alobear | Definitely Maybe and Brother Bear

Definitely Maybe was quite interesting as films go. It was well put together, cleverly plotted and not predictable, which is not something you can normally say about a romantic comedy. It had an interesting subplot about political campaigning and an intriguing story surrounding a guy and the three women that have dropped in and out of his life. I really enjoyed it, but it took me a little while to realise why, and the realisation made me re-evaluate the film. It had a happy, fairy-tale style ending, as these films usually do, but it didn't annoy me and it wasn't beyond the realms of possibility - and what I realised was that the film had tricked me into thinking the fairy tale ending was possible by preceding it with two hours of complicated real life stuff, where relationships failed and people got hurt. Very clever, and actually a little insidious.

When I got home, I watched Brother Bear, which had been on my DVD rental list for about four years before they finally sent it to me. I quite enjoyed that too, though the emotional balance was really off. The opening was quite traumatic and incredibly sad, and there were several very poignant or even upsetting moments along the way. The rest of it was light-hearted, silly, funny in places and full of happy, jolly songs. Now, I know that's the usual combination for Disney films, but it just seemed that the juxtaposition of comedy and tragedy jarred rather more than in most.