Thursday, August 23, 2012

David's Birthday and Unhappy Birthday Movies

Two pairs of friends, Matteo and Francesca & Shary and Diego, decide to spend the summer together in a beach house at the foot of Mount Circeo. Matteo, a psychologist, is married to Francesca with whom he has a five year old girl, Elena. Diego and Shary have a less stable relationship, having a son together, David, who attends college in the United States. David comes to Italy for the first time in five years to spend time with his family and celebrate his birthday. Upon David's arrival, he and Matteo begin to develop feelings for each other. Only Leonard, Shary's brother, who has returned from his travels around the world to spend some time with the two pairs, seems to sense what is happening. The balance of Matteo's marriage begins to crack, and the growing tension seems to corrode the two families. Leonard decides to leave, leaving the main characters to their inevitable fate.

Spoiler Alert: One of the most dramatic(sound track)and orgasmic(acting),but tragic ending of a movie that I have seen for quite some time. I rate this movie 4 out of 5.

In this Hulu video set is another movie titled "Unhappy Birthday". I rate it 3 out of 5.

Set in the United Kingdom on a semi-secluded island Rick takes his girlfriend Sadie to meet for the first time her long-lost sister for her birthday. Along with Rick and Sadie is their mutual friend Johnny…

The tension is created by Rick and Johnny having an affair behind Sadie’s back this is coupled with the fact that Rick and Sadie are trying to conceive a child, however being that Rick is firing blanks Sadie has taken it upon herself to become impregnated with Johnny’s child unbeknownst to Rick and the residents of the island seemed to have a very uptight and conservative moral standard with some weird religious stuff going on in the background. This all happens with Sadie’s highly judgmental long-lost sister Corinne watching the drama unfold. I don’t want to give too much away about the film. “Unhappy Birthday” has a kind of slow burn pacing to it with so much of this film constantly has you wanting to know what is going to happen next.

This film is sharply directed, intelligently written and the execution of dramatic elements in this film is superb. “Unhappy Birthday” really knows how to press tension and create highly uncomfortable situations. There is very little mess in the film but I feel that the gore in this film is not minimal because the filmmaker’s (Mark Harriott, Mike Matthews) were not holding back, but rather it just didn’t fit. Also I don’t think they were really worried about holding back because they do show you quite clearly the relationship between Rick and Johnny.