Ballet Shoes (2008)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

Blistering performances.

Notice Emma Hermione in the first two Harry Potter features and I found that she stood out. The first four novels underlined that. Princess, could there be any other like that one of the railway carriage of HP 1? Music. Dance. I now rate Emma for the Hermione of the novels? Here she is, as Emma Pauline, and in part, for me, this continues in those footsteps. Later episodes of HP features mostly made Emma's role unrecognisable, I am grateful to this Ballet Shoes for re-kindling a spark. Two special bits when she has to perform. Her acting changing from a low key natural style to overdrive, showing raw power. So truly awesome. And it helps me to appreciate the low key more. I have to rate this feature higher than HP 4, 5, 6 and 8, though she does carry over some of the gritty persona that she learned for 4 and 5 and to me that is overdoing the grit that Pauline of the novel has. * Look at the DVD box cover pics and there was something recognisable there that did not click, but when it did this feature became extra special. There was Yasmin tooth fairy by Emma's side. Here my first two versions of the comment go askew. Tooth is no stranger to machines or flying, and here she is in what would otherwise be a standard nerd role. But it is on stage she is prone to appear to be a nerd. She is expected to act. The biggest low is when she is expected to pretend that she is a fairy. The biggest low for me is when she is scripted to have a geographer / developer motivation rather than a mech. engineering motivation. Tooth even manages to share a bath with Emma. Dream of dreams. So much better than the novel. True there will have been a film crew there, too high a price. True, they were both in tears. My biggest flaw in commenting on this feature related to this part. In the 30's some would have considered a cuddle bath to be mandatory, given the tears, but not as many as today? I had been hoping to start looking for DVDs of mid teens Drew Barrymore. Ballet Shoes told me that I needed to hold off from that for a while, concentrate on Tooth, and there were some Tooth around that I still did not have. All I got around to with Drew was a naughty girl Drew, Ivy, which is not fun sort of naughty. * Lucy Posy Boy n Ton as a problem for me. In this role she needs to be highs and lows and the highs are way more magnificent than the others, for me she does those well, but the lows are way more the opposite of magnificent and as with Emma in later HP she does that way too well. Her reaction to Madame's illness compares to UK problems with situational ethics over the past thirty years. The highs include her dance. I accept that she does not dance as an expert in ballet might, but there is still something special about her approach. The biggest flaw in this feature is how the stunt double linked in, it was the only part of this feature that was visually false, looking like Posy at the very end of the story. Elizabeth Bernard's 1987 novel, Satin Slippers 3: Stars In Her Eyes. This centres on the question of how should a dancer chose if needing to chose between her child and her dance. I did need this novel for that aspect in Ballet Shoes to be clear. * For these to stand out, it helped that the other performances were so okay. Except this is a BBC television adaptation that was made for them by the ITV? Has the world really gone so weird? Something about this story makes one cuckoo?

Having loved the book growing up, I was bound to see this. I had bought the 1975 BBC version and found it to be absolutely terrible, as it completely mishandled the adaptation. What is surprising is that the 1975 version ran longer and could be argued as being more faithful to the book. Having said that, this version of Ballet Shoes captures the spirit of the story much better. I loved Emilia Fox's Sylvia and the entire cast did very well. I had been a little apprehensive of Emma Watson as Pauline since I'd never seen her as anything but Hermione from the Harry Potter series, but I was pretty happy with the performance after all. I won't recap the story here, but basically; I love the book, and the movie brought out the reasons why I loved it, so that's good enough for me. I hope you all enjoy it too.

It is a rare treat to view a film like "Ballet Shoes." It's one of the those films where everyone has a piece of the cake of a happy ending but more importantly the film steers away from fluffy clichés and mushiness. The story takes place during the 1930s in a small house in London. Sylvia Brown (the luminous Emilia Fox), the niece of eccentric, traveling paleotolongist Great Uncle Matthew aka "Gum" who brings along from his travels three orphaned baby girls and it is Sylvia and her plucky Nana (Victoria Wood) that raise the three girls who grow up into fine young ladies with dreams and aspirations. The eldest is Pauline (Emma Watson aka "Hermoine Granger") dreams and aspires to be an actress, Petrova (Yasmin Paige) is the tomboyish one of the three and wants to become an aviator, and finally, Posy, the youngest and boldest one of the three has ambitions to become a ballet dancer. But this small family are facing harsh financial times and set their house for room and board. Enter the tenants that impact the girls' and Sylvia's lives: Mr. Simpson (the expressive Marc Warren), a man with a tragic past but a keen interest in cars and airplanes. He is someone Petrova can talk to; The retired scholarly professors Drs. Jakes and Smith (Gemma Jones and Harriet Walter) who take on the task of tutoring the girls; Theo Dane (Lucy Cohu), a professional dancer and actress, who makes the most profound influences on Pauline and Posy. The film tells how the girls struggle with Sylvia to save their home and at the same time pursue their dreams. To add to their struggles, Sylvia is ill and the girls do all they can to provide for her as well. The words I have to describe this little gem are charming and smart. With a wonderful cast delivering equally endearing performances. Emilia Watson is as always lovely and sweet as Sylvia a woman who selflessly gives and gives without ever once asking for repayment with Victoria Wood as Nana providing as a strong front for her and the household. The girls are wonderful: Emma Watson as Pauline is wonderful. She proved me wrong that she really can act and she definitely is more than the Harry Potter franchise. This is a performance that will hopefully carry her even further. Yasmin Paige as the big hearted and adventurous Petrova is a star in the making. Every scene she conveys such honesty and most of all she is real. Lucy Boynton as Posy is very lovely. She brings her character to life as the bold and daring young lady with such grace and maturity. Her scenes with Eileen Atkins, who plays Madame Fidolia a Russian dance instructor and head of a prestigious dance school, are wonderfully done and acted together. The film is sweet, smart, wonderfully acted and written without the added fluff and mumbo jumbo of made for TV films. The only tragedy was that this film wasn't released in the U.S.A theatrically or at least on HBO. This is a little gem I hope to own on DVD.

I tuned in with anticipation to what had been billed as the all-star centrepiece to BBC England's Christmas schedule. Listings names such as Emilia Fox and Richard Griffiths as well as British stage stalwarts, the programme instantly glared of lazy and pretentious direction. The start was tenuous, almost ridiculous, and descended into the depths with wooden acting - the cameo from Victoria Wood must go down as one of the worst performances in living memory. I read about six months ago that Emma Watson had turned down handfuls of roles for the chance to perform in this tripe, and did herself no favours with a supposed sympathetic role of burdened orphan that came across as nothing more than an arrogant, sycophantic spoilt brat. Just when you thought the film was building up to a resurrecting finale, it just faded out - perhaps reflecting the team equally saw how horrific this was and just gave up. This wasn't bad, it was a disgrace.