h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm scratching my head over this review. Emilia Clarke was fine in "Me before you," but that does her no good here. Maybe that movie was not shown in the reviewer's country? (No, wait, it *was* shown in that country, two or three weeks after its USA debut.)

Henry Golding has a shorter track record, but "Crazy Rich Asians" was not a lightweight of a movie. He was a convincing lead there. How does that matter less than whatever TV appearances he made?

I'm not pointing any fingers of blame here. No one person can possibly have seen every possible movie. Plus, I give lots of points for honesty, which is amply displayed in this review. I guess what I'm getting at is that some viewers are bound to be seeing the performers in a given movie for the first time. Even I, who have seen several thousand movies in my lifetime, often find someone new in a film. If they do a good job, I look forward o seeing them again. That's especially true of young actors.

Having got that off my chest, I agree that there's some clunky stuff going on in "Last Christmas." Emilia Clarke is not going to hit the ball out the park (that's an American expression) as a singer, nor an actress. She plays an unrefined young woman with plenty of grit but an undeveloped sense of what she want to do with her life. I don't really understand what she sees in Tom. It would be nice if the movie helped me.

So, I don't think we're that far apart in assessing this movie. But I like to see impromptu events, even if they are this clunky. Even if they are staged, as they obviously have been.

Yes, this film seemed a bit early in he season, but I needed a little Christmas then.

Take care and keep reviewing!

And before I forget, I thank you for your reviews of "Aeronauts" and "Beautiful day in the Neighborhood." I saw them on your recommendation, and found that much of what you said was true.

I did, however, have to walk into the lobby a few times during the more harrowing scenes in "Aeronauts." I'm like that. I also had to go into the lobby when the lead character in "127 hours" was cutting his arm off.

Thanks for taking the time to read and comment.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood isn't out in my region for over a month, so Dmitri should get the credit for that one.

By the way, I have seen Emilia Clarke in other things - she was in Terminator: Dyslexia a few years ago, not to mention the last stellar conflict movie. I've just never seen her do anything to justify all the gushing over her abilities I hear all the time. She may indeed have been brilliant in a movie at some point: just not one that I've seen. As you say, nobody can watch them all, and you have to judge based on what you've seen. (I think I did make it clear that the fault here is mostly down to the script.)

I agree with you about the script. Plus, I didn't think the two leads had much chemistry in "Last Christmas."

Oh, well. I like to keep an eye on young actors who show some potential. It also happens that an actor suddenly shows talent you hand't foreseen. My theory, for what't it's worth, is that an actor has, on average, maybe one first-rate performance in him/her. Granted, the bar needs to be higher than that, but maybe the great performance is still to come for the people in this movie.