MovieChat Forums > Irina Palm (2007) Discussion > Two hours of my life that I want back......

Two hours of my life that I want back....


This is one of the worst films I have ever seen. The acting was brutal, the writing was even worse and by the end of the film I wanted to kill the kid myself....There was no conviction from any of the characters and you really didn't care what happened to any of them by the end of it....except possibly for the old biddy in the Village Shop....

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[deleted]

I don´t aggree at all. It seems very realistic and a superb role for M. Faithful. She keeps the film so much alive, that it was a pleasure the whole way. Manojlovic was a perfect choice for the pimp role. Strong characters and a very nice film.

ohyeswecan

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I agree, I was so looking forward to seeing this, I thought Marianne Faithfull was going to be great...and she wasnt! the first half an hour when she is supposed to be torturing herself over the job was plain embarrassing, she simply cannot act. The supporting roles were just as bad, the club owner, the daughter, the kid - Jenny Agutter was the best and thats saying a lot! How she could have been nominated for an acting award i´ll never know, I suppose some people couldnt see past her icon status!

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I have to agree! I have just seen that she was nominated for an acting award and I am astounded. I thought she was incredibly wooden and unbelievable, she constantly sounded like she was just speaking lines instead of meaning them. Admittedly the dialogue was not great either but at times her delivery was just appalling. Example: When she turned up at the stop for the taxi at the end and said "well I'm here"... the line was bad in the first place, but a good actress may have been able to convey that the character didn't know what to say to her son after the argument. Or whatever it was meant to convey... I'm guessing here as Faithful gave no clues! She made it sound as if she was playing "state the obvious". And as for her relationship with Miki, there was zero chemistry. I still don't get it...

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This is one of the worst films I have ever seen.


Aww, that's too bad. I though it was hysterically funny! I hadn't heard of this film a week ago and decided to give it a chance and I'm glad I did. I was laughing almost through the enter thing. Only thing I hated is when the son finds out and talks about giving the money back than save his dying son. Someone should've slapped him in the face and pointed out how stupid that was (although that kinda happens later). Aside from that it was incredibly fun to watch.

"Action is how men express romance on film." --Kurt Wimmer

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The whole plot was ridiculous from start to finish. In real life all Ollie's parents need to do is make a phone call to the local newspaper, get a couple of people to run sponsored runs, borrow from neighbours etc and the money would be found. The idea of Irina falling for the pimp is also absurd and (worse) out of character. She's supposed to be a hardened middle-aged widow who knows life and knows herself. She wouldn't jump into a relationship with a killer. It might have worked better in a poor country. The characters were hopelessly drawn in any case. They are supposed to be poor - so why are they playing bridge and hobnobbing with Women's Institute types? LAZY WRITING!!!

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Agreed - I want my two hours back as well This movie sucked really, really bad.

Horrible acting and lame jokes, though a handful were kind of funny. But lazy writing indeed - both screenwriter and director ought to be ashamed of themselves... I kinda wish to that the kid had just died in the beginning - not because I didn't like him(perhaps the only ok character, perhaps I'm just bearing over with him because he is a kid". Bit killig him off within the first 5 mins would have prevented anything in the movie to occur. Everything sucked.

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Everything sucked.
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Actually not - it's just hand jobs.

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"real life" ?

Ain't real life, is a Story ;-)

Want a better one than this "Lazy Writing" ?

Go write it ;-)

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In real life all Ollie's parents need to do is make a phone call to the local newspaper, get a couple of people to run sponsored runs, borrow from neighbours etc and the money would be found.


That's harder in reality than it is just to imagine. Besides, it was addressed at the beginning of the show... people had already run out of charity at this point.

The idea of Irina falling for the pimp is also absurd and (worse) out of character. She's supposed to be a hardened middle-aged widow who knows life and knows herself. She wouldn't jump into a relationship with a killer.


That did surprise me, yes. It's not like there was much transition from him being portrayed as a fairly dislikeable person and then as a love interest. It did seem out of place and did not make the character look good.

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I really liked this movie, and i thought the acting was very subtle. Obviously too subtle for some?

Anyways about the plot-problems you throw in there: they mentioned at some point they had ALREADY played the organise-the-neighbours-thing card at an earlier stage of the disease to pay for some other expensive treatments.

There is definite chemistry between Maggie and Mikki, i saw it from the beginning. Even a hardened middle-aged widow still has hormones, they are still human beings with actual bodies, that can find themselves physiacally attracted to someone. Acting upon that attraction, like she did in this case, may be questioned indeed. But she didn't exactly jumped into it the first second, she did play a little hard to get :)

Yes they are poor, but obviously you aren't a good observer: they weren't always poor, the house where 'Jane' lives in, used to be her own house, she sold it in order to pay for one of the treatments (that didn't work out).
She still sticks with her friends from the time before she got poor, although they clearly show in the film that that isn't a very easy situation anymore. But it isn't completely unthinkable or anything, it would have been stranger if they would have dropped her immediately after she got poorer, because she needed money for her sick grandson ?! After all it's all about false social pretense with those ladies anyway.

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I though it was hysterically funny! I hadn't heard of this film a week ago and decided to give it a chance and I'm glad I did. I was laughing almost through the enter thing.


I enjoyed the film but I have to admit that I didn't laugh once. I found myself surprised that it was billed as a comedy drama on iplayer.

The way it was acted and the choice of music throughout the show made it feel a lot more sombre to me. I was faintly amused by the end when she decides she no longer cares about the stigma of the job but the majority of the show seemed quite a serious exploration of the issues rather than playing anything up for laughs.

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The way it was acted and the choice of music throughout the show made it feel a lot more sombre to me. I was faintly amused by the end when she decides she no longer cares about the stigma of the job but the majority of the show seemed quite a serious exploration of the issues rather than playing anything up for laughs.


Well to each his own, but are you seriously telling me you didn't laugh out loud when the doctor told her she had "penis elbow" and they had to put her arm in a sling?

Or the part where her girlfriends find out and are interested to know the details?

Granted, it had its serious moments, but I felt it was a little more tongue-in-cheek. Sort of like a lighter, more low-key version of Personal Services.

"Who cares? He's a cheeseburger." -- Stewie Griffin

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Well to each his own, but are you seriously telling me you didn't laugh out loud when the doctor told her she had "penis elbow" and they had to put her arm in a sling? []


I can see why someone might find that funny but I just found it hard to laugh at such a simple joke given the overall tone of the movie (as I experienced it).

Or the part where her girlfriends find out and are interested to know the details?


That's the part where I think it did start to get a bit amusing, although not really 'laugh out loud' amusing (and it was quite late in the film).

I suppose part of the problem was that, through most of the film, she was a woman who clearly found the sex work she was doing degrading and was only doing it due to economic pressures on her to save her grandson, which I don't think is a brilliant set up for a comedy!

Once we get to the part of the film you mention, she's started to get over the stigma of the job and starts to change her attitude. That changes the tone a lot more and instead of feeling sorry for her, I could start to admire her, thus allowing me to be more amused.



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I agree with the comments about the poor writing and even worse acting. I objected to the post-modern feminist core of the movie that says women can find liberation through participation in the sex industry. There's a surprisingly strong lobby group that argues this position. Notice how the movie highlights both Maggie and her instructor benefitting from men's base sexual desires without having to do anything dangerous or even give up their dignity in public; yet no mention is made of the many other women (and girls) we see working topless and naked in the bar. Neither is any mention made of sex clubs' role in trafficking and, even worse, child sex trafficking and traffickers' relationship to organized crime. No, instead, we are presented with the world's most likable sex club owner!

I reject this idealized rubbish that deliberately hides the tremendously damaging effect trafficking and forced sex work has on women.

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I don't agree with your point of view at all. You are mixing up things that do not belong together. Do you even know anything about this industry? Or are you just another American with an opinion about something they have no clue about?

The european sex industrie is not just about the slaves being trafficked around. While that is indeed a bad problem still unfixed, this is not the major reality. The plain reality looks a lot like the club we see in this movie. Take my word ;-)

I wished I could find a job like that where I am living now. But too bad, in the superfantastic America I won't find that. Prostitution is even illegal... You don't even see bare breasts on magazines or TV here.
But of course, 9-year-olds are taught how to kill (shoot), THAT is OK!
Yes, that is accepted in this sick society, but anything about nudity or sexuality is bad, so bad...

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I wished I could find a job like that where I am living now. But too bad, in the superfantastic America I won't find that. Prostitution is even illegal... You don't even see bare breasts on magazines or TV here.
But of course, 9-year-olds are taught how to kill (shoot), THAT is OK!
Yes, that is accepted in this sick society, but anything about nudity or sexuality is bad, so bad...


FWIW, now you sound like you're sounding off on stuff you know nothing about. What 9 year olds do you know that are taught how to kill?
There are magazines that feature nudity here. Some are adult magazines, some are fashion magazines. Seems Europeans are as prudish about violence as they accuse Americans of being about nudity. So we like to pretend there's no such things as nipples and you all like to pretend there's no such thing as violence/bad people. Maybe we're all repressed...
Gotta say, though, you seem awfully fixated on nudity and violence.

If you find the U.S. so awful, why are/were you here? It's not Cuba. Nobody's forcing you to be here, are they?

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"Seems Europeans are as prudish about violence as they accuse Americans of being about nudity."

You got that right. It looks like that is is probably true.

"Nobody's forcing you to be here, are they?"

No, I am not forced legally, but since my (american) husband won't find any job outside his home country, I am kind of - well, hm, what term can I use? - uhm, I am forced to live here (can't come up with another word). The alternative would have been not to marry him, and why would I have forsaken him? We are living far away enough from Americans, so in my daily life I am actually never reminded where I live now. (We have no human neighbours where we live) So I am quite happy and relaxed.

Only when I read comments like that from Terencef100, then I am reminded where I am living now.

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Wow, you really have some serious problems if you can't appreciate where you are living. You have to take the good with the bad and lucky for you, the bad you mention is all made up anyways like about 9 year olds being taught to kill. If you let that go, you may even be able to make friend with other americans! After all people are people are people, it's mainly our prejudices that get in the way and the holding onto to "our ways" rather than going with the flow and people accuse Americans of being rude when they travel!!! Do you know how many people come here from other countries and could care less about learning the language? That affects not only all americans but immigrants too. If we don't have one language the then the chinese who come here have to learn english, spanish, haitian and russian and vice versa. How stupid for all of us. When I lived in Spain I could not imagine not learning the language to commnunicate but expecting the Spainards to learn English.

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Can you kindly inform me where I can learn to speak "Haitian"?

Some create happiness wherever they go - some whenever they go.

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"I don't agree with your point of view at all. You are mixing up things that do not belong together. Do you even know anything about this industry? Or are you just another American with an opinion about something they have no clue about?

The european sex industrie is not just about the slaves being trafficked around. While that is indeed a bad problem still unfixed, this is not the major reality. The plain reality looks a lot like the club we see in this movie. Take my word ;-)

I wished I could find a job like that where I am living now. But too bad, in the superfantastic America I won't find that. Prostitution is even illegal... You don't even see bare breasts on magazines or TV here.
But of course, 9-year-olds are taught how to kill (shoot), THAT is OK!
Yes, that is accepted in this sick society, but anything about nudity or sexuality is bad, so bad..."

Dude what's with the bashing of another person's country? Plus your attempts at bashing are out of context and exaggerated. You have to look at a country like a person, every one is different and had different influences to get where they are today and different view points. If every country had the same approach to sex, this world would be a very boring place. The u.s. keeps tension b/w puritanism and being over-sexed as a way to create tension so sex in advertising has much more impact. It's not b/c we are really prudes. It's just an ignorant post. Plus it's not so bad not having bare breasts on tv. If people want it, they know where to find it.

As far as the movie, people are taking it way too seriously. Come on it's not a commentary on post modern feminism or whatever. It's about doing what you need to without giving a crap about anyone else says about it. The son was a horrible actor with horrible lines but the way Irina was played by the actress made a certain sense. Irina/Maggie was a bad actor in life, going through the motions, sort of checked out and then she transforms by being good at something, having a little mystery in her life and most significantly the satisfaction of solving her problems by her own hand, so to speak, lol. She's not afraid to live and experience now but she's also not glamorizing what she did. She walks away from it after all. If she had pretended to herself it was such a great job it would not have come out so powerful as knowing it's a crappy job but owning what she had to do anyways. Cool movie. I am glad I was able to get something out of it.

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>"But too bad, in the superfantastic America I won't find that. Prostitution is even illegal"

I don't want to get involved in your Europe v US agrument here, but I just want to point out in relation to this film that prostitution in also illegal in the UK... i.e. where this film was set......
So maybe the "American with no clue what they're talking about" has a better sense of the point behind this film?
(And I am European before I get accused of being a clueless American also...)

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I don't want to get involved in your Europe v US agrument here, but I just want to point out in relation to this film that prostitution in also illegal in the UK... i.e. where this film was set......


Not actually true. Exchanging sexual services for money is not itself illegal.

However, the law does make it very hard for prostitutes, such as brothels being illegal (thus the sex work depicted in this film would be illegal as I understand the law).

'soliciting' (aka, when prostitutes loiter in the streets looking for customers) is also illegal.

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I objected to the post-modern feminist core of the movie that says women can find liberation through participation in the sex industry. There's a surprisingly strong lobby group that argues this position.


I didn't get that from the movie at all.

I am personally of the 'pro-sex feminist' camp and have little sympathy for the sort of 'anti-porn feminism' that tries to portray all sex work as inherently bad but I do agree that it's -very- important to not white wash the sex industry... especially as it exists currently.

However, this show does explore the ways in which sex work can be degrading, the way in which the people who run the sex industry can be unethical (marred somewhat by turning the owner into a love interest though) and the social stigma that can come with it.

It's also an exploration of a specific area of the sex industry; I don't think it makes much comment on the entirety of the sex industry.

No, instead, we are presented with the world's most likable sex club owner!


The one that threatens to kill the main character if she doesn't pay what is owed to him?

I found the scene were he tells her that he'd used the glory hole quite creepy, probably because it removes the comfort of a barrier (which is part of what makes working a glory hole feel less degrading I'd imagine - it makes it impersonal)

My one complaint is the arbitrary romance with the club owner.

I reject this idealized rubbish that deliberately hides the tremendously damaging effect trafficking and forced sex work has on women.


As much as I dislike the white washing of the sex industry in order to pretend that all sex workers like and enjoy their jobs (and don't suffer from any problems), I also dislike the attempt to demonise the entire industry based on specific problems that don't affect all sex workers.

In both cases, it's a refusal to acknowledge that the 'sex industry' is a very diverse industry with people that have entirely different experiences.

This show doesn't bother me so much because (a) it is specifically about a particular part of the sex industry and (b) I didn't feel they played it up for laughs in a way that I'd find distasteful.

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you know, i can see how the film might be an acquired taste but i thought the acting through out was brilliant.

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I agree. Faithfull's role was was of a rather repressed and possibly depressed character who had been through a lot in her life. She was understandably subdued, and I thought portrayed this woman very well. All the acting was great, I thought, and the direction of the actors as well. Loved it. But... it's not for everyone. I can see how it wouldn't appeal to a very large audience.

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I liked this movie quite a lot. I loved the humor in it. But whoever said that it's the worst movie they've ever seen obviously hadn't seen the pantheon of torture-horror or drunk-guy comedies or movies about 40-somethings acting like 13-somethings. Or sickly sweet chick flicks touting the unbelievable.

This was a charming little movie with interesting things to say. If you don't like it, there are plenty of other garbage films on the usual themes that you can clutter your brain with to replace it.

Samantha
"We're here. We're dead. Get used to it."

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I only want 45 minutes of my life back ... rarely do I switch off before the end of a film, but this rubbish really doesn't deserve watching. Miss Faithful truly cannot act. All those endless shots of her walking around with a blank look on her face, combined with the non-direction and total lack of originality, just bored me to distraction. Jenny Agutter is the brightest spark here, which gives you some indication of the level of talent displayed by the rest of the cast.

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T-R-O-L-L.

Why feed it? *sigh*

The "I want my two hours back" type of line is a dead giveaway. Most normal people that don't like a movie, aren't going to go out of their way to post a whiny complaint here, to then have to involve themselves more in the supposed waste of time by interacting with all of us.

Yeah, right.


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Meh, go watch a boring action flick.

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