westley has so much more personality than you'd think on the grounds of the introduction. And he works very well together with the brave and just Inigo Montoya - their sword fight is just charming, that's where I really warmed up for the film. And of course Fezzik, the giant... Cool, very cool. A professional wrestler or something, am I right? Oh oh oh and Billy Chrystal! Man, one real impressive make up right there!

What did the film enjoyable for me was the witty dialogue, the corny names of places, like Cliffs of Insanity and Pit of Despair (and of course the R.O.U.S.), and the absurd-ish little jokes that gave me almost a Monty Python-y kind of vibe at times. Do kids really find all of it funny? Oh well. Maybe kids were brighter back then. Wait a minute, I was a kid back then. So that's a no, then.

The Princess Bride was wonderfully staightforward and enchanting. It won't become my favourite movie, but I kind of see your point, Hayden Christensen.

"You mean, you'll put down your rock and I'll put down my sword, and we'll try and kill each other like civilized people?"